Page 76 of Deadly Cry
The fleeting relief was gone in seconds.
‘Regardless, we always return to the same problem we have faced historically, Stone. You cannot follow orders from people who are paid to make difficult decisions.’
‘So I’m supposed to do it anyway because your decisions absolve me of all responsibility? You think I’m going to follow instructions just so I can sleep at night if it all goes badly wrong because it wasn’t my call? You really think I’m going to care less about a child’s life because the call wasn’t mine? Sir, you know me better than that, so…’
‘I remind you, Stone, three people told you—’
‘And those three people were wrong.’
Woody brought his fist down hard on the table. ‘How dare you,’ he raged. ‘Who do you think you’re speaking to? Your flouting of rules, regulations and procedures would have had you thrown out on your ear many times had I not supported your abilities. More than once I have been forced to fight for your job, and you fail to learn that there is an authority to which you must answer, and that authority is me.’
Kim stood firm, her gaze unwavering. ‘All of that is true, but you were still wrong.’
The thick silence that filled the room was alien to her. Never before had she told her boss that he had made the wrong decision. She had disagreed, appealed, pleaded but never had she told him he was just plain wrong.
When he finally spoke his voice was low and measured.
‘You’d better hope we were wrong, Stone. For the sake of a six-year-old boy.’
Sixty-Three
‘You’re quiet,’ Kim said as they got in the car.
‘Guv, you’ve just ripped Alison a new one, took a lashing yourself from Woody and then told the whole team to pull their fingers out and get cracking. So it’s safe to say I know when to keep my mouth shut.’
‘But if you were a braver man?’
‘I’d say that was the last thing the guys needed to hear when they’ve already been working twelve hours.’
‘Bryant, I—’
‘And I also think you already know that, which is why I’m not going to say it.’
‘Fuck off, Bryant,’ she said, turning towards the window.
‘Absolutely, guv,’ he said, guiding the car out of the car park. It was about six miles to the home of Kate Sewell in Belbroughton, but there was one stop to make first, which she’d already told Bryant, and now she’d just as soon spend the short journey-time in silence.
Her ass-chewing from Woody was in no way connected to the frustration she’d been feeling when she’d barked at her team. Yes, the air between her and her boss was as tense as she’d ever known it. Rarely, if ever, had they gone toe-to-toe in such a manner, but her annoyance with her team stemmed from the fact they were no closer to finding the killer than they had been after the first murder on Monday. Two more women were dead.
It wasn’t a new situation, but Kim had the strangest feeling that the clues were there, all rolled together like a stick of dynamite just waiting for someone to light the fuse.
She just hoped that one of her team found a match before someone else lost their life.
‘Okey dokey, we’re here and I’d sure love to know why,’ he said, pulling up at the entrance to Dobbie’s scrap yard. It was exactly three minutes to seven.
‘Your life might just be about to get a whole lot easier,’ she said, getting out the car. ‘Or harder,’ she added, remembering the circumstances. If she lost this frame, she was likely to buy them all crash helmets.
‘Jesus, what now?’ she said as her phone signalled a Google alert. ‘Oooh, article from Frost is up,’ she said, pressing the link.
She continued to walk slowly through the gates of the scrap yard as she read. She searched the piece for the phrases she’d quoted and found them all there.
Good job, Frost, she thought, putting her phone away. All she could do now was hope.
‘So, you getting a new project?’ Bryant asked hopefully.
‘Oh, yeah,’ she said as they headed towards the office at the centre of Dobbie’s yard. The last time she and Bryant had been here together, it had been to view the mangled remains of a murder victim crushed to death in Dobbie’s machine. A hand had been found protruding from a square chunk of moulded metal, earning their victim the nickname Rubik until they’d been able to make an identification.
In the distance, she could see two men, one in a suit, one in casuals, and Dobbie in his black T-shirt and jeans.
