Free Frankie by Kevin Lewis Page B

down.’
    ‘OK, Sean, I’ll have a word with the director. He’ll be speaking with the commissioner soon – I’ll come back to you.’
    Meeken was not the kind of man to hold his officers up. Forty-five minutes later, as Carter was sitting at his desk finishing a bacon roll, he got the call: Carter had the authority from the director of the SFO and the police commissioner himself. He dialled a number immediately.
    ‘New Scotland Yard, good morning.’
    ‘Put me through to DCI Jameson, please,’ he asked.
    ‘One minute, please.’
    Carter knew he was going to have to do a bit of fast talking here. Jameson hadn’t been at all pleased when he had been transferred to the SFO, but the order had gone above his head. They needed a good DI to help them bring criminal convictions, and Carter had been an obvious choice. He’d jumped at the chance, of course – more money, and an opportunity to climb a different greasy pole to his colleagues. ‘Change is as good as a rest,’ he’dtold his friends at the time. Jameson had complained that he was understaffed enough as it was, but the powers on high had overruled him. With typical police bureaucracy, though, he had orders to go through Jameson if he needed to use any of the Met’s resources, and he knew the DCI would make him jump through hoops to get what he wanted.
    ‘Jameson.’ His rough voice came abruptly on the line.
    ‘Morning, sir,’ Carter said, trying to keep his voice as level as possible. ‘It’s Sean Carter.’
    Jameson sighed. ‘What is it, Sean? I’m very busy.’
    ‘I’m sure you are, sir,’ he replied. ‘It won’t take long. I need your approval to get something checked with forensics, and to put a trace on a mobile phone.’
    ‘Yes, so I’ve been told. Authorized by the commissioner himself. We
are
going places, aren’t we, Sean?’
    ‘It’s important, sir.’ Carter tried to deflect his sarcasm.
    ‘Why? Someone embezzling paper clips from the Home Office?’
    Carter stayed silent. He was used to wisecracks like that.
    ‘Come on, Sean. What is it?’
    ‘I’m afraid I can’t tell you, sir. Are you going to authorize what I need?’ He knew he didn’t really have to ask, but he also knew that the worst way to piss off a DCI was to threaten to go above his head.
    Now it was Jameson’s turn to be silent. ‘All right, Sean,’ he said finally. ‘Bring it in and we’ll see what we can do.’
    ‘I’ll be there within the hour,’ Carter replied. The line went dead.
    Walking back into Scotland Yard always felt to Carter a bit like going back to school to see his old teachers – it gave him that same sensation in his stomach, a mixtureof dread and strange excitement. ‘Hi, Sean,’ a former colleague called to him as they passed in a corridor. ‘Still trying to nail the Swiss wankers – I mean, bankers?’ Carter smiled weakly. He’d worked there for several years, and didn’t feel that he missed it when he was away, but was never so sure when he came back – there was something about the buzz around the place that appealed to him, something that was missing at the SFO. Jameson’s snipe about the paper clips wasn’t that far from the mark sometimes, and Carter had often found himself wishing he had something a bit meatier to sink his teeth into.
    This job was different, though. Important. Probably the most important case he’d ever been assigned to – and certainly more important than Rosemary thought when she first contacted him. Suddenly the sight of everyone scurrying around the Yard like worker bees didn’t seem so impressive after all.
    Jameson was too busy to see Carter himself – not that Sean had expected him to make himself available – but he smiled when he saw the DS who was waiting for him. ‘Hello, Yvonne.’ He grinned. ‘Haven’t they made you chief inspector yet?’
    ‘Babies, Sean.’ The dark-haired officer smiled back. ‘They get in the way of a girl’s career. Not that you’d know much about that