‘Guv?’
Sharp’s head jerked up before his face softened, the skin around his eyes crinkling. He didn’t look like he’d got any sleep for a while.
‘Adam said you’d probably wake up the moment he went to get us some coffee.’
‘Where am I?’
‘Folkestone Hospital. Closest one we could get you to, in the circumstances.’
Bright sunlight shone through the slats of white window blinds and bathed the room in a soft hue.
Kay ran her tongue over her lips, the tip making contact with a scab on her top lip.
She frowned. ‘What day is it?’
‘Thursday. You’ve been out of it for a couple of days. Nothing serious. They kept you sedated as a precaution. You’ve got a nasty bump on your head, and there was concern you might have been suffering from hypothermia.’
Kay raised her left hand to feel the back of her skull, confusion sweeping over her at the weight of her arm before she realised it was covered in plaster.
She shivered as a memory resurfaced.
‘Your doctor says it’s a clean break. No metalwork involved,’ said Sharp. ‘A bit of physiotherapy once that’s off, and you’ll be on the mend.’
‘Demiri?’
He cleared his throat. ‘He won’t be bothering you again. He’s dead.’
‘What happened?’
‘Harrison shot him.’
Kay blinked. ‘What?’
She clumsily tried to raise herself, until Sharp took pity on her, stood up and arranged the pillows behind her until she could sit comfortably.
Her brow remained creased as her mind tried to process his news.
‘How—’
‘He used Demiri’s gun.’
‘O’Reilly.’ Kay spat out the word, and closed her eyes, the sound of footsteps reaching her ears.
‘Not the response I was expecting.’
She opened her eyes and turned her attention to where Sharp stood, peering through the blinds.
He let the plastic slats snap back into place, then raised an eyebrow in her direction.
Kay lowered her gaze and dropped her hand to the blanket, then exhaled. She owed Sharp the truth, and nothing less.
‘When I started my own investigation in the spring, before Gavin was attacked, I logged into the database. The entry for the gun that had been logged into evidence before being removed was missing. I managed to use my administration rights to find out who’d deleted it, and O’Reilly’s name showed up. When I double-checked the system two days later to continue my investigation, that administration record had been deleted, too. It was like O’Reilly’s name had never existed.’
Sharp shoved his hands into his pockets. ‘And you didn’t think to raise this with me at the time?’
‘I had no proof!’
Kay swallowed, her throat still coarse from the salt water.
Sharp noticed her discomfort and filled a glass with water from a jug on the bedside table and handed it to her.
‘Thanks,’ she said, and drained the contents while Sharp lowered himself into the chair once more.
He took the glass from her then eased back into the seat and ran a hand over his face.
‘O’Reilly was the one who organised the attack on Gavin to scare you off.’
‘What? Wh—? Were he and Harrison working for Demiri?’
‘No. Thank God. The fallout from this is going to be bad enough as it is.’
‘Then, why?’
‘Same as removing the gun from evidence and blaming it on you, I expect. Ambition,’ said Sharp.
‘So, O’Reilly removes the gun from evidence, Harrison then deletes the record of it ever existing, and O’Reilly arranges to beat up Gavin because I used his computer to find out about the gun,’ she said, then frowned. ‘What was in it for O’Reilly?’
Sharp had recovered, and rose from the chair, pacing the room as he spoke.
‘Fast track promotion to DCI,’ he said. ‘Harrison decided he wanted Demiri for himself. He didn’t want my team to be the one to charge Demiri. It would’ve ruined his plans to run a major undercover investigation and arrest Demiri for a massive drug operation. Harrison was more or less guaranteed a promotion to Detective Superintendent if he succeeded.’
Kay blinked, the room spinning, and slumped back against the pillows, her hand shaking.
‘Are you okay?’
She shook her head, stunned. ‘Not really. Run that by me again.’
‘DCI Harrison states he was concerned that your investigation was about to expose Gareth Jenkins’s position within Demiri’s organisation, and in his own words “arranged to take drastic action” to protect Jenkins. Gareth’s fingerprints were also on that weapon, and if you’d pursued your enquiries with the same diligence you’d demonstrated up to that point, you’d have blown apart a two-year undercover operation of his.’
Kay brought her hand to her mouth, bewildered. ‘I lost my daughter.’
‘I’m aware of that,’ Sharp said quietly. ‘I’m so sorry, Kay.’
‘Not good enough,’ Kay snapped, sitting upright. She glared at the DI. ‘Do you have any idea the stress he put me through? Do you know what it’s like to wake up in the middle of the night crying, because the tiny being you were carrying isn’t kicking anymore? Do you know what it’s like to have to pack away all the baby clothes and toys you’d bought because the doctors said there’d be no more children? And then, to have to return to work knowing none of your colleagues trust you anymore, even though you’ve been cleared of any wrongdoing?’
She reached across to a box of tissues on the bedside table next to her, swiped two and blew her nose with one before dabbing at her eyes with the other, then turned back to Sharp.
Her next words died on her tongue.
He appeared as distraught as she, his face white as he met her gaze.
‘You really didn’t know, did you?’
He shook his head.
‘Those girls…’ Kay cleared her throat. ‘Didn’t Harrison care how many more died because of his actions?’
‘Harrison maintains he didn’t know about Demiri’s sick killing club until Jenkins told us before he died.’
‘Then why shoot Demiri? Why not arrest him?’
He shrugged. ‘I guess we’ll have to wait and see what Professional Standards find out. Maybe it frightened him, knowing that
