Kiss of Death. Paul Finch

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СКАЧАТЬ blue heeled boots and was sitting in the chair facing Gemma’s desk. A raincoat was folded alongside her, and an empty coffee cup sat on the desktop.

      ‘Yeah,’ Heck said. ‘Sorry I’m late, DC Honeyford.’

      She replied with a polite nod.

      Gemma indicated that Heck could dump the box of paperwork in a corner, and slid behind her desk, which was a complex operation in itself, given how little room there was in here. Unlike some senior officers, Gemma had never been given to displays of power. Though she was commander here at Staples Corner, head of the Serial Crimes Unit and second in authority at the National Crime Group only to the director, Joe Wullerton, himself, her office was a cramped, closet-like space, half of it filled with filing cabinets, the rest overhung with shelves groaning beneath the weight of packed files and dog-eared legal manuals.

      ‘Right …’ She selected a beige folder from her wire basket in-tray. ‘Seeing as Operation Sledgehammer goes live at eight tomorrow morning, there isn’t a great deal of time for us to discuss the niceties of what’ll be expected of you as a Serial Crimes Unit detective.’

      DC Honeyford, having realised that she was the one being addressed, sat up straight.

      Gemma glanced at her. ‘Except to say that if you needed to learn anything, you wouldn’t be here. So, you’re not on probation. You understand that?’

      ‘Of course, ma’am,’ the new recruit replied.

      ‘There’s a serious job needs doing, and in SCU we do it to the best of our abilities,’ Gemma said. ‘If any one of us fouls up, and that includes me, we’re out. But it may even be worse than that.’ She sat back, watching her new charge carefully, probing her with that penetrating blue-eyed gaze. ‘In this department, we deal exclusively with violent psychopaths … that means we can’t afford any errors. Lives, including our own, DC Honeyford, may depend on it.’ She paused again. ‘And … that’s it. That’s the whole of the introductory pep talk. Sorry if it wasn’t what you were expecting, but we’re all a bit short of time at present. You’ve got exactly half a day to get settled in. Because after tomorrow morning’s briefing you’ll all be expected to hit the road straight away in pursuit of the various actions that will have been allocated to you as part of Operation Sledgehammer.‘

      ‘I’m ready to go now, ma’am,’ DC Honeyford said.

      ‘Good. That means you can spend the rest of the day familiarising yourself with this.’ Gemma pushed the beige folder across the desk. ‘Consider that a welcome-to-your-new-job present. It’s a perk of sorts … no one else will know what case they’re being allocated until tomorrow morning.’

      At last, Heck understood why they were being deployed in twos.

      There were clearly several investigations that needed working on at the same time, most likely of historical significance rather than dating to the here and now. So that was Operation Sledgehammer: it sounded dramatic, as if it was something right up SCU’s street, but in actual fact one of the most experienced and productive special investigations units in the British police service was being used to adjust the clean-up rates.

      ‘And, Heck,’ Gemma said, interrupting his thoughts, ‘let’s make this thing work.’

      He nodded, trying not to look as half-hearted about it as he felt.

      ‘OK … off you go.’ She waggled them away with her fingers.

      ‘Thank you, ma’am,’ DC Honeyford said, standing and tucking the file under her arm.

      Heck dawdled after she’d left the room, edging the door closed behind her.

      When he spoke, it was quietly. ‘Ma’am, I—’

      She halted him with a raised palm. ‘I don’t want to hear it.’

      ‘Look, there’s something you may not know …’

      ‘I said I don’t want to hear it.’

      She’d already opened her emails, her manicured fingers rattling on the keyboard.

      ‘Gemma … come on!’

      Two things you never did with Gemma Piper was raise your voice or lose your temper. Even though Heck felt that, on occasion, he might have earned the right, he hadn’t intended it to slip out quite so abrasively. But rather to his surprise, her reaction was mild.

      ‘Don’t get too cocky, Sergeant.’ Her voice remained level; she didn’t even look up. ‘You may find this thing more of a challenge than you think.’

      ‘You don’t know the half of it,’ he muttered, leaving the room and half-blundering into Jack Reed outside.

      ‘Sorry, Heck,’ Reed said. ‘My fault. Don’t worry, I wasn’t eavesdropping.’

      Heck had never known such politeness in the police environment as he routinely heard from Reed, especially not from a supervisor to an underling. It surely had its origins in the Officers’ Mess, though Heck had never enquired about the DI’s background, and never would – as that would imply that he was interested in getting to know the guy.

      ‘It’s OK, sir,’ Heck grunted. ‘Nothing to hear anyway.’

      ‘I’ve told you, mate … it’s “Jack”. I don’t do formalities.’

      ‘Yeah, no probs.’

      Gail Honeyford was waiting a few yards along the corridor, picking through the folder’s contents. He stumped towards her. Behind him, he heard Reed tap on Gemma’s door.

      ‘Busy!’ she called out. ‘Unless it’s exceedingly important.’

      ‘It’s me, ma’am,’ Reed replied. ‘Can I come in?’

      Heck was now too far away to hear her muffled response, but whatever it was, Reed went in.

      ‘You don’t look very pleased to see me,’ Gail said, as they walked side by side down to the detectives’ office.

      ‘I’m not displeased.’ Heck tried not to sound tetchy, though it was a struggle. The truth was that he rated Gail as a police officer. How could he not when he owed his life to her? But there were other issues here, which, frankly, he didn’t think he could deal with at this moment. ‘I’m just … surprised.’

      ‘I gave you a heads-up that I was going to try and join SCU,’ she said. ‘Roughly around the same time you said you’d try to give me a leg-up. Just because I didn’t hear anything else from you, that doesn’t mean I didn’t stick with my ambition.’

      ‘In a way, I did give you a leg-up,’ he said. ‘You name-dropped me during your interview.’

      ‘Yeah, funny that. When I reminded DSU Piper that I’d worked with you before and that we got on well together, she said something to the effect of: “Ordinarily, that would be a reason for me not to appoint you.” What do you think she meant by that?’

      ‘She plays games,’ he grunted. ‘Likes to keep us on our toes.’

      ‘I hear they call her “the Lioness”.’

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