DS Jessica Daniel series: Locked In/Vigilante/The Woman in Black - Books 1-3 (23 page)

‘How ya doin’, Jess? This is Ryan,’ said Randall.

‘Hi.’ The two of them shook hands.

‘You’re probably better waiting in the living room,’ Jessica said. ‘Caz is still getting changed and I’m on kitchen duty.’

Jessica returned to the kitchen but soon heard Caroline’s bedroom door open and then the ‘hellos’ from the other room. Her friend then came back into the kitchen. She had
clearly put a lot of effort into her appearance. She was wearing a short low-cut red cocktail dress with heels, even though they were inside, and had her hair tied up away from her face, which was
impressively made-up. She looked adult and sophisticated, leaving Jessica feeling a bit silly in her work outfit. ‘You look great,’ Jessica said.

Caroline gave a half-curtsey. ‘Thanks, do you reckon Randall will like it?’

‘He’d be crazy not to.’

‘Did you say hello to Ryan?’

‘Yes.’

‘What do ya reckon?’

‘Of what?’

Caroline looked sideways at her friend. ‘You know. What do you
reckon
?’

Jessica smiled. ‘He’s okay.’

‘Do you know he’s a vet?’

‘So?’

‘Y’know. Good with his hands, cares for animals, nice guy.’

Jessica ignored the insinuation. ‘When’s tea?’

‘Soon. Go say hello to the boys.’

‘Okay, fine. But let’s open the wine first.’

Jessica went into the living room with her topped-up glass where Randall and Ryan were watching a show on television about American truckers. It wasn’t the kind of programme she would
usually have sat through. Randall was in the reclining seat, giving Jessica little option but to sit next to Ryan on the sofa. She would have to have words with Caroline when they were next alone.
If she and Randall were going to try to fix her up with someone, they should at least try to be less obvious about it.

‘All right?’ she said as she slouched on to the sofa. ‘Tea won’t be long, apparently.’

‘I’ll go see how Caz is getting on,’ Randall said, standing up and heading off to the kitchen.

‘
Be more obvious about it . . .’
Jessica thought but said nothing. She suddenly found the television programme incredibly interesting but noticed Ryan looking at her and
gave him a half-smile.

Ryan was smiling back at her. He really did have a boyish grin. ‘So is it “Jess” or “Jessica”?’

‘Either, I don’t mind.’

‘Okay then, “Jess”, Randy says you work for the police?’

‘Yeah . . . Er, “Randy”?’

‘Ha. Yeah, Randy. It started off as a bit of a joke really but it kind of stuck.’

‘How do you know him?’

‘Just from out and about. Nowhere special.’ There was an awkward pause. ‘He’s a nice guy. He likes your mate a lot.’

‘He better.’

‘I’m not sure he’s really had a girlfriend before.’

‘Really?’

‘Well, I’ve never seen him go around with someone like he does Caroline.’

Another bout of quiet was broken only by the sound of the TV. ‘So . . . police then?’ Ryan tried again.

‘Yes.’

‘What is it you do?’

‘I’m in CID.’

‘Oh, are you . . . ? Oh yeah. You were in the papers, “The Houdini Hunter”.’

Jessica sighed. ‘That bloody headline . . . yeah, something like that.’

‘That’s pretty cool. You’re famous.’

‘Not really.’

Ryan’s small talk was beginning to break through Jessica’s apathy. It wasn’t that she didn’t think he was good-looking, she just wasn’t interested in having a
boyfriend or anything like that. She didn’t like the fact Caroline and Randall had more or less forced her into the situation either. As for the actual talk, she didn’t make a habit of
chatting to anyone about her job but there was something about Ryan; he was persistent at least.

Jessica could barely believe she was saying the words. ‘I hear you’re a vet.’

She didn’t even really like animals and had never been impressed by what people’s jobs were. In the course of being a police officer, she had come across despicable people with
terrific professions and lovely people who earned terrible money doing jobs most others wouldn’t even think twice about taking. You learned to judge people on their actions, not their wealth,
name or occupation.

‘I work at a practice in the centre. I only passed out a few months ago and was lucky to get a job so quickly.’

‘So you like animals then . . . ?’

‘Yeah, it kinda comes with the job.’ They both laughed but Jessica knew it was a stupid question. She would have been embarrassed if she had asked something so silly in an interview
room. There she felt natural but trying to talk to someone normal felt alien.

‘How long have you been with the police?’ he asked.

‘Seven or eight years. Two and a bit in uniform, two training as a detective, then three or so since then.’

‘Do you enjoy it?’

‘I don’t know. Sometimes.’ Jessica felt vulnerable admitting that. A chill went down her back. She did enjoy it, of course. She enjoyed the wins, the results, the convictions.
She didn’t enjoy the inertia and frustration, the acquittals and failures. She wasn’t having fun at the moment.

She could feel Ryan looking at her, almost analysing her discomfort. It was broken by Caroline’s voice from the kitchen. ‘Tea’s up.’

The dining table was fairly small for four of them but the meal was fabulous. It certainly made a change from Jessica’s usual diet of takeaways and microwaved food. The first course was
some type of potato balls with a tomato sauce. The main course was a fish and rice dish, while dessert was a fully homemade cheesecake. It was a truly terrific effort. They all thanked Caroline for
her work and Jessica volunteered to do the dishes. It wasn’t something she would usually do but, seeing as her friend had put so much energy into the evening, whereas she had simply come home
and been a bit grumpy, it was the least she could do.

Caroline and Randall went to relax in the living room. Jessica had now taken to calling her friend’s boyfriend ‘Randy’ now she knew about the nickname. The poor guy seemed a
little embarrassed but it was all in good humour.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Ryan hung around in the kitchen to help out too. She found herself not minding. ‘Your mate can’t half cook,’ Ryan said.

‘Yup, she’s always been a top chef.’

‘Can you?’

‘Cook? Yeah. Beans on toast or pot noodle and there’s no one better.’ She gave Ryan a grin. At some point during the evening another button on his shirt had come undone,
possibly deliberately. Maybe it was the wine but Jessica seemed to think his chest hair had grown during the evening. His chin stubble certainly seemed to have done. His eyes were dark and
friendly.

Jessica washed the dishes, while Ryan dried before they realised they hadn’t thought it through, seeing as the guest didn’t know where anything went. Given her lack of skill in the
kitchen, Jessica was fully aware that she wasn’t entirely sure where all the pots went either – but she at least had a better chance of getting it right than Ryan did.

They made more small talk and giggled to each other. Jessica finished another glass of wine and opened a further bottle from the selection they kept under the sink. ‘Emergency
alcohol’ they called it. As they finished, Jessica took the bottle and went into the living room with Ryan. Randall was still sitting in the recliner, with Caroline cuddled across his lap,
her short dress riding around her thighs. Jessica refilled her friend’s glass and went to sit on the sofa next to Ryan. She wasn’t complaining this time.

‘You’re getting on well, then?’ Caroline suggested with a twinkle in her eye. Jessica and Ryan looked at each other and giggled but neither answered.

‘We’re going to go to bed,’ Caroline said. ‘Thanks for the company this evening.’ She climbed off her boyfriend’s lap and helped haul him to his feet.
‘See you tomorrow, Jess. Have a
fun
night.’ As she went to leave the room, she leant over and kissed her friend on the forehead, before departing hand in hand with Randall.

Jessica fumbled for the remote and turned the television on. Her late-night talk-show rerun was just beginning.

‘Ha, you watch this too?’ Ryan said.

‘Not really.’

‘Me neither.’

They both laughed and Jessica edged closer to their guest on the sofa. ‘So do you reckon he’s the father?’ Ryan asked.

Jessica smiled. ‘Course he is.’

They joked and enjoyed the show together but Jessica spent more and more time watching Ryan. He had a little crinkle around the corner of his eye when he smiled and he seemed to smile a lot.

The show reached its final advert break and Ryan turned to look at her. ‘I’m going to have to go, the last bus goes soon. I could get a taxi I suppose . . .’

Jessica didn’t let him finish the sentence. She leant forwards and kissed him. It was gentle at first but he kissed her back strongly and she let him. It felt good. Before she knew what
she was doing, she had her hand inside his shirt on his chest. He tried to push her back onto the sofa but she stopped him, pulling away from the embrace. He looked a little confused for a moment
but, as Jessica got to her feet, she made it clear why she was stopping. She held out her hand and led him to her bedroom.

Jessica slept well, thoughts of faltering investigations and dead ends as far from her mind as they had been in weeks. She woke in the early hours but it was nice to have
someone next to her. She didn’t make a habit of inviting strangers, or anyone for that matter, into her bed but she’d had a great evening. She closed her eyes and let herself drift back
to sleep. It only seemed moments later but she awoke with a start. She opened her eyes as the light poured through the still too thin curtains.

She was alone on the bed.

‘Ryan?’

She didn’t say it very loudly but he clearly wasn’t in the room. She opened her eyes fully and figured she would find out if he was still in the flat. She picked up a large jumper
from the floor and put it on over the nightie she didn’t remember putting on the previous night. It was a little chilly. She opened her bedroom door and walked out into the hallway before
first checking the empty kitchen. She couldn’t hear any voices but headed for the living room anyway.

As she opened the door she saw Ryan sitting on the sofa in his boxer shorts reading Yvonne Christensen’s police file.

‘What the fuck do you think you’re doing?’

Ryan’s head spun around and he dropped the file onto his lap, where the second file, Martin Prince’s, lay. ‘Jess. Sorry. I . . . they were on the table, I was
curious.’

‘What gives you the right? Do you get your kicks from this kind of stuff? From seeing dead bodies?’

‘No, sorry, I just wondered what they were.’

Ryan stood and dropped the files onto the coffee table but Jessica’s raised voice had obviously stirred Randall and Caroline. Caroline might normally have slept through the noise but
Randall must have heard it. The two of them came into the living room, Caroline wearing an unfastened dressing gown which looked as if she had hastily grabbed it. Randall was just behind, clearly
half-asleep and wearing just a pair of boxer shorts.

‘What’s happening?’ Caroline started speaking but Jessica was still glaring at Ryan and cut her off.

‘Get out now. You’re lucky I don’t arrest you.’

Jessica didn’t know what she would have arrested him for but was annoyed at herself as much as anything. Taking the files out of the station could be a disciplinary matter, especially if
you were as careless with them as she had been.

Ryan quickly moved past Jessica, Caroline and Randall. ‘Sorry . . . I’ll just get dressed.’

Jessica picked the files up from the table and started looking through them, making sure everything was still there. As well as the private information the police had on the victims and their
families, there were photographs of the crime scenes and details of the interviews they had done. The link to Wayne Lapham was clear in both files. Most details were kept on the central computer
system but, with the bigger cases, they still used hard copies.

‘What did he do?’ Caroline asked.

Jessica ignored the question, spitting a reply at her friend: ‘And what did you think you were trying to pull last night? I told you I wasn’t interested in meeting anyone.’

Caroline was clearly taken aback by the venom in Jessica’s tone. ‘Sorry, I just thought . . .’

‘Well, don’t.’ Jessica stormed past the two of them, files in her hand, back into her room where Ryan was only half-dressed, still looking for his shirt.

‘Get
out
.’

‘Sorry, I’m going, I’m going.’

Ryan finally found his shirt and snatched it from the floor before leaving the room with a final ‘sorry’. Jessica slammed the door behind him.

Her mood hadn’t cooled by the end of the day. She had deliberately stayed at the station after hours and gone to the pub with a few of the other officers. She knew she
wasn’t great company and didn’t even have the willpower to take the mickey out of Rowlands. The talk of the station that day was that the new girl had dumped him. That news had cheered
her up a small amount but she was still in a bad mood.

She was annoyed at herself more than anything, aggravated she had let her guard down and not sent Ryan packing in his taxi last night; she didn’t even know his last name. Jessica wondered
if she had overreacted. At first, she thought it could be true he had just picked up the files out of curiosity but then she remembered she had left them underneath her bag on the floor, not on the
coffee table. He had gone out of his way to look through them.

The only thing she did regret was the way she had spoken to her friend that morning; Caroline was only trying to cheer her up and hadn’t done anything wrong aside from some clumsy
matchmaking. Jessica was an adult and made her own decisions. She had certainly made the choice to let Ryan stay the night. It wasn’t Caroline’s fault but the worst thing was Jessica
knew she was too stubborn to say sorry. As usual, she would wait for Caroline to apologise and then make a big deal over accepting it.

When she got home that evening, the flat was empty with a note on the coffee table that just said: