by Diane Saxon
DI Taylor leaned in. ‘I’m going to get Chief Superintendent Gregg to pull the authority on that. At least we don’t have to use up resources on providing police protection any longer. Bloody logistical nightmare. I need to get everyone back to their normal shift patterns.’ He sent them a weary smile. ‘I’ll catch up with you later. Good work.’
As DI Taylor swooshed the door closed behind him, Jim rubbed a weary hand over his eyes. ‘We just need to find the other body.’
‘I don’t know if we will until we can wake him up and have a proper conversation. He had huge blood loss, he’d been under anaesthetic, he was on morphine. He could just have been hallucinating.’ But the momentary connection she’d had when his gaze bored into hers had her skin itching with the jab of a thousand tiny needles.
‘Time. It all takes time.’ Jim reached up to pat the hand she rested on his shoulder. ‘I hear you had a bit of a run in with PC Gardner.’
Jenna swung her head in Mason’s direction. Genuine surprise flashed through his wide blue eyes and he shook his head in denial that he’d told Jim anything.
Jim swivelled around on the chair to face her. ‘I know John. The anaesthetist.’
Jenna dipped her chin to acknowledge him. ‘Interesting.’
Jim’s lips twitched. ‘He said you wiped the floor with him.’
‘Little twat deserved it, and more. You should have had him up on a disciplinary,’ Mason grumbled.
Jenna shrugged. ‘He’s got to learn. Disciplining him may have been the wrong route to take under the circumstances. I hope what I said to him will have some effect.’
Mason rolled his lips inwards and shook his head. ‘He’s too full of himself. Let’s just hope he doesn’t apply to join the firearms. He’s too trigger happy.’
As the impact of that hit home, Jenna fell silent.
‘You know the other thing about him?’ Jim removed his glasses and rubbed his fingertips over the red indentations either side of his nose. ‘When I had words with him the other day, someone mentioned they thought he was related to that journalist. What’s his name?’
Mason’s head reared up. ‘Kim Stafford?’
Shockwaves rippled through her. ‘You’ve got to be kidding me. Kim Stafford is related to PC Gardner? He can’t be.’
‘Yeah,’ Jim nodded. ‘I’m sure. Who the hell told me?’ He squeezed his nose between thumb and forefinger and screwed his eyes closed. ‘Bloody hell, if I think of them, I’ll let you know. It was a passing comment. May well have been one of the paramedics. If I remember right, they said he was some cousin of Kim’s wife.’
Thoughts whirled through her mind as Jenna paced away to the window. She scrubbed her fingers through her thick hair and stared out at the car park. Could it be that simple? Was PC Gardner giving Kim Stafford the heads-up when an interesting case rolled in? She closed her eyes. Yeah. It was definitely a possibility.
She pressed her fingertips to her closed eyes as an uncomfortable heat built in her chest, pressing down to restrict her breathing. She thought she’d dealt with the officer. Instead she’d more likely pushed the man too hard. She should have taken it further, reported him upline, at least let someone know, but her own sense of justness had made her believe she’d given him the roasting he deserved without taking it any further. He should have learned. Like she learned lessons every day of her life while her career moved on and her character evolved.
Tempted to curl up in the corner while she dealt with her own spiking ego, Jenna dropped her hands from her face and watched while three cars cruised the overfilled police station car park looking for a space.
A picture of the view from Mark Pearson’s room flashed through her vision. Car park filled to capacity. Car after car crawling up one aisle, down the next, a constant source of frustration. The flash apple green Scirocco. A few years old. The same make, model and colour that Kim Stafford owned.
She crushed her hands against her face. What an idiot. A giant fluorescent pink finger lit the back of her mind as PC Gardner walked into the hospital room a millisecond after she’d spotted the Scirocco. Kim Stafford’s Scirocco. More than a simple coincidence.
Damn, damn, dammit.
She dropped her hands from her face. She didn’t have a choice in the matter.
She swung on her heel and headed for the door. ‘I need a word with DI Taylor.’ She yanked at the handle and tossed over her shoulder. ‘Mason, meet me downstairs in twenty with the car keys. I think we may need to revisit the hospital, too. If PC Gardner’s done what I think he has, then Kim Stafford’s about to blow the lid off this case.’ She glanced at the time on her phone. ‘He may well have already done it.’
She strode the length of the hallway, her long legs eating up the ground between the offices while she prayed that Mark had dosed himself up enough to be of no use if Kim tried to interview him.
With barely a pause to knock, Jenna flung open the door to the boss’s office. Too experienced to overreact, DI Taylor raised his head, his calm gaze skimming over her above the paperwork he held in his hand.
‘Sir!’
‘Jenna,’ in the absence of anyone else, Taylor dropped her formal title and addressed her with a familiarity she was comfortable with. ‘Take a seat.’
Too wired to sit, Jenna closed the door and stepped up to his desk. She linked her fingers to keep them still. ‘Sir, I had an incident yesterday with one of the uniformed officers.’
Taylor cleared his throat. ‘So I believe.’
Surprised by his knowledge, Jenna raised her hands to her face and tapped her fingertips against her lips. Did everyone know? ‘Who told you?’ She couldn’t believe Jim Downey would have leaked that sort of information about her to a senior officer. He wasn’t the type to gossip.
‘The duty sergeant, Alan Lyford.’
Jenna dropped her hands to her sides. ‘What did he have to say about it?’ She felt no need to defend herself when she met the quiet calm in Taylor’s eyes.
‘Apparently, PC Gardner attempted to lodge a complaint about you.’
‘Attempted?’
‘Sergeant Lyford told him he should take twenty-four hours to cool off and then come back to him if he still wants to make a formal complaint. I believe he advised him otherwise. He gently reminded him that he was in the wrong and that as his senior officer you had every right to take the action you did. He suggested it might make him look unprofessional.’
Jenna backed up to the chair and let herself sink into it. ‘I gave him a bollocking, sir, and a bit of a lecture. He was being arrogant, sir.’
‘So says Sergeant Lyford.’
Relief relaxed her enough, so she leaned back in the chair and crossed one leg over the other. ‘Apart from his arrogance, I pulled him up because he wanted to arrest our suspect. I explained protocol and process to him. He didn’t seem to appreciate it.’
Taylor’s lips kicked up at one side. ‘I can imagine. From what I’ve heard, he’s a… challenging character.’
She should have felt relieved, but the wriggle of anxiety still churned in her stomach. ‘I also heard something else about PC Gardner.’
The smile slid from his lips. ‘Is this something official?’
‘Not necessarily. Not yet. But there is a possibility if what I heard is true.’
‘Tell me.’
‘Apparently, PC Gardner is related to Kim Stafford.’
‘Kim Stafford, freelance journalist?’ Taylor’s lip curled with distaste.
‘That’s the one.’
‘The journalist who seems to have a little too much insider knowledge?’
At her nod, Taylor pushed forward to lean his elbows on the desk, his bright mind already latched onto the same connection. ‘Do you suspect Gardner of passing on information to Stafford?’
‘I wouldn’t necessarily, I would hope he would honour his badge, sir. But yesterday when I was in the suspect’s hospital room, I believe I may have seen Stafford’s car circling the car park. Right after that w
as when PC Gardner walked into the room and we had our little set to.’
‘And you thought you’d hold this information until now because…?’
Heat flooded her neck and face as the implication was made. ‘No. I wasn’t holding it back, it never occurred to me at the time. I may be wrong about the Scirocco belonging to Stafford. I made the connection when Jim Downey mentioned their relationship. It wasn’t a deliberate omission.’
Calm eyes devoid of accusation connected with hers. He was on her side. He was always on her side, but he needed the ins and outs, the fors and againsts, the finer details. ‘Okay. What would you propose our next steps are?’
She tugged at her bottom lip with her thumb and forefinger. ‘Quite frankly, I don’t know. I need to have a think about it.’ She cast her mind back to her sister’s case, when Stafford had reported on it with inside information he should never have had access to. ‘I need to check what Gardner had to do with Fliss’s case.’
‘I can do that.’ DI Taylor jotted something down on the notepad in front of him.
‘First, though, my main concern is that Gardner may have arranged to meet up with Stafford yesterday in the suspect’s hospital room. I don’t know the reason behind why they’d do that, other than Gardner grabbing the glory of arresting a serial killer and having Stafford splash it all over the papers.’ She scrubbed the tender spot on her head and blew out a breath. ‘If that’s the case, and my conversation with Gardner never had any impact, I’m worried they’ll try it again.’ She pushed up from the chair. ‘I need to put some precautions in place at the hospital and also to check if our suspect is in a fit state to answer questions.’
DI Taylor glanced at his watch, pushed his chair back and came to his feet. He leaned both hands on the desk and took in a long pull of air. ‘I’ll come with you.’
She kept the surprise to herself. It had been a while since the Inspector had accompanied her; he was always tied up in meetings or with paperwork. Some days being the teacher meant losing sight of the job.
He gave a long stretch, each bone and joint cricking and popping. ‘I could do with the fresh air, less bullshit.’ He grinned at her and she saw the officer beneath the rank. The enthusiastic passion of the beat bobby he used to be. A man who now drowned in paperwork on a daily basis. She felt it herself from time to time and wondered if she ever really wanted to be promoted above the rank of sergeant.
As he rounded the desk, she remembered. ‘DC Ellis is meeting me downstairs with the car keys.’
‘Excellent. If we need someone punched, he’s our man.’ Light of foot, he passed her, holding open the door for her to move in front of him. The flash of youthful exuberance rendered her speechless.
Deadpan, Mason watched them move down the staircase, DI Taylor once again in front. If she’d not been aware of the CCTV, she would have held her hands in the air and shrugged, but the contact she made with Mason through a quick raise of her eyebrows gave him all the clue he needed.
‘Sir.’
‘You’re driving, DC Ellis.’
Mason twitched his eyebrows at Jenna as DI Taylor marched past. She sent him her brightest smile. It meant Mason couldn’t ask anything about her date. The one she’d like to keep to herself for now. Just as she’d like him to keep his date with Fliss to himself. She really didn’t need any details from him, she’d far rather they kept it to themselves. For now at least.
43
Thursday 13 February, 09:45 hrs
A low electronic buzz blanketed the virtually empty hallways, so the quick clip of their shoes echoed with staccato precision.
Wordless, they strode through the hospital, every footstep bringing them closer to their suspect.
A thread of anticipation wound its way through Jenna. If he was awake, she’d question him. If he was still asleep, she’d see if the medical staff could lower his morphine dose and bring him around.
Static crackled through the radio followed by PC Massey’s voice. ‘Sarg?’
‘PC Massey. Is everything okay?’
Far along the corridor, PC Massey headed towards them, still speaking into the Airwaves radio. ‘I have a situation here.’
Jenna put on a spurt to charge ahead of the others. She spoke into Airwaves as she approached before he even looked their way. ‘We’re here, I can see you.’
Relief washed over his features as he marched towards them.
The first to speak, Jenna dashed to his side. ‘What’s happened?’
PC Massey shook his head. ‘PC Gardner just arrived. Made out that he was here to give me a break.’ Phil shook his head, his jowls wobbling. ‘He’s a shirty little git, pardon me, Sarg, but he is. He told me to get myself a coffee. I was sure he’s not assigned here, not after yesterday when he tried to strong arm you.’
They all knew, it appeared, but not through any of her sources, it was Gardner himself who couldn’t keep his mouth shut.
‘Sarg, I have no idea what he’s up to, but I don’t trust him alone in that room with our suspect.’
As DI Taylor caught up, he touched PC Massey’s elbow. ‘It’s okay. We’ll deal with it, whatever it is. You go and take a break for thirty minutes. Cup of tea, bacon butty and a brisk walk. When you come back, it’ll be like nothing ever happened.’
Massey grinned. ‘Sir.’ He strode off in the opposite direction, shoulders back as though a weight had been lifted from them.
‘What the hell is he up to?’ Jenna and Mason followed DI Taylor as he flung open the ward door, his long legs eating up the distance along the hallway, every inch of him in senior ranking officer mode.
The instant change in atmosphere as they came off the main hallway into the ward struck her as the electronic buzz escalated to a blanket of beeps and rings overlayered with hushed urgency.
As DI Taylor hesitated, unfamiliar with the terrain, Jenna swept past him, making her way along to the far end of the corridor where there were two side rooms off the main wards. The first stood empty and she barely spared it a glance, but in the doorway of the second one, a figure she would recognise from twenty paces entered the room.
‘Wait!’ She punched the word out, gratified to see the figure freeze, fury burning her gut. She’d have the little shit, tear him apart limb from limb. If Mason didn’t get to him first and simply punch him. ‘What do you think you’re doing here?’ She kicked command into her voice and as the figure turned, a thick layer of grease coated her stomach. Her hatred of Kim Stafford had never dissipated over the years, only grown stronger the more often she came across him.
The thinly veiled sneer did nothing to intimidate her as she stepped into his space. ‘On whose authority are you here?’
He jerked his neck to one side in a nervous twitch. ‘Freedom of the press.’
‘You have no such freedom when you step into a police cordon.’ She had no desire to touch him, but he didn’t appear to want to move from the spot he was in. His dark eyes glimmered with the same hatred reflected back from her. She’d never feel any different, she’d never be able to flick off the slime from her boots when he was around.
His acne scarred cheeks dimpled into deep creases. ‘I heard no objection from the police officer when I stepped into the room.’
She peered past him at PC Gardner, taking in his clenched jaw and angry gaze, and never hesitated as she gave her attention back to Stafford. She’d expected Stafford to sacrifice his own cousin by marriage. Slimeball that he was. ‘Nevertheless, there’s an objection now and if you fail to remove yourself from inside this room within the next ten seconds, I will have you arrested and taken to Malinsgate police station for questioning.’
‘Questioning? On what charge?’
‘Obstruction of a police officer, perverting the course of justice.’ She counted off on her fingers. ‘Contamination of evidence, breach of the peace.’
Kim Stafford spread his hands wide, appealing to the room at large. ‘I’ve done nothing wrong, just accidentally stepped inside a patient’s ro
om. I had no idea it was a crime scene.’ Apart from the obvious placement of a police officer inside the room.
With no desire to correct him, Jenna squared her feet and waited.
He leaned into her, the puff of stale coffee on his breath made her gag.
‘Your breath stinks, Kim. You should floss more often.’
Insult leapt into his eyes and again his head juddered.
‘And the clock’s ticking.’
He recovered far quicker than she’d expected, but then his skin was thick enough for the insult to only skim the surface. ‘Talking of ticking clocks. How long has he got?’ He nodded his head in the direction of the still sleeping suspect. Jenna never thought for a moment Stafford meant how long had the suspect left to live, but how long did they have left to question him. Which meant his cousin by marriage hadn’t told him that the suspect hadn’t yet been arrested.
She declined to answer the man, instead, she took a sideways step to shield any view of their suspect from him and stretched out her hand to indicate the door. ‘We’d appreciate it if you left the room immediately in order to ensure this place is not contaminated by your presence.’ He could take it to mean anything he wanted, but forensics had swept the room and suspect entirely, and Jenna meant for him to remove his disgusting, slimy presence before she threw up.
Fury gleamed from his narrowed eyes, but he sidled around her and disappeared down the hallway.
Jenna looked past DI Taylor at the man in uniform beside the bed.
‘PC Gardner,’ Taylor addressed him. ‘Step away from the bed.’
‘But the perpetrator—’
‘The patient is absolutely fine. Now step away from the bed and take yourself from this room. Immediately.’ DI Taylor pitched his voice to a gravelly command as he turned his body into the officer’s, his chest almost touching Gardner’s, leaving him with no option but to step back into the hallway. With his hand on the door, DI Taylor stared at Gardner with deadly intent. ‘You make sure you report to me when I return to the station.’ He glanced at his watch. ‘1400 hours.’