Page 53 of Little Children

‘Butler and Carly Walsh apparently.’

‘Wow,’ Stacey said, obviously fighting the urge to look Carly’s way.

They all knew that eighty-two per cent of officers referred forward to misconduct proceedings were male. That still left eighteen per cent of the total complaints being about women.

‘And finally, we have Pippa Jacobs, a prostitute and drug addict who is being harassed for sex in exchange for not facing charges.’

‘Gotta be Moss,’ Penn and Stacey said together as the man himself entered the squad room, followed by his boss.

‘No chance of a complaint from her. She’s got a house exchange to Lytham next week and just wants to get away from him.’

‘You taking any of this to the chief?’ Stacey asked.

‘We’ve got nothing,’ Kim said. ‘Not one complainant on the record. We gotta go deeper. But right now we’ve got a briefing to crash,’ she said as DC Dickinson sauntered in to complete the Blackpool team.

She turned to her colleague. ‘Bryant, please don’t take offence at what I’m about to do.’

‘Okay.’

She headed for the door, and her team followed.

‘Hope you don’t mind us joining the party,’ Kim said. ‘You’ll make the drinks, won’t you, Bryant?’

His face tensed as he headed towards the kitchen.

Exactly as she’d hoped.

Thirty-One

Bryant wasn’t surprised when Roy Moss sidled in behind him. It was what the boss had been hoping for.

‘Fucking hell, mate. That bitch treats you like shit. Wouldn’t you just love to smack her one?’

‘Just treading water, mate,’ Bryant replied without looking at him. If he could pull this off, he’d be making an application to drama school. The only person he wanted to smack right now was the man getting mugs out of the cupboard. Every atom of his being despised Moss’s thoughts, actions and attitude, and having to bite his tongue was proving near impossible, even though they needed Moss to do it to expose him. So far he’d indirectly insulted both Stacey and the guv, leaving only Penn up for grabs… but being a straight white male, he wasn’t going to warrant too much attention.

Moss followed his lead and lined up the mugs for his own team, then frowned. ‘Shit, don’t really know if they have sugar or not. Carly always makes them.’

Of course she did, Bryant thought.

Bryant knew he wasn’t perfect when it came to police conduct. Over the years, he’d laughed at inappropriate jokes or failed to speak up on someone’s behalf when maybe he should have done, but as the system had improved and evolved, he’d been more than happy to evolve with it. And never, not once, had he abused his position as a police officer for his own gain, either with his team or with the public.

They’d been given the names of three people to speak to, and it was Moss who was involved in the worst of those three cases.

The broken demeanour of Pippa Jacobs would stay with Bryant for a very long time.

He wanted to run to the chief himself and lay bare what they’d learned, but he knew the guv was right. They didn’t have enough, and they had no one to back them up.

‘Hey, I know what’ll cheer you up,’ Roy said, taking out his phone.

Bryant continued to make drinks for his team.

‘Feast your eyes on this,’ Moss said, looking around furtively before showing Bryant the screen.

On it was the image of a woman in her mid-twenties. Her trousers were around her ankles, and her shirt had been ripped open, exposing her breasts. She was lying amongst dead leaves and weeds. And she was dead.

Bryant worked hard to keep his rage from boiling over and forced his face to remain impassive. He stared at the screen not because he wanted to but because he honestly couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

‘Last big case. Rape and murder. Not much of a looker but great tits.’