Read Cruel Justice (DI Lorne Simpkins (Book one)) for Free Online

the older woman, who scurried from the room.

    "What happened to you?" he asked, noticing the plaster over her eye.

    Lorne hesitated for a moment wondering whether to confide in him, but decided against it when she saw how pale he looked. "Oh, it's nothing, the dog tripped me up last night and I head-butted the door," she told him, avoiding eye contact.

    He eyed her suspiciously, knew when she was lying, but Lorne could tell he wasn't willing to press her further.

    He sighed. "Fill me in on the body discovered last night, will you?"

    "Nothing much to tell yet, sir. There was no form of identification found at the scene. Dental records are a no go as the head was missing. Someone did everything they could to hinder us. The victim's right arm is missing and the fingers on the left hand have been chopped off at the knuckle."

    He bounced back and forth as Lorne gave him her report. "You couldn't have got much sleep last night, Lorne."

    That's strange , he's never been concerned about my sleep pattern before .

    "About four hours I guess, average for this job, I suppose. I'll be fine once I've had my first six cups of coffee." She laughed but her brow remained furrowed.

    "I'm worried about you. That last case you solved must have taken a lot out of you. Going undercover is never easy, especially when you have to deal with scum such as that. You look a bit peaky. I can arrange for you to talk to someone if you like."

    It was true. There was no denying that her last case had taken its toll on her. She'd been asked by The Serious Crime Squad to pose as a Madame of a newly opened massage parlour. All the regular girls had been WPCs. They'd had intelligence that a gang headed by Gripper Jones, a notorious dirtbag in the community and business partner of her long-time nemesis The Unicorn, was demanding protection money from the other parlours in the area.

    Once the protection commenced, they forced the owners to employ illegal immigrant girls, supplied by them. The girls' families back home were badly beaten if they refused to work for the gang. Lorne's world had been turned upside down — even Tom didn't have a clue what she had been involved in.

    Although they caught Jones and his gang, Lorne had been roughed up a little before reinforcements had arrived. Just a few bruises here and there, but mentally her scars ran deep, which was why she needed Tom's support now. Perhaps she was wrong not telling him about the case and maybe her decision was now back-firing.

    "I'm fine. What's going on, boss, this isn't like you?" She knew seeing a shrink would only add to her problems, but his concern puzzled her.

    He shuffled a few papers on the desk before him — it was his turn to avoid eye contact.

    She feared the worst.

    "What I'm about to tell you goes no further."

    "Of course, that goes without saying, boss."

    "I'm leaving."

    A ten-tonne truck couldn't have hit her harder. Her mouth flew open. "You're what?" she whispered.

    "My, what a lot of fillings you have, my dear," Jeff Chalmers joked, trying to make light of the situation. He continued, "I'm taking early retirement. I wanted you to be the first to know."

    Lorne shook her head in disbelief.

    "Excuse my ignorance, sir. But forty-eight isn't considered to be that old, is it?" She was babbling, didn't know what else to say.

    Reluctantly he admitted, "Ill health, I'm afraid. Something I'd rather not go in to. You understand, don't you, Lorne?" His gaze switched to the family photo proudly standing on his desk. In it was his beautiful wife Anne, whom he described as having a red-hot temper to match the colour of her hair. Alongside her sat their two strapping sons, who had both graduated from law school over the past few years. He proudly called them 'the oxygen in his life.'

    She watched him closely, saw the changing expressions in his face as his finger traced his family one by one. Lorne feared the worse. She wanted to ask him what was wrong, but there was a tiny