Austin Penn crossed the last CCTV location from his list and removed the headphones. The clock above the door told him it was almost eleven and that his first day had been a long one. But that was okay. He would put the hours in when he could and a quick call home had confirmed that today was one of those days. There would be days when he couldn’t but that admission was for some other day.

In truth, he was glad when Stacey had left the office to work on whatever was calling from her satchel. Even when she hadn’t been aware of it her face had been set in a scowl as though she’d been forced to eat a whole jar of marmite and the taste still lingered on her tongue.

He got it. He’d worked with this team twice before and understood how close they were; how they operated as a well-oiled machine, working without instruction, knowing and understanding their roles and skills and where they fitted into each investigation, and now one of their vital components was missing. His own team had not been quite so efficient or structured.

As if by osmosis his mobile rang. He smiled at the name that flashed on his screen.

‘Hey, Lyn,’ he said, knowing the smile showed in his voice. She was the other DS in his old team at West Mercia.

Her petite, elfin stature and smooth milky skin always fooled people into thinking she was younger than her thirty-one years, and so the ferocious terrier that could be unleashed on demand came as a surprise to suspects, criminals and just about anyone else who tried to take the piss out of her.

She’d been engaged to her fireman boyfriend for eleven months but still hadn’t set a wedding date.

‘Hey, new boy. How’s your first day gone?’

He didn’t mind admitting it was good to hear a familiar, friendly voice.

‘You know,’ he said. ‘As expected.’

‘It’s tough fitting into a new team,’ she said. ‘Especially when…’

‘Oh yeah,’ he said. Especially when a member of that team has recently died horrifically in the line of duty, he thought, finishing the sentence in his mind.

‘Missed ya,’ she said lightly.

Although they’d not had specific partners in the team, the two of them had paired up on many occasions.

‘And Wilma was looking for you,’ she said.

Penn laughed out loud realising just how much tension he was holding in his body. Wilma was the potted plant that his old boss, Travis, had awarded daily to the teacher’s pet. It was fair to say it had graced his desk the majority of the time.

‘Give her my love,’ he said, enjoying the easy banter between them. It had only been a day but he missed it already. More so because he knew he wouldn’t be going back. He couldn’t. Given the choice he would have stayed where he was. But he didn’t have a choice. Not any more. But of all the things he’d been forced to leave behind, working with Lyn was probably what he’d miss most.

He clicked on his emails as Lyn carried on speaking, telling him how they’d all piled their belongings onto his old desk to prevent Travis from replacing him. A wave of homesickness coursed through him.

‘So, what’s the boss like?’ she asked.

‘Intense,’ he answered, starting the process of closing down his system. His eyes passed over the most recent alerts from the internal server.

A name jumped right out the screen at him and he wondered if he’d made some kind of mistake.

‘Well, I knew that,’ Lyn said, referring to the joint investigation into Hate Crimes. ‘But she seems like a decent—’

‘Oh shit, sorry, Lyn, gotta go,’ he said, ending the call.

He checked the name again.

No, there was no mistake.