Page 47 of Slack Tide Kill

Sally's body quivered. It felt like she was hovering in the air, inches above the floor. She turned to Liam and nodded.

"Interview terminated," he said, and pushed the button on the camera as Sally strode from the room.

20 ICEBOX

DCI Mayhew was waiting for them in the corridor outside the interview room. Her face was cold slate.

"With me, now," she said, then turned and stalked across the bullpen.

Sally followed in a kind of daze. Mayhew's apparent anger didn't touch her. She only had room in her mind for multiple lights, bobbing on the ocean at night. Coming up Dungeness beach on the high tide.

Two or three boats. The victim already on board.

Mayhew flung her office door open with a resounding bang. "Inside."

Sally and Liam entered. The room was plain and functional, only a desk, chair and computer with a plastic plant in a big pot and several filing cabinets. It was almost completely devoid of personality, bar a single framed photograph facing away and a poster on the wall showing Niagara Falls.

Mayhew shut the door behind her and for a moment just looked at them.

"You conducted an interview under caution without authorization," she said. "You ignored a direct order to hold. And you did it in my station, with my suspect."

Sally met her gaze. This anger felt very petty next to the things they'd just learned. "He was our arrest, DCI," she said calmly. "We followed procedure."

"No, you did not. I watched almost all of that, Officer Rogers, after racing here from the Rooks' farm. You made threats and you offered enticement. It was not an interview run under PACE guidelines, and his solicitor knows it. You have contaminated the process."

Sally felt the heat rising in her chest. She'd studied the Police And Criminal Evidence Act closely over the last three months. "With respect, ma'am, we kept well within the broad legal guidance of PACE, which is all that's required. Further, it worked. You heard what we got at the end?"

"And with respect, Officer Rogers, what the hell did you get?" Mayhew's voice tightened. "A fishing crew out at night? Maybe the same crew of traffickers coming back for more? Some cold-water plungers gone for a pre-dawn pick-me-up? You got nothing!"

Silence dropped between them.

Liam shifted slightly. "Ma'am, the admission of multiple boats by Rook is telling. It will inform everything we do going forward. Plus, it redirects the inquiry to the brother, Jerome. He had a better view of the boats."

Mayhew stabbed a finger back toward the interview room. "That Rook boy is running you round in circles! It's all the Rooks ever do, waste police time, and I won't have you–"

"We're not under your direct control," Sally interrupted. "DCI. You've clearly got strong feelings about this case, and about the Rooks. So do we. This is a break, and we need to pursue it. If you're finished, we'll–"

"You'll know when I'm bloody finished!" Mayhew spat. "You violated procedure in there, Officers, no matter how you justify it now. Everything Rook said in that room is vulnerable. Any decent brief will tear it apart. You've just handed him reasonable doubt before we've even placed a single charge."

Sally said nothing. The disagreement was plain. There was no use arguing further. "We're going to work the lead now, DCI."

"No you're not. Not in my station, anyway, not with my assets. You're off the board until I sort this out."

"Ma'am–"

"That's not a suggestion." Mayhew's eyes hardened. "You will not speak to my suspect. You will not access my records. You will not interfere with my investigation in any way until I say otherwise." She stared at them a moment longer, then pointed at the door. "Get out."

Sally turned and strode out. Liam followed.

"Shit," was all he said.

"Come on." Sally led the way back to the training room.

Their files remained spread across the table, leads already exhausted. Their old coffees were cold and gray. Rain hammered steadily on the skylights, a dull, constant drumming.

"I guess we leave?" Liam mumbled. "She'll be calling McMaster now."

"McMaster's not an idiot." Sally surveyed the space. "We're not getting kicked off for this."