Redlaw - 01 by James Lovegrove Read Free Book Online Page A

out.”
    Khalid dived into Redlaw, pushing him back so that he collided with the serving counter. Crockery went flying. Redlaw was winded but still managed to retaliate, ramming his elbow down onto the crown of Khalid’s head. The sergeant reared up with a roar. Redlaw blocked his first two punches, but the third got through, a roundhouse to the ribs that left him gasping. Khalid drew back his fist to repeat it, but Redlaw seized him by the ears and yanked his head down, bringing a leg up at the same time. Knee and face made crunching contact. Khalid groaned and staggered back, putting a hand to his mouth. It came away bloody, with a fragment of tooth cupped in the palm.
    Khalid cursed in Arabic, then lunged for Redlaw once more.
    Redlaw braced for impact.
    “ Stop! ”
    The shout resounded across the canteen, bringing instant silence and stillness. Even Khalid was halted in his tracks.
    Commodore Macarthur strode between tables, her face bunched tight and radiating cold fury.
    “What the hell is going on here?” she barked. “Two grown men brawling like school kids in the playground?”
    “He started it,” said Khalid.
    Redlaw shrugged. “It’s true. I did.”
    “I don’t bloody care,” said Macarthur. “In headquarters? In full view of staff and officers? What’s got into both of you?”
    Redlaw was about to speak, but Macarthur cut him off with a chop of her hand.
    “John. My office. Now.”
    She said this in the tone of voice she had perfected as a major in the Royal Highland Fusiliers, a sharp, commanding bark that must have been the terror of the lower ranks. Redlaw didn’t even try to protest. He about-turned and made for the canteen exit.
    “Yeah, you slope off, Redlaw,” said Khalid. “And take your midlife crisis with you.”
    “That’s enough from you, Ibrahim,” said Macarthur. “Go and clean yourself up. The rest of you? Finish whatever you’re doing. Sun’s setting. Time for work. Go be the watchmen on the walls, the guardians at the gate.”
     
    “Marm, I can explain...”
    “Not interested.” Slamming the door, Macarthur brushed past him and went to her desk.
    “But—”
    “You do not get into fights with fellow officers, John,” she said. “You do not. End of story. Whatever the provocation. Especially not you, a captain. I’m aware there’s long been bad blood between you and Khalid, but still. Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t suspend you without pay for a month. Actually, one good reason why I shouldn’t just have done with it and sack you.”
    “Because I’m the best shady you have?”
    “Are you, John?”
    “You know I am.”
    Macarthur held his gaze for several seconds, then sighed relentingly. “Well, maybe so. But you’re also, not to put too fine a point on it, knocking on a bit. If this were an ordinary police force you’d have been put out to pasture years ago. At best, you’d be reduced to pushing paper at a desk and getting fat on Danish pastries. That still might happen. We’re desperately short-handed in the admin department and I’m seriously considering taking officers off the streets to whittle down the backlog of casework. You’d be a prime candidate for that.”
    “Please, God, no.”
    “It isn’t up to God, alas. Would that it were. It’s up to me. And right now I’m looking at a plainclothes field operative of mature years who’s done his bit tackling Sunless and keeping the peace and who, on recent showing, looks like he could do with considerably less stress in his life.”
    “On recent showing? One minor infraction in the canteen?”
    “John, I could at this point turn to my computer here,” Macarthur said, indicating the terminal beside her, the sole occupant of a desktop that was otherwise bare of paraphernalia and ornament, “and pull up your HR file and scroll through a list of—let’s call them infractions, then—dating back several months. I could do that, but I don’t need to. I have them memorised.” She