Inspector Rames

Chapter 31

Alex managed to beat me to the station the next morning, even though I didn't have a cat to feed and I didn't stop at Coffee Glitch. He was sitting behind his desk, frowning at his tabphone. A tall flask and two mugs stood beside him.

He looked up when I pushed the door open, but he waited until I'd shut it behind me before he spoke. "Happy Valentine's Day."

"Happy Valentine's Day." I smiled. "I never thought I'd hear myself say that."

He raised a dark eyebrow. "Have you never said it to anyone else?"

"No. It's kind of soppy, isn't it? But I'm looking forward to our celebrations."

"So am I."

Something sparked in the air between us. Because a glass-walled office was not the best place to be indulging in anything intimate, I moved my gaze to the flask. "Is some of that for me?"

"Yes, I didn't think you'd go to Coffee Glitch. Help yourself."

I crossed the room and poured coffee into the mug that was empty.

"By the way," he added, "what were you doing last night?"

I shrugged. "Relaxing."

"Pull the other one."

"Okay, I thought about work a bit. But we weren't at it for any longer than an hour. Then we gave up and watched a film."

"We? Cassia and Gem were supposed to be keeping you out of trouble."

"They did. Largely. We just had a small brainstorming session first. I'll show you."

I'd taken a picture of the work we'd done on my wall, and now I loaded it on my tabphone. Alex leaned over my shoulder. "Yes, that looks like a very small brainstorming session. You've got more notes there than we've made here together."

"Only because I turned all our evidence into paper so that I could stick up. Did you think of anywhere else we could look?"

"No." His gaze drifted across the office, and he frowned into space.

"Then why the face?"

"What face?"

"Your deep-thinking face."

A rueful smile tugged his lips. "It's Ripley. Do you still have her tablet?"

"In my bag." I backed away to retrieve it. Then I changed my mind and stopped. "Alex, what are you not telling me?"

His smile fell. "What do you mean?"

"You're like a dog with a bone over Ripley, convinced there's a mystery to solve. Why?"

He rubbed the back of his neck and turned away. "Lola. I didn't think her murderer would ever be caught. It was as cold a case as you can get them."

"But it was closed eventually?"

"After ten years."

I did the maths, and the puzzle pieces clicked into place. "By you. That was one of the last investigations you worked before you came here. That's why you came."

He leaned against his desk and met my eyes. "Yes. The killer surfaced again out of the blue, strangling teenage girls like her. I knew it had to be the same person. I was the detective sergeant to the senior investigating officer on the case, and I became so obsessed with it that it nearly drove me mad. When we finally caught him, I thought that it would close the door on that part of my life forever. But it all went the other way -- meeting Lola's killer sent me spiralling into an even darker place. I couldn't stay on Rosek's force after that. I couldn't stay in Rosek after that. I needed a fresh start."