‘Roles on this new team have been advertised for a while. I saw them, I was even encouraged to apply. When I looked into it I dismissed it, I dismissed you. You skippered a Tactical Support Group for a decade, that’s smashing people’s doors, fighting outside nightclubs, and farting competitions in a van with your mates. And now you think you can play at detective to secure your promotion. Maybe that was fine when it wasn’t my mate laid out dead, her killer out there somewhere. But now it is.’

‘So here you are to save the investigation,’ Joel said.

‘Here I am. Your superintendent knows I’m not staying, that I’m off after this. She agreed this was a secondment. Did she tell you that?’

‘No one’s told me anything, but it’s OK, I’m getting used to it. On that note I’m going to head into a police station to catch up with what I missed and to start a policy log. At least then, when this fails, the Major Crime lot can have a good laugh at my amateur investigation.’ Joel stood up. ‘I suggest you stay here and finish your coffee, use it as time to think, because once you leave here we’re back to ranks, we’re back to me being the inspector and you the sergeant, that means you respecting me until I do something that means you don’t. You don’t rate me right now, based on a reputation, on what you think I’ve been doing for the last ten years, and that’s down to you; if you don’t rate me based on what you see going forward then that’s down to me. I don’t intend to let anyone down. Not you, not your mate back there either. You know nothing about me, you just proved that. Take your time.’

Joel left his coffee. DS Rose stayed where she was; her head didn’t even turn as he passed. Joel was desperate for team members, never more so than now with a headless corpse in Dover and now two more bodies on the other side of the county. But he wasn’t sure DS Rose was going to be much help at all.

Chapter 20

‘Blimey, Rich, maybe you should ease up on the coffee!’ Glenn Morris slid into the seat opposite. He looked hassled. His cheeks were a mottled red as he yanked at a black scarf that looked like it was winning. ‘You look like shit, I have to say it. True friends are always the ones who will say it! How have you been getting on?’ Glenn leaned forward, his expression, his body language, everything about him carrying an intensity.

‘I’m OK,’ Richard said.

‘Are you?’

‘Yes!’