Tony Hill u Carol Jordan 08 - Cross and Burn

report it. People who live outside the mainstream tend not to trust us to do an unbiased job.’
    Fielding cocked her head to acknowledge the comment. ‘Good point. OK, let’s do it.’ She didn’t mess around holding the door open for Paula, who caught it seconds before the spring slammed it shut. As they headed for the house, Fielding looked over her shoulder. ‘I’d have liked a quieter start, so we could be clear about how it’s going to work between us. I am aware this is your first assignment as a sergeant.’
    ‘I worked as DCI Jordan’s bagman on MIT, ma’am.’ Paula was quick to stand up for herself. Fielding needed to understand she wasn’t someone who could be pushed around. She needed to know she could count on Paula. ‘I understand about having your back.’
    Fielding’s expression shifted, cold assessment giving way to acceptance. ‘I’m proud of my team. We might not have the specialists you had at MIT, but we get more than our share of results. I’ve heard good things about you. Don’t prove your friends wrong.’
    It wasn’t the most welcoming speech Paula had ever heard. But it was a start. And given how much she wanted her career to have a future, she’d make the most of it.
    Just as soon as she’d found out what had happened to Bev McAndrew.

9

    T he carefully chosen furniture was gone now, carried off by the man and a van she’d picked from the small ads in the local paper. Actually, it had been two men and a van, and it had taken two trips to strip the barn of Michael and Lucy’s possessions. Everything personal, Carol had packed in plastic crates from the DIY warehouse and stacked in the garage. All the rest was a memory, doubtless gracing the house of some lucky punter who was blissfully ignorant of its history.
    The one part of the barn she’d left intact was the separate room that Michael had created at one end of the building. It was a studio-sized spare bedroom with its own toilet and shower, completely cut off from the remainder of the space by a new wall as thick as the traditional stone that protected the interior from the bitter weather. The reason for the sound insulation was that the room had doubled as Michael’s office. Here, he wrote code and developed software for games and apps. Along one wall was a long table where an array of computers and games consoles still sat. As far as Carol was aware, this room was untainted by the presence of her brother’s killer. When she came in here and closed the door, she could still feel as close to Michael as she had been when he was alive.
    Back when she’d first come to Bradfield, they’d shared a loft conversion in the centre of the city. Outside their tall windows the city had hummed and throbbed, sparked and glittered. But inside, it had been a space where Michael had worked and they’d both lived. She remembered how she’d often opened the door to the rattle of gunfire or the electronica of a futuristic soundtrack. Once he realised she was home, Michael would always put headphones on, but he preferred to work with the sound effects blasting at him from all sides.
    These days Carol had got into the habit of drinking her coffee and eating a bowl of cereal with tinned fruit in the room where she slept, music pouring out of the tall speakers that bookended the work table. Every morning, it was Michael’s final playlist, the last music he’d been listening to while he worked. A mixture of Michael Nyman, Ludovico Einaudi and Brad Mehldau. Nothing she would ever have chosen. But she was growing comfortable with it.
    She ate quickly, eager to return to the hard physical work that made introspection impossible. When she walked back into the barn, she was astonished to see a black-and-white Border collie crouching on the floor a couple of yards inside the door, pink tongue lolling between strong white teeth. Her heart leapt in her chest, a cascade of reproaches and terrors flooding her head. How could you be so stupid? Leaving the door open, are you mad? This is how people die. This is how people have died. Dog means human, human means stranger, stranger means danger. Have you learned nothing, you stupid bitch?
    For a moment, she was frozen, incapable of figuring out what to do. Then the old Carol Jordan kicked in. Slowly she stooped and put her bowl and mug on the floor. She knew where her tools were; she’d always had good recall. She retreated a little and moved sideways. Neither she nor the dog took their eyes