Her stomach turned. Carl hadn’t been investigating criminals. He’d been investigating the investigators.
She’d known Carl for three years. He didn’t own a laptop. He owned three. The one hidden behind a loose floorboard in his flat was the smallest—a ruggedized Panasonic with a cracked screen. Password: Hastings . Carl wasn’t subtle.
In Line of Duty , “H” was the ghost—the fourth man, the untouchable bent copper at the apex. Here, in Carl’s index, H wasn’t a man. It was a position : a chair that could be occupied by anyone with enough power to bury thirty-two corruption cases. Index Of Line Of Duty
Detective Sergeant Kate Rainer found the file on a dead man’s laptop.
Kate grabbed the laptop and bolted through the kitchen exit, sirens already wailing in the distance—but not coming to save her. Coming to finish the index. Her stomach turned
Row twelve: LOD-012. SUBJECT: Ch. Supt. Robert Hargreaves (AC-12 liaison). ACTION TAKEN: Leaked raid times to OCG. OUTCOME: Two witnesses killed. Hargreaves received £50k. No charges.
On the desktop, a single folder: . Inside, no images, no bodycam footage, no witness statements. Just a table. Four columns: CASE REF , SUBJECT , ACTION TAKEN , OUTCOME . Thirty-two rows. She’d known Carl for three years
Kate dialed a number she’d sworn never to use.