Page 6 of Brimstone Bound
‘Liza,’ the redhead said.
The man raised his hand. ‘Fred.’
‘Nice to meet you.’ I looked around. ‘Is the rest of the department upstairs?’
Liza snorted.
Tony smiled. ‘This is it,’ he said proudly.
I scratched my head. ‘The … morning shift?’
‘No.’ He gave me a patient nod. ‘The entire department. As you can see, we’re not exactly rushed off our feet.’
‘This is it? There’s only three of you?’
Tony ambled over to the corner to flick on the kettle. ‘As I said, there have been others. They’ve come and gone – most people don’t stick it here for long. There was a second detective for a while, but he retired in December.’
Oh. I relaxed slightly. It was only February. ‘So you’re waiting on his replacement?’
‘He means December 2016,’ Liza said.
I stared at her. That was almost five years ago.
She put down her pen and stood up, offering me a tired smile. ‘Hi, Emma. Welcome to Supe Squad.’
I tried to smile back, I really did, but I couldn’t manage it. The horror seeping through me was preventing so much as the tiniest twitch at the corners of my mouth. All I could think about was Lucinda Barnes confidently telling me that this was my perfect department. I sat down on the nearest chair, my shoulders sagging.
Liza slid open a drawer, drew out a small object and tossed it at me. I narrowly caught it before it smacked me in the face. ‘Here,’ she said. ‘A key for this place.’
‘Uh…’ I turned it over in my hands. ‘I’m only here for two weeks. I won’t be staying.’
She shrugged. ‘You never know.’
Ididknow. Once my rotation here was over, I wouldn’t even look back.
Chapter Three
‘No, I’m not in Cyber Crime.’
‘But I thought that was going to be your next rotation?’ Jeremy sounded about as unhappy as I was
‘So did I. DSI Barnes pulled a fast one on me.’
There was a beat of silence. ‘So where are you?’
‘Supernatural Squad.’
‘What?’
‘I’ve been placed in Supernatural Squad,’ I repeated.
‘Shit, Emma. Won’t that be dangerous?’
As far as I could tell, the only danger was that I might die of boredom. ‘No. Definitely not dangerous,’ I reassured him. ‘In fact…’
‘Hey!’ Tony interrupted. ‘D’Artagnan! Let’s go!’
Crap. ‘I have to go,’ I said into the phone. ‘I’ll see you tonight.’
