oldest civilian employee that they had;
he had known her from the day he arrived in the Dunedin police
station. She was the first face he saw and she had been friendly
with him ever since.
"I'm sure you are more than capable Julie,
you put a lot of the new guys to shame with the effort you put
in".
Julie smiled radiantly. "If
you ’ re
looking for John he's gone home. That young Nick Brown is the
acting Sergeant now. It seems that they do not have enough senior
Sergeants to cover the Saturday shifts. But I guess there are no
hot scones on offer in the canteen on a Saturday to entice them
in".
Bridger walked into the senior Sergeants
office. The scene could not have been more different from a few
hours earlier. The smell of cigarettes had disappeared and a fresh
faced 20 something with a well-worn uniform was sitting behind the
desk reading a thick file. Bridger introduced himself to the
serious young officer and explained the situation.
"No problems Sergeant, I will have my
section staff check her address every few hours to see if she gets
home".
Bridger noted the use of the words, 'My
section', and thought it was very proprietary for a person who was
only relieving in the role.
"That would be great, just get someone to
leave a note on my desk if I'm not around when she's located".
Bridger left the office thinking how long it
had taken him to consider any type of promotion, this new breed of
police officer all seemed to be champing at the bit to rise up the
ranks.
Reaching his squad office, he turned off the
harsh overhead lighting leaving only the dull grey light from
outside to filter through the blinds. Rubbing his temples, he sat
at his desk, then reached over to the small office fridge and found
the bottle of chocolate milk he kept in there for emergencies.
Opening the bottle he took a long pull, emptying half of it in one
go. The milk lined his stomach, making him feel partially better.
The sugar content was also gave him a little boost.
Going back over the mornings events, he knew
he had done what he could; his enquiries could not raise anyone in
the house next door to Marion's place either. The students, who no
doubt lived there, were probably sleeping off a big night.
Which is exactly what Marion will be doing
with someone right now, he thought.
Bridger was satisfied that he had done right
by Mrs. Watson and her concerns about her daughter, and now had to
concentrate on the next few hours before he could knock off. He
wondered what sort of mood Laura would be in when he got home, if
he was honest with himself, which he did not seem to be too much of
lately, she would be pretty pissed off. He knew she had the right
to be, but it did not make the thought of going home any
easier.
Needing something to take his mind off the
impending confrontation with his wife he glanced around the empty
office. To his dismay, his eyes kept coming back to the overflowing
file tray on his desk. He knew he would have to make some inroads
into that pile of paperwork that was threatening to fall off the
desk. He hated paperwork as much as he hated hangovers.
Unfortunately, both were something that was a by-product of a short
period of fun.
Reluctantly he picked the file that was
closest to the top of the pile and opened the front cover sheet. He
would feel like a hypocrite as the newly promoted Detective
Sergeant telling others about the evils of forgetting to complete
the necessary paperwork, if he did not have a clear desk
himself.
Glancing distastefully around the office at
his colleagues equally overflowing file trays he realised that he
would now be responsible for checking those files as well.
Maybe promotion was not such a good idea, he
thought, too late now.
Police work was not all driving fast and
using corny one-liners as the movies had enticingly promised him
before he joined.
Chapter Eight
Trapped in the stale room, her breathing the
only thing keeping her company, she was fighting against
Mercy Cortez
Sean McGlynn
Nicholas Denmon
Jaxson Kidman
Scarlett Ward
James Lee Burke
Matthew Cousineau
Grant Sutherland
Morgan Rhodes
authors_sort