Page 34 of Dying Truth
‘Any boyfriend?’ she asked.
‘Nothing so far. Seems like a decent enough kid but not what you’d call outgoing.’
‘Okay, Kev. Doesn’t seem like we’re going to find out much more there, so if you move over to—’
‘Boss, do you mind if I keep at it for a bit? There’re just a couple of things I want to tie up. I heard something about secret societies at Heathcrest yesterday. Packs of cards or something. Not sure exactly what that means but it might be connected.’
It was on the tip of Kim’s tongue to refuse his request and put him on data mining and background checking with Stacey, but if she trusted anything about Dawson it was his instinct.
‘Okay, one more day and if you get nothing…’
‘Got it, boss,’ he said.
‘Okay, so we found out pretty much the same as Kev about Sadie’s social interaction or lack of it. We also discovered from Keats that Sadie had a history of self-harming, and that her older sister Saffie knew nothing about it.’
‘Sister didn’t seem to know anything about anything to do with her younger sister,’ Bryant offered.
‘Not really unusual though, is it?’ Dawson asked. ‘Looks like they were complete opposites, and who wants their awkward younger sister around them when they’re sixteen years old?’
Kim agreed that he had a point, but it had seemed as though they were speaking to Saffie about a complete stranger.
‘Any reason why she hasn’t gone home?’ Stacey asked.
‘Practising for a gala at the end of the week. Star of the show with a piano solo.’
‘Stiff upper lip and all that,’ Stacey said.
Something like that, Kim thought as she glanced around the room and chose her first victim. She had twenty minutes until Woody’s press conference.
‘Okay, Dawson, you’re up. Step into my office,’ she said, nodding towards the bowl.
He looked at his two colleagues for a clue.
‘Who did I piss off this time?’ he asked.
‘Me, if you don’t get moving,’ she said, standing in the doorway.
He stepped in and she closed the door behind him.
Twenty-Three
‘Jesus, Dawson, lighten up,’ Kim said, placing his appraisal form between the two of them.
Seeing what it was they were about to discuss seemed to do little to reduce his trepidation.
She had quickly glanced over it once she’d found it underneath a bike magazine in her second drawer down.
‘So, I see you’ve marked yourself five out of five on ability, attendance, work quality and… just about every subject, really?’ she said, perusing the whole form.
He grinned. ‘Gotta aim high, boss,’ he said.
She took a moment to read through the criteria in detail.
‘Yeah, nice try but no banana, Kev. You’re not gonna get a five for leadership, meeting deadlines or teamwork, and you can rethink the organisational skills score. Getting Stacey to do it for you doesn’t count.’
She crossed out the fives and entered a score of four in each box. She turned the page over and back again as though looking for something.
‘Hmmm… not sure where to put this,’ she said, frowning.
