Lenka stared down at the phone and realised she didn’t know any numbers, she didn’t know how to call the police. The only number she knew was for Marek.

She sat against the door and dialled her husband’s number in Slovakia.

‘Mummy, the lock doesn’t work,’ whispered Jakub, his face white and trembling. ‘Auntie Erika said it was broken…’

As the phone began to ring Lenka heard a squeaking sound, and looked up. The door handle above her head was turning, and she felt the door give behind her back.

 

 

50

 

 

When Erika woke the next morning, Peterson had rolled away from her and slept on his side with all the covers bunched up around his bare legs. She saw it was 6.01am. So many emotions washed over her; guilt that she enjoyed being with Peterson, and a deep sadness that she was further apart from Mark. The memory had retreated a little, dimmer and further in the past now she had this new experience with another man. Her heart sank when she knew she would have to see Peterson today at work, and the next day… She sat up and retrieved her clothes from the floor beside the bed, pulling on her underwear. Peterson rolled over as she pulled the curtain to one side. It was still dark outside.

‘Morning. Don’t you want to stay for breakfast?’

‘No. I should go,’ she said doing up her bra.

‘Come here.’

‘Why?’

He sat up, ‘what do you mean why? I want to kiss you.’

Erika went to his side of the bed and perched on the edge. He put his arm around her.

‘We need to put down some boundaries,’ she said.

‘There didn’t seem to be many last night.’

‘I’m serious. I’m your boss. It would be easier if we didn’t talk about this at work.’

‘Oh, I was going to stand up today and address the incident room and tell everyone how great you are in the sack…’

‘Peterson.’

‘You are great in the sack,’ he said with a wink. She looked at him. ‘I’m not going to say anything…’

‘Good.’

‘Do you want to do this again?’

‘I don’t know. No. Can we just chalk it up to a great night?’

‘Chalk it up?’

Erika stood and fumbled around for her socks,

‘What do you want? A relationship? Because I am nowhere near wanting to do that.’

‘Fine,’ he said sitting up.

‘Fine. I’ll see you at work.’

‘Yes, boss,’ he said giving her a salute. He climbed past her out of bed and went to the bathroom shutting the door. She went to the living room and retrieved her blouse, and, leaving his t-shirt neatly folded, she let herself out of his flat.

 

 

51

 

 

Erika went to the drive through Mc Donald’s in Sydenham and ordered a sausage and egg mc muffin and a cup of coffee and ate it in her car. When she came to pay, she saw that she didn’t have her phone or wallet, and had used some spare change she kept for parking in her glove compartment.

Dawn was just breaking, cold and blue, as she pulled up at Manor Mount just after seven. Her heart began to hammer when she saw two police cars outside. She parked beside them on the gravel, and let herself in at the main entrance, feeling her heart face even faster when she saw her front door was open and a police officer was stationed outside. A tall figure in a blue forensics suit emerged carrying a long plastic evidence bag containing the pipe from her vacuum cleaner. Blood was crusted on the metal tubing and smeared over the plastic. In his other hand was one of her blood stained guest towels.

‘Sorry, who are you?’ asked the police officer. Putting out his hand to block her path. He was very young with a thin face and had a terrible razor rash.

‘This is my home. Where is my sister and her kids?’ she said feeling frantic and trying to move past him.

‘This is now a crime scene,’ he said pushing her back.

‘I’m a police officer… I haven’t got my ID…’ Moss appeared in the hallway dressed in blur scrubs. ‘Moss, what’s happening? Where is my sister and the three kids?’

Moss came to the threshold and stepped out, the officer gave her a clear plastic bag and she pulled off her mask and placed it inside.

‘Your sister and the kids are all fine. They’re upstairs with a neighbour. We managed to get a translator half an hour ago. They are all shaken but perfectly fine.’

‘Oh, thank God,’ said Erika wiping tears away with the back of her hand.

‘Where have you been, boss?’ asked Moss removing her overalls and placing them in the bag. They moved out into the communal entrance. ‘There was an emergency call logged at three thirty this morning from your landline… The operator didn’t know at first what was being said, but by a miracle one of the operators spoke Slovak.’

Moss went on to say that an intruder had broken in through the patio window and Lenka had attacked the person with the metal pipe from the vacuum cleaner.

‘He went down and she thought she had killed him. She locked herself and the kids in the bathroom and called 112, which luckily goes through to 999 emergencies. They stayed in the bathroom until police arrived. Whoever broke in was bleeding badly. They tried to get into the bathroom, left a lot of blood on the door. They must have fled the scene, because when we arrived there was no one.’

Erika slumped against the wall.

‘Was anything taken?’ she asked.

‘Not as far as we can see.’

‘Moss my bloody phone is in there, my bag, my laptop.’

‘Shit. Sorry Boss, you know the score. It’s a crime scene. I can see if we can get things fast tracked. Where are they?’

‘In my bag, probably by the TV.’

Moss radioed through to ask the officers inside to track the bag down.

‘Sorry, Boss I have to ask this. Why did you leave without any of your stuff? And where did you go?’

‘I had a huge row with my sister. It’s been stressful having them to stay. And I went to Peterson’s flat. I left here around seven thirty-ish. I drove around for a couple of hours and then I must have got to his around nine, nine thirty.’

‘Did you stay?’

Erika paused and looked at the floor, ’I did.’