SIXTY-THREE

6.15 A.M.

‘Fuck this,’ Frost said, packing up her things.

‘You can’t go,’ Stacey protested.

‘You’re gonna have to lock me in a cell to stop me.’

Stacey briefly wondered if the boss would view that as a viable option. Although she probably wasn’t all that fussed about Frost after seeing Hiccup dismembered by a speeding train.

An ashen Penn was currently on the phone trying to establish how the hell Hiccup had been killed by a train that wasn’t supposed to be running.

‘But you’re the contact,’ Stacey said.

‘He hasn’t messaged me in hours. I was just the tool to get to you. He knows who’s running the investigation.’

‘But the articles. You’ve already missed the six o’clock one, and you know he wants regular updates.’

‘Then he’s just gonna have to whistle. I’ve done everything he asked; I’ve danced to his tune; I’ve probably lost my job, and it was all for nothing. A man still died, and I’m gonna be spending a long time wondering what I could have done to save his life. I’m not built for this shit.’

Stacey completely understood. The man they had been working around the clock to save was dead. A man they had never met had been killed because they had failed him. They hadn’t solved the clues early enough, or they hadn’t reached the locations on time. Every one of them felt responsible, and she guessed that’s where Frost’s frustration stemmed from.

‘None of us are built for this shit,’ she snapped. ‘You think we feel any different? We feel it every time we have a victim. We live with the rage and the grief and the sadness and the unjustness of it all. We take a breath and crack on in the hope we can prevent anyone else from getting hurt. We don’t run away.’

Frost paused at the door. ‘Yeah, the difference is you get paid for it.’

Stacey opened her mouth to argue further, but Frost was already gone.

She made a quick call to Jack on the front desk to make sure the insufferable woman was let out.

She replaced the receiver at the same time as Penn put down his.

His eyes were wide.

‘You’re never gonna believe what I’ve just been told.’