“Run,” Marcus said.
The index was open. Now the line of duty would cut both ways.
Row seven: LOD-007. SUBJECT: DI Priya Sharma (Met). ACTION TAKEN: OCG-funded holiday to Dubai. OUTCOME: Case re-assigned away from Sharma’s unit. Sharma now ACO.
Kate stopped breathing. Hargreaves was her new boss’s boss.
Kate began reading at 2 a.m., coffee cold beside her.
“Who’s at the top?” Kate asked.
H + Ted = Hastings.
A long pause. Then Ted Hastings’s voice, low and steady:
The victim was DS Carl Hudson—a serving anti-corruption officer. His body had been found in a lock-up garage in Birmingham, hands cuffed behind his back, a single gunshot wound to the back of the head. No forced entry. No witnesses. The local force called it a “botched robbery.” Kate, newly transferred to AC-12’s regional unit, knew better.
“H,” Marcus whispered. “Oh, God. He found the H.”
Below that, in red text: File location: Server 4. Passphrase required. Passphrase = “H” + [REDACTED].
Kate dialed a number she’d sworn never to use.