Kim took her coffee mug into the general office and sat on the spare desk.

‘Okay, guys, thanks for coming in early, we’ve got a lot to get through.’

Bryant had dropped her back at the crash site just after 1 a.m. and then followed her home. He was clearly taking her doctor’s advice more seriously than she was.

After her late-night walk with Barney she had crawled into bed at 2 a.m., and it was now ten minutes after seven. The maths wasn’t hard to do and the vision of the crumpled metal was still at the forefront of her mind.

‘So, you all know about Saul Cordell’s accident. Thank you for flagging that up, Penn,’ she said, nodding in his direction.

He nodded.

‘You all know we’re getting nowhere near that case. Traffic will handle it whether it was accidental or intentional. They only allowed me to inform the family because I’d already spoken to them about Gordon Cordell. We’re not going to be able to prove any link to our case that isn’t perceived as coincidental, though Adams has agreed to keep us in the loop on all the findings.’

Kim paused as a voice in her head said, they really gonna say the two cases aren’t linked? The words didn’t come but they had sounded very much like Dawson. He had always had the knack of sharing her same levels of incredulity. He would have argued that they needed to take the case from the collision investigation team, finding the coincidence too dry a mouthful to swallow. And she would have had to remind him that they couldn’t control everything. But the room was quiet and the conversation was happening only in her head.

‘Stacey, you’re the contact for Adams, so feel free to call him every few hours and ask for updates, okay?’

‘Yeah, boss,’ she answered, making a note.

Kim was unsure if it was her imagination or if the constable was looking particularly pensive.

‘How is he?’ Penn asked. ‘Saul Cordell, I mean.’

‘Critical,’ she answered. ‘Doctors are still trying to identify all his injuries. He’s been put into an induced coma to give his body a chance to adjust. We know there are countless broken bones, internal bleeding and possible brain damage.’

Kim had called the hospital the moment she’d got out of bed. The nurse had explained the coma had been induced to protect his brain from swelling. She understood that the controlled dose of anaesthetic caused a lack of feeling or awareness and that Saul could not be woken by stimulation, including pain. Given the extent of his injuries she suspected it was the only way to try and save his life, so even if she could sneak in without Traffic knowing she wouldn’t be speaking to him any time soon. The report from the constable with Mrs Cordell and her younger son had confirmed they had spent the night by his bedside. Kim couldn’t even imagine what they were going through.

‘Jesus,’ Stacey said, shaking her head.

‘Prognosis isn’t great but his mother and brother are by his side, which is fine by me,’ she answered. Short of locking them away until they knew what they were dealing with, the hospital was a safe place to be. Another constable had taken over the babysitting and had been advised to keep a respectful distance. She knew a third shift wouldn’t be authorised, so they had to come up with something today or the two of them would be left vulnerable.

‘You think they’re in danger?’ Penn asked.

‘I think we have to explore the possibility of a vendetta against the whole family because of Gordon Cordell’s murder and the brutality of the crime. This was not a functional kill.’

‘Could be any one of them, boss,’ Penn continued. ‘Maybe just started with the dad but it could be something to do with the sons.’

He had a point. Daddy Cordell might have been first because he was the easiest or closest.

‘Get into it, Penn,’ she said, realising they couldn’t just assume it was Cordell senior because he was an unlikeable bastard. Luke Cordell appeared to have been cut from the same cloth, but about Saul she had no information at all.

‘Anything back on the shoe print?’ she asked.

Penn shook his head. ‘Still going through the database and sent all the main manufacturers reminders last night. I’m hoping for something later today.’

She nodded. There was nothing they could do on the fibres until Mitch had more detail to offer them.

‘How about the sexual harassment complaints?’

‘I’ve established that not one of the women who made a complaint still work at the clinic. All ex- employees and all seemingly good character.’

‘Dead end, then?’ she asked, feeling the doubt that so many genuine complaints had been forthcoming at the same time.

‘Not sure, boss,’ Penn said, mirroring her reservations. ‘May be a bit too tidy. I’d like to give it another shot to make sure.’

She nodded her agreement.

‘You still think the Spades are behind Cordell’s murder, guv?’ Bryant asked her.

She shook her head. ‘Not any more.’

‘Why not?’ he asked.

‘Basically, because I’m still alive,’ she said. ‘Woody assures me he passed on the message, and he’s received no backlash or instruction for me to stop, so I’m pretty sure they have nothing to hide on this one.’

She turned back to Penn. ‘I’d still like to know if those sexual harassment complaints are genuine.’

‘Got it, boss.’

She turned to the constable who was looking increasingly uneasy.

‘CCTV, Stace?’

‘Oops, sorry, Stacey, I borrowed your notes earlier,’ Penn said, reaching across and pushing a single piece of paper towards her.

Stacey’s eyes fell to the desk.

‘Err… umm… traffic cameras on Mucklow Hill are out of order. Nothing showing from the petrol station. B&Q at the island have a PTZ facing that’s been vandalised. Camera at Shenstone Island showed 196 cars going past in the time frame. The hardware shop opposite the park has turned his camera on the yard to uncover petty theft. The three cameras from the town centre are—’

‘Stace, I don’t need your work record,’ Kim said, frowning. Stacey didn’t do blow-by-blow accounts. ‘Is there anything of interest?’

The constable finished reading her notes and shook her head.

‘Okay, work with Penn for now. Bryant and I will be going back to the hospital to find out more about Cordell. I’d like to speak to some of the folks that worked with him.’

Kim caught an accusing glance from Stacey to Penn. She had no clue why but she had an idea how to find out. Stacey was not a secret keeper.

‘Bryant, get some names of people we can speak to.’

‘Okay, guv.’

Kim headed into The Bowl and pretended to shuffle some papers on her desk until she heard the polite cough she’d hoped for.

‘Boss, can I have a word?’ Stacey asked.

Kim nodded towards the door.

Stacey closed it and sat down.

‘Gotta tell the truth, boss. Penn just covered for me in there. I didn’t do the CCTV checking. He did and then tried to get me off the hook.’

Which is why it had sounded as though Stacey was reading the information from a list instead of retrieving it from her own brain.

‘What’s going on, Stace?’ Kim asked.

‘I was gonna come in early boss and catch up, but then you called an early briefing so I didn’t get chance.’

‘But why didn’t you do the CCTV checks yourself?’ Kim asked with concern.

‘Boss, while you were gone, my time at Sedgley was spent doing mainly grunt work but just before I came back I took a report on something and it kinda stuck to me.’

‘What kind of something?’ Kim asked, folding her arms.

‘Missing girl, Jessie… Jessica Ryan, fifteen years old. Possible runaway. No one really gave a shit cos she’s a few days away from hitting her sixteenth birthday and she’s pulled this kind of caper twice before.’

‘Okay,’ Kim said, waiting for more. Police resources dictated that priorities had to be made. A hard fact of life but a fact all the same. And a fact that Stacey knew well in the face of a murder investigation.

‘I just didn’t want to abandon her,’ Stacey said. ‘And now, I’ve found out that she’s on a lot of medication and could be at risk if she doesn’t take her stuff. There was violence involved with her stepfather, and her best friend is as cagey as anything. Doesn’t feel right to me,’ she said.

‘You want to carry on working it despite the fact it’s not ours?’ Kim asked.

‘I do, boss. I wanna know what’s happened to this girl.’

Kim was suddenly revisited by Woody’s words, like the shadowy ghost of Christmas past. You’ve got to bring her on, it said, before she sighed it away.

‘Okay, Stace, follow it and see where it goes, but working on the Cordell case comes first, and I want to know exactly where you are and what you’re doing at all times. Got it?’

The last time Stacey had investigated alone she had almost lost her life at the hands of a bunch of vicious, despicable racist bastards.

Stacey beamed. ‘Thank you, boss,’ she said, heading out the door.

Kim looked after her, knowing she’d done the right thing in giving Stacey the green light to go this one alone.

So, why the hell did she feel so shitty?