Free The Amen Cadence by J. J. Salkeld Page B

admit it. But what he says is right. I’m just not cut out for this sort of work. Not dealing with people like Dai Young. He scares me, I admit it, and I don’t understand him. Honestly, I’ve got no bloody clue about what’s going on in his head, the mad bastard. This file, I understand. Jimmy Robinson wanted money, and didn’t want to work for it. So he nicked those Range Rovers, and shipped them away. It all makes sense. But Dai Young, he’s different. I can’t figure him out at all’
    ‘But you don’t have to, love. All we have to do is nick him. And it is ‘we’, remember. You don’t have to do anything on your own. And we all bring different skills to the job, don’t we?’
    ‘All right, so what are mine?’
     
    Pepper smiled, and closed the file in front of her.
    ‘Your appraisal isn’t for weeks yet, love.’
    ‘I’m not asking for that. Just an honest view. What skills do I bring to the job, like?’
    ‘Well, you’re kind and thoughtful…’
    ‘I bloody knew it, Pepper. You all think I’m just some kind of bloody do-gooder, out to help the cons because they’re underprivileged and all all that. Well, I’m not. I want to nick them, just the same as you.’
    ‘Of course you do, love. I was just going to say how effective you are. You’re a good detective already, and you’ll go on to be an excellent one, I know that. Just give yourself a bit more time. Not everyone has to be some sort of bloody Action Man.’
    ‘But I want to be, don’t you see? Christ, Pepper, you don’t hold back, never, and you’re…’
    ‘A woman?’
    ‘No, not that. I was going to say that you’re half my size, that’s all. I should have been able to look after myself in there. I’ve been on the bloody self-defence course.’
    ‘I know, Henry. I was your tutor, remember? And you did well, love. No-one can become something they’re not though, not when it all comes down to instinct, like. You’re just not a fighter, not by nature, which isn’t a bad thing at all. You don’t want to end up like me, love, always with my fists up. Just trust me on that. This shouldn’t be a bloody crusade, it should be a job of work. We should all be able to leave at the end of our shift and live normal lives, just like other people do. I’m fucking up my whole life, my relationship with my son, everything, and there’s nothing I can do about it. My old man was addicted to booze and betting and fuck knows what else, and I’m addicted to this. It’s just not right, love. But you’re not me, are you? So don’t you leave, at least not yet. Give it three months, and then we’ll talk again, yeah?’
    ‘All right. OK. Three months, mind, and no longer.’
     
    The phone rang, just as Pepper was about to tell Henry that she’d beat him up herself if he changed his mind, and he got up to leave. She gestured for him to sit down again, and he did as he was told. He gathered, from the first twenty seconds of the conversation, that she was talking to a DCS on the West Midlands Murder Squad.
    ‘No, sir, I don’t know a Janet Matthews. Definitely not. What makes you….’ She listened. ‘I see. And this call to my mobile was made when, exactly?’
     
    Henry registered the shock on Pepper’s face in the fraction of a second before she gestured to him to leave the room. It was another ten minutes before she came out, her face white and her eyes red.
    ‘They’ve killed Linda.’
    ‘Shit.’
    ‘They beat her to death. Can you fucking believe that? In this day and age. Just bashed her skull in.’
    ‘Her kids?’
    ‘They were at school, thank God. But that useless bastard of a husband of hers will get them now, won’t he? They’d be better off in care, the poor little bastards.’
    ‘This was Dai?’
    ‘Oh, aye, it was him all right.’
    ‘Are you sure it’s Linda? Have you seen a picture?’
    ‘Not of her face, no’. Pepper started crying again, and Henry didn’t know what to do. He stood, awkwardly, then