Dangerous Echoes by Leisl Leighton

Author:Leisl Leighton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Escape Publishing

Chapter Twelve

Superintendent Katherine Stuart was pissed. Majorly pissed.

Hartley wished she was a yeller like the superintendant in charge of his old station in Sydney. That would have been easier to deal with. Her cold disappointment in him and how he’d ignored a direct order to help Erika flout the rules made him feel like crawling from the office and back into the swamp from which he must have originated. The only thing that saved him from immediate suspension was the fact that Erika had gone over the Boss’s head and now had permission to work on the case, not to mention the folder she’d given him with the findings that proved murder.

If there were two things Katherine Stuart didn’t like more than being ignored and overridden, they were drugs cropping up in her town and the murder of Echo Springs’s citizens.

She sat in her high-backed chair, greying hair pulled back into a tight bun, her lips held in a steady line as she looked at the papers in front of her. After a long moment, she lifted her head. ‘She is certain?’

‘She would stake her reputation on her conclusions—and that’s saying something.’

Katherine waved her hand. ‘Yes, yes. I’ve read her file.’ She splayed her hands flat over the report, her gaze flinty. ‘So, this is a murder investigation.’ Her lips pursed. ‘You have put me in a difficult position, Detective Senior Constable.’

‘I know. And I’m sorry for it.’

She tipped her head. ‘Are you?’ Her gaze was assessing. ‘I think you are sorry for disobeying my orders, but as far as the rest…’ She let out a harsh breath that could have been a laugh, except he knew her good humour would have fled to the Simpson Desert the moment she’d heard what he’d done. ‘With Detective Charles on stress leave, we have nobody here with enough experience to take the lead in a murder investigation.’

‘I am more than happy to take the lead.’

‘I’m sure you are.’ Her sarcasm was sharp enough to draw blood, but he stood still, hands behind his back, ready and willing to take whatever punishment she decreed was fitting for his crime. ‘I know you couldn’t stop Ms Hanson from calling her boss and going behind our backs, but there is still the little matter of you disobeying a direct order and helping her to do the autopsy before it was approved. If I give you this case, it would be tantamount to a pat on the back for a job well done. I really should put a request through for a detective from Dubbo or Sydney to come and take on this case.’

Ice ran down his back. He didn’t want to lose this case, he couldn’t. He had to be the one to work with Erika. He didn’t let any of that show though. ‘I understand.’

‘However, there’s the matter of what Ms Hanson has written here.’ She held up a piece of paper. ‘She states that she would prefer you to be the investigating officer

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