Some unknown instinct tightened his gut as he caught sight of Lorne getting out of his car just behind the scene-of-crime van.
‘Bad news travels fast,’ he said speculatively as Lorne approached him at more brusque a pace than was warranted by the present circumstances.
‘You don’t know the half of it,’ Lorne said in a low voice, leading him a discreet distance from prying ears. ‘Davie’s got some ideas need looking into about the Skinner murder.’ Lorne quickly brought him up to speed.
‘I take it you’ve decided what to do, then?’
‘I had, but this cockup rather changes things.’
Garth winced, but said, ‘Look, for reasons similar to David’s, I was doing a little sleuthing on my own. I don’t know how this fellow fits in, but he’s been stalking our investigation of the Skinner murder since the beginning, even before the press got wind of it.’
‘What if he is press, Garth? Or a member of Security Services? We’ll have a helluva time explaining this!’
‘He’s neither, I’m sure of it,’ Garth rejoined, wishing he felt the confidence he was trying to portray. ‘The car’s a rental, there’s no identification on the body, and he’s wearing a bloody cannon in a shoulder-holster, make unknown. I’d lay odds that the rental company records show a shifty transaction or fake identification.’