Page 11 of Little Children

‘It’s okay, pal, you’re amongst friends here,’ Roy said, moving further into the kitchen. ‘I feel for you, that’s all. You’re not the only one having to take orders from a nipper. Fifteen years younger than me, my boss.’

‘Twelve,’ Bryant said, nodding towards the door.

‘And a woman as well,’ Roy said, moving closer.

Bryant found it ironic that this guy’s boss’s boss was also a woman. Since leaving the motorway services, Bryant had wondered how he was going to pull this off. He knew not to be too obvious about it to start, but he’d realised that all he had to do was act like everything he hated in the police.

‘Yeah, it takes some work keeping my mouth shut sometimes,’ he said, stirring his drink.

‘Not like the good old days, eh, where they were seen and not heard while they were making the coffee?’

Bryant glanced down at his drink. ‘Yeah, now I have to make my own. You miss the good old days, eh?’

‘My predicament could only be worse if Red was black,’ Roy said before laughing.

It took everything Bryant had not to show his disgust and shock. Rarely these days did such despicable thoughts get voiced. Most folks who still felt that way had learned to keep their mouths shut. A fact for which he was eternally grateful.

Oh, how the hell was he going to pretend to be anything like this guy? And regardless of whatever part he’d been instructed to play, never could he say anything like that.

‘Just biding my time,’ he said. ‘Keeping my mouth shut and staying out of trouble.’

‘Treading water until retirement?’ Roy asked.

‘Of course. You?’

‘Hell, yeah, but doesn’t mean you can’t have a bit of fun along the way, eh?’

Bryant grinned. ‘Oh yeah, anything to relieve the boredom.’

‘Good to chat, Bry— Oh, gotta go, and you should too, cos the bitch is back.’

Roy left the room, and Bryant sighed heavily.

This was going to be much harder than he’d thought.

Seven

‘Okay, first impressions?’ Kim asked once she was back in the office they’d been assigned.

She’d grabbed a display board and pulled it in front of a couple of the glass wall panels to give them some measure of privacy, even though the squad room next door was now empty except for the officer they called Gonk.

‘I’ve had first contact,’ Bryant said. ‘Tyrannosaurus Roy cornered me in the kitchen.’

‘And?’ Kim asked.

‘He doesn’t like you very much.’

‘Gutted. Anything else?’

‘He’s a racist, misogynistic piece of shit.’

‘Splendid,’ Stacey muttered under her breath, echoing Kim’s own thoughts.

She was pretty sure the constable had endured dinosaurs like Roy Moss before, but that didn’t make it okay. Kim couldn’t protect her from the man’s thoughts, but his actions were another matter.

‘Stace, you let me know if he…’

‘Will do, boss.’