Felicity Young - An Easeful Death

Wayne broke away from the group and caught up with Monty further down the corridor. He clamped a hairy hand on Monty’s sleeve and Stevie caught the urgency of his whisper.

She made a move to join them, but found herself held back. ‘Leave him, Stevie, now’s not the time.’ In a lower voice De Vakey added, ‘We’ll go and see him later,’

She searched his face, his eyes, surprised at the empathy she saw there. When his hand lingered on her arm, the thrill set an alarm bell ringing in her brain.

She stepped away from him.

Satisfied that their boss had left the building, Angus turned to the congregated members of the SCS, his glum expression mirroring their mood. ‘Well I suppose now’s as good a time as any to talk this over,’ he said.

Justin Baggly chose that moment to hurry round the corner, skidding to a startled halt in front of them. Breathless and grim faced he twisted a crumpled ball of paper in his hands. ‘Have you seen Dad?’

Probably a speeding ticket for Daddy to wangle him out of , Stevie thought. There had to be some perks to compensate for having John Baggly for a father.

‘I think he went back upstairs,’ Angus said.

The boy muttered his thanks. Despite her own worries, Stevie seized the chance to lighten him up. ‘Justin, have you met James De Vakey?’

She made the introductions, explaining to De Vakey how Justin was doing a criminal profiling unit at uni, then planning to join the police service.

Justin took De Vakey’s outstretched hand. ‘Good to meet you Sir, I’ve read all your books.’ His eyes darted to Stevie who gave him a nod of encouragement. He gave her a tight smile before returning to De Vakey.

‘Umm, I know you must be busy, but do you have the time to sign this?’ He produced a dog-eared copy of The Pursuit of Evil from his backpack. Although originally published as a police training manual, this edition had been tailored to the general public and had recently shot onto the bestseller list.

‘Certainly, I’d be glad to,’ De Vakey said. He reached into his jacket pocket for his gold pen and signed his name with a flourish on the inside cover.

Justin twitched him a smile. ‘Umm, I have some more at home. Would it be okay if I brought them over sometime for you to sign too?’

De Vakey said he’d be delighted.

‘Great.’ Justin gave him a nervous smile. ‘I’d better go now. I need to see Dad,’ he stammered, obviously overwhelmed at having met his hero in the flesh.

Stevie stepped away from the others and caught up with Justin as he headed towards the lifts. ‘Justin, are you free for any babysitting this week?’

Justin looked to the ceiling as if there was a calendar stuck to it. ‘Yeah, I think I’m okay.’ He shrugged his shoulders and smiled. ‘I guess it’ll be a good opportunity to get some study done.’

‘Thanks, I’ll call you later.’ Stevie patted his shoulder, wondering yet again if she was right to encourage him—she didn’t think he had a snowball’s chance of getting into the academy, he just wasn’t cop material. When the inevitable rejection letter came she knew she would feel his disappointment acutely.

She rejoined the group as everyone was taking their seats around the conference table in the room just off the incident room.

When the introductions to De Vakey were done, Angus explained the outcome of the meeting with Baggly and the reason for Monty’s suspension.

‘But we will be pursuing Monty’s plotted course in the investigation, despite his absence,’ he said. ‘Stevie will continue to liaise between James De Vakey and the SCS. We now, of course, have two related murders to investigate...’

‘Four, if you include the KP murders,’ Wayne interrupted,

‘Mate, you know that’s a closed case.’ Angus passed a hand over his forehead and closed his eyes for a moment.

Wayne was not to be put off. ‘Monty’s sure they’re related.’

Angus let out a sigh. ‘And Monty’s in a heap of trouble. This is one path he’s carved that we can’t follow.’

Stevie could hold back no longer. ‘Oh come on, Angus, get real. James is sure this guy has killed before, which backs up Monty’s theory. Monty was going through the KP files last night and was planning on discussing his findings with us today.’

Wayne said, ‘Yeah, I spoke to him on the phone last night. He sounded pretty excited about something he’d found in the files.’

‘Superintendent Baggly made it clear that Monty was out of bounds, he’s not to be approached,’ Angus said, a slight stiffness to his jaw.

‘For God’s sake, Angus, this stinks, you know it does! We have to talk to Monty and find out what he knows. There’s no way the killer could have left Monty’s watch in Michelle’s hand by mistake, it’s as plain as dogs’ balls he wanted it found. I can’t believe Baggly’s been taken in over this. If you ask me, there’s something else going on—’

Angus thumped the table in an uncharacteristic burst of temper. ‘Just shut the hell up and do as you’re told for a change!’

Stevie was stunned, she’d never heard Angus yell before. Then again, he’d never been this close to being officer in charge of the SCS before. Had Angus decided it was time to start playing politics? Up until now he’d never shown anything but unwavering loyalty to Monty.

There was a moment of awkward silence. De Vakey cleared his throat, looked from one face to the other and said in a neutral tone, ‘I don’t wish to disturb the status quo here, but I believe the superintendent said that Monty wasn’t to be contacted by the investigating officers. I’m a civilian consultant, not an investigating officer.’ He met Stevie’s eye and gave her a faint smile. ‘I can see Monty whenever I need to.’

Stevie could have hugged him. ‘And I’m not officially on the case either, I’m only an intermediary. There’s nothing Baggly can do to stop either of us from contacting Monty.’

Angus reined in his temper. ‘Now, you know that’s not strictly so.’

Barry flicked her a wink. It would have annoyed her yesterday, but not today. ‘You go, girl,’ he said.

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Angus said, ‘I’m just going to pretend we never had this conversation.’

A tap at the door interrupted their discussion and a man with a nose the colour of a ripe plum entered the room. Stevie recognised him as one of the cops who’d brought Monty in and then left to search his flat.

‘Thought you might like to know we found nothing at your boss’s flat, though he’d made it pretty hard for us—he’s not much of a housekeeper is he? The place was like a pigsty. I’m just going upstairs to report to the super. I’ll be around all afternoon so call me if you want to bring him in for any more questioning,’ Keyes said.

Angus nodded and thanked him.

As the big man turned to leave the room, Barry called out, ‘Hey! What happened to your nose?’

Keyes’ hand gingerly crept to the injured appendage. ‘I walked into a door.’

Everyone in the room exchanged glances when Keyes made his hurried exit. Barry’s laugh lifted some of the tension in the room.

Wayne said, ‘I won’t even say that was a relief, because we all know Monty didn’t kill Michelle, that they wouldn’t find anything in his flat.’

‘Yeah,’ Barry said, ‘this is nothing but a steaming pile of bureaucratic bullshit.’

Angus sighed. ‘It’s the system. Baggly has no choice; he’s merely following procedure. Now, we need to organise a search of Michelle’s apartment, talk to her neighbours, parents and friends, find out who was last to see her alive.’ He looked at Wayne. ‘I want you and Barry to spearhead that side of the investigation.’