Blood On the Wall Read Online Free PDF Page A

to them.’
    You gutless piece of work, thought Georgiou sourly. Why didn’t you say ‘I’m delighted that Inspector Georgiou has returned to work’? Show some support for me. Because that’s not your style. Don’t rock the boat. Sit on the fence.
    ‘I suppose Councillor Maitland told the Parks family,’ mused Georgiou.
    Stokes nodded.
    ‘That’s my guess,’ he said. ‘Anyway, you’re back. But be warned, Maitland will be watching you. Remember what I just said, you do everything by the book. You take a suspect into custody – any suspect – I want there to be witnesses who see you do it. Reliable witnesses.’
    ‘Yes, sir,’ said Georgiou.
    ‘Armstrong’s given you a chance. You can repay him by finding this lunatic who killed his daughter. But you do it—’
    ‘By the book,’ finished Georgiou.
    ‘Right,’ said Stokes. Then he added: ‘And do it quickly. People are getting rattled. Two murders in a month, both with the heads taken. If the press are right and this is the same killer as the one in Northumberland then it’s a nightmare. We’ve got a serial killer on our hands. We’ve never had this sort of thing here before, ever. It’s got to be stopped.’
    ‘Yes, sir,’ said Georgiou, getting up from the chair.
    As he walked down the stairs, he reflected how much he despised Stokes. Stokes didn’t want a quick result on this because he was worried about who might be next, he wanted a quick result because he was worried that the statistics reflected badly on him. Two murders. OK, one was in Northumberland, but only just over the border. People would be asking questions about how competent the police force was, and those questions might look at how competent Superintendent Stokes was. Georgiou had the answer to that already: bloody useless.
    Tennyson was waiting for Georgiou at the bottom of the stairs.
    ‘I got hold of the rest of the team, guv,’ he said. ‘They’ll all be in the briefing room at twelve.’
    ‘Good,’ said Georgiou. ‘Let’s go.’
    Georgiou and Tennyson were just about to leave the building, when a voice behind them called out: ‘Inspector Georgiou!’
    Georgiou turned. It was one of the civilian support workers, Madeleine Wills.
    ‘Yes, Mrs Wills?’ he asked.
    ‘There’s a phone call for you,’ she said.
    ‘Who is it?’
    ‘Jenny McAndrew from the
News and Star
. This is the third time she’s been on the phone for you.’
    ‘Tell her I’m out,’ said Georgiou, and turned to walk out of the building.
    ‘But I told her I was going to get you,’ protested Mrs Wills unhappily.
    ‘Tell her you missed me,’ said Georgiou.
    ‘It might be better if you get it over and done with, boss,’ murmured Tennyson. ‘She’ll only try and get hold of you later. And she might do it at a
really
inconvenient time.’
    Georgiou thought it over. Tennyson was right. The last thing he needed was a reporter dogging his footsteps.
    ‘OK,’ he said. He pointed to the nearest phone. ‘Put it through to here.’
    Jenny McAndrew had a boisterous but intense voice on the phone.
    ‘Inspector,’ she boomed. ‘You’re a hard man to get hold of.’
    ‘But I’m here now,’ said Georgiou. ‘What can I do for you?’
    ‘I understand that you’ve been reinstated after being suspended,’ said McAndrew. ‘Is that so?’
    ‘Yes,’ said Georgiou, ‘I understand that, too.’
    ‘And why do you think that is?’ asked McAndrew.
    ‘I assume because the Police Authority have decided I had no case to answer in the charges that were brought against me.’
    ‘By Ian Parks?’
    ‘I don’t know who made the charges against me, Ms McAndrew. If you tell me it was Ian Parks, then I thank you for that information.’
    ‘Oh, don’t be coy, Inspector,’ said McAndrews. ‘You’re not going to pretend you don’t know why you were suspended.’
    Georgiou let a second lapse to contain his rising feeling of anger. He didn’t like the tone this woman was using, but he wasn’t going