Leo looks over Ffion’s shoulder. “I see Caleb’s got previous convictions.”
“Cut his teeth at eleven with shoplifting, then graduated to theft from person. He’s currently wearing an electronic monitoring tag. He got a three-month curfew and a two-year supervision order after he and a mate robbed a petrol station.”
“Charming. How about the others?”
“Bobby Stafford’s got a bit of historic stuff—all before he got famous, and mostly breach-of-the-peace stuff. Everyone else is clear. Jonty Charlton—no convictions—refused elims. Doesn’t trust us to destroy them, blah blah blah. One of those who rants about CCTV and ID cards but hands over all his personal data to Facebook. He won’t give a voluntary interview either.Either I’m a suspect or I’m not,” Ffion mimics. “And if I’m not a suspect, why should I be interrogated?”
“I hate people like that.”
“Me too.”
“I hope he did it.”
“Me too.”
They grin at each other, and Leo thinks what a shame it is that after this job, they’ll go their separate ways. Leo hasn’t clicked like this with a colleague for a long time.
With anyone, come to think of it.
A name on the elim list catches his eye and he points at the screen.Seren Morgan. “Any relation?”
Ffion closes the file. “My sister.”
“Your sister was at the party?”
“To be fair, I’m related to at least half the people on this list, so…”
“It says she refused to give elims.” Around them, people start standing and picking up notebooks, and Leo looks at his watch.
“You know what teenagers are like,” Ffion says. “It’s allhashtag defund the policeandWhere are my civil liberties?Come on. We’re going to be late.”
They follow the trickle of people down a narrow corridor lined with framed certificates. Ffion takes them in as they pass, and Leo hopes she’ll lose interest before they get to—
“It’s you!” She stops abruptly, reading the commendation out loud. “For his brave and selfless actions while off duty, resulting in the apprehension of a violent offender.”
Short of pushing past her, Leo has nowhere to go, so he nods shortly and stares at the wall.
“Wow.Da iawn, mate. Closest I’ve ever come to a commendation is a letter from a councilor saying I was a great help in addressing the dog-fouling problem around the village hall.” She grins. “Shit, right?”
“Yeah, well.” Leo nods toward the briefing room. “We should…”
They gave him his own framed copy. Leo wanted to smash it, but he isn’t the dramatic type, so instead it’s in a box in what should be Harris’s room.
Brave and selfless?That’s not what Allie called him.
“Are you coming in or what?” Crouch shouts. Leo and Ffion join the others around the long, wide table. “Hey—” The DI nods toward Leo as he addresses the rest of the room. “How do you make a man from Liverpool run faster? Stick a DVD player under his arm!”
There’s a ripple of good-natured laughter around the room, and what else can Leo do but laugh too? He feels Ffion’s eyes on him.
“And this must be our Welsh representative.”
“DC Ffion Morgan, sir.”
“Sorry you’ve ended up working with Lard Arse.”
Leo can’t bring himself to laugh this time. He shouldn’t care what Ffion thinks of him, but it seems he does.
“Don’t put yourself down, sir.” Ffion smiles sweetly. “I’m sure you’re just big-boned.”