The Face Behind the Mask. Helen Phifer
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air. Stevie did the same and began inhaling fresh air as well.
‘Jesus, how can someone live like that? All those years of dust and filth. I mean, your flat’s a shithole, Wally, but at least it’s not that bad. Well, it wasn’t last time I was in there.’
‘Thanks, man, that’s nice of you to say. Mine doesn’t smell as bad as that; at least I hope not.’
‘No, you’re right – sorry. It’s not quite that bad. I reckon we deserve a bonus for this job, me and you, Wally lad. What do you think?’
‘Just being paid would be a decent start. That wanker hasn’t paid me for two weeks. I’m on the bones of my arse. That’s my last fiver I pulled out of my pocket.’
Stevie shook his head. ‘Tight sod he is. Don’t worry, I’ll tell him when we get back to pay you.’
He went around to the front of the van and pulled out two bottles of water, throwing one at Wally.
‘Here, drink this, then we can get the upstairs cleared. I’m telling you now, if we find a purse or money under the mattress, I’m not telling anyone. It’s between you and me and we’ll split it. Whoever lives here can’t have any visiting family or they’d have sorted through the stuff themselves. You know how greedy folks are when someone dies; Aunty Wilma, who they haven’t seen for ten years, was the best aunty anyone could ask for.’ He pretended to cry and Wally laughed.
‘Let’s hope Aunty Wilma was a secret millionaire then.’
Stevie nodded his head. ‘Yep. Come on, the quicker we do this, the quicker we can get out of here.’
He locked the van and headed back inside the rundown terraced house. Wally sighed, pulled his mask down and followed him. It was hard to concentrate when all he kept thinking about was the clown suit. The house they’d cleared where he’d found it had been full of circus memorabilia. The woman who lived there had been in the circus until it shut down. He’d read the articles in the scrapbook she’d kept on the sideboard, below the huge print of her hanging from a trapeze in the centre ring of a circus.
Wally would have liked to have brought the scrapbook and the print home with him to keep. They were nice, but he couldn’t stash them like he had the clown suit. He couldn’t afford to buy them and there was no way Jacko would have let him keep them. He sold everything on at the rundown auction house he owned. If he didn’t come up with the cash he owed him, he could ask him for the stuff as part payment. It would be nice to start a little collection of his own.
Detective Inspector Max Harper came into the office he shared with Will and shut the door.
‘I see the Super was his usual charming self at briefing.’
Will nodded.
‘Are you okay to run with this one? I’m up to my neck in the Quigley case. Obviously I’ll keep an eye on the investigation, but you’ve had far more experience with these sorts of cases than I have and I’m off to sunny Spain tomorrow.’
‘Yes, I suppose so and, unfortunately for me, I have.’
‘Why don’t you put in for your inspector’s, Will? You could run CID with your eyes shut.’
‘Because I can’t stand all the politics and the bollocks that goes with it. You know as well as I do, even if I passed the boards they’d probably ship me off to HQ for a couple of years and I can’t be bothered with that. I’m quite happy being sergeant. At least I get to keep my hands dirty to a certain degree.’
Max almost threw himself into his chair and lifted his feet onto the desk.
‘That’s certainly true about the bollocks; they wouldn’t dare ship you off to HQ, though. You’re an absolute asset to this shithole. They’d be stupid to take you off CID.’
‘Thanks, boss, that’s kind of you to say. However, what they should do and what they actually do are two different things. You know how this place works. Everything is done back to front. Anyway, have you been sent in to give me a reprimand?’
‘Ha-ha, for talking to the Super like that? No, and if they’d asked me to, I’d have told them no. What are you going to do now then?’
‘Well, I’m going to the hospital to see the esteemed Doctor Matt and watch the post-mortem for Pauline Cook. Nothing like watching someone get sliced and diced to set you up for the day.’
He didn’t add the fact that he had a stinking hangover to his statement. There were some things that you didn’t confess to the bosses – as much as you might like them.
‘Adele seems nice. Are you going to take her with you? I suppose we might as well throw her in at the deep end and utilise her experience.’
Will nodded, thinking how pleased she would be to be so accepted into the team at such a grand level on her first day. No breaking her in gently, especially with two of his DCs on the sick and another on annual leave. They were pretty thin on the ground. There was a knock on the door. Will shouted, ‘Come in,’ and she opened the door.
‘I’ve googled the shops in the immediate area and rang them all up to request their CCTV footage. I didn’t ask them for it; I told them I would pick it up in a couple of hours. I find it better to just tell people what you want. If you ask, they can always say no.’
She winked at Will who laughed.
‘True, I like your style. Are you all right to come up to the mortuary for the PM?’
‘Of course, no problem.’
Will had to admire that she didn’t once betray what she was really thinking because he’d have been swearing under his breath if he’d been her. He stood up.
‘Come on then, let’s get this over with. I’ve already spoken to Matt. He’s ready to go as soon as we get there.’
Adele smiled and followed him out of the office. Brad, one of the younger detectives, rolled his eyes across the desk at Shona, who was staring at him, and whispered, ‘The boss man has a new favourite. It didn’t take him long to find a replacement for Stu.’
Will caught the last of what he’d said and turned back to him. ‘Don’t you be talking shite, Brad. Have you got nothing to do?’
Brad – whose face was redder than Shona’s red patent leather shoes – nodded his head.
‘Yes, boss; sorry, boss.’
‘The only reason I’m taking Adele with me is because she has far more experience of post-mortems and won’t pass out; unlike you, Brad, who drops like a sack of shit as soon as the doctor picks up his scalpel. I haven’t got time to fan your face while waiting for you to come round today. There’s a murder to solve.’
Brad looked away and Shona had to stifle a giggle. Will shook his head and began walking towards the spiral staircase. Adele clearly didn’t want to piss anyone off on her first day. She smiled at Brad and whispered, ‘I passed out at my first PM, and honestly you won’t do it again. Next time you’ll be fine.’
Then she hurried after Will.
***
Brad glared at Shona, who was still laughing.
‘Aw, come on, Brad; he does have a point. You went whiter than Casper the ghost and took ages to come round. I thought I was going to have to stick a toe tag on you and fill out a form 38.’
‘Fuck off and I didn’t think he’d bloody hear me, did I? He’s got supersonic hearing.’
Shona nodded. ‘Yes, he has, but he’s a good boss so don’t go pissing him off. He never moans if you need to finish early or swap a shift, so you’d do well to remember that. Do you really want to go and watch a post-mortem this time in the morning anyway?’
‘I