Page 29 of First Blood

Suddenly she thought about her Golf, sitting on the driveway, used for nothing more than the odd few bad weather days.

Horses for courses.

She approached the next traffic island and rode all around it.

Home could wait. There was somewhere else she needed to go.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Dawson checked his watch for the third time in as many minutes. He knew he was cutting it fine to make his date with Lou. He had to get back from the West Mids Police Forensic Department at Ridgepoint House in Birmingham, and after all the effort he’d gone to secure a bed for the night he didn’t want to have to text and say he was going to be late. Something told him that would lead to another night spent in the car.

He took out his phone and checked it. He’d been expecting a call from the boss for hours, had almost been hoping for it. He had his answers all ready. His explanation of the sudden idea he’d had about trying to trace the origin of the nails used to pin their victim down. Hell, he’d even had an insincere apology waiting in the wings in response to the lecture he’d been expecting. He’d wanted to bait her into a reaction, had wanted to show her that he wasn’t to be controlled, that he was an independent thinker. He had wanted to give her something to think about, but now all he could do was wonder about her silence.

As the tech he’d been waiting on finally gave him the thumbs up he couldn’t help wondering who was playing who.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Kim arrived back at Luke Fenton’s property just before 7p.m.

Roy greeted her in the hallway.

‘Quite the exciting search we’ve got going on here, Inspector,’ he said, telling her they’d found nothing of interest. ‘So, what brings you back?’

‘Just a hunch,’ she said, walking into the kitchen.

Horses for courses.

‘You do know we’re not done yet and you could have just called and…’

‘Ssshh… give me a minute,’ she said, standing in the middle of the kitchen.

This was the room in which they’d seen the most signs of life.

‘What exactly are you looking?…’

‘That wasn’t a minute,’ she said, glancing at the tea-stained counter and the film of dust that covered most surfaces.

She walked over to the chair that their victim had used to flick through the car magazine. She sat down, noting the burn rings all in the same area of the table.

She looked around the room from this angle, noting the dust on the shelves, on top of the cooker hob, on the oven door handle.

Her eyes fell to the utility drawer beneath the oven, used for storing pots and pans.

No dust.

Roy continued to watch her from the doorway, glancing at his watch.

She pushed back the chair and took the three steps to the cooker.

She opened the bottom drawer and found the missing part of the puzzle.

A second laptop computer.

Chapter Twenty-Four

It was almost eight when Kim pulled the Ninja into the garage and closed the shutter.

The thirteen-hour day had stretched into the middle of next week, or so it felt.