‘Where is my desk?’

‘In your office.’

‘I’ve got an office?’

‘Up the back there,’ said John. Erika turned and saw the large glass box at the back of the open-plan office. It was crammed waist high with white and grey boxes. She moved over to the door and John followed. In the middle of all the boxes she could just make out a desk.

‘Are these all the files on the Jessica Collins case?’

‘Yes, Boss. Arrived this afternoon from the Specialist Casework Investigation Team. And they carry on under the window there.’

There was no space to move beyond the doorway. The autopsy report was in the middle of her desk.

‘Sorry, Boss. The files were delivered after I put the report on your desk,’ he said putting down his chips and tackling the stack of boxes in the doorway, pulling them out to make a small gap. Erika joined in as they shifted boxes outside. She looked around at the cramped office, nearly every desk was full and occupied. ‘Shit, there’s no space for any of this.’

She slid another box out through the glass doorway, and managed to squeeze in to reach the chair and reach the report on the desk.

‘And this is everything?’

‘So I’m told. The Specialist Casework Investigation Team sent everything over that’s been in storage, it goes back years and in no particular order. There’s evidence bags mixed up with files, some boxes are marked in date order from 1991 up to 1995, and then some are marked up with the names of locations, and then there are a load with no label at all where files have been stuffed in with no regard… ’

A phone rang from inside Erika’s office, and she moved through the boxes to pick it up. It was Marsh.

‘What have you got from the historical case files?’ he asked without pre-amble.

‘I’ve just got them.’

‘Are you putting together a list of suspects?’

‘Yes.’

‘I’d like to see it as soon as possible.’

‘I had a chat with DC Greene who was the family liason on the case. She gave me a good insight, but I need more manpower to get through this stuff,’ said Erika.

‘Ok, I’ll see what I can do. Did you see the papers?’

At the same time John handed her a slightly rain splattered copy of The Evening Standard, and she saw that it had made the front page of the evening edition.

‘Yes, I’ve got a copy. I see they’ve gone with the same picture of Jessica Collins.’

‘Yes, for some reason they forgot to include the incident room number. But Colleen Scanlan is on it, and they should be adding it to the online edition any minute now.’

Erika looked up at her team, many of who were flagging sat at their desks. Marsh went on,

‘Martin Collins is flying into the UK late tonight with Laura and Toby. They’ve asked for a meeting with the SIO and media liaison.’

‘I was planning to meet with the family…’

‘Martin Collins wants assurances that this case will be dealt with properly, after the fiasco it turned into last time.’

‘Well I hope if you’ve spoken with him you’ve made those assurances?’

‘Yes.’

‘Good, and I’ll re-iterate them.’

‘Erika, we need results on this one.’

‘At the same time I’m untangling a web here, Sir.’ Erika went on to briefly what she’d earned from Nancy, the added, ’I need to do some more digging, and I’m serious about more manpower. We need to work through these files fast. Then I can start giving you list of suspects.’

‘Ok, leave it with me,’ said Marsh and he hung up.

 

 

17

 

 

Erika was bleary eyed when she arrived at Bromley Cross the next morning. She’d stayed late finishing the Jason Tyler report and working through some of the the Jessica Collins case files, and had only grabbed a few hours sleep.

When she got out of her car in the underground car park, she heard a whistle and saw two familiar faces coming toward her.

‘Boss! Bloody good to see you!’ cried Detective Inspector Moss. She was a small compact woman with short red hair tucked behind her ears, and her face was a mass of freckles. She rushed forward and grabbed Erika in bear hug.

‘She’s very excited to see you,’ said the tall black officer joining them a moment later. It was Detective Inspector Peterson, cool and handsome in a sharp black suit.

‘Okay. I can’t breathe,’ said Erika laughing. Moss broke free and took a step back.

‘I thought you’d forgotten about us, Boss?’

‘It’s been crazy. I was re-assigned here as a spare part and suddenly, they piled me high with cases,’ said Erika, feeling guilty that she hadn’t kept in touch with her former colleagues.

‘Go on Peterson, give the Boss a hug too,’ joked Moss. He rolled his eyes.

‘Good to see you, Boss he grinned,’ he leaned forward and gave her an awkward pat on the shoulder.

‘Do you need parking permits?’ asked Erika.

‘Just one, we came in my car, Peterson’s waiting to be assigned a new one.’

‘It died on the Sun in The Sands roundabout last week,’ he said. ‘Total nightmare, the middle of rush hour, I was due back at the nick. There was cars honking like mad, smoke coming out from under my bonnet.’

‘You should see the bonnet, Boss he looks really good in it. I told him not to wear it today. Although it quite suited him…’

‘Piss off Moss,’ said Peterson.

‘He’s just being modest, Boss. The frills framed his face… Made him look like a baby Idris Elba.’

Erika burst out laughing. ’Sorry, Peterson,’ she said.

’S’alright,’ he grinned. She had forgotten just how much she enjoyed working with Moss and Peterson, and how much she’d missed them. They reached the lift at the end of the car park, and she pressed the call button.

‘Its good to have you both here thank you. Although, I don’t think we’ll be laughing much more today. This case is going to be tough.’

 

* * *

 

The incident room was full when they arrived, and Erika introduced Moss and Peterson and was pleased to see that she’s been assigned six additional CID officers to work on the case files. DC Knight then stood to take them through the timeline of events leading up to the disappearance of Jessica Collins.