Burns turned to look at her. ‘Excuse me?’
‘Thanks for keeping my seat warm, but I can take it from here.’
Stunned silence filled the room as she folded her arms and met his gaze.
‘You’re on desk duties,’ he protested.
‘And I’m sure we’ll find some way to make that desk more mobile, but that’s not your concern. Please just take your herbal teas and go. We can do this the hard way or the easy way, but either way I’m taking my team back.’
His eyes darkened. ‘This is my investigation.’
‘Okay, the hard way. Burns, not one person in this room has an ounce of respect for you. You don’t know the team you’ve been tasked to manage and you treat them like shit. You were put here because the brass didn’t know what else to do with you. You’re lazy and ambitious to the point of incompetence.’
The rage flooding into his face did not slow her down. She’d given him the opportunity to go quietly.
‘You can’t investigate your way out of a paper bag without a map and a compass, which I can personally vouch for, and we have two victims who don’t need to be viewed as opportunities for career advancement.’
‘DCI Woodward will never allow you—’
‘It was DCI Woodward who told me to step back in when I was ready and, guess what, I’m ready.’
Burns looked around at the team and, not liking what he saw, grabbed his jacket from the back of the chair.
He paused at the door. ‘I’ll be back, Stone.’
‘Yeah, on your way, Arnie,’ she said as he disappeared from view.
Her team broke into a round of applause.
She held up her hand and shook her head.
It stopped.
She focussed her attention on the detective constable. ‘Anything in that envelope you’d like to share with me, Stace?’
‘No, boss,’ she said, ripping it in half and tossing it in the bin.
‘Okay, now things seem to have been a bit lax around here in my absence.’ She pointed to the spot where Stacey’s desk butted up to Penn’s. ‘If there’s no Tupperware box there tomorrow, I’ll bake something myself.’
‘Got it, boss,’ Penn said.
‘Oh, and, guys, do your own bloody filing,’ she said, glancing at Stacey’s desk.
Bryant wheeled over and took a pile as Penn reached across and did the same.
Before she did anything else, she had some explaining to do to Woody.
‘I’ll make the coffee, and you’ve all got five minutes to shake him off. After that it’s back to work. Play time is over.’
SEVENTEEN
It took a little more than five minutes to give Woody the highlights and assure him she was fit to lead the investigation. What they did with Burns now was their problem, but at 7.34a.m. her inbox pinged the arrival of confirmation that she was named senior investigating officer in the case of Jamie Mills and the unknown female.
Kim took her fresh coffee out to the squad room. The team had put her firefighting time to good use. Jamie’s name was back on the board along with the term ‘unknown female’, which was something she wanted changed as soon as possible. Every victim had a name and every victim had lived a life, however briefly.
‘Okay, let’s get started. Stace, your gut was right about wanting to pursue Jamie’s death so remember that. According to his mum, Jamie was a solitary guy prone to mood swings and introspection. We can’t rule out mental-health problems; his moods deteriorated further after a serious bike-riding accident a couple of years ago. He wasn’t living at home, so it’s important to find out where he’s been and who he’s been with. Right now, we have absolutely no motive for the murder of either of our victims.’
Kim didn’t yet want to elaborate on her feelings of unease surrounding Jamie’s mother. She may have judged her too harshly, which she’d be finding out later today.