The office was quiet, even the usual constant background hubbub seeming diminished. Jackie dropped her bag onto her desk and double checked the time.
Eight twenty. Still half an hour to go before she needed to leave for their meeting with Campbell. Robbie wasn't at his desk but she knew he was around, half a roll on sausage sitting beside a cup of coffee on his desk attesting to that.
She had just picked up the phone to call the hospital when he turned up.
"I'm just off the phone to the hospital. He's still in surgery but it's going okay so far." She put the phone down again and he sat at his desk, picking up his roll. He paused and said, "Was about to phone Mita but one of yesterdays arrests kicked off downstairs." He bit into his roll and she rolled her eyes as ketchup leaked out onto his desk.
"Luckily I've had my breakfast." She paused, "Should we be worried that he's still in surgery?"
Robbie shrugged. "The nurse I spoke to seemed quite cheerful about it so I don't think so."
She nodded, she knew what they meant. Over the years they'd all become adept at translating medics tone of voice. She picked up the phone again and dialled Mita.
Mita answered on the third ring. "Jackie,"
"Just checking in."
"Not much more to report, SOCO are nearly finished processing the flat and door to door is still going on."
"All right. Tell the uniforms to give their reports to me, then go and get some sleep."
"SOCO's not quite finished yet."
Jackie looked at the board. ""Chandler should be arriving soon, go home once he's there. Don't want to see you until this afternoon."
Mita hesitated and Jackie could almost feel Mita's exasperation over the phone. "We'll need at least one pair of fresh eyes this afternoon," she added.
"Okay."
God, she wished she had Mita's enthusiasm this morning. She hung up and took a long drink of her coffee. What little sleep she had managed last night certainly wasn't enough and she needed the boost, however temporary, before she faced Campbell.
Robbie looked up at her, roll now finished.
"You look knackered."
"Thanks, Robbie, I knew I could count on you to make me feel better."
He pulled a face and threw his napkin in the bin. She didn't say anything further: she knew he was right. She'd looked in her mirror this morning as she tried to make herself look presentable and she'd wondered whether the two hours sleep she had managed had been worth it. Besides, Robbie looked as knackered as she did. She sighed and took a sip of coffee. Robbie did the same and they fell silent as they looked through the couple of notes that had been handed in from the door to door search.
Nothing to report really. Most of the people they had got in touch with had been asleep and couldn't recall anything. She tried not to get too disheartened this early on, there were still plenty of people left to talk to, and they had barely scratched the surface of the case so far.
She looked at the clock. Quarter to nine. She stretched and stood. She wanted to get this meeting over and done with so they could focus on finding who did this to the Boss. She had a suspicion that Campbell was going to bring up their caseload as a con against them working this case so she did a quick run over of the cases she was currently working. A string of burglaries, two assaults in the West End and one in the City centre, and a few other minor cases that were on the verge of being closed. Nothing that meant she couldn't do this as well. As far as she knew, Robbie was in the same boat, and even with them taking on the Boss' cases, they could prioritise. She would just need to remind Robbie of that in case he started arguing.
They walked out of the office together and up the stairs. "Just remember, we can work the case load and for God's sake don't start arguing with her."
He had the neck to look annoyed at that. She glared at him but didn't say anything else. They were stopped a couple of times, officers offering condolences and asking how the Boss was. She was beginning to think they should have left the office earlier when finally they arrived at the executive offices.
Alise, Campbell's secretary, was expecting them. She simply nodded at their arrival and when the intercom sounded, waved them in.
Campbell was sitting behind her desk but stood as they entered. Campbell gestured to the seats and moved to the sideboard where a coffee pot sat. "Can I get either of you any coffee?"
God, the world really was ending. She and Robbie both shook their heads and Campbell sat down. "I phoned the hospital earlier but what's the latest?"
"He's still in surgery but the nurse was quite cheerful." Robbie spoke.
Campbell nodded. "Good." Then she was all business. "I think you both know that I don't think that you should be handling this case," Campbell paused, casting an eye over Robbie as he started to tense. Jackie took a step closer to him, just in case.
"It's been a tough couple of months for everyone," Campbell continued. Robbie took a step forward and Jackie really didn't like where Campbell sounded like she was going with this. She calmed when it appeared Campbell had more sense than to actually mention Robbie's battles with gambling, drink, and sex and instead went with, "and the pair of you have a high enough caseload as it is."
It still wasn't what either of them wanted to hear but Jackie had to put her own thoughts on hold when Robbie started speaking. "All due respect, ma'am," Robbie's voice started to rise and he was standing ready for a fight. Jackie jumped forward and placed a hand on his arm, pulling backwards slightly so he got the hint.
He did, miracle of miracles, and let her speak, though he still looked like he wanted a fight.
"We can handle it, ma'am," She didn't drop her grip on Robbie's arm as she stepped forward again to stand beside him properly. "We've got plenty of help and officers are refusing to take it as overtime, so the books will balance." Robbie glanced at her and she remembered she hadn't told him that yet. Still, he relaxed further and she carried on. "We've done this before, when Matt Burke was shot a couple of years ago. We've got a proven track record when it comes to this."
Campbell looked as if she was thinking and Robbie finally relaxed enough for her to feel comfortable dropping her hand.
Campbell finally nodded. "All right, I'll sign off on it for now but I'll be keeping an eye on everyone." Campbell looked sternly at them both and they nodded at the implication.
"Thanks." The words sounded grudging from Robbie but Campbell spoke before she could.
"Don't thank me yet, Inspector Ross," clearly she had heard his tone loud and clear, "I'm putting Jackie down as SIO." Robbie tensed again but she was too busy starting at Campbell to do anything about it.
"She's the one that made the reasoned argument and I'm not going to add to your stress levels any more than this case already has." She raised an eyebrow as if waiting for any more objections.
Jackie almost sighed in relief when Robbie nodded.
"All right then, I suggest you get on with the investigation."
Recognising it for the dismissal it was, Jackie nodded and chivvied Robbie out the door before he did anything stupid.
At least he waited until they were out in the corridor. "I can't believe she wasn't going to let us carry on with the case. Jesus," He stuck his hands in his pockets as he took off down the corridor. "And to say that things were tough enough already." He was on the verge of ranting.
"It's her job, Robbie. It's against every rule in the book to be personally involved in cases."
"That's not stopped anybody before."
"No, but she has to make sure we can handle it."
Robbie scowled. "Why do you always have to be the bloody voice of reason?"
"Because someone has to and it's not likely to be you." It came out terser than she would have liked, but honestly, she was on the verge of wanting to strangle him, a sure record for this time of morning.
He grunted something in disgust and sped up down the corridor.
She stopped and took a deep breath, closing her eyes. She really didn't need to add arguing with Robbie on top of everything else. When she opened her eyes he was no where to be seen and she sighed before she started back to the office without him.
The office was slightly noisier now that nearly everyone was in. It was a little disconcerting though when everyone quietened down around her, the noise taking a moment or two to build up to it's previous level. Robbie was sitting hunched over his desk as she sat down and he didn't look up as her chair squeaked as she got herself comfy.
She opened up her email inbox and grimaced when the newest email was from SOCO. She clicked on the email and found herself face to face with a few preview photos from the batch taken early this morning. As she waited for the massive attachment to open, she glanced across at Robbie and saw he had snagged the hard copies of the photos. She sighed and looked around the office. He finally looked up at her.
"Look, eh, about Campbell's office,"
She shrugged whatever he was going to say off. She knew them both well enough to know that they tended to take things out on each other when things were difficult and it would likely happen more than once more before the case was over.
Anyway, he'd shrug it off for her as well.
"Stick the photos up on the board and we'll have a meeting."
"Aye, we need to give this lot something to do other than look sorry at us."
She managed a small smile as he got up and she turned her attention to her monitor, the alert having sounded that the photos were now ready to open. She skimmed through them. The first photos were main overviews of the flat, showing what she had seen last night. A glance showed those were the ones Robbie was pinning up. The rest were close ups of particular bloodstains, furniture remains, every piece of destruction that might be helpful.
She closed the window; she didn't want to get too bogged down in memory of last night before she gave everyone the run down. If she looked too closely at them just now, she wasn't sure if she would be able to get through the briefing.
She ran through what she knew of the case so far in her head and finally Robbie stood back from the board and gave her a small nod as he leant against a desk.
The office slowly quietened as she stood and walked to the main incident board. She was grateful for it actually, saving her from having to grab the attention of everyone. Despite the fact she'd been a DI for a couple of months now, she'd worked with everyone here for long enough that she still had a small twinge of apprehension at the thought of being the one to get them to shut up initially. Still, it wouldn't do to show any sign of weakness in front of them so she launched straight into it.
"As I'm sure everyone in the force has heard by now, the Boss was attacked last night. He was found at the back of eleven last night in his flat. He had been badly beaten, to the point where he was unconscious when he was found. He was taken to the Southern because of the severity of his head wounds. As of an hour ago, he was still in surgery but the nurses were sounding hopeful." She paused a second or two to let that sink in completely. "As you can see from the crime scene photos, the attack was vicious so we're hoping that anyone out and nearby at that time will have heard or seen something, given how quiet the neighbourhood normally is. Door to door hasn't yielded anything yet but it's still in progress."
"Will it? I mean it was at the back of eleven in the middle of houses?"
It sounded like Dan O'Leary, but given the way everyone was crowded together she couldn't be a hundred percent sure. "Let's try not to scupper the investigation before it starts." There was a little bit of elbow nudging going on, but it died down quickly so she carried on.
"Given how vicious the attack was, it seems likely that the motive was personal. I want a team checking recent releases of Burke's previous cases,"
"Well we'll no need to worry about his personal life will we?" Someone else called out from the back. George Henderson she determined as he was the only one not trying to hide a smile. She glared at him.
"Well, we could say the same about you." That shut him up. She caught Robbie trying to hide a smirk and took a deep breath and carried on.
"Check everyone who would be due for release soon as well and make sure of their status. Check his phone records. He didn't mention anything but we need to know if he was contacted by anyone out of the ordinary recently."
"What about CCTV?" Sophie Jenners, one of their more experienced DCs asked.
"Requests are in for cameras and speed cameras in the area. Mita will go start to go through them when they arrive."
There was a small chuckle and she heard mutterings of 'glad I'm no the new one now.'
"I also need a team to go through any recent cases that are similar, right across Strathclyde first of all. Another team checking out his neighbours, dig deep in case this is just a case of mistaken identity." She drew a deep breath. "I want initial reports as soon as possible, we need to narrow down the focus." She took another deep breath and nodded sharply.
Everyone took that as their cue to start working and they dispersed to their desks.
Sitting at her own desk, she let the hubbub fade into the background as she had a proper look at the photographs of the flat. She hadn't had a detailed look up until now; last night had been too emotional and raw to look around and she had been too tired to check any of the details. She could feel the horror of it sinking in already, dread and a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach, and she had to force herself to breath deeply as she tried to stay focused on the pictures and keep her level head.
It wasn't working too well. She had to glance away for a moment, looking over to Robbie out of the corner of her eye. He was leaning over one of the techs, seeing if there had been any threats in the Boss' emails. He was focused on the screen but she could see, even from a quick glance, how stiff he was holding himself. He wasn't even trying to look down the tech's top which admittedly wasn't so unusual for him lately but the reminder of how much of a struggle things had been lately wasn't particularly welcome.
She looked back at the photos, still feeling unsettled but there was nothing else she could do, otherwise she was likely to fall apart and that wasn't something she would let happen.
Not in the office on front of everyone at least.
She moved pulled the photos closer, as if that would help somehow. She looked again at the bloodstained carpet, the chaos of the room. It was somewhat easier to believe that this was just an ordinary case when she couldn't see any of the photographs, or any of Burke himself. She turned her trained eye over them, but nothing particularly stood out. It looked exactly like there had been a brutal fight. Everything was over turned or damaged, nothing written on the walls, or missing so far as she could tell, or even placed where it shouldn't.
She felt helpless for a moment, nothing usable from the pictures other than reinforcing the fact the attack was brutal and likely personal.
She closed the folder with the photos and pushed them away. She paused from grabbing another folder when Robbie's phone rang and he stood straight when he looked at the screen, holding himself impossibly tighter. She guessed from his reaction it was the hospital though she wasn't so sure she wanted to know when he slumped slightly.
She felt her hope pick up when he said thanks and hung up. He looked directly at her and smiled slightly. She breathed again, relief coursing through her. He pitched his voice to be heard by others on the office.
"He made it out of surgery and is now in recovery. Not much else to report at the moment."
There was a muted sense of jubilation, he'd made it out of surgery but there were still miles to go, and they still had to catch the bastard who'd put him there.
She forced herself to take another deep breath. She exchanged a smile with Robbie and then he looked back at the emails and she pulled one of the reports closer to her. She flipped it open and started reading. She found herself having to reread the words several times, not taking them in, and she finally give in when they started blurring.
She rubbed her eyes. She was getting to old to try and function properly on as little sleep as she had and she recognised the feeling of despair washing over her as being made worse by her sleepy state. She closed her eyes briefly.
She could traipse across the room and get a cup of swill, which might help for a minute or two or she could go around to the wee shop down the street and round the corner.
She opened her eyes. Outside. The fresh air would help as well and she could grab something that hopefully she could swallow now that she knew Burke's odds had improved greatly.
She stretched as she stood and debated for a minute whether to grab her coat. A quick check out the window revealed the sky had turned grey since the last check, so on it went. She caught Robbie on the elbow with two fingers as she passed him. "I'm going for coffee. You want a cup?"
He nodded. "An extra sugar than normal." She nodded and left him to it.
She managed to eat the croissant she'd picked up on the walk back to the station. Not thinking about it, and the fact her stomach rumbled, meant it was easier to eat than the slice of toast she had attempted this morning. She started sipping her coffee, readjusting her grip on the tray that still held Robbie's as she walked back up the street to the back entrance of the station.
She paused on the back step, the fresher air, and the crowds around her had managed to put the thoughts of the case far enough back that the sense of dread in her stomach was ignorable. Seeing the station brought it back completely and she stopped and leaned against the railing.
She heard the door open and stood straighter, trying to pretend she wasn't feeling as crap as she was. She took another sip of the coffee, though it tasted like acid going down.
"I was beginning to think you'd got lost."
She was grateful for Robbie's tone, though that lasted until she turned and looked at him. Just an act and she could tell how worried he was. She must have been standing there longer than she realised and she felt guilty for worrying him. She held out his coffee cup as she tried to smile.
"Just trying to catch a bit fresh air before I have to deal with Eau de Police Station again."
He snorted as he took his cup and leaned against the railing beside her.
"You all right?" He didn't look at her as he asked it.
She sighed and ducked her head, curls bouncing slightly. "I'm just," She shook her head, unable to say anything else.
He knew what she meant anyway. "Yeah." He took a sip of his coffee. "I'm trying no to piss the nurses of by keep phoning, asking for another update."
"Ruining your cool image is it?" She tried to lighten the mood.
He saw through her attempt and shrugged it off. They stood quietly drinking their coffee until she spoke up as she stared at the bottom of her cup.
"You know, I can't help but think George was right."
"About everyone Burke knowing was in the office?"
She nodded. Robbie shrugged again. "He knows other folk."
She gave him the side eye. "How many of them did he not meet through the job?" She sighed again. "Sometimes I wonder if we're turning into him." Robbie snorted. "All right, we have already turned into him."
"Just think of it this way, if anything happens to us, we'll have Glasgow's finest to hunt down whoever did it."
This time, it was Jackie that snorted. "They won't have far to look, it's a good chance it'll be the other one of us that did it."
Robbie laughed, the first true laugh she had heard from him in days, and despite the fact it sounded rusty, she couldn't help but smile.
It faded quickly though and she found herself looking back down at her coffee cup. Robbie leaned against her and his left arm snuck around her waist.
"You said it yourself, he'll be up and bossing everyone about in now time." He pulled her closer and she wasn't sure whose benefit his statement was for.
"Aye," She leaned against him, the clean smell of his suit jacket still a little strange after all these years but it was still a relief to know he hadn't fallen back on any of his bad habits yet. His hand squeezed where it sat on her waist and suddenly she was glad he was never afraid of giving her a hug when she needed it.
She heard voices along the corridor towards the door and she straightened.
"C'mon, I suppose we can't let the rest of them remained unsupervised for much longer."
He nodded and tossed his coffee cup in the bin.
She stretched in her chair and blinked, letting her eyes rest from seemingly staring at the computer screen for hours. She sipped at a bottle of water to refresh herself. Robbie hadn't found anything in Burke's emails or other messages about any sort of threat and interviewing the higher ups and other officers he spoke to hadn't yielded anything. If he had been in some sort of trouble, he certainly hadn't mentioned it to anyone.
He wasn't the type generally but he hadn't been acting out of the ordinary either the way he had done previously when something was up.
She sighed and buckled down to the door to door reports. Robbie grabbed the other half of the stack. She quickly skimmed the list of interviews that had taken place so far, and found that there were still a quite a few outstanding. It was perfectly understandable, par for the course even, but that didn't make her feel any better. She made a note to herself to double check them later this evening, hopefully they would have gotten ahold of nearly everyone by then.
Any optimism she might have had about the enquiries quickly dimmed. It was report after report of 'didn't hear anything,' 'wasn't aware of anything until I heard the sirens,' and numerous other variations of the same theme. The fingertip search of the nearby area hadn't shown anything either but given this didn't scream spur of the moment to her, so she didn't have her hopes up for anything to magically appear.
Just when she thought she was going to go bonkers from reading those reports, a sandwich dropped into her vision. She looked up and Mita perched herself on the desk beside her. She doubled checked the time; two pm and felt a jolt of surprise. She managed a quick smile at Mita.
"Thought you might not have eaten anything." Mita looked around the room. "Any news?"
"He's out of surgery but still unconscious. The case isn't going brilliantly either." Jackie sighed and opened the sandwich box. "Thanks, by the way." She looked closer at Mita. "Did you manage to get any sleep?"
Mita nodded. "Eventually." She twisted to cast her eyes over Jackie's desk. "I take it the meeting with Campbell went okay?"
"After I held Robbie back from shouting, it went fine." She shared a smirk with Mita. "We're to be on our best behaviour though."
Mita nodded then pushed herself off the desk. "Is the CCTV footage in yet?"
Jackie shook her head. "Not yet."
"I'll go and give them a prod so I can review it."
Jackie smiled. "Thanks, Mita."
Mita smiled and moved off.
Jackie slumped in her chair again and pulled out a triangle of the sandwich. She didn't do anything else as she ate, letting her brain relax for five minutes.
Feeling refreshed she checked with Stephens how far back he had gone through Burke's previous cases and grabbed another bundle off him.
She went through a handful, jotting down the details of men sent to Barlinnie and phoned through to the prison. She tapped her pen aimlessly as she waited on hold, the tapping slowing when she finally got through.
The warden on the other end was gruff, only a little more helpful when he realised why she was asking.
Information jotted down, Robbie grabbed the sheet off her.
Before she could do more than raise an eyebrow at him, he said, "I'll check these out."
She could tell by his stance he was going stir crazy inside and decided it was best to leave him too it.
Stephens looked over at her. "Why did you check the ones that were still inside?"
She could have throttled him then and there. "Because we learned the hard way that records can be out of date."
She could hear herself sound snippy as she said it, but then even after ten years, Michael's death still hurt occasionally.
"Oh, sorry." Stephens looked shamefaced and started going through his bundle again, obviously going back to double check.
She sighed and decided it wasn't worth apologising; she'd mentioned earlier to double check the status of everyone they were checking up on. She made a mental note to pair him up with someone more experienced, at least for the rest of this case. She turned back to her list and tried not to get too frustrated.
She checked another batch, digging deeper into the files and it was somewhat disheartening to discover they were only about six months back.
They had a whole careers worth to go through, unless there was some miracle of a break through on CCTV.
She sighed. She'd better check on Mita, though she was sure Mita would have phoned by now if she had found anything. She walked out into the corridor to stop by the coffee machine first and was greeted by the sight of a grey sky.
"Typical." She muttered under her breath. There wasn't even a bit of sunshine to cheer them up a bit.
She found Mita slumped in a chair in front of the screen. She put down a coffee in front of Mita as she leaned beside her.
"Any luck yet?"
Mita shook her head and took a sip of the coffee. She pulled a face. "I really should be used to this by now."
Jackie managed a small huff of laughter. "Believe me, it's worrying if you do."
Mita smiled and put the cup down, back to business. "There aren't a lot of cameras in the immediate area but I've been working backwards from the time Robbie found him on the camera at the end of the street." She bit her lip. "There is nothing out of the ordinary but if it was planned enough,"
"Then they could have tried to blend in." Jackie finished and sighed. "Just keep an eye out for anything suspicious, with any luck we'll have a better time frame shortly. Did you get nearby traffic camera footage as well?"
Mita nodded. "And the speed camera footage nearby just in case." She looked a little bewildered at being asked.
"Sorry," Jackie gave an annoyed smile. "Just discovered one of the DC's still can't listen to instructions."
"Ouch." Mita sympathised and Jackie huffed a laugh.
"I'll leave you to it."
Mita nodded and pressed play.
Stephens was on the phone when she came back into the main office, and she swerved to avoid him before she started thinking about the case that lead to Michael's death again.
Too late. The coffee seemed to lie heavily in her stomach and she felt sick.
She wasn't sure how they would cope if they lost Burke as well. She clamped down on the thought and she tried to stay focused on the here and now. She wandered over to the crime scene photos again, hoping that if she focused long enough, something would jump out at her. It had worked in the past and it might allow her the distance to treat this like any other case.
She perched herself on the edge of a desk near the board, thankfully empty at the moment, and stared at the photos. She lost herself in them, trusting that someone would grab her attention if there was anything new to report.
She looked away when she felt the desk shift slightly as Robbie sat beside her. She felt a jolt that he was back already and checked her watch. It was nearly six already. That was the second time she'd gotten distracted and she cursed in her head. The lack of sleep was catching up with her clearly. He didn't say anything though as he looked ahead, just shook his head at his enquiring look. No viable suspects yet then.
They sat quietly for a couple of minutes, ignoring the rest of the office. Robbie suddenly straightened and she turned eagerly towards him to see what he had spotted.
"Has anyone phoned Stephen?"
She slumped again but carried on looking at him. "I know we didn't but I have no idea about the hospital." She frowned. "I'll check."
It only took a minute to phone the ward and check with the new duty nurse.
"They didn't check next of kin since we were there."
Quite aside from the fact that they were just about his next of kin, it was a rather shocking breech of protocol, though Robbie just snorted when she said that out loud.
"We should phone him," Robbie said instead.
"Why?"
"Because he's his son." Robbie was looking at her like she was stupid and she could feel her temper rise to the surface.
"Who hasn't spoken to him in years."
"That's not the point," his tone changed and he was on the verge of shouting the last word.
Jackie tensed, on the verge of snapping back but half the office had turned to look at them. "Has Burke said anything to you about him?" She forced herself to talk quietly.
Robbie lowered his voice as well. "No, but,"
"Well exactly."
She looked back at the board, not wanting to carry on in case she did actually snap. It was the last thing she needed.
"But he's his son," Robbie clearly wasn't going to let it go.
"Who wants nothing to do with Burke." It came out harsher than she intended, rather louder too and she almost instantly regretted it when she Robbie's face.
"And what would you know about it?" Robbie went from angry to livid and if the next words out his mouth had anything to do with her childlessness, she was going to join him. "It's not like you have kids."
She clenched her fists and yeah, she was about to snap. She stood instead; hands still clenched by her side and she bit the inside of her cheek so she didn't say anything.
He grabbed her arm as she stepped past him and she angrily shook him off. She managed, "Not now, Robbie," through clenched teeth, and strode away quickly.
The few officers who were in her way scattered and she ignored their enquiring glances. She pretended she couldn't hear the whispers start up as she let the doors swing shut, pushing them hard enough that she could still hear them swinging halfway down the corridor.
She made it to the ladies and mercifully there was no one at the sinks as she slammed a cubicle door shut. She slid the lock across with more force than was necessary.
She leaned forward, her forehead resting against the cool plastic and she slumped, hands clenched at her side as she tried desperately not to let out a sob.
It didn't work and the sound reverberated around the quiet toilets. She unclenched a fist and slapped it over her mouth, mortified at not being able to contain it. She stumbled backwards, falling onto the side wall and sliding along it. She reached out blindly with her other hand and pulled the toilet lid down, sliding down until she was low enough to sit down.
She kept her mouth covered as her eyes watered and she willed herself not to start crying. Not here, not at work, especially not when there was still so much to do and Burke's condition was still up in the air.
She screwed her eyes tightly shut to stop any teas escaping and in her head she started to run through a list of things that needed to be done. It was barely working, though she did manage to distract herself long enough that her eyes stopped watering at least.
She opened her eyes and lowered her hand. She still felt on edge though and she dabbed at her face with a square of toilet roll. Just as well that she hadn't bothered with mascara this morning. She almost laughed hysterically that that was the first thought to run through her head.
She shredded the piece of paper as a distraction, feeling almost drained they way she always did after crying. It took another couple of minutes, and another square of paper, before she felt calm enough to get up though she tried not to think what she looked like. Hopefully she had warded the crying jag off in time to stop her face going splotchy and puffy.
She was just about to get up when she startled, her phone ringing in her blazer pocket. She'd forgotten it was in there and she dug it out so she could silence it as it was still new enough that she couldn't find the button otherwise.
She caught sight of the caller I.D. and muttered a curse.
Stuart.
They hadn't told him yet. They'd agreed last night to tell him tonight after his big day in court. She sniffed and cleared her throat and hit accept. She plastered a big smile on her face, trying to sound cheerful.
"Stuart." She was rather proud that her voice didn't wobble. "How was court?"
"We got what we wanted." He paused. "What's wrong?"
Damn, he'd picked up on it anyway. "It's Burke. He was attacked last night but he's doing okay."
"Jeez, Jackie," She could hear his intake of breath. "How bad is it?"
"He's still unconscious and he had to have surgery to stop the bleeding."
"When were you going to tell me?" He sounded accusing and it was the last thing she needed. She screwed up her eyes again and when she spoke her voice was thick.
"After you got back from court today. We didn't want this screwing up it as well."
He was silent for a minute, and she almost had to check the call hadn't disconnected. She could tell the minute he forgave her though. "What else is wrong? You sound like you're in the loos."
She couldn't help but laugh at that and she wiped her face with another bit of toilet roll. "You know what me and Robbie are like."
Stuart snorted. "What happened this time?"
"Just a couple of stupid remarks. It'll be fine once the stress blows over."
"You sure? I know things have been rough lately."
She sighed. "We're just missing your calming influence."
He snorted again and there was a comfortable silence. "Are you sure you're all right?"
"We'll be fine. We just need some time apart every so often."
Stuart laughed then they both grew serious. "I wish I could help but,"
"I know, you don't have to tell us about caseloads. Besides, I think Campbell would have kittens at the thought of you coming all the way from Edinburgh." She smiled at the thought and she could practically hear Stuart's grin. "Listen, I'll let you get away and celebrate and I'll go hunt Robbie down."
"Okay, just try not to kill him." He pleaded. "And I'll text you later."
"Bye,"
"Bye,"
She hung up and slipped the phone back into her pocket, feeling a little saner after their conversation. She took a deep breath and left the cubicle and thankfully the rest of the loos were still empty. She glanced in the mirror and sighed. She leaned against the sink for a minute, gathering her energy. After giving her face a quick wipe with a damp bit of paper towel, she felt ready enough to go and find Robbie.
She didn't have a clue what to say to him though.
It was typical of course, that he was standing outside waiting for her. She startled when she nearly walked into him and she immediately felt her hackles rise.
She took in his posture though before she said anything and the sight of him slumped against the wall, hair ruffled where he'd obviously been running his hands through it, and his tie now sitting askew, relaxed her slightly. He clearly wasn't there to carry on fighting.
"I'm sorry."
She bit her lip, barely resisting the urge to say 'so you should be'. Instead she nodded in acceptance of his apology, the movement sharp enough to get across that she was still upset. He knew her well enough to pick up on that and he started speaking again.
"I am sorry, Jackie." He ran a hand over the back of his neck, as he shuffled slightly, then stuck his hands in his pockets. "It's just been hard enough lately, staying off everything, without this happening and," he stopped as a couple of uniformed officers entered the corridor. He lowered his voice, "I've no really spoken to Jamie in a while." He hunched his shoulders and while the sting from his words was still there, she could appreciate that this was one of those occasions where he was being completely honest with her.
She sighed and slumped back against the wall beside him. "Robbie,"
He didn't let her get any further. "I know it's not an excuse for what I said," he pulled his hand out his pocket and stopped, hovering in mid-air like he wanted to touch her arm reassuringly but he decided against it. She was somewhat glad, even if the warmth would have been reassuring.
"It's just, despite everything with him, I'd want someone to tell Jamie."
She thought about that for a minute then nodded. "Okay, but you'll need to find his phone number."
Robbie nodded in understanding of what she didn't say out loud and pushed himself off the wall. His shoulders were slumped as he walked back towards the office and she felt a little mean for making him make the call.
She sighed again and almost shouted down the corridor after him but thought better of it. When Burke woke up, Robbie could pull the absent father's club card and get away with it. If she phoned, it would more than likely be the cold shoulder and all the crappy jobs for god knows how long.
Robbie paused and she took that as he was waiting for her to catch up. She resisted the urge to sigh again. Whether or not he was trusting her to catch up, or simply hoping, she wasn't entirely sure but she thought it best to start walking anyway. When she finally did catch up, he spoke again.
"Look, I'll go in and get us something to eat. Could you phone the hospital, see how he's getting on."
She nodded. "Get us some decent coffee while you at it."
He gave a small smile and she wasn't entirely sure how to feel as he walked off in the opposite direction.
She couldn't help but roll her eyes as Robbie walked back in with pizza boxes. Typical of him really. He looked at her questioningly as he slid the top box in her direction and placed a tall cup of coffee in front of her.
"He's still unconscious but he's out of recovery and he's stable enough for SOCO to get in."
"Great." He sat down with his pizza box. "I popped in to Mita, gave her dinner and told her to take a break or she'll get square eyes."
She rolled her eyes again. Typical Robbie-speak. "Did she find anything?" She doubted it but asked anyway.
Robbie shook his head in disgust. "Nah. Doubt SOCO will either with all the contamination."
"That's why they take elimination samples from the staff." She stopped eating and looked at him. He wasn't usually this cynical about forensic evidence. He waved off her look with a slice of pizza still in his hand and she had to smile as he dripped cheese onto his desk.
He swore under his breath. "Just grumpy." He admitted after he'd cleaned the cheese up.
"I never would have noticed." He rolled his eyes at her and they ate the rest of their pizza in silence.
She swallowed the last of her coffee and rummaged in her top drawer for her packet of gum. The last thing she needed was to reek of coffee and onions the rest of the night. She offered a bit to Robbie and turned back to her computer.
She sighed, seemingly for the umpteenth time. There had been nothing new in the fifteen minutes since she had last checked and she felt as if staring at the screen for any longer was going to make her scream. She glanced down to her notebook and remembered her words to Campbell this morning. She realised she'd better check on her some of her other cases.
She made a few phone enquiries, mainly checking alibis for the lead suspects in one of her burglary cases. One or two promising leads but when she looked up from her notes, Robbie was looking at her funny.
"What you working on?" His voice was accusing and she was fed up of his attitude.
"My burglaries." She snapped and he looked at her in disbelief.
"At a time like this?"
"Would you rather I went demented waiting for the forensic report?" She stared back at him, not bothering to disguise her annoyance.
He deflated. "Aye, I suppose."
"Thanks for your blessing. It's just what I needed." She regretted it as soon as she said it. She closed her eyes to calm herself.
"Sorry." When she opened them, Robbie shifted uncomfortably.
"It's fine. We're just," he threw his coffee cup in the bin. "Usually we'd have been out all day, interviewing family and friends and we wouldn't be picking at each other."
She huffed slightly and relaxed into her chair. "Yeah."
His phone rang before they said anything else and it was back to work.
Twenty minutes later, she threw her pen down in frustration and rubbed her face. She couldn't focus long enough on the other case to manage anything and it was beginning to get to her. To top it off, a glance out the windows showed it was now raining and it might well have been night for all the light there were getting. She looked at her watch and realised it was after nine. No wonder she was frustrated. She'd barely been out the building in twelve hours.
It was another bad sign that she didn't realise Robbie had gotten up until he sat beside her. She spun her chair until her knees bashed into his legs and looked up at him. She appreciated the warmth where their bodies met, though she would rather he didn't look so bloody concerned.
"I'm fine, just," She smiled wryly at the same reassurance she had used earlier. He gave a slight grin at that as well.
"I can't concentrate on any of my cases either." He looked at the window. "At least the rain is putting me off from going outside for a light."
She snorted. "Glad to hear the Scottish summer is good for someone."
He snorted but she didn't say anything else as she spotted Duncan enter the office with what looked like a report in his hand. Robbie quickly turned around to see what she was looking at.
"Duncan,"
"Jackie." He held up the envelope he was carrying. "I've started processing the evidence collected off Burke," he swallowed, "it'll be at least tomorrow afternoon before the prelim results start coming in but I've brought the photographs." He handed them to her.
"Thanks, Duncan." She managed a smile and Duncan looked a little uncomfortable.
"How is the investigation going so far?"
Robbie sighed and answered as she took the photographs out the envelope. "Not well. Nobody saw anything, nobody heard anything and half the country could have a grudge against him."
Duncan nodded in appreciation of the difficulties. "I'll try and hurry the prelim results but," he grimaced.
Jackie nodded. "There isn't anything you can do faster without compromising the results."
"Yeah." He looked around the room at the boards of pictures, frowning a little. He shook himself out of it. "Right, I'll leave you to it." He gave a small smile of encouragement and quickly left.
They both turned back around to her desk and ignored the expectant quietening of the office as they spread the photos out. Robbie stayed perched beside her as they stared at the photos.
She felt the coffee and pizza start to churn in her stomach as she saw the full extent of his injuries. Neither of them spoke as the violence, the brutality of the attack hit them fully. She'd known from the state of the flat that things had been bad but this, this was unbelievable. The photos still showed him on the ventilator, tubes sticking out his arms and there were very few spots on his body that didn't show signs of bruising. Boot prints, knuckle marks, punches, scratches where he went through his coffee table.
She had to look away before she was sick.
It had been a long while since she had seen someone survive something so brutal and the fact she knew it was Burke, even though his features were so distorted you could hardly make them out, meant that the thin layer of professionalism that normally made the job bearable was ineffective.
She took a couple of deep breaths, dimly aware of whispers building up around her, starting to hear speculation about how bad it was from the other officers in the room. She managed to look at Robbie.
His face was as pale as she'd ever seen it and it looked like he was trying not to be sick as well. He finally looked back at her.
"Jesus, I never realised how bad it was last night. I mean I knew, but I never saw," he tailed off and he slipped off her desk, turning back around and bracing his hands on the edge as he stared back at the photos.
She couldn't look again, not just yet anyway. She heard someone approach them and she wasn't sure if she could answer any of their questions just yet. She steeled herself and blindly grabbed one of the shots, heading in the direction of one taken from the bottom of the bed and showing the full extent of Burke's injuries.
She quickly glanced to check it was the right one, then she pushed her chair back and slowly walked over to the board, her muscles protesting after having been sitting in one position for such a while. She gently stuck the photo next to Burke's name and made her way back to her desk. She didn't look at anyone, didn't have to as she heard the whispering stop.
It was rare that there was true quiet in the office but as everyone realised what she had put up, there wasn't a sound. It was quickly broken by various degrees of cursing as people looked closely at the photo. It was something of a relief that she wasn't the only officer, who despite seeing just about everything there was to see in this job, was still sickened by it.
She sat back down and managed to look at the photos again. She finally managed to regain her voice. "This has to be personal." She had to clear her throat before the words came out clearly. "There's no evidence they were after anything and for all this," she couldn't say any more.
Robbie nodded. "Aye, I've only seen injuries like this when folk are trying to kill each other." He quietened. "It's too brutal to be getting a message across."
She mentally acknowledged his personal experience there but felt guilty about the thought a minute later. "Are you sure there's been no threats?" Something like this didn't usually come out of the blue.
Robbie shook his head. "Nothing. We've checked his phone and post as well and he definitely didn't say anything to the higher ups."
She sighed again. "No, he wouldn't."
They stared at the pictures and she found herself staring at one photo of his neck in particular. She picked it up to have a closer look. "Robbie," she looked closer at it. "Does that mark look familiar to you?" She could have sworn she had seen it before. It looked exactly like a hand print, but slightly larger and the bruises were more uniform.
Suddenly it dawned on her. A glove lined with something heavy to knock someone out. They'd only seen it once before.
"The Secord case," Robbie spoke at the same time as she did and they shared a quick grin.
"Aye, Burke recognised the loaded glove from one of his London cases."
"I don't think he ever said which one." She looked at the time. "Shit, records will be closed." She smiled slightly when she remembered Burke still kept hard copies of his reports in his office.
She stood and strode across to his office and opened the fortunately still unlocked door. She flicked the light on as she entered and headed straight for his desk. She reached under and pulled the key off its hook at the back of the drawers.
She turned round and bumped into Robbie. He looked surprised. "You know where the key is?"
Jackie rolled her eyes and unlocked the filing cabinet. She opened the drawer labelled with the right year and began rifling through the files. She let out a small smile when she found the right report and she perched on the edge of his desk as she started to skim through it. Robbie stared over her shoulder.
"You're not helping." He grudgingly took a step backwards and she managed to make her way through the rest of it.
"Well?"
She shook her head. "He just says he recognised the mark from a previous case."
"Bugger."
She was in perfect agreement. She shut the report and slammed the drawer closed, the noise rather louder than she intended. She took a calming breath. "We'll need to speak to whoever he was working with in London, see if they can remember the case."
"Which will have to wait till the morning because records are closed." He stormed out the office in frustration.
She locked the cabinet and replaced the key before she followed him.
She stuck a post-it note reminding herself to phone first thing on her monitor and sat down. She dropped her chin onto her hand and slumped. She felt completely drained. She looked across at Robbie and he looked as bad as she felt, his fingers tapping across the desk the way he did when he was dying for a cigarette. She glanced at her inbox again, all recent emails about other cases, the text starting to blur, even after she blinked
She hated to admit it, but it really was time to call it a night. There was nothing else she could personally do just now and a fresh set of eyes in the morning would do a world of good.
It just felt like admitting defeat. She forced herself to get up and did a quick circuit of the room, checking on progress.
Nothing tangible and that only added to the hopeless feeling.
It was easier to remind everyone else to catch some sleep and keep themselves sharp, though Mita was the only one who called her on it, even then only with a raised eyebrow.
She circled back to her desk and Robbie nodded. She glanced out the window to see it was till raining and grabbed her coat. Robbie walked with her out to the door, in an awkward silence. The anger from earlier was still lingering, especially now they were out the office.
Fortunately it was still chucking it down with rain and all she said was "see you in the morning" before she dashed out to her car. Driving home, she had to concentrate to see clearly enough and that was enough to keep her mind off the case at least for the length of time it took for her to draw into her parking space.
She locked the door behind her and dropped her keys in the dish before she slid her wet coat off with a grimace. She bent down to pick up the post that had arrived after she had left that morning and wandered through to the living room. Seeing it was just a circular and some junk, she dumped it on the couch beside her bag. She wandered through to the kitchen, hitting play on her answering machine in her way, and pulled out the open bottle of wine from her fridge.
She could hear Susie's voice speak out as she poured.
"Hey, Jackie, just calling to see how Burke is. I know you probably won't get this for a day or so, so just ring us back when you can eh? Love you."
She put the glass down from where she had raised it to take a sip. Susie again proving why she was her not so secret favourite niece. She glanced across at the cooker clock. It was after midnight, far too late to call back. She'd have to do it first thing in the morning. She grabbed her wineglass and took it through with her into the living room. She set a reminder in her phone before she sat down, otherwise she would get too caught up in things and completely forget.
She turned the TV on, some random crap she really had no interest in but it livened up the flat. She kicked off her shoes and curled up on the couch. She stared into her glass after she took a long drink. It was weird to think that even six months ago, she would have been in the pub with Robbie and Stuart, probably Burke as well, having this drink and decompressing in the middle of a case.
She knew that for the most part, it was better this way but it didn't stop her wishing that she wasn't alone drinking on her couch.
