‘What?’ came a voice from a cubicle further down.
‘Nothing, sorry,’ she muttered. Erika pulled out her phone and saw the two more voicemails from the withheld number, ‘what the hell?’ She muttered. She went to listen to them but had no signal. She sat for a few more minutes, listening to the sound of the toilet flushing and the hand dryer whirring.
Her mind went back again to Jessica Collins. She’d be thirty-three if she was still alive. What if Jessica hadn’t gone to that birthday party all those years ago? She could have just stayed home. Or left the house a few minutes later…She could be one of those women down in the bar, having fun , playing the Who Wants to be a Millionaire Machine? and laughing with her friends.
And then she thought about her past. What if she and Mark had decided to stay in bed the fateful day of the drug raid? Her life would be so different. She’d be out in a bar with him, cosy and safe as a couple. Then they’d go home, and make love and talk about the night out and their day… I’m a widow she thought. But I’m only forty-four… I could have children, couldn’t I? I’ve heard of women having children in their forties.
She grabbed at the toilet roll holder and pulled out a wad of tissue, dabbed at her eyes and made her mind up that she was going to go home. Three drinks was her limit.
When she came back out, Peterson sat alone in the booth with their drinks.
‘How long was I in there? Did I enter a time warp?’ she asked.
‘No. John’s girlfriend called, asking where he’d got to. Then Celia called Moss, Jacob has a temperature and she’s worried about him… then the uniform lot cleared out and went on to The Wetherspoon’s. Crawford has only just left, they forgot about him when he was in the loo, poor bastard… I didn’t think you’d want to get back and see we’d all gone.’
‘Thanks,’ she said slipping into the booth from the other side and sitting back down.
‘I hope I didn’t embarrass you earlier,’ he said. He sat back in the booth, his shirtsleeves rolled up and a lopsided smile on his handsome face.
‘No, not at all. It was a compliment, and I should have taken it. So thank you. I take it,’ she smiled, lifted her glass to him and they clinked. They chatted some more and before long their glasses were empty.
‘Would you like another?’ asked Peterson.
‘No. I should get going. I need to be in early tomorrow. I have to track down that video footage.’
‘Good point.’
When they came out onto the high street it was buzzing with people moving between the pubs. They walked down to the train station in silence, where one black cab sat, its engine idling.
‘Were you going to get a cab?’ asked Peterson.
‘Yeah. I’m over the limit.’
‘Me too…’
They looked up and down the road. There was no other traffic. The first spots of rain fell, and quickly became a torrent.
‘Are you going somewhere or not?’ asked the driver pushing down his window. He was a miserable looking old man, with wispy grey hair barely clinging to his head. Peterson opened the door and they both got in and sat on the seat with a gap between them.
‘Where to?’ he asked.
‘She’s first, Forest Hill, then Sydenham,’ said Peterson.
‘No you’re first, we need to go through Sydenham to get to Forest Hill,’ he snapped.
‘Let’s do her first, she’s my boss,’ joked Peterson. The old man rolled his eyes.
They rode in silence, the rain hammering down on the cab roof, the darkness slipping past. There was little traffic. Erika stole a glance over at Peterson. For once she didn’t want to be weighed down by life, by grief and responsibility. She wanted to have someone to hold her as she fell asleep. She wanted to wake up next to someone without feeling desolate and alone. Her heart was hammering as the cab turned into Manor Mount and began to climb the steep hill to her flat. The houses moved past so quickly, and then they were there.
‘First stop, and its; gonna cost you double,’ said the driver pulling to a stop. The automatic locks clicked open on the doors.
‘Do you want grab a cup of coffee? I mean coffee in my flat,’ said Erika. Peterson looked surprised.
‘Sure… yes, a cup of coffee would be great.’
They paid the driver and got out, dashing across the car park. Erika could see that the lights were on in the communal entrance and a blond haired woman was inside with some kids.
At the door, she scrabbled in her bag for her keys, and Peterson slung his arm round her, pulled her against his body and kissed her cheek. She was about to turn to him when she heard a voice shriek,
‘Erika!’
The front door opened and a blond haired woman came out. She looked similar to Erika with a pretty Slavic face, and almond shaped eyes. Her blond hair was long, and hung wet down over her shoulders. She wore a long black coat over skin tight blue jeans and a low cut top. She towered over them both in six-inch heels. Behind her, a small dark haired boy and girl hung off an expensive buggy where a baby slept. She grabbed Erika in a bear hug and then stood back.
‘Who’s this?’ asked Peterson, taken aback.
‘This is my sister, Lenka,’ said Erika.
34
Erika helped Lenka with the suitcases, the buggy, and with getting her niece and nephew into her flat. Through the window of the communal entrance she could see Peterson stood by the kerb in the pouring rain, his suit jacket hitched up over his head, trying to hail a cab. She’d asked him to come in and wait while he called for one, but Lenka was talking to her in rapid-fire Slovak, and then the baby started to cry, so he left with a quick awkward wave,
Her niece and nephew Jakub and Karolina looked very tired. They were five and seven now, and she was shocked to see how much they had grown up. Erika switched on the lights and the central heating, and asked them to go through to the living room, saying she would be back shortly.
She then rushed back out into the hallway and out into the rain, her head down as she ran up the gravel path, the rain pelting down. The pavement was empty, and she could make out the red lights at the back of a cab turning the corner at the bottom of the hill. She stood for a moment, rainwater pouring down her face.
When she got back in the bathroom door was shut, and she came through to the living room where Jakub and Karolina sat on the sofa with the baby in between them. Her tiny hand grasped Karolina’s index finger and she was giving them a gummy smile, wearing a little pink hat with a cluster of coloured buttons sewn on the front.
‘How is little Erika?’ asked Erika.
‘We call her Eva,’ said Jakub regarding her curiously. He sat back with his hands clasped over a Man United football top.
‘Mummy’s on the toilet,’ said Karolina, too shy to look her in the eye.
‘How are you two?’
The kids shrugged, and looked around at the flat.
‘Would you like a drink?’
They nodded. Erika went to the cupboard and found the blackcurrant cordial she had bought for them the last time they had visited. She poured them each a glass. When she brought it to the coffee table, she realised the Jessica Collins autopsy photos had been left out, and she managed to get the file off the table before they noticed. The toilet flushed, and Lenka came back. She looked pale and stressed.
‘Why didn’t you tell me you were coming?’ asked Erika.
‘I tried to, I called you, left you messages but you didn’t pick up!’
‘Hang on, have you withheld your number?’
‘Yes.’
‘Why?’
‘It’s been withheld for a while now,’ she said evasively.
‘I have a job. A very stressful job and I’d appreciate a heads up. Have you seen how tiny my flat is and…’
‘I did give you a heads up, you didn’t answer!’
‘Even if I had answered you didn’t give me much notice!’
‘I’m your sister!’
There was a slurping sound as Ja
kub took a sip from the glass. Karolina reached for hers and she watched Erika with the wise eyes of an eight year old. ‘Who was that big black man?’ she asked.
‘What? Oh, a colleague,’
‘What does that mean?’ asked Lenka.
‘He’s a police officer, I work with him,’ said Erika. Lenka raised an eyebrow. ‘What?’
‘He had his arm around you. It’s almost ten o’clock…’
‘Lenka. You are the last person who can ask me questions, seeing as your not answering any of mine… Who’s hungry? Who wants Pizza?’ The kids grinned and put their arms up in the air. ‘Good, I’ve got some menus in the drawer.’
They ordered pizza, and then Erika made up the sofa bed in the living room and tidied up whilst Lenka showered the kids and gave the baby a bath. The pizza arrived an hour later.
Erika sat with Karolina and Jakub, whilst Lenka heated up a jar of baby food and fed the baby. They ate hungrily in front of the movie Tangled which Erika found on Netflix putting on the Slovak subtitles. After they’d eaten, they quickly dozed off to sleep.
‘I only saw them a few months ago, and already they look older,’ said Erika watching their flushed sleeping faces. Lenka leaned over and pulled a blanket over them.
‘I know, I’m already arguing with her about wearing lipstick. She’s seven…’
‘You can talk, you were putting on make-up virtually when you could walk,’ said Erika. ‘You went from Mum’s tit to Max Factor. Lenka laughed,
Are you still smoking?’ she asked.
‘I’m trying out e-cigarettes,’ said Erika. She opened the patio door and saw it had stopped raining. They slipped on their coats and came out into the cold. Erika accepted a cigarette and they lit up, smoking in silence for a minute.
‘Is this your garden?’ asked Lenka peering into the darkness.
‘I’m renting, but yeah. Now are you going to tell me why you’ve shown up in London on my doorstep?’
‘I told you, I tried to ring but you didn’t pick up the phone, or listen to my messages.’
‘I should have listened, I’m sorry, why are you calling from a withheld number?’
Lenka bit her lip, ‘Things at home are tough. I needed to get away. And the kids haven’t seen London in a while.’
‘This is term time. You’ve taken them out of school to come to London in late October? Come on Lenka. And where is Marek?’
‘Marek, um…’ She took another drag of her cigarette and her eyes began to fill up. ‘Marek has had a bit of trouble, with business.’
‘His business being organised crime.’
‘Don’t say that!’
‘What do you want me to say? Mafia? Or are we just going to pretend that he runs the most lucrative ice cream shop in Eastern Europe?’
‘It’s a real business, Erika.’
‘I know it is. And why couldn’t you just both be content with that?’
‘You know what life is like back home. You left all those years ago and you never came back.’
‘Where is Marek?’
‘He’s gone away.’
‘Where?’
‘To the High Tatras. One of the local guys thinks Marek has been stealing from him.’
‘Local mafia guys?’ Lenka nodded. ‘And has he?’
‘I don’t know… he doesn’t tell me anything. Last week he made me change the SIM card in my phone. This morning he told me I had to go, leave until things have calmed down.’ She was now crying, tears pouring down her face.
‘Oh, I’m sorry… come here…’ Erika put her arms around Lenka as she sobbed. ‘You can stay here, no worries. You’ll be safe and we’ll sort something out.’
‘Thank you,’ said Lenka.
* * *
A little while later they were lying side by side in Erika’s bed. Jacob and Karolina were fast asleep in the living room. Erika lay against the window, so that Lenka could have the baby beside her on the floor.
‘That guy earlier is a colleague. Peterson, James is his first name. I was going to invite him in for coffee…’
‘Just coffee?’ asked Lenka.
‘Yes. Maybe… I don’t know.’
‘He’s handsome.’
‘I know, but it isn’t that, isn’t just that. I wanted to wake up with someone, not be alone every morning, but I had a few drinks and I’m glad you were here. It would have been stupid to jump into bed with him. We have to work together.’
‘You worked with Mark.’
‘That was different, we got together before we joined the force. And we were husband and wife when we started out as police constables, everyone just took it as a given… Now I’m in charge of a murder investigation. I have to lead people. I don’t want to be doing first dates and one night stands with one of my team.’
‘I miss Mark,’ said Lenka. ‘He was a good man. The best.’
‘He was,’ said Erika. She wiped tears away with the back of her hand.
‘I don’t think Marek is a good man,’ said Lenka.
‘He loves you, and the kids. He looks after you. Sometimes you find yourself in a situation, and you’ve got to make the best of it.’
‘Maybe, me coming here is a good thing. You won’t be alone. You get to wake up next to me tomorrow morning,’ said Lenka.
‘Trust you to turn things around to your favour,’ laughed Erika. She turned and looked at her sister in the darkness. They looked alike in many ways, but Lenka was more daring with what she wore, she always had on tons of makeup and she’d kept her hair long whereas Erika’s was cropped short.
‘What’s the case you’re working on?’
Erika quickly told her all about the case, and Jessica Collins.
‘Karolina’s the same age. I couldn’t imagine it if she was abducted,’ said Lenka. It hung in the air, and it took a long time before Erika could go to sleep.
35
The rain continued to fall on Manor Mount. The water coursed down drainpipes, and alongside the kerb, gathering speed as it moved down the steep hill. There was a hollow echo as it poured into the drains, and it hit parked cars, and the plastic domes of the rubbish bins with a rattle.
Gerry stood in the shadows across the road, sheltering under a large tree and the scaffolding of a half-built house. A long thick wax jacket covered his large muscular frame, and the hood was up casting his face further in shadow.
He’d been prowling the area on foot earlier in the evening, a plan forming. It had been easy to find her address online from the electoral register. There was only one Erika Foster who spelt her name with a ‘k’. He had to get in and out of her flat quickly. He now had Amanda Baker under surveillance, and DI Crawford was feeding much of the important information about the case back to her, but Gerry could read people, and Crawford was an idiot, and not in DCI Foster’s trusted circle.
He now had access to her phone. The text message hadn’t raised alarm bells, it had been a stroke of luck that her sister had left those voicemails from a withheld number, but he needed her landline and he needed to hear if she talked to anyone at home.
As Gerry approached the block of flats, he’d seen a tall black guy outside getting into a cab. Moments after it drove away, he’d been rewarded with a glimpse of the detective when she came running out of the building, a pained expression on her face, searching for someone. Then she saw the cab just turning the corner at the bottom of the hill and her shoulders had sagged. She’d stayed there for a moment, her smooth pale face turned up to the heavens, eyes closed.
Gerry had felt the first stirrings of an erection. The pain on her face, the smooth skin and those red lips parted in pain… the rain was heavy and the blouse she wore rapidly became slick to her skin. Her breasts were small but pert.
He closed his eyes and focused. When he’s opened them she had moved back down the drive and was opening the door to the communal entrance.
He’d stayed standing under the scaffolding, watching as until lights had gone out in her downstairs flat. He like
d it, the dark, the sound of the rain in the empty street, the feeling of being hidden, hiding.
He then turned and walked off into the rain.
36
When Erika woke, it was still dark outside, and took a moment to find her bearings when she saw Lenka was already up, pacing the small bedroom. She rocked Eva in her arms, who was making little clucking crying noises.
‘What time is it?’
‘Five thirty,’ replied Lenka. ‘Sorry. I didn’t want her to wake you up.’
‘It’s okay. I need to be up early.’ Erika sat up and rubbed her face. ‘What are you going to do today? I’ve got a big day at work.’
‘Oh, we’ll find stuff to do. You’ve got some spare keys?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Can you take her for a sec. I’ll grab a shower before it gets crazy.’
Lenka transferred the bundle of blankets into Erika’s arms, and went off to the bathroom. The baby was so warm in Erika’s arms. She reached up with a tiny arm, and she looked at Erika through large inky brown eyes and then sneezed. Erika gently dabbed Eva’s tiny face with a muslin and a wave of love and sadness washed over her. Love for her perfect niece, and sadness that she would probably never have children of her own.
* * *
Erika arrived at Bromley Cross just before seven thirty, and came up to the top floor conference room. She was the first in and she drank her coffee and spent some time updating the whiteboards. She saw a fax had come through from Thames Water, with the location of the septic tank by Hayes Quarry. Then her phone rang,
‘Erika it’s me,’ said Isaac.
‘Early morning or late night?’ she asked.
‘Both. Look, I’ve had a chance to compare the tooth you recovered from the cellar at Hayes Quarry. I’m sorry. It’s not a match. It doesn’t belong to Jessica.’
Erika’s heart sank. She had to sit down on the corner of her desk.
‘Are you sure?’
‘Yes. I was able to do the simplest thing and compare it with the broken off tooth in the jaw. It didn’t fit or match. I then went through Jessica’s dental records in case the tooth had been exposed to fire, which can make the tooth shrink, but it doesn’t match those either. I’ve sent it off to a colleague of mine to see if any pulp can be extracted, and if we can pull any DNA from it, but it’s not Jessica’s.’
Dark Water: A gripping serial killer thriller Page 15
