Nothing makes sense. My brain won’t catch up and help me. I don’t remember anything.
I feel the sudden urge to urinate. I try to tense my body to hold it in. I tell myself to wait, but the urine flows from me. Circles of shame heat my cheeks as the liquid soaks my crotch. My body isn’t listening. It’s as though the messages from my brain to the rest of my body aren’t being sent. It feels like I’m throwing a letter into an open fire. There’s no route, no channel, no track for the instruction to go. It won’t do as I say. It wants to rest. It wants to sleep.
I try to yank my wrists apart. My hands barely move. The effort exhausts me. The struggle to think exhausts me.
I must stay awake.
I must work out where I am.
I must understand what happened.
A wave of fatigue washes over me.
I give in and close my eyes.
SIX
Penn was still scouring the reports when Stacey came back into the squad room, and he readied himself for the friction.
‘Sorted?’ Burns asked as Stacey took a seat.
‘All a bit weird, sir. Perfectly normal, happily married man leaves the house and never returns.’
‘You don’t know if he’s happily married,’ Burns said. ‘Probably had a row over the kids and he’s gone to cool off with a friend.’
‘No kids and apparently no friends,’ Stacey said, shrugging.
‘Don’t get smart, Wood,’ Burns said, raising an eyebrow.
‘Her words not mine,’ Stacey replied.
Burns began to shake his head. ‘File the report and pass on the description.’
‘Sir, I think it’s worth a look,’ Stacey protested.
Penn held his breath. It was normally at this point of pushing that Burns either snapped at Stacey or delegated the role to someone else. Both wound her up equally.
Burns closed his mouth, breathed through his nose a couple of times and then turned.
‘Penn, get the details from Wood and go to his workplace. Ask a few questions and leave it at that.’
Penn saw the rage flash through his colleague’s eyes.
‘Sir, I’d love to but this dodgy stomach,’ he said, patting his gut. ‘Daren’t be too far away from a bathroom right now. It’s just exploding out of—’
‘Okay, Penn, enough,’ Burns said as Bryant turned away to hide a smile.
‘All right, Wood, go get some details from his workplace and pass them to Penn, who can follow up from the safety of his desk.’
Stacey gathered up her belongings and was out of the office before he changed his mind.
Burns rubbed his hands together. ‘Penn, you got…?’
‘Just seen something on the logs. Female found dead in her living room in Walsall – called in just fifteen minutes ago.’
Burns grabbed his jacked despite the fact Walsall had its own CID teams and was nothing to do with their local policing unit.
‘Get a car to meet me out front,’ he said, tearing out the room.