Nine Lives, Anita Waller [best interesting books to read .txt] 📗

‘I’m sure it’s that café. We’ve checked alibis for everybody who attended the gym on the relevant evenings, and they’re all clear. I’m sure we’re onto something with The Coffee Pot now we’ve found out it’s there. I think it’s where she meets her victims, and we need to know if any of the four girls used that café. That’s what I’m doing today – if that’s good with you?’

‘It’s nice that you’ve asked. You got a plot for this book then?’

‘It’s a police procedural.’

‘Oh good. Not much research needed for it. Give me a minute.’ Erica picked up her phone and dialled the safe house where Katie and Becky were still ensconced.

She spoke to a sleepy Becky and asked the relevant questions about the gym and the café, then quietly disconnected after reassuring Becky that they were close to a conclusion. Erica lifted her head and looked at Flick.

‘It seems all four of them used the café regularly. Take yourself off down there for a few hours, but you can’t make yourself known to the owners. One of them might be the killer so I suggest you pay particular attention to them. If they start to make noises about you moving on, you’ll have to do that, but stick it out as long as you can. Keep drinking and eating, then they can’t really ask you to leave. And save your receipts, I’ll authorise them. I’m going out to the safe house, have a chat with our two girls and see if they remember anything. I’ll also ask the families of Imogen, Tanya and Victoria if they knew whether their daughters used the café.’

Flick stood. ‘Okay, boss. I’m going to set up my book that I’m writing, so I don’t look like a complete amateur when I get there.’

‘You’ve brought your laptop?’

‘Certainly have. I couldn’t sleep for thinking about that damn café, so I knew I’d give it a shot for an hour today, but now I’ve got permission…’

Erica laughed. ‘Go for it. Contact me by text if you need to, don’t blow your cover by ringing me. Let’s hope the receptionist is a different one.’

‘It doesn’t matter. I don’t need to go into the gym. There’s a door out of the café directly onto the street, so I’ll go in that one.’

‘So there’s two ways in?’

Flick pulled a piece of paper towards her and swiftly drew a sketch of the reception area, the double doors into the café, then a bubble-shaped space representing the café with the doors leading out onto the main road. ‘Ideal for any would-be murderer, isn’t it? Nobody in the gym knows she’s there if she came in off the road. And she can pull up outside like a good Samaritan if somebody comes out and fiddles with an umbrella, or stops to put the hood up on their jacket. Dreadful weather, want a lift home, Tanya? You can see it, can’t you.’

Erica nodded. ‘You can. Let’s go and brief the team on what’s happening. I’ll put Will on to getting some information about the café and its employees, see who owns it, he’s good at background digging.’

The briefing took longer than Erica thought it would. As the explanation of the café took hold in the minds of her team, the questions flowed and she could feel a sense of excitement that everybody thought it was a major step forward.

‘So that’s it,’ she said finally. ‘Flick will be unavailable once she leaves here, I’m going to see the families of our girls, plus going to the safe house. Does everybody know what they’re doing?’

Sam held up a hand.

‘Sam we’re not in school.’ Erica smiled. She liked the good-looking young officer; if he retained the enthusiasm he unfailingly showed, he would go far in his career.

He waved a piece of paper and pointed to the whiteboard. ‘Can I?’

She nodded and he walked to the front, attaching the two sheets of copy paper that had been stuck together with Sellotape.

‘I did this last night. The ANPR could only track that black car so far, then it disappeared, so I took the last-known recognition of it, and used several websites to track down garages and lock-ups within half a mile of that last sighting. If it’s okay, boss, I’d like to take a car and go out searching. I know it’s a long shot, and I won’t give it more than a day because of that, but…’

‘But nothing, Sam.’ She walked over to join the PC. ‘And well done. Seems we’re all doing lots of homework on this one.’

She looked at his diagrams, his annotations and little speech bubbles. ‘What’s this star?’

‘That’s the last point it was seen by the ANPR camera. There’s no further sightings at any point during the night, and we know she changes number plates so there’s no point in following that. On the two CCTVs we’ve caught her on, it’s showed the same car but with two different registration plates. I suspect she’s got a little stash of them in the garage with the car.’

Erica nodded. ‘I agree that it’s in a garage somewhere. We’ve made enough appeals about this car for somebody to have come forward if it’s on a road or in a car park somewhere. She takes a hell of a risk being out and about with it in this day of the police being able to check insurance, tax and everything on the spot.’

‘She chooses her time, boss. Between eight and nine the ordinary copper on the beat is reasonably quiet. Any later and we start to get the idiots roaming at large, tanked up on beer, but the autopsy reports place death at eight to ten at night, don’t they? It’s almost as if she understands the police system. Or she’s in the police.’

‘Okay,’ Erica said, ‘I can rule Flick out. She’s not fit enough to wheel an empty suitcase, never mind one with a body inside.’

Everybody laughed, and Flick grinned while holding up a finger.

‘Sam, bring