Vigilante by Kerry Wilkinson

not officers but employees of the police force who would deal with things such as Human Resources. The Serious Crime Division, who dealt with organised crime and terrorist threats, worked from there as well.
    The reason for their visit was to talk to the forensic staff who had been dealing with the blood samples taken from Craig Millar. There was a whole section of the building given over to scientists and other laboratory workers. People were trained to analyse everything from fingerprints to a computer’s hard drive. It was very specialist, technical work but did create divisions between the departments. A lot of officers believed they were on the front line doing the serious labour, with television programmes glorifying the work being done from the safety of a lab. On the other hand, plenty of the forensics workers felt constantly under pressure to prioritise jobs for certain departments, while balancing budgets that included private work and, if they were a member of the Scene of Crime team, getting called out at all hours of the day and night. Both groups seemingly felt under-appreciated by the other.
    To be fair to the scientists, it probably didn’t help that their Bradford Park base was openly referred to as ‘Geek Corner’ and ‘Virginville’ by certain officers such as Rowlands.
    Jessica and Cole were shown through to a waiting area where they were told someone would come to see them. On occasion, officers would be permitted into sterile zones and autopsy rooms but there was no real need at this point. Jessica thought the room they were shown to was actually quite attractive, brightly decorated with a royal-blue carpet. The chairs they were offered were low to the floor but the material was bright red and comfortable. The person who led them through said they would bring some tea without asking if they even wanted one.
    It was a far cry from the waiting rooms in their station. Back there, you would be offered a metal and plastic hard-backed seat like the ones you found in a school and the only refreshment on offer would be dodgy-tasting tea from a machine.
    Jessica was just getting comfy in the chair, fiddling with her phone, when a man walked through a glass door into the room. He was wearing dark trousers and shoes with a laboratory coat over a shirt. He had shoulder-length black hair and looked as if he hadn’t shaved for a few days. His stubble was dark and Jessica would have guessed he was around her age. As he came through the door, he tripped seemingly over nothing and Jessica giggled.
    The poor guy looked embarrassed as he walked across the room towards them.
    ‘Detectives Cole and Daniel?’ The two officers stood up to shake hands with the man whose face had gone slightly red. ‘I’m Adam Compton. I’m one of the team who did the blood work on the body of Craig Millar.’
    The three of them sat around a glass table. Jessica started speaking but they were interrupted by the receptionist returning with mugs of tea, putting them on the table. After she had left, Jessica began. ‘Mr Compton…’
    ‘Adam.’
    ‘Sorry, Adam. We just wanted to clarify a few things with you about the testing procedures. Obviously results like this aren’t what we would usually get.’
    Adam nodded along in agreement. ‘How can I help you then?’
    ‘The obvious question is; could the results be wrong?’
    Jessica didn’t want to sound as if she were accusing him of making a mistake but, given the fact Donald McKenna was very much behind bars, it was a question that had to be asked. She softened her tone as she spoke.
    Adam sounded nervous. ‘That was what we thought at first. My boss wasn’t, erm, happy. He thought I had made an error cross-checking things with the database.’
    ‘Okay,’ Jessica said. ‘We may as well go back to the start for completeness’ sake. Can you talk us through the whole database procedure…and, er, feel free to talk to us as if we’re complete idiots.’
    She knew most of it