Page 13 of Skin In the Game (The BlackWater)

Maddie sat in the bar sipping her beer and avoiding meeting anyone’s eyes. It had been another crap week and to say she was sick of it was an understatement. She liked to think she was an upbeat person, that work didn’t normally get her down but it felt like it was just one shitshow after another. Mathers had lost a major client, Holden was clearly fuming about it and the Anderson case Maddie was working on was giving her nothing.

No answers, just more questions.

Burke sat beside her grumbling about his wife’s new demands about some family holiday they were all supposedly going on. She smirked thinking that at least she wasn’t dealing with that, that despite the madness of her own family now it was really simple, nicely simple in fact. It was just the three of them, her, Kelsey, and Richard, the dream team. The three amigos.

“Hey you guys heard, Mathers has gone off sick with stress..” Shaz from the Fraud team said accidentally nudging Maddie as she sat beside her.

“Seriously?” Maddie replied. The man did look stressed, he looked like he was one bad day away from a breakdown these days.

“Yeah doesn’t surprise. Holden’s been riding his ass for the last week. It’s the easy route out, pull a sick note and take a nice side exit into early retirement.” Burke said and they both looked at him. “What it’s true.” He shrugged.

“Bit harsh though.” Maddie said. She wanted to give Mathers the benefit of the doubt. Sure he had his faults but if he really was struggling it wasn’t fair for people to be spreading shit about him.

Her phone went off and she frowned reaching in her bag to grab it.

“Got a boyfriend Cooper?” Shaz teased and Maddie rolled her eyes.

“No thanks. Been there, done that, ditched the guy.” She muttered motioning for Shaz to move so she could get out of the noise to pick up the call.

“Cooper.” She said as soon as she was out in the quiet.

“Boss it’s me.”

“I know McCullough, what do you want? You’re meant to be off shift today.” Maddie said.

“Yeah about that…” He half whispered and she narrowed her eyes. Somehow she already knew whatever the next few words out of his mouth were about to really mess up the rest of her day.

“What?”

“I got a hunch. I followed Anderson.”

“By yourself?” She asked.

“Yeah.”

“What the fuck McCullough.” She snapped.

“Look I think something might be going down. I followed him and…” There was a muffled sound and she screwed her eyes pulling the phone away from her ear.

“Where are you?” She asked.

“I can’t talk. Boss you need to get here.” He muttered.

“Where?”

“I’ll text you the address.” He replied and then the line went dead.

She messaged Burke, more for her own backup than anything else and then hailed a cab because it wasn’t like she could drive after the two pints she’d had in relatively quick succession. Damn she was going to kick his arse she thought. What the hell was he thinking, following the man, alone, with no sign off, no reason too either.

She called the office on the way, putting them on notice. Letting them know that potentially, just potentially they might need to scramble a Red Alert and to be ready.

She got the taxi to stop round the corner, feeling her anger growing. The place was a fucking factory, a derelict one. How the hell had he even followed the guy here without being seen?

She gritted her teeth looking around and pausing. Was this a trap? She wondered, was this some kind of way Anderson was testing them? It couldn’t be. He wasn’t that kind of a man, his profile, his behaviour, none of it pointed to a planned, professional criminal capable of such an act.

Down the road, hidden, they watched as she crept round the corner, sussing out the best place to sneak in and with one last glance she squeezed through the fencing and headed inside.

The lead man picked up the phone then.

“We’ve got movement.” He said and the man on the other end of the line grunted before clicking his fingers for everyone in the Incident Room to focus.

Cole Black stood to the side, narrowing his eyes as the screen focused in on the camera they’d set up. He saw the girl, sneaking, and just as she disappeared from one screen her face appeared on another. His eyes widened as he took in her face.

“Anyone got an ID?” Someone yelled and Cole replied before anyone else could.

“That is Maddie Fucking Cooper.” He stated before looking over at the man across the room. Brandon. His right hand man, the Head of BlackWater.

“As in Homewell?”

“The same.” Cole replied.

“What the fuck is she doing there?”

Before he could answer they heard the gunshot, loud against one of the mics.

“Shots fired. I repeat shots fired.” The radio blasted and he met Brandon’s eye again.

“Send them in.” Brandon ordered. “Secure the scene.”

“And get that god damn girl.” Cole muttered.

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