Page 19 of Little Children (Detective Kim Stone #22)

Eighteen

Stacey found herself still thinking about the exchange between the teams that had taken place in the briefing.

How the boss was keeping hold of her temper she couldn’t even imagine, as all the hostility seemed to be aimed at her. The rest of them were being met with mainly silence and strange looks.

That had remained the case once the boss and Bryant had left, with Penn not far behind.

The other team had gradually filtered out of the squad room, this time leaving DS Carly Walsh manning the desk.

Once Penn had left to try and track down Lewis’s school form teacher, a task hindered by the half-term holidays, she’d considered trying to find some ruse to strike up a conversation with the woman who was occasionally glancing her way.

Instead, she’d focussed on completing the written application to the amusement arcade for more CCTV footage, from every camera, for the duration of Lewis’s time inside plus fifteen minutes before and fifteen minutes after.

Not knowing how many cameras they had, she had no clue how long such a task would take.

The only thing that had stopped her from trying to engage Walsh was the possibility of her and Adil comparing notes and finding her approaches suspicious.

She was saved the trouble of giving it any further thought when the woman appeared at her doorway and tapped lightly on the glass.

Stacey motioned for her to enter.

‘Wanna cuppa?’ Carly asked.

‘I’m good,’ Stacey answered. ‘But I’ll come and learn my way round the kitchen while you make one…’

‘Don’t really want one,’ Carly said, remaining in the doorway. ‘Just an excuse to come chat.’

Stacey smiled at her honesty and decided to employ some of her own.

‘You lot been instructed not to speak to us when the boss is around?’

‘More like an implied rule,’ Carly answered.

‘Ah, got it. I always follow implied rules too. Come to think of it, I follow any rules,’ she said, looking down.

‘Are you the quiet one of the team?’ Carly asked.

‘I just keep my head down and do my work. I don’t like to make waves. Never a good idea when you’re the lowest-ranking member of the crew.’

‘But you share your opinions?’

Stacey shrugged. ‘Not really. They’re all big characters, so I’m easy to ignore,’ she said, hoping she was playing her role well.

‘I don’t mind being on my own most of the time.

’ She might have been that meek when she’d first joined the team but not any more.

‘Nice to have someone to chat to though.’

‘I think we’re all a bit confused about why you’re here,’ Carly admitted.

‘Pretty simple, I think. You’re really busy, we’re between cases and our big bosses, who happen to be old training buddies, decided to pool resources.’

‘Not sure I believe that,’ Carly said, tipping her head.

‘If there’s anything more to it, you’re talking to the wrong end of the totem pole. Not sure what else you think we could be doing.’

Carly shrugged. ‘Case review, checking our work, looking for poor performance.’

‘Hell no,’ Stacey said, shaking her head. ‘Don’t we have special departments for that? And as I understand it, your boss told us where to focus our efforts. I think she just wants a few extra pairs of hands.’

‘We’re perfectly capable,’ Carly said defensively.

‘Hey, I believe you,’ Stacey said, throwing open her hands. ‘I just go where the boss tells me.’

‘Normally behind a desk I’ve noticed.’

Stacey shrugged. ‘It’s where I do my best work. You?’

‘Hate it, but the boss likes to change us around.’

‘Is he decent?’ Stacey asked.

Carly shrugged. ‘Some days yes and other days an arse. Yours?’

‘Same,’ Stacey said and immediately felt a jolt of shame for her disloyalty, but she was playing a part.

‘You all seem quite tight though.’

‘Don’t be fooled by appearances. DS Bryant is treading water until retirement, and DS Penn would sell his dog to climb the next rung of the ladder.’

Stacey hated every word that came out of her mouth, but she was hoping Carly would take the information back to her team. It served their purpose better if they appeared at odds with each other.

Carly laughed, visibly relaxing. ‘Yeah, I get you. Our Roy is a bit long in the tooth now for modern policing. The bloke gets in his own way with his outdated attitude. Dickinson does whatever he’s told cos he doesn’t want to be picked on, and Gonk just puts up with all the shit in the hope he’ll be transferred to another team. ’

Did no one use Adil’s first name? Stacey wondered.

‘And you?’

‘I can take care of myself,’ she said, unfolding her arms.

The response told her that Carly had to take care of herself. What she didn’t know yet was from what.

‘Yeah, being female in the?—’

Stacey stopped speaking as Carly’s phone rang.

She looked at the screen. ‘Sorry, it’s the boss – gotta go.’

Stacey nodded her understanding as Carly closed the door behind her.

She hurried back to her desk with the phone clutched tightly to her ear as though she’d been caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

Stacey was distracted from her thoughts by the sound of an email pinging into her inbox.

Fantastic. The footage she’d requested from the amusement arcade was starting to come through. She pulled her keyboard forward and then paused.

Beneath it was a piece of paper no bigger than three inches square.

She knew it hadn’t been there last night. She turned it over to see that it wasn’t scrap paper at all. It contained three names. Nothing else.

Just three names.