The Right to Remain Silent

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.

He had previous form and was keen not to go to prison and wanted to cut a deal, so he had given them some details regarding some stolen antiques he'd been offered that morning. Sarah wasn't about to cut the slimeball any slack but then she heard about Abi's case through the police grapevine, made the connection and called her.

'I still don't really want to do the bloke any favours -- if it wasn't for people like him helping to distribute stolen property the people committing burglaries would find their lives much tougher, but if it turns out the cases are related and it helps you out then I might reconsider.'

'Do you know who brought the stuff to him?'

'No not yet, that's the condition of the deal. We cut him some slack for "cooperating" and he gives us the details. I wanted to make sure that the stuff is related to your case before I agreed.

On a different note, are you going to be working late tonight? If not I thought we might go out somewhere?'

'That would be nice but I'll have to come back to you later Babe.'

Abi arranged for Alice to come and identify the antiques they had recovered and she confirmed that all of the stuff had come from her house.

There were at least a dozen items; some small including a silver cigarette case and an old ships sextant but some were much larger items of furniture, meaning they must have been removed in a van.

'How much is this lot worth Alice?' enquired Abi, assuming that as a considerable amount of risk had been taking to get the items, so they must be worth a few quid.

'Surprisingly little' came the tired response. 'I mean the whole lot is probably worth about £3200, but considering the things they could have taken from the house, that's not a lot at all.'

'Is your house alarmed?'

'Yes. Well normally it is. I've had problems with it recently -- it keeps going off at strange times so I had to disconnect it, the alarm company are due to come out tomorrow to fix it.'

'Did Chrissie have any problems with her alarm recently?'

'Not that I know of.'

'Alice -- did you know that Chrissie was ill?' Alice looked up in alarm at the thought of her lover being unwell, then just sad as she realised she was no longer ill -- she was dead.

'No, I didn't know she was Ill, what was wrong with her? Like I said before, we didn't really have a relationship as such. There were a lot of things about Chrissie I didn't know.

I do know that she was very wealthy. I don't know just how much money she has but when I mentioned that business had been slow recently and that I was struggling with short term cash flow problems, she wrote me a cheque out on the spot for £500,000! I don't know many people who would just offer to lend someone half a million quid!'

Abi called Dave Wallace and filled him in on the details, giving him Sarah's number so he could arrange the interview with the fence.

She also told him that she was calling it a night as there wasn't much else she could do before they got some more information.

Walking into her front door just after 7pm she called Sarah's name, expecting her to be there but on getting no reply she called her mobile number.

'Hey you, you still working?'

'No Sweetie, I'm at home.'

'No your not, I'm at home and you're not here.'

'Abi -- I'm at MY home. I do still have my own flat you know!' and Sarah laughed at Abi's assumption that she would be at her house.

'Oh yeah, I'm sorry, I just thought.....'

'Get your arse over here girl and I'll make dinner reservations. You sound like you need spoiling and I think I'm just the woman to do it.' And with that Sarah hung up, leaving Abi staring at the phone with a huge grin on her face.

Abi arrived at Sarah's flat within 30 minutes having grabbed a quick shower before leaving. Her short, dark, slightly curly hair still damp as she ran up the stairs to the front door, knocking loudly so Sarah could hear her over the music that was filtering out into the hall from the flat.

'Oh, it's you!' exclaimed Sarah happily as she opened the door and pulled Abi inside before planting her lips on hers.

'Who else were you expecting?' queried Abi cautiously. Sarah was an extremely open, loving and giving person and Abi still hadn't gotten used to how lucky she felt to have her in her life.

'No-one silly! I was just surprised that you got here so quickly and I thought you'd have let yourself in!'

Abi was also still coming to terms with how easily Sarah had welcomed her into every aspect of her life, including her run-down flat.

'So, where are we eating? I'm famished!'

They walked the short distance to a gastro-pub around the corner where they ate succulent steaks washed down with good real ale.

Abi tried discussing her case from time to time but Sarah kept cutting her off, finally giving her an ultimatum.

'For goodness sake woman! You're absolutely knackered and desperately in need of some time off, which probably isn't going to happen any time soon, so at least give yourself the evening to be a woman instead of a copper!'

Back at Sarah's flat she poured them each a generous measure of a good single malt and they reclined on the sofa, Sarah laughing at Abi as she pulled a face when finding a half eaten biscuit under a cushion.

'You know when we live together you're going to have to be a whole lot tidier or I'm going to have to have a full frontal lobotomy just so I don't notice what a slovenly bitch you are!'

Sarah sat there stunned. Abi had definitely said "when" we live together!

'And what makes you think we'll live together?' cooed Sarah as she snuggled into Abi's side, sliding her hand up to tangle in the hair at the back of her neck.

'I'm not sure why I said that actually.' Responded Abi, slightly surprised at her own admission 'but would you like to? I mean not now, unless you want to that is? ok, this is getting embarrassing now!'

'Well let me think. We'd see a lot more of each other, we'd get to sleep together every night and wake up next to each other every morning. I think it sounds like a great idea -- when do you want to move in?'

Abi's face was a picture of shock at the idea of moving into Sarah's poky little ex-council flat until she realised that Sarah was joking.

'Don't worry Sweetie, your place is much nicer than mine and there's more wardrobe space! But seriously, yes I'd love to move in with you...if you're sure?'

Abi didn't answer in words, she wasn't sure she could keep her voice steady enough. She was so confident at work but her personal life had always been a different story and she was amazed that she had found someone that she actually wanted to live with, let alone someone that had said yes.

Her tongue slipped into Sarah's mouth and she felt her sigh as Abi's hand slid inside her tee shirt to caress the silky skin on her tummy.

'Shall we take this somewhere more comfortable?' by the time the two women had made it to the bedroom door they were both naked; a trail of clothes from the living room to the bedroom evidence of their lust.

They had just knelt on the bed facing each other, kissing as their breasts pushed against each other and their hands started to glide over soft, smooth skin, when Abi's phone rang from wherever she had discarded her jeans.

She groaned softly, not wanting to take the call but hating the idea of not knowing who was trying to contact her, but Sarah jumped up off the bed, found the phone and switched it off. She then found her own and did the same thing.

'You can get up early to deal with work if you like, but for the next few hours you're mine.'

'Hmmm, I think I could get used to this.'

They lay next to each other as they resumed kissing, softly and sensuously at first until passion took over and turned it into a lust fuelled duel of tongues.

Sarah tried to change position to suck on Abi's nipples but she wasn't about to let her.

'Oh no you don't. I still owe you Babe.' And she lay her body along the length of Sarah's and started kissing and nibbling from her neck downwards.

She adored Sarah's tits. They were mounted on pure muscle, making them stand much firmer than her own and the nipples were a dark pink, almost purple when they were hard and tight and scrunched up as they were now. They were also very sensitive and she loved the noises Sarah made as she sucked on them hard, flicking her tongue over them again and again as they filled with blood, becoming almost painfully hard.

Eventually when Sarah was moaning loudly Abi drifted lower, kissing along her rib cage and across her belly, swirling her tongue into her belly button and kissing across her hips until the smell of Sarah's arousal was driving her insane and she could wait no more.

She lowered herself until she was laying between her outstretched legs and watched as Sarah's excitement seeped from her and oozed down her arse before swiping her tongue across her outer lips and capturing as much of the nectar as she could, an accidental touch on her clit sending her hips rocketing up into the air.

'PLEASE don't tease me sweetie!'

So Abi simultaneously slipped 2 fingers into her waiting pussy as she ran her flattened tongue around and over her clit. Crossing her fingers to increase sensation, she pumped hard and fast and when Sarah was on the very edge she sucked her clit into her mouth hard, sending her screaming into ecstasy.

She knew that Sarah wasn't so easily pleased, so she turned around and lowered her pussy onto Sarah's waiting mouth, her lips and tongue barely stopping their assault as she rotated.

Sarah grabbed Abi's arse and pulled her down roughly until she could spear her sopping hole with her rigid tongue as she rubbed her clit with her thumb.

Soon enough both women were grunting into each other's pussies until finally they collapsed into a tangle of arms and legs, faces covered in sweet, sticky nectar.

Abi awoke feeling rested and more refreshed and grinned as she remembered the conversation they had had about moving in together. She was resting her head on Sarah's chest, listening to her heart beat as she slept, but she couldn't be this close to the woman she had come to love and keep her hands still.

Slowly and gently, trying not to wake her, she started to tease those sensitive nipples until they responded of their own accord. She shifted position slightly until she could take one into her mouth, kissing and licking lightly, conscious of the change in Sarah's breathing as she got turned on in her sleep.

Soon enough temptation got the better of her, so she untangled herself from Sarah's arm, slipped quietly out of bed and used the bathroom before returning to the bed, where Sarah was now massaging her own nipple in her sleep.

Abi climbed gently onto the bottom of the bed in between Sarah's fortunately splayed legs and started to plant butterfly kisses on the short hair just above her mound.

She delicately licked and kissed Sarah's thighs and lips whilst avoiding her clit entirely, wanting to get her as turned on as possible before she awoke, one hand teasing her own now slippery folds as she did so.

She paid careful attention to Sarah's breathing and unconscious movements and when her hips were starting to move of their own volition she knew that she was about to wake and just as she opened her eyes, Abi finally sucked her clit into her mouth, making Sarah groan as she became fully awake.

Once Sarah was fully conscious, her blood fizzing through her veins at the glorious way her lover had woken her, Abi kissed her way back up her body until she was in a position to suck on those distended nipples again, while positioning herself so that she could ride Sarah, their slick pussies mashing together and making them both gasp and moan with every movement.

Sarah was thrusting up to meet Abi, the pressure building until their mutual crescendo left them panting and gasping for air.

'Morning Babe, still want to move in with me?'

'If I get woken up like that every morning - Oh god yes!'