Moss was writing this down in her pocket book. She looked up at Erika,

‘Did you two, you know?’ she smiled.

‘Is that an official question?’

Moss closed her notebook, ‘No, it’s me getting excited that two of my favourite colleagues and friends might be getting it on!’ she grinned.

‘Can we concentrate on what is happening here?’

‘Yes, Boss. Blink once for yes and twice for no.’

‘Moss!’

‘Sorry, I won’t mention it again.’

‘Good. Can I see my sister?’

‘Course, Boss.’

 

* * *

 

Erika had never met her neighbour on the top floor, a cheerful blowsy woman called Alison. She was in her forties and had a mass of messy curls.

‘Ello,’ she said when she opened the door. ‘Your sister and the kids are in the lounge, shook up they are.’ She spoke with a soft Welsh accent and wore a flower print dress. Her flat was larger than Erika’s, and comfortable. Filled with rustic wooden furniture, books, and pictures of family. She took them through to the living room where Lenka sat on the sofa talking to the translator, a tall thin man wearing a green corduroy suit who perched on the coffee table opposite. Eva was asleep in her arms and Karolina and Jakub were at either end of a long sofa. Between them was a huge elderly Rottweiler, asleep with his head on Karolina’s lap and his back feet on Jakub.

‘Erika,’ said Lenka seeing her with Moss. Erika went over and hugged her and Eva.

‘I’m sorry. I’m so sorry I stormed off like that,’ said Erika.

‘I’m sorry for what I said, I didn’t mean it.’

‘It’s fine, we’re all fine, everything is good and I love you, ‘said Erika. They hugged again, and then Erika went to the kids and asked if they were okay. They nodded solemnly. Karolina rubbed at the dog’s big ear, and Jakub tilted his head where Erika was blocking his view to the cartoons on the TV.

’So everything is okay?’ asked Moss. ‘I couldn’t understand a bloody word of that.’

‘Nor could I, and I speak Welsh,’ said Alison, adding, ‘That’s Duke by the way. He’s seventeen, spends all day sleeping and farting… he didn’t hear your intruder.’

‘Thanks for letting them stay here this morning,’ said Erika. ‘Sorry I never came up to introduce myself…’

Alison batted her apologies away. ‘It always takes a crisis to bring people together, you fancy a cuppa?’

Erika and Moss nodded.

 

* * *

 

They all sat down with tea, and the translator departed now that Erika could translate what Lenka was saying.

‘Did you get a look at whoever it was?’ asked Erika.

‘It was dark, but there was light coming in from outside, the streetlights,’ said Lenka. She took a sip of tea and bit her lip.

‘What is it?’

‘You know I said the other day a man came to read the gas and electricity meter?’

‘Yeah.’

‘I can’t be sure, and it was dark, but I saw his profile, and it looked like the same man.’

 

 

52

 

 

It was early afternoon when Erika arrived at Bromley Station. She’d booked Lenka into a hotel with the kids, a decent one she’d found in Dulwich. Marek was flying into London Stanstead Airport later that afternoon. They were going to get a couple of hours sleep, and then an e-fit photo artist was going over to work with Lenka on a likeness for the intruder, and the man who came to read the meter.

 

* * *

 

The incident room was busy, and everyone stopped working when Erika came through the door.

‘It’s all right, I’m okay. No one has been hurt, apart from the intruder who was seen off expertly by my sister. It runs in the family…’

She looked around the room at John, DC’s Knight and Temple, at Moss who gave her a nod and a smile and then Peterson who just stared back at her. ‘It’s business as usual. We still have a case to solve, so let’s get to it.’

She went to her office. Moss followed after her with a black bag. ‘Boss, I got your iPhone back from forensics, with your laptop. The bag didn’t look like it had been touched.’

Erika placed it on her desk. She opened it and pulled out her iPhone seeing that the battery was dead, and she hooked it up to the charger she kept in the office.

‘They’ve taken blood samples the intruder left on your carpet, so we’ll see what comes back, hopefully we can get a match from the DNA database.’

Erika switched on her phone. Moss went on,

‘It’s troubling that whoever did this scouted out your place first. But at the same time nothing was taken.’

Erika’s phoned chimed several times, and she picked it up and swiped through. There were calls from Lenka, and five calls from an unknown number, plus a voicemail.

‘Is there anything else, Boss?’ asked Moss.

‘No, thanks. I’m just going to get myself up to speed with things,’ said Erika. Moss left and she sat down to listen to the voicemails, thinking it might be Peterson, calling her from his landline. She peered through the walls of the glass office at her team milling about, but she couldn’t see Peterson.

She was surprised to hear the first voicemail was from DCI Amanda Baker, saying she had some important information for her regarding the Jessica Collins case, and to call her back urgently. Amanda had called her a further five times during the early hours of the morning, leaving another message.

She pressed call, but Amanda’s mobile went straight to voicemail. She logged onto her computer and pulled up the phone directory and put in Amanda’s address. She tried the landline number, but it rang out.

Erika got up and called John over.

‘Can you keep trying these two numbers. They’re for Amanda Baker, when she answers can you put her through to me straight away.’

‘Yes, Boss,’ he said.

Erika went back to her desk and tried to get her head back into the Jessica Collins case. She looked through the notes she had made over the last few days, taking in the arrest of Joel Michaels, who was still in custody at the station. And she looked through the notes of her meeting with Laura Collins.’