Hank muttered something inaudible under his breath.
‘What did you say?’ she asked him.
He stared at her.
Her radio crackled.
Kevin Streeting’s hand moved and she felt Johnny manoeuvre beside her.
‘Leave it,’ she whispered.
Streeting’s fingers on his right hand twitched and disappeared behind his back.
‘I wouldn’t if I were you,’ Kelly warned him.
Her heart raced and thumped in her chest. Her mouth was desert dry.
‘Don’t,’ she muttered under her breath to Johnny.
From somewhere outside, Kelly heard the sound of a crow, or at least she thought it was. Was there some kind of ancient tale about the significance of crows? Wasn’t a group of them called a murder? It was something to do with the scavengers gathering around carrion and being associated with death.
It cawed again.
Was it calling to its pals?
Her body felt taut with anxiety.
Then Hank raised his hand and Streeting relaxed.
Now perhaps wasn’t a good time to arrest him for the murder of Angelina Robbins but she was tempted.
It was the first time they’d come face to face properly and they eyed one another. She felt Johnny staring at her from the side and sensed his shift in alertness. In that moment she wanted to hug him for his chivalrous display of protection. He had no chance against a gun but that wasn’t the point.
They heard squad cars entering the property and scream up the driveway and officers and paramedics rushed into the main house.
But Kelly couldn’t allow herself to breathe just yet.
Two brawny six-foot uniforms looked to Kelly for a sitrep and she indicated towards Kevin Streeting.
‘He’s armed. How quickly can you get armed response here?’ she asked.
But as she turned to watch Streeting’s movements, she saw he’d disappeared.
She put her hand on one of the officers’ vests. ‘Don’t,’ she ordered. ‘Wait for the ART. It’s too much of a risk.’
Johnny was at her side and they walked together into the sunshine as the uniforms ushered everybody outside.
‘The only time I’ve ever witnessed anyone dying from a single blow to the head like that was in Cyprus when a squaddie punched a civvie in the head and he went down. He died the next day. That’s some weird strength there, Kel.’
‘I know. This drug, is it possible it’s being trialled for the military? Do you know anyone you could ask?’
‘That’s some serious shit, right there. I can ask, but whether anyone will tell me is another story. If the MOD is using something that changes a soldier’s strength to the extent where he can become a human weapon, well, that’s got to be worth a crazy amount of money, but…’
‘But?’
‘It’d be unethical.’
‘Since when is war ethical?’
