With one swig Ruby knocked back the fizzy concoction that promised to ease your pounding head and provide a burst of energy. Her team were still jubilant from yesterday’s result and the post-celebratory drinking session that had followed. They had taken some major players off the streets, but, just like always, there would be more lining up to take their place. She pulled up a chair, preparing to pick over the bones of the case with the familiar faces gathered around her.
‘Morning all.’ DI Jack Downes’s voice boomed a greeting in his Northern Irish accent, his broad, lumbering frame making itself known. Coffee in one hand and croissant in the other, he spoke mid-bite, sending flecks of pastry flying onto the foot-worn carpet. Shoreditch Serious Crime Unit took up residence in the third floor of the drab grey concrete building. A man with a big voice, DI Downes had no problem being heard. His eyes lit on Ruby, and he shoved down the last of his pastry before marching over and giving her shoulder a little shake. ‘Alright mucker? How are yous this fine morning?’
Ruby winced, feeling every bone in her body rattle. ‘Tender, so handle with care.’
Downes sucked in air between his teeth as she turned to greet him face on. ‘Ouch. That’s come up in the night.’
Ruby winced as she touched the pad of swollen flesh. High cheekbones may have been a blessing in her teenage years, but not so when she found herself on the receiving end of a left hook. ‘It’s only a couple of stitches,’ she said, the side of her mouth jerking up in an involuntary smile. ‘He came off a lot worse.’
‘Well, don’t let me interrupt you,’ he said, taking a seat. The faint smell of mint and whiskey vented from her DI’s breath. Since his wife’s death, his fondness for ‘a wee dram’ had become more frequent, and Ruby had warned him more than once that he was putting too much at risk so near retirement.
Yesterday’s post-incident briefing had been a time for backslapping. But today they would discuss ‘learning points’ in more detail, or what she preferred to call the ‘fuck-up round-up’ of the day before.
Luddy, also known as DC Owen Ludgrove, handed her a mug of sweet tea to wash down the bitter taste of Alka-Seltzer on her tongue. A likeable guy with tousled black hair, Luddy had the character of a young man who would go places one day. ‘Keen but green,’ Downes called him, but Ruby could not fault Luddy’s enthusiasm for the job.
Ruby slid the intelligence pack from the desk she was leaning on and thumbed through the pages. ‘Great job last night, guys, but there’s a couple of things we need to cover before we can move on.’ Her dark eyes roamed over the group of satisfied faces. All except one.
DC Eve Tanner was shrinking into her chair, her head bowed.
‘This isn’t a matter of naming and shaming,’ Ruby added. ‘It’s learning how we can do it better next time. So who’d like to get started? Silence fell, and for a few seconds all she could hear was the sound of the traffic outside. A siren blared in the distance, reminding Ruby that their time was limited. Crime didn’t stop just because they had a good result. ‘OK, I’ll make a start. What we expected was a group of young dealers believed to have been involved in a kidnapping. What we got was a small army, including five out of ten of our most wanted. You’ll have seen their faces on our wall. Violent bastards with a string of offences to their names. It was a great collar, but the fact there were firearms in the flat makes us lucky we came away with just cuts and bruises.’ Ruby glanced around the room, grateful her team were all present to recount the event. Battle-scarred and still wearing yesterday’s crumpled shirts, they were a scruffy band of officers. All except Eve, who was immaculately dressed in her black trouser suit; her blonde hair pinned neatly in a bun.
‘I’m sorry,’ Eve said, her voice low. ‘I should have delved deeper into the source of the intelligence.’
‘And had better eyeballs on the premises,’ Ruby added.
Eve would have worked closely with the intelligence support unit, but the covert human intelligence sources had been hers. However, CHIS weren’t always wholly reliable, and Ruby wasn’t about to publicly flog her only female DC. The fact Eve stood and watched her colleagues getting pummelled worried Ruby more than her lack of preparation for the raid. Why hadn’t she supported them by getting stuck in? All the same, it had been good to blow the cobwebs off. She hadn’t been in a hands-on brawl for months and had come away feeling exhilarated, barely conscious of the blood running down her cheek. But there was no point in going over old ground when they had so much to do. ‘Besides not taking intel at face value, what else can we take from this?’
‘To have each other’s backs, and the ability to use a pair of handcuffs,’ DC Ash Baker said, linking his bruised knuckles and resting them on his rotund stomach.
Ruby had a vague recollection of seeing him holding a thick-necked skinhead in a headlock, swearing at Luddy to cuff him from behind.
‘Did you see the width of his wrists?’ Luddy protested. ‘Besides, modern handcuffs aren’t as flexible as the ones back in your day.’
Ash took a breath to retort, and Ruby raised her hand to cut him off.
‘Excuse me,’ DI Downes said, skirting past her to answer his phone.
‘Who was it that moaned about having TSU along?’ The presence of a team from the tactical support unit, equipped with shields and Tasers, had undoubtedly saved the day.
‘I was going by the intel provided,’ Ash said, glaring at Eve.
‘Well, it’s a good thing I erred on the side of caution. If the suspects had made use of their firearms, some of us might not be here today.’
Ruby could see her words were having an effect on Eve, whose neck seemed to have disappeared completely as she shrank like a tortoise in its shell. Ruby had a couple more points to go over, but decided to leave it for another time.
‘This morning we’re homicide-free, so we can get on with our backlog of work. We’ve got a suspect in the bin for armed robbery; Ash I’d like you to deal with that. You can pair up with Luddy in interview.’
‘Why can’t Eve?’ Ash said, making no effort to hide his reluctance to work with the newest member of the team.
‘Because I asked you.’
Ash mumbled some retort about babysitting, while Ruby delegated the workload to the rest of the group. It consisted of drug-related violent crimes and a gang-related grievous bodily harm. Being based in central East London, it was nothing out of the ordinary for the team.
Heads swivelled as Downes strode from his office holding a scrap of paper with illegible writing. His eyes were bright, as if he had just picked the winning lottery numbers. Ruby recognised the look, which could only mean one thing.
So much for being homicide-free.