The Secret Child (DI Amy Winter #2)(54)

Amy opened her mouth to say it was all right, but Pike raised her hand. It was then that Amy realised just how much thought had gone into what she was about to say. ‘Poor leadership filters down. This team deserves better than that.’

‘Thank you,’ Amy replied. ‘Hopefully, the rumour mill will die down soon. Today’s headlines, tomorrow’s chip paper, as Dad used to say.’ She should have consoled Pike, told her what a brilliant leader she was, but the words would have felt like a lie. The truth was, her DCI had taken her eye off the ball. Perhaps her admission would signal a new start for them all.

‘Have you spoken to the team about it yet?’

Amy shook her head.

‘Then do. Get it out in the open. Show them that you’ve nothing to be ashamed of. Tell them what you’re comfortable sharing and leave it at that.’

‘I will,’ Amy said, even though the thought of talking about her personal life made her inwardly cringe.

‘I wish I could turn the clock back,’ Pike mused, her eyes falling on a framed photograph on the wall. In the centre of the picture was Amy’s father, flanked on either side by new recruits on their passing-out day. At the end of the line-up was Pike. In full uniform, they looked so smart, and Amy felt a pang of shared grief.

‘What we had was very short-lived.’ Pike cleared her throat. Her eyes watery, she looked as if she were about to cry. Amy had no intention of bringing up their brief affair, but Pike seemed determined to have her say. There was something bizarre about this meeting. They should have been discussing Ellen’s case instead of stoking the ashes of the past.

‘I hope we can put this unfortunate episode behind us,’ Pike said, sniffing back unshed tears.

Amy shifted in her seat. ‘Water under the bridge.’

‘Good. Because I’m missing our workouts in the gym. Nobody can throw a right hook like you.’

Amy made an effort to smile. She was grateful for Pike’s support but a long way off trusting her just yet. ‘Have any updates come in?’ She steered the conversation back to work.

‘The blood on the nightdress has been identified as Ellen’s.’ Pike sighed, allowing her words to fall like stones. ‘The car park where you found it has been released as a crime scene. Apart from some cigarette butts – most likely left by workmen – we’ve got nothing else of value. Unfortunately, there was no CCTV installed and the security measures put in place by the contractors have not turned up anything so far.’

‘This is someone who knows their way around.’ Amy felt light-headed, caught in a blood-sugar slump after exercising on an empty stomach that morning. The fact that the blood was Ellen’s was something she had prepared herself for. ‘I think the kidnapper is Luka – that somehow he survived the fire, and maybe Sasha too. How could he get into a building site like that? He can’t be working alone.’

‘The way this case is going, nothing surprises me anymore.’ Pike steepled her fingers as they discussed the possibility of both mother and son still being alive.

Their meeting went far better than Amy could have hoped for. She knew her team would be working hard in her absence, along with dozens of specialist officers assigned to the case. After they had discussed overtime budgets, media liaison and outstanding tasks, the meeting came to an end. Amy rose from her chair. It was time to convince her colleagues to focus their thoughts on the case, rather than today’s headlines. People like Luka did not go away quietly and she prayed that he would get back in touch. Every nerve ending prickled as she imagined him on the loose.





CHAPTER FORTY

Amy did not usually concern herself with gossip, yet today she waited outside her team’s office just the same. Up until recently, her personal life had been her own business. Now Lillian and Adam had started working together, everything had turned on its head. No amount of list-making or organisational skills could rescue this situation, and she had never felt so exposed. No longer could she contain her history in a black-ribboned box. The past had become a wretched, insistent thing that would not go away.

If her team did not back her one hundred per cent, she might have to consider stepping down. Lillian had enjoyed pushing the notion into her head and, like a hungry worm, it fed on her insecurities. The progeny of Jack and Lillian Grimes had no entitlement to a job such as hers. Who did she think she was, the daughter of murderous parents, dealing with victims’ families and relaying sympathy for their pain? Such thoughts made her uneasy as she opened the door an inch and listened for honest responses to her news.

‘So, she’s known a while?’ Molly’s youthful voice was plain to hear. ‘Fair play to her, she’s coping better than I would have. I don’t know how she sleeps at night.’

‘Don’t be fooled by her cool front,’ DC Steve Moss replied. ‘She’s not one to wear her heart on her sleeve.’

Amy inwardly groaned. His observations were correct, but Steve was not a fan and she waited for the slating to come.

‘I’d be devastated.’ Molly’s sentence was punctuated by a couple of chews of her gum. ‘Especially in this job. I mean, it’s hypocritical, isn’t it? Helping the victims her own parents murdered. Ugh. Can you imagine having kids? I’d be worried about passing it on.’

‘I’d be more worried about what people were saying about me behind my back.’ Steve’s words were taut. ‘Shouldn’t we be focusing on the investigation rather than Winter’s personal life?’