Quinn carried two cups of tea to the coffee table, his expression troubled. “Aye, I’ve thought of that. There’s sugar if you’d like.”
“No, thanks. What did the police say?”
“Mostly, they yelled at me and asked questions.”
“I can’t blame them.” Elizabeth wanted to yell at him, too.
“They asked why I was there. I told them I’d come to check on the house because I knew Ava wisnae home. They called Ava, asked her to come. Jack’s brother-in-law, David, drove her in from Paisley. The color left her face when she saw the place. The only thing missin’ as far as she could tell was Jack’s laptop. She’s right afraid, she is.”
“Can you blame her?” Elizabeth sipped her tea. “Someone murdered her husband, and now a man with a knife broke into her home, ransacked it, and attacked her husband’sidiotof a best friend.”
“Och, I know what I did was daft, but some murderin’ bastard took Jack from us.” Grief mingled with rage in Quinn’s eyes. “When I saw the light movin’ in his room, I couldnae just stand there. I had todosomethin’.”
Elizabeth couldn’t hold that against him. It was hard-wired into his DNA to charge into danger when other people ran away. “I’m just glad you’re not dead. Do you know how pissed off I would be if I’d given up a beach vacation and come all this way only to find you in the morgue?”
Quinn grinned. “Are you sayin’ you care what happens to me, Lilibet?”
The way he said “Lilibet” had always made her knees weak, but the accent and the bare chest together were too much.
She kept her expression professional. “Put on a shirt, and let’s get to work.”
4
Quinn could scarce fathom that Lilibet was here in Glasgow in his hotel room.
It disnae mean what you wish it meant, man.
She lifted her cup to her lips, sipped, her red-gold hair hanging over her right shoulder. He could tell she was fighting jet lag, dark circles beneath her blue eyes, but she looked as lovely as ever to him.
She set her cup on its saucer. “I had time to think it over on the flight. The best use of my skills might be to take all the information you have on Jack’s murder and start picking it apart, looking for anything investigators might have missed. We can also try to reconstruct the last few weeks of Jack’s life and see what we learn.”
“That’s no’ a relaxin’ way to spend your holiday.”
“You can make up for that by showing me around Glasgow.”
“Aye, I can do that.”
“Just remember I was a counterterrorism analyst, not a detective. I’ve never tried to solve a crime. I’m not sure I’ll be any help.”
“I trust you afore I’ll trust that bampot Wilson.”
A smile tugged at her lips. “You’re sweet to say that, but what’s a ‘bampot’?”
Quinn couldn’t help but laugh. “A bampot is an eejit, a numpty, a stupid person.”
She smiled. “So, I could say that you were a bampot last night when you went into that house alone, right?”
There was that smart mouth again, the one he’d imagined kissing.
“Aye, so you could.” He changed the subject. “Where do we start?”
She stood. “We have to go to an office supply store. I need something to write on, something to use as a whiteboard.”
“We can do that, but I promised I’d help Ava and Hannah clean up the house this afternoon. Ava said she’d feel safer wi’ me there. Also, I need to get my knife back. I hid it with my lockpicking tools under their sink in Jack’s toolbox.”
“That’s fine. I’ll help, too. It will give me a chance to meet Ava.”
When Elizabeth had retrieved her raincoat, they rode the lift down to the main floor and retrieved the Crossland from the car park. Quinn drove her to Alba Office Supply, amused by her gasp when he turned right into the left lane.