Fatal Witness (Detective Erika Foster #7) (51)

‘She must have gone up to the bathroom,’ said Tess.

‘Okay. I can wait,’ said Erika, peering into the gloom on the kitchen side of the room.

Tess crossed to open the kitchen curtains, and then she was quiet. Erika saw she was standing, very still, frozen to the spot, staring at the floor. The clock ticked in the silence, and a car engine idled on the road outside. The coppery smell suddenly seemed to come to the fore and Erika looked down to see a pair of feet sticking out from behind the large kitchen island.

Tess screamed and Erika rushed over. In the bright morning light, Vicky lay on her back on the kitchen floor with her eyes wide open, staring up at the ceiling. There was a large pool of blood underneath her.

Erika felt the floor drop. Tess was staring down with her eyes wide and her mouth was open now in a silent scream. Erika stepped forward and leant down to feel for a pulse but she knew that Vicky was dead. The pool of blood was wide, covering the pale stone floor, and she could see Vicky had been dead for some time. The blood was dark and shone like a mirror. There was blood over her face and down the front of her blue pyjamas, but Erika couldn’t see any marks or wounds. There was a knock at the front door, making them both jump.

‘No, no, no, no, no…’ Tess was saying, shaking her head.

‘Who is it?’ shouted Erika, taking Tess gently by the hand and steering her away from the body to the sofa.

‘It’s Peterson!’ he shouted from outside.

‘The door’s open,’ said Erika. He came into the room and he saw Erika with Tess on the sofa. Erika tilted her head over towards the kitchen. Peterson walked over and stopped at Vicky’s feet.

‘Can you please call it in? ’ said Erika in a low voice, keeping her eye on Tess, who was looking around the room frantically, not knowing what to do. Peterson reached for his phone, keeping his eyes on Vicky’s body.

‘Tess. Where is Jasper?’ asked Erika gently. Tess frowned and stared at Peterson, standing over the body and talking into his phone.

‘We had an argument. The last thing I said to her was that she had to sleep down here, on the sofa… I knew it would be cold. I was so angry at her.’

‘Tess, where is Jasper, is he asleep?’

‘What? Why are you asking me that? I don’t know.’

‘We need to wake him up and we need to leave the house.’

‘Jasper? He isn’t here,’ replied Tess, hearing the question for the first time. Peterson was by the fireplace, talking on the phone to Lewisham Row control centre, asking for backup and forensics.

‘Is he at the restaurant?’ asked Erika.

‘No… I don’t know. I don’t know where he is. He didn’t come back last night.’

The room felt close and sticky. And the smell of blood and sweat seemed to be permeating Erika’s nose and mouth.

‘Tess, I need you to go upstairs and get dressed. Can you do that for me?’

‘Why?’

‘We need to leave the house so my team can take care of Vicky.’

‘Vicky. She’s dead, isn’t she?’

‘Yes. I’m sorry. Please, Tess can you get ready?’

Tess looked as if she was going to lose it, her bottom lip trembled, and then she nodded. Erika helped her up and over to the stairs.

Peterson came off the phone and a dark silence seemed to descend over the room, punctuated by small creaks and thuds as they heard Tess moving around above. Erika looked around at the room – had any evidence been compromised? There was a bloody shoe print by the back door. She moved closer and saw that it was from a heavy boot.

Vicky lay on her back, staring up at the ceiling with her eyes open. Her lips were slightly parted, and her long dark hair was splayed out, the back soaked with congealing blood. Erika pulled on a pair of latex gloves. Peterson did the same.

‘Watch the blood,’ he said, as Erika moved around to Vicky’s head. She gently took one of her shoulders and lifted the body slightly. Peterson knelt down and peered under.

‘There’s a huge knife sticking out of her back,’ he said. Erika looked underneath and then gently replaced the body. She got up and went to the back door, examining it.

‘There’s no sign that someone broke in. The door is intact.’

‘So is the window,’ said Peterson, skirting around the mirror of blood on the floor and peering out through the window to the yard out back.

‘I should have put her in a safe house. I should have got the Family Liaison to stay with them,’ said Erika, the horror of what had happened washing over her again. ‘I thought staying with her family was a safe option.’

‘There’s no point going down that road, Erika,’ said Peterson, reaching out to touch her arm. ‘You were doing your job. You did a risk assessment. You can’t predict what’s going to happen.’

His phone rang and he answered it. Erika looked around at the kitchen. There was the empty packaging from a ready meal and a dirty plate in the sink.

‘It’s number eight on the end of the short terrace. Yeah, top of the street,’ Peterson was saying. He hung up the phone. ‘Uniform will be here in a minute.’

‘Doesn’t it seem quiet to you upstairs?’ said Erika, noticing that the creaking of Tess moving around had stopped.

She turned away from the body and hurried upstairs. There were two small bedrooms and a bathroom leading off the landing. She found Tess in the bedroom with a window facing the back garden. The bed was unmade, and she was crouching on the carpet in front of the open wardrobe doors. Erika could see inside that there was a small, built-in metal safe, like the type you see in hotels.