Daniels glanced through the open door hoping to catch a few minutes with her former boss. Detective Chief Superintendent Bright hung up as she entered the room, tapping on the door on her way in.
Ellen Crawford smiled as she walked in.
‘Am I interrupting?’ Daniels asked.
‘No, I was just leaving.’ Ellen made a show of looking at her watch. ‘As soon as Phil signs his mail, which has been sitting on his desk for hours.’
Bright smiled at her. ‘Don’t suppose you could organize a cup of tea for DCI Daniels before you go? One for me too, if you’re boiling the kettle; I know how you love to save the planet.’
‘I’m your PA, not your tea lady.’ Ellen’s eyes flashed, warning him not to push his luck. But she was smiling when she turned to Daniels. ‘What’s he like? How on earth you’ve put up with him all these years is beyond me, it really is!’
Bright scribbled his name on various documents. As he handed them to Ellen, Daniels’ eyes slid over her. She was a woman of indeterminate age; mid to late forties, Daniels guessed. She had the body of someone half her age, good skin and perfect teeth, her own, not manufactured in some laboratory. She had great hair too, red to match her fiery personality.
‘How about that tea?’ Bright made a begging gesture. ‘Just this once?’
‘It’s fine, Ellen,’ Daniels said. ‘I can make my own tea and so can he.’
Ellen relented. ‘Milk, no sugar?’
‘You sure?’
The PA smiled.
Daniels took a seat as she left the room.
Bright spoke up as she shut the door. ‘What have you got that I haven’t?
‘Appreciation might do it.’ She grinned. ‘It usually works a treat, guv.’
‘You any further forward? Adam must be desperate for news.’
‘Well, he’s going to be disappointed.’
‘How’s he holding up?’
Daniels shrugged. ‘As well as can be expected, I suppose.’
‘House-to-house come up with anything?’
‘Have you seen his place? It’s miles from the nearest village, not a neighbour in sight – thousands of acres of land accessible from all points on the compass. It’s a bloody nightmare.’
‘I meant around the crime scene.’
‘That’s even worse! Open countryside. Big sky. Sheep. And not a lot else. There’s hardly any CCTV from Greenhead in the west all the way to Heddon-on-the-Wall in the east. I’ve got officers with local knowledge helping us, but it isn’t going to be easy. There are only forty or so buildings within a four-mile radius. Some of those are derelict. I’m having them all checked out, but my guts are telling me we’re wasting our time up there. You do know it’s also a military training area?’ She didn’t wait for an answer. ‘That means low-flying exercises at all times of the day and night. Aircraft noise – fixed wing or helicopter – isn’t something the locals would notice a whole lot.’
Daniels’ eyes fell on his new desk, in particular on his most prized possession: a photograph of his late wife Stella posing in the foyer of the city’s Malmaison Hotel. She had her glad rags on and high-heeled shoes, her shapely dancer’s legs on show for all to see. Next to her photograph sat a card with Daniels’ name on it.
Damn! He’d remembered it was her birthday.
She hoped he wasn’t planning anything. She was supposed to be having dinner with her father, who was trying his best to make things right between them. He’d booked a table at Bouchon, a French restaurant in Hexham she’d heard good reports of. Friends had been there and had raved about the food. She looked at her watch. It was far too late to cancel. But what choice did she have? It would cause a row, she knew that much. Her father, a stickler for protocol and good manners, would take it as a personal affront if she allowed her job to come first again. The irony was not lost on her. The fact of the matter was, her chosen career had driven a wedge between them from the moment she had signed on the dotted line all those years ago.
It hadn’t always been like that.
Ed Daniels was an affectionate, hard-working man with a great sense of humour. At least, he used to be, until the miners’ strike put him out of work and closed his pit. They had been close back then. But years later, when she left school with above-average grades and a burning ambition to join the police force, he saw her career choice as a personal betrayal and from there on things began to slide downhill.
Her mother’s premature death hadn’t helped.
Daniels sighed.
Her father had a strong moral code. He’d encouraged her always to do the right thing, taught her the importance of devotion and commitment, nurtured those qualities as she grew up. He’d given her the foundation Bright had later used to mould her into the impressive officer she was.
Ellen was back with her coat on, a pot of tea and two mugs.
Bright watched her set it down. ‘You’re a darling, you know that?’
‘And you’re a sexist pig!’ Ellen left the room without another word.
Daniels laughed out loud. ‘Looks like you met your match, guv.’
She meant it too. Ellen Crawford was just the sort of woman to put Bright back in his box. He was a great bloke, an excellent mentor, but a law unto himself. He was often overbearing and occasionally downright rude to his staff. Her included. Ellen had nailed him the minute she set eyes on him. They were made for each other.
‘How well do you know Adam Finch?’ she asked.
‘He’s a mate. We play golf together now and again. Why?’
Daniels met his eyes over the rim of her mug.
‘Remind me, guv. How did you say you met him?’
‘I didn’t.’ Bright opened his desk drawer and pulled out a packet of his favourite biscuits. He offered her one, but she waved it away.
‘Well, now I’m asking. How did you meet?’
‘You’re barking up the wrong tree, Kate.’
‘Humour me.’
‘He was my commanding officer in the army.’
‘What regiment?’
Bright took a bite of his garibaldi. ‘Army Air Corps.’
‘You are kidding?’