Page 2 of Little Children

First and most frequent were those instances where she was being questioned about her behaviour, attitude or actions following a complaint. In those meetings, Woody was irate and she calmly answered for her crimes.

Second, and less frequent, were those times when Woody was giving her an instruction that he knew she wasn’t going to like. Flip side. Then he was calm and she was irate.

What was worrying her at the moment was that he looked totally calm, a signal that he was minutes away from some kind of explosion.

He sat back in his chair and steepled his fingers over his stomach. Not a movement she was familiar with and therefore difficult to read.

‘Not been a bad couple of weeks, eh, Stone?’

‘No, sir,’ she said somewhat dubiously, as though they’d done very little since their last major case; in fact they’d been chasing clues around the Black Country for thirty-six hours straight. She was guessing that he meant more recently, since they’d had a two-week period without a body.

‘I suppose a bit of a holiday,’ he added.

She fought the urge to show outrage. He didn’t really think they’d been sitting on their hands doing nothing all day. He was leading her somewhere, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to follow.

‘Anything major at the moment?’ he asked, despite already knowing the answer. If they had anything major, she’d be briefing him about it.

‘Got an armed robbery in Gornal,’ she said.

‘That can go to Dudley,’ he answered.

‘A serious assault in Lye.’

‘Brierley Hill can take that.’

‘And the usual Monday morning reports to go through.’

It was barely nine o’clock and she’d been summoned to his office straight away, so she wasn’t sure what else might warrant their attention.

‘Which can all be passed to other teams,’ he answered.

‘Sir, do you want to just tell me the correct response here and save us both some time?’ she asked.

‘What I’d like to hear is that there’s nothing you can’t disperse amongst other teams.’

‘Okay,’ she said, wondering what exactly he was freeing her up to do. ‘There’s nothing I can’t disperse amongst…’

‘Hilarious,’ he said without any hint of humour. When his face was this set, she truly worried what was coming next. ‘I’ve had a call from an old friend of mine,’ he continued. ‘Her team could do with some help on a case they’re working.’

She tipped her head. ‘Sir, you were present in my last appraisal when you said I don’t play well with others.’

‘I like to think that was in the past, Stone.’

‘It was two months ago.’

‘I think you’ve come a long way in recent weeks.’

‘You mean Bryant is coming with me?’ she asked, referring to her long-time colleague, the man who was her conscience… and responsible for her manners.

He nodded. ‘As is the rest of your team.’

‘Sir?’ she questioned as the wariness in her stomach grew. What could be serious enough for him to want to transplant her entire team? What the hell was he getting them into?

‘Did you hear about the boy who went missing up in Lancashire?’

‘Blackpool, wasn’t it?’ She’d seen it on the news.

Woody nodded.