Page 60 of Guilty Mothers
‘He just about tolerates my presence for an apple so you can forget anything more.’
Still nothing from the rest of her team.
‘Ideas, people. We’re running out of time. Now get lost and I’ll see you all tomorrow. Except you, Tink – you can stay.’
Everyone else filtered out of the room, leaving the young constable with a pensive look on her face.
‘Jeez, Tink, you’ve done nothing wrong. Now tell me what’s up.’
‘Nothing. I’m fine,’ she said, adopting what Kim had come to know as the too-bright smile.
‘You didn’t talk once in the catch-up. You’ve been in our briefings before, and you usually have no trouble speaking up. You’re not out of your depth here. You brought this case to us, and now you get to run with it. Understand?’
‘I do, but how do you do this every day? How do you switch off? It’s so intense and so…important.’
Kim smiled. ‘We all have our ways. It is a pressurised job, Tink. You work for the victim, you work for the family, people are grieving, they’re looking to you. You have to find a way to let the pressure out. Many a detective has succumbed to alcohol or drugs to ease the pressure. It doesn’t help and just gives you a whole new set of problems. Some of us go home and mess with motorcycles; some of us run around a rugby field when we really have no business doing so. Stacey immerses herself inWorld of Warcraft, and Penn does God only knows what. You have to find an outlet that works for you.’
‘Got it,’ Tiff said, standing up.
‘One more thing,’ Kim said as she got to the door. ‘You rely on your team. You use their strengths and weaknesses, and you share your frustrations. You lean on each other, clear?’
Now the genuine smile showed itself.
Tiff waved and headed out the door, and Kim readied herself to leave.
Unlike her team, she wasn’t heading straight home to unwind.
There was another lost soul she wanted to check on.
FORTY
Kim pulled up outside the building in Pedmore as the landlord was exiting the property.
He smiled and held the door open for her. ‘Hope this isn’t some kind of party.’
‘Excuse me?’ Kim said, moving past him.
‘She already has a visitor, so just mind the noise.’
‘Understood,’ she said, while thinking three people hardly constituted a nuisance level of noise. Kim was interested to see who else was visiting Katie Hawne, and if they were doing so for the same reasons she was.
The door was opened on the first knock and not by the person she was expecting.
‘Are you fucking kidding me?’ she exploded.
‘Hey, Inspector, fancy seeing you here,’ Tracy Frost said with a wide smile.
‘Frost, get your arse out of here right now.’
‘Well, I would, but Katie’s making me a cuppa. Wouldn’t want to appear rude. You joining us?’
Kim barged past her and headed straight for the kitchen.
Katie’s face registered her surprise. ‘Inspector, what are you?—?’
‘Katie, I suggest you ask this woman to leave. You do know who she is?’
Katie nodded. ‘She’s a reporter for theDudley Star.’