Little Boy Blue

100

‘You’re going to have to handle it on your own.’

‘I can’t go out there without an SIO. I’m a bloody Media Liaison Officer.’

‘Then do your job – liaise with the media,’ Gardam replied curtly.

‘Not having DI Grace is one thing – I’m used to that – but I can’t go out there without you. They’ll smell a rat and call me on it.’

‘Then find Brooks or Sanderson.’

‘Believe me, I’ve tried. And next time – fyi – I would appreciate a call rather than an email. Bailing at the last minute is not on -’

‘But it’s happening, so get over it. This is not a fucking debate.’

DS Maddy Wicket looked sufficiently put out for Gardam now to soften his tone.

‘Look at me. I can’t face them like this.’

Maddy stared at the scratches on his right cheek.

‘What happened?’

‘Thought I’d go for a run to make a change from the police gym. Ran straight into a bloody branch and now I look like I’ve been mugged. Hardly the best advert for local policing.’

Maddy wanted to disagree but even she saw that Gardam was right.

‘We could cancel, if you want,’ Gardam suggested. ‘Unless you want to knock it back a couple of hours and try and raise Brooks in the meantime?’

Predictably Maddy now latched on to this. She loved nothing more than riding to the rescue and started to run through their options. Gardam nodded, but he was no longer listening. He was back in the interview suite with Helen.

She had come to him. She had worked him hard, appearing frosty and defensive at first, but that had all been part of her game. Slowly she had unpeeled herself and in the last few weeks she had come on to him directly. You don’t tell a man that kind of thing without expecting a reaction. It was an explicit invitation and when he acted on it, she’d attacked him.

Was she running scared? Was it because he was married? No, her reaction was far too aggressive to be explained like that. In other circumstances, he would have had her up on an assault charge, but he couldn’t do that here. Had she done this kind of thing before? He rather suspected she had. Her previous boss had been a woman but the one before that had been a man. He had left suddenly having crossed swords with her – had she tricked him in the same fashion?

She needed saving from herself – she wanted to be saved – and she’d led him to believe that he was the man to do so. He loved her pain, but wanted to purge her of it, to protect her from the darkness out there. He had always thought of her as an injured bird requiring warmth, comfort and love. But now he knew that Helen Grace was nothing more than a heartless prick tease.