The Secret Child (DI Amy Winter #2)(64)

Was he on medication? What would affect him so badly that the level of her voice would cause him pain?

‘All right,’ Amy responded. ‘But at least give me Ellen. What have you done with her?’ But she was too late. The line was already dead.

Her colleagues collectively exhaled the breaths they had been holding. Amy realised her heart was pounding double time. Adrenaline caused her legs to tremble ever so slightly, a barely discernible movement beneath her trousers. Composing herself, Amy issued instructions to her team. ‘Molly, upload the recording of the call and distribute it to all senior officers involved in the case.’ She turned to the others, knowing Paddy would follow up with tasks of his own. ‘If Luka’s taken Toby, then he’s not going to stop there. We need to find and safeguard everyone connected with the case, as a matter of priority.’ Amy glanced at Molly, who withered beneath her gaze. Her discomfort at hearing about Amy’s past was written all over her face. Would things ever be right with her team again? ‘I’ve got a call-on to make. Who’s up for a drive?’ Amy glanced around the room.

‘I am.’ The voice belonged to DC Steve Moss. A former inspector himself, he had been demoted following a tribunal with regard to sexual misconduct at work. Regardless of his misdemeanours, he could be relied upon to get the job done.

‘In that case, you can come with me.’

‘To see Stuart?’

Amy nodded. ‘You up for a blue-light run?’

Smiling, Steve grabbed his jacket from his chair.





CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

Amy updated Control of her whereabouts as she and Steve jumped into the car. She didn’t want to let his loyalty go unnoticed, and their journey across the city would give them time to talk. After fiddling with her car seat, she spoke her mind.

‘I’ll be honest. Out of all the people to back me up, I didn’t expect it to be you.’

She was referring to his reaction in the office when her team had been talking about the news that she was the daughter of Jack and Lillian Grimes.

Craning his neck left and right, Steve exited the car park, cutting through traffic as the blue light cleared his path. He was an expert fast road driver, easily capable of holding a conversation while manoeuvring city traffic at speed. ‘I know what it’s like to be judged.’

‘Which is why I wanted to speak to you in private,’ Amy jumped in. ‘What really happened to you?’

‘You don’t want to go digging around in my past,’ Steve said, checking the rear-view mirror before pulling back into his lane.

‘But I have a feeling you’re not content to leave it there. We’ve got ten minutes before we reach Stuart Coughlan.’ She leaned forward, picking up an empty cola can that was rattling around in the footwell. She shoved it into the cup holder, catching Steve’s gaze. ‘Want to tell me about it?’

Effortlessly, Steve changed gear as he sped through traffic lights. Having cleared the worst of the traffic, he had a relatively straight road ahead. Briefly, his eyes met hers, and he began to relax into his seat. ‘I used to train down the gym with Pike, long before you.’

‘I didn’t know you were friends.’ From the way DCI Pike talked about Steve, she thought they were anything but.

‘We were more than that, for a little while,’ Steve said. ‘But she wanted more than I could give her. When I broke things off, it turned ugly.’

‘You’re talking about your demotion?’ This was not Pike’s first affair. Amy’s father had fallen into the same trap, and Pike had used Amy to get to him.

‘At first, I was grateful for her attention,’ Steve replied, his eyes fixed on the road. ‘I was after a promotion, and Pike promised to put in a good word.’ He glanced at Amy. ‘I hope you don’t mind me saying, ma’am, but you don’t seem very surprised.’

‘I’m not,’ Amy said, unwilling to elaborate. ‘I just wish you’d come to me. This sort of thing isn’t tolerated anymore.’

‘I didn’t think anyone would believe me. As she used to say, I was the one with the reputation for being a Jack the Lad.’

‘So you slept together?’ Amy’s face soured as she pictured the scene.

‘Pike is ambitious,’ Steve continued. ‘Ruthless, at times. But she didn’t set the world on fire as a DC. It makes me wonder how many people she stepped on to get so far.’

Amy was flattered that Steve could be so candid. Then she realised he was thinking like a DI and less likely to be intimidated by her rank. Regardless, it was nice to have the limelight off her personal life. ‘She once told me that I was either with her or I was—’

‘Standing in her way.’ Steve finished her sentence as he negotiated a bend. ‘Yeah, she fed me that line too. I’m a dinosaur when it comes to this politically correct stuff, but it pisses me off that because she’s a woman she’s come out of this squeaky clean.’

‘Go on,’ Amy said, withholding judgement.

‘She pressured me into sleeping with her, using promotion as leverage. We both used each other, but I came off the worst.’

‘The probationer,’ Amy replied. ‘You can hardly blame Ma’am Pike for that.’

‘I can when she set me up.’ Changing gear, Steve risked a quick glance in her direction. ‘And I know you probably won’t believe me, but Pike orchestrated the whole thing.’