of Gwen Straker, right here in the canteen, as it was the sight of Gemma fawning over that square-jawed, blue-eyed Henry Cavill lookalike, Reed, that reminded him why a working partnership with Gail Honeyford might prove to be more awkward than he’d prefer.
‘Look, ma’am,’ he said, ‘Gail’s a great girl, and an even better detective. Spirited, tenacious. Not perfect, of course. When I first met her, she was all attitude and not enough nous. But that seems to have changed. I’m strongly hopeful she’s not going to go at this case like a bull at a gate …’
‘Well, no,’ Gwen agreed. ‘Two of you taking that approach would never work.’
‘Listen … if you must know,’ he lowered his voice, ‘last time, we … as in me and Gail … I’ve unfortunately neglected to mention this to anyone, but we had a thing.’
‘I see.’ Gwen looked thoughtful. ‘As in a real thing? Or as in you just ended up in bed together.’
‘Well, the latter.’ He reddened. ‘We’d had a tough day. Got into a real scrape, in fact. We were stressed, wired, whatever you want to call it.’ He shrugged. ‘Guess we just needed to hit a release valve. I mean, Gail wasn’t spoken for at the time. But it was still an error … and we both realised that afterwards.’
‘You don’t need to offer a defence, Mark.’
‘Just filling you in on the circs.’
‘You don’t need to do that, either …’ she sipped more tea, ‘because I know all about it.’
Heck was astonished. ‘How’d you know?’
‘Gemma told me.’
‘Gemma told you!’ he almost shouted. A couple of faces turned from nearby tables. He lowered his voice again, throwing a quick nervous glance to the farthest corner of the room, but Gemma was still engrossed with Reed. ‘How does she know?’
‘Don’t be daft. You can’t keep anything secret in this job.’
‘No, seriously … I didn’t blab about it, and I’m damn sure Gail wouldn’t have.’
Gwen waved that away. ‘No secret’s one hundred per cent, Mark. Think about it. No matter how sensitive the info, everyone trusts someone, and quite often it’s someone they shouldn’t. Hell, does it matter?… We’re all adults.’
‘Yeah, but …’ This wasn’t panning out the way he’d expected it to. ‘Look, if … if Gemma actually does know, and she’s still partnered me and Gail together, that’s a bit of an error, isn’t it?’
‘Perhaps she just wants everyone to be happy?’
It was several seconds before Heck could process the meaning of that.
‘Hell,’ he said slowly. ‘She wants to sweeten the pill … is that it? So that when she finally hooks up with Reed, I won’t be too upset?’ It was a shocking thought, but it made a horrible sort of sense. Heck was so thrown by it that suddenly he was thinking aloud rather than making conversation. ‘Who’d have known she’d ever be so manipulative? The bloody little schemer. Well, it won’t sodding work. There’s nothing between me and Gail now …’
‘Hey, Mark,’ Gwen said, ‘got room for some advice?’
‘Sure,’ he said distractedly.
‘You’re being a bit ridiculous.’ She gave him a frank stare. ‘Gemma is doing the best she can with limited resources. One of those resources is a relatively inexperienced detective … who, quite rightly, she’s put in company with an experienced detective. And as those two detectives know each other already and have worked together previously, so much the better.’
‘Yeah …’ When Heck thought about it that way, it did make sense.
‘I honestly don’t know why you still have this hankering after Gemma’s affection,’ Gwen said. ‘Assuming that’s what it is. The way I hear it, you and she fight like cat and dog.’
‘We’ve been through hell and high water together.’
‘Tough experiences usually bring people closer.’
‘Personally, I’ve always felt it’s the job that’s got in the way.’
‘The job?’
‘Most of our fallouts are over procedure.’
‘Ah. You mean you want to use the Ways and Means Act, and Gemma wants to do things the proper way?’
He didn’t bother answering that, because there was no answer he could give.
‘Let me tell you something, Mark.’ Gwen sat back. ‘I once thought you two were right for each other. But, for whatever reason, it hasn’t happened. So, for both your sakes – and for the sake of Operation Sledgehammer, I might add – this can’t go on much longer.’
‘Ma’am … we’re fine. It’s business as usual.’
‘It isn’t, Mark. That’s the problem. We’re under the microscope like never before.’
‘It won’t interfere with anything.’
‘Just make sure it doesn’t, hmm? And think about growing up a little. You both have separate lives … time you started living them.’
Heck was about to respond, when he spotted the object of their conversation approaching.
Gemma and Reed had been en route to the exit, but having seen them together, Gemma now veered towards their table.
‘Don’t you two look cosy?’ she said.
‘Just reminiscing about the good old days,’ Heck replied.
Reed offered his hand to Gwen. ‘DI Reed, ma’am. Jack.’
She shook hands with him. ‘Pleased to meet you, Inspector.’
‘Heard some amazing things about you, ma’am.’
‘And I you. Well done on the Black Chapel arrests.’
‘Well … it was a team effort.’ Reed indicated Heck. ‘I particularly couldn’t have done it without this fella’s groundwork.’
Heck said nothing, but inwardly seethed. It wouldn’t have been so bad if Reed had been a pompous idiot, or a boring fart. But instead he was basically a good egg. The guy wasn’t just tall and handsome, with a natural aristocratic bearing, he was pleasant, clever, witty, and he always gave credit where it was due. It was no small challenge when you’d set your stall out to loathe someone like that.
‘Let’s hope we can call on the same level of effective teamwork when Sledgehammer gets under way,’ Gwen said.
Reed nodded. ‘We’ll all be pursuing different targets, of course. But ultimately, we’re the same outfit. We can always call on each other’s expertise or assistance. I was thinking we should video conference twice a day, just so we can
