by Celina Grace
“True,” admitted Kate. Again, she felt that flicker of intuition, that annoying twitch of some subconscious memory. She strained to grasp it but, within a moment, it had gone once more. Kate sighed. “I’ll get started with Karen Black.”
“Good.” That was the highest praise Kate had ever had from her DCI. Nicola gave her a crisp smile and then went back into the interview room, shutting the door.
Chapter Twenty Five
“You got anything yet?” Kate leaned over Chloe’s shoulder to look at what her computer screen was showing.
“Nothing concrete. I’m trying to trace her former regiment.”
“I’ll do some checking as well.” Kate sat back down at her own desk and fired up several databases on her computer. As she was waiting for them to load, her gaze fell on Rav’s desk, empty of him. Troubled, she picked up her phone and tapped out a text. Everything okay with J? X.
Chloe gave an exclamation of satisfaction. Kate looked up. “Got something?”
“A phone number. Shush, while I make this call?”
Kate obediently zipped it, the merest thought of the fact that, as a DI, she didn’t warrant being subdued pushed to the back of her mind. She listened to Chloe begin to make her preparatory enquiries and then dragged her attention back to her own computer screen. Her mobile chimed and she picked it up to see that Rav had messaged her back. All okay, thanks mate. We’re back at home X.
One worry off her mind, Kate dropped the phone into her handbag and looked at her computer screen. She could hear Chloe talking with whomever she was speaking with on the other end of the line and tried not to listen in.
Eventually, Chloe put the receiver down and looked across at Kate.
“Something?” Kate asked, trying not to sound too eager.
“He’s sending across what he’s got now.” Chloe tapped at her keyboard. “Here we go…”
Kate raced around to Chloe’s side of the desk and both of them held their breath as the attachment to the email downloaded. As the pixels on the screen gradually coalesced into a coherent picture, Kate breathed out heavily.
“What?” Chloe looked up at her.
Kate leant forward, her eyes fixed on the screen. The woman’s picture showed a heavy-browed, short-haired woman, facing the camera. “I know that face,” Kate breathed out.
“You’re joking.”
“No, I’m not. I’ve seen her before. Somewhere.” Kate fixed her gaze on the woman’s face, as though if she broke her stare, she might forget the likeness. “Where have I seen that face before?”
Chloe took a look. “I don’t recognise her. She looks tough, though, hey?”
“Our prime suspect.” Kate reached a finger out to touch the woman’s forehead on the screen. “Oh, God, where have I seen her? That’s going to drive me mad.”
“Someone you’ve interviewed? Arrested?”
“Perhaps.”
“Someone you’ve seen a long time ago, or recently?”
Kate shook her head, as if trying to dislodge the memory and set it free. “Recently, I think…” She sat back down in her chair abruptly and flung herself back in despair. “I just can’t remember.”
“There, there,” soothed Chloe. “It’ll come back to you. Besides, now I might be able to track her down anyway.”
“Sure,” said Kate. “You get on it, and I’ll go and tell Nicola what we’ve got.” She thought for a moment and then added, “Why not go and see her ex-commander in chief, or whatever the term is? The bloke you’ve just been talking to. They’ll be able to tell you quite a lot.”
Chloe nodded, pursing her lips. She hit the ‘redial’ button on her phone and covered the mouthpiece with her hand as she waited for someone to answer. “Are you going to come along once I get hold of him?”
Kate toyed with the idea before quickly deciding against it. That sort of task didn’t warrant the attendance of two officers. I’m learning to delegate, she thought with pride as she shook her head and gave Chloe a ‘good luck’ thumbs up.
As Chloe began to speak to whoever was on the end of the line, Kate looked down at her notes. What now? She could see by looking at her emails that Chloe had already distributed the photograph of Karen Black to the team. Again, Kate was struck by the very faint feeling of familiarity as she looked at it. Kate was good with faces; most police officers were. Names not so much, she thought, with an inner grin. Again came that faint flicker of intuition, the whisper of memory that continued to elude her.
Sighing, she got up and made her way to Nicola’s office, determined to leave a note if her boss was still stuck in Melanie Smith’s interview. To Kate’s surprise, Nicola was just exiting her office and shutting the door behind her.
“I thought you’d still be interviewing,” Kate said, raising a hand in greeting.
Nicola exhaled sharply and shook her smooth head. “We’re giving her a ten minute break. I’ll be back in there shortly.” She paused and added, rather grimly, “She’s reached the ‘no comment’ stage by now, anyway. I’m not going to get very much more out of her.”
Kate nodded in understanding. “Are you going to charge her?”
Nicola’s frown deepened. “I don’t see that we can. We’ve got nothing—nothing but an admission that the two girls knew each other back when they were teenagers. That and a fingerprint on a statue that Melanie freely admits Karen gave to her.”
“It’s not much,” agreed Kate. “The CPS wouldn’t even take it on with just that.”
“Exactly. We’re running out of time to charge her anyway, and I doubt I’ll be able to get an extension.”
This was the easiest, most free-flowing conversation that Kate had ever had with her DCI. She opened her mouth and began “Can I see you for just a mo—”
“Sorry, Kate.” Nicola was shifting from foot to foot. “I am desperate for the loo. Wait in my office, and I’ll be back shortly.”
“Right, no problem.” Kate watched as Nicola hurried off down the corridor. The old girl is thawing out, wonder of wonders. She opened the office door and went in to sit down. Perhaps Theo really is a demon lover after all. She started laughing at the thought. Dammit, I should have tried him out while I had the chance…
Giggling to herself, she let her eyes roam about the room. There were several healthy-looking house plants, lush and green, but very few personal touches. The only photograph that Kate could see was of Nicola and an older woman, one who looked enough like her for Kate to assume that it was a mother-daughter shot. She realised how little she knew about her boss; whether she was married, whether she had children, where she’d grown up. Not that Nicola had ever volunteered the information but then Kate hadn’t ever bothered to ask.
Feeling slightly guilty, she let her gaze drift further from the photograph to a little white soapstone statue in the shape of the Buddha with a tiny brass plate placed in front of it. So, Nicola was a Buddhist, was she? Kate snorted at the thought. Of course, it could be she just liked the statue and it had no religious connotations at all…
Statue…
DCI Weaver came back into the room just as Kate sat bolt upright in her chair and let out an audible yelp.
“Kate?” said Nicola, puzzled.
“I remember! I know! I know where I’ve seen the statue!”
Nicola looked at her as if she’d gone mad. “What? What statue?”
“The Buddha statue. That was what I kept thinking of, but I couldn’t remember—I couldn’t put my finger on what it was.” The second Kate said the words, she realised where she’d seen Karen Black’s face. She dropped back in her chair, as if feeling faint, and covered her face with her hands. “Oh my god. I know who she is.”
“Who, for God’s sake?”
Predictably and infuriatingly, Kate had forgotten her name. She said as much. “Dammit, she’s the therapist, the life coach at the yoga studios where Amanda Callihan taught. Oh Christ, what was her name?”
“It doesn’t matter. That’s soon ascertainable. Listen
, Kate, are you sure?”
“Yes, yes, I am. Oh God, the relief. That’s been nagging me for days—”
Nicola was no longer listening. She was already dialling a number on her office phone.
Chapter Twenty Six
Two hours later, the Abbeyford team faced one another across the office. Everyone was there, even Rav, who had returned from ensuring his wife was comfortable at home. Despite the tense atmosphere, Kate gave him a surreptitious thumbs-up across the table, which he returned with a grin.
DCI Weaver paced the floor in front of the whiteboards in a way reminiscent of Anderton. “Now, I’ll recap before we get going. Our prime suspect, Karen Black, has been located. She currently has the alias of Rachel Brown; she’s practicing as a life coach in the rooms next to the studio where Amanda Callihan taught.”
Kate heard Chloe suck in her breath beside her and smiled inwardly. Chloe hadn’t ever heard the best of it.
Nicola carried on speaking. “Karen Black, AKA Rachel Brown, was also, briefly, Amanda Callihan’s therapist, or counsellor. We’re in the process of chasing down her current abode, but I’m sending a small team to investigate her offices at the studio.” Nicola paused and added, “The team will be accompanied by an ARU.”
ARU. Armed Response Unit. Kate could feel how high the stakes were getting and, judging by the lightning fast glances between them, the other team members could too.
DCI Weaver looked Kate in the eye. “Kate, I want you to head the team.” Kate nodded tensely. Nicola’s gaze moved onto Theo, who dropped his own to the floor. “DS—I mean, Theo, I want you to accompany DI Redman.” She swung back round to face Chloe and Rav. “DS Wapping, DS Cheetham, I want you to pull out all the stops to try and track down Karen Black’s current whereabouts. Pull in uniform if you have to.” Another pause and her gaze swept the room. “Am I understood?”
A murmur of “Yes, DCI Weaver,” resounded and then Nicola was gone from the room, striding through the doorway with the words, ”I’ll be in my office if anyone needs me,” trailing behind her.
There was a collective and audible exhalation of breath at her departure, but it was a different flavour to the usual sigh of irritation that DCI Weaver’s exit usually provoked. Chloe looked at Kate and raised her eyebrows. “Here we go, eh, bird?”
“Here we go.” Kate gestured to Theo, who swept his jacket onto his shoulders. “Let’s go. You got the address, right?”
“Good luck, guys,” called Rav as they hurried from the office. Kate gave him another thumbs up in response.
“What about the ARU?” Theo gasped as they pounded down the stairs.
“Meeting us round the corner from the studio,” Kate said, pushing open the door to the carpark. She’d been through all of this in a private briefing with DCI Weaver. “I’m driving.”
Theo didn’t protest. Soon, they were in Kate’s car and speeding towards the centre of Abbeyford. Remembering the problems she’d had with parking there before, Kate headed straight for one of the central carparks and left her car there. She and Theo walked quickly towards the side-street where they’d agreed to rendezvous with the armed unit.
Experienced as she was, Kate never found dealing with armed police officers easy. As they exchanged terse greetings, she remembered her first sergeant, Alan Whittock, telling her that if the law changed and it came to pass that every officer in Britain would be armed, he would immediately resign. “We police by consent, not by force,” he’d said. Kate tipped the memory of him a respectful mental salute.
“We’ll go in first,” said the head of the ARU, Gavin Rinstock. He was a stocky, silver-haired man in his forties.
“Yes, I know,” said Kate. “When can we follow?”
“When I give the all clear. Wait here.”
Internally rolling her eyes, Kate nodded and stepped back. Theo, clearly chomping at the bit to join in, jogged from foot to foot.
“Calm down,” said Kate. They watched as the squad ran towards the building.
“Oh, man,” said Theo. “I’m applying for a transfer. That’s what I want to do.”
“Seriously?” Kate raised her eyebrows. “Why?”
“I want a big gun. And, you know, to run into buildings and blow shit up and stuff.”
Kate’s eyeballs were beginning to hurt from the rolling. “Seriously? This isn’t Hollywood, Theo.”
“I know.” Theo smiled sheepishly. “But, you know, maybe it’s time for a change.”
Kate straightened up. “Are you serious?”
“I don’t know.”
They looked at each other. Kate scanned Theo’s face, a face she’d seen every week for years. She looked at him now with fresh eyes. He was no longer the pretty-faced young thing she’d once contemplated a fling with. Still as good looking, his face had broadened and his hair was greying. She had a flashback to watching Andrew Stanton performing that post-mortem and realising his once-red hair was now silver. Everything’s changing, she thought. We’re all getting old.
“Seriously—” She caught herself. “Okay, I keep saying the same thing. But Theo…really? Are you serious? You want to leave?”
“Not leave…” Theo looked down at the ground. “It’s just…everything’s kind of up in the air at the moment. I don’t know…you know, what’s happening with—you know—”
Kate blew out her cheeks. “I know what you mean, mate. I really do.”
They confronted each other. “What’s going on with you and Anderton?” asked Theo.
Kate lifted her shoulders. “I don’t know.”
“What do you want to happen?”
Of all the likely scenarios, getting relationship advice from Theo was the last thing Kate had expected. “I don’t know,” was all she could come up with.
“It’s—”Theo began and then they heard the crash of the front door of the yoga studios as it hit the floor.
“Perhaps another time for this conversation?” suggested Kate.
“Yeah.” Theo spun around. “They’re in. Let’s go.”
“They said to wait for the all clear—“Kate called after Theo’s back as he ran towards the studio. “Look, just wait, would you?”
The ARU were quick and efficient. Within minutes, they had ascertained that the offices were empty, along with the yoga studios. When Kate heard the shout from Gavin Rinstock, she let go of Theo’s arm, having been physically holding him back from entering. “Come on then, you lunatic.”
They went straight to Karen’s office and began the search. Theo bagged up the Buddha statue and held it up to the light. “You can see it’s handmade from here.” He looked across at Kate. “It’s different to the ones left at the scenes, though, isn’t it? What made you think of it?”
“I don’t know. Call it intuition.” Kate had gone straight to the filing cabinet. Within moments, she had located a credit card bill with an address on it in the name of Rachel Brown. “Theo, look.” She took a photograph of the bill and texted it to Chloe. “Might be her current address. Chloe can start tracking her down.”
“That’s if she’s there.” Theo began to check the drawers of the desk. “She’ll have gone into hiding, if she’s got any sense.”
“How optimistic.” Kate riffled through a mass of client files. “God, I sometimes feel that all I’ve done on this case is look through paperwork…”
“It’s always like that.”
They continued the search. Kate’s mobile chimed with a return text from Chloe. Ta for address, bird. Rav’s on it. I’m interviewing army bloke. PS. Melanie Smith being released for now accompanied by a frowny faced emoji.
Kate sighed, annoyed but unsurprised. She relayed the new piece of information to Theo.
“Yeah, well, it’s annoying but we know who and where she is now,” said Theo. “Once we’ve got Karen Black in custody, we’ll be pulling her in again, won’t we?”
“No doubt.”
**
By the time the search was complete, it was dark and raining incess
antly. Wearily, Kate and Theo packed the boot of Kate’s car with the collected evidence in bags and boxes. As they drove away, Kate could see the dim shape of a uniformed officer sitting in an unobtrusively parked car, watching out in case Karen decided to go back to her office. Giving thanks that her tailing days were over, Kate turned to Theo. “Are you going back to the office?”
“Nope, I’m bushed. Can you drop me home?”
“Sure.” They drove to Theo’s house in tired silence. As he was getting out, wincing at the rain, Kate held a hand out to his arm. “Listen, Theo, I’m sure things will work themselves out with—you know, with Nicola. If you ever need a friendly ear, you know where I am.”
Theo looked grateful. “Thanks, mate. You’re a good friend.” He shook wet hair out of his eyes. “Besides, it worked out for you and Anderton, didn’t it?”
“Yes, it did,” Kate said, suddenly feeling more certain of the fact. “And I’m going to go and see him right now.”
“Say hi from me.”
“I will. Now get out of the rain.”
Chuckling a little, Kate watched him run up the driveway of his house. Then she turned the windscreen wipers up to ‘full’ and drove away to Anderton’s cottage.
Chapter Twenty Seven
Considering how wet the previous evening had been, Kate was pleasantly surprised to wake to golden autumnal sunshine the next morning. She lay in Anderton’s arms, watching the dappling of light play on the bedroom wall.
“Thank you for that surprise visit last night,” Anderton murmured in her ear.
“You’re welcome. I was beginning to forget what you looked like.”
“Well, that’s hardly my fault, is it?”
Kate kissed him. “No, it’s mine. And I know I’m going to be pulling a lot of late ones this week, so I thought I’d come over.”
“Well, thank you.”
Kate kissed him again, more lingeringly this time. Anderton slid a warm leg in between hers and pulled her closer.
