Prey by Vanda Symon

Author:Vanda Symon
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Orenda Books
Published: 2024-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 28

‘Well done out there. You did a great job summarising the case, considering.’

Smithy and I were manoeuvring around each other in the kitchenette, making comfort drinks after the fiasco that had been the morning briefing. Well, I was making tea like a normal person while he made his special blend of tragic coffee.

‘Thanks,’ I said.

‘Look, I’m sorry, I didn’t know he was going to pull a stunt like that, otherwise I would have warned you so you had time to prepare.’ I watched, slightly appalled, as he stirred three teaspoonfuls of sugar into the overly milky brew. It was moments like this that reinforced why I was a coffee snob. It was café flat whites only for me. There was no level of desperation that would make me go for instant crap, especially diabetes-inducing instant crap.

‘Yeah, well, we all know his favourite game is Slam-a-Sam. You’d think, considering he was the one who asked me to reopen this bloody case in the first place, he’d be a little more supportive rather than trashing me in public.’

‘Sorry, how long have you worked here?’

‘Yeah, fair point. You’d think I’d have learned by now.’

Smithy gave small chuckle. ‘It backfired though. You nailed it on the fly.’

We retreated along the corridor to the CIB room. For once I managed to get my drink back to the office without slopping some on the carpet, although, given how ugly it was, I’d never felt the slightest bit of remorse at adding to the ghosts of spills past.

When we got back to Smithy’s desk, I popped the question that had been weighing on my mind. ‘So where do I stand with the Mel Smythe case? What’s my role there?’ I asked.

He put his coffee down and set his hands on his hips. ‘I’ve been thinking about that. You’ll have noticed I didn’t allocate you any tasks on the new case while we were in the briefing. Or The Boss, for that matter.’

One good thing about Smithy was he didn’t beat around the bush. You knew where you stood with him, well, most of the time.

‘He recognised there was still a conflict of interest?’

‘I told him there was a conflict of interest.’

It was my turn to chuckle. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall for that conversation. Although I was certain The Boss had taken Smithy’s reminder far better than he’d taken the same warning from me, given Smithy was bigger than he was and they had things in common, like balls and dicks.

‘So, what do want from me then?’

‘You keep on doing what you’re doing. Most of the team are investigating the new murder, and I’ve instructed them to keep their minds open: the murder could have been a result of some recent incident, or something as simple as a burglary gone wrong. But of course we can’t discount the coincidence in terms of the timing – you’re investigating the priest’s murder, and, hey ho, suddenly someone who was there at the time dies.

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