“I told them, but I have no idea whether they’ll investigate.”
“Thank you, Ava. I know this can’t have been easy for you—especially talking with someone you don’t know.”
Ava wiped tears from her cheeks, her emotions naked in her eyes—grief, gratitude, fear. “If Quinn trusts you, I trust you, too. He and Jack were like brothers. They met in the army, but they both had a rough time of it as children, growing up on the breadline here in Glasgow. They used to joke that if they hadn’t both joined the army, they might have met in prison.”
Ava laughed, so Elizabeth laughed, too, though she wasn’t sure what Ava meant by that. Quinn had never talked about his childhood. Still, Elizabeth had no difficulty imagining him as a troublemaker.
Ava grew serious again, worry in her eyes. “May I ask you something?”
“Of course.”
“Do you think the man who broke into our home, the man who tried to stab Quinn, is the same person who killed my husband?”
“I’ve asked myself the same thing. It seems suspicious, but knife crimes are hardly rare here.” On her flight, Elizabeth had read that Glasgow had once been the stabbing capital of Western Europe. Though the city’s Violence Reduction Unit had brought about a steep decrease in the number of violent crimes, it was still among the higher crime areas in Scotland. “There’s certainly a possibility that it was the same man. I just don’t have enough information to make a reliable assessment.”
Ava looked disappointed. “So many unknowns.”
Elizabeth reached over, rested her hand on Ava’s. “Quinn and I will do all we can to get to the truth—I promise.”
“Thank you.”
After that, Elizabeth helped clean up, sweeping floors and sorting through papers that lay strewn across Jack’s home office. Quinn joined her, the two of them making quick work of it.
“Did you get your knife and tools back?”
“Aye.”
“Good.” She bent down to pick up a few papers that had slipped beneath a bookcase when her fingers bumped something hard—a box.
She drew it out, saw that it was an Apple iPhone box. “Quinn.”
“It must be the box for his new phone.”
She pulled off the top, located the SIM number and IMEI numbers on the packaging, and took a photo with her cell.
A shadow fell across the floor, and Elizabeth looked up to see Ava standing in the doorway. Elizabeth was about to make up an explanation for what she’d just done, but it was clear that Ava hadn’t noticed.
She stood there, her arms crossed protectively over her chest. “It doesn’t look like he took anything besides the laptop, but then we don’t have many valuables. Why would he take Jack’s computer? It wasn’t new or fancy.”
“Och, Ava.” Quinn stood, hugged her, his compassion putting a lump in Elizabeth’s throat. “Some people will do anythin’ for a few quid, aye?”
As Ava walked away, Elizabeth met Quinn’s gaze and knew that he didn’t believe what he’d just said, either.
* * *
Quinn drovethrough traffic toward his favorite pub. “Can we track the laptop?”
“She doesn’t have the serial number, and I doubt he installed any tracking software. The only other option is to hack his Gmail account and check the security log to see whether anyone signed in from a new IP address.”
“But the thief would have to be an idiot to leave tracks like that, aye?”
“Yes, exactly. I doubt the laptop will lead us anywhere. Besides, I’m … not… hacking.” Her words trailed off and became a yawn.
“Jet lag catchin’ up wi’ you?”
“With a vengeance.”
“The fish and chips at the Bonnie Prince are the best in Glasgow. They’ve got a good selection of whisky, too.”