Page 67 of Twisted Lies
‘Yeah, that was before you got rammed up the behind by some random stranger. You gonna give it up now?’
‘Would you, Stone?’ Frost asked, and Kim found herself unable to give the right answer.
‘That’s different. I’m paid to—’
‘We’re both paid to find the truth.’
‘I get that but—’
‘Well, thanks for the call, Inspector, and I appreciate your concern,’ Kim heard before the line went dead in her ear.
Fifty-Four
The team was assembled at two minutes to seven, looking keen and ready to start.
‘Thanks for the heads-up last night, Penn,’ Kim said and then took a moment to explain the accident to the others.
‘I’ve logged an urgent response request to calls from her address, but Frost will continue to do what she wants to do. As you all know, she’s a difficult woman to deal with.’
Bryant offered a small cough, which earned him a warning glance from her.
‘Stace, anything back from the school on Jacob Powell?’ she asked, trying to tie up all the loose ends in her mind.
The constable shook her head. ‘Two email chasers sent and a message left for Mrs Lennox to call me back.’
‘Okay, Stace, keep at it, but I want you working with DI Lynes in Somerset, so set up protocols for information sharing and ensuring we get access to everything they have. We want the identity of the victim the second they have it. Also, I want Penn to be able to view the post-mortem remotely.’
Stacey made a note. ‘Boss, are they gonna be amenable to all this intrusion?’
‘It’s a fine line, Stace,’ Kim admitted, which was why she’d put the constable as the intermediary, as she was probably the most sensitive out of all of them. ‘They know they have to share the information, but they don’t know why. We can’t tell them, and we don’t want to stamp all over their investigation.’
‘Subtle is my middle name, boss,’ Stacey said with a smile.
‘In the meantime, Penn, I want just about everything you can find about the former life of Keith Phipps and—’
Kim stopped speaking as a figure appeared in the doorway.
‘I believe I’m here to help you with that.’
Kim made no effort to hide the repulsion that made its way onto her face.
‘What the fuck are you doing here?’
Fifty-Five
The expression on Leanne King’s face matched her own, but she stepped into the room anyway.
Good of the desk sergeant to let her know he’d issued a temporary pass and directions to their visiting expert.
‘Team, please meet Leanne King, the most unhelpful police officer you’re ever likely to come across.’
To their credit, the half of the team who hadn’t met her offered courteous greetings, while Bryant muttered something about getting popcorn.
Leanne’s face didn’t change as she took a seat at the spare desk. Kim hoped she wasn’t going to be staying long enough to warm it up.
Kim had to admit she’d taken a dislike to the woman’s superior and cold attitude when she’d thought Leanne was Diane’s sister, but since finding out she was a police officer, that dislike was now drenched in resentment. You didn’t do things to hamper people who were fighting on the same side. Leanne was the player who put a ball in the back of her own net.
She knew she had to find a way to let it go. All they needed was information, and the quicker they got it, the sooner this woman would be gone. There was no point in allowing her true feelings to escape from the other side of her lips.
