Page 104 of Slack Tide Kill

"I am not some preschool playground monitor, Officer Rogers!" McMaster snapped. "We work within the bounds of reality, so handle your own shit. You're on the case, you have my backing despite the hurricane of press bullshit I'm already fending off, so that'll have to be enough."

"Thank you, sir."

He'd already hung up.

The taxi driver looked at Sally in the rearview, eyes twitchy. She followed up with a second call, to Liam again. This time it went to voice mail.

"Liam, it's Sally," she began. "Listen, I'm sorry about yesterday. Sorry I didn't listen to you, sorry that, uh…" She trailed off. Trying to get everything lined up, as outside the outskirts of Rye came on. "I'm working on it, you know? But maybe I'm just not wired that way. So, maybe I'm sorry for that? I don't know."

She ended the call before she could say any more. The driver's eyes flashed again in the rearview. What had she even said? She went back over it in her head. Half an apology, maybe? Maybe better if she'd said nothing at all. She cursed under her breath.

The Rye one-way system circled around them. Every street was familiar, now. Every pub, every bar, every alley. In moments, the taxi stopped at the station, at the edge of a burgeoning crowd of the press.

Sally exited into the hard rain and pushed through. Voices called out around. Tania Brown stood near the front, and their eyes met as Sally passed.

"Officer Rogers," she called. "You were the last person to see Nancy Cagen alive. Do you want to apologize to her family for failing to protect her?"

Sally pushed clear.

"Do you consider yourself a curse on Dungeness? Like you were a curse on Dark Peak?"

The words echoed after Sally as she went through the station's double doors and into the lobby, where PC Hawlin was on duty.

"Rick," she said tightly.

"Don't listen to her, ma'am," he said, buzzing her through. "She's filth."

Sally tried for a smile but couldn't manage it. "DCI Mayhew?"

"In her office, I think. She didn't leave last night."

Sally nodded and pushed through the barrier. In the bullpen at least a dozen officers were working at desks, while several were clustered around a whiteboard while DI Gemmell explained something.

He nodded to Sally and she kept walking to Mayhew's office, knocked once then pushed through. Mayhew was sitting behind her desk. She looked worn, her eyes slow and dull, the desk covered in paperwork, still wearing clothes fringed with yesterday's marsh mud.

Before her desk sat Liam O'Connell.

Sally stopped abruptly.

"Liam?"

He turned. He did not seem surprised to see her. Rather, he looked more composed than she'd seen him in months. His suit was sharp and pressed, his black hair glossy and neatly combed, his eyes bright and confident, his whole demeanor shifted.

It stopped Sally cold. She'd imagined him laid out somewhere unconscious, filthy, drunken still. Not already here.

"We're having a meeting, Officer Rogers," Mayhew said coldly.

"Without me?" she fired back. "This is my partner. Liam?"

Liam said nothing, just turned back to face Mayhew.

"Your presence would hardly be seemly at your partner's debrief, would it?"

Sally stared for a moment. Liam remained facing away. A strange feeling came over her; like she was missing something. As if Liam had already reached some decision, and it did not include her.

"I've been provisionally cleared," she said. "Deputy Director McMaster just told me." She took a breath. "What did you get from the Rooks?"

Mayhew held her gaze. "Provisional on your partner's full statement, I think you'll find. But I think I have enough." She looked at Liam. "Officer O'Connell, we're done here. Officer Rogers, sit down."