Page 60 of First Blood

Yeah, Stacey had spent the day pounding the keyboard without stepping out of the office once. And yes, those efforts had yielded some results, he admitted grudgingly, but that wasn’t real police work. That was an office job.

And DS Bryant had spent the day following the boss around the outskirts of this case, driving her wherever she wanted to go. That wasn’t his idea of the job, either.

He believed in talking to people, using what and who you knew, and he couldn’t wait for the following morning to demonstrate to the boss that he really was the star of this show.

Chapter Fifty-Three

‘Okay, guys, before we start, I’ve been told that there are Christmas drinks in the canteen this evening at sixish if anyone is interested.’

‘A glass of cheap warm wine and a budget mince pie?’ Dawson asked.

She thought and then nodded. ‘Pretty much.’

‘I’ll pass.’

‘They do know we’ve got a body, guv?’ Bryant asked. ‘I’d rather be up here working the case.’

‘Yep, me too,’ Stacey added.

Dawson nodded as though he wished he’d thought of that response himself.

In her experience the station party was a budgetless directive from above for the purposes of station morale. A couple of plates of portioned sausage rolls, pork pie and a bowl of crisps did not offer the team a sense of value.

The fact that two thirds of her team had immediately prioritised the case they were working over an early finish and a bit of socialising, said much about the two officers concerned. And even more about the remaining one third who hadn’t given it a thought.

‘Please yourselves. Now, I’m sure you’ve all taken a look at the boards so I’ll talk you through what I’ve done. We’ve been getting crumbs of information for two days about cases that might or might not be linked to the murder of Luke Fenton.’ She pointed to the white board to the left of the door, which had been divided into three columns. ‘I’ve noted what we know about each of these cases.’

They all looked again at what she’d written.

John Doe (Staffs)

Genitally mutilated

Shoe

Six years ago

Lester Jackson (West Mercia)

Genitally mutilated

Small Space

Sexual Abuser

Four weeks ago

Tommy Deeley (Wolverhampton)

Genitally mutilated

Bell

Six days ago

She gave them a moment and continued. ‘And on the other board we have what we know of our own victim.’

Luke Fenton