Little Boy Blue

34

Whose bright idea was it to put mirrors in the lifts?

Charlie was already late for work – she’d forgotten it was Jessica’s ‘Show and Tell’ this morning – and her mood was not improved by the sight of herself in the floor-to-ceiling mirrors. Her clothes were ok, if a little tight – it was her face that depressed her. The lighting wasn’t great in the lift but, even so, she looked washed out, with deep, dark rings under the eyes. She wasn’t the greatest advert for being a working mum.

The doors pinged open and, turning her back on the accusing mirrors, Charlie strode down the corridor to the incident room. She paused by the door to smooth her hair down, then pushed through it with an energy she didn’t feel. Her late-night stakeout had yielded nothing – Jackson had stayed put all night – and she was paying the price for it this morning. The only consolation – if you could call it that – was that Sanderson had lucked out too.

Charlie headed straight to her desk. As she approached it, however, she slowed her pace, surprised by the sight of two Media Liaison Officers talking to Helen in her office. They only turned up when something important had happened, and looking around the office Charlie noticed that there was something different in everyone’s expression today. They looked optimistic and energized.

Waving Edwards over, she cut to the chase.

‘What’s going on?’

‘Got the DNA samples back this morning.’

‘And?’

‘We got a match. Paul Jackson. He’s the manager at -’

‘Santander in Shirley. I know, I spoke to him yesterday.’

‘There you go then.’

Edwards turned away, but Charlie stopped him.

‘Someone should have called me.’

‘I did, but it rang out. Then I thought I’d tell you when you came in – we were expecting you in a bit earlier.’

‘I got held up,’ Charlie responded tersely. ‘Anyway, what are we waiting for, we should be down there -’

‘It’s under control,’ Edwards replied crisply.

Charlie was already scanning the office. She had a nasty feeling where this was going and wasn’t surprised in the least when Edwards concluded:

‘DS Sanderson has just gone to pick him up.’