Читать книгу Hush Hush - Mel Sherratt - Страница 17

By the time they got back to the office, it was nearing lunchtime. Grace had nipped into the nearby supermarket to grab something to eat. Once at her seat, she held up a bag of sugar-coated doughnuts.

‘These will keep us going.’ She smiled as eager hands reached out. ‘Anything we should know, Sam?’ she asked as she logged into her computer again.

‘Yes, but I’m making coffee if we have snacks.’ Sam raised her mug in the air. ‘Anyone want one?’

Grace was unsure whether Sam was joking or not. She had asked for information and she expected to get it. She gave the older woman a look, and Sam sat down sheepishly before adding: ‘The entrance to the side road the gym is situated on isn’t covered by city CCTV or traffic cams. I’ve contacted their control room to see if we can get some footage sent over so that I can analyse whose cars were on the main road around the time of the murder.’ Sam picked up a piece of paper and held it in the air. ‘I’ve already got a list of registration numbers, which I’ve started on. It only covers the last hour of opening times, but it’s a start.’

‘Does anyone’s name stick out?’ Grace asked.

‘Quite a few I know, but nothing that jumps off the page.’

‘Great, thanks.’ Grace nodded her approval. ‘Someone needs to check the signing-in register too, see who came in and out and at what times – see if it tallies with statements.’

‘I’m on to that,’ Alex said. ‘Although I suppose it’s dependent on everyone actually signing in and out when they say they do, seeing as there are no cameras to back anything up.’

DC Alex Challinor was the final member of Grace’s team. Alex had joined their office less than two years ago and, according to Allie, had rocked the boat immensely. He was married with teenage children and, at forty-five, was ten years older than Grace. He liked to think he had a look of Tom Hardy – she thought he had nothing of the sort – and policed with old-school tactics, which no one on the Major Crimes Team agreed with.

Even with the heads-up, Grace had tried not to take an instant dislike to him, but there was something about his mannerisms that made her suspicious. Still, she’d been fooled by people before; in her past job, some had put up a front of arrogance that she hadn’t liked and then, after a few weeks working together, her opinion had changed when they had mellowed and got to know each other. So, for now, she was willing to keep an open mind.

‘Indeed.’ Grace nodded. ‘Okay, Sam. Mine is one sugar please.’

Sam’s smile was faint, making Grace realise that she had been joking when she said she was going to make coffee before giving Grace what she needed. The Stoke sense of humour was taking her a while to adapt to. Its residents were more self-deprecating than those where she’d come from. A very friendly folk, but sometimes she didn’t know whether someone was kidding or not, so it was hard to join in.

She had also felt a need to assert herself during those early weeks, because if she became known as an easy boss, she’d never win over their respect.

Grace had only taken one bite into her sandwich before Nick was calling to her from the entrance to his office.

‘Grace, can I have a word?’

Her shoulders drooped at his sombre tone. She stood up, quickly wiping her mouth and fingers with a napkin before walking across the room. Inside his office, Detective Chief Inspector Jenny Brindley was sitting in Nick’s chair behind his desk. Jenny had been responsible for the Major Crimes Team for two years now, since the last DCI had retired. According to Allie, Jenny was one of the good people. She was fair, but she didn’t like the bending of rules in the slightest. She never turned a blind eye and was definitely not old-school. She was more like brand-new shiny school – dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s to get a good job done. Grace much preferred those tactics, which was why she was immediately wondering what she had done wrong.

‘Take a seat, Grace.’ Nick pointed to a chair as he shut the door.

Grace did as she was told, nervous at the tension she could feel all around her. Nick sat down beside her.

Jenny leaned forward and clasped her hands together on the desk. ‘It’s come to my attention that you are involved in the Josh Parker case,’ she said.

‘I am, yes.’ Grace’s heart sank.

‘And we are aware from your records that you are related to the Steele family.’

‘We share the same father, but that’s the only relevance.’

‘Yes, we know that you’ve come clean to us about your connections.’ She raised a hand when Grace was about to speak again. ‘I’m conscious that you don’t have anything to do with them, and I understand you aired concerns before you arrived in Stoke, which is correct procedure.’

Grace felt herself holding her body stiff and tried to relax. It was like being in school again, getting grilled by a teacher. Not that she’d been told off too many times. She’d always been the quiet one in the class who didn’t have many close friends, always handed in her homework on time and got awarded good grades.

‘I think this is too sensitive for you and I’d prefer you to work on something else,’ Jenny said.

‘Oh, but—’ Grace said.

‘I think she’ll do fine working it.’ Nick sat forward to protest. ‘Grace is good at her job, Jenny. From what I’ve seen so far, she’s handled things with professionalism, respect and, I suppose, courage. It can’t have been easy to roll up there and investigate the way she did, let alone run a team.’

Jenny smiled. ‘I do like the faith you have in Grace, Nick.’

‘It’s not just me. You remember she did extremely well on the Caudwell case last year, which is why she came so highly recommended?’

The Caudwell case Nick was referring to was one Grace had found herself immersed in when she’d been first on call to visit a frantic woman whose estranged partner had turned up and wouldn’t let go of their two-year-old son. The child was screaming to go to his mother and Craig Caudwell was threatening to harm him if things didn’t go his way. In the end, it had been just him, Grace and little Henry in the room, but she had brought the child out in her own arms unharmed before negotiators were needed.

‘Yes, I remember.’ Jenny raised her eyebrows in mock surprise.

‘She’s a good worker. She’s estranged from the Steeles and I don’t think she should be removed from the case because of a slight connection.’

‘It’s not actually a slight connection,’ Jenny stated.

Grace shuffled in her chair. They were talking as if she wasn’t in the room.

‘If we took every officer away from a case that they were related to someone on, we would have no one left to police anything,’ Nick went on. ‘Lots of officers have bad blood in their families. It’s the reason why some of them join the force. But they still do an effective job.’

‘And they are taken off cases when they involve direct family members,’ Jenny remarked. ‘It’s a conflict of interest and can be open to corruption too.’

Grace thought it was time to speak out. ‘With all due respect, Ma’am, I had no intentions of ever getting in touch with the Steele family. I was aware they were on my patch, I told you about it and I knew, with their connections, I would more than likely bump into them one day. But I handled the meeting professionally. I don’t have any allegiance to them. I won’t let anything interfere with my work.’

The room dropped into silence. Grace could almost hear the cogs working inside the DCI’s head. She held her breath, waiting for her to speak again.

‘Very well said, Grace.’ Jenny nodded her approval. ‘But it still doesn’t change the fact that you are on a case with members of your family involved.’

‘Which could work to our advantage,’ Nick stressed.

Both women looked his way.

‘We have someone who might get a little closer than normal.’

‘Absolutely not.’ Jenny shook her head. ‘Look, I’m not happy about this, but realistically we are pulled all over the place at the moment, what with budget cuts and several officers on sick leave. You can continue to work on this for now, until another DS becomes available. I do think your skills are best utilised on this, but when you visit Steele’s Gym, I want you to take someone along. I don’t want you to end up in court unable to defend yourself. Is that clear?’

‘Yes, Ma’am.’ Grace gulped under the woman’s ferocious stare.

Jenny pointed at Nick and then to herself. ‘We’ll get it in the neck if you step out of line. Do you understand?’

Grace nodded. ‘I won’t let you down.’

‘That’s good to hear.’ Jenny got up from her chair. ‘I’ll leave you to it.’

Once she’d gone, Grace blew out the breath she’d been holding and looked at Nick. ‘I thought she was going to remove me.’

‘She may very well have to,’ Nick replied. ‘But she’s given us a bit of leeway for now.’

‘It’s risky though, isn’t it?’

‘I still think we could use your connection to our advantage.’ Nick paused. ‘Are you up for it, if we keep it between us? See what you can get from them that we can use?’

‘But the DCI said—’

‘What Jenny doesn’t know won’t hurt her, and it’s on my head if it gets out.’

‘I don’t want to lose my job.’ Grace wasn’t so sure. ‘I’ve only just got here.’

‘Yes, yes, I know that.’ Nick waved away her concern. ‘I just think it will be good to get you close to them. We’re under pressure following our failure to solve George Steele’s murder. And because of that, Eddie and Leon are beginning to cause more and more issues in the city. I need someone to keep an eye on them.’

Even without getting into trouble, it had been weird seeing them all this morning. Grace didn’t want to be associated with them in any way, but she knew how hard that was going to be with her curiosity fighting to find out more about them. So, if she was going to be working close to them for the next few days, she might as well learn all she could, both on a professional and a personal level.

‘I’ll give it a shot.’ She nodded.

‘Great. Report anything back to me first. Keep it between us. And be careful.’ Nick stood up. ‘Team briefing is at six thirty. I’ll need to do a press release before that, and then we can regroup and see where we are. If everyone on the list hasn’t been contacted by then, you and the team can get on to it tonight.’

Grace nodded, knowing that it was going to be a long evening. ‘We’ve made a start on gathering intel on Parker. He’s obviously well known in the area and I’m catching up with what we have.’

‘I’m sure your team can fill you in with everything necessary.’ Nick nodded his head towards the door. ‘Off you go, Sergeant.’

Grace left the room and sighed with relief. As she scuttled back to her chair, all eyes fell on her. For now, she was home and dry, but she would definitely have to watch her step gathering intel for Nick. There was no way she was going to be removed from this case.