Page 18

11.45 A.M.

‘Run that by me again,’ Mitch said, looking in the envelope for the second time.

Kim said nothing, knowing he was going to summarise for her. It had sounded ridiculous enough the first time when it came out of her own mouth. It was going to sound even worse coming from him.

‘You’ve called me out on a Sunday for an envelope of nails. There’s no body, there’s no crime scene, I mean there’s not even a limb for God’s sake.’

Yes, it sounded as bad as she’d thought.

‘They’re bloody,’ she said as though he hadn’t already noticed. She forgave Mitch his irritation up to a point. People were entitled to their weekend.

‘And what do you expect me to do about it on a Sunday?’

Kim wondered how many more times he’d remind her of the day of the week as though she didn’t already know it.

She tipped her head, a question forming behind her lips.

‘Not a chance,’ he said, knowing her well enough to guess what was coming. ‘I’m not calling out any other team members. Unlike you, I’ll take one for the team and respond to ridiculous call-outs, but I’m not involving anyone else,’ he said, looking pointedly at Bryant.

‘I’m fine, mate,’ Bryant reassured him.

She appreciated her colleague’s loyalty, but she wasn’t done yet. ‘Mitch, there might be something…’

‘Inspector, with all due respect, you have bloody nails found in a lockbox within a nature reserve. What exactly are you hoping I’ll find?’

‘Something,’ she offered unhelpfully.

He sighed heavily. ‘Sorry, but while you may have committed to wasting your time with this tomfoolery, that’s no excuse to involve us all in a wild goose chase that?—’

‘We all hope doesn’t end in the discovery of a body,’ Kim snapped. ‘And we wouldn’t be wasting our time unless we thought it was credible.’

She was done apologising for making what she felt were the right calls.

He sobered at her words and then sighed again.

‘Let me pop over to the morgue and have a closer look, but I am not missing my carvery lunch later on.’

Kim held up her hands to signify she could expect no more.

‘Just wait until Keats hears about this,’ he said before heading back towards his vehicle.

It was too much to hope that the techie would keep this to himself.

‘Oh, you’ve got it coming,’ Bryant said, trying to hide his smirk.

‘Thanks for the astute observation, genius,’ she said, taking a look around the car park.

The vehicles of volunteers were being replaced with those of pub patrons.

She headed to the table where Fred appeared to be surveying the lack of overflowing bin bags. The discovery of the box had prompted more gossiping than litter-picking amongst the volunteers.

‘Sorry about that, Fred,’ Kim said as the man removed his pre-printed name label.

He shrugged as he collected other sheets of blank labels together.

All four sheets were full of labels except for the top one. The label at the bottom right was missing.

Kim frowned. Fred didn’t look like the type of man to bring an incomplete sheet.

‘Stragglers,’ he explained, following her gaze. ‘I ask everyone to confirm, but some folks just turn up on the day to help if they’ve got nothing better to do.’

‘And someone did that?’ Kim asked as a feeling began to build in her stomach.

‘Just the one by the looks of it.’

‘Did you give out the sticker?’

He shook his head. ‘I was with you.’

‘Would anyone else have given it out?’

‘I have no idea,’ he said, waving at the car park. ‘Some of them are gone now. Buggered off when they realised there was no free tea and biscuits.’

‘But you know everyone who attended?’

‘Of course.’

‘I need you to ask them all if they gave someone a label.’

Fred scratched his head. ‘Why?’

‘I just need a description of the person if they did, okay?’

‘Leave it with me,’ he said as his chest visibly puffed up.

Kim handed him her card before heading back to the car.

‘Lot of fuss over a label, guv,’ Bryant observed.

It was. But they were playing someone’s game. They were being toyed with.

What better way to observe the fruits of your labour than by making yourself a part of the search?