She pushed the bolts back into place and padded after them.
‘Okay, I admit it – I forgot,’ she said as she opened the refrigerator door and pulled out white wine and cans of beer.
Gavin collected glasses from the cupboard under the worktop, and then lined them up and waited while Kay poured the drinks.
‘Oh, guinea pigs!’ Carys crouched next to the hutch. ‘What’re their names?’
Barnes and Gavin laughed when Kay told them.
‘Can I pick them up?’
‘You can pick up Bonnie,’ said Kay. ‘She’s the little black and white one – Clyde’s got a skin infection so I’m on nurse duties at the moment until Adam gets back from Aberdeen.’
Delighted, Carys flipped open the hatch and gently lifted Bonnie from where she’d been gazing up at the young detective.
‘Aw, she’s cute.’
Kay smiled as Carys cradled the animal against her stomach and scratched it between the ears. Her geriatric pet gerbil had died the previous month, and the woman had been inconsolable for days, especially when it transpired she had nowhere to bury her pet because she rented an apartment on the outskirts of town.
When he’d heard about her predicament, Adam had taken pity on her and offered to dig a grave for the gerbil at the bottom of their garden. Carys had been overwhelmed by the gesture, and had bought a new rose bush for them to mark the spot.
‘She’s not cute at half past four in the morning when she’s hungry,’ said Kay, and handed Carys a pre-made bag of raw vegetables from the refrigerator. ‘Here, pop her back and give them this. Your pizza’s getting cold.’
Carys washed her hands, then slid the roll of paper kitchen towel into the centre of the worktop and sat on one of the bar stools with a loud sigh. ‘That was a long day.’
Kay passed around the drinks. ‘Cheers, you lot.’
They clinked glasses, and then Barnes flipped open the pizza boxes.
‘Let’s eat.’
They fell silent for a few minutes as they devoured the food, save for Barnes and Carys bickering about whether pineapple belonged on top of a pizza or not.
Kay took a sip of her wine, savouring the food and the easy company.
‘That’s better,’ said Gavin, wiping his fingers on a piece of the kitchen towel before tossing it into one of the empty boxes.
‘Didn’t you eat today?’ said Carys.
‘Didn’t have time.’
‘Sharp’ll moan at you,’ said Kay. ‘Have another slice – I’m stuffed.’
‘He can’t talk – I reckon he’s the worst out of all of us.’
‘What happened today?’ said Barnes. ‘Get your arse kicked again?’
Kay slapped his arm. ‘No.’
She fell silent, lost in thought until Barnes nudged her.
‘Come on. It’s us.’
She managed a small smile, then took a sip of wine and set the glass down.
‘A DCI Harrison from SOCU is taking over the Demiri case.’
A silence descended on the kitchen, only broken by a piece of mushroom falling off the pizza slice Gavin held halfway to his mouth.
He scooped it off the worktop and popped it into his mouth. ‘Well, that’s just bloody typical, isn’t it?’
‘Why would he do that to us?’ demanded Barnes.
‘To protect someone. The driver of that car crash.’
Everyone started talking at once, and after a few seconds Kay held up her hand.
‘Look, Sharp will explain everything at tomorrow morning’s briefing, but the driver’s name is Gareth Jenkins. He was working for Jozef Demiri under an alias as part of an operation SOCU have been running for the past two years. He suspects Demiri found out that he was trying to save a girl – an illegal entrant – from some sort of private club Demiri runs.’ She took a deep breath, and a shiver wracked her body. ‘Jenkins alleges Demiri and the clients of that club are murdering young women. We persuaded Harrison to second us to his investigation, given that the girl died on our patch. Sharp and Harrison are getting a warrant organised tonight, so I’d imagine we’ll be involved in the search sometime tomorrow.’
A silence filled the kitchen when she finished talking, and three shocked faces stared back at her.
‘Christ, Kay,’ said Barnes eventually. ‘You don’t do things by halves, do you?’
Chapter Twenty-Three
Kay glanced up from her desk as Gavin pushed open the incident room door, his hair still wet from the shower.
‘In early, Sarge?’ he said as he passed, leaving a waft of shampoo in his wake.
‘Yeah. Couldn’t sleep.’
A faint smile crossed his lips. ‘Me neither. Decided an early morning run might do me good.’ He dumped his backpack under his desk and switched his computer on. ‘I’m going to make a cup of tea – do you want one?’
‘Cheers, thanks.’
Kay checked the clock on the right-hand side of her computer screen. She had ten minutes before Sharp began the planned meeting.
She’d realised overnight as she lay tossing and turning that whatever they discovered at the nightclub, it would mean days if not weeks of paperwork and on the ground investigation, and so she’d arrived early to make sure she delegated as much of her current workload as possible.
A DS over at headquarters was going to get a nasty surprise when he turned up for work in another thirty minutes, and she signed off her email with a promise of a favour returned.
She pressed “send” and crossed her fingers that her memory of his somewhat casual timekeeping was correct.
With any luck, the briefing would be well on its way by the time he received her note, and then it would be too late – she’d be out conducting the search with the rest of her colleagues.
Movement out the corner of her eye caught her attention and she bit back a retort of surprise as DS Jake O’Reilly swaggered through the incident room towards her, a sly grin on his face.
‘Hunter. Still stuck here in the back of beyond?’
She fixed a smile to her face. ‘O’Reilly. Any of that SOCU training rubbed off on you yet?’
His features clouded, and he paused at her shoulder.
Older than her by at least ten years, his
