Think of the Children Read Free

as Jessica walked into the Longsight station. Early information would have begun to leak back through the various ranks during the morning about what
had been found and, as when anything major occurred, it didn’t take long for the news to spread.
    Jessica headed straight for the stairs at the back of the reception area but was immediately put off by a string of tinsel wrapped around the bottom of the banister. She had noticed something
similar the previous day in the canteen, where the frame around the door was decorated with bright Christmas streamers. Jessica shook her head in annoyance and then jogged up the stairs two at a
time on her way to Detective Chief Inspector Jack Cole’s office. After discovering the body, she had phoned in to the station to give the brief details she knew, giving her boss the
opportunity to start the investigation from their end while she waited for the Scene of Crime team to show up.
    As Jessica reached the office, she could see Detective Inspector Jason Reynolds and the DCI waiting for her through the glass walls. Both turned to face her and she didn’t have time to
knock before being waved in.
    DCI Cole had recently turned fifty. Since taking the chief inspector’s job around eighteen months ago, he had really started to look his age. When Jessica first began working with him a
few years before, they had both been in more junior positions. Back then he seemed to take everything in his stride and remained unfazed by more or less anything. After his promotion, he had begun
to change. At first it had been subtle but in recent months, Jessica had found herself less confident around him. His hair was now fully grey and new wrinkles had appeared around his eyes. His cool
approach had taken a hit and Jessica had seen him angry on a few occasions, something she couldn’t have pictured beforehand. The pressure of the job, financial cutbacks and the anxiety to
meet government targets were having an obvious effect.
    Cole was sitting behind a large wooden desk with a selection of certificates on the wall above him and a couple of cardboard files on the table. Opposite him sat Reynolds, an imposing black
officer who Jessica used to share an office with. As she entered the room, the DI shuffled his chair sideways, allowing her room.
    Cole waited for a moment, eyeing her up and down, then spoke with a grin. ‘Raining out, is it?’
    Jessica felt puzzled for a moment, then saw her boss nodding towards the floor where she had left a trail of drips which no doubt ran the length of the corridor and all the way down the stairs.
With everything that had happened during the morning, Jessica had forgotten how wet she was. Now she shivered slightly, almost in recognition of her boss’s point. She could feel her wet hair
plastered to her left ear and brushed it away with her hand.
    ‘Sorry, Sir …’
    The DCI waved his hand, realising his joke had fallen flat. ‘No, it’s fine. I don’t know if anyone filled you in but the car with the body in the boot is stolen.’ Cole
typed on the keyboard in front of him before shaking his head. ‘I’ve not got the information here but the owner reported the theft yesterday. The mother of the missing boy has been
notified and we’re hoping she can identify the body one way or the other at some point today. It’s awkward for obvious reasons.’ He leant back into his chair, running a hand
through his hair.
    ‘Do we know who’s doing what yet?’ Jessica asked.
    Jason answered: ‘It’s all a bit of a mess because the missing persons team were involved but now it looks like a murder investigation. You know what the politics are like around here
but I think we’ll end up taking it once the body has been formally identified.’
    It occurred to Jessica that she’d missed an obvious point. ‘If the car was stolen, do we know who the driver is?’
    The two men exchanged a glance and Jessica realised that was what they had been talking about before