The light got Bryant’s attention. A warning was written all over his face.
It was Keats.
Second call.
He needed her.
She stood up, putting the phone in her pocket as her boss began to speak.
‘Guv, sit down,’ Bryant hissed. ‘You can’t just leave when you’re about?—’
‘Watch me,’ she said and headed for the door.
Two
Bryant had barely spoken during the drive from Tally Ho in Birmingham.
When he had eventually found her outside, he’d asked only where they were going. She’d given him the scarce information Keats had offered: a patch of wasteland close to the chippy on the Halesowen and Lye border.
Eight miles out of nine had been chewed up and he still wasn’t talking.
‘It’s not like I had a choice,’ she defended herself.
‘Keats would have found another detective if you’d just made him wait.’
‘Yeah, but he likes me the best,’ she said with a smile. The pathologist waited for no one. He could have called someone else, but she didn’t want him to. This was what she got paid for, not sitting in a banqueting hall.
‘Well, that’s a bit of a stretch. But couldn’t you have…?’ His words trailed away and he shook his head.
‘Couldn’t I have what? Ignored the fact that there’s a dead body to accept an award that I don’t want?’
‘Guv, that’s not?—’
‘Look, I didn’t plan it. Trust me, Keats will not produce a dead body for my convenience if there’s somewhere I don’t want to be. Seriously, I’ve tried. Remember your silver wedding anniv?—’
‘Guv,’ he warned.
‘Obviously not for that occasion, but, you know, there’s been times.’ She could see the tension start to drop from his jaw. She pressed home her point. ‘Do you think I got into the force for the accolades or to catch bad folks?’
‘I joined for the donuts and decent pension, personally,’ he lied. But at least he was speaking of his own free will, and she wasn’t having to prise responses out of him.
She began to relax as they hit Halesowen. It was done now, and she’d face the consequences once they caught up with her.
‘Stacey was gonna go up and accept the award on your behalf,’ Bryant went on.
And explain the reason for her sudden absence, she guessed.
She saw a smirk forming on her colleague’s face. ‘I mean, I suppose it was kind of funny,’ he said.
Kim forced back a smile at the thought of Woody’s expression as Stacey headed towards the stage instead of her.
‘It was a bit like Bonnie and Clyde, us hotfooting it out of there.’
‘Well, not really, since we aren’t on the run for murdering folks.’
‘Details, guv, details,’ he said.
She looked out to the side and realised they were pulling up at the police cordon.
