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

your bit of paper and come talk to me.’ Erica left the room.

Sam straightened his carefully drawn diagram, and pushed it across Erica’s desk. She looked at it, letting her fingers trace the various routes and buildings on it. ‘Is it accurate?’

‘As accurate as I can make it. I didn’t have access to the council’s site from home, so I did the best I could with Google maps and stuff. Why?’

‘I don’t want you going alone. We know, we’ve seen at first hand, how dangerous this woman is. See what Mike’s doing, and if he can postpone it. He’s a big lad, you should both be okay. And well done on this, you must have been working on this most of the night.’

‘I was. But it’s got to be done. It’s the only lead we’ve got regarding this car.’

She handed the chart back to him. ‘Leave a photocopy of this with me before you go. If she does get the pair of you, I’ll need to know where to start looking for your bodies.’

‘Thanks, boss,’ he said, standing. ‘You’re all heart.’

She could see Flick beavering away on her laptop, Sam and Mike deep in conversation with their heads bent over Sam’s diagram, Will tapping away on his computer and she knew she couldn’t ask for a better team. This case had got to all of them, touched them deeply, and she knew it was because of the ages of the girls. Dead before they had chance to show their full potential, one of them leaving a tiny baby to be brought up by grandparents – it had been the hardest case they had worked on together, and by far the most difficult with the spectre of the twenty-fourteen murders hanging over everything like a pall.

They were a young team and most of them hadn’t been around five years earlier, and yet all of them now knew as much as she did about those murders after spending hours going through case notes. They had all made it a priority that they knew of the link that connected the five-year-distant deaths.

Erica saw Flick check her watch, close her laptop and stand, before walking across to where Sam and Mike were at the photocopier, making the requested copy for her. She saw Flick speak to them, clearly asking a question because Sam nodded enthusiastically in reply, and they made an extra copy and handed it to her.

Flick walked back to her desk, took a sip of water and sat down for a couple of minutes while she went over the hand-drawn diagram. After rummaging in her drawer for a pencil, she carefully traced around buildings and roads, then started up her computer and typed something in. She scrolled the screen, took it back to the beginning, entered something else and punched the air. Then she stood and headed for Erica’s office.

‘Do you know,’ Flick said, ‘how close this area is to The Coffee Pot?’

31

Erica walked through the door into Beth’s room and felt a burst of delight to see her sitting in the chair by the bed. She was still having fluids put into her, so remained attached to a drip, but everything apart from the bandage around her head appeared fairly normal.

‘That’s a sight for sore eyes,’ she said, and handed over a couple of magazines. ‘Your face looks so much better, the swelling’s almost gone.’

‘That’s only temporary,’ Beth said ruefully. ‘He didn’t manage to kick out any of my teeth, but he’s loosened two so much I’m going to have them taken out because they’ll drop out eventually if I don’t, and cause me no end of aches and pains. I can have implants put in, but I need to wait before tackling that.’

‘And your head injury?’

‘It’s doing well. The doctor will let me know tomorrow if I can go home. This is my last fluid IV, so all’s good.’

‘Okay, don’t forget my offer of coming to stay with us for a few days until you’re more able to get your own meals and suchlike. We’d love to have you. I’ve spoken to Frannie about it, and she didn’t hesitate to say yes.’

‘I know. She said so.’

‘She’s been to see you?’

‘She has. She didn’t say?’

‘No, but I’m not surprised. She’s always at the hospital. She has some really strange clients that frequently require hospitalisation after they’ve walked into a wardrobe door, or the kitchen door. You understand?’

Beth smiled. ‘I do. She didn’t stay long, brought me some Maltesers because I don’t need to chew them, and repeated your offer. But fill me in on the case. Are you any closer to a result?’

Sam drove, and he and Mike headed towards where the last camera had identified the Fiesta as passing it. Sam took the first turn left after that point, and found himself on a narrow cobbled street, so indicative of that area of Sheffield. He drove slowly, and Mike did most of the observation, his head swivelling as he checked the side streets and alleyways that led off the road they were on. They reached the end and Sam stopped, judging which way to go next at the T-junction.

‘Left?’ Mike suggested. ‘We can always do a second drive round, and take the right turns, we’ve got all day.’

With a brief nod of agreement, Sam quickly indicated left and pulled out. They followed the same routine until Mike spotted the row of garages they had been seeking. They drove down the narrow access road, and pulled up as the space widened to allow cars manoeuvrability. They climbed out of the squad car and walked towards the last garage in the row of seven. Much to their surprise the garage door slid up, but it was empty apart from a sleeping bag, a blanket, and a pillow. A small candle stood inside a grimy glass jar.

‘Bijou residence,’ Mike muttered, but nevertheless made sure the door was closed firmly. This garage was shelter for some poor bugger down on their luck. They