Free Chimera by Celina Grace

trying to smooth her hair. “I know. I’ve been flat out. Sorry.”
    “I remember.” Stuart had worked as an undercover officer for the Abbeyford team before a catastrophic series of events had led to his resignation, and he now worked as a private detective. Although he put a brave face on it, Kate knew that he missed working for the police, but she’d learned by now not to mention the possibility of Stuart reapplying for the force.
    It was funny, she thought as she took a menu from the hovering waitress, how differently she felt about Stuart now than when she’d first met him. She’d almost hated him on first sight, thinking him arrogant, pushy and rude. Of course, he could still be all of those things, she thought with an inner smile, but somehow it didn’t seem to bother her anymore. He was clever and funny and good company. Olbeck kept muttering about how she and Stuart would make the perfect couple and why wasn’t she doing anything about it, but Kate knew he was wrong. She appreciated Stuart’s friendship and that was all; she hoped he felt the same way about her.
    They gave their orders and then settled back in their chairs.
    “So,” said Stuart. “What’s new?”
    Kate told him what she could about the latest cases, the three heroin overdoses and the Trixie Arlen case. She mentioned that she’d made an appointment to talk to a drugs counsellor, to try and get a bit more insight into what made an addict do the things that they did.
    “I can’t help feeling that I should understand a bit more ,” she said, stirring her leek and potato soup. “I keep thinking that there might be a connection to these overdose cases. Well, of course there must be. How could there not be?”
    Stuart swallowed a mouthful of food. “Yeah,” he said. “You’re on the right track. First thing you should do is pull some stats, don’t you think? Get the analysts to do some digging. Find out the rate of overdose deaths last year – last month, even – and do some comparisons with the most recent cases.”
    Kate brightened. “That’s a great idea. Thanks. I’ll do just that.”
    “No charge,” said Stuart, grinning. “You’ve got a name for the first body, right?”
    Kate nodded. “Yes, we have. That’s something I’ll be looking into when I get back.” She finished the last mouthful of soup, pushed her bowl away a little, and relaxed back into her chair. She looked across at Stuart. “It’s funny, but I can’t help thinking about Trixie Arlen.” She opened her mouth to mention the one suspicious packet that she and Theo had found, and then recalled Anderson’s warning. Of course, Stuart didn’t know, and he couldn’t know either, not from her. “It’s so sad, isn’t it?” Kate said hastily, covering herself. “It’s always more sad when there are children, don’t you think?”
    “I suppose so,” said Stuart. He appeared to be thinking about something. He reached out to spin his water glass in a slow circle. “It wouldn’t surprise me…” he began and then stopped.
    “What?” asked Kate.
    “Well,” said Stuart. “It wouldn’t surprise me if the Trixie Arlen case is connected to these heroin deaths. It wouldn’t surprise me at all.”
    “Really?” said Kate, as casually as she could. “What makes you say that?”
    “Oh, you know. Sudden death of a healthy, relatively young woman. A woman known to have associated with heroin addicts in the past – her first husband, for one. She was pretty wild back in the nineties, wasn’t she? All those rumours.” Kate was uncomfortably aware that he was keenly watching her face. He was too good at reading people, damn him; it was his undercover training. “I don’t suppose the PM threw anything like that up?”
    “No,” said Kate, truthfully. “It was inconclusive.”
    “So you’re waiting for toxicology results, right?”
    “That’s right.”
    Stuart sat back in his chair and stretched. “I bet you a tenner I’m right. No, wait. If