Page 108 of Vengeance is Mine

‘Andrew Dickens, thirty-nine years old, lives in Prudhoe. He was arrested for?—’

Terry interrupted. ‘Andrew Dickens. Why do I know that name?’

‘He works at the same supermarket Dominic Griffiths worked at. His name came up when we chatted to some of his colleagues.’

He nodded. ‘I remember now. He had some very draconian views on prison sentences. So, why’s he been arrested?’

‘He was arrested for driving without due care and attention, endangering lives, criminal damage?—’

‘Bloody hell, what did he do?’

‘Drove into a bus shelter.’

‘Is that all?’

‘There were three people in it at the time. They had to jump out of the way.’

‘Okay. So how do we get from that to murdering Dominic Griffiths?’

‘His fingerprints are a match for the set lifted from the chair in Dominic’s house. We’ve also taken a DNA sample to see if it’s a match for the hairs on the jacket, but it’ll be a few days before we get the results.’

‘So, his fingerprints are found in Dominic’s house, big deal. They worked together. Maybe he went over for a Christmas drink or something.’

‘Ever since he was arrested, uniform have said he’s just been apologising over and over again saying he didn’t mean for it to go so far.’

‘Maybe he’s talking about crashing into the bus stop.’

‘You really are a glass-half-empty person, aren’t you? The jacket found in Dominic’s house is also Andrew’s size.’

‘Am I allowed to be sarcastic about that one, too?’

‘No. You’re not. I’m missing date night for this. This is a huge leap for us. You should be bouncing off the walls.’

He turned to look at Kyra. She had a smile on her face.

‘Hmm,’ Terry mused. He entered his office, turned on the light and slumped down into his chair. He looked at the black mirror of his computer screen, saw his hair sticking up in all directions and tried to flatten it.

‘You don’t look happy,’ Kyra said.

‘It’s not what I was expecting.’

‘You wanted it to be Dawn Shepherd, didn’t you?’

‘I didn’t want it to be, but that’s where everything was pointing.’

‘Surely you should be happy that it’s not. A young woman, career just getting off the ground… She’s not gone and ruined her life.’

‘No.’

‘You still don’t look happy.’

‘I never look happy, Kyra. You should see photos of me as a child. I was born a miserable bastard.’

‘I can believe that. Do you want to interview Andrew now or wait until morning?’

‘Was he drunk?’

‘No. Breathalyser came back negative. The on-call doctor has cleared him to be interviewed.’