‘Who else, Annabel? You know more about this than anyone.’
‘I’ve never worked in an MIR before.’
‘Well, now’s your chance.’
I shrank back in my chair, the thought of all this activity being my responsibility suddenly overwhelming.
‘Hey,’ Frosty said. ‘It’s OK. You’ll be fine.’
‘It’s not that. I’ve got a lot on my plate,’ I said, my voice unexpectedly quavering. ‘My mum – my mother’s been taken in to hospital.’
‘Kate told me. I’m sorry, really. Should you even be here?’
‘There’s not much I can do really. She’s unconscious. They said they’d ring if anything happens.’
‘Andy?’
A man had entered the room, someone I knew vaguely but couldn’t quite place. Smartly dressed, dark hair.
‘Sir?’
‘Ah, you must be Annabel. Pleased to meet you.’
‘Annabel, this is DCI Paul Moscrop, Major Crime.’
He held out his hand and gripped mine firmly as I shook it.
‘Hello,’ I said.
‘You’re the one who’s been monitoring all the incidents, so I’ve been told?’
‘That’s right.’ And you’re the one who deleted my email, I thought.
‘I’d like to see everything you’ve got – it would really help bring us up to speed. Can I meet up with you in twenty minutes or so?’
‘I guess so, yes.’
‘That’s wonderful, thank you. Top job. Andy, can I see you for a sec?’
The DCI ushered Frosty into the office in the corner and shut the door. I took myself off downstairs. Trigger had gone to a meeting and taken Kate with him. The office was silent apart from the whirr of the workstations. I closed the door behind me.
I logged on to the system and went through my documents and files until I got to the one marked, prosaically, ‘Op Lonely’. All of the stuff the police worked on had an op name, and no doubt this one would, too, now; but in the meantime I’d given it a name of my own.
Inside the folder was the document I’d prepared for the meeting: the slides, and the spreadsheets of data I’d kept on all the bodies found so far, which showed names, addresses, further information, which might contain anything linking them to each other, next of kin, approximate date of death, date of discovery, possible causes of death. And now it looked as though I had another two to add to the list.
I printed all the documents off and a basic version of the spreadsheet, gathered everything together and was just about to head out of the door again when the phone rang.
I looked at it, as though trying to work out from sight whether it was likely to be important or not.
Then I almost wished I hadn’t answered it, because it turned out to be him. The journalist.
‘Is that Annabel? It’s Sam Everett.’
‘Hello.’
‘How’s your mum doing?’
‘Alright, thanks,’ I said. ‘The same.’
‘I didn’t think you’d be at work, to be honest.’
‘Well, I’ve only popped in. I’m going back to the hospital in a minute.’
He hesitated for a moment, as though he’d been expecting me to say more. But what else was there to say? I wasn’t about to go into detail discussing my mother’s medical condition with a relative stranger.
‘I wondered if you had any more news – about the investigation?’
‘What investigation?’
He sighed, and at last resorted to sarcasm. ‘You know, the one with all the bodies? The one where I got a weird phone call from a woman who knew where the next one was waiting for your lot?’
‘There’s no need for that,’ I said, shuddering.
‘Sorry. Look, I did my bit last night – I rang the police as soon as I knew I wouldn’t be wasting anyone’s time. Any chance you can give me a bit of news?’
‘Like what? I don’t know what it is you need,’ I said.
‘What about the woman who called me? Have you traced her?’
‘Yes,’ I said.
‘And?’
‘And what? She’s dead.’
‘Dead?’
‘Apparently she’d been dead less than twenty-four hours when they found her today. Same as the others, just not decomposed.’
Silence from the other end of the phone. I shouldn’t have said that, I thought; I was going to get into trouble now – and the investigation was barely a few hours old.
‘Can you tell me who she is?’ he asked.
‘I don’t know that yet,’ I said. ‘I don’t know anything, really – I’ve only been in the office for about half an hour. And I’m really not supposed to talk to you about this. I know people who’ve been sacked for giving away details of an investigation.’