Nine Lives by Anita Waller (best english books to read .txt) 📗

Erica said. ‘Hopefully this takes us a step nearer to finding out who this evil… person is.’

‘No problem. Happy to help, and my day’s been nowhere near as boring as it usually is.’

Ivor had completed the post-mortem and proved to be amenable to the parents asking to see their daughter.

Flick took charge of the baby, and Erica, her head still full of having watched the killer ferrying their daughter to the banks of the river, accompanied Pamela and Victor down to the autopsy suite. They confirmed it was Victoria, and suddenly Erica and Pamela found themselves supporting Victor, a panic attack threatening to overwhelm him. They sat him on a chair, and Erica spoke slowly and quietly, coaching him in his breathing. Eventually he regained some colour, and the two women sat on a chair either side of him.

‘Victoria is named after her dad,’ Pamela explained. ‘They’re so close…’

‘Victor,’ Erica said, ‘can I send for a doctor?’

He shook his head. ‘No, I’ll be okay. My breathing’s better already and Pam and the baby need me. We’ll be okay, but God knows what will happen next. We don’t even know this little lad’s father. She wouldn’t tell us, said he wasn’t in her life anymore.’

‘Then let’s go get Noah from my sergeant, and I want you to go home. It’s four o’clock now, and it’s going to be a long night for you. I don’t think for a minute the little one will sleep through, and you are grieving for your daughter. We’ll come and talk to you tomorrow, get your statements, and please don’t remove that last text from your phone, Pamela.’

It was with a degree of surprise that Erica saw how full the briefing room was. They had seemingly waited for their return before going home, keen to find out what, if anything, had shown up on the CCTV.

She took them through it all, explained they would hopefully know more the following day after Tech Support had done their thing, but even if they couldn’t enhance anything on the grainy and indistinct film, they knew how she transported the bodies from her car to their resting place.

‘It’s been a bad day in that we have nine deaths to investigate, but a good day in that we know more. Go home everybody, spend time with your families and I’ll see you bright and early in the morning. Last one in gets the coffees.’

There was lots of clatter and conversation as they all drifted away, and Flick followed her into the office. ‘Been a rough day. You got anything planned for tonight?’

‘A long hot soak in the bath. A shower won’t cut it tonight. I want to relax. The Super wants an update in the morning, so I’ll have to get my head around that.’

‘You heard anything about Beth?’

‘Her mum rang while I was driving back here from the shop. She’s doing okay so far, still sleeping a lot, but talking more when she’s awake. I think we can start to feel more positive now. I’ll make ten minutes tomorrow, to go and see her and have a few words with her parents. They must have been through hell, and they’ve never left her alone.’

‘You didn’t expect her to survive, did you?’

Erica shook her head. ‘No, I thought she would be dead before the ambulance reached the hospital. Those paramedics… what can I say? And there was a lot of blood. She was well and truly battered. We kind of expect the occasional roughing up when we’re in this job, but this was nothing to do with her job, it was her psychopathic ex.’

Flick handed over a large white envelope she was holding. ‘We’ve all signed this card for her, only needs your signature, boss. Can you take it tomorrow? We talked about sending some flowers, but they don’t allow them, do they?’

‘They don’t, and it’s no good sending fruit, she can’t eat yet, her face is too swollen and she is having pain in her mouth, I believe. I’ll pick up some magazines for her. She’ll love getting the card. Come on, let’s get off home.’

They walked down to the car park together.

Flick clicked her key fob. ‘We’re doing the WEA and Starlite membership listings tomorrow?’

‘We are, so don’t throw a sickie.’

Flick laughed. ‘As if. I tried to make a start on them today. Night, boss. See you tomorrow.’

27

It was their salad night, and neither wife looked particularly enthusiastic about it. Frannie moved her lettuce around her plate, trying to make it look as though she’d eaten some of it, and Erica stabbed it with her fork, and loaded several prawns on to the prongs so she didn’t have to taste the lettuce.

‘Tell me again why we decided to have a weekly meal of salad,’ Frannie said.

‘Because we didn’t want to put on weight.’

‘Is it working?’

‘No, but that’s possibly down to Haribos.’

‘So we could have chips with our salad?’

‘We could.’

‘And steak?’

‘We could.’

‘And swap the lettuce stuff for peas?’

Erica looked at her partner. ‘We could, but I think you’ve cancelled out the whole salad evening bit.’

‘You’re right. Chips, steak and peas sounds nothing like prawn salad. I really don’t like salad.’

‘Let’s discuss this properly. Why don’t you like salad?’ Erica waved her fork towards Frannie, a fork already spearing her next mouthful of lettuce.

‘It’s green.’

‘Not all of it. Tomatoes are red.’

‘I don’t like red stuff either.’

Erica sighed. ‘Look, be a good girl and eat it all up and you can have a bar of chocolate afterwards.’

Frannie smiled and punched the air. ‘Yes! Result!’ She ate a little more enthusiastically, and washed almost every mouthful down with wine. ‘What are we doing tonight? I have some notes to write up but they’ll only take me quarter of an hour or so. We could go to the cinema for a late showing.’

Erica shook her head. ‘Best not, I want to get off early in the morning. I feel as though we’re getting close to cracking this, so close I can almost taste