Mitch guy to be more careful when he’s carrying plastic evidence bags around. I have zoom on my camera, you know.’
‘Fuck, Frost, you said there was a leak in—’
‘Yeah, I ain’t all nice, you know. You guys pissed me off.’
‘We all square now?’ Kim asked, aware they used Frost when it suited them, and for once she’d done the right thing by them.
‘For now,’ she said, putting her notepad away.
‘How long until it’s live?’ Kim asked.
‘The article will be online within the hour and in the early print edition tomorrow afternoon.’
Kim prayed Noah was searching online. Every hour that passed where she didn’t receive a call to attend the body of a young boy offered another sliver of hope that they could get Archie back unharmed.
Her phone rang again, reminding her that she had to go back and face the music.
But not before she’d played some music of her own.
Sixty-One
‘Alison. Bowl. Now,’ Kim said as she entered the squad room.
‘Boss, she—’
‘Not now, Stace,’ Kim snapped. Her rage had been building as she’d mounted the stairs.
Alison closed the door behind her.
‘What the fuck did you think you were doing?’
‘I got it wrong. I’m sorry. I realised as soon as you’d left—’
‘But you didn’t get it wrong, did you, Alison? I could almost forgive you that because people make mistakes, but you read that statement and you knew it was the wrong way to go. You, who have been studying the crimes, the methodology as well as the letters, knew I was being steered wrong and you said nothing.’
The miserable expression on the woman’s face did nothing to soften Kim’s rage. ‘What do you think could have happened to Archie if I’d read that bloody statement? I’m pretty damn certain he’d be coming back in a fucking body bag, and I also know that you knew that. You wanna come with me to tell his family, cos that’s my job, Alison. That’s my consequence when I get it wrong.’
‘I’m sorry. I tried to—’
‘Too fucking late, Alison. I need your opinion when I bloody well ask for it, not once the damage has been done. I didn’t ask for your help here because you’re shit at what you do. I asked for your help because you’ve always had the balls to tell me when I’m wrong. I rarely listen, but at least you’ve got the courage of your convictions. Or at least you did have.’ Kim paused for breath as the face grew even more miserable.
‘Look, I know you’re not being paid to do this. You agreed to help and that makes this conversation all the harder, but free service or not, if I can’t trust you to use and share your expertise then there’s no point—’
‘If anything happens to that little boy, I’ll never—’
‘I didn’t use it,’ Kim said, relieving her of some of her misery.
‘You didn’t?’
‘I didn’t agree with it, so I’ve taken another route. The onus is now on me, but seriously, Alison, dipping your toe in this thing is no good to us. Either get back on the horse or get out of the fucking stable. Your choice,’ Kim said, opening the door back into the squad room.
She’d said all she needed to say and right now she had to go suffer an arse-chewing of her own.
Sixty-Two
Kim had barely swallowed down her own anger by the time she walked into the full force of someone else’s. Her own was rooted in a person’s inability to make a decision, but the rage she faced was because she had.
‘Do not let my calm exterior fool you that I am anything less than furious right now,’ Woody said as she walked in the door.
‘Sir, if you’ll just let—’
‘Let you what, Stone? Get away with bloody murder? Deliberately disobey a direct instruction from your superior? Decide your own course of action regardless of expert advice? Let you think you know better than everyone you meet despite their education, experience and credentials? What exactly do you think I should let you do?’
Oh, this was a tricky one. Should she try and insert her point of view and reasoning into the centre of his rage or let him shout it out and explain herself later?
She knew which was the safer option. Just let him get it all out, remain quiet and non-confrontational. That’s what she should do.
‘If you want the truth, I’m just as pissed off at you, sir,’ she shot back. Waiting her turn had never been her strong point.
His head reared backwards, and