“But he didn’t,” Joel said. “And it would be quite a rubbish effort, wouldn’t it, if he couldn’t provide any proof. Who do you believe?”

Challice regarded him levelly. “Well, that’s the thing. You see, DS Fowler tells me that the charges against him are all based on your testimony.”

“Mine?”

“DDI Colthorne says that you have accused DS Fowler of sharing confidential evidence relating to active investigations—”

“Did he, by God,” Joel said. “Did he. We’ve got the swine.”

She raised a questioning brow. Joel said, “The people leaning on me? One of them was Darby Sabini. He called me in to demand dirt on DS Fowler, so Fowler told me to say that he’d given me confidential evidence relating to active investigations. Only, he never did that, and I haven’t claimed he did to anyone except Darby Sabini. So how come your DDI Colthorne is accusing him of exactly that?”

Challice took that in. Then she said, “The DDI also said you accused the DS of indecent behaviour.”

“I did not! Sabini wanted me to—told me to, even—but I didn’t, so that’s a sodding lie. Excuse my French.”

Challice considered him. For a fresh-faced young woman, she had the eye of an inquisitor. “So you think the Divisional Detective Inspector is corrupt, and he’s making Mr. Fowler a scapegoat to avoid exposure.”

“Yes!”

She let out a breath that sounded long-held. “So do I. That man gives me the screaming ab-dabs.”

The knuckles and joints of her interlaced fingers were white, Joel saw belatedly. God knew what guts it must have taken for a young woman to join CID, how precarious that particular experiment was, how much she might feel riding on her success or failure. How unpleasant a lot of people probably made her life.

“Do you want to be involved in this?” he found himself asking.

“I don’t imagine any of us do,” she said. “If you haven’t made personal accusations against Mr. Fowler—”

“I have not! Can you please tell him, I have not.”

“He asked me to tell you he doesn’t believe it for a second.”

That was a punch to the heart. “Really?” Joel asked like a fool. “That is—did he mean it?”

“I suppose so, since he said it. But the DDI presumably expects you to back up his story if it comes to the crunch.”

“I won’t.”

“DS Fowler says, either you’ll be forced into it or you won’t be in a position to speak at all.”

“What does that mean?”

“He thinks you should get out while you still can. He said to tell you, ‘We tried’.”

“We have not tried,” Joel said, suddenly furious. “We certainly haven’t tried everything, and now I’ve got proof your precious Divisional Detective Inspector is getting information from Sabini, so I am not running away and letting him win!”