Chapter 4

Camille wanted to call him, she wanted to go see him that evening, but all the evidence pointed to the fact it would not be a good idea. She couldn't help herself, she did send him a text asking if he was ok and received a short, perfunctory reply of 'yes'. She didn't bother to push for more. Camille also received instructions from the Commissioner that she should report to the station at 14:00 the next day so she could meet the officers from Professional Standards.

With nothing to distract her, Camille spent the rest of the day, most of the night and all of the next morning obsessing over the arrival of the London based officers. Her mind chose to conjure many different images of Chief Inspector Cherry Huang, but in every single one she was beautiful, successful and intelligent. Much more so than her. She tried to tell herself she was being ridiculous, but with no evidence against her imaginings it was hard work to forget about it.

So she decided to seek out evidence – you could track down anybody on the internet these days – it was very difficult not to have some sort of presence. Camille didn't have a Facebook or twitter account, social media could be a serious downfall when it came to working undercover, but there were still photos of her online posted by others. The odd mention in a news article as well. She reasoned that the online research was a good idea as the last thing she wanted was to not be able to keep the shock off her face if some six foot odd supermodel walked into her station tomorrow.

Camille wasn't entirely sure how popular the name Cherry Huang was going to be in the UK, and so began with an internet search for Chief Inspector Cherry Huang, figuring there couldn't be an overabundance of those around. She was still a little surprised by hitting pay dirt instantly.


Leicestershire Police Overhaul – New Detective Superintendent to be brought in from The Met

With confidence with the police at an all-time low in the city of Leicester following the arrest of three senior officers for corruption, Leicestershire police have announced the appointment of a new Detective Superintendent.

Last month Detective Superintendent Connor Daniels, DCI Kenneth Roberts and DI Justin Wilson were arrested after an internal investigation showed that for at least ten years, the three had conspired to accept bribes in order to drop charges, lose key evidence required to ensure convictions and in at least two cases make false arrests. Particularly shocking were the sorts of crimes the officers were willing to interfere with and prevent the course of justice. Allegations of charges that were dropped because of the officer's interference include several racially motivated attacks, raising the sort of questions about institutional racism within the police that the murder of Stephen Lawrence did twenty years ago.

Now the authorities are rushing to restore public confidence in the police service, starting with the appointment with a new Detective Superintendent. A representative from Leicestershire Police told the Leicester Mercury, "Leicestershire police would like to announce the appointment of Cherry Huang to the rank of Detective Superintendent. She will start her new role after working out her notice within the Metropolitan Police where she is currently a Detective Chief Inspector with The Met's Professional Standards Unit."

Though denied when questioned along those lines, the choice of an officer who has previously worked within professional standards is evidently an attempt to show the public that Leicestershire Police have no room for corrupt officers. DCI Huang is a highly successful officer in The Met, with 25 years' experience and 17 commendations. Colleagues who did not wish to be named described her as 'determined to the point of obsession' and an individual who is 'very sharp, and does not suffer fools gladly'.


The article then went on to mention that the other roles remained to be filled, and it was believed DCI Huang would be actively involved in the recruitment of a new Detective Chief Inspector for central Leicester's CID. There was no accompanying photograph, Camille had not expected one in the context. She noted the date – it had only been published 48 hours earlier, she had no idea how long the notice period was for the Met but it explained why this woman was available still to come to Saint Marie for the investigation. Camille had once looked at one of those silly viral articles you find on the internet, which listed phrases used by British people and what they really mean. She seemed to recall describing a person as somebody who doesn't suffer fools gladly was basically saying they were a miserable bastard.

However to Camille, what really resonated was that this was somebody who sounded like Richard's ideal woman. She was starting to understand how a relationship might have occurred between the two in the past – they were both driven and highly moral after all. All she needed was to find something indicating DCI Huang was a fan of tea and roast beef and it would be a miracle that two had not married.

The next link she could find was referring to the most recent commendation DCI Huang had received, this time from the Commissioner of The Metropolitan Police himself. She was surprised to see it was not related to her work in Professional Standards, instead she had apparently observed suspicious behaviour that led to the breaking open of a gang involved in modern slavery particularly in the sex trade and she had been invaluable in supporting the victims and encouraging them to testify against their captors. Cherry Huang was starting to sound a little too good to be true.

The next article was about commendations as well, from a year earlier, and it came with a photo – but there were 30 officers in it. She squinted at it, examining the faces, none of them were shown in particular detail. Logically, Camille knew that DCI Huang was very likely to be the woman of Chinese decent skulking towards the back of the picture, body language screaming discomfit with her situation. Though she couldn't rule out entirely the surname hadn't come about from adoption or marriage, that was until she found an image from outside of a court during a major case 5 years previously quite clearly captioned as "the recently promoted DCI Cherry Huang" and showing a well-dressed and stupidly beautiful (despite the rather severe expression the camera has caught) ethnically Chinese woman.

Ridiculously, her first thought upon seeing the picture was that perhaps Richard did have a type.


A/N: I know, a rather short chapter! I have this planned out better now so more soon I hope.