Page 80 of Artful Deceit
If the social media page was all he had to deal with, then life was as it should be on St Mary’s. He was sure Sergeant Proctor would agree.
Late in the afternoon, he picked up his phone to message Lily, then hesitated. He’d go and see her instead. The atmosphere between them that morning had been tense, and he suspected he could have handled it better. Somehow, he needed to reassure her that his move was only temporary.
Walking into the back rooms, he found PC Hill packing things into a box in Sergeant Proctor’s office.
“I thought the sergeant’s wife wanted to come and sort through his belongings.”
“She did,” Jeff said. “But she called me earlier and said she couldn’t face coming down here. Asked me to do it.”
“You should have said. I can help.”
Gently, he laid a photo of the sergeant and his wife in the box. “Thanks, but I’m almost done. It’s not that much, really.”
“Are you okay?” Flynn asked when his colleague sank heavily into the chair behind the desk.
“I feel as though I made a massive mistake.”
“How do you mean?”
Jeff blew out a breath. “I should have taken the sergeant’s job. Then you could’ve stayed on. It would’ve been you and me, and everything would have been all right. Now, I’m stuck with a new sergeant who I’m not convinced I’m going to like. Not given the phone call I had with him earlier.”
“Why, what did he say?”
He shrugged. “Nothing terrible – he just seemed a little insensitive about the whole situation. Honestly, I didn’t think it would all go so fast. I thought I’d be acting sergeant for a few weeks at least, and you’d be able to stay on for a while to ease the transition.”
“It does all feel a bit rushed,” Flynn agreed. “How did they find a new sergeant so quickly?”
Jeff curled his lip. “I think he’s been waiting for a sergeant’s position for ages, and has been turned down for lots of jobs.”
“Not a great sign,” Flynn said.
“No,” Jeff agreed. “If I’d known how things would turn out, I’d have thought harder about taking the sergeant’s job myself.”
“You said you didn’t want to be a sergeant.”
“I didn’t. Idon’t.Once upon a time, I had a girlfriend who thought I should be more ambitious, so I took all the exams and everything, but when it came to it, I’m happy being a constable. I don’t want the extra responsibility.”
Flynn nodded. “I think I’m the same. Promotions aren’t on my list of priorities.”
“I don’t think I’d be a good sergeant. Stick to your strengths, I reckon.”
“Yeah,” Flynn said, though he wished Jeff had stepped into the sergeant’s role. “I can’t believe this is my last week.”
“Meneither.” He sat up straighter. “You know Sergeant Proctor was stirring things up – making a fuss about needing an extra officer on the islands. Maybe that will happen still.”
“I’m hoping so,” Flynn said. “But it won’t happen before the weekend.”
Jeff leaned back in his chair and dragged his hands through his hair. “I hate all of this. I keep expecting Graham to walk in the door, or to wake up and find this has all been a bad dream.”
“Same,” Flynn said, glancing around the room. “Are you sure you don’t need any help in here?”
Jeff shook his head. “By the way, I had word from forensics about that necklace you found at Gideon Rowe’s place.”
“And?”
“It’s clean. They couldn’t find fingerprints or any other fibres.”
“Not a massive surprise.”
