The next morning, Kay rubbed at a stubborn fleck of emulsion paint stuck to her cuticle while she watched the car park outside Kent Police headquarters.
The traffic on the dual carriageway beyond the entrance thundered past as more vehicles turned into the complex and filled the remaining spaces beyond the window.
She dropped her hand to her side as a pale-blue luxury sports car zipped below her, the driver’s face causing her stomach to clench painfully.
‘He’s here,’ she called over her shoulder.
Sharp looked up from his phone and crossed the carpet tiles from where he’d been standing next to a vending machine, his jaw set.
Kay said nothing as he moved to the window, instead turning her gaze to the concourse below as Peter Gregor stalked towards the front door, his head bowed.
Instinctively, she took a step back in case he looked up, even though she knew he wouldn’t be able to see her through the privacy glass.
She swallowed, her throat dry, and forced herself to take deep breaths.
‘Come on.’ Sharp tapped her elbow. ‘We should let the Chief Super know we’re here before Peter gets upstairs. It wouldn’t look good if we turned up after him.’
‘Okay.’
Kay followed him meekly to the two lifts next to the vending machine, grateful that the doors to the one on the right opened as soon as Sharp pressed the button.
They rode up to the next floor in silence, and Kay concentrated on counting the seconds as she stared at her shoes, unwilling to see her pale features staring back at her from the mirrored walls.
The doors swished open and they stepped out into an open-plan area full of desks and murmured conversations.
Up here, a different atmosphere reigned.
Rather than the bedlam Kay associated with a busy incident room, here was a steady thrum of calm activity.
No-one dashed back and forth to photocopiers, or called out to one another that someone better answer the phone, or else…
Instead, she could have walked into an accountant’s office, such was the contrast.
‘This way.’
Sharp inclined his head to the left and she straightened her jacket.
Leading the way past a row of tidily-organised shelves stacked with manila folders and well-thumbed wire-bound policies and procedures, he gestured to a woman at a desk at the far end, the door next to her computer screen firmly closed.
‘Denise, good to see you,’ Sharp said smoothly. ‘Myself and DI Hunter have an appointment with the Chief Superintendent at nine-thirty, and I’ve just seen Peter Gregor arrive downstairs, too.’
‘DCI Sharp, thank you.’ Denise nodded to Kay, and then gestured to four visitor chairs off to one side behind a lattice screen. ‘If you’d like to wait around there, I’ll call you when the Chief Superintendent is ready for you.’
Kay chose a seat beside the window and rested her elbow on the sill as she stared through the glass.
Watching the people bustling in and out of the building, she noticed two younger women pausing next to one of the steel bollards that lined the front path while they lit cigarettes, their posture relaxed while they gossiped.
A man in a sergeant’s uniform paused to speak with them on his way out, and evidently some light-hearted teasing went on before he walked away with a laugh.
It all looked so normal, so much like her life at the Maidstone police station.
Adam was right, she was due some time off – it was why they had been making holiday plans before he was attacked, after all – but on her own terms.
Not like this.
A lump formed in her throat as she watched the two women stub out their cigarettes on the soles of their shoes before dropping the butts into a vending machine water cup one of them held out.
‘Kay?’
Sharp’s voice broke through her nervous reverie.
She sniffed and shifted to face the waiting area to see him lean forward and rest his elbows on his knees.
His grey eyes were keen as they bored into hers.
‘We’ll get through this,’ he said, his voice low. ‘Whatever happens in there in the next hour, we’ll deal with it and move on. Nothing’s permanent in these sort of things, you know that as well as I do.’
Kay nodded, then swallowed. ‘I know, guv. Let me have my two minutes of wallowing in it though, all right?’
He choked out a low chuckle before he glanced up, his spine stiffening to attention as another voice carried over to them.
‘Mr Gregor, good of you to come.’
Kay peered through the lattice screen to see Chief Superintendent Susan Greensmith ushering Felicity’s father into her office, then pause on the threshold.
‘Denise, send in DCI Sharp and DI Hunter would you, please?’
As Kay’s stomach plummeted, Sharp rested his hand on her arm and jerked his head towards the open door.
‘Come on,’ he said. ‘Let’s get this over with.’