At that exact moment Hart threw the door open and swept it, grumbling something about intoxicated gits trashing his station. Maddy looked away with a fierce blush leaving Wilson looking even more confused than before. Hart grinned.
"How are you doing, Maddy? Looked like a pretty nasty hit from where I was stood."
"I'm not so bad, I think it was just the shock of it really. I'll be fine."
"Good, now. Onto business." Hart clapped his hands together and sat down behind his desk, not bothering to ask Maddy to leave. "I need your decision on the case, Wilson."
"Will you be able to get by without me for that long?" He smiled sarcastically, to which Hart replied by sticking his middle finger up at the young detective with a smirk.
"Oh I'm sure we'll cope. If it comes to it we can get you in on a video call or something."
"How long will you be gone for?" Maddy asked, not making an effort to hide the disappointment in her voice.
"They're not sure," Hart interrupted, "two weeks or so I assume."
"Oh."
Hart and Maddy both looked at Wilson, who was still leaning against the wall, running a hand through his tousled hair slowly.
"I'll take the case. If anything it should keep me interested for a couple of weeks at least."
"So now it's boring here, is it Detective Inspector Crowley?" The superintendent chuckled as Wilson rolled his eyes, "I'll give Little Wharton a call and get the details. I'll pass them on when I have them. As I understand they'll sort it out so you can stay with one of their officers while you're there."
"Thank you." Wilson got up to leave and Maddy followed, like a lost pet, eyes fixed on the back of his head. Hart smiled to himself, and picked up his phone, tapping in a sequence of numbers and holding the handset to his ear. The dial tone throbbed in his ear for a moment before the line picked up.
"This is Superintendent Spencer Fobbs."
"Spence, how're you doing old boy?" Hart chuckled, sitting back and twisting in his chair slowly.
"Seth, I'm good thanks. Sorry mate, I completely forgot about asking you to ring back."
"It's no problem, I know how bad things can get. Things are pretty busy over here."
"Oh yeah? What's going on? Posh city boys arguing over who has the best sports car?"
"Try two drunk morons knocking the lights out of each other in the middle of my station and accidentally punching on of my sergeants?"
"Damn, you don't half get some mad cases over there."
"Tell me about it," Hart grinned, still feeling a little bit bad that Maddy had come off worse during the fight, "anyway, the case. I got an answer for you."
"Brilliant, what'd he say?"
"He's willing to come down and give you guys a hand."
There was a sigh of relief on the other end of the line.
"God that's great. Seriously, Seth you have no idea how much of a relief it is. We might finally get this thing over with."
"So, shall we talk details? When do you want him there?"
Spence hummed to himself, mulling over his options, and Hart could hear the faint sound of hands tapping on a desk.
"Is Friday too early? If it is just find out whatever day's convenient."
"Nah I reckon friday'll be fine. I'll let him know."
"If you're sure it's fine. I'll sort it out so he can stay with one of our officers while he's in town, so it's not going to put him out of his way."
"That's great, Spence. Wilson'll appreciate it, I'm sure."
"I just hope he's able to shed some light on this, it's getting to a point where we're running out of options."
Hart could sympathise with his friend. Before Wilson had started working with them, they'd had their fair share of horrible cases that took so long to solve that most people were willing to give up on them. He couldn't imagine how bad it must feel, to have this hanging over Spence's head.
"Trust me, Spence. If anyone can solve this then it's Wilson."
YOU ARE READING
The Art of Being Right
ActionWilson Crowley is a detective in the city - who is called out to help on a case that's been open for years, in a small town in the middle of nowhere. While assisting the local police he uncovers the grim reality of what's going on; an awful truth th...