The early morning air was cool, but not so cool as to chill her exposed flesh. A quick glance at her watch as she turned onto Fell Lane told her that she was five seconds ahead of her usual time.

As part of her morning routine, Beth ran a course around the former market town of Penrith. The route was challenging, over hills of varying gradients. Regardless of the weather or the time of her shift, Beth went for a run at the start of the day.

Not just part of a fitness regime, she used the exercise to invigorate her mind as much as strengthen her body. The sights of early morning Penrith never changed much, but Beth had grown accustomed to their rhythms and had learned what should and shouldn’t be in certain places at certain times. Like the girl in the skinny jeans and chiffon blouse who shouldn’t be walking the streets at that time, but was. Beth saw the girl’s expression and felt the tiniest pinprick of jealousy. While the girl looked tired, she also wore a satisfied look that made light of the fact she was on her way home after a wild night out.

Penrith was Beth’s home town and while her love for it ran deep, she could be objective about it and its residents. She knew there was a housing estate where the inhabitants were three parts feral, and that although the protein factory had been forced to undertake new practices to eradicate the smell of rotting animals, the very fabric of Penrith retained hidden whiffs of the once all-pervading smell ready to engulf the unsuspecting.

She returned to the police house she rented and checked her watch as she reached the door.

‘Yes!’

A pumped fist accompanied her triumphant hiss. Ten seconds had been shaved off her personal best.

---

Beth left the house some twenty-five minutes later, showered and dressed in a charcoal suit. Her hair was still wet from the shower, but her suit was dark enough that her ponytail wouldn’t leave a noticeable damp patch. The drive to Carleton Hall was a short one but, as always, she used the few minutes to finish powering up her mind in preparation for the day ahead. It promised to be another long one. It was gone midnight when O’Dowd had called a halt and instructed them all to be back at their desks by seven.

As she parked, Beth spotted O’Dowd chewing on a cigarette with all the enthusiasm for life as the person who cleans the toilets at the diarrhoea clinic.

Beth walked towards the entrance and nodded at O’Dowd. ‘Boss.’

The last thing Beth wanted to do was to get into anything with the DI out here. Since Thompson’s irritating stealing of her theories yesterday, she’d toyed with the idea of making a formal complaint before deciding to learn from the experience.

As the new girl, she didn’t want to go to the DI complaining so soon after joining the team. Rather than give Thompson the chance to repeat yesterday’s behaviour, she’d decided she’d speak up for herself and make sure O’Dowd knew which ideas she’d put forward and what Thompson had contributed.

‘You need to learn when to listen, when to speak and, most important of all, when to share your ideas.’

‘Ma’am?’

This was not the start to the day Beth wanted.

‘That report Thompson gave when you came back from seeing the bride who found the body, it was you who thought she was being cagey about something, not him.’ The non-cigarette holding hand was raised to stop her interrupting. ‘Don’t try to deny it. I know him, have known him for years. For all he acts like he works on hunches and intuition, his next original thought will be his first. Plus, when you get angry, the colour of your scar changes by at least two shades. When he was spouting your ideas, it was glowing like a flare.’

‘Sorry, ma’am.’

‘Don’t be sorry, Beth. Be smarter. I warned you and yet you still went running into the very thing I warned you about. You let someone else pass off your ideas as their own. You’re a bright lass, and if you use half your brains in the right way, you’ll go a long way in the force. However, if you don’t have the capacity to listen and learn, you’re no use to me and I’ll have to admit I made a mistake when choosing you over the other candidates to join my team. Either wise up or admit you’re not good enough to be on FMIT and go back to CID.’ The cigarette arced from O’Dowd’s fingers and landed at least six feet from the bucket of sand by the back door. ‘It’s your choice. Just do me a favour, make the one that’s right for you and act upon it immediately. Because we have a murderer to catch.’

Beth again cursed her naivety of the previous day. Here she was in her first week on the highest-rated investigation team in the county and less than twenty-four hours into a major case being effectively told to shape up or ship out.

As she trudged after O’Dowd she was vowing to herself that she wouldn’t make the same mistakes again.