Fatal Witness (Detective Erika Foster #7) (27)

‘I think they’re asleep,’ said Fiona, rolling her tongue around her mouth. The downstairs room was a kitchen and living room combined, and the low ceiling gave the room a poky feel, despite its size. Fiona had a sleeping bag on the sofa, there was a steaming cup of cocoa on the coffee table, and an episode of NCIS: Miami was just beginning on the TV with the sound down low.

‘I need you to go and wake them up, please.’

Fiona nodded and went off up the stairs. Erika heard the creak of floorboards above, and she moved across to the kitchen. It was what she would term a ‘posh’ kitchen, with an Aga, lots of rustic wooden furniture, and copper pans hanging from the ceiling. The window looked out onto a small paved yard with an ancient-looking tree, its bare branches moving in the wind. Erika noticed above the Aga there was a long magnetic strip with a row of lethal-looking knives.

A tall, lean man came down the stairs, followed by Tess and Fiona. The man wore a thin blue T-shirt and football shorts, which emphasised his muscular physique, and he had black hair cropped very short. One of his arms was awash with a sleeve of coloured swirled tattoos, and his wrists and fingers were heavy with silver bracelets and rings. Tess’s short black hair was on end, and she wore a dressing gown similar to Fiona’s.

‘Hello, sorry to call on you so late. Are you Jasper?’ Erika asked.

‘Yeah,’ he said, rubbing at his bloodshot eyes. Tess held the collar of her dressing gown tight to her neck.

‘Is everything all right?’ she asked. ‘Are you here to ask that I formally identify Vicky?’

‘No,’ said Erika. There was an awkward pause. Tess turned to Fiona.

‘I don’t know what’s going on,’ Fiona said, folding her arms.

‘Please, can you both sit down…’ Erika said.

‘Just tell me now, I don’t like this,’ said Tess, as she and Jasper went to the sofa and sat on top of the sleeping bag. Fiona eyed them for a moment, and then went to perch on the edge of an armchair.

‘I’m very sorry to tell you that the body that you found in the flat at Honeycomb Court is not Vicky,’ said Erika.

‘What? What do you mean?’ asked Tess. ‘That was Vicky.’

‘I’m afraid it wasn’t.’

‘But, I saw her, lying there.’

Jasper stared, with his mouth slightly open. Erika explained what Isaac had discovered during the post-mortem.

‘This is a fucking joke,’ said Jasper. ‘Isn’t it your job, as the bloody police, not to make these mistakes?’ he cried.

‘I’m very sorry. Your wife identified—’

‘No, no, no,’ he said, standing up and waggling his finger at Erika. ‘Don’t you blame my wife. This is typical of the bloody authorities…’

Erika looked at him and wondered exactly how this was typical. Did Tess have another sibling who’d been wrongly identified as a murder victim? She bit her lip.

‘I can only apologise. In our defence, the woman shares similar features with Vicky,’ she said. There was a long silence.

‘If that wasn’t Vicky… then who was it? That poor woman?’ asked Tess, putting her hands to her face, reliving what she’d seen.

‘I can’t comment on that yet,’ said Erika after a pause. ‘I’ve come to you straight from the results of the post-mortem.’

She could see the incredulous looks on their faces.

‘Vicky’s not dead? She’s alive?’ said Tess.

‘We’re now classing Vicky as a missing person.’

‘Missing. Have you tried tracking her phone? What about her credit cards?’ asked Tess, standing up. She moved to the kitchen and grabbed her phone, which was charging on the counter, and dialled a number. There was a moment of silence as they all watched her make the call. ‘It’s gone straight to voicemail… Vicky, it’s Tess. Where are you? Please can you call me as soon as you get this message!’ She ended the call and didn’t seem to know what to do next. She replaced the phone on its charger. ‘What are you doing about this? You’re just standing there looking at me!’

‘We’re reacting to this as fast as we can—’ started Erika.

‘Oh, well, that’s good to hear,’ said Jasper, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

‘Sir. Vicky is now a missing person, and we’ll be opening a missing persons case.’

‘And when are you planning to do that?’

‘That’s happening as we speak,’ said Erika. He shook his head and then saw Tess had started to cry. He got up and went to put his arm around her, but she swerved out from under it and crossed back to the kitchen, where she tore off a piece of kitchen towel and wiped her eyes.

‘It would really help us if you could make a list of people who Vicky knew – knows,’ said Erika. ‘Friends, work colleagues, anyone else you can think of. Was she close to anyone who worked at your restaurant?’

‘No. Vicky isn’t popular at work, due to her habit of not showing up for shifts,’ said Jasper.

‘Don’t…’ started Tess, fixing him with a hard stare.

‘Don’t. Don’t what? Speak ill of the dead? She’s not dead now, is she?’ Jasper seemed to realise that they weren’t alone, and took a deep breath. ‘I’ve always tried to help Vicky with the life she’s chosen as a sometime actress.’