The Devil Among Us by Ramsay Sinclair (easy books to read txt) 📗

information I’d overloaded them with. They were the only two people on this earth I’d trust with my life. Essentially, our lives were in each other's hands now. We had to trust that our secret-keeping skills were a hell of a lot better than Cillian’s.

The only indicator that time was passing anymore, was the flurry of cars driving past the house and getting stuck in the small queues of rush hour traffic. Since Ryan had shared his concerns with me, I’d become a walking zombie. Neither time nor food had much effect on me right now.

“I can’t believe it,” McCall whispered faintly. “Any of it. Even if they are being threatened, it’s still a hard pill to swallow.”

Abbey had spilt hot water on the countertop by accident, after hearing the news. Shakily clearing it up with a soggy cloth, she waited for us to continue. I perched upon the arm of our sofa, staring at my work partner who was reduced to a nervous wreck.

“I can’t trust anyone there, not anymore. Apart from John and you.” We mentally shared the impact this had on the team, and us as their superiors. Leaders who had distrust for their team had failed them automatically.

“I looked a murderer in the face,” McCall couldn’t get past that initial hurdle. “We failed Flynn. No, I failed Flynn. He wouldn’t have shared everything with me if I didn’t force it out of him.”

Abbey chose the opportune moment to get involved. She was a compassionate woman and knew exactly what to say. Unlike me. We were complete opposites but as the famous saying quotes: Opposites attract.

“You two weren’t to know. You can’t blame yourselves.” She leaned against the countertop, arms folded flat across her voluptuous chest. “Kirsty, they’re out there to get you too.”

“They’re out to stop anyone who gets remotely close,” I gently reminded the pair, earning a tut of impatience from Abbey. I wasn't helping her tactically compassionate approach.

“Ryan said all you needed to know about these people is on the tape,” Abbey continued, setting the cloth aside. “So why haven’t you seen it yet?”

I let her hug me comfortingly, whether for my sake or hers, none of us could tell. After baking a cake that nobody had yet dug into, buttercream resided on her cheek and had smudged there whenever she’d forgotten to clean her hands.

“Ryan said it’s too dangerous, and he’s right. Anyone could have seen me at the office. I also didn’t want to watch it alone…” I trailed off sheepishly, earning a consoling peck from my girlfriend and a pity nod from McCall. As tempting as it was to find out, I also had a heart. McCall deserved to know everything too.

“But watching it’ll put us all top of the hit list,” McCall remarked. “Again. Abbey, you don’t have to--”

“These people are after you both. You’re my friend and Finlay is… Finlay.” The struggle to classify us in a single word didn’t offend me. I knew what she meant without needing to hear the correct terms. “I’m involved in this too, whether we like it or not. Don’t push me away,” she begged softly. “If I have to watch my back too, I want to know who I’m watching out for.”

Abbey was a grown adult. I couldn’t sway her mind once it was made up. She had a stubborn streak, but boy, was it tantalising.

“If we’re all sure.” I dodged the question and showed them with my actions instead that we were all in this together. “After watching this, we can’t go back. We’ll know something we didn’t before, and that means we’ll be potentially endangered.”

The final decision was a firm one, and we all shared a terse nod.

“Or…” I gave them a chance to drop out. A test of our strength and willingness to pursue this case to the end. “We can forget and let the case be sidelined like all the other stations have.”

“They’ve destroyed everything already.” McCall hugged a fluffy cushion for support. She almost blended in with the couch, morphing into the furniture from spending too many hours hunched there and wallowing. “I’m in.”

“Me too,” Abbey confirmed grimly, and a smudge of red lipstick accidentally transferred onto my starched shirt collar.

“Then I guess it’s decided.” I set up the laptop, waiting in agony as it took ages to whirr to life. It was almost a resurrection for the crappy piece of technology, having been stored and tucked away for a few months. We even had to wipe off the thick layer of dust that coated the screen.

My hands were fumbling as I slotted the converted DVD into the laptop. Abbey gripped onto them, acting as a steady grip. Eventually, the tape began to play, and we sat in a deathly silence to watch. The different angles gave a wide scope of the station, from the outer yard to the front desk.

“This was taken the day we first visited Flynn at the hospital,” McCall murmured what I had already recognized.

Due to the time of the morning, there were very few officers roaming around the station itself, a certain banality to the tasks they were performing. It was too early for the day shifts to start and for the night shifts to finish. It was the midway point of the night. Abbey and I would’ve still been fast asleep on this very couch at that early hour.

Black and white footage showed repetitive and continual dribbles of officers passing the reception area to take a bathroom break, or catch up with a mate of theirs that worked on a separate team.

“Spot anything?” I came across as maffled.

“Not yet,” McCall squinted, situating herself even closer to the screen.

“You’ll be inside the laptop if you move any closer,” I grumbled tensely and shuffled. The laptop bounced on my knees. We weren’t the most sophisticated bunch of detectives. After all, this was Dalgety Bay, not MI5. The agents stationed in London were given a bunch of favouritism when it came to wages, in