Kiss of Death. Paul Finch

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СКАЧАТЬ nodded as she pondered this.

      ‘Anyway,’ he said. ‘Why did she?’

      ‘What do you mean?’

      ‘She told you that “ordinarily” she wouldn’t have appointed you. What changed her mind?’

      ‘Oh … she also noted that aside from that one case you and me worked together, my career’s been pretty straight-laced and that I’ve had some good results, all of them by the book. She added that she was certain the experience of this, plus the passage of time, would probably ensure that I’ve got over any bad habits I might have picked up from you.’

      ‘Might have picked up from you, Sergeant,’ he corrected her.

      ‘Sorry, yes … Sergeant,’ she agreed primly.

      That was one bad habit she’d dispensed with, he noted. The previous incarnation of Gail had bridled at the merest hint that she was under someone else’s control, especially a male’s. This was explainable by the tough time she’d had with some of the idiot men in her life, but it hadn’t been likely to do her any good in the long run. At the end of the day, rank was rank.

      They went into the detectives’ office – or ‘DO’ as it was known – to find the place reorganised in terms of its furniture. Heck’s own desk had been moved several feet from its south-facing window and turned around ninety degrees. Another desk, previously empty, had been drawn up to face it. It wasn’t hugely inconvenient. All Heck’s electricals were still plugged in and he could still reach his shelves and filing cabinet. But the fact that everything had been shifted around, without his even being consulted, was the last thing he needed on a day like today.

      The bloke responsible was still in the middle of it.

      Approaching his late fifties, DS Eric Fisher had outlived his usefulness to SCU as an outdoors man, and if his age hadn’t been against him, his colossal girth could have done the job on its own. But as an analyst, intelligence officer and now the unit’s official account manager for HOLMES 2 – the latest IT system used by UK police forces for the investigation of serious crime – Fisher was second to none. In case that wasn’t quite enough in this new age of extreme cost-efficiency, Gemma also had him double-hatting as a kind of unofficial office manager – a role he was currently occupying comfortably, as he issued orders to DCs Quinnell, Rawlins, Cunliffe and Finnegan, who, with much clattering of tables and scraping of chair legs, were trying to pair up their own furniture.

      ‘What’s all this?’ Heck demanded.

      Fisher scratched his beard. ‘We’re working Sledgehammer in pairs. Haven’t you heard?’

      ‘Yeah, I heard.’ Heck toed irritably at his desk. ‘But, given the option, I might have wanted to do things slightly differently.’

      ‘Fair enough.’ Fisher pushed his glasses back up his sweat-greased nose. ‘How many permutations of two desks do you want me to go through before you settle on one you like?’

      ‘I’m sure this’ll be all right,’ Gail said, throwing her coat, bag and the Sledgehammer file onto the empty desk facing Heck’s.

      Fisher turned to Heck and arched his caterpillar-thick eyebrows.

      ‘It’ll do for the moment,’ Heck grumbled. He cleared his throat and raised his voice. ‘Everyone … listen up. Meet our newest recruit, DC Gail Honeyford.’

      The rest of the men – and they were exclusively men at present – gathered, grinning, catching as much of an eyeful as they dared in the twenty-first century. A lot had changed in British policing, even during Gail’s relatively short service, but boys would always be boys.

      ‘DS Eric Fisher,’ Heck said, sticking a thumb towards the big man.

      ‘Please to meet you, love,’ Fisher nodded genially, which belied his barbaric appearance.

      ‘DC Gary Quinnell,’ Heck said. ‘He’s our conscience.’

      Quinnell nodded too. Gail nodded back.

      Heck then went through the rest of them: Andy Rawlins, who was short, tubby, balding on top and possessed of a beard as scraggy as Eric Fisher’s – he smiled shyly; Burt Cunliffe, who was squat and solid, with a grey buzz cut and a tan that indicated he’d recently been abroad for his holidays; and Charlie Finnegan, who was lean, with black, slicked hair and an odd foxy look about him.

      ‘There are a few more of us, of course,’ Heck said. ‘Out on the job, scattered around the building. We have actually got a few other women on the plot. You’ve met Gemma. DI Ronni James is on leave. Up to last year, we had DC Shawna McCluskey …’

      ‘Big shoes to fill there, girl,’ Quinnell interrupted; he’d been a particularly close friend of Shawna’s, even more so than Heck.

      ‘Promoted?’ Gail wondered.

      ‘Shot,’ Charlie Finnegan said matter-of-factly. ‘And savagely beaten.’

      Gail glanced at Heck. ‘Fatality? Only I didn’t hear anything …’

      ‘No,’ he said. ‘But she went on a full medical. She’s OK. The Federation looked after her.’

      ‘Yep,’ Finnegan said. ‘There’s always that consolation. If you catch a few bullets … the Federation will look after you.’

      ‘There but for the grace of God go all of us,’ Gail said, pointedly unfazed by his sneery smile.

      ‘Sounding like my kind of girl already,’ Quinnell guffawed, slapping her shoulder. ‘Don’t worry, though … I’m already spoken for.’

      The others laughed and continued to straighten the new-look office. But when Gail went into the adjoining room to find the locker Eric Fisher had allocated her, Finnegan slid over.

      ‘Lucky bastard,’ he said to Heck. ‘Don’t know how you fucking do it.’

      ‘You wouldn’t want to work with Gail, Charlie,’ Heck replied. ‘She’d be too much of a distraction. You know how hard you have to focus just to get the basics right.’

      ‘Aha,’ Fisher interrupted, leafing through the Sledgehammer file Gail had left on her desk. ‘So, you two are going after Creeley.’

      ‘Don’t know,’ Heck replied. ‘Haven’t looked at it yet.’

      ‘Eddie Creeley. He’s a rough customer, I’ll tell you.’

      Heck seemed to remember hearing something about him. If recollection served, Eddie Creeley was an offender from the North-East suspected of armed robbery and murder.

      ‘I don’t know much about Sledgehammer yet,’ he admitted.

      ‘A new initiative,’ Fisher explained. ‘We’ve received a list of bad guys who’ve so far eluded arrest and, thanks to info provided by Interpol, are still believed to be in the UK. We’re the ones who are charged with rounding them up.’

      ‘Us and Cold Case?’

      ‘Well … they’re mostly older cases, so СКАЧАТЬ