Fearful Symmetry: A DCI Will Blake Novel by J.E. Mayhew

Author:J.E. Mayhew [Mayhew, J.E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Obolus Books
Published: 2020-07-16T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 23

Ross Armitage held up his phone and grinned, bracing himself for the flash. Looking down at the result, he grimaced and flicked through the filters. Another notification from Twitter popped up and he smiled again. Flicking onto it.

“YISSS!” He hissed, punching the air. “At last. A bloody retweet from Emerald Fisher!”

Emerald had been his co-host on Searchlight and had gone on to greater things; she’d done a couple of stints on the One Show and reinvented herself as a healthy eating guru. She was never off Breakfast Television, or any number of variants of Bake-off.

Another ping told him that hardman TV presenter Troy Griffin had retweeted, too. Once one of them did it, they all would; fearful of missing out on the tiniest glimmer of reflected limelight. This was doing his profile no harm at all.

The impromptu press conference had been a masterstroke. Ross had been following the Hilbre Grove case in the locals and a few of his old contacts in the force had given him some juicy morsels of gossip. When Blake turned up at his front gate, Ross hadn’t hesitated to phone the press and tell them to get down here right away. Once Blake had wrestled his way through the crowd of eager journalists, Ross had sauntered out of the gate behind him and held up his hands for calm.

He told them there had been a few developments in the case, that he was working with Blake in an advisory capacity and couldn’t divulge any details; then he went on to divulge all the details he’d picked up from his sources at Canning Place. He dropped in the killer’s apparent fixation with Blake; maybe garnishing it with a few exaggerations.

Ross looked at the selfie he’d taken on the doorstep before Blake left; it was perfect. Blake looked suitably morose in the shot, almost downtrodden whereas Armitage positively shone. The actual tweet had said, ‘The dream team together once more. Watch out criminals!’ He’d posted a few different tweets, same picture but new text: ‘The Fun-Loving Crime busters’ was one of his favourites as Blake’s hangdog face screamed anything but fun. It made them seem like characters from a buddy movie; Armitage was the wild cheery one. He stood up and looked in the mirror, imagining himself as Mel Gibson to Blake’s Danny Glover in Lethal Weapon. Ross gave a white smile and nodded; he was good-looking enough and he certainly drank as much. It was time for a relaunch. He was sick of those voice-overs; playing to the crowd of boomers, sitting in their living rooms, drunk on the Friday night bottle of red and terrified of the chavs they watched and sneered at.

Armitage sat down again. He had dismissed social media at first. Once he saw how Emerald Fisher had nailed it with her healthy eating YouTube channel, he’d changed his mind. It was so frustrating trying to catch up with it all.

‘Be genuine’ his people had told him. ‘Just be yourself’ but Armitage knew that would never work.

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