3
Detective Superintendent Liam Moore was a creature of habit. He liked being a Super. It meant that he didn’t have to do the legwork any longer. He could work a solid nine to six most days and leave the late nights to his team. He’d put his shift in when he was younger. He was respected and maybe a little feared. Fear was a good thing for a boss to instil in his team.
Which is why when his wife shook him awake in the middle of the night and stuck the phone on his ear he was not happy. He was less happy when he heard DC Irvine’s voice.
She was such a hard charger. Which was good. And bad.
Bad like now.
‘Sir, I’m sorry to wake you but—’
‘Get to the point.’
‘I have a situation with this drug case.’
A situation. This didn’t sound good. Not one little bit.
‘The thing is, the stuff here looks like it might be the other end of a bigger operation. Run out of Colorado.’
‘The Colorado in America?’
‘Yes.’
‘How did this come up?’
‘It’s kind of a long story.’
‘Can’t you just tell me?’
‘The FBI are involved.’
Moore sat up in bed, pulling the covers off his wife and causing her to grunt at him.
‘Have you spoken to the SCDEA about this?’
‘No. I only just found out.’
Moore looked at the clock by his bed. Whatever time it was, and he wasn’t quite sure, it was too early.
‘The FBI are meeting about it right now.’
‘How do you know this?’
‘Uh …’
Moore waited.
‘That’s part of the long story, sir.’
‘Becky, just tell me, okay? I’m going to find out eventually.’
She told him.
‘We’re not doing anything about this right now,’ he said when she finished.
‘Sir?’
‘It’s the middle of the night and it sounds like the Yanks have their end of things under control.’
‘What about ours?’
‘We can do it better in the morning. I mean, the real morning. When normal people are awake.’
‘Shouldn’t we at least make contact with the FBI? I mean, like, now.’
‘No. I want the SCDEA on board first.’
‘But—’
‘No. Meet me at the office at seven-thirty. Then we’ll work out what to do.’
He didn’t wait for a reply.