Orders

As Adam and Hewson were trying to work their way through the crumbling plasterboard, over at the Wee Hoose, Molly had just finished telling Nick what she wanted him to do with Armstrong.

Nick crossed his arms. "You know you should be leaving this to us, don't you," he said, as sternly as he could.

"I am leaving this to you," Molly replied, mock-innocently.

"You know what I mean," he replied, maintaining his tone of voice. "I mean leave it to the police, not me personally."

"Hmmm," she said. "Son, I know I can trust you. Your colleagues - well, we can't really be sure who's on what side now, can we. And was it not some of your fellow officers who put Adam in the hospital? No. I think this is something that would be better handled by you. If you don't mind, that is," she added, pretending he had a choice in the matter.

Slightly chastened by what she'd said, Nick wasn't ready to give up completely. "You could still use some back-up. Doesn't seem right, you going into this on your own."

"Same thing," interrupted Margaret. "Don't know who we can trust, do we."

"Keep out of this, Margaret," said Molly, before returning her attention to Nick. "Though you know, she's got a point. No, we'll handle this ourselves. We just want you to keep him out of harm's way."

She nodded in Armstrong's direction.

"Now," she said. "If that's all done and dusted, there's something I'd like to talk to you about."

She pushed open the door to the sitting room, indicating he should go through, and looked significantly at Margaret, adding "in private."



Part Three begins here.