Page 119 of First Blood
Nigel stumbled.
Bryant didn’t take the time to get off his knees. He turned, grabbed Nigel’s legs and pulled him to the ground.
Kim closed the space between them in a second and took the knife from Nigel’s hand at the exact second she heard footsteps in the corridor.
‘In here,’ she called out as she rolled the man on to his front and sat astride the small of his back.
Bryant moved around Nigel to get back to Doctor Lambert.
‘Is he okay?’ she asked, tightening her thighs around the man beneath her to keep him in place.
‘Still breathing,’ he said, placing his hands back at the man’s crotch.
Suddenly the room burst into light as uniformed officers stormed into the space.
Confusion reigned on all the faces at the sight that met them.
‘Get the paramedics to the doctor over there and then I need you guys to do me one more favour.’
‘Yes, Marm,’ said the one at the front.
‘Give Wolverhampton station a call and tell them we got their man.’
Chapter One Hundred Twelve
Stacey stepped into her flat at 1.30a.m. after an eighteen-hour shift.
After finding the blood smeared over Doctor Lambert’s car she and Dawson had headed straight to the medical centre, arriving just as Bryant was insisting he needed no help from a concerned paramedic. The boss had told them both to go home, but neither Stacey nor Dawson had wanted to leave until they’d been de-briefed.
The meeting had been short, just long enough only for the boss to neck a strong coffee, but it had been intense, as they’d recounted the events of the night. Her mouth had opened, closed and opened again as though she was watching some kind of action film. She’d started the week attending a crime scene that had almost made her throw up and had finished it by learning that one of her new colleagues had been held at knifepoint. Oh yeah, her first week had sure been a baptism of fire.
She threw down her satchel and fell back into the sofa, unsure if she would even make it as far as the bedroom tonight, but they’d been told to take tomorrow off, today now, and she wanted a moment to reflect.
She found it hard to believe that they had been working this case for only four days. Not four shifts as she knew them. They’d exceeded that by a long shot. But only four days in real hours and in that time she had learned a lot.
She’d learned that she had an aptitude for digging for information. When given a task, a path to that information lit up in her mind like a route planner. She enjoyed the analysis of a problem and could just as easily work alone as with company.
She’d learned that the boss was passionate, intuitive, driven and maybe a little bit rebellious. Stacey had felt a seedling of respect for the woman when she’d been sent away from the gruesome sight of Luke Fenton. She had wanted to repay that gesture by returning and showing the boss that she wasn’t a quitter. She had seen the brief smile of acknowledgment upon her return to the crime scene and her regard for the woman had begun right then.
The events of the week had done nothing to detract from that and what Dawson had told her in the car about his night at the Travelodge at the boss’s expense had simply blown her away. Somehow, she knew that information would never have come from her.
Additionally, she had learned that Kevin Dawson wasn’t the arsehole she had thought he was. If she was talking scoring systems she’d thought ten on the dickheadometer and he was most likely a nine. But still it was a tiny improvement.
Once the boss and Bryant had headed off to prepare for the interview of the hairdresser, Dawson had offered to drive her home. She’d refused but he’d insisted.
And finally she’d learned that she would give her left arm for the opportunity to remain with this team. It wasn’t a perfect group of people. She knew that. The boss wasn’t exactly warm and nurturing. She lacked social skills and had to be reminded that folks needed to go home. Bryant was steady and reliable but not what she’d call dynamic. Although a knife to the throat hadn’t sent him scarpering for home at the earliest opportunity. He had continued to do his job and for that she admired him. Dawson was an arrogant and cocky so and so, but despite his personal problems had managed to get into work every day and stay until he was told to go. He had shown commitment and he didn’t even know it himself.
Yes, it had been one hell of a week. The job, like the people, had been a challenge but she knew so much more than she did four days ago.
She wanted more weeks like this. She wanted to continue to learn from these people and only hoped she would be given the chance.
Chapter One Hundred Thirteen
Dawson eased the car onto the drive of the house he shared with Ally. He turned off the engine and sat for a moment. Although he’d never really believed in God he did believe in fate when it suited him and he had decided to trust in it tonight.
Whatever the time of day or night, Ally always seemed to know when he parked on the drive. He had no idea how because the bedroom they shared was at the back of the house. They had forsaken the additional space in the master bedroom for the privacy of the back which looked out onto an empty field. Both of them liked to sleep naked and both of them liked the curtains left open.
He had once lain on the bed when she’d been due home and he hadn’t heard a thing from the front of the house, yet somehow she always knew when he had arrived home.
