Unsafe Convictions Read Free Page A

blasted church clock’s getting on my nerves already.’ Jack sighed, gratefully changing the topic. ‘It woke me up every hour last night. Not that I got a proper sleep, anyway. The bed’s too small. I haven’t slept in a single bed since I got married.’
    ‘ Maybe you’re too large,’ McKenna suggested blandly.
    ‘ You’re just as tall!’
    ‘ But not so heavy.’
    ‘ I’m bigger built, that’s all. I’m not into the heroin-chic look you and Janet favour.’
    ‘ I’ve always been scrawny. Janet’s another matter, though.’
    ‘ She is, isn’t she? And considering it’s six months since that awful miscarriage, she should be back to her old self by now.’
    ‘ She’ll never be back to her old self, and she can’t come to terms with her new one.’
    ‘ She eats hardly anything, you know. I’ve watched her in the canteen. She picks at her food, then pushes it away like it’s choking her.’
    ‘ She’s feeding on her guilt,’ McKenna said.
    ‘ Well, I hope you don’t unconsciously encourage her. Religious guilt runs in your veins, too, instead of good red blood. You might be at opposite ends of the spiritual spectrum, but the guilt’s the same.’
    ‘ My church was always more accommodating than the Welsh chapel of pregnancies out of wedlock.’
    ‘ You’re still into self-castigation. You can’t help yourself.’ Jack regarded the other man, amusement flickering in his dark eyes. ‘On those many occasions when you light another fag as soon as you’ve stubbed out the last, you mouth a couple of Hail Marys or something similar while you’re flicking your lighter.’
    ‘ Don’t be ridiculous!’
    ‘ And smoking’s another bad habit you foster in Janet. You should positively dis courage her, instead of offering the packet out of some twisted sense of good manners. Or’, Jack added caustically, ‘because of a mutual sympathy between addicts.’ When McKenna failed to respond, he said: ‘Perhaps we should get Ellen Turner to take her in hand.’
    ‘ What good would that do? We’re not making any impression on Janet, so why should Ellen fare any better? She’s a total stranger.’
    ‘ Exactly,’ Jack said. ‘She also makes the final decision about officers who are physically or mentally unsound and should be retired. In many ways, she’s got more clout than our chief. She’s certainly got more degrees. She could wield the big stick in Janet’s face, couldn’t she?’ He paused, drumming his fingers on the desk. ‘But more to the point, she’s a woman, she’s older, she’s presumably wiser, and she’s been there herself.’
    ‘ Been where?’
    ‘ Her first child arrived four months after that very posh wedding she had, so it was either extremely premature, or Ellen thoroughly enjoyed her engagement.’ Jack grinned. ‘And as she’s now got two more kids, she and Andrew Turner QC must be at it like rabbits at every turn.’
    ‘ Not necessarily. It’s not statistically improbable that they’ve had sexual relations on only three occasions.’
    *
    Rene had an instinct for people which had rarely let her down. She pottered around the kitchen, collecting utensils and the ingredients for shepherd’s pie, while McKenna sat at the table, finishing a drink. He could have finished his drink in the front room, where the other man was making one telephone call after another, but she sensed that he wanted to talk to her, so, with just the odd, innocuous comment disturbing the comfortable quiet, she waited. He was very handsome, she thought, glancing at his fine-boned face, even if rather too thin, and his dark-auburn hair would make a saint green with envy. She suspected there was a real temper to go with that hair, but she had no intention of arousing his ire, for she wanted his mind clearly on the facts, not confused by ill feeling and annoyance. Only then was he likely to discover who scapegoated a decent, honest policeman, and had probably left the mortally wounded Trisha to