by Ford, P. F.
‘You know that’s not what I mean,’ said Slater, uncertainly. He felt the hole deepening.
‘Right now, I’m not sure you actually know what you mean, Sergeant,’ snapped Goodnews, ‘so I’ll tell you what I’m going to do. First, I have an appointment with DCI Murray which should take no more than half an hour. While I’m there I’m going to press the reset button, and then I’m going for a coffee. I think it would be a good idea for you to press your own reset button, and then make a point of joining me.’
Slater was confused.
‘I suppose you’re going to drop me in it with Murray, are you?’ he asked, petulantly.
‘Actually I have more important things to discuss than your bruised ego,’ she said. ‘If you would just take your head from up your arse for a minute, and start looking outwards instead of inwards, you might realise I’m offering you the chance to start again.’
Slater knew his face was bright red and he felt embarrassed as Goodnews stared at him intently.
‘I can be the nasty bitch if I have to be,’ she continued as she gathered her things together. ‘And if I’m going to be teamed with a spoilt brat, I won’t have much choice. But I’d much rather not have to be a bitch and work with an adult I can get on with.’
She headed for the door, leaving him with one last thought as she left the room.
‘You might want to think about coming out from behind that barrier you’ve put up between us and take another look, before it’s too late. You might just find we’re on the same side.’
Slater watched as she left the room. Then he sank into his seat and slowly lowered his head down until his forehead rested on the desk. He banged his head against the desk a couple of times. What an idiot. What on earth had got into him?
Chapter Fifteen
The door burst open and a beaming Steve Biddeford charged into the room. He was the first one back.
‘What about the new DI, then?’ he said to Slater. ‘She’s hot stuff, don’t you think? DI Goodnews certainly looked like good news from where I was sitting.’
‘You think so?’ said Slater. ‘I can’t say I noticed. We didn’t exactly get off on the right foot.’
‘Yeah.’ Biddeford grinned at him broadly. ‘Calling the new boss a plonker isn’t the best way of introducing yourself. You won’t have done your chances any good there. You should have seen your face wh-’
‘Alright, Steve,’ interrupted Slater, feeling irritated. ‘I messed up big-time. I know. There’s no need to rub it in.’
‘She’s very tasty, though, don’t you think?’ asked Biddeford. ‘I’ll swap places if you don’t like her. I think I’d enjoy working underneath her, if you see what I mean.’
He leered suggestively at Slater, who was rather taken aback by his attitude. If there ever was a time and a place for comments like that, it wasn’t here, and it wasn’t now. Biddeford certainly hadn’t been like this before, and Slater wondered what else he might have picked up from the officers at the bigger station.
And anyway, the truth was he really hadn’t noticed if DI Goodnews was ‘hot stuff’, as Biddeford put it. His mind had been occupied by other things.
‘It would be good if you could divert some of your enthusiasm for the new DI towards finding out where Norm got off that train,’ he said to Biddeford. ‘There’s a stack of CDs here that have been collected from all the stations between Tinton and Southampton. When everyone’s back I would like you to arrange for them to be viewed, station by station. You know the time frame we’re looking at.’
Quite how they’d managed to collect the CDs so quickly from all those stations, even the unmanned ones, Slater couldn’t quite imagine, but here they all were, just as Bob Murray had promised him they would be.
‘You do realise half these stations are unmanned because no one uses them, don’t you?’ said Biddeford.
‘D’you mean the tiny, village ones?’ asked Slater. ‘The ones where all the bankers and stockbrokers live? They do get used, but only at peak times when those guys are going up to the City and then coming home again.’
‘Yeah, but no one uses them any other time, do they?’ asked Biddeford.
‘Only people coming home late, I suppose,’ agreed Slater. ‘That’s why the trains hardly ever stop at them outside peak periods.’
‘So there’s not much point in looking at them, really. Is there?’
‘On the other hand,’ said Slater, ‘a place like that might be a good spot to arrange for someone to get off a train if you wanted to reduce the chances of them being seen.’
‘Hmm?’ said Biddeford. ‘How d’you mean?’
‘Let’s say,’ began Slater, ‘you had somehow persuaded Norm to leave his house and come to meet you somewhere. You don’t want him to be able to use his car, so you tell him to get on a train. You make him buy a ticket to Southampton, twenty-odd stops away, but then, to make it more difficult for us to track him down, you have him leave the train at one of these obscure stations where there’s less chance of anyone witnessing what happens.’
‘Yeah, I suppose that makes sense,’ Biddeford said. ‘So, do you think we should start with the unmanned stations? You never know, you might just be right.’
Slater couldn’t be sure, but he felt there was a degree of condescension in Biddeford’s tone. That last comment had been totally uncalled for. Maybe he was getting ideas above his station. Or perhaps it was just him being paranoid. He wasn’t sure he trusted his own instincts after the debacle with DI Goodnews.
‘Yes,’ he said, deciding to give Biddeford the benefit of the doubt. ‘That might be a good idea.’
‘Okay, no problem,’ said Biddeford. ‘What are you going to do?’
Slater looked at his watch. It was just about half an hour since Goodnews had left.
‘I have a meeting with DI Goodnews,’ he said. ‘She wants me to talk her through the case so far. Then I’ll be back down here.’
‘Maybe we’ll have something for you, by then,’ said Biddeford, turning his attention to the stack of CDs. He was sorting them, station by station, as Slater left the room.
Chapter Sixteen
Slater peered through the window in the canteen door. He was hoping Goodnews was already in there, and he wanted to know where she was before he entered. He spotted her easily enough – no one else at Tinton had strawberry-blonde shoulder-length hair. She had chosen a table over in the far corner, well away from everyone else, and sat, with her back to the door, reading something on the desk in front of her.
He pushed the door open and walked across to the counter.
‘I’ll have my usual coffee, and a bacon sandwich, please,’ he said.
He looked over his shoulder at Goodnews but she didn’t seem to have noticed his arrival.
‘Hot date?’ asked the young woman behind the counter, nodding towards Goodnews.
‘Not exactly, Eileen. She’s my new boss.’
‘Oh, right. Is she the one you called a plonker?’ Eileen beamed at him.
‘You heard about that already?’ asked Slater. ‘News travels way too fast in this place. Who do I have to thank for spreading that around so quickly?’
She winked at him.
‘I couldn’t possibly say,’ she said. ‘I hope you’re not late, she’s been here ten minutes already.’
‘No, I’m right on time,’ he said.
‘Well, if you want to take her a peace offering, she drinks hot chocolate, and loves bacon sandwiches,’ said Eileen, conspiratorially.
‘It wouldn’t hurt, would it?’ agreed Slater. ‘Go on then.’
He paid for his order, placed the two drinks on his tray, and made his way towards Goodnews. As he approached her, he realised he knew nothing about her and, consequently, he really had no idea how he should play this. Would she expect a grovelling apology, or did she mean it about pressing the reset button?
‘Is there room for one more?’ he asked as he approached her.
She looked over her shoulder at
him.
‘Sure,’ she said. ‘Help yourself.’
As he dragged a chair out, and sat down opposite her, she closed the file she had been reading. He pushed her hot chocolate across the table to her.
‘A peace offering,’ he said.
‘Thank you very much,’ she said. ‘But I’m not looking for a grovelling apology, if that’s what you think.’
She smiled a genuinely warm smile in his direction.
‘I can’t tell you how pleased I am to hear that,’ he said. ‘I’m not very good at grovelling. But I can admit when I’m wrong, and I was definitely in the wrong earlier. For that I apologise.’
She studied his face for a moment, and Slater felt like he was under a microscope.
‘Apology accepted,’ she said eventually, sounding satisfied. ‘Like I said, I’ve hit the reset button, so let’s start again.’
‘How was your meeting with the Old Man,’ asked Slater.
‘Is that how you all see him?’ she asked.
‘It’s out of respect for his service,’ said Slater. ‘He seems to have been here forever.’
‘Aye,’ she agreed. ‘But don’t you think he’s a bit of a dinosaur?’
‘Well, yeah,’ Slater said, nodding. ‘But surely you don’t agree with all this cost cutting?’
‘It’s not a question of agreeing with it,’ she said. ‘Of course it would be much better to have as much money as we wanted, but budget cuts are a fact of life. Like it or not, they’re not going to go away, so we have to live with the situation and make the best of it. Complaining about it doesn’t stop it happening and it doesn’t help to deal with it.’
Slater smiled into his coffee.
‘What?’ she asked. ‘Did I say something funny?’
‘No, it’s not that,’ Slater said, grinning at her. ‘It’s just that you sound like Norman. If I was having this conversation with him, he’d probably say exactly the same thing. He calls it having a positive outlook. He can usually find something positive in every situation.’
‘It’s the only way to be,’ she said. ‘Norman sounds like he’s got life sussed out.’
‘Yeah,’ agreed Slater. ‘Which makes it even more unlikely he’s just gone AWOL.’
Eileen appeared with the two bacon sandwiches.
‘I’m not sure I can eat another one,’ said Goodnews, as the plate was set down before her.
‘So you’re not really like Norm, then,’ said Slater. ‘He would have eaten it without question, and then ordered another one. Anyway, you have to eat it. You don’t want to offend me, do you?’
‘Oh, sod it, why not?’ she said. ‘I am hungry and, no, I don’t want to offend you.’
She squirted what seemed to be a vast amount of ketchup into her sandwich, and then took a huge bite. She sat back happily as she chewed. Slater watched her. He didn’t think Biddeford’s schoolboy-like remark about her being hot stuff was quite the way he would describe her, but there was no doubt she was nice enough. And that faintly Scottish accent was definitely very interesting.
‘The way I see it, we have two problems that might determine how effective we are as a team,’ she said. ‘The first one is that you know nothing about me, and I know next to nothing about you. We can do something about that but in the meantime, we’re both going to have to employ a bit of give and take. Does that sound fair enough to you?’
‘Sure,’ he said. ‘But what do you mean, “we can do something about that”?’
‘Well, look,’ she said. ‘You should have been told when I was going to arrive. You should also have been told my name, and at least a small amount of background. You weren’t even told I was a woman, for God’s sake.’
‘Yeah, well,’ he said. He wondered if he should tell her how he really felt about Murray, but then he decided it might not be a good idea. He didn’t know anything about her yet.
‘The Old Man’s been busy,’ he said. ‘He-’
‘Don’t make excuses for him,’ she interrupted. ‘He’s not as busy as he makes out. I’m afraid your loyalty is very commendable but, trust me, it’s misplaced.’
Now Slater was confused. How come she was running down Bob Murray? She’d only been here five minutes. What right did she have to judge him? What could she possibly know about how busy he was?
‘But he’s a good old school copper,’ he began.
‘Yes, he was good in his time,’ she agreed. ‘His record says all that, and I have the utmost respect for that. The thing is, the old ways might have worked back then, but times have changed. Don’t tell me you don’t find him old-fashioned and behind the times?’
‘Well, yeah. I suppose there is something in what you say,’ Slater agreed reluctantly.
‘Look. We can argue about Bob Murray some other time,’ she said.
‘That’s true enough. But you said there were two problems that might affect how we work. So, what’s the other thing?’
‘You don’t seem to be very positive about your job, or how you view your situation,’ she said.
‘Now you really sound like Norman,’ Slater said, smiling.
‘Maybe Norman’s right. I’m not trying to say there’s something wrong with you. I can see from your record that you know what you’re doing, and I’m quite confident we can work together and make a good team. But I can also see from your record that you’ve had your fair share of run-ins with authority. That sort of thing could indicate the officer concerned is just plain bolshie.’
‘Ah. Yeah,’ Slater said, embarrassed. ‘I have been known to tread on a few toes to get a result. And I tend to say what I think as well, even when it’s not good politics to do so.’
Goodnews smiled. ‘It’s often all about timing and politics. Do you feel no one ever listens to what you say?’
‘That just about sums it up. I usually say what I think, get a bollocking from Murray and that’s as far as it goes. But, to be fair he has stuck up for me on a couple of occasions, too.’
‘I don’t know what you think of me,’ she said, ‘but I will tell you this. If you have genuine grievances we can talk about them, and if I can help I will. And you should know I’m not one of those people who thinks that because I’m in charge I have all the answers. I’m always prepared to listen, and I’m happy to give credit where it’s due.’
Slater was pleasantly surprised to find he hadn’t had his balls chewed off as he’d expected. In fact, he thought she was being very fair. And, to be honest, it wasn’t her fault he had been so petulant earlier. He hadn’t even given her a chance.
‘So, what do you think?’ she asked. ‘Do I need to play the bitch, or shall we try and work as a team?’
‘I don’t think I’d like the bitch,’ he said, grinning at her. ‘So how about we try the second suggestion?’
‘That works for me,’ she said. ‘But there’s a condition.’
‘Go on.’
‘You behave like a petulant five-year-old once more and that’s us finished, okay?’
‘Was I really that bad?’ he asked, hoping the ground might open up and swallow him.
‘And then some. I would imagine I’m not the first person who’s pulled you up about your attitude, am I?’ she said. ‘If I’m right about that, there has to come a point where you start to think maybe we’re right and you need to do something about it.’
She was correct, of course; this wasn’t the first time he’d been told about this sort of thing. Maybe she was right. Maybe Norm was right, too. Perhaps it was time to stop thinking about it and make the decision to do something about it.
‘The trouble with being hot-headed is it makes you stop listening,’ she added. ‘There’s a reason why you have two ears and only one mouth.’
Slater was dubious.
‘Honestly, it’s not difficult,’ she said. ‘All you have to do is stop, listen, think, and then speak.’
Slater thought about it. Norman had told him more or less the same thing on more than one occasion.
‘Oka
y,’ he said. ‘So I admit I can behave like a complete arse at times. I’m going to try and change my ways.’
‘No,’ she said. ‘That’s not a positive statement of intent. You’re not going to “try” to change your ways, you are going to change your ways. Or else.’
Well, that’s told me.
‘Alright,’ he said. ‘I will change my ways.’
‘See,’ she said, smiling at him. ‘That didn’t hurt did it?’
He smiled back at her. She was definitely winning him over.
‘Can I ask a question?’ he asked. ‘What should I call you?’
‘That’s a good one,’ she said. ‘You definitely do not call me ma’am. I’m not one of these feminists who wants to prove a point. I don’t feel I have to, and I haven’t got time for that anyway. DI Goodnews is fine, but boss is less formal, and less of a mouthful, so therefore it’s better. If we’re down the pub, it’s still boss.
‘To be honest, I’d be okay if you called me Marion outside work, but as you noticed earlier, I’m a woman, and so, as soon as you start using my Christian name, the troops will think we’re something we’re not. I made that mistake once, and it was very embarrassing for all concerned, so it’s best avoided altogether.’
Slater nodded his head.
‘Okay. Whatever you prefer is fine by me, Boss,’ Slater said. ‘What are you going to call me?’
‘What do you want me to call you?’ she said. ‘I’ll have to call you sergeant when it’s formal, but I don’t want to have to do that all the time.’
‘I’m okay with you calling me Dave,’ he said. ‘But if you’re worried what people will think-’
‘Ah. But you’re a man, so it doesn’t work the same way,’ she said. ‘I expect everybody calls you Dave. Am I right?’
‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘I suppose they do.’
‘If you move up to DI you’ll have to watch that,’ she said. ‘When you reach management level you have to have boundaries otherwise people get too familiar and then the lines get blurred, and when that happens it’s only a matter of time before it all goes pear-shaped. I’m afraid you can’t be the boss and be one of the lads, it doesn’t work.’