In Dark Water (Detective Shona Oliver 1)

A minute later Kate was back. She leaned close to Shona and murmured, ‘I’ve counted the windows, inside and out. They don’t match.’

‘It’s a false wall.’ Shona pointed over her shoulder. ‘Get the ram, take it down.’

‘Wait.’ Jax jumped up from the sofa as Kate aimed the battering ram at the wall. ‘What do youse think you’re doing? My name’s on the lease, I cannae pay for a new wall.’

‘Sit down,’ Shona ordered as the ram pierced the wall on Kate’s first swing. Bags of powder, both dark and light, began to tumble from the hole.

Shona turned to see Jax rushing at her, a heavy glass ashtray in her raised hand. She stepped aside just in time to dodge the blow, catching the woman off balance and pinning her to the carpet. Kate dropped the ram and fished for her cuffs.

‘You stuck-up bitch,’ Jax spat in fury, her face pressed against the rug. ‘My man will kill youse both, so he will.’

Shona was already on the radio, calling for a team to pick up a new suspect, then she helped Kate to prop the cuffed woman into a seated position on the floor, her back against the sofa where the child still sat staring blankly at her mother. ‘You need to take a moment to calm yourself, Jax,’ Shona said quietly. ‘Tell me who these drugs belong to. Is it your partner Hammy? Were you coerced into keeping them by someone else?’

‘Get tae fuck,’ the woman spat.

Shona walked into the hall, where she could keep an eye on proceedings, and phoned DCI Baird with the news. It was a short call. Baird was jubilant, she could almost see him punching the air, drunk on the success of his operation, the credit for which would fall squarely in his lap. But through the open door to the living room all Shona could see was a sobbing woman in handcuffs on the floor and yet another child who would grow up without her family.

‘Forensics are on their way,’ she said to Kate when she’d come back in and sat down next to Keana. The child smelled musty and unwashed. Her cheeks, missing their baby curves, were hollow and grey. Shona couldn’t help comparing the probable value of the drugs and the size and newness of the lounge’s TV with the undernourished little girl

. She’d grown up in a place just like this, knew there were choices to be made. She also knew women who went without so their kids were fed. Her own mother had chosen drugs and died young. Luckily for Shona, her grandmother had been around to pick up the pieces.

‘That was quite a performance, Jax. Did you work it out in advance? You playing the innocent partner. Did you think it would distract us and we wouldn’t do a thorough search?’ Shona picked out the least mangled doll from the box and made it dance before the little girl. Keana’s eyes showed a flicker of interest. ‘Who do those drugs belong to?’ She handed the girl the doll and was rewarded by Keana’s attempts to copy Shona and make it dance too. The little girl smiled. Shona felt her heart contract.

‘Don’t you want to see your daughter grow up? Don’t you want something better for her?’ Shona leant forward to make eye contact, but Jax turned her head away.

Shona sighed and got back on the radio. ‘Get the duty social worker down here. Female, two years old. Keana Cameron.’ She listened to the dispatcher’s query. ‘Okay. She may already be on file but warn them, this time we’re not looking at emergency care here, I think this will be a long-term fostering or adoption case.’

Jax looked up pleadingly at Shona, blinking away her tears. ‘You think you know me? You know nothing. I talk to youse and she won’t last five minutes. They’d kill us both, nae bother.’

‘Jax, I can help you,’ said Shona. ‘But you need to tell me what you know.’

‘You think you can help me, but you cannae.’ Jax shook her hair back from her face and lifted her chin. She stared ahead. ‘I’ve nothing to say to you, polis bitch.’

* * *

There were smiles all round when Shona and Kate finally made it back to the station. Dumfries’s part in Operation Fortress had gone like clockwork, with all the suspects apprehended. Shona swallowed a large coffee and a couple of painkillers to keep at bay the headache that had taken root behind her eyes. She hated jobs with kids, most cops did. Even Kate, currently being patted on the back by Matthews, was more subdued than usual.

Matthews was teamed with a special, a young man with burnished red hair and pale freckled skin, colouring so distinctly Scottish you’d remember him. Copper Knob – the nickname would be irresistible to colleagues and felons alike. Bet he heard it a lot. An idea chased itself around Shona’s mind for a moment, but she failed to catch it. There was a spark of recognition, then it came to her.

‘You were at the bridge last night.’

Copper Knob looked uncertainly at Matthews. ‘Yes, ma’am. It’s Johnstone. I was at the warehouse too. If it’s about my hours, I volunteered for this, I’m applying to join…’

She cut him off with a raised hand. ‘How’s the gentleman who was threatening to jump?’

He looked even more uncomfortable. ‘I don’t know. The paramedics were checking him. We went to disperse the crowd and he just vanished.’

‘Were you wearing a BWV?’ Shona asked. Body-worn video cameras were being introduced but issues with software meant they weren’t universal.

‘Yes, ma’am, I was.’

‘Send me the footage.’

‘Yes, ma’am.’ His shoulders dropped. ‘I’m very sorry, ma’am.’

‘You’re not in trouble, Johnstone,’ she reassured him. ‘I saw the way you pulled him to safety, that was quick thinking. Unfortunately, we often see people again. We’ll circulate his picture, get mental health agencies involved.’

Shona returned to her office. Murdo tapped on her door and came in beaming. ‘Great result.’