Page 16 of Dying Breath
Mattie smiled at her. ‘Good work, Beth, thanks.’
She climbed up into the front of the van and looked at Lucy. ‘I’ll get him booked in and leave him for you guys, if that’s okay?’
‘That’s brilliant, thank you.’
Lucy finally left the scene in the capable hands of Amanda, who was now being assisted by Jack whilst they worked out the best forensic strategy to process the large area. The whole time Toby hadn’t muttered more than four words to anyone, which Lucy had put down to first-day nerves at his new job. She supposed he hadn’t really been expecting to have to work a murder scene on day one. It didn’t normally happen like that. Amanda had said she’d waited nine months before working on her first murder. Lucy wished she’d been so lucky – it was a standing joke that Lucy being on duty and sudden or suspicious deaths went hand in hand.
As she sat in the passenger seat of the car, she massaged her temples. There was so much to do. Mattie was driving and talking about the boxing match that had been on last night. She drowned out the noise of his voice as she tried to figure out if both murders were connected.
When they got back to the station, Lucy went to her office and shut the door. She had her head bent as she wrote out her list of tasks, which would then be uploaded to HOLMES, the Home Office Large Major Enquiry System, on which the whole investigation would now be run. She preferred to use a pen and paper first. It made her brain work harder and she found that she could focus more. A knock on the door made her lift her head, to see Browning standing there with a mug of coffee in his hand.
‘I thought you could do with this; keep your brain cells going.’
She smiled at him, which he took as an invitation to walk into the small office. He passed her the mug and she took it from him, giving the contents a quick glance to make sure there were no flecks of sour milk swirling around inside it.
‘I used fresh milk – I even bought it myself at the garage on the way into work.’
‘I didn’t say anything. Thank you. I need this.’
He threw a Mars bar in her direction. ‘You also need that by the look of you – when are you going to start taking care of yourself, boss?’
Lucy laughed. ‘I do take care of myself; in fact, a few days of not eating will help. My trousers are tight.’
He shook his head. ‘You still got to eat. Have you had anything this morning?’
Lucy tried to think what she’d eaten; had she actually taken the toast out of the toaster and buttered it this morning?
‘What are you, my dad?’
‘Who told you?’
They both started laughing; Lucy liked the new and improved Browning. He was much funnier than the grumpy version. She pointed to a chair and he sat down, a sigh escaping his lips.
‘Another murder?’
‘I know, it’s like some kind of déjà vu or a bad dream.’
‘Rumour has it you could have passed on the Benson case to the new boy. Is there any particular reason why you didn’t?’
Lucy considered it. ‘Yes: I don’t like him very much and I’m not sure that I trust him not to fuck up all the hard work we’ve already done on it.’
‘Good enough for me.’
It touched her that Browning had taken it upon himself to try to look out for her.
‘Well, give me a shout if you need a hand with anything.’
Smiling back at him, she took a gulp of coffee and began to finish her notes, ready for the briefing.
Tom walked into Lucy’s office. ‘Ready?’
‘Ready as I’ll ever be.’
‘Good; the troops are waiting.’ He turned and left.
Lucy stood up, running her hands down the front of her trousers to smooth out any creases. The briefing room was full and the chatter coming from inside was loud. As Tom followed Lucy inside, a hush descended over the room. She didn’t look at anyone as she walked to the front. Her pulse was racing a little; it didn’t matter how many times she had to do this, she still got nervous. She stood behind the lectern and placed her notes on it, waiting for Tom to get the interactive whiteboard working. He was far better at technology than she was. The board came to life and on it appeared a photograph of the body found in the backstreet. There were a few gasps and murmurs. Browning, who was standing at the back next to Mattie, shook his head in disbelief at the horror of what he was looking at.
‘So, this is our victim. We have a driving licence, found in her discarded handbag at the scene, in the name of Stacey Green. It’s a very poor photo, but good enough to go off until we get a positive ID from a family member.’
