Chapter Twenty-One

 

Emma sat at her desk while her stomach contracted and somersaulted. She had made her preparations, marshalled her arguments. Now all she needed to do was the difficult thing. She went across the office and knocked gently on Detective Inspector Kevin Slater's door.

'Sir, I've got an idea, but I don't think you'll like it,' she said as she entered his office.

'And why don't you think I'll like it?' Kev asked, looking up from his desk.

'First, I think it might be a way out of the fix we're in with the two murders.'

'You think we're in a fix?' Kev asked innocently.

'Oh, come on, sir. You know what's going on out there. We've two bodies with no connection between them apart from one killer seems to be responsible for both. I know we're all working really hard, collecting evidence, entering it into the computer and hoping for that connection to turn up. But we have to face the fact that it might not.'

'Well, this is a turn up for the books. You were all for us taking this case, bringing justice to the families. Wiser heads were warning that this might happen. That we might be mired in a case that turns into the next cold case, that drags on for ever.' There was an awkward pause between the two of them. Finally Kev broke it, saying, 'Well, what is this terrible plan that I'll hate? I presume you think it'll be the saving of us.'

Emma swallowed hard. This was the point she'd been putting off, even while she was making preparations for the meeting. 'Rob Haines,' she said simply.

'What about him?' Kev was tense now.

'We need his help. We need him to look at the case files. He knows this town, this county better than anyone. He might have a unique insight.'

'From him?' Kev sneered. 'From what I've heard he doesn't even leave the house.' A momentary pause. 'Unless, that is, there's a crime scene for him to mess up somewhere.'

'He wouldn't have to actually be operational,' Emma said. She had to bite her tongue. She would've loved to lay into Slater about how unfair he was being. But she needed him to be onside for her plan. She needed it, Rob Haines needed it, and the case needed something to give it a shot in the arm. 'We could see if he could be set up and work from home. He might never need to come into the office.'

'I still think he'd be a liability,' Slater said.

'You know, I think a big part of the problem at the crime scene was that DCI Haines was on the outside of everything. He got frustrated sitting at home.'

'That might his problem, Emma, but it isn't mine. We're not here to make people feel better, we're here to solve crimes.'

'And I still feel, sir, that Haines might be our best hope of doing so. Even if he doesn't solve the whole thing, he might have in his head the one fact that leads to the killer.'

'That's just your opinion though, Emma,' Slater said, standing up to bring the meeting to a close.

It was time for her final gambit. Something that she had worked out late last night, sat on the sofa with a bottle of beer and a purring cat on her lap. She thought that it was risky, but would probably work. She got up and went to the door. At the last minute, she turned back and said, 'You know sir, if you did go through with this, then something odd would happen. You'd still be the head of the MIT and even though Haines is a DCI you'd be his boss. He'd work for you and anything you turned up would be to your credit. Chances are he's out of the force soon anyway so you'd take all the kudos.'

Without waiting for a reply, she went back to her desk. She started poking around in the case, taking the door-to-door enquiry reports and skim-reading them before putting them on the computer. She wasn't really paying attention – she was more concerned about how Kev Slater would react. He could easily be offended that she'd suggested that he'd be motivated by getting one up on a senior officer. Or he might not even care. But, she thought, that wasn't true. She could tell that he was ill at ease around officers with more experience. She remembered how puffed up he'd been that he'd needed to call in the bomb squad.

The man himself, DI Slater, broke into her thoughts. He was stood by her desk, waiting for her to finish what she was doing. She looked up.

'Ah yes, Emma.' He was hesitant. 'I've been thinking about what you we're saying, and well, there might be some value in it. But you'd have to check with technical first, to see if it can be done from home. Don't want the old boss roaming around here like a dinosaur. And we have no idea how the CPS will react to this. Any information that comes through this channel will have to be double-checked by regular officers. We'll just use him to sort the wheat from the chaff.'

'I'll see what can be done, sir,' Emma said with a straight face. She'd already checked with Pete and it was possible. He'd gone into a long discussion of secure VPN's and virtual desktops, none of which she'd understood. But she did know that it was possible for Rob to see the files without ever setting foot in the station.

'Right. Yes. Well, if it can be done, and if Rob agrees, then we might as well see if he can make any sense of this mess. And if he can't, well, nothing ventured and all that.'

Without another word, he retreated back to his office. Emma knew she'd won the battle but wondered what the cost would be later on. She wondered if this was how people like Suse saw the world – as a series of battles and strategies. She'd agonised over the best way to get around Kev Slater but, from what she'd seen, other people did it completely naturally.

However she felt about it, she had won for the moment. Now, all she needed to do was to put the wheels in motion and get Rob set up with a new laptop. But, as she reached out for the phone, it rang. Feeling slightly spooked, she picked it up.

'It's Sergeant Kelly here.' Emma knew he was the desk sergeant who knew everything that was going on in Bradwick. 'I thought I ought to give you a heads-up. I've taken the decision not to send anyone onto the Seaview Estate single-crewed. You know that lad who was taken into hospital yesterday for an overdose?'

'Yes,' Emma said with a sense of dread.

'Well, he died overnight. Tensions were already high over there, but now they're approaching boiling point.'

'Thanks for that,' Emma said, already working out how it would impact their work.

'No problem. You take it easy if you're going over there.'

She hung up and sat back a bit. She'd seen the news reports last night – a fourteen-year-old boy had been found collapsed on one of the pieces of rough ground that dotted the Seaview Estate. The story was still new and details were sketchy as to what exactly he had taken. But with everyone getting their news online, word spread like wildfire. He was found with a syringe as well as a number of so-called legal highs. The fact that he was just a child and had died overnight was serious.

She knew that with the dealers vying for position by means of revenge beatings and intimidation the estate was already a powder keg waiting for the match. Now it appeared that the dealers were also targeting new customers and maybe even bringing in drugs with different formulations and strengths.

A sudden wave of depression swept over her. Police briefings were all about strategies and initiatives. Targets had to be met, arrests made, drugs taken off the street. She imagined that on the other side of the fence, dealers were worried about territory, who was trying to take their place and about their bosses. But all of that ignored one thing. That in the middle were fourteen-year-old children who were the casualties of this war. Families that had lost a son, a cousin and brother. Schoolfriends who'd lost a mate to kick around with. Somehow all of that got lost in all the talk of targets and task forces.

She shook her head to try to dislodge her thoughts. She knew what she needed to do. Walking across the room, she stopped by Brian Chisholm's desk. 'Sir, I've just heard that the fourteen-year-old overdose victim died overnight. I've a contact on the Seaview, so I wanted to drop in and get a feel for the current mood. Maybe see if I can smooth things over a bit?'

Kev nodded. 'Do you need any backup? One of the DSs or maybe a uniform?'

'I think it'd be more dangerous to appear as police, if you know what I mean, sir. I'll just go on my own, have a drink with my contact and see how the land lies. In normal circumstances the police aren't welcome on the estate, so I'd like to keep it under the radar for the moment.'

'OK.' Brian nodded decisively. 'Keep in touch though. And be careful. Don't go anywhere without your radio. I mean it.'

'I won't sarge. I'll just be popping round for a chat with a friend.'