The Trail Killer

Twenty-seven

The following day, Tuesday, April 8th

The regional HQ of Let's Go! Tourism Agency resulted as a drab, anonymous affair tucked away in the midst of an industrial estate on the edge of town. Pulling into a vacant parking space, Shields could only wonder as to what Debbie had thought on the phone the previous day when she'd said the place had inspired her every time she passed it. Was hardly St Paul's cathedral or Stone-ruddy-henge, was it now? Lord, she really needed to learn to think before opening her mouth sometimes. Had been telling herself the same thing since the age of about twelve.

As the receptionist ushered her through to the main work area, Shields was struck by its similarities - albeit on a significantly larger scale - to the CID room where she'd spent the final eleven years of her police career. Rather than only two work stations, three groups of desks accommodated a score or so in total, each mounded with the familiar clutter of a phone, document tray, stationary can, coffee mug and, inevitably, a Macintosh computer- these seemingly now ubiquitous in all work environments. Instead of large-scale maps of differing urban and rural zones of the Branstead jurisdiction, the walls were instead adorned by smaller scale maps encompassing the entire south coast of England and similarly sized slices of France, Spain and Italy. The wall space centrepiece wasn't the crest of the Wynmouthshire Constabulary, meanwhile, but the jaunty font of the Let's Go! logo. The most striking similarity of all, however, was the glass-walled manager's office over in the far corner - the same all-seeing eye as that which Gooch peered out on his subordinates from.

It was here where the interviews would take place, she quickly learnt. After dropping Jamie off at school, she'd turned up a couple of minutes late. The other three candidates were already there, seated on a row of chairs outside the door. Shields' arrival alongside them heralded an exchange of nervous 'hi's and mutually appraising glances. Just as she'd thought, they were all much younger than herself - barely out of school, it seemed. Two females and a male, their clothing choices a little less stuffy and formal than the Oxford blue twin-piece she'd plumped for. Casting her gaze out onto the work area before her, she counted only two staff members of a similar age to herself. It was enough to make her feel spent and diminished. If not literally then figuratively at least, already a grandma.

A figure had meanwhile appeared in the office doorway - another too young to remember even The Bee Gees let alone The Supremes. Female, casually dressed, her figure as slinky as her smile.

"Hi everyone, great to see you all! My name's Debbie. I spoke to you all on the phone yesterday."

Shields found herself joining in with the chorus of beaming, over-enthusiastic 'Hi Debbie's.

"Well, just to tell you we've decided to go in alphabetical order..."

Good - she'd be the penultimate or even last then, Shields was thinking. Have the chance to wake herself up a bit more, mentally prepare.

"...but with a little twist," Debbie continued. In a theatrical gesture of suspense, she clasped her hands together in front of her, swayed a little on her hips. "Here at Lets Go! we prefer to go by first names rather than surnames. And so..." Her smile slinked its way to the end of the row. "That means you first, Diane."

Oh hell...

She steadied her handbag over her shoulder and rose to her feet, nodded her gratitude at the insincere whispered 'good luck's directed her way.

The set-up inside the office was dishearteningly similar to that of the disciplinary hearing five days earlier. A solitary chair on the near side of the desk, then on the other a line of three watchful faces. In the centre was the manager - a slim-figured type of around thirty years old with gelled-back hair and a collarless shirt who introduced himself as Tony. Debbie had seated herself to his left; to the right, meanwhile, was another young woman - straggly fair hair, freckles, a button nose - who Debbie introduced as Marie.