Page 19 of Child's Play

He winked. ‘I’ll maul you any day of…’

‘Doug,’ Penn warned.

‘Try it, buddy,’ she responded with steel in her voice.

Penn knew Lynne didn’t need him to fight her battles. Half the team had been frightened to death of her, but sometimes Doug stepped a bit too close to the line.

Doug rolled his eyes at what he felt was an overreaction on Penn’s part, and took out his phone.

‘Frustrating, isn’t it?’ Lynne asked. ‘Having to hang around?’

Penn nodded. He’d given his evidence and now had to sit through the rest of the trial when his own team was working a murder investigation.

‘Good to have you back, though,’ she said, nudging him.

‘Yeah,’ he agreed, glancing around the room. People were starting to look at their watches as they sensed the end of lunch break approaching.

‘Off outside for a smoke,’ Doug said, pushing his chair back.

‘Mate, you’ve got less than—’

‘Stop fussing,’ he responded with amusement. ‘Just tell ’em to start without me,’ he said, slapping Penn on the shoulder.

‘Count to ten,’ Lynne advised.

‘It’s not enough.’

‘And don’t think I didn’t notice your lukewarm response to my comment about having the old team together again.’

‘Course it’s good to be back,’ he said, glancing at the clock.

‘Okey-dokey and now you’re done insulting my intelligence or forgetting just how well I know you. We’ll park that one right there.’

Had they not been in court Penn would have laughed at the knowing expression on her face.

As he’d been getting ready that morning a part of him had been looking forward to seeing his old colleagues again, being around people with whom he was so familiar, people he’d built friendships with along the way.

And yet he’d forgotten that he’d often had to play nursemaid to an officer who was almost fifteen years his senior.

But there was something else he’d realised. His old team lacked balance. The team was bigger and was an assortment of constables and sergeants but despite their individual skill sets it was a bit of a free for all when it came to task apportionment. And in some ways he could understand how that strengthened the team long-term. By making them all interchangeable no one’s absence brought down the team.

But there was no clear team cohesion, no sense of place or belonging.

In his new place their roles were defined clearly due to the size of the team. The boss and Bryant would be forging ahead, not in the office long enough to warm their seats. Stacey would get right on to data mining and online investigation. And he would do either depending on the nature of the crime. Sometimes he was data mining along with Stacey and other times he was out doing follow-up interviews, door-to-door enquiries, checking alibis or following his own instinct. Which is probably what he’d have been doing right now.

‘Hey, how’s Jasper?’ Lynne asked, interrupting his thoughts.

‘Doing good,’ he said, smiling. ‘Still talks about beating you on the go-karts.’

Lynne threw back her head and laughed.

The two of them had met when Travis had arranged a team-building day at the go-karting course for all of them following a particularly harrowing child murder case, and he had taken Jasper along. The final race had been between his brother and Lynne who had recently completed her advanced police driver training course.

He knew she had let him win and he had appreciated the gesture. He met her gaze, realising how much he missed her. It was Lynne he’d been looking forward to seeing again.

‘Yeah, well, thanks for letting him take the…’

‘I did no such thing. The kid beat me fair and square.’