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FLYTE

gave the uniformed sergeant sitting opposite her in the conference room a hard stare.

‘Please stop saying “we followed procedure”,’ she said. ‘That is for me to judge. I need you to give me a step-by-step account of what happened from the moment you arrived on the scene. Let’s go back to the start.’

He suppressed a sigh. ‘So when we got there I went and looked at the bod—’

‘Look at me, please, Sergeant Hickey, not DI Bacon.’

He raised an eyebrow, but trained a bored look on before continuing. ‘I established that life was extinct at 0415 hours. Then I told PC Gill to rig a screen around the body until the undertakers collected it.’

‘How did you establish Sophia was dead?’

‘The couple of litres of claret on the path was a major hint,’ he said, sending a micro-smirk in Bacon’s direction. ‘She had life-ending head injuries, her skin was cold, and I checked her pulse.’

‘Your notes say that the body was found “on the canal towpath”. That’s not exactly precise. Did you measure the distance between the building and the site of impact?’

‘No. Why would I?’

‘Because if somebody jumps, their trajectory will take them further than if they fell accidentally or were pushed.’ ’s tone was acid, failing to hide her irritation at Hickey’s uncooperative attitude, encapsulated in his body language: arms crossed defensively, legs spread wide to signal his contempt for the proceedings – and for her . She remembered her IOPC mentor’s warning: ‘expect everyone to view you with fear and suspicion’.

Hickey shrugged. ‘The front door of her flat was secure, there was nothing to suggest anyone else had been there, or any kind of struggle, and her phone and laptop were sat there along with a pile of wacky baccy aka no suspicious circumstances.’

‘Oh I’m sorry.’ frowned down at her notes. ‘I didn’t realise you had undergone detective training.’

His face darkened and he muttered, ‘I can read a scene.’

‘Did you call CID to ask them to send someone?’

‘No point,’ he huffed. ‘They’re short-staffed and anyway they wouldn’t necessarily send a detective to a straightforward jumper, not if I called it as a Cat 2. They trust my judgement.’ Hickey’s face was getting redder and redder.

‘Did you ask your supervisor to sign off on your decision?’ she pressed. ‘As per College of Policing guidelines on procedure at the scene of a violent and unexpected death?’

‘I don’t have to answer that,’ he burst out. ‘You’re not even a police officer.’

Leaning across the table, DI Bacon said, ‘Answer the question, Sergeant.’

raised a hand: translation: I’ll deal with this . ‘Allow me to remind you, Sergeant Hickey, that when identified as a witness in an IOPC investigation you have a duty of cooperation to participate openly and professionally in line with expectations.’

‘Whose expectations?’ muttered Hickey, but his demeanour said he’d rolled over.

‘Mine,’ she said sweetly.

Hickey went on to admit that he hadn’t even referred it up to a senior officer.

Once he’d gone, she let rip to Bacon. ‘What a clown! No detective involved, nothing you could call a thorough search of the place, and do you believe him when he said they all wore gloves and shoe covers at the scene? And they still haven’t tracked down these people who were staying in the upstairs flat. It’s beyond slack.’

The next-door neighbours had been interviewed, but on the night Bronte fell the upstairs penthouse apartment had apparently been let via Airbnb to a Chinese couple who’d flown back to Beijing the following morning.

DI Bacon grimaced. ‘You know how it is – staffing issues, stupid workloads, these guys have got a lot on their plate.’

had to stifle a rude riposte. How typical that Bacon’s knee-jerk instinct should be to defend his comrades. That was the fundamental obstacle to fixing the police service: in a job where you might one day have to rely on a fellow officer to save your life, loyalty was baked in. But as had been brought home to her in her final job in the Met, it also fostered groupthink and a profound reluctance to challenge toxic behaviour.

‘Anyway,’ she said. ‘Set your alarm early tomorrow. We’re going to be paying someone a 6 a.m. call.’