Power Games Read Free Page B

on stand-by to deal with any serious crime as and when the need arises. And,’ she added, apparently getting bored with the lingo, ‘they’ll pull in anyone else to help if they want them. What happens to the work
they’re
supposed to be doing …’ She broke off to answer the phone.
    â€˜That’ll get spread out amongst the plebs like me,’ Colin said. He waited until Fatima was engrossed in the call to whisper, ‘Well, Kate, this is your job: go and tackle Graham. Find out the truth.’
    Refusing, in public at least, to rise to the bait, she smiled, tapping her watch. ‘We’d better go and see what Rowley’s got to say, hadn’t we, Colin?’ She flapped a hand at Fatima as they left.
    All that remained of Rowley’s apple was the stalk, apart from the bits of skin stuck between her front teeth. What she needed was a toothpick, even a pin. As it was, she punctuated her sentences the whole meeting with irritated little sucks.
    â€˜Any news on that warehouse fire yet?’ she asked, her lips undulating with the efforts of her tongue to shift the peel.
    â€˜Not yet, ma’am,’ Kate replied. ‘There’s a meeting set up with the Fire Service and the insurance people for three this afternoon. I’ll be able to report back to you after that.’
    â€˜That’s official news. Anything from the streets?’
    â€˜It’d be nice if we could make my
Big Issue
seller into an official informant, wouldn’t it?’ she said. ‘After that beating he took last year for talking to us, it’s the least we can do for him. He’ll get precious little from the Criminal Injuries Board.’
    â€˜He’d do better to sue the scrotes that did it,’ Colin observed. ‘He’ll get Legal Aid, surely.’
    â€˜A little help now wouldn’t come amiss, would it?’ Kate pursued.
    Rowley nodded. ‘Put it on paper, Kate. But don’t call him an informant. It’s sarbut up here. And I tell you, though I hate to admit it, we don’t often get women managing sarbuts.’ She looked at Kate doubtfully.
    â€˜â€œSarbut”?’ Kate repeated.
    â€˜Brummie for informant,’ Rowley grinned. ‘Forgot you were a foreigner!’
    Kate grinned to acknowledge the dig.
    â€˜I see him regularly anyway, ma’am. Every time I go to Sainsbury’s, as it happens. He’s got into a hostel in Moseley. It’s easier for him to get to the Kings Heath pitch.’ This was nothing like as lucrative as the Selly Oak Sainsbury’s. It was a much smaller branch, for one thing, and the shoppers less affluent.
    Rowley nodded as she made notes. ‘I’ll talk to them upstairs. But he’d have to come up with hard news, mind – not just bits of gossip from his mates. Being an informant isn’t meant to be a thank-you for being good in the past, either,’ she said, looking over her glasses with a frown. She gathered her papers. ‘Right. And I suppose you two have heard the rumour, eh?’
    â€˜About DCI Harvey?’
    â€˜Who else? But as far as I know, it’s no more than a rumour. Just a question of watch this space.’
    Kate waited a second before she said, ‘It’ll put a lot more on you, ma’am, if they take away a DCI.’
    â€˜Well, that’s the pattern, these days, isn’t it? And not just on me – on you, too, Kate. Until you go flitting off somewhere on this accelerated promotion scheme you’re on.’
    Kate’s turn to suck her teeth. ‘Between the three of us, I’m having doubts about that.’
    Sue Rowley looked at her shrewdly. ‘Don’t like the idea of fourteen-hour days, seven days a week?’
    â€˜I get enough of that anyway, don’t I? And I’m studying for the next lot of exams, just in case I change my mind. But it’s not the work that worries me. It’s the nature of the