Dead Scared

I DROVE BACK to St John’s, parked the car and jumped out, knowing that if I didn’t run I’d be late for my first lecture. All around me, people had the same idea. Bikes were speeding past, people hurrying through the rear gates. Just one solitary figure wasn’t moving. A tall man, padded coat concealing his muscular build, woollen hat pulled down over his ears, was leaning against one of the gate’s pillars.

I needed to touch base with Evi before I went out again, find out the latest on Jessica. I also wanted to check emails.

The man in the padded jacket straightened up when he saw me coming and stepped into my path. I slowed down.

Turquoise eyes were looking directly into mine. Don’t give him a chance, I told myself. Get in there first. Ask him where the hell he’s been, how he can just abandon you like that. I couldn’t say a word. All I could do was to look into his eyes and wish something large and heavy would fall down from the old building and knock me into oblivion. I stopped three feet away and waited for him to start. It was going to be bad. He was going to say things I’d never be able to forget.

‘Good morning,’ Joesbury said. ‘How are you?’

‘Fine,’ I replied, still bracing myself for the blow. ‘You?’

He actually smiled. ‘Couldn’t be better,’ he said. ‘New orders for you, Flint. Go to your room, pack your bags and drive yourself back to London. Report to the Yard nine o’clock tomorrow for a debrief.’

It took me a second to take it in. ‘I’m not sure I …’

‘Don’t contact your room-mate, Dr Oliver, or any of the people in college. Above all, don’t attempt to contact Nick Bell. If you do, we’ll know.’

I’d expected it to be bad. I hadn’t expected this.

‘What’s going on?’

He sighed and looked at his watch. ‘You’re off the case,’ he said. ‘I want you out of Cambridge within the hour.’

‘Oh, screw you, Joesbury.’

OK, that wasn’t wise, I know that, but I wasn’t having him pulling rank on me when we both knew what this was about. He barely blinked. ‘Excuse me?’ he said.

‘You can’t kick me off the case because I spent the night with someone.’

And then he laughed. ‘Get over yourself, Flint,’ he said. ‘The only interest I have in your boyfriend is that he’s taken your mind off the job and seriously jeopardized your cover. The decision’s made.’

‘There’s something I need to tell you,’ I began.

He held up one hand. ‘Save it for the Yard, Flint. That’ll be soon enough.’

I wasn’t going to win this. I had to turn and leave now if I wanted to retain any shred of dignity. But I took a step closer. I could smell coffee on his breath.

‘I think you need a reality check,’ I said. ‘Students have sex. They’re known for it. My room-mate never sleeps in her own bed.’

He leaned away as though I still had morning breath. I probably did. ‘No, I’m giving you a reality check,’ he said. ‘Sending you here was a massive mistake. You’ve disobeyed orders from the moment you arrived. You’ve persistently run around like some sort of demented Nancy Drew, poking your nose in everywhere and threatening to jeopardize months of work. Your antics yesterday were the last straw.’

Three girls passing looked at us curiously. It was pretty obvious to everyone in the vicinity that we were rowing. I didn’t care. Something he’d just said had made my ears prick up like a fox hound’s.

‘What do you mean, months of work?’

For the first time, he couldn’t look me in the eye. ‘You have nothing like the focus needed for this sort of operation,’ he said to the snow at our feet. ‘I want your bags packed in thirty minutes.’

‘What do you mean, months of work? What the hell is going on here?’

He turned away, tried to walk off. I wasn’t having it. I grabbed his arm and pulled him back.

He took a deep breath. ‘Take your hands off me,’ he said, ‘or I’ll stick you on.’

Stick me on meant make an official complaint. I was past caring. I stepped closer. ‘What job have I taken my mind off?’ I insisted. ‘What exactly is the job here, Joesbury? Every time I send you information, you tell me to butt out, that I’m not investigating, that there’s nothing to investigate, to keep my eyes open and my head down. Now you’re telling me I’ve messed up months of work.’

Getting this close gave him the perfect opportunity to look down and sneer. ‘How come every time we get close, you stink of another man?’

I was going to break his nose for that the second I had a chance. In the meantime …

‘Women are being drugged and abused and raped,’ I said. ‘They’re disappearing from college and turning up seriously fucked up. Then they’re dying. Someone is doing this and you know it, don’t you? But every time I try to help, you say the same thing. Don’t interfere, don’t ask questions, just keep up the good-looking fruitcake act … Wait a minute …’

As my hands released him, Joesbury stepped back. He dropped his eyes to the ground and ran a hand over his face.

‘You set me up,’ I said.

‘Lacey …’

‘I’m bait,’ I said, and half of me was praying he’d deny it. ‘That’s it, isn’t it? I can’t believe you’d do that to me again.’

Even I knew enough about undercover work to know that officers were never sent into operations without being fully apprised of the facts. Joesbury had broken a major rule by keeping me in the dark. He turned his back on me and looked up at the sky. I watched his shoulders rise and fall and knew that I’d have done it anyway, if he’d asked. But to know he’d put me in danger without even …

‘You put me in Bryony’s room, made me as conspicuous as possible,’ I said. ‘You know what’s going on here. You know why women are ending up dead. When would you have stepped in, sir? When my corpse came floating down the Cam?’

He turned back. The skin around his eyes was red. ‘Lacey, I wanted to tell you,’ he said. ‘I have to obey orders too.’

I’d never heard Joesbury sound pathetic before. ‘I’m next on the list, aren’t I?’ I said. ‘Jessica will turn up dead sometime in the next couple of days and then it’s my turn. I’ve already had the college hazing ritual and the weird hallucinogenic dreams. Evi thought I’d been drugged two days ago. I told her she was wrong. Looks like she wasn’t.’

His face stiffened. ‘What do you mean, you’ve been drugged?’

‘Oh, like you didn’t know. Apparently I was displaying all the symptoms of recreational drug use. As was Bryony, as were Nicole and Jessica. I have no idea how they do it, but you know, don’t you? You know!’

Joesbury pulled himself together. He stepped closer, took my arm and started to frogmarch me down the path. ‘OK, I need you to stop yelling now, Flint. They’d never have targeted you this quickly. If you really have been drugged, it means they know who you are. Who have you told?’

So now everything was my fault. ‘No one, you prat. Evi knows, that’s all.’

‘What about your boyfriend?’

‘Thinks I’m Laura Farrow.’

‘This is serious. You’re leaving now.’ He half walked, half dragged me back to where I’d left the car and waited while I opened it up.

‘Go to the Yard now,’ he told me. ‘Report to DCI Phillips. I’ll meet you there later.’

‘What about my room?’ I said. ‘My stuff?’

‘I’ll sort it. Now go.’

I got into the car, started the engine and looked at him. Maybe I wanted to see if he really meant it. He raised one arm and pointed in the direction of the M11. He did. He was an arrogant, unreasonable bastard but he was my senior officer. I started the engine and drove along the road without looking back. As I turned the corner, my phone rang. It was Evi.

‘Can you meet me at the hospital?’ she said. ‘I’m on my way there now. Jessica’s turned up.’