The Devil Among Us by Ramsay Sinclair (easy books to read txt) 📗

to the floor, turning a deep shade of purple. Ashamedly paranoid. “I guess my conversation with Flynn made me snappier than I realised.” Trying to quell my beating heart, I bowed my head meekly.

The sound of pouring liquid filled the uncomfortable silence between us, and DCI Reid pushed a glass over the oaken desk.

“Have some. You’ve been awake for hours. This’ll get you on track,” he urged me to take a sip, though not unkindly. He swivelled on the office chair. “I have to admit, McCall, that you were right to go.”

My ears must’ve broken. “I’m sorry?” I nearly choked on the strong liquid.

“Stop saying that word.” He chuckled at my exaggeration. “You were right to visit Flynn again,” DCI Reid repeated, proving it wasn’t made up inside my head only. “Perhaps I wasn’t open enough to your suggestions yesterday. But you’ve proved me wrong and found out facts that we didn’t have.”

Getting such praise from a superior of DCI Reid’s position was enough to give anybody a big head. Usually, Finlay got more praise than any of us put together, but after this, I was catching up.

“Well, Guv, that’s what teamwork is all about.” I raised my glass in mock celebration.

“Indeed. When were you going to tell me?” A twinkle reflected in his grey irises, finding my recklessness and instinct almost funny.

“I didn’t have to, and that’s what we should focus on.” I downed the liquid thankfully, glad to be let off the hook lightly.

Or so I thought.

“On a serious note, I have to be certain I can trust you, as a part of this team. That means listening to my instructions all the time, not only when it suits,” DCI Reid lectured, those fatty cheeks moving in haste. “I want you to prove to me that you’re not as reckless as you’ve proved yourself to be. Sometimes, where your heart leads can get you into deep trouble. People could have followed you from the hospital to here. We could have the criminals watching us all now, because you allowed yourself to get involved on a personal level.”

“And that could be trouble.” My shoulders lowered in shame.

“Exactly. They’ve gone this far, who’s saying they won't go further? Lives have already been taken, McCall, and I don’t want you to be next. Tread carefully and watch your back. You never know who’s waiting for us.”

“Noted, sir.” I saluted, which seemed to tickle DCI Reid even further.

“You’ve got a sensible head screwed on there, it has to be said, but you’ve a tendency to rush into things. CID needs sensible leaders as opposed to those working off hunches. Hunches are good in some situations, just not those that are deeper than we originally thought. Agreed?” He spoke nothing but the truth.

“Agreed, Sir.”

We had a huge turnaround in our working relationship today.

“Next time, let’s be honest with each other, eh? It keeps us all up to date and working efficiently as a team,” DCI Reid emphasised, big teeth flashing the graver he became.

“Loud and clear, sir.”

We shared an honest and respectful nod, then he took a sip of his own dark drink as he calculated his response thoroughly.

“We should snap to it, before the rest of them think we’re skiving. You’re free to go.”

“Thanks, Guv.” Standing up timidly, I was about halfway out of the door when he called me.

“McCall, you’re not getting away that easily. Take these, for you and DI Cooper to work on.” Reid slid a bunch of grey and beige folders over his desk purposely.

I should’ve known. No one ever escaped the Guv’s grasp that easily.

A sort of pep filled my step as I returned to the main hub where everyone was still gathered into one large group. They swapped ideas and urgent statements between, bouncing their theories amongst the team.

“You’re chirpy,” Finlay recognised when I handed him our newest bunch of folders.

“Yup,” I eluded, letting them draw their own conclusions. “What did you find whilst I was away?”

John was the earliest to acknowledge the question. “Not an awful lot. We took a look at the streets, the ones where all these alternative stations were alerted for tip offs. There’s no real correlation between them all, except that they were all heading away from the borders.”

Makes sense. They wouldn’t circle around on themselves, that would defeat the purpose of their trip altogether.

“What about the locations themselves?” I took a stab in the darkness. “Is there a pattern between the stations, and if so, any idea where they’ll hit next?” Methodically, if we could crack that, we could alert the rest before it happened a fourth time.

“They seem to hit all the major towns or cities where there's a surge of drug-related deaths.” Tony drew up a map on his own screen, pointing towards the major targets. “But, the drugs never reach the dealers, as the police get their hands on them before that’s possible. So where are all these drugs coming from initially?”

“We thought it could be a diversion,” Finlay got involved, brunette tufts of hair sticking up all haphazardly. One could only assume that he too, had a severe lack of sleep previously. “We focused all of our energy on that specific street at the time of the shootings--”

“Leaving three other main routes for a different vehicle carrying more drugs to escape through.” That had already gone through my mind too. “I’d agree, only the substances we found were cocaine. There’s no way they’d waste all those drugs by putting them into police hands and letting them get destroyed.”

Finlay shot me a look as if to say, ‘Bog off and let us be wrong without making us look stupid.’ “You’ve got a point. We’ll keep searching.”

“Yeah, do. It won't be easy, if three stations have already given up, then who’s saying we’ll be any different.” I didn’t want to be the bearer of disappointing news, only the truth. “Just do our best. These are people who don’t want to be found.”

“DI Cooper?” Rebecca raised her voice a