Helen Fields - Perfect Silence

‘You got injured quite badly too, on a recent case. I seem to recall you being advised to get surgery on your left shoulder, not that you took any notice. When I questioned your decision to come back to work, you said you knew your own body better than anyone else.’

‘This is different and you know it. You can’t compare losing a baby to getting your arm into a fight with a crowbar,’ Lively muttered.

‘The doctor declared Salter fit for duty,’ Ava said. ‘I’ve spoken to her. She believes she’s ready and I trust her judgment. What is it you know that no one else does?’

Lively brushed crumbs from his lap onto the floor, frowning.

‘Come on, Sergeant, you came in here to say something to me. Get it over with.’

‘Christie Salter nearly died in my arms, ma’am, on a kitchen floor after some sick fuck had taken her hostage and a dotty old woman misjudged her target and stabbed her. If the paramedics hadn’t been on the scene, we’d have lost her. She was in surgery for hours. Her baby girl died in her womb. You can’t tell me she’s fit to be back out on the streets, not with the sort of crap we deal with every day.’

‘Sergeant,’ Ava said gently, ‘you don’t think that perhaps it would be a good idea for me to refer you for some counselling, given what you went through that day? DC Salter wasn’t the only one who suffered a trauma. It must have been an appalling thing for you to have witnessed.’

‘Would you fuck off! Oh shite – sorry, ma’am, I forgot who I was talking to,’ he said.

‘Forgiven. This isn’t easy. I understand that the prospect of talking to someone about your emotions isn’t natural for the more mature members of the force, but times have changed. There’s nothing to be embarrassed about and no one need know except us,’ Ava said.

‘I don’t need a bloody shrink. I need to make sure DC Salter’s safe and right now, as her ranking officer, I’m not convinced she is,’ he replied.

Ava held out the biscuits as a peace offering. Lively took a handful.

‘All right. Your choice. But you can’t make her feel as if she shouldn’t be here, however well-intentioned you are. This is what she needs to help distract herself from her loss. You and I would both do the same in her position.’

‘If you’re keeping her in MIT, I want your word you’ll keep Salter off the Torduff Road investigation. It’s too much. I heard what a mess that poor girl’s body was in.’

‘I agree with you on that score. You picked up a face slashing, I understand. Probably a dead-end case, but it needs investigating. I’m leaving it with you and Salter. I need every other body on Zoey Cole’s murder, so don’t expect help from anyone else. Wrap it up as quickly as possible, then I’ll review DC Salter’s suitability for another case. This stays between us, all right?’

Lively stood up, nodding, as Ava’s office door opened.

‘Sit your carbohydrate-endowed arse straight back down in that chair, Sergeant,’ Detective Superintendent Overbeck said.

Lively crossed his arms and remained standing, but stayed where he was.

‘Is there a problem, ma’am?’ Ava asked her superior, who was looking stunning in a tight-fitting midnight blue suit and six-inch stilettos, with bright red nails. It was a wonder she could hold a pen or type, Ava thought, wondering if she was aware that all the police under her command called her the Evil Overlord out of her earshot, not entirely unjustly.

‘When isn’t there a frigging problem in your team, DCI Turner?’ Overbeck said. ‘I’ve just had the pleasure of being interviewed by some of those do-gooders who occasionally get to come in and visit the prisoners in their cells, just to check we’re providing five-fucking-star care for Edinburgh’s charming criminals.’

‘I think the ones in our cells are usually called suspects, ma’am,’ Lively smirked. ‘Something about innocent until proven—’

‘Sergeant, if you speak again before I ask you to, I will pour that steaming coffee on the desk all over your balls, get me?’

Lively winced and Ava did her best not to smirk. Lively was regularly insubordinate to her, and even more so to Luc Callanach. This was the first she’d seen him silenced by a superior officer and it was pleasing to watch.

‘Am I to assume there was a slip in our usual standards?’ Ava enquired.

‘To be fair, only if you call having an incomprehensible man with half his frigging face hanging off, stuck in our cells instead of being in a hospital – or preferably still on the streets given how badly he was fouling up the custody area – a slip!’ Overbeck hissed. ‘Now,’ she stood directly in front of Lively, ‘as you were the arresting officer, you’d better have the shiniest, most watertight explanation for why this has happened to me on a day when I finally got my husband on a plane for a month-long golfing vacation and was looking forward to a serious amount of alone time without anyone pissing me off.’

‘Gone somewhere nice, has he?’ Lively grinned.

‘Pass me your coffee, Turner,’ Overbeck said, holding out her hand.

‘Don’t you dare, ma’am,’ Lively said. ‘That’s the first cup of coffee I’ve ever made anyone in this police station. I don’t want it wasted!’

‘Sergeant, would you please answer DS Overbeck’s question?’ Ava said.

‘Only if she says please.’

‘Lively, you’re going to get yourself fired.’ Ava shot him an unmistakable look.

‘Stay out of this, Detective Chief Inspector,’ Overbeck said. ‘I don’t have any problem at all with your sergeant giving me a reason to fire him.’

‘Lively,’ Ava said, getting to her feet and glaring.

Lively tutted and gave in. ‘He’s a victim of crime, refused an ambulance but we need a statement from him. He’s also homeless and a drug addict. We need to question him, and the only way to stop him from disappearing was to book him as drunk and incapable, and wait it out.’

‘So you just made up the drunk charge?’ Overbeck asked. ‘Even though he actually wasn’t?’

‘That’s right.’ Lively smiled.

‘So you’ve not only broken every procedure we have in terms of custodial care of the seriously injured, you’ve also reported a false charge against him.’

‘Aye, that pretty much sums it up,’ Lively said. ‘Was there something else you wanted, or am I free to go and try to extract a statement from our guest?’

Overbeck stepped closer, her eyes level with Lively’s, their bodies forming strange polar opposite silhouettes against the window, one stick thin and the other seriously paunchy. Ava held her breath while she waited for one or other of them to concede defeat.

‘Get him out of my cells, out of this police station and preferably out of this city,’ Overbeck said. ‘Ensure not a single particle of shit is going to hit any proverbial fan, then either retire or make sure I never have cause to speak with you about this again. Do you understand, Detective Sergeant?’

‘Yes, ma’am. Happy to oblige,’ Lively said.

Callanach and Tripp parked around the corner from the domestic abuse shelter, then phoned ahead to have the back door opened up, the front door being used as little as possible to disguise the nature of the property from any save for those who needed to know. Most of the women inside were running or hiding. The police weren’t always welcome visitors, either. Too many victims had been ignored, told there was insufficient evidence to prosecute, or just plain disbelieved. Modern policing was attempting to bridge the trust gap, but that was a long-term project. There were generations of failings to make up for, Callanach thought, as he rang a silent doorbell and looked into the security camera, holding up his identification for closer viewing. Tripp did the same. Eventually the door buzzed open and they stepped through into a vestibule. A woman appeared behind the glass of an internal door.