Jennings sighed heavily as he contemplated the old vulture’s glee on hearing that he was going to be allowed to continue to poke his nose in police business. ‘No doubt he’s feeling very dutiful and patriotic,’ he grunted bitterly. ‘All right. I’ll fill in Sergeant O’Grady when he comes in, and give him time to sort things out. In the meantime, until he’s ready to start assigning you duties, you can carry on with what you’re doing. By the end of the day we should have something organised so that you can report to the sergeant from now on. And you report instantly any significant findings you might come across today, understand?’ He jabbed a pointed finger adamantly in her direction. ‘So far, this had all been so much speculation and theory and flim-flam.’ He indicated her reports with a derogatory wave of his hand. ‘From now on, we do it by the book. Understood?’

‘Yes, sir!’ Trudy agreed. She didn’t care that soon Sergeant O’Grady would be taking over, because she’d finally been assigned a significant and official role in a police murder investigation! And wouldn’t it be great if she could just get a break and lay something significant and worthwhile before the sergeant that would really make him sit up and take notice?

But, she thought with a small dip in her spirits, realistically, that seemed unlikely. They’d been working for days now and they couldn’t really claim to have even a prime suspect. And what, really, could she expect would happen in just the next nine hours or so?

*

Clement was philosophical about having their case subsumed when Trudy called at his house half an hour later. After all, they still had a toe in the water, didn’t they? He instantly invited her to share breakfast with himself and Vincent, who obligingly popped some extra bread into the toaster and put on another egg to boil.

As he set about making another pot of tea, Vincent watched Trudy covertly. He’d approached his father about Duncan Gillingham last night, and hadn’t much liked what he’d heard. Especially when his father had explained how the reporter had helped rescue Trudy and himself from a potentially very nasty situation during their last case. Naturally, the reporter had got a very good story out of it, even earning himself an award! Vincent had, however, been very heartened to hear that in spite of the good-looking reporter’s slightly spurious heroics, Trudy Loveday was sensible enough to want to have nothing to do with him.

Now he watched her and his father happily and eagerly discussing their plans for that day with a growing sense of anticipation of his own. Even though he’d only been on the fringe of the case for barely a day, he could already see why his father was so energised. This sleuthing business really was addictive.