Abi marvelled at the houses she passed as she drove down Cromby Street, Alice Roberts was obviously doing very well for herself.
She pulled up to number 32 just as DCI Wallace arrived from the other direction and silently thanked Sarah for phoning her an hour earlier to wake her up. She was still tired but then it seemed that she always was these days and she promised herself she would take some time off as soon as this was wrapped up. Maybe she and Sarah could go away together for a few days?
She stood on the pavement and waited as Wallace and Alice Roberts exited the car and walked toward them, noticing how he offered the tired woman a hand from the car. Dave Wallace wasn't a bad bloke really, maybe she should cut him some slack?
Just as Alice was removing her keys from the handbag that had been retrieved from Chrissie's house, 2 unmarked cars full of plain clothed police officers arrived to join them, making Abi realise that Wallace had taken Alice's comments about reputation to heart.
Alice unlocked the door and stepped back as she had been instructed to do, allowing DCI Wallace to enter the property first; the scream came shortly after.
Alice's house had been completely trashed. There was broken furniture and glass all over the floor, every drawer and cupboard had been turned out and there were dents and marks on the walls where objects had been thrown at them with some force.
Fortunately Abi was close behind Alice and was able to catch the distraught woman as the events of the last 12 hours caught up with her and she fell into a dead faint.
After being assessed by a paramedic when she came around, Alice was driven to a friends house nearby while SOCO trawled through the debris looking for anything significant.
Abi and Dave sat outside a nearby pub, drinking coffee and discussing the case. So far they were drawing blanks; all keys to the Pierce house were accounted for and the key holders all had tight alibis, no evidence could be found in the phone box and so far nothing had come from a search of CCTV systems.
'So, what now?' grimaced Abi as she tasted the weak excuse for coffee.
'I guess the natural assumption is that they were both targeted but until we get an idea of what time the Roberts house was ransacked we can't put a timeline on anything.'
'If they were both targets, how come they killed Chrissie and just knocked Alice out?'
Before they could speculate further Dave took a call from the ME, hitting speaker phone so Abi could hear.
'The full report will be on your desk when you get back to the station but I thought you'd want the highlights. There's absolutely no doubt that the hammer was the murder weapon although this wasn't what was used to hit the Roberts woman -- there would have been more damage.
Stomach contents appear to confirm the info you've been given regarding their late super followed by wine.
She had been sexually active shortly before the attack but there's no evidence of sexual assault, in fact it looks like she was struck once from behind with the hammer and then once again as she was falling down. The first blow would've been enough to kill her.
Obviously we've sent samples for toxicology but we won't get the results for a couple of days.
There was one interesting thing though -- she had some old bruises on both wrists. They'd almost faded but if I had to guess I'd say they came from being gripped and restrained forcibly by someone's hands, I'd also guess that someone was a woman or an adolescent from the size of the bruises.'
'Thanks, I'm not sure if that helps us much but I guess it confirms the Roberts story.'
'Hold on DCI Wallace, I'm not done yet. She was suffering from cancer and probably only had about 6 months to live. I'm guessing she knew about it as there were signs of a fairly recent biopsy, however there was no indication that she was undergoing chemo.
They've just delivered the remains of her dog to me; I'll let you know as soon as I have anything.'
Abi sat chewing her nails and thinking back over her interviews with Alice. She hadn't mentioned Chrissie's cancer, but then she may not have known or may have neglected to mention it because of shock. It certainly wouldn't necessarily be obvious if she wasn't having treatment.
She was sure they had missed something so she decided to go back to the station and review the interview tapes while SOCO did their job on the Roberts house.
She hadn't been back at the station for long when her phone rang.
'Hello gorgeous, and how are you today, did you sleep well?'
'Hi Babe. I'm good, thanks for waking me earlier, how's your day going?
'I'm having an excellent day and I'm about to make yours a whole lot better too. We've just made a really sound arrest for that series of high end burglaries we were investigating and one of the little scrotes led us to the fence they were using to get rid of the gear.
The fence is looking to cut a deal so he's just spilled the beans about some antiques he's been offered from a house over on the marina -- ring any bells sweetie?'
'Sarah, you're an absolute diamond, I owe you one girl!'
'You certainly do -- you owe me one from this morning, and I intend to collect. This however you can repay me for by buying me a late lunch. I haven't had time to eat all day and I'm starving, if you come over now I'll fill you in on the details.'
Sarah was just walking into the door to the station as Sarah came through the security door into the reception area.
God she looked fine today. Instead of her usually conservative formal wear, she was wearing a nicely snug pair of faded Levi's, tight white tee shirt and an old black leather jacket and it was all Abi could do to restrain herself from taking her into her arms in the reception area. It was one thing being 'out' in the force but it didn't do to be too obvious about it in the station.
They ambled over to a café across the road where Abi ordered a toasted sandwich and coffee while Sarah had a full English fry up, refusing to speak about the case until she'd wiped up the very last dribble of egg yolk with her toast.
When she had finally finished and Abi was fidgeting in her seat with anticipation, she started to explain recent events.
They had arrested 3 men who had carried out a series of burglaries on very expensive houses in recent weeks. One of the men had inadvertently let the name of their fence slip and a he had been brought in for questioning.
