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Bea closed her eyes. “I told you. Things seemed… strange, but I’d never worked anywhere like that before. I had no idea what to expect.”

“What about this Daria character?”

Bea shook her head. “I know literally nothing about her. She barely said two words to me the entire time that I was there.”

He was about to ask another question when the door of the little interview room opened and a woman came in. A woman that it took Bea a moment to recognize. When she did, her mouth opened into an O of surprise.

“Ah, yes, surprised to see me,” said Leslie with a small smile.

“Surprised that you can speak at all,” said Bea.

Leslie shrugged. “It’s better to observe when you’re undercover. The rest of you all did enough talking, I didn’t need to join in.”

“You were police the whole time?”

The smaller woman nodded. “We’d had a tip-off, but we needed to know more about what was going on. That was where I came in.” She turned to the other officer. “She’s clear. She can go.” And then back to Bea. “You’ll probably need to come back for some questions later and we might need you to give evidence.”

“Anything, as long as I’m not under arrest.”

Leslie grinned at this. “You’re certainly not. And just for info, none of the rest of you are either. Luke hasn’t been found yet, but we’ll get him. When we do, there might be a trial. But the rest of the staff seem to be in the clear.”

“What about Daria?” asked Bea.

“Haven’t found her and can’t even track down her real name,” Leslie groaned. “But that’s a problem for another day. Just make sure you leave contact info at the front desk and set up an appointment to come give a statement in the next week or two and you can get off home.”

Bea’s heart started beating in normal time again. She’d seriously thought that she might be spending a night in jail.

???

“We’ll get you to sign a statement and then you can be on your way,” said a young policeman to Alli.

Alli looked around the tiny interview room. “So I’m not spending the night here?”

The policeman shook his head. “You’re free to go, ma’am.”

The ‘ma’am’ grated on her nerves, but she held her smile. “Great, that sounds perfect. Just tell me where to sign.”

She waited for the paperwork, signed her name where it needed to be signed, and stood up. Thanking the policeman, shemade her own way out into the main reception of the police station. But she didn’t see any of the others, so she sat down to wait for them.

It was about three minutes later that Bea walked out of one of the corridors leading to the front desk.

Alli froze in her seat. Froze because she didn’t know what to say, what to do, all she could do was sit there, watching, feeling the thrill of being in the same room as Bea.

Bea didn’t see her and Alli didn’t know whether to be relieved or disappointed. Part of her wanted to stand up and yell to the rooftops and beg Bea to give her another chance. The more sensible part of her was still frozen in place, not quite remembering how to move.

“We’re going to need better than that, ma’am,” the desk sergeant was saying to Bea.

“I’m afraid I can’t do better than that,” said Bea. “I’m moving, and that’s the best contact information I can give you at the moment.”

“You’re a witness in a police matter.”

Alli frowned, ready to get up and say something. But she didn’t have to.

“I’m a witness, not a suspect,” Bea said primly. “Now, I’ve given you both addresses, new and old, you have my phone contact. That should be more than good enough. I’d also like to set up an appointment to come and give a sworn statement.”

The police officer grumbled beneath his breath, but Alli was smiling. So Bea had gotten a backbone in the last few days, huh? It was nice to see her standing up for herself. Nice to see her taking control of her own life.

“That sounds fine,” Bea was saying now. “But I’m currently out of work and applying for jobs, so I may need to reschedule. I’ll ring if it’s necessary.”