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(Ib)Blunt force trauma to head
(II)Malnutrition and dehydration
CHAPTER
10
Day 3
Monday
JAMIE GROANS AS the alarm goes off next to him. Six am. Too early. Something that seemed so necessary last night feels insane this morning.
Pippa groans and flaps her hand at him, a gesture to say, “Turn that off.” He reaches over and picks up his mobile, still buzzing loudly. A raft of texts greet him from Bishop. Jamie ignores all except the last: Bring coffee.
He imagines his boss already up and going full tilt. A murder investigation of this magnitude needs the commitment and drive that someone like Adam brings.
In his seven years in Major Crimes, three of them under Bishop’s command, he’s never worked on something like this. With Adam at the helm, Jamie knows it’ll be a tight ship. Bishop has his failings, but when it comes to his police work, there’s no corner unchecked, no procedure unfollowed. It’s a master class watching him work.
Now, Jamie showers quickly. He goes down to the kitchen and puts the kettle on, making a cup of tea and bringing it back into the bedroom, placing it on the bedside table. He wakes his wife, lightly pressing his lips to her forehead. She looks up at him with blurry eyes and a smile.
“Have a good day,” she says, leaning up for a kiss. She has morning breath, and her hair is messy from the pillow; he doesn’t care one jot.
“I’ll try,” he replies.
* * *
The streets are quiet as he drives, singing along to a song on the radio. Despite what he knows will face him when he arrives, he’s in a good mood. Memories from the honeymoon are fresh in his mind; his wife curled up next to him in bed last night. The wisp of her hair at the nape of her neck as he kissed it, the softness of her inner thigh as his hand crept around to find her. Life is good, he thinks, and he pulls into the drive-thru at Costa, ordering a chocolate twist at the same time as the coffees.
As he waits, he gets out his phone, ignores his emails, and scrolls to the news pages. There it is at the top. “Bodies Found at Northbrook Bridge. Multiple Murder Suspected.” It doesn’t take long for the speculation to mount; he knows Marsh is planning to make a press statement this morning. The photos are taken from a distance, something to fill the space, but Jamie frowns. Too much detail is visible. The locations, the number of crime scenes. Even one spray-painted number. They’ll have to do something about that, tell PR and get it retracted. That’s the last thing they need: crazies coming out of the woodwork with false confessions.
He drives quickly to the nick, parks his car, and sweeps pieces of flaky pastry from his ever-growing tummy. But as he walks up to the incident room, he realizes he recognizes the woman he’s following, escorted by a PC. She’s dressed in dark blue jeans, brown knee-high boots. Heavy coat over the top, which she pulls off, draping it over her arm. Caught up in her own thoughts, she hasn’t noticed him, and now she pauses outside the door. The copper opens it, then waits. She runs her hand through her shoulder-length hair, then goes in.
Jamie follows closely behind, curious to see why she’s there.
She’s guided through, straight to Bishop’s office on the far side. Adam sees her coming and gets up from his desk, walking to the door and waiting. Detectives watch; the conversation in the room dulls.
Ellie Quinn comes up to his elbow, a piece of paper clutched in her hand. But she sees Jamie’s attention is diverted and follows his gaze.
“DCI Bishop,” the woman says.
“Dr. Cole,” his boss replies. Jamie can see by the look on his face that he’s surprised but trying to hide it. Adam nods to the PC to thank him, and he leaves. “You want to see me?”
“Yes. It’s important.”
Their tone is overly formal. Unnatural and clipped.
“I hope so. I’m kind of busy, in case you hadn’t noticed.”
“Of course, I’ve noticed,” she snaps. “I wouldn’t be here unless it was absolutely necessary.”
Bishop sighs. “Fine. Let’s talk inside.”
He moves out of the way, and she goes into the office. He shuts the door behind him, and the conversation in the incident room starts up again. There’ll be no more drama for the time being. At least, not anything they can hear.
“Who was that?” Ellie says next to him in a theatrical whisper.
“Dr. Romilly Cole,” Jamie replies. He looks at Bishop’s coffee in his hand, but decides not to interrupt and gives it to Quinn instead.
