Even in the face of his anger, she wasn’t sorry she’d done it. She’d defied a direct order, and she had no regrets.
Very few other publications would want to run the story if all they were doing was repeating the same old facts, and Tracy had included them all. Tracy was the only person who had spoken to Catherine and the entomologist wouldn’t be taking any more calls from the press.
‘What the hell did you think you were doing?’
She took a deep breath. ‘Sir, my job is to serve and protect, and sometimes you just have to trust that I’m doing my job.’
‘Is that it, Stone? Is that all I’m going to get?’
She said nothing.
‘You expect me to take that explanation to Lloyd House – because that’s where I’m now going first thing in the morning.’
Kim knew she had placed her boss in an untenable position. Then she remembered Catherine hiding in the lawnmower box.
‘Yes, sir.’
‘I’ve a good mind to take you with…’
His words trailed away as her phone began to ring.
His expression dared her to answer.
‘So tomorrow morning you can…’
This sentence was not destined for completion as his own phone began to ring just as hers dinged the arrival of a voicemail.
He snatched up the receiver without taking his eyes from her face.
‘Yes,’ he snapped. He didn’t offer his name. The detective chief inspector’s phone didn’t ring by accident.
His gaze moved from her face to a point above her head, signalling the shift in his focus.
He listened for five seconds before replacing the receiver.
‘This isn’t over, Stone, but right now you have an urgent message to ring Keats. This may be about your latest victim.’
Kim took out her phone. Her own voicemail was from the pathologist. The message was short and instructed her to ring him back.
‘Sir, I’m going to—’
‘Get out, Stone,’ he said, waving her away. ‘But believe me that this isn’t over.’
She closed the door behind her and pressed the button to return Keats’s call.
‘About time, Inspector,’ he said as a greeting. He sounded in a hurry.
Jesus, it had been less than thirty seconds.
‘I’m on my way to Netherton Reservoir, and I suggest you might like to join me.’
Did he really think she didn’t have enough work to do?
‘Keats, I’m a bit pushed—’
‘Well, get unpushed. I’m going to collect another customer and I’m reliably informed that this one has got no hands.’
Fifty-Seven
Kim pulled up close to the clubhouse on the edge of Netherton Reservoir. It was more commonly known as Lodge Farm Reservoir and was used for watersports and supplying water to the canal system.
‘Bloody hell, quiet day for Brierley Hill, eh?’ Bryant asked as they headed around the building. She counted six squad cars and two civilian vehicles.
She could see fluorescent jackets scattered around the perimeter of the lake as the officers cleared the area. A clutch of personnel stood 150 feet to her right. She headed in that direction.
‘Hey, Stone, are you lost?’
Kim recognised the bellow as the deep grumble of Detective Inspector Dunn. For this man she readily held out her hand. He took it and smiled warmly.
She had worked with Dunn when he’d been a sergeant and she a constable. His work ethic was not unlike her own.
She remembered one case where he had persuaded a woman with two children to press charges against her husband after suffering a broken arm, dislocated jaw and more bruises than the medical staff could count.
The man had been removed and charged and then bailed with a restraining order to stay away from his wife. There was no space at the shelter for the woman and her three children, and no family members would take her owing to fear of the repercussions from her husband.
Unable to get police resources authorised for protection, Dunn had finished his shift each night and parked up outside the woman’s house.
On the third night, a drunk and angry Roy Bradley stumbled blindly into his front garden and had barely reached the front door before Dunn had wrestled him to the ground. The man had been back in cuffs and safely behind bars before Laura Bradley had a clue what had happened.
During her time with Dunn, Kim had learned a lot.
He was about eighteen months away from retirement and a small property in Spain. And he’d earned it.
She mirrored his smile. ‘Oh you know, got a bit bored. Thought I’d come and see what you boys were up to over here.’
‘Yeah, right,’ he said knowingly. ‘Nothing to do with you snaffling a file on one of our cold cases then?’
She shrugged. ‘Thought it might be connected to something I’m working,’ she said honestly. She motioned towards Bryant. ‘My colleague, Detective Sergeant Bryant.’
Dunn held out his hand. ‘My sympathies, Sergeant,’ he said, raising one eyebrow.
Even Kim broke out a smile.
‘Yeah, good job on the Ashraf Nadir case. How’s the kid?’
‘He’s doing okay,’ Kim said. She had spoken to Negib’s father twice since the raid. Only the night before he had told her that Negib’s older sisters were not letting him out of their sight. Normality would not return easily to the close-knit family, but the boy had a lot of love and support to help him through.
‘Did your boss ever tell you she didn’t make sergeant first time of asking?’ Dunn said, looking at Bryant.
Kim groaned. ‘Let’s not rehash—’
Bryant stepped forwards. ‘No, actually she didn’t.’
Dunn nodded. ‘Yeah, yeah, she was in line for it, a dead cert, really but…’
‘What happened?’ Bryant asked as Kim shoved her hands into her pockets.
‘There was this raid on a flat in Hollytree. The gangs weren’t prolific back then, and it was every man for himself. A car chase led to a run up three flights of stairs at Holden Court.’
‘One of the maisonette blocks?’ Bryant asked.
Dunn nodded. ‘By the time the two chasing officers, that’s your boss here and a kid named Lampitt, got to the scene, we’d had intelligence the youth was high on heroin and carrying a knife. The order was issued not to enter until backup arrived.’
‘And?’ Bryant asked.
‘They forced entry, and the kid jumped out the window. The little shit didn’t die, but he wasn’t very well for a bit, and your boss here was the one that made the call to enter, said her statement. Promotion gone,’ he said, opening his hands as though setting something free.
‘Okay, that’s enough reminiscing about the good old days,’ Kim said, moving to stand between Bryant and Dunn.
Dunn looked around her. ‘Poor old Officer Lampitt was first day back on shift after his missus had suffered a miscarriage and it’s ever so strange that he was the one with the bruised shoulder, not your boss here.’
‘I don’t mark easily,’ Kim said, narrowing her eyes at Dunn.
‘Yeah, so you said.’ He looked back to Bryant. ‘Cost her a good nine months until she eventually got what she deserved.’
‘Mike…’ she warned.
He shrugged. ‘Just thought the guy could do with knowing what kind of boss he was working with.’
Bryant nodded his head. ‘Thanks for that, but I’ve got a pretty good idea.’
‘Hey, Inspector, glad you could make it,’ Keats called, looking up at her from the ground.
Kim ignored him as her eyes focussed on the thing she’d come to see. The body. This male had been dumped closer to the treeline approximately twenty feet from the water. An old condom sat three inches away from his head, leaving Kim in little doubt about some of the woodland activity.
This victim was the complete opposite of the man found at Fens Pool. She could see by the greying of the hair that they were similar in age, but this man was tall and gangly. His frame was slight and appeared undernourished.
His feet were clad in trainers that had not accumulated their filthy colour over a few days. His jeans were supermarket brand and ingrained with oil stains that would never come out. She knew all about that.