Page 34 of The Truth Will Out
The team’s reaction was everything Sam had expected. They all fell silent for a second or two and then started bombarding her with questions, getting more and more irate when Sam remained quiet.
It was Bob who stepped in to calm things down. “Listen up, guys. I know you’re as shocked as we are to hear the news. The truth is, we don’t know who did this. Since the boss and I got here this morning, we’ve been trying to piece together Claire’s final steps.” He filled the rest of the team in.
Just listening to him, Sam felt drained.
She turned her back on the others and headed towards her office. “I’m sorry. I have to let Scott know the news now. I should have rung him earlier.”
“Shouldn’t you tell him face to face?” Bob called after her.
“You’re right. I’ll give him a call and see if he’s at home. I know Claire told me he works away a lot of the time, overseeing developments out of the area.”
“Yeah, you’re right, he does,” Bob agreed.
“I’ll make the call in my office.” She closed the door and stared out of the window for a few minutes, trying to summon up the right words. With her courage mustered, she sat behind her desk and slowly dialled Scott’s mobile number.
“Yeah, Scott Owen.”
There was a lot of background noise. Sam had to shout to be heard. “Scott, can you hear me?”
“Barely. Speak up. Who is this? Is that you, Claire?”
“No. How about now?”
“Nope. You’re going to have to shout.”
“I am shouting. This is DI Sam Cobbs, Claire’s boss. Can you go somewhere less noisy? I need to speak with you. It’s urgent,” she added as an afterthought.
“Who is this? I can’t hear you. Look, if you can’t be bothered to shout then I’m hanging up.”
“Scott. Can you hear me now?” Sam shouted even louder, straining her vocal cords.
The door burst open seconds later, and Bob stood in the doorway, looking concerned. Sam gave him the thumbs-up. He backed out of the room again.
“Yes, I can hear you. Who is this?”
“It’s Sam Cobbs, Claire’s boss.”
“Her boss? What do you want? Is she at work?”
“Are you away at the moment?”
“I should be home in a few hours. Why?”
Sam inhaled and exhaled a few deep breaths. “It’s important I speak with you.”
“About what?”
There was a loud bang in the distance.
Scott shouted. “For fuck’s sake. Be more careful; that’s coming out of your wages, Les.”
Sam held the phone away from her ear.This is a ridiculous way to hold a conversation of this magnitude. Nope, I refuse to do it.
“Scott, I can tell you’re really busy there,” Sam yelled. “Can you give me a call when you return home?”
“Yeah. Okay. I’ll do that. Is Claire all right?”
“I’ll talk to you later.” Sam ended the call before he could say anything else. She leaned her head back and released a frustrated sigh. “Jesus, that was hard work.” She removed the bottle of water from her drawer and eased her sore throat before she joined the rest of the team.
