Phil had spoken to the nurse on his way in. Anni had been rushed straight into surgery and operated on. The bullet had gone through her body, leaving a nearly clean trail. It had slightly nicked her shoulder blade. The bone fragments had been found, the wound patched up.
‘They say the bullet didn’t hit anything too important,’ she said, her voice dreamy. ‘But it’s going to hurt like hell once the drugs wear off.’
‘You’d better stay on them, then.’
‘Is that any kind of advice for my boss to be giving me?’ She managed a small laugh. ‘Should be… ashamed of yourself… ’
Talking seemed to become an effort. Phil sat silently beside her, waiting until she drew strength, felt like speaking once more.
Anni’s eyes opened again. Not without effort; a frown creased her forehead. ‘Where’s Mickey? Why hasn’t he come to see me?’
Phil found her concern touching. Knew that neither of them would ever admit how they felt about the other, no matter how obvious it was to everyone else on the team. ‘Don’t know,’ he said. ‘I haven’t heard from him. Maybe he doesn’t know yet.’
Another frown. ‘You haven’t heard from him? Why?’
‘I’ve been suspended, Anni, remember? I’m no longer in charge of the investigation. Or MIS.’
Her eyes closed once more. ‘Oh. Right.’
‘That’s it? Oh right? I thought you’d be a bit more concerned than that.’
‘I am,’ she said. ‘Very. And I’m sure I’d show it if I wasn’t so heavily medicated.’
They both smiled.
‘Glass. Never liked that man.’
‘Have to agree with you.’
Another frown creased her forehead. ‘Jenny Swan… she was in the room too. He got her first. How is she?’
Phil rubbed his chin. ‘Not good. I spoke to the nurse. It’s still touch-and-go. Lister might have been a bad shot with you, but he was closer to Jenny Swan. She wasn’t so lucky.’
Anni managed a small nod. Said nothing.
They sat in silence for a while. Eventually Anni broke it.
‘She was reaching him. Finn. I’m sure she was.’
‘How?’
‘She’d managed to communicate with him, got him talking. Got him opening up.’
Phil said nothing. Waited. Anni marshalled her strength, kept talking.
‘Apparently he lived in the Garden… ’ she said.
‘Right,’ said Phil, a shiver running through him at her words. ‘But the Garden was a commune. It… it vanished years ago.’
‘Don’t know about that,’ she said. ‘He said that’s where he lived. The Garden.’
Phil tried to keep the eagerness, the desperation from his voice. ‘Did he say where it was? What it was like?’
‘Said it was… metal. All metal.’
‘Metal? What, you mean indoors?’
‘Always inside, he said. Never out. That’s one of the reasons he was so freaked out by coming here. Said he’d never seen outdoors before. I mean he didn’t say it like that, but that’s what he meant.’
‘My God… ’
‘Yeah. Said the light told them when to get up and when to go to bed.’
‘The light?’
‘Artificial light, we reckoned.’
‘Was he… I don’t know, underground? Did he give any clues as to where this place was?’
Anni shook her head. Her face creased. The movement had hurt her. ‘No. Just… said… there was a lot of coughing. People always coughing. Lot of… It sounded like they didn’t live that long.’
Phil sat back, trying to process what she had said, the words spinning round his mind.
He looked down at her once more. The effort of talking had severely weakened her. She was almost asleep. He didn’t want to stay any longer, hamper her recovery.
‘I’d better go,’ he said.
She gave a dreamy nod.
‘I’ll come back and see you, though.’
Another slow nod. ‘Bring Mickey… ’
‘I will.’
He stood up. Not knowing whether to give her hand a squeeze or even kiss her on the forehead. Just something, some human interaction to show that he cared. He squeezed her hand. She smiled. And slipped away into sleep.
He left her.
Walking back to his car, he realised he hadn’t checked his voicemail for a whole day. He took his phone out, called. Listened.
His eyes widened, face changed expression.
Then he ran to his car as fast as he could.
90
‘You wanted to see me.’
Marina had followed Glass into his office. Stood before the desk. He had sat down, looked at his computer screen, checked a file lying open in front of him. Trying to make her feel like a subordinate, she thought. Make himself feel superior. She didn’t have time for his games.
No reply.
She checked her watch, turned for the door. ‘You’re obviously busy,’ she said. ‘I’ll come back later.’
Glass looked up quickly. ‘No, no. We’ll do this now.’
She turned. Waited. His choice of words didn’t fill her with confidence.
‘Take a seat.’
‘I’d rather stand. I’m in the middle of something and have to get back to it.’
Glass had to concede defeat. But it was clear he didn’t like it. ‘As you wish. Now I’m a big admirer of your work, Marina. Excellent. Out there, in the briefing, the conclusions you reached, the empirical evidence you based them on, great. I know a lot of officers in the force can’t see the need for a psychologist, especially a full-time one, on the payroll, but I’m not one of them. It’s the way forward, definitely.’
He sat back. Marina, taking that as her cue to speak, did so.
‘Thank you.’
There’s a ‘but’ coming, she thought. He’s just preparing me for it.
‘However,’ he said.
A ‘however’ not a ‘but’. She raised her eyebrow. Glass didn’t notice.
‘I’m afraid I can’t have you on the team at the moment.’
Anger buzzed inside her at his words. She pushed it down, controlled it. Directed it.
‘Why not?’
He opened his hands as if that explained everything. ‘Because of who your partner is,’ he said. ‘You’re compromised.’
She tried to keep the anger down. Failed. ‘I’m sorry? Because of who my partner is? Would you say that to a male member of staff?’
Glass looked genuinely puzzled. ‘What does that have to do with anything?’
She moved towards the desk, towering over him. ‘You wouldn’t say that to a male member of staff about his
