Bryant looked to Stacey. ‘How many Marthas have you got?’
Unfortunately, Martha Stout had the honour of being a West Midlands Police rite of passage. You could barely claim to be a Dudley borough police officer without at least one ‘Martha encounter’ under your belt.
‘Two,’ Stacey answered. ‘Shoplifting and breach of the peace with the neighbours. You?’
‘Three. Same as yours and a GBH at a car boot sale.’
‘Also two,’ Penn offered, surprising Kim. She often forgot he’d been a constable locally before transferring to West Mercia. ‘Neighbour issues and an anti-social complaint.’
‘Guv?’ Bryant asked.
‘More than all of you, so let’s just leave it at that, shall we?’ she said, heading to her office to retrieve her coat.
The award on her desk stared accusingly at her as though it wanted to be appreciated. She knew there were many recipients whose awards would have pride of place on the mantelpiece or in a cabinet with other treasures, and that was quite right… but she felt like a fraud.
In times of danger, she didn’t feel the fear and do it anyway. She didn’t weigh up the potential harm to herself and then make a conscious choice to accept the risk. True bravery was when you measured what you could potentially lose – friends, family, partners – and then accepted the danger. She’d given no thought to anyone before getting into that van. She wasn’t a hero; she was just bloody-minded.
No longer wishing to be reminded of that, or of her other reasons for disliking the award, she grabbed it and dropped it in the drawer.
With the thing out of sight, she felt her mood begin to lighten.
It didn’t last long, though, once she remembered where she was going next.
Six
‘Okay, come on, you can tell me now we’re on our own. Did Woody rip you a new one?’ Bryant asked once they were in the car.
Obviously, he was expecting her to be in seriously hot water.
‘Actually, he really didn’t. And I’m sick to death of talking about it.’ She paused. ‘Although something about it did bother me a little bit.’
‘Go on,’ Bryant said.
‘As long as you swear this is the last conversation we’ll have about the damn thing.’
‘Cross my heart.’
‘Woody seemed more sad than angry. He never even mentioned being left stranded on the stage looking like a fool. There was no rage, just disappointment. I don’t get it.’
‘I do,’ Bryant said simply.
‘Well, don’t keep it to yourself.’
‘He’s proud of?—’
‘Oh, please,’ she said, rolling her eyes.
‘I’m gonna take my lunch break early so I can say what I want. We were all excited to see you get that award, Kim. Penn, Stacey, me and Woody. We think you deserve it. We know you risk everything on every single case you work, and we wanted to see that recognised for once.’
‘Oh come on…’
‘I’m on my own time now, so you can’t shut me up. You got into that van with no backup because of those boys. You had no way to communicate safely with us, and you already knew you were outnumbered. You had no clue how far away they were taking you and didn’t give a thought to how many others might be there once you arrived.’
‘Any one of us would have done the same.’
‘But we don’t have to, do we? You’re always the first in line because you don’t calculate the risk. A lot of boys went home that night because of you.’
‘But it wasn’t just me,’ she argued. ‘It was a team effort, and not only this team. Red’s team were involved too. That’s one of the things that frustrates me. It’s an award for one person, and it shouldn’t be.’
