Evil in Return by Elena Forbes

It still didn’t explain what had gone on between her and Logan. ‘Did you go out with him anywhere?’ he asked, thinking back to what Maggie had told him and wanting to see what Anna would say.
    ‘Once we went for a walk along the canal. It was a lovely sunny day and I hated being stuck inside. I told him he needed some fresh air. I’d arranged for a photographer mate of mine to come and take some shots of him. I thought it would be nicer if it was somewhere along the canal and not in that manky old boat.’
    ‘I’ll need the photographer’s name.’
    ‘He cancelled. He had to do a shoot at the last minute, so Joe and I ended up having a drink at a place he knew.’
    ‘We’ll still need the photographer’s name and details.’
    With a shrug, she reeled off a name and mobile number from her BlackBerry.
    ‘And what about the pub? Where is it?’
    ‘I can’t remember what it’s called, but it’s right on the canal, past all the big houses. About a five-minute walk.’
    ‘This was when?’
    ‘Last week, as I told you. The last time I saw him.’
    Minderedes looked up from his notes. ‘Do you normally spend so much time with someone you’re interviewing?’
    She gave him a blank stare, as though she didn’t appreciate the question. ‘No. Usually their publicist provides me with the background stuff, then it’s just a quick drink or a lunch and off they go, with maybe a follow-up over the phone to check some details.’
    ‘Why was it different this time?’ Tartaglia asked.
    ‘I’d had such a tough time getting to meet Joe, I wanted to take it slowly, not scare him off. After the first session I wasn’t totally happy, but I thought I probably had enough to be going on with. Then he called me and said he wanted me to come over, said there were some other things he wanted to talk about. Bottom line is he was lonely. He just wanted some company, that’s all.’
    Lonely. It was a word that had already come to mind, although there were a lot of people who were happy in their own company, who liked a solitary life. ‘How would you describe your relationship with Mr Logan?’
    ‘I told you, this was work,’ she said sharply.
    ‘We have a witness who describes the two of you as being close.’
    She shook her head. ‘Whatever someone’s told you, they’re wrong. Nothing happened between me and Joe.’
    ‘Maybe he felt differently.’
    Tartaglia saw the colour rise to her cheeks. Guilt or anger? He wasn’t sure. Maybe she did feel something after all. ‘You’re making way too much of this,’ she said, with a fierce look. ‘Sure I spent time with Joe, I had to. He wasn’t the easiest person to talk to and he’d never given an interview before.’
    ‘But somehow you managed to get him to talk. You obviously have a special touch.’
    Her mouth tensed. ‘From an interviewer’s point of view, he was a bloody nightmare. If you want the honest truth, he was like a passive-aggressive clam.’
    ‘That’s a pretty odd way to describe him.’
    ‘What can I say? He was really cynical about the whole publishing process, being expected to perform like a fucking dancing bear – his words, not mine – with all the probing and pressure and stuff. Have you read his book?’ She looked at him in an accusatorial way.
    ‘Not yet.’
    ‘Well, you ought to. You might understand him better.’
    He nodded. The book would have to be read, if nothing else to tick the box, and he had already made up his mind to ask Donovan to do it. She was a quick reader as well as a good judge of character. They would also need to look at whatever Logan had been writing just before he died. Anna was watching him, abstractedly twisting her long hair into a rope and coiling it up on the top of her head. It struck him that whatever had gone on between them, she had probably spent more time with Logan than anyone else had in the last few weeks, or even months, of his life. Yet something was missing.
    ‘You seem to know him very