by David Hodges
Ansell was waiting for her in front of a knot of uniformed police officers but, even as he stepped forward to speak to her, he was outmanoeuvred by another more substantial figure who hobbled across in front of him, leaning on a walking stick.
‘Let’s get you home, Kate,’ Hayden said authoritatively, guiding her back along the gravel path and ignoring the smouldering look Ansell threw after them. ‘Everything here can wait until later.’
She gave a weak smile. ‘Think I scored this time, Hayd?’ she whispered.
He grinned as he threw open the door of his Jaguar. ‘Scored?’ he echoed. ‘Oh, you did that all right, old girl. But next time you decide to go flying off into the night, do try not to ruin our carpet with a glass of my best 2004 Barolo, OK?’
AFTER THE FACT
Kate received a round of applause when she walked into the incident room the next day, her colleagues standing up with beaming smiles and loud cheers the moment she appeared. Even Roscoe looked less miserable than usual and his boot-button eyes gave her a critical once-over as she pushed through the half-open door of the SIO’s office.
‘Recovered then?’ he said brusquely.
She nodded and sat down on a nearby chair without asking. ‘How’s Maurice Copely?’ she queried, concern etched into her expression.
He scowled. ‘Nasty stomach wound and the hospital have had to take out his spleen but he’ll be OK apparently.’ There was no sense of relief in his tone and his expression seemed to add a silent ‘unfortunately’.
‘He saved my life,’ Kate said, giving him a hard stare.
He grunted, plainly unimpressed by that fact. ‘So it seems, but I still reckon he did those girls in the Thames Valley.’
‘Ancient history now, Guv,’ she pointed out. ‘Time to move on.’
He started to chew on his gum again, ignoring her comments. ‘And you were a bloody idiot going to Haslar’s place on your own anyway – not that he’ll be bothering us any more in the morgue.’
She treated him to a rueful smile. ‘Thanks for your concern for my welfare, Guv,’ she replied. ‘It’s nice to know someone cares.’
The mouth under the Stalin moustache quivered slightly as the slab-like face registered the start of a lopsided grin but it was soon gone. ‘What do you expect – a medal?’ he growled. ‘Still, it’s all over now, thank God, and at last we’ll be able to get rid of these MCIU twats from headquarters when the incident room closes down in a few days.’
Kate raised her eyebrows, glancing quickly behind her. ‘I don’t think Mr Ansell would like being called an MCIU twat, Guv,’ she pointed out. ‘He might see it as just a little bit demeaning.’ She glanced over her shoulder into the main incident room and back again. ‘And where is Mr Ansell? I thought he’d be here by now. The debrief is in ten minutes.’
Roscoe gave a lingering grin. ‘Oh, he’ll be joining us at some stage,’ he replied. ‘Once he gets back from the big house, that is.’
She threw him a quizzical glance. ‘Headquarters? Why is he there again? To shout the good news about his fantastic single-handed detection?’
‘Not exactly.’ Roscoe leaned forward conspiratorially. ‘I shouldn’t really be telling you this but I know it won’t go any further. It seems a young female member of Mr Ansell’s own clerical staff has made a complaint of sexism against him.’
‘Bloody hell! And?’
‘And, as soon as he finishes up here, he’s being sent on an Equal Opportunities course at the force training centre – and that’s not all.’ Roscoe could hardly contain himself. ‘When he gets back, he’s being transferred from headquarters CID to Superintendent, Roads Policing.’
‘Traffic? You mean he’s going to become a black rat?’
‘If that’s what they call Traffic nowadays, yes.’
Kate was also grinning now. ‘How appropriate,’ she replied. ‘And it couldn’t have happened to a more deserving person.’
He flicked his bushy brows and shrugged. ‘Thought you might be interested in that little snippet,’ he said and turned towards the door. ‘Anyway, in the absence of Mr Ansell, I’d better get this debrief started.’
He was almost through the door when he stopped and, snapping his fingers, swung round again. ‘Oh, by the way, there’s an envelope on the desk there for you.’
‘For me?’
‘Yeah, brought up from the postroom earlier. Hand delivered apparently. Probably some missive from the press—’ He gave another faint smirk ‘– or a present from an admirer. It’s marked In Confidence so I didn’t open it.’
Then, heading into the main incident room where uniformed and plainclothes officers were already gathering and securing seats for themselves, he called back over his shoulder, ‘Five minutes to briefing, don’t forget.’
Kate sighed and crossed to the desk, picking up the A5-size padded envelope which was lying there and staring at it curiously. Her name was scrawled across the front in bold block capitals, plus the address, MCIU Highbridge Police Station but nothing more, and, though it appeared to contain something bulky, it was quite light. She frowned, weighing it in one hand. Hardly something from the press. As for admirers – and she snorted – the only one she was interested in was at home with a bad back!
She heard Roscoe’s voice shouting from the incident room, ‘OK, you lot, listen up,’ as she slid a biro under the flap of the envelope and tore it open but then all sounds merged into one distant unreal hum as she shook what was in the envelope out on to the desk. There wasn’t a missive of any kind inside the envelope or what could be termed a present – just a grotesque straw doll with a set of metal sergeant’s stripes pinned neatly to its chest. And as she stood there, frozen to the spot with shock, the branch of an old hawthorn tree stretching over the wall of the police station yard from the derelict garden next door scraped across the office window in a sudden inexplicable breeze.
By the same author
Slice
Firetrap
Requiem
© David Hodges
First published in Great Britain 2015
ISBN 978 0 7198 1718 2 (epub)
ISBN 978 0 7198 1719 9 (mobi)
ISBN 978 0 7198 1720 5 (pdf)
ISBN 978 0 7198 1427 3 (print)
Buried River Press
Clerkenwell House
Clerkenwell Green
London EC1R 0HT
www.halebooks.com
The right of David Hodges to be identified as
author of this work has been asserted by him
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988