AllFreeNovel
Share Us
On seeing the name of the caller, she became oblivious to the curious looks from around the table and the thunderous expression on the face of the chief super. Nothing either personal or professional trumped a call from this man.
‘What you got, Keats?’ she asked, once in the corridor.
‘Homer Hill Park. Now.’
The line went dead but she didn’t need it repeating.
She also needed no explanation for his summons.
TWO
‘This is a first, eh, guv?’ Bryant asked, once they were in the car.
She nodded as he headed out onto the road. It wasn’t a place they’d been called to before.
The park was in Cradley, Halesowen and was used by families, runners and dog walkers. As far as she knew, it had a toddler play area, a football pitch, a basketball court for the older kids and large areas of flat managed grass for picnicking. Kim couldn’t recall a body ever being found there.
‘I’m going to take a wild guess and assume that you were unable to keep that mouth of yours shut during the community meeting,’ Bryant said smugly.
‘How’d you know that?’ she asked, wondering who he’d had on the inside and how they’d communicated her slip-up so quickly.
‘I’m a detective. I know shit.’
‘No, really. How did you find out? Who snitched?’
‘No one. If you’d won the bet, that fiver would already be out of my wallet and in your back pocket. I’ll take my winnings in lunch, thank you very much.’
She opened her mouth to argue and found that she couldn’t.
Bryant shifted in his seat. ‘Listen, guv, I don’t wanna nag, but…’
‘Then don’t,’ she said simply.
It was a known fact that people who started sentences with such words unfailingly went on to do the exact thing they were saying they didn’t want to do. ‘I don’t want to offend you, but…’ ‘I don’t want to appear unhelpful, but…’ The list went on.
‘It’s just that she’s…’
‘Bryant, I’ve asked her twice and she insists she’s okay.’
She could hear the accusation in his silence.
‘What more would you like me to do, genius? I could always try removing her thumbnail with a pair of pliers to make her talk, but I’m pretty sure the staff handbook doesn’t list that as a management tool.’
‘You being facetious, guv?’
‘Nothing gets past you, does it?’ she said before turning to look out of the window as her thoughts went to Stacey. She’d asked the detective constable more than once if everything was okay. It was clear to anyone that knew her that she’d lost around a stone in weight. On a daily basis, Penn frowned at the still half-full Tupperware containers that he was placing into his man bag at the end of each shift.
Something was missing with her. The spark was gone. That natural zest and alertness had been dimmed, though her work wasn’t really suffering from whatever ailed her. Stacey operating at eighty per cent was still better than many people at full throttle.
Kim had idly wondered if there were issues between her and Devon, but she suspected not. They were made for each other. But who knew what went on behind closed doors…?
Jeez, she hated it when just one remark from Bryant caused her to re-evaluate her own performance; but she’d asked the girl on two separate occasions if she was okay and, while her work wasn’t suffering, she really had no right to try and dig any deeper.
Kim’s thoughts were quickly distracted as Bryant pulled into Slade Road and approached the car park.
Her first thought was that everything was as it should be. Almost. There was a cordon in place that was drawing crowds from the surrounding houses. There were squad cars, Keats’s pathology van, a forensics vehicle and an ambulance. All perfectly normal for a crime scene.
And yet something was off, Kim thought as Bryant brought the car through the cordon and pulled to the left, away from the other vehicles.
