Snakes and Ladders

Chapter 5

5

‘You’re late,’ Jack barked as Wendy walked towards him, twigs and bark crunching and snapping under her feet.

‘I know. I told you I would be. What’s the SP?’

Jack walked towards her and gestured for her to follow him back towards the car park. ‘Young male, early twenties at best. Cause of death, deep knife wounds to the throat. Likely bled out, but evidence he’d been beaten too. Hands tied behind his back with cable ties, evidence he’d had tape over his mouth at one point, mud on his knees. Dr Death thinks he spent a lot of time on his knees. And yes, I already thought of the dogging joke, but I blew my load too early on that one. So to speak.’

‘I’m guessing this is one of those “should’ve been there” moments?’

‘Something like that.’

‘Doesn’t sound good, though. From the way you’ve described it, it sounds like an assassination.’

‘Exactly what I said. Ten quid says drugs are involved somewhere along the line. Either that or some satanic death cult.’

Wendy thought about this for a moment, but there was something else on her mind. ‘You seem… I dunno.’

‘What?’

‘I dunno. Brighter.’

‘Brighter? Than what?’

‘Than you have been.’

‘Lovely. Thanks. And no, I’m not “brighter”. I’ve got the bit between my teeth because we’ve got a job on. It’s what we’re paid to do.’

Wendy nodded. ‘So are you still… you know.’

‘No. No, I don’t know.’

‘Well, I mean, I just wanted to check in with how you’re doing. I know recently things have been tough. For everyone, I mean. But I know it’s been difficult for you in particular. And after the problems there’ve been in the past, I wanted to make sure you were in the right headspace for this. As a friend, I mean.’

Jack stopped walking and looked at her. ‘I’m not your f*****g friend, Knight.’

‘I know. Doesn’t stop me being yours, though. If it helps you reconcile it in your emotionless mind, just assume I’m concerned out of self-interest because I don’t want the investigation to go down the pan and for us to all have to work from Milton House.’

‘That ain’t gonna happen,’ he said, on the move again. ‘If anything, we’ve got even more chance of getting results now we haven’t got a f*****g rat in the office.’

‘We had good results even before that.’

‘There we are, then. No need to worry, is there,’ Jack replied, more as a statement than a question.

‘And how’s Emily?’ Wendy asked as they reached the car park.

‘Yeah. Fine.’

‘How far along is she?’

‘Nearly twenty-eight weeks,’ Jack replied. Wendy noticed a glimmer in his eye as he said this, before it was replaced with something altogether different.

‘How are you all coping with it?’ she asked.

Jack shrugged. ‘Nothing much to cope with, is there? I mean, it’s not like I’m the one carrying a baby around.’

‘Well, no. Not physically, maybe. But there’s a lot more to it than that. I can’t imagine it’s easy, considering.’

‘What, at my age, you mean?’ he answered with a wry smile.

‘To be fair, you’re practically a spring chicken in the grandfather world.’

‘Mmmm. Gonna be more than that, though, ain’t it?’

‘The dad still not interested?’

Jack shook his head. ‘No. I dunno whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing. It is what it is, I guess. Not gonna be easy, but probably for the best.’

Wendy smiled with one corner of her mouth. ‘Listen,’ she said, ‘if you ever want to talk about anything — Emily, home stuff, the whole Frank thing — whatever it is, I’m here, alright?’

Jack looked at her. ‘I’m fine,’ he said, before getting into his car. ‘See you back at the office. Try and avoid the roadworks this time, yeah?’