Free Hot Blooded by Jessica Lake Page A

quite understand where this is coming from. Have I done something wrong?"
    "Just how close are you planning to get to this Callum Cross person?"
    I sat back, blinking and indignant.
    "I'm sorry, wh-what? He's an employee of the Streatham Club. He's close to Gary Wilson. I'm undercover. I thought this was what I was supposed to be doing?"
    Akin took a deep breath and didn't respond for a few moments. I could tell he was trying to figure out a way to word what it was he was about to say.
    "Morgan, I can feel you getting prickly. Please don't get prickly. I have to be honest with you, though, I think you dismissed the importance of Callum Cross's trip to Paris a little hastily. As you yourself just said, he's close to Gary Wilson. He's going to Paris to do a job for him, and yet you seem fairly convinced it's minor and in no need of further investigation. Why is that?"
    I leaned forward, mouth open, ready to protest. Then I gave it a few seconds of thought and slumped downwards in my chair. Akin was right. Was Akin right? Why was I trying so hard to get everyone to believe that Callum's Paris trip wasn't a big deal?
    The Superintendent, a near mind-reader at the worst of times, looked me straight in the eyes.
    "Are you protecting him? Do you have feelings for him?"
    "No," I replied, tapping my fingers on the tabletop. "I mean, no. Maybe. Maybe I think he's cool, not maybe I'm protecting him - I'm not. But it won't get in the way. I won't let it, I promise."
    "I'm glad to hear that, Lily. But, and please don't get defensive, I think I'm going to insist you talk to one of our mental health staff. This is your first undercover assignment and talking it through with an impartial party is an important part of it for all of our officers."
    I sighed. I knew he was right about it being a normal part of being undercover. I still didn't like the implication, though. I liked it better when Akin thought I was superwoman - because it made it easier to believe I was superwoman.
    "This is something we always do. I want you to understand that it's standard procedure. You're human, Morgan, whether you want to admit it or not, and human emotions can get very tangled. It happens to all of us. It especially happens when you're undercover, and I'm speaking from experience."
    "Oh, I know. It's fine," I lied, "I'll do it. I also wanted to ask you something else, about the crime scene."
    Akin perked up, clearly pleased to move back to an area where he felt comfortable.
    "The Linda Trout crime scene?"
    "Yes. You said the CCTV cameras caught the killer taking a shortcut to the tube station - down a back alley, I think it was?"
    "Yes."
    "Did you search it? I mean, with forensics?"
    "No, not with forensics. It was a fingertip search, five officers, and we didn't check the back gardens of the properties on either side."
    My boss didn't have to explain why the alley hadn't been searched with a forensic team because I already knew - budget cuts. The Linda Trout killing had made a few local papers but it hadn't been big news. She was a middle-aged borderline itinerant, not a young, beautiful person from a well-off family, and there was no public clamor for her murder to be solved. So the money to solve it was extremely tight.
    "Do you think we could get forensics down there, just in the alley?"
    Akin sucked his teeth and made a face. "I don't know, Lily. I don't know about that."
    "Can you please try? We never found the weapon and I know it's a long shot, but you said he knew he was on camera. If that's true, he also knew he wasn't on camera in the alley. Maybe he dumped the gun there? And if not the gun, maybe something else? The coffee cup he was holding?"
    I could see that Akin was skeptical, but I could also see that he understood the truth of what I was arguing. Forensics should have gone over the alley, and we should have searched the back gardens along it.
    "I'll see what I can do, Morgan."
    "Thank you, Sir."
    On the way home from work I did something