Read The Wire in the Blood for Free Online Page B

point, keeping her human.
    The setting up of the task force had coincided so perfectly with the direction of her dreams, she couldn’t help but feel the hand of fate in it. That didn’t mean that she could let up, however. Shaz’s long-term career plan meant she had to shine brighter than anyone else in this task force. One of her tactics for achieving that was to pick Tony Hill’s brains like a master locksmith, extracting every scrap of knowledge she could scavenge there while simultaneously worming her way inside his defences so that when she needed his help, he’d be willing to provide it. As part of her approach, and because she was terrified that otherwise she’d fall behind and make a fool of herself in a group that she was convinced were all better than her, she was covertly taping all the group sessions, listening to them over and over again whenever she could. And now, luck had dropped a bonus opportunity into her lap.
    So Shaz frowned and stared at the screen, working her way through the lengthy process of filling out an offence report then setting in motion its comparison against the details of all the previous crimes held in the computer’s memory banks. When Tony had slipped out of his seat, she’d vaguely registered the movement, but forced herself to carry on working. The last thing she wanted was for him to think she was trying to ingratiate herself.
    The intensity of the concentration she imposed upon herself was sufficient for her not to notice when he came back in through the door behind her desk until her subconscious registered a faint masculine smell which it identified as his. It took all her willpower not to react. Instead, she carried on striking keys until his hand cleared the edge of her peripheral vision and placed a carton of coffee topped with a Danish on the desk beside her. ‘Time for a break?’
    So she’d rubbed her eyes and abandoned the screen. ‘Thanks,’ she said.
    ‘You’re welcome. Anything you’re not clear about? I’ll take you through it, if you want.’
    Still she held back. Don’t snatch at it, she cautioned herself. She didn’t want to use up her credit with Tony Hill until she absolutely had to, and preferably not before she’d been able to offer him something helpful in return. ‘It’s not that I don’t understand it,’ she said. ‘It’s just that I don’t trust it.’
    Tony smiled, enjoying her defensive stubbornness. ‘One of those kids who demanded empirical proof that two and two were always going to be four?’
    A prick of delight that she’d entertained him, quickly stifled. Shaz moved the Danish and opened the coffee. ‘I’ve always been in love with proof. Why do you think I became a cop?’
    Tony’s smile was lopsided and knowing. ‘I could speculate. It’s quite a proving ground you’ve chosen here.’
    ‘Not really. The ground’s already been broken. The Americans have been doing it for so long they’ve not only got manuals, they’ve got movies about it. It’s just taken us forever to catch on, as per usual. But you’re one of the ones who forced the issue, so there’s nothing left for us to prove.’ Shaz took a huge bite of her Danish, nodding in quiet approval as she tasted the apricot glaze on the flaky pastry.
    ‘Don’t you believe it,’ Tony said wryly, moving back to his own terminal. ‘The backlash has only just started. It’s taken long enough to get the police to accept we can provide useful help, but already the media hacks who were treating us profilers like gods a couple of years ago are jumping all over our shortcomings. They oversold us, so now they have to blame us for not living up to a set of expectations they created in the first place.’
    ‘I don’t know,’ Shaz said. ‘The public only remember the big successes. That case you did in Bradfield last year. The profile was right on the button. The police knew exactly where to go looking when it came to the crunch.’ Oblivious to the permafrost that