was about to speak again. ‘I’m conscious that you don’t have anything to do with them, and I understand you aired concerns before you arrived in Stoke, which is correct procedure.’
Grace felt herself holding her body stiff and tried to relax. It was like being in school again, getting grilled by a teacher. Not that she’d been told off too many times. She’d always been the quiet one in the class who didn’t have many close friends, always handed in her homework on time and got awarded good grades.
‘I think this is too sensitive for you and I’d prefer you to work on something else,’ Jenny said.
‘Oh, but—’ Grace said.
‘I think she’ll do fine working it.’ Nick sat forward to protest. ‘Grace is good at her job, Jenny. From what I’ve seen so far, she’s handled things with professionalism, respect and, I suppose, courage. It can’t have been easy to roll up there and investigate the way she did, let alone run a team.’
Jenny smiled. ‘I do like the faith you have in Grace, Nick.’
‘It’s not just me. You remember she did extremely well on the Caudwell case last year, which is why she came so highly recommended?’
The Caudwell case Nick was referring to was one Grace had found herself immersed in when she’d been first on call to visit a frantic woman whose estranged partner had turned up and wouldn’t let go of their two-year-old son. The child was screaming to go to his mother and Craig Caudwell was threatening to harm him if things didn’t go his way. In the end, it had been just him, Grace and little Henry in the room, but she had brought the child out in her own arms unharmed before negotiators were needed.
‘Yes, I remember.’ Jenny raised her eyebrows in mock surprise.
‘She’s a good worker. She’s estranged from the Steeles and I don’t think she should be removed from the case because of a slight connection.’
‘It’s not actually a slight connection,’ Jenny stated.
Grace shuffled in her chair. They were talking as if she wasn’t in the room.
‘If we took every officer away from a case that they were related to someone on, we would have no one left to police anything,’ Nick went on. ‘Lots of officers have bad blood in their families. It’s the reason why some of them join the force. But they still do an effective job.’
‘And they are taken off cases when they involve direct family members,’ Jenny remarked. ‘It’s a conflict of interest and can be open to corruption too.’
Grace thought it was time to speak out. ‘With all due respect, Ma’am, I had no intentions of ever getting in touch with the Steele family. I was aware they were on my patch, I told you about it and I knew, with their connections, I would more than likely bump into them one day. But I handled the meeting professionally. I don’t have any allegiance to them. I won’t let anything interfere with my work.’
The room dropped into silence. Grace could almost hear the cogs working inside the DCI’s head. She held her breath, waiting for her to speak again.
‘Very well said, Grace.’ Jenny nodded her approval. ‘But it still doesn’t change the fact that you are on a case with members of your family involved.’
‘Which could work to our advantage,’ Nick stressed.
Both women looked his way.
‘We have someone who might get a little closer than normal.’
‘Absolutely not.’ Jenny shook her head. ‘Look, I’m not happy about this, but realistically we are pulled all over the place at the moment, what with budget cuts and several officers on sick leave. You can continue to work on this for now, until another DS becomes available. I do think your skills are best utilised on this, but when you visit Steele’s Gym, I want you to take someone along. I don’t want you to end up in court unable to defend yourself. Is that clear?’
‘Yes, Ma’am.’ Grace gulped under the woman’s ferocious stare.
Jenny pointed at Nick and then to herself. ‘We’ll get it in the neck if you step out of line. Do you understand?’
Grace nodded. ‘I won’t let you down.’
‘That’s good to hear.’ Jenny got up from her chair. ‘I’ll leave you to it.’
Once she’d gone, Grace blew out the breath she’d been holding and looked at Nick. ‘I thought she was going to remove me.’
‘She may very well have to,’ Nick replied. ‘But she’s given us a bit of leeway for now.’
‘It’s risky though, isn’t it?’
‘I still think we could use your connection to our advantage.’ Nick paused. ‘Are you up for it, if we keep it between us? See what you can get from them that we can use?’
‘But the DCI said—’
‘What Jenny doesn’t know won’t hurt her, and it’s on my head if it gets out.’
‘I don’t want to lose my job.’ Grace wasn’t so sure. ‘I’ve only just got here.’
‘Yes, yes, I know that.’ Nick waved away her concern. ‘I just think it will be good to get you close to them. We’re under pressure following our failure to solve George Steele’s murder. And because of that, Eddie and Leon are beginning to cause more and more issues in the city. I need someone to keep an eye on them.’
Even without getting into trouble, it had been weird seeing them all this morning. Grace didn’t want to be associated with them in any way, but she knew how hard that was going to be with her curiosity fighting to find out more about them. So, if she was going to be working close to them for the next few days, she might as well learn all she could, both on a professional and a personal level.
‘I’ll give it a shot.’ She nodded.
‘Great. Report anything back to me first. Keep it between us. And be careful.’ Nick stood up. ‘Team briefing is at six thirty. I’ll need to do a press release before that, and then we can regroup and see where we are. If everyone on the list hasn’t been contacted by then, you and the team can get on to it tonight.’
Grace nodded, knowing that it was going to be a long evening. ‘We’ve made a start on gathering intel on Parker. He’s obviously well known in the area and I’m catching up with what we have.’
‘I’m sure your team can fill you in with everything necessary.’ Nick nodded his head towards the door. ‘Off you go, Sergeant.’
Grace left the room and sighed with relief. As she scuttled back to her chair, all eyes fell on her. For now, she was home and dry, but she would definitely have to watch her step gathering intel for Nick. There was no way she was going to be removed from this case.
The day had gone so quickly that when Grace next looked up at the clock it was six p.m. The office was a buzz of activity after the press conference brought
