Crossing the Line (Kerry Wilkinson) by Kerry Wilkinson Read Free Book Online Page A

someone digging but it doesn’t make
    much sense. If this guy wanted revenge on Callaghan, why would he wait until now when he’s off in
    France? Why would he get someone else to do it in public?’
    ‘The public thing’s bugging me too. It sounds like Callaghan’s a bit of a shite but why not hit him
    when he’s on the way back from the council after some late-night circle-jerk? Or knock on his door
    and throw the acid in his face? It’s either someone who wants the attention, or a person who doesn’t
    care. Bad news either way.’
    ‘It could still be a botched attack on the Home Secretary.’
    ‘True but we’ve not had any witnesses say our hoody made any move towards the stage. He might
    have abandoned his plan when he saw the security but all we can work from is that we’ve got one guy
    in surgery and a list of people who have it in for him. What about this Anarky lot?’
    Izzy shuffled through her papers and handed over another Post-it note with a web address on. ‘It’s a
    private forum where some of our known nutters post their plans. Although it’s not public, people can
    sign up easily, so it’s not exactly hidden either. It’s mostly harmless – conspiracy theories, planning
    their meetings, some football stuff. In your email, you’ve got the exact post. Our geeks are tracing the IP. All it said was, “Nice work at Picc. Get out OK?” Only one reply, which just said “Eh?” and then
    it got deleted. One of our monitoring lot picked up on it but there’s no major chatter, so it could be a hoax or something else entirely.’
    ‘Does the Guv know?’
    ‘He’s been talking to your mates at Serious Crime—’
    ‘Pfft.’
    ‘I knew you’d like that but it’s their thing because of the gangs. SCD say there’s no specific intel
    that Anarky or any similar groups were planning anything. It might be someone trying to talk the group
    up, or even a rival trying to smear. They say that even if they get the IP, they’ll have to tread carefully because they don’t want the forum to be shut down. I’ll leave it to you and the Guv but he didn’t seem
    convinced you’d get much backing.’
    ‘All right, great stuff – as ever.’
    Izzy stood, ready to leave, but turned as she got to the office door. ‘DSI Hambleton’s in today, if
    you didn’t know.’
    ‘Niall?’
    Izzy giggled. ‘Ooooh, Niall is it. Very cosy.’
    Jessica balled up the messages and threw them towards the bin, missing again. ‘What else am I
    supposed to call him? He’s not a superintendent any longer – and he’s twice my age.’
    ‘Sugar daddy then. He’s nice – and he’s got a thing for you. When he spotted me, he specifically
    asked where you were.’
    Jessica untied her hair, flicking it behind her shoulders. ‘He’s good to talk to – full of stories plus
    he gives good advice. Perhaps if these miserable bastards stopped gossiping for half an hour they’d
    get a decent CCTV shot of our hoody.’
    Izzy grinned. ‘Getting defensive too – very suspicious.’
    ‘All right, sod off. There’s fingertip search duties going if you fancy it?’
    ‘Who’s going to run all your errands then?’
    ‘Dave – if he ever gets back from holiday.’
    Jessica’s attempt at not giving the station’s gossiping bastards anything to talk about immediately
    came crashing down when she ran into Niall Hambleton as she was heading through reception. The
    former DSI had retired almost a decade previously but was working voluntarily for a day or two a
    month looking into cold cases where they hadn’t managed to find the culprit for a certain crime. It fell under the current policy of ‘let’s see how many people we can get to work for free’. Jessica was sure
    it wouldn’t be long before they had someone doing a CID job for nothing, probably under the guise
    that as enough people watched police shows on TV it couldn’t be that hard.
    Izzy was right that Niall had a soft spot for Jessica but what she hadn’t said