Takedown Heather Atkinson (rosie project txt) 📖

still grinning, revealing those vicious teeth and Matthew hoped what he was about to say wouldn’t lead to them sinking into his flesh.

“So Mr McMichaels,” began Matthew. “When was the last time you saw your dad?”

His grin dropped and his left eye twitched. “Why are you asking about him?”

“You and your dad have always been as thick as thieves. If you were responsible for what happened to Dillon then it’s possible he was involved too. You’re a chip off the old block, aren’t you Snappy?”

“I am not like him,” he hissed, drool starting to drip from his lips in strings, a sure sign he was agitated. His solicitor regarded him with disgust and inched his chair away from him.

“Course you are,” pressed Matthew as Snappy’s eyes became wilder and slowly filled with mania, as though all the crazy in his head was overflowing and pouring into them. “Everyone says so, two peas in a pod.” A slow smile spread across Matthew’s face. “How’s your girlfriend? Kandi, is it?”

With a screech, Snappy launched himself across the table but Matthew leapt out of the way of his gnashing teeth. Warner however was too slow and Snappy’s mouth clamped down on his left forearm, making him scream with pain. After hitting the alarm on the wall, Matthew tried to pull him off his colleague but he was unable to. The solicitor flung himself into a corner of the room, holding his briefcase out before him like a shield.

“Close your eyes,” Matthew told Warner, pulling the pepper spray from his belt.

Warner obeyed and Matthew sprayed Snappy full in the face. It was his turn to scream and he fell to the floor with his hands over his eyes.

The door erupted open and three uniformed officers ran in and came to a halt, looking from the squealing Snappy to the bleeding Warner.

“All right, calm down,” Matthew told Snappy. “You’ll be fine.”

“The bastard drew blood,” exclaimed Warner.

“You were too slow,” replied Matthew. “Take him to A&E,” he told one of the constables. “Not him,” he added when he walked over to Snappy. “Our doctor can see to him but Warner will probably need stitches and rabies shots.”

“Oh, ha ha,” groaned Warner, slowly getting to his feet.

“And charge him with assaulting a police officer. Again,” he added, indicating Snappy.

While Snappy and Warner were being attended to, Matthew took one of his detective constables and headed out to see Snappy’s dad. They found him at home. He looked just like his son with his bald head, creepy gaze and pointed, ferrety chin but he was taller and flabbier. He answered the door with a can of lager in one hand, burping and scratching his stomach with his free hand.

“What?” was his greeting.

“Mr Neil McMichaels,” said Matthew, producing his warrant card. “I’m DI Young and this is my colleague, DC Tunstall. Could we have a word please Sir?”

“If you want in here you need a search warrant,” snarled Neil.

“We’re not here to perform a search Sir. We need to speak to you about your son.”

Neil rolled his eyes. “What’s the daft git done now?”

“He’s being questioned about the murder of Dillon Enfield.”

Neil threw back his head and laughed. The sound was deep and hearty and surprisingly pleasant. Matthew thought it would have been more at home on Santa.

“May I ask what’s so amusing?” said Matthew, eyes narrowing.

“It’s hilarious that you think that wanker’s capable of killing anyone.”

“He threatened to kill Dillon a few days before he died.”

“Snappy threatens to kill someone every day. I thought your lot would have learnt to ignore it by now.”

“We can’t ignore it when your son threatens to kill someone and then they’re murdered.”

“Look,” said Neil with a smile that indicated he thought he was talking to a particularly backwards child. “My son likes biting people. Actually scratch that, he bloody loves it. He enjoys a good scrap too but murder, no. He hasn’t got the bottle.”

“He just bit a police officer during an interview.”

“Doesn’t make him a killer. I know what you’re going to say – he carries a knife. What you probably don’t know is that he’s fucking useless with it. He’s injured himself with it plenty of times but he hasn’t managed to hurt anyone else. I knew Dillon personally. He was a bit of a dick but he was handy, if clumsy, and he could have held his own against my son. Snappy didn’t do this and if he bit one of your officers than that’s their own bad luck. Now, if we’re done here, I’m getting back to watching the match,” he said before slamming the door shut in their faces.

“He had a point, don’t you think?” Matthew told Tunstall as they got back in the car.

“What do you mean Sir?” he replied.

“If Snappy had attacked Dillon there would have been signs of a fight.”

“What about the bruises on his body?”

“He’d taken a kicking but there were no defence wounds. The post-mortem showed that beating happened somewhere else before he was killed. Dillon didn’t put a fight. He was taken by surprise and those closest to him said he wasn’t the type to take walks in parks. He went there to meet someone he trusted. He wouldn’t have met up with Snappy alone in a park at night.”

“So, if it wasn’t Snappy, who was it?”

“If you can tell me that I’ll buy you a pint every day for a month.”

“Hello dears,” called Rose as she walked through her front door. She smiled at the sight of Jason and Kevin sprawled on the sofas, watching television. The only two of her children who hadn’t flown the nest.

“Mum,” said Jason with a yawn. “How was bingo?”

“I didn’t win. Agatha won practically every game. I left when the other women surrounded her