Missing Believed Dead by Chris Longmuir

present for the missus. Her carver’s knackered and I do like a bit of roast beef. Anyway, it’s a damn silly law, how’re you supposed to get these things home after you’ve bought them?’
    Bill was too cold to argue. He took the knife and cut the ropes, preserving the knots in case they were needed for evidence.
    The men produced a long oblong box and after loading the body inside, drove off.
    Shortly afterwards the white van was collected by a low-loader and removed to the police compound, and it was only then he felt free to leave the crime scene.
    When he arrived back at headquarters Bill was relieved to find the CID room empty. It had been a long day, he was cold and tired, and not in the mood for company. He just wanted to get finished for the night.
    He sat at his desk and switched on the computer to write his report and get it out of the way. But he couldn’t get the thought of the body in the van out of his mind. Something about those jade beads niggled him. He knew he had read something recently about jade beads or a jade necklace and he couldn’t think what it was.
    The computer blinked and made a noise as if to say it was ready and why didn’t he get on with it. But Bill’s mind was far away. He stared blankly at the top of his desk. Something was different about it. It was too tidy. The files he had left were no longer there. He needed those files. They might contain something to trigger his memory.
    Sighing, he turned to his filing cabinet. Sue must have tidied up for him. But the files were not there either. Nor were they in his desk drawers, Sue’s desk drawers, or her filing cabinet.
    He swore loudly and vociferously. The new DI must have been snooping around. He could lay bets she had taken the files. Stamping to her office he searched her desk before turning to the filing cabinet. It was locked. He searched for the keys in all the places office staff usually hid them, but came up a blank.
    ‘Bugger it,’ he shouted, thumping the filing cabinet with his fist. That meant he would have to ask her for the files in the morning, and he could guess what she would say to him. Well, let her do her worst, ‘It’s not as if I care anyway,’ Bill thought, with a touch of bravado. ‘Damn her.’
    Forgetting all about his report Bill left the office. He had better things to do with his life than worry about a here today, gone tomorrow, DI.

 
    Chapter Twelve
     
    Kate was still seething when she drove into Forfar.
    She’d seen the look on Murphy’s face when she left, and knew he thought she was skiving off and leaving him to wait at the crime scene for everything to be concluded. But she was his DI. He would have to learn she meant business and he would have to follow her orders whether he liked them or not.
    One parking place was left at Forfar HQ, and she reversed into it faster than she usually did, flung the door open and got out.
    ‘Whoa, you’re in an almighty hurry.’ DS Adam Strachan opened his car door.
    ‘Good job I waited or you’d have winged me.’ He grinned at her. ‘Your first day not so good?’
    ‘It wasn’t too bad,’ Kate said. ‘The team seem to be on the ball, apart from one bolshie character who got right up my nose.’
    ‘There’s always one.’
    ‘I’m not sure how they see me, though. They’ve never had a woman DI before.’
    ‘They’ll get used to it. We did.’
    ‘I suppose. The Forfar team’s a dawdle though, compared to the Dundee one. Anyway, down to business. Are we ready for this raid, or what?’
    ‘Yeah, the team’s already been briefed and raring to go, and I’ve got a bunch of uniforms waiting for the signal.’
    ‘Let’s do it.’
    Kate travelled to the site of the planned raid with Strachan. The rest of the team followed in unmarked cars, with two police vans following them. The vans parked round the corner out of sight of the cannabis factory which looked like every other bungalow in the street.
    Uniformed police exited the vans, taking