Page 57 of Deadly Cry

‘So what you been doing for the last twenty minutes?’ she asked, preferring to speak to the constable rather than her colleague in the car.

‘Just had to finish something off on the—’

‘Stace, I did tell you that our current case takes priority. If I ask you to do something I expect—’

‘I know, boss, I’m sorry but this shuffle case just got complicated.’

‘Why? You no longer think your guy raped the second victim?’

‘To be honest, boss, it’s even more complicated than that cos I no longer think he raped either one of them.’

Forty-Six

‘Well, ain’t that just a whopping can of worms?’ Bryant asked, pulling into the service yard of the shopping centre.

Kim’s thoughts were also on Stacey’s admission. She’d told the constable they’d talk more when she got back to the station, but if she was right, a lot of people were going to be pissed off, not least their colleagues at Brierley Hill. The purpose of the shuffle was to solve unsolved cases, not pry open the lid of cases that had been sealed shut. For once she was hoping her colleague was wrong.

‘Looks like the show has already started,’ Kim said, spotting the representatives from the ambulance and fire crew. Superintendent Lena Wiley stood between them both.

Kim tried to ruffle some life into her rain-dampened hair.

‘Bloody hell, guv, you don’t normally care about your appearance.’

She offered him a look.

‘And that didn’t come out quite the way I meant it.’

‘Come on, let’s get to it,’ she said, getting out of the car as a black BMW pulled up beside them.

Bryant paused as the man got out the car.

Christopher Manley smiled widely and immediately offered his hand. Bryant shook it warmly.

‘Hey, Chris, heard you’d done well for yourself.’

The man reached into the back of the car for a hanging jacket.

‘Can’t complain, mate. Picking up the slack for you guys.’

Bryant laughed out loud. ‘Someone’s gotta do it, pal.’

Chris briefly looked from one to the other.

‘Aah, partners.’

‘Colleagues,’ Bryant offered quickly, before taking a look around. ‘Wasn’t there some kind of incident down here once?’

Chris smiled. ‘Oh yeah. Popular boy band turned up to perform a short gig at the record shop. Turned up pissed as farts and were kept secret down here until performance time. Except, lead singer wasn’t happy there were no adoring, screaming fans, so started posting on social media to let everyone know where they were. Girls came running, broke the barriers and surrounded the tour bus.’

‘What happened?’ Kim asked, amused.

‘Three minor injuries, event was cancelled and the tour bus sent packing.’

‘Yeah, I remember hearing about it,’ Bryant said.

‘Yeah, you guys turned up, eventually,’ Chris said with a wry smile.

He glanced over at the crew already gathered.