Free The Major Crimes Team - Vol 1: Lines of Enquiry by Graham Smith Page B

to talk you out of it?’ Evans waved a hand. ‘Don’t even bother to answer. We all know you wouldn’t. The only way to stop you was to grass you up to the brass or to Nicholson. You’d have lost your career or Nicholson would have cleaned up his act. Yes, I have been using you. I’ll admit that. But what you don’t know is that I had Jabba watching the front of the club and Bhaki watching the back. If you’d left through either door with anyone, they’d have called backup and then stepped in.’
    Lauren’s jaw hung open for a second before she recovered her composure. ‘So you posted lookouts? What do you think would have happened if they’d been spotted?’
    Evans gave a non-committal shrug.
    ‘I’ll tell you what would have bloody happened. My cover would have been blown and then I’d never be able to prove where Christopher got that dodgy ecstasy tablet from.’ Lauren fixed Evans with a ferocious stare. ‘Either back me or sack me. But don’t ever use me.’
    Evans looked down at his desk. ‘I was backing you Lauren. You were off the books investigating a lead which we didn’t have enough proof to follow. What would you have had me do? Send in a gang of plain clothes coppers from another area? They’d have been rumbled in minutes. The only way to handle this was to let you do your own thing and provide discreet support.’
    Lauren slumped back into her seat.
    ‘Here.’ Chisholm extended his hand towards Lauren. A small jewellery case was between his fingers. ‘Gies your mobile.’
    ‘Why?’ The fight had evaporated from her as she realised Evans’s hands had been tied by bureaucracy and her actions.
    ‘I’m gonna put an app onto it which’ll let me listen to anything the microphones in these earrings pickup.’
    Lauren’s eyes narrowed. ‘I’ve never heard of anything like this in the police tech armoury, where’d you get it from?’
    Chisholm pointed at his computer. ‘Courtesy of a certain Mr Google and the guv’s credit card.’
     
    *    *    *    *
     
    Lauren walked into Shakers with a confident strut. Now she had the backing of Harry Evans and the rest of the team, she felt the odds of getting a result had taken a big swing in her favour.
    Her shift last Saturday had passed without event. Katya had left her alone and nobody had asked her for anything other than an ordinary dance.
    She had her suspicions though. Candy seemed to get more than her fair share of dances. Which considering her looks rang alarm bells. Coupled with the high number of people who came in, had one dance with her then left, it seemed obvious she was the main supplier.
    Lauren had also noticed the men who took a dance with Candy often spoke to Katya first.
    She didn’t need her detective skills to work out Katya was in charge of the operation and was referring the men onto Candy.
    Dropping her bag into the changing room, she interrupted a hissed exchange between Katya and Scarlett. Candy was nowhere to be seen. Whatever they were arguing about, it was clear Scarlett was saying no to Katya.
    Scarlett stormed out, Lauren pretended she hadn’t noticed their argument, and began to change into the outfit she’d chosen for tonight’s shift.
    ‘I want talk to you.’
    ‘What is it?’ Lauren looked at Katya, expecting another bout of antagonism.
    ‘We get off on … how you say? Wrong leg?’
    Lauren didn’t correct her. Didn’t trust herself to speak. Whatever Katya was up to, it seemed an olive branch was about to be offered. Inside her chest, her heart thumped hard metronomic beats as adrenaline coursed through her system.
    ‘True.’
    ‘I be bitch for no reason. Am sorry.’
    ‘Fair enough.’
    Lauren bent down and picked up one of her shoes, desperate to appear cool even though she could feel the prickles of excited sweat starting to form on her body. Balancing on one leg she wriggled the shoe onto her foot: waiting for Katya to continue while trying to appear indifferent.
    ‘You good