Page 29 of The Girl in the Grave
Josh forked the last mouthful of chicken tikka in to his mouth, mopping up the rest of the sauce with his naan bread. Sam still had half a plate of food left, which he looked at hungrily.
‘You’re such a lightweight.’
‘You’re such a pig.’
He snorted, almost spraying the computer in front of him with mashed-up food.
‘Right, what should we do now? Call a briefing, go back to the hotel, find Claire and see what she’s come up with? Get a team together to go and arrest Florence Wright’s concerned relative?’
Sam was staring out of the window by her desk. ‘Probably hide.’
‘Why?’
‘Barker has just angry-slammed his car door and is heading this way with a face like a slapped arse.’
Josh stood up and peered over her shoulder.
‘Shit, he looks furious.’
‘I wonder why? It’s not as if we’ve been sneaking around where we shouldn’t, is it?’
‘He won’t know about that, how could he?’
She shrugged. ‘Just a feeling. Are you going to wait around to find out, or should we just go and find somewhere else to figure out what to do?’
Josh grabbed his jacket, laptop and car keys and Sam shrugged her jacket on, picking up her bag from under the table.
‘I vote we leave.’
There were two doors that led into the CID office, one at each end of the room. If the chief was coming in from the car park, he’d use the one nearest to Josh’s desk, so he and Sam headed towards the other exit. But as they barrelled out of the door together, they walked straight into the brick wall that was Detective Inspector Eric Barker.
‘Thought I might find you sneaking out, Walker.’
‘What do you mean by that, boss? We have a valid enquiry that needs urgently following up on. I’ll catch up with you later, yeah?’
Sam squeezed past and began hurrying towards the stairs. Josh tried to do the same, but Barker put his arm out.
‘A word, if you don’t mind. In my office. Now.’
Forty-Four
The smell of stale sweat filled the cramped office as Barker slammed the door shut behind them. It was hot, stuffy and the worst place possible to be stuck with an angry boss. Josh tried to keep his distance and not to inhale too much through his nose.
‘So, I’ve just got off the phone with a very good friend of mine. It was quite an interesting, yet puzzling call.’
Josh nodded. The takeaway he’d enjoyed moments ago lay heavy in his stomach; he knew where this was going.
‘Do you want to explain to me what you were doing sneaking around the back of Dean&Sons funeral home? Breaking and entering their outbuildings?’
‘I didn’t break in anywhere. The doors were open for anyone to get—’
‘Anyone who hadpermissionto go into them. Like, for instance, Harry and James Dean, or maybe their trusted employees, whosejobit is to enter those buildings?’
Josh tried not to roll his eyes. Why didn’t he just come out with it? He didn’t have time for all this, not with a girl’s life on the line. Instead, he nodded. ‘I guess so.’
‘Yeah, me too. So why then were you captured in full technicolour glory skulking around at the back of the premises whilst Sam was inside asking questions. I’m keen to know.’
‘They had cameras then?’
