Next to her, Gary was on the phone, completely oblivious to what was going on. Steve was now in conversation about some casework he was wrapping up. Molly sat, glued to her seat as Donovan and Winter marched towards them.
They stood, waiting as Gary and Steve ended their calls. Walking into the room, Paddy joined them. He was flushed, the corners of his mouth turned down. Molly gazed from one to the other as they loomed over them.
‘I can’t tell you how it feels to have to come to a member of my own team and confront them like this.’ The room fell completely silent and Molly’s cheeks burnt as Paddy uttered the words in disgust. ‘To learn that one of my team is a bent copper sickens me.’
Amy’s face was grim. Molly’s mouth dropped open and for a second she forgot to breathe. No. This is wrong. This is all wrong. I’m not crooked! she wanted to scream, but she could not find the words. She glanced at Steve, but his eyes were on Gary as he sprang from his chair. The swivel chair was left spinning as he sprinted towards the door. What the hell was going on?
Molly’s gaze fell on the grim-faced uniformed officer as he appeared at the door. Behind him was Denny, from the Professional Standards Department. They weren’t coming for her; it was Gary they were after.
Marching over, Donovan took his arm. ‘You idiot!’ He shook him roughly. ‘How could you be so stupid? Have you any idea what you’ve done?’
Coming between them, Amy stood, her words soft murmurs as she talked Donovan down. Officers stood at their desks, open-mouthed. Phones were left unanswered. Tannoy announcements ignored. The world seemed to come to a juddering halt as the drama unfolded before them. Was there a second corrupt officer involved?
‘What’s happening?’ Steve whispered as he joined Molly’s side.
‘I . . . I don’t know.’ Molly cleared her throat. A shot of adrenalin was flooding her system, her limbs trembling so that she could barely stand. This couldn’t be happening. Not to Gary. They’d got it wrong. She wanted to cry out, to stop them. But her disbelief in the situation had stolen her words away. ‘Gary . . .’ she managed to utter, taking a step back when he met her gaze. In that second, his guilt was evident; his expression relayed his shame. His head bowed, he turned his gaze to the floor as the police caution was relayed. The most important words he had learnt when joining the police were now being used against him.
Had he been working in league with Bicks? She had picked up on his tension, on the whispered phone calls. But she’d put that down to his personal life, nothing else. She turned to the rest of the officers, shamelessly staring as events unfolded before them. ‘Show’s over!’ she shouted, in one last gesture to protect her friend. ‘How about we get back to work?’
She sat at her desk, tears pricking her eyes as Gary was led away. She could not carry on like this. They were due to leave Clacton tomorrow. She would speak to her DI in the morning. It was time to come clean.
CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE
Saturday 31 July
‘Morning, boss, I got you a cappuccino.’ Steve handed Amy the disposable cup.
‘Cheers,’ she said, a ghost of a smile on her lips. No doubt he was sucking up to her because he was concerned for his job. They all were. Things hadn’t felt right since Gary had been whisked away. He had come clean in interview, admitting the part he’d played. He’d had little choice, given the evidence stacked against him. Bicks was finger-pointing in an effort to shift the blame. The rest of Amy’s team would be interviewed when they returned to Notting Hill. Right now, Amy wanted to hear what Molly had to say before any more shit hit the fan. She pushed open the door of the witness interview room where Molly had asked to meet, hoping her day would not take a turn for the worse.
It was with a heavy heart that Amy had organised Gary’s arrest. Amy’s rule-bending came with good intentions, whereas Gary’s was fuelled by greed. He had happily accepted Bicks’s payouts – dirty money that originated from the criminal fraternity. Amy hoped for Gary’s sake that he was not too deeply involved. Prison was not the place for a young detective. Bicks might be able to survive it, but Gary would soon be out of his depth. Regardless, he had lost his place on her team.
Her suspicions stemmed from her visit to Bicks’s lavish home, and an old family photo on his wall. The man pictured next to a youthful Bicks could not have been Gary, but he certainly was the image of him. Darren, her private detective, had informed her that Bicks was Gary’s uncle; therefore the man in the photo was Gary’s dad. She remembered when they first arrived in Clacton how Bicks and Gary had behaved like strangers when they met. But why would they do that when Bicks was Gary’s uncle? Then there was the CCTV in the property office. Someone had distracted staff while Bicks wiped the iPad clean.
But it was when she’d announced news of a witness that she had flushed both Bicks and Gary out. ‘Keep an eye on the team,’ she’d said to Donovan when she left, but Gary was already on the phone, warning his uncle off. Amy thought of all the phone calls she’d interrupted, how his guilt had signalled like a beacon as he flushed red. Then there were the leaks to the press from their station in Notting Hill. The witness who had been threatened in the shower block during their previous
