Sorrow Bound by David Mark Page B

had caved her chest in and left her for the birds. It was one of the most unpleasant things I’ve ever seen, and though I never met Mrs Longman when she was alive, my sergeant and I have just been sitting with a family that is so broken, they’ll never be whole again. And your ex-partner, Elaine, has given us reason to believe you had made threats against Mrs Longman. She told my sergeant here that you threatened to rip out her heart. Now, we couldn’t tell whether anybody had ripped out her heart because it was too much of a fucking mess. We’ll have the post-mortem results back this evening. But I think that means you have some questions to answer, okay? I don’t want to hear about Facebook, or who’s following who, or who’s been Tweeting or Twatting or whatever it is people do for fun when they should be drinking and watching
X-Factor
. Just tell me where you were last night, where you were in the middle of the night, and why I shouldn’t get this big bugger here to slap the cuffs on you while I kick you in the knackers. Got it? On board? Fire away.’
    Robb looks from one detective to the other. McAvoy has crossed his arms. Framed by the window, the light defines his muscles and casts a shadow across his eyes, leaving only the set of his jawilluminated. Robb has no friends in this room. He looks down at his feet, stuffed into dirty white trainers, then addresses himself to Pharaoh.
    ‘We were together, yeah? Elaine and me. Three years, all in all, off and on.’
    ‘How exactly did you meet?’ asks McAvoy, unable to hide his surprise that the two were ever a couple.
    ‘Her brother. We were mates. Still would be if things turned out differently. He introduced us.’
    ‘So you were a friend of the family?’
    He shakes his head. ‘No, just Don. He’s a delivery driver. Dropped some stuff off at the office where I used to work. He’s a rugby man. Bradford Bulls. We hit it off.’
    ‘And?’
    ‘His sister came to a match with us. Her and a friend. We hit it off too.’
    Pharaoh looks Robb up and down. He sees her looking and can’t help but let his annoyance show on his face. ‘I’ve put weight on since we split.’
    ‘Comfort eating?’
    ‘Yeah, if you like. I was slimmer. Better-looking. Less bald.’
    ‘Sorry I missed out on you. You sound a catch.’
    Robb looks down at the wooden floor. Sees himself, blurred and colossal, in the polished surface of the wood. ‘You see any mirrors in this room? There are none in the flat. I know what I am. You don’t have to remind me.’
    Pharaoh looks at the side of his head until he looks up and meets her gaze. She nods, and while it is short of an apology, it is at least an acknowledgement.
    ‘You fell for her hard?’ asks McAvoy.
    ‘She was everything I wanted. I’ve had a few girlfriends over the years but I never thought it would feel the way it did with Elaine. She just made the world better, you know?’
    ‘You lived together?’
    ‘Yeah. Lovely place. Bought it cheap and did it up. I like all that stuff. Made it nice for her and the kids.’
    ‘And you met her family.’
    Robb doesn’t seem to be able to cough up the ball of gristle in his throat. He swallows painfully. ‘Philippa, you mean?’
    ‘I mean her family.’
    ‘Yeah. Nice family. Close. Proper family, you know? Don was well happy with the way things worked out.’
    ‘And your relationship with Philippa?’
    Robb looks away, past McAvoy, to the slate sea and stone sky. ‘We were close. All those jokes about mothers-in-law? It wasn’t like that. We were mates. She was a laugh. I helped her with her work on the council. Computer stuff. Research. I typed up her speeches. Set up a spreadsheet for her expenses. She used to make ginger biscuits for me as a thanks. Proper ones, with stem ginger.’ He gives a tiny smile at the memory. ‘It was all nice.’
    ‘So what happened with you and Elaine?’
    Robb blows air through his nostrils. Scratches at his throat. He seems to be about to