Chapter 85
The interview room seemed to have sucked the heat from the rest of the building, and it settled like an angry visitor within its four walls.
A mist rose from Scanlan’s clothing like a busy launderette offering cleaning and pressing.
Lottie had just arrived back from Eugene Tormey’s and was tired and ratty.
A doctor had checked him over at the scene, but Liam had vehemently declined a psych evaluation.
She decided not to offer him a change of clothes.
He could stew in his own filth. Seated across from him, she realised it was not one of her better ideas.
The stench from days living wherever the hell he’d been holed up was also ingrained as dirt in his skin.
He looked and smelled a foul wreck. Good enough for the prick who had stabbed her daughter. Allegedly.
She was about to commence proceedings when a sharp knock on the door was followed by Superintendent Farrell barging in, halting everything.
She apparently noticed the green light on the recording device that Boyd had activated, and without uttering a word, she jabbed a finger into the rancid air, indicating that she wanted Lottie outside. Now.
In the corridor, Farrell loosened her tie and said, ‘What do you think you’re doing, Parker?’
‘Interviewing a suspect.’ Lottie thought she could see steam rising from her boss, or was it just the effect of having been in the airless interview room with Scanlan?
‘Have you lost all of your marbles at once?’ Farrell gritted her teeth, as if she was trying not to shout. Unsuccessfully. ‘You cannot interview him.’
‘Why not?’ Lottie protested. ‘We’ve been after him for days. He needs to be questioned and I can do a better job than most.’
‘He allegedly attacked your daughter. Let me reiterate this in no uncertain terms. You fucking cannot be anywhere within an ass’s roar of Liam Scanlan. Do you understand?’
Lottie felt like thumping the wall, but instead balled her hands into fists. She must remain calm. ‘I do understand, but I don’t agree. I want a chance to look him in the eye and ask him why he did what he did to Chloe.’
‘Not on my watch, you don’t.’ Farrell rubbed her eyes.
Was the super tired? Lottie was absolutely faint with fatigue, which the capture of Scanlan had done little to abate.
In reality, it made her realise how exhausted she was feeling.
But right now she needed her wits about her, to be on her toes, all the bloody clichés rolled into one.
‘Trust me, Superintendent Farrell, I’ll do it right. By the book. Within the law.’
Farrell was still having none of it. ‘What about the solicitors who will succeed in getting the case thrown out because you had a vested interest in seeing him charged? What if he gets to walk because he allegedly harmed a member of your family and you were the detective who got him to admit it under duress? You’re too close to this and I can’t risk it going belly-up. Go find something else to do.’
‘Do what? I should be in there.’
‘Log evidence, check fingerprints, count sheep. I don’t care what you do, but you are not going back into that interview room. I’ll sit in with Detective Sergeant Boyd.’
‘Please,’ Lottie pleaded. ‘I need to do this.’
‘And I said no. So fuck off. That’s an order.’
Farrell entered the interview room and slammed the door behind her.
Lottie seethed in the heavy silence in the corridor. ‘Dammit.’ She’d have to wait for Boyd to relate the outcome. New and all as the renovations to the station were, they still didn’t have the luxury of being able to view interviews live.
‘Damn,’ she repeated, trying not to swear. Losing that battle, she shouted, ‘Fuck and more fucks.’ She kicked the wall so hard, she was surprised it didn’t bring Farrell rushing out to slap her with a ruler.
Shrugging back her shoulders, she made her way to the office.
‘Fuck them all.’