Page 71 of Little Children (Detective Kim Stone #22)

Seventy

‘What the hell, Roy?’ Bryant asked, forcing innocence into his voice. He realised now a part of him had known he was being set up the minute he’d got in the car. Why had he agreed to go anywhere with this man?

‘The game’s up, pal,’ Roy said, positioning himself between Bryant and the only way out. There was one other way, Bryant thought, casting a glance over the edge. He didn’t like his odds of surviving that fall.

‘You almost had me,’ Roy said. ‘Almost believed you had something about you and that we played for the same team. Except you couldn’t hide that fucking core of weakness?—’

‘Decency,’ Bryant corrected.

‘Whatever, it’s fucking pathetic. Acting like you accidentally knocked the phone out of my hand when I wasn’t hurting anyone. The slag was already dead. And you engineered that phone call at Pippa’s, didn’t you? You can’t even take a free blow job to get you through the day.’

Bryant considered trying to lie about his meeting with Pippa and bluff it out until he wasn’t in a precarious situation on the roof of a building with the filthiest copper on the force. But he could feel that the revulsion was finally showing on his face.

‘I wondered if you’d go back to the slag’s house. Don’t worry, I don’t think for a minute you shagged her. You ain’t got it in you. Leaves only one reason to go back. What did that bitch tell you about me, and why were you asking?’

‘She told me you were a piece of shit who got her sent to jail when she refused to have sex with you.’

Nope, he couldn’t pretend any more. The knowledge that was poisoning him from the inside needed to come out.

To his surprise, Roy smiled.

‘And here was me thinking she talked shit about me and told you lies.’

‘You’re pretty calm given what I know about you,’ Bryant said.

Roy shrugged, looking over the side of the building.

‘You showed me the photos yourself.’

‘I did.’

‘You took me to Pippa’s house and admitted what you did there.’

‘Yep.’

‘I was with you when you lifted evidence to frame Justin,’ Bryant said, expecting some kind of reaction.

Roy shrugged. ‘Might have done.’

Bryant tried to understand why Roy wasn’t riled or worried.

‘Everyone on my team knows all of this,’ he clarified.

‘Good for them. Ain’t nothing there I can’t get out of, and you know it.’

‘So, why the—Oh shit,’ Bryant said as the penny finally dropped.

There was only one end to this scenario, and now he got it.

He’d had the feeling he had all the pieces of the puzzle and he’d been right, but it had taken him until now to put them all together.

He was the only person that knew enough, and that was why Roy was unperturbed.

He was going to make sure that Bryant could never share what he’d just realised with anyone else.

He’d always known that the photo Roy had shown him had significance, and he’d just realised why.

It had been staring him in the face all week, but he hadn’t seen it. Now it was the thing that was going to prevent him walking away from the rooftop and making sure Roy faced justice for what he’d done.

‘The photo,’ he said, meeting Roy’s gaze, and knew he was right.

He didn’t get the chance to say anything more.

In a flash, Roy had covered the space between them and bulldozed him to the ground.