“Now you’re glad I woke you up, right?”
Michael grinned into his phone. “Well, that depends on what he had to say.”
“Apparently he has information about the night Crossford was killed.”
“That he’s only just remembered?” Fat fucking chance.
“Apparently he was too scared to tell us before and will only come into the office if we promise to protect him.”
Michael barely smothered a laugh. “Will he now?”
“Yep.”
“And I’m assuming you explained that it’s not like the TV, right? We don’t have safe houses and a huge army of officers who can give him round-the-clock protection.” Michael rolled his eyes. They might have a swanky new building and lab, but that was about as far as it went.
Frank laughed. “I did. I said the best we could probably manage was to get a car to watch his house overnight for a while, depending on what he had to tell us.”
“And what did he say to that?”
He heard Frank’s smile as he said, “I quote, ‘I can’t in good conscience keep this to myself any longer regardless of the risk to my own life.’”
“Fuck’s sake. What’s he been watching? And I bet after all this, it’s nothing relevant to the case at all.”
“Hmmm… I don’t know.” Frank sighed, and the sound of pages being flipped filled the silence. “Hopefully he’ll want to tell us just what he and Crossford were talking about on that Friday.”
Michael sat up more. “Shit, that’s true.” He was reaching for his jeans before he realised. “When’s he coming in?”
“In about an hour. You coming in too?”
“You know I am.” Cradling the phone against his shoulder, he shoved his feet into his jeans and pulled them up. “That’s why you called, right?”
“I knew you’d want to hear what he has to say first hand.”
Michael spied the keys still sitting on his bedside table and smirked. “That the only reason?”
“Well, that, and you still have my car, you wanker.”
Laughing, Michael hunted in his wardrobe for a T-shirt, then thought better of it and grabbed a shirt. “I’ll be in in about half an hour.” He ended the call without waiting for a reply and headed for the bathroom.
FRANK WAS sat at his desk when Michael arrived at the office.
“Not here yet then?” He tossed Frank’s keys into his lap, smiling when he fumbled for them.
“Knob.” Shoving the car keys in his drawer, Frank sat back in his chair with a yawn, making Michael follow suit. “Why are you yawning? You had a lie-in!” Michael gave him the finger. “And no, he’s not here yet.”
Glancing at the clock, Michael let out a low whistle. Traffic had been shit on the way in; it had taken Michael over an hour. He’d expected Frank to already be interviewing Foster. “You think he changed his mind?”
“Maybe.” Frank shrugged. “Or maybe he got caught up in traffic, same as you.”
It was possible, although anyone coming to the SCTF tended to catch the tube or bus. There was limited parking for those who worked here, let alone visitors. “If he’s a no-show, we can just go pay him a visit.”
“My thoughts exactly.”
Michael wandered off to make them both a coffee and was just carrying them back to their desks when Frank’s phone rang.
He raised his eyebrows and picked it up. “Coldwell.” A pause as he listened. “Thanks. We’ll be right down.” After ending the call, he looked up with a grin. “He’s here.”
They went to collect Foster from reception and took him through to one of the interview rooms. Foster watched everything with interest as they walked him through to it, only starting to look nervous once they were inside with the door closed.
