The Face Behind the Mask. Helen Phifer
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He ended the call and glanced at her. ‘Did you see that murder on the news yesterday?’
She shook her head.
‘There’s a full briefing and they’re waiting on us before they begin. Bollocks, my head’s pounding and I’m not even at work yet. This is going to be a long day.’
‘Aren’t they all?’
The morning traffic wasn’t as bad as Will had anticipated and before long they arrived at the brand-new, shiny police station that had replaced the old one, which had been deemed unfit for purpose. The only problem was that the shiny new one was crap compared to the old one. It was all open-plan and the sound carried. There were no private areas that you could go to have a good old slanging match with someone or to discuss just how much someone was pissing you off. Will would have moved back to the old station in the blink of an eye.
Adele whistled. ‘I bet this cost them a pretty penny.’
He nodded. ‘Yep, wait until you see our office. It’s awful. Don’t get me wrong, the canteen’s handy and the chairs are comfy, but there’s nowhere to hide from any of them now.’
‘There’s nowhere for anyone to be having a quick shag either by the looks of it. This building should do wonders for marriage survival. Divorces rates will be going down.’
He chuckled. ‘I doubt that. Are you nervous?’
‘Yes and no. I don’t particularly like change, but I hated it at Carlisle. I wanted to come back, so it’s on my terms, sort of. I think I’m looking forward to it and, besides, there are much uglier bosses than you.’
‘I take it that’s a compliment?’
‘You can take it how you want. I won’t be calling you boss unless there’s anyone around. I hate all that.’
‘Good, I don’t expect you to. I’m plain old Will. I only get Sarge when they want something anyway.’
‘Excellent. Shall we?’
She’d parked her car outside the front of the building, instead of going into the secure car park around the back. Will got out, wondering if he was going to be able to stomach the crime scene photos. He felt like crap, although he’d not admitted that to Annie because he didn’t want her to gloat too much. Hopefully, because he was off work yesterday, Mikey – who had been the duty DS – had already taken over the case.
They walked through the front doors of the huge building and Adele whispered, ‘At least it smells new and not of sweaty boots and cannabis.’
Will nodded. She had a point. He swiped them in through the double doors that led into the atrium – as it was called – leading Adele to the spiral staircase in the middle of the floor. She followed him upstairs to the first floor and the major incident room where there was an assortment of bosses, detectives and OSU officers, all sitting around waiting for them. She went and stood at the back of the room, leaving Will to take the last seat at the front. The Chief Super began to talk. Will took his notebook out and wrote things down. He didn’t realise his name was being called until the room went silent and he looked up to see that everyone was staring at him.
‘Nice of you to join us, William; I was just explaining how you would be taking over the running of this. Mikey is going on holiday tomorrow and then he’s on a week-long course at headquarters on his return, so you might as well take over as OIC.’
Will felt his heart sink; he didn’t want to be the bloody officer in charge. It always fell on him whenever there was a murder or unexplained death. He’d had more than his fair share of murder cases the last three years. Why the hell couldn’t they let someone else run with it?
‘Don’t look so happy about it. With your track record this should be a breeze. I’m hoping you’ll have the case closed in the next twenty-four hours. Especially if we keep your lovely wife away from it.’
The Super began to laugh at his own joke and Will felt his hands curl into tight fists as the blood rushed to his face. He’d never liked the pompous man standing in front of him. He wanted to stand up and punch him. The urge was so strong that he had to shake his head to get the image out of his mind. Instead he stood up, marched across the room to the Smart Board and stared at the Super, eye to eye. The man was no longer grinning.
The room was silent as everyone watched the exchange between the two men. One of the response officers standing next to Adele whispered, ‘A fiver on Will taking him out with one punch.’
Adele smiled, clearly hoping Will would. She could tell what an arsehole that man was and she’d only just seen him. Instead, Will looked back at everyone and smiled. He could tell by their faces this was the most exciting briefing they’d ever attended because they wanted to see the Super knocked on his arse. As much as he wanted to hit him, he wouldn’t give him the pleasure.
‘Well then, you might as well leave now, Chief. You normally do once the actual police work starts.’
The whole room exploded into laughter. It was the Super’s turn to bunch his fingers into fists and his cheeks flared red. He glared at them all, then turned to Will, who by now had realised, with some regret, that he’d just started the biggest pissing match of his career. But he didn’t care. He was tired of the bullshit. What happened to coming to work and looking for the latest burglar who was doing the rounds? Why had this relatively quiet town decided to become the murder capital of England? And why was he always the officer in bloody charge?
‘Seeing as how I was at my friend and colleague’s funeral yesterday, I’ve missed out on what actually happened. So for now I want OSU searching…’ He looked across at the grainy, faded photo of the woman who had been brutally murdered. Her name was there in bold black print underneath it. ‘I want them searching Pauline Cook’s house and garden, until I’ve caught up. I take it CSI have finished? Unless the search turns up anything that might have missed?’
The OSU sergeant nodded.
‘I want the whole street sealed off until we’ve determined how our killer arrived at the scene. Do we know if he was on foot or in a car?’
Everyone shook their heads.
‘Tell the PCSOs to take over scene guard – they know the drill – and someone make sure that you rotate them. I don’t want to find out they’ve been left there for hours without any breaks.’
The community sergeant nodded.
‘Once the search has been done I want the house-to-house started. I’ll draw up a map of the area I want checking. Then I want all the shops in the area visited to see if they have working CCTV, and I want the footage downloaded straight away, not in a week’s time. If they can’t do it immediately then seize the hard drives and bring them back for Barry to go through in the video imaging unit. That’s it for now. We’ll meet back here in a couple of hours and take it from there.’
Will was pleased to see everyone scribbling notes. Adele was standing at the back, her arms crossed. She nodded at him and he felt a little bit better.
‘Before you go, I’d like you to meet DC Adele Dean. She’s transferred from Carlisle and, although she hasn’t replaced Stu – nobody could do that – she will be working from his desk. So if you need anything and can’t get hold of me, speak to her.’
He walked out of the room before he had to look back at the Super, who was still glowering at him. Will could feel the man’s eyes burning through the back of his head. Let the games begin. He felt someone rushing up to him and turned to see Adele smiling at him.
‘You know you would make an excellent Chief Super? What an idiot he is. How come he’s still got a job? I bet he pisses people off on a daily basis.’
Will laughed; he looked down at his watch.
‘Not bad, it took you less than five minutes in the station to come to the same conclusion as the rest of us. I have no idea how he still has a job, but I’d bet a hundred quid it’s because he’s part of the