“Do you want to go and see him?”
“No, I bloody don’t. I’ve given more than enough of my time, and I don’t think Travis will agree to traipsing up to Leeds again, so get yourself or Barolli there.”
“Yes, Gov, but you don’t want us to delve into any more cold cases, do you?”
Langton hesitated and then shook his head. “You’ve got two more weeks, Mike, and then I’ll have to review the whole inquiry. Get me a result or I’ll have to pull it.”
The following day, they still had nothing definite from the Polish marriage date, and the mound of receipts and contracts for Swell Blinds were still taking up hours of calls. Mike Lewis put the pressure on to try and get the team to bring in anyone who had known Anika and Estelle, returning to the restaurant and interviewing Katia and her boyfriend again. It seemed unbelievable that two young and attractive girls could just disappear and end up murdered without anyone knowing anything about them. Mike also put more pressure on to try and bring in the anonymous caller who had tipped off the Crimewatch program.
On Friday it felt as if the entire case had ground to a halt. Mike gave a briefing to warn the team about Langton’s threat. They had by now lost four clerical workers, and Joan and Barbara were forced into handling the Swell Blinds contract inquiries on their own. The Polish translator was still at work, but she would also be withdrawn soon.
Anna had never known a case that seemed to drag down everyone involved. She just hoped they would not have to work on Saturday.
Mike asked for Barolli and two officers to continue overseeing the incident room during the weekend. Anna kept her gaze down, not wanting to make eye contact with Mike. When he came over to her desk, she thought he was going to ask her to be on duty.
“Langton wants another visit to Cameron Welsh,” he said. “I know you won’t want to go, so—”
“I don’t mind as long as it’s next week.”
He looked surprised. “I’ll get it organized, then. Thank you.”
She watched him head back to his office; poor Mike looked really worn out. Yet even though she knew the pressure was on, she couldn’t wait to leave. She had never in her entire career had something more important on her mind than her investigation. Previously, she would have happily volunteered to work over the weekend.
But now Anna did another evening of housework, put fresh sheets on her bed and flowers on the dining table, and finished all her ironing. She never gave a thought to work. On the contrary, she was up early on Saturday washing her hair, choosing what to wear, and checking out theater productions. Shortly after twelve, she heard Ken’s motorbike from her balcony, where she’d been looking out for him. She hurried down to open the garage so he could park his bike by her Mini. Ken was wearing his thick bike leathers, and Anna offered to carry his helmet.
“I was going to bring one for you in case we felt like a ride tomorrow,” he said.
Anna paused on the stairs, noticing his overnight bag. “Are you staying at your sister’s?”
He smiled and caught her hand. “I can, but I haven’t arranged anything with her.”
Her heart jumped; it had been racing from the moment she had seen him draw up on his bike.
Once in her flat, Anna helped him off with his jacket and took his overnight bag into the bedroom. “Would you like a tea or coffee?” she asked.
“I’m gasping for a glass of water. I didn’t stop, came straight from my flat to here.”
He sat at her breakfast table as she opened the fridge to show she had stocked it with anything she thought he might want. She couldn’t keep still, and he reached out and caught her hand once more.
“Come here and let me look at you, Detective Travis.”
She went into his arms and rested her head against his shoulder.
“I’ve been thinking of you,” he murmured. “It was hard not to. I was really looking forward to seeing you.”
“Me, too,” she said, looking up at him, and they kissed passionately for the first time. They could hardly keep their hands off each other, and it was only a few moments before they went into her bedroom. She loved the feel of him, the smell of him, and their lovemaking was beyond anything she could have dreamed.
Eventually, they grew hungry. Anna wore a white cotton robe. Ken wore a towel wrapped around his waist as they went to make something to eat. They had a quick meal sitting side by side, constantly touching and kissing, and then couldn’t resist returning to bed.
There was no theater, no attempt to leave her flat; they just made love over and over again. They slept wound around each other, and when they woke up they returned to the kitchen to make steak and salad. Anna opened a bottle of wine. They lay beside each other, and it wasn’t until late at night that they talked about what they should do the following day. They thought about a movie, and Ken suggested they drive to Ham Park at Hampton Court Palace, where they could hire a motorboat to go up the Thames.
“I take my nephews there a lot when I’m down to see Lizzie. We can get all the way up the river, as far as Waterloo, or go the other way, Twickenham, Teddington...”
“I’d like that.”
Sunday was beautiful, and when Anna drew back the curtains, the sun streamed into the bedroom. Ken lay on his stomach, still deeply asleep, as she went into the kitchen to brew up coffee. She had bought bagels and cream cheese with smoked salmon. As she prepared the tray, her mobile rang; she hesitated and then ignored it. She was not going to allow anything to interrupt her day.
Anna drove them to Ham and, as Ken had suggested, left the car at Hampton Court Palace. They walked hand in hand across the bridge and down to a small dock with motorboats for hire. They were not exactly high-powered; they more or less putt-putted along. Ken steered for a while until she took over. She was enjoying herself more than she could remember. He sat beside her with his arm loosely around her shoulders.
The round trip took over an hour and a half, and they then walked back across Hampton Court Bridge to have a hamburger and fries at Blubeckers restaurant. Ken had a beer, Anna had a glass of wine with her hamburger, and then she ordered a chocolate ice cream that they shared.
“How’s your case going?” he asked.
“It isn’t. We seem to be going nowhere, and I maybe have to pay another visit to Cameron Welsh. It’s not as if I’d ever want to set eyes on him again, but it would mean that I could maybe stay over, see your flat, or even stay at your parents’ again.”
“That’s terrific! And you’ll stay with me — I’ll make sure I’m off duty. Do you know what day?”
“Maybe midweek, but it’s not been arranged yet.”
“He’s been up to his old tricks, by the way.”
“Who — Welsh?”
“Yes, he’s a real pain in the butt. He accused one of the other inmates of eating his lentil soup, then it was someone had taken his hair gel. He had a hissy fit about anything and everything, and he can get the other inmates to flare up by making nasty snide remarks under his breath, so we had a lot of tension to deal with.”
“I wouldn’t normally have agreed to see him again, but if it means having time with you, then I will have to deal with it.”
“Has he been of any use at all, or is he just wanking around?”
She laughed and then thought about it. “Trouble is, my boss thinks he’s said some very informative things that he reckons have helped our inquiry. I don’t agree, but the fact is, he comes up with stuff that we are already checking out, so I suppose that shows he is on the ball.”
“Like what?”
“The last time we were there, he said we should concentrate on a victim called Margaret Potts. He kept on and on about there being a witness.”
“Witness to what?”
Anna explained briefly the situation with their case, concluding, “So, Margaret Potts is the odd one out, in that she had no Polish connection, unless...”
“Unless what?”
“Unless she saw the killer or knew him. The other girls were young and attractive, unlike her. She was a hardened prostitute.”
“But why the interest in Welsh?”
“Because he has contacted the incident room, especially me, and keeps on implying that he has information.”
“Could he have?”
“I doubt it. He’s been in prison for the time the murders were committed. There was a possibility that he talked to another prisoner who may have been released, and that was why he kept on with saying that he knew something... but we’ve run checks as far as is possible and come up with nothing. Next, he says he can get into the mind of the killer, being one himself; it’s all really tedious, because he’s such a loathsome creature, but we have to deal with it just in case.”
Ken ordered two cappuccinos and said that he would be glad when he’d done his time at the jail, as sometimes it felt as if he, too, were a prisoner.
“You know something I can never understand?” he added. “You have these animals like Fred West — how many young girls did he murder? — and yet they just disappeared without a trace, one after the other, even his own daughter.”
“That’s what is really difficult with our case. Fred West’s victims were girls who wouldn’t be missed — well, most of them. They went to his house of their own accord. It was as if he could pick out the ones no one would care about or report missing. We, by contrast, have two beautiful girls, and yet we can find no one who noticed their absence, no one who cared enough about them to report them missing. Even if they were, as we suspect, coming into the UK without the proper paperwork, it’s hard to believe they could be picked up and murdered.”
“You think they knew their killer?”
“We’re trying to find some kind of link.”
Ken signaled for the waitress to get the bill, and Anna leaned forward to touch his hand. “I’m sorry, we shouldn’t have gotten into my work.”
“Yes, we should. I’m going to have to if we see each other, just like I can have a good moan to you about my job. I didn’t want to interrupt you talking, it’s just that I’ll have to ride back tonight, as I’m on early call tomorrow morning.”
“What time will you have to leave?”
He leaned over to kiss her and grinned. “Got a couple more hours yet.”