CHAPTER THREE

 

Superintendent Megan Edwards let out a loud despairing sigh. ‘Would you like me to speak to the parents, Kate? I know you have teenagers of your own.’

‘Thanks, but I’ve known Liz Kelly for over ten years, I need to go personally.’

‘Okay, if you’re comfortable with that. Now, what do we know about Shauna Kelly’s death?’

Kate exhaled. Comfortable was not a word that she would have chosen. ‘We have no idea what happened to her yet, ma’am. Tommy Thorne has classified it a priority, but we just have to hope that something specific shows up in the post mortem that will determine whether foul play was involved.’ She pushed a hand through her thick auburn hair. ‘Apparently Shauna was always a handful, but not a bad kid. Six months ago her father left home, and things got worse. She started drinking, and Liz told me that she has had trouble keeping her away from some of the wilder kids in town.’

‘And the night she went missing?’

‘Scott and Rosie have located her three times on CCTV, all around the town centre area. The last sighting was of her laughing with a man, close to the Lincoln Arms public house on Brewer Street.’

‘Drunk? Alone?’

‘Certainly not paralytic, maybe tipsy? And yes, she was alone.’ Kate thought back to the footage that Rosie had shown her. ‘One thing stood out though; we are all certain from the way she was acting, that she knew the man. The image of him is poor, but Scott has enhanced it as much as he can, and uniform are taking out on the streets for us.’

Megan Edwards nodded tersely, then began sorting through a neat sheaf of papers that lay on her equally neat desk, leaving Kate some time to watch her boss.

It was common knowledge that she and the Superintendent were not best of friends. Megan seemed to need to remind Kate of her higher rank. Thrived on it, almost. But it didn’t bother Kate anymore. She knew that she had found her level within the Force. She was in a place that she felt comfortable, unlike Megan Edwards who unashamedly had taken the fast track in her hunt for large amounts of gold braid and embroidered pips.

Kate found the woman’s insatiable hunger for promotion both scary and funny. It was odd, in their own way they were both very good police officers, but the difference lay in the fact that Kate wanted to remain a police officer and not take one step too far and suddenly morph into an administrator, like the Super.

Kate came from jobbing copper stock, with the blood of street policemen flowing through her veins. Her grandfather had been the Saltpan Village bobby, and her dad spent his whole working life filling the same roll, patrolling the same marsh lanes. And he’d been chuffed as little apples when she decided to follow in their very big footsteps.

Superintendent Megan Edwards suddenly pushed the papers to one side and looked hard at Kate, forcing her to stop wool-gathering.  ‘I’ve skimmed through your reports on the Jamie Durham case. You seem to have reached something of an impasse? What’s your next move, assuming you have one?’

Kate tensed. She didn’t, but she wasn’t going to admit it. ‘We still have some new people to talk to, ma’am. We’re not throwing in the towel yet, believe me.’

‘I shouldn’t think you would, Kate, not with your team’s recent, and very impressive, arrest record.’ The woman narrowed her eyes to little more than slits. ‘And that brings me conveniently to my next point.’

Oh hell, thought Kate. Not now, please!

‘Top Brass have noted that your team has out performed the rest of CID, right across the board.’ The cold grey eyes bored into Kate’s. ‘Somehow you have managed to attain the highest arrest record across the county. You’ve put Saltfleet at the top of the table.’

This was not how Kate had envisaged this meeting going. The Super clearly wanted to know how they had achieved it, and she was in no position to tell her anything remotely close to the truth. The fact that Jon was giving them an advantage over the other sections because of a quirk of nature would be staying securely with them.

She struggled for a smile. ‘That’s great news, ma’am. But it’s just luck. I happen to have a team dynamic that really works.’

‘Mm,’ the superintendent looked at her shrewdly ‘We’ve had hot-shot teams before, but nothing in your league.’ She leaned forward, her small wiry frame dwarfed by the size of the hunk of oak that separated them. ‘So, we’d like you to go up to HQ next month and talk to some of the other team leaders. Perhaps you could instil a little of your magic into their management skills?’

Kate’s heart sank, and she allowed an audible groan to escape her lips. ‘That is so not my thing, ma’am. I have no magic formula, just a damned good team. Other officers would hardly welcome being told that, now would they?’

‘Well, nothing has been formalised, but I’d like you to give it some thought. You might have more to offer than you realise, and with all the impending cuts, morale in some areas is pretty low right now.’

She looked mildly vexed at Kate’s refusal to co-operate but not actually angry. They had bounced off each other so many times before, that she would have known exactly what Kate’s reaction would be. ‘Well, I suppose it’s time for you to alert the family liaison officer, and get yourself over to the Kelly’s house.’ She pulled two fat files towards her, ‘And I must get my teeth into these new initiatives and related budgets.’

‘I don’t know how you cope with all that, ma’am.’ said Kate, pushing back her chair. ‘Your job would have my brains turning into minestrone in five minutes flat.’

The super shrugged. ‘Someone has to. And what I do, I do well. At least you guys have someone fighting your corner. For instance, last time I looked, you still had radios, Kevlar vests and cars, or has something changed since I went downstairs last?’

Kate was forced to smile. She may not like Megan Edwards much, but she did have a grudging admiration for anyone who could juggle budgets and targets like a street entertainer’s balls. ‘No, we’re still communicating, protected and mobile, thank you.’ She stood up. No good putting off the inevitable. This was the worst part of her job, but it had to be done, and although twenty years on the Force had knocked a lot of things out of her, at least she had managed to retain compassion.

As she closed the super’s door and made ready to visit the dead girl’s family, she felt very glad that she had.