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A feeling of contentment stole over her. This was her happy place. Amongst her tools, inhaling the aroma of grease and oil, good coffee, Barney by her side and twelve hours between now and the beginning of her next shift. She could feel total immersion heading towards her.
She rubbed Barney’s head as he waited by her side for direction.
She lowered herself onto the dust sheet that held all the parts she’d sourced for the Vincent Black Shadow. Barney hesitated in coming to join her and remained in the doorway.
‘I know it’s been a while, buddy, but we’ve got all night to—’
She stopped speaking as the ringing of her phone rudely interrupted her.
‘You have got to be bloody kidding me,’ she said, seeing the caller’s name.
She pressed the answer button.
‘I’m sorry but the person you’re calling is currently—’
‘Annoying as hell,’ Keats finished for her.
‘You’d better be calling to congratulate me on an uneventful weekend,’ she warned.
‘Of course I am, but I’d much prefer to do it in person. How about you meet me at St John the Baptist in say ooh, right now, and feel free to bring a friend.’
The line went dead in her ear as her stomach dropped. This was either Keats’s shit idea for a date or he had something he needed her to see.
‘Damn it,’ she growled. She’d almost had an ordinary weekend like normal people.
She quickly donned her boots, threw on her black leather jacket and grabbed her keys and helmet.
Two minutes ago she’d been set for a few hours of Mozart and relaxation. Now she was heading to see her favourite pathologist at eight o’clock on a Sunday night, at a church in Halesowen town centre.
Something told her the Vincent Black Shadow was going to have to wait.
TWO
Kim turned into Halesowen High Street and stopped at a wall of flashing blue lights, and an external cordon where groups were beginning to congregate.
Recognising the Kawasaki Ninja, one of the officers pulled the end cone across so she could pass. She nodded her thanks and parked up between the two squad cars to the right of the ambulance.
She placed her gloves into her helmet and hung it from the handlebars, then approached the second cordon at the black metal gates that led into the grounds of St John’s and held up her ID. ‘Where am I going?’
‘Round the back. Graveyard, marm.’
Great. This was getting better by the minute, and Keats’s idea of a date was truly shite.
As far as she knew, St John’s was a town centre church with a thousand-year history. There had been many late nights when she’d been working at the station on the other side of the town and had heard the bells pealing out. The length of the building faced the main road, protected by wrought-iron fencing, and the graveyard wrapped from the east side around to the rear.
She hurried along the pathway that she’d used many times as a constable in her days of searching the overgrown shrubbery of the graveyard, a place for the local criminals to stash stolen goods, drugs and weapons.
A couple of years ago, a community project had been set up with the neighbourhood team and ex-offenders to tidy the whole area up. Contrary to her scepticism, the project had worked and the site appeared to have been kept in order ever since.
Tidy or not, there was still something eerie about being in a graveyard at night, despite the collection of high-vis vests and torches close to the northern edge of the grounds.
Two constables were further along the side of the church with a group of men, all gathered around another man dressed in light jeans and a grey sweatshirt.
‘Don’t let anyone leave yet,’ Kim said to the first constable she met.
She instantly regretted not calling Bryant out to attend with her, but she’d figured one of them could get a full weekend. Normally he would have gathered all the details while she took care of the victim.
‘Ah, Inspector, sorry for calling you out at the weekend,’ Keats offered, breaking away from the group.
