FIFTY-FIVE
It was 7.20p.m. when Kim got the call that the car would be with her in ten minutes.
She grabbed her jacket and headed downstairs to catch a bit of fresh air before the squad car arrived. She still hadn’t shaken the meeting with John Dermot, and she seriously hoped that Megan Shaw had some time free in her schedule because Kim planned on sending every damaged soul they found her way.
She headed out of the building and zipped up her leather jacket. The temperature had taken a dive into the single figures.
She walked down to the wall that encircled the station so the squad car could just pull up on the road.
‘What the…?’ she exclaimed as a shadow rose up behind her.
Her heart leaped into her mouth as she swung her arm out and caught the figure in the stomach. Her heart was beating rapidly as a hand grabbed at her throat. She stumbled backwards but managed to stop herself from falling.
The smell of alcohol wafted towards her.
‘Stone, I want a fucking word with you.’
She grabbed the hand at her throat by the wrist and turned it.
‘Burns, what the hell do you think you’re playing at?’
He swayed to the left and then the right and then almost fell against her. She moved out of the way and let him fall to the ground.
He groaned and then looked up, trying to focus on her face.
The man was blind drunk.
She stood over him and peered down at him, making no effort to hide the disgust on her face. ‘You dare to try that on me after what happened, you stupid bastard!’
Suddenly, the anger infused her entire being. Rage tore through her whole body. How many more men were going to think they could put their hands on her and get away with it?
Her fists clenched, and every cell ached to punch the living shit out of him. It would be so easy to just let go. To let him have every ounce of frustration that had been festering inside her for the last two months.
‘You think you’re all that, Stone. You’ve got the respect of your superiors because you do everything right. You’re a sanctimonious, arse-crawling bitch that tries to make everyone else look stupid.’
‘I do my job, Burns. All of it. Not just the nice bits. Not just the bits that will get me noticed. Not just the soundbites or the press conferences. I bloody graft. I talk to people. I find out shit. I investigate. Looking stupid is something you’ve managed to achieve all on your own.’
‘Everyone knows you’re sucking the dick of—’
‘Now you’re reaching, Burns. You can say many things about me, but ain’t nobody gonna believe that shit.’
‘You threw me out the squad room,’ he said, sounding like a five-year-old who hadn’t been allowed a biscuit before bed.
‘Grow the hell up and take a good look at yourself. I’m not the reason you’re in Siberia with the brass. You messed up the Symes case and you didn’t even learn from that. You came tomyteam and carried on the way you always have, except people see you now for the lazy, arrogant shitbag you’ve always been, and no one wants you on their team.’
‘It’s all your fault. If you hadn’t offered yourself to that psycho I’d have caught him and I’d be—’
‘No you wouldn’t cos you’d have still found some way to mess it up. You were moved here because there was nowhere else to put you. But do you wanna know the irony of this? You could have redeemed yourself by now. If you’d just listened to the one person you were determined to belittle and treat like shit, you’d now be working on the biggest case of your career. The case was right in front of you, and the person who was trying to tell you was too busy making your tea.’
He sobered, realising that she was speaking the truth. Stacey had tried to get him to investigate the death of Jamie Mills and he’d refused to listen.
‘It’s all your fault,’ he repeated, demonstrating that neither drunk nor sober did he possess the ability to listen.
‘Oh, sort yourself out, you useless sack of shit,’ she said as the car pulled up at the entrance to the car park.
‘I’m not done with you yet, Stone,’ he called after her.
‘Next time come see me before you go to the pub. At least that way you’ll have a fighting chance,’ she said before getting into the car.