She headed towards the Bowl.
‘Thanks for taking the call-out last night, Stone,’ Burns said as she drew level with him. ‘But I can take it from here.’
She walked past him without saying a word. She wasn’t sure why he was trying to have a pissing contest with someone who hadn’t even taken their dick out. She had handed the case right to him.
She put down her helmet and smiled at the coffee that had already been placed on her desk. She’d been drinking the stuff since 4a.m. when the nightmares had triumphed again. It didn’t seem to matter how many miles her legs chewed up on the treadmill, the exhaustion wouldn’t see her through the dreams that brought her out of sleep with a racing heart and sweat running down her back. Eventually she’d outrun them or they’d get bored and leave her alone.
She switched on her computer as Burns began to speak. She was disappointed to see that there were still no names on the board.
‘Okay, people, it would appear that Keats made a mistake on the classification for the boy in the tree.’
Keats made a mistake.
The boy in the tree.
Kim tried to force down the irritation that was stabbing her insides.
When you fucked up, you admitted it.
‘Apparently the murder was staged to look like a suicide so it was an easy mistake for him to make.’
From the expressions on the faces of her team, they were having as much trouble swallowing this blame shifting as she was.
‘In addition, there was a second incident last night that may or may not be linked to the murder of tree boy.’
Kim felt the growl forming in her throat.
Tree boy.
Burns rubbed his hands together. ‘So, it looks like we might finally have a case worth investigating. Detective Inspector Stone will be offering desk support on this one.’
Desk support.
‘Bryant, I want you looking into the background of Jamie Whatsisname.’
Wrong.
‘Penn, start doing door to door around his address.’
Wrong.
‘Wood, start a log and go through all the statements to see what we missed.’
Wrong.
How the hell could the man not know how best to use the resources at his disposal after two months?
A movement from Stacey caught her eye. The constable leaned down and took a white envelope from her satchel. Her expression was anxious but determined.
Kim looked at the rest of her team. Penn looked confused but Bryant appeared sadly resigned.
What did Bryant know that Penn did not?
The answer came to her as Stacey began to speak.
‘DI Burns, before we go any further, may I have a private…?’
‘You can go now,’ Kim said from the door.