Caroline walked into Chief Superintendent Derek Arnold’s office feeling as hopeful, hopeless, energetic and listless as she ever did. Although she always came in with hopes of a positive outcome and a desire for progress, it never quite came in the way she expected.
Arnold was often full of pleasant surprises, but she’d recently realised these often came in the form of lip service and meaningless platitudes, designed to placate her in the face of deftly side-swerving each of her reasonable requests and any concerns she happened to raise. This was how he’d managed to reach the position he had, she supposed. Perhaps he was just perfect management material.
‘What’s the latest?’ he asked her, as vaguely as he ever did.
‘On Operation Titan? Still moving. We’ve had a couple of interesting developments. It turns out Clive and Susan Thornton had a break-in at their property recently, which they reported and then NFA’d. Nothing taken, presumed to be kids or opportunists who got spooked and legged it. Weirdest thing is they didn’t tell either of their kids, and Mrs Thornton didn’t think to mention it when we first spoke to her.’
‘Maybe she didn’t think it was connected.’
‘Perhaps. But you’d imagine being the victim of crime twice in a short space of time might link up in your mind somehow. In any case, our most interesting lead at the moment is a man seen on CCTV at the castle in the days leading up to Clive’s murder. He visited twice — once very shortly before Clive was killed — and appears to have used a pseudonym in the castle’s visitor book. He started writing one name, then crossed it out and wrote another. Who on earth forgets their own name? He was dressed pretty unusually, too, in a light-coloured suit and fedora, like some sort of heavenly cowboy or one of those characters you see in casinos in Las Vegas.’
‘Not doing a very good job of blending in in Rutland, then, was he?’ Arnold asked.
‘Might’ve done better the week of the Burghley Horse Trials, but I imagine he’d still stand out a mile.’
‘Spelling his own name wrong in the guestbook isn’t exactly the most covert manoeuvre either, is it?’
‘Very true,’ Caroline replied.
‘So what makes us think he might be connected in some way? Because from what I’ve heard so far, he sounds more like the comedy diversion than a reasonable suspect.’
‘A few things,’ Caroline replied, giving Arnold a taste of his own vague medicine. ‘It’s difficult to pin it down specifically, but there are a number of things that don’t quite make sense. We’re looking into him as a person of interest and will report back with anything of note, but the timings and a few of the details are making us wonder. Speaking of wondering, sir, I was going to ask if you had any news on that extra body we’re drafting in. Has the transfer gone through yet?’
‘It has indeed,’ Arnold replied, leaning back in his chair with a proud look on his face. ‘You’ll be pleased to know I’ve literally just had the confirmation paperwork through a few moments ago. Your new team member arrives the day after tomorrow.’
‘Really? That’s excellent news, sir. Tell me more.’
‘His name’s Elijah Drummond, a Detective Sergeant who’s been posted with EMSOU for the last couple of years. Very highly thought of up there, apparently. They’ve got big hopes for him in the future.’
‘That’s good,’ Caroline replied. ‘So why are they sending him to us?’
Arnold shrugged. ‘Extra experience, I guess. It’s a very different environment here to EMSOU, so he’ll be a more rounded officer for it.’
‘How long will we have him for?’ Caroline asked.
‘To be confirmed. I’ll have to keep the higher-ups updated as we go along. They’ll want to see we’re making good use of the budget, and all that jazz. Everything has to be justified on an ongoing basis. You know how it is.’
Caroline nodded. She knew only too well how it was.
‘I’ve just got the one question, sir,’ she said. ‘Why are they sending us a DS? Isn’t that a bit overkill? The team’s already fifty percent DS and above.’
Arnold gave another shrug. ‘Can’t complain, really. They could’ve sent some wet-behind-the-ears DC who’s been out of uniform thirty seconds. Having more experienced officers on the team can’t be a bad thing.’
Caroline chose her words carefully. In her experience, resources very rarely landed in your lap as it was — it certainly wasn’t normal to be given more than you’d asked for.
‘I just wondered if it might make things a little lopsided,’ she said. ‘There’ll be more management than there are people to manage.’
‘Maybe they’re opening the door to the possibility of expanding things even further. Who knows? This time next year you could have two extra constables on your team.’
‘With the greatest of respect, sir, I very much doubt it.’
‘Me too. But in any case, I’m not going to argue. Never look a gift horse in the mouth, Caroline. Certainly not in this job, anyway.’
Caroline pursed her lips and nodded.