Page 38 of First Blood

‘It was rhetorical and not even a question, more like an instruction for you to start heading towards.’

‘But you said they had their man.’

‘Well, let’s just swing by and see if he’s our man too.’

Chapter Thirty-Two

It had been two years since Kim had set foot in Wolverhampton Police Station and she hadn’t missed it one little bit.

Most CID teams were territorial over their cases, and she’d been called in to assist in a double murder that was two weeks old and growing colder by the hour. Her presence had been met with suspicion, hostility and downright bad manners. In fact, the man she was hoping to see had asked her to fetch him coffee in front of eleven members of staff at the first briefing she’d attended. She had simply smiled and folded her arms in response and remained standing exactly where she was. The three female officers in the room had all lowered their heads but not before she’d seen the smiles they were trying to hide.

‘Inspector Lennox, please,’ she said to the desk sergeant, showing her identification. He took a good look at her name and reached for the phone.

She moved away from the desk and Bryant followed.

‘Never met him before. You?’

‘Yeah,’ she said, and left it at that. If she updated Bryant on every inspector she’d clashed with they’d never get anything else done.

‘Is he the type of guy who might respond to a polite request to view the footage of the interview?’

‘Looks like we’re about to find out,’ she said as the doors opened.

The man had changed little since she’d last seen him. He’d probably gone to the next notch on his trouser belt and there was a touch more grey in his full head of hair, but his open-necked shirt with the hint of tidemark around the collar was still evident.

Neither she nor Lennox offered their hand as they appraised each other.

‘What do you want, Stone?’

She wanted to view the taped confession that DCI Woodward assured her they had, and she tried to remember a time when Lennox had ever been pleasant or helpful.

‘We were close by and I just thought I’d help you out with some friendly advice. You’ve got the wrong guy.’

It took just a couple of seconds for his brain to register what she was talking about. And when it did, his expression transitioned through disbelief, irritation and then rage. Oh yeah, she remembered well that Lennox didn’t like being told he was wrong. Shame.

‘Who the hell do you think?—’

‘Look, we were just passing and thought we’d try to help out our fellow colleagues given the details of our own case, but have it your own way,’ she said, taking a gamble and turning away.

‘Hang on. You come in here, where you’re about as welcome as a dose of the clap, to help us out?’

She turned back. ‘It’s an easy mistake to make. When a guy says he’s done it you’d be an idiot not to consider the validity of the claim. And you’d be an even bigger idiot to just accept it without…’

‘You do know you’re not talking to a fucking trainee, Stone?’ he said as the colour in his face deepened. ‘And someone who doesn’t need your fucking help to spot a murderer when he sees one.’

‘Well, as long as you’re sure that he’s admitted to enough to satisfy CPS and—’

‘You wanna come see what we got?’ he challenged.

She shrugged and looked at her watch. ‘If you like. We’ve got a few minutes.’

He key-coded himself back into the body of the police station, and she followed behind. She sensed rather than saw the smile on Bryant’s face.

She followed him to his office which was next door to the squad room. Pokey as it was she remembered he preferred to spend time away from his team and ventured into the work room primarily for morning and evening briefings.

‘Maybe this’ll shut you up,’ he said, clicking on a video clip on his desktop.

He had invited neither of them to sit so they both stood behind him as the clip sprang into life.