Old Blood: The Hotly Anticipated And Relentless Third Instalment (DI Jamie Johansson Book 3) by Morgan Greene

Author:Morgan Greene [Greene, Morgan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mercury Books
Published: 2021-09-29T22:00:00+00:00

32

Simpson was sitting back in his chair, his hand on his forehead, eyes closed. ‘So you’re saying you think Stieg Lange is alive… based on… his wife saying that she “gave him up”?’ He looked at Jamie, who was leaning against his desk.

‘Yes,’ Jamie said, nodding.

‘You realise that isn’t proof, right? It’s not anything. In fact, it’s exactly nothing.’ Simpson laughed a little.

Jamie drew a slow breath, keeping herself calm. ‘You can believe me or not, but I’m telling you, Lange is alive. And his wife knows it.’

‘But she didn’t tell you?’ Simpson said. ‘She didn’t say anything close. She declared him dead as well, right?’

‘You know she did,’ Jamie said, keeping her voice even.

‘So then I don’t understand what we’re talking about.’ He met Jamie’s eye. ‘Because we have a plan, don’t we? One we agreed on. One which you pretty much formulated yourself. Which includes a set of carefully measured steps that take us from where we are now – which is nowhere – to being in Emma Hagen’s face and getting her to roll on Imperium.’

‘That was before I spoke to Nina Lange,’ Jamie said. ‘Now the plan has changed.’

‘No,’ Simpson said, cutting the air with his hand. ‘The plan hasn’t changed. The plan is solid. All you have is a hunch based on something that a grieving, half-drunk woman said. Hallberg?’ he called then.

Hallberg, who was sitting at her desk, stiffened a little behind Jamie.

Simpson went on. ‘You were there, what do you think?’

‘Don’t drag her into this,’ Jamie snapped. ‘Don’t put her in the middle.’

‘I have to, Jamie. Because all of our evidence says one thing – as did your calculated decision based on it – that Stieg Lange is dead. And that’s what the whole investigation hinges on. And yet, you get in a room with the first person we needed to speak to, and five minutes later, you want to flip this whole thing on its head. So yeah, I am pulling Hallberg into this, because I’m hoping she’s going to be the voice of reason here. I didn’t think you’d be the gut-feelings-and-hunches kind of detective – I was under the impression you knew how investigative work was actually done.’

Hallberg cleared her throat, holding her hand up. ‘It may not be solid, but…’ She glanced at Jamie, then back at Simpson. ‘… she’s rarely wrong about this kind of thing.’

‘But not infallible,’ Simpson added.

Jamie kept quiet.

Simpson let the tension ease slightly before he spoke again. ‘Whether Lange is alive or not, we don’t have the resources to pursue that right now. So we stay on course, and on topic. Because whether his wife and he concocted it, or Imperium snatched him up and dumped him in a ditch, the intel suggests that he was approached, refused their offer, and then disappeared as a result. From where I’m sitting, the facts remain unchanged, and Emma Hagen remains the prime target here.’

‘But if we can find Lange,’ Jamie said, ‘he’s far more likely to cooperate.

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