Tony Hill u Carol Jordan 08 - Cross and Burn

‘You made it clear you were done with Bradfield, done with the lot of us. And we all respected that. I respected that. Even though what I wanted was to be your friend. To take you out and get drunk with you. To listen to your pain. To bring you home and let Elinor cook you chicken pie and mash.’ To her annoyance, Paula could feel her throat constrict with all the tears she hadn’t shed with Carol.
    ‘I understand that. What I did was the only thing I knew how to do. The last time I thought I’d lost everything, I ran away. And it worked. I was able to heal myself enough to come back into the world. That’s what I’m trying to do this time.’ She opened a cupboard and took out a bottle of brandy and poured a slug into her coffee.
    ‘You drank too much last time too,’ Paula said, feeling the crack of thin ice under her.
    Carol’s lip curled. ‘Tony always did over-share with you.’
    Paula shook her head. ‘Tony never said a word out of place about you. I know you drank too much because you were still drinking too much when you set up the MIT. You think we didn’t know about the miniatures of vodka in your handbag and the quarter bottles in the desk drawer?’
    Carol started as if she’d been slapped. ‘And you never said anything? You knew I was drinking on the job and you never said anything?’
    ‘Of course we didn’t. Even Sam the Snitch had more sense. Besides, why would we? It’s not like you were falling over drunk. It never interfered with the way you ran the team.’
    ‘Christ, I never realised you all knew. Call myself a detective?’ She turned away, embarrassed. ‘So, why are you here? Really? Because if you’d come here with the olive branch of friendship, Elinor would have sent a Tupperware box of home baking with you.’
    The time for bridge-building banter was over. Now it was time to cut to the chase. ‘I’m here because DCI Fielding has arrested Tony for the murder of two women.’
    Carol stared, open-mouthed, the cup halfway to her lips, disbelief growing on her face as the words sank in. She craned her head forwards as if she was straining to hear. ‘Come again?’ she said, full of obvious scepticism.
    ‘We interviewed him under caution this evening and then she decided to charge him. And it’s mad. I know it’s mad, you know it’s mad. But there’s evidence. And Fielding can’t see past that to the man. He needs your help.’
    Carol put her coffee down and held her hands up. ‘Whoa. Back up there. I’m not a cop any more, Paula.’
    ‘You think I don’t understand that? That’s exactly why he needs you and not me. I’m on a knife edge here. I shouldn’t be telling you this stuff. If Fielding finds out, it’ll be all over for me. I’ll have a dazzling career in Traffic.’
    Carol frowned. ‘So why are you here?’
    ‘I told you. Tony needs your help. He’s hopeless. Carol, you know better than anybody else what he’s like. He thinks just because he’s innocent that nothing bad will happen to him. And we both know how naïve that is.’
    ‘I couldn’t agree more,’ Carol said, her voice the epitome of chilly reasonableness. ‘But why would you think I’d leap to his defence?’
    Now it was Paula’s turn to be shocked. ‘Because…’ She couldn’t bring herself to use the l-word. ‘Because he’s your friend?’
    Carol’s face had grown bitter. Now her tone matched it. ‘Look around you, Paula. I know you didn’t see what happened here, but imagine the scene. Now imagine two people you love at the heart of that scene. That’s what I went through because Tony failed them. He failed me. He didn’t do his job and we paid the price. Me and my parents and my brother and the woman he loved.’
    Paula shook her head in dismay. ‘You can’t blame Tony. He’s a psychologist, not a psychic. How can you expect him to know the details of what Vance had planned? What Vance did was off the scale of vengeance. None of us, not one of us imagined for a moment that the people we loved were at risk. Carol, I know you’re hurting. And I know how grief messes with our heads. Believe me, I know. But it was Vance who did this to you. Not Tony.’
    Carol’s mouth had a stubborn set to it. ‘It’s his job to think of the things that don’t occur to the rest of us. And everybody else paid the price, not him. Michael and Lucy, Chris, that stable lad, my parents, me. Even Vanessa suffered more than he did.’
    ‘And you think that doesn’t torture him