Doors Without Numbers Read Free Page A

keep Lyn, but he doubted she would have stayed regardless. Lyn and he were too passionate, too head strong. They had acted as catalysts for each other and now he felt too old, too tired for passion. He steered the car onto the slip road towards Folkestone and pushed his foot gently down on the brake pedal. The thoughts in his mind fading as he turned onto the road towards the police station.
    Hammond was annoyed to find that there were no biscuits waiting beside his morning coffee in its usual place on his desk. He signalled to his favourite volunteer worker, Emma, who usually worked at the front desk through the glass screen that divided the offices and pointed with a questioning look. She looked at him equally surprised and gestured that she would come to him. Hammond sat himself on the large swivel chair, grimacing slightly as it groaned in protest. Emma came into the office without knocking.
    “Morning, Inspector. How is the diet going?”
    Hammond looked at her before becoming aware of DS Lois Dunn standing outside the door. “Failed.” He answered curtly, hoping that a conversation on the subject wouldn’t continue but then remembering his missing biscuits smiled shyly.
    Emma leaned her head to one side and sighed. “Typical man” her facial expression said for her and she pointed to the filing cabinet. Following her direction, Hammond got up from his chair and opened the top drawer of the filing cabinet. He found the biscuits lying on top of the printer paper. Emma left him as he opened the packet and pulled out two chocolate digestives with eagerness. He was ravenous already, and it wasn’t even mid morning.
    “Do you want the bad news or the good news?” Ds Dunn strode into the room after Emma’s departure and continued without waiting for an answer.
    “The good news is that the boy with the burns is going to make it. The bad news is CPS reckons there is not enough evidence to prosecute the ones who set the warehouse alight.”
    “What about the witness statement?” Hammond swore with his mouth full of biscuit. This was not good; chances are it would be his neck on the line “Surely they identified the arsonists?”
    Dunn looked at him warily “It has been dismissed as being unreliable. The witness has since admitted that they are short sighted and were not wearing glasses at the time.”
    Hammond had faith in DS Dunn. She had worked with him on and off for two years now and had shown herself to be hardworking and diligent. Hammond would guarantee that if a witness statement was found to be unreliable, it was unlikely to be due to her carelessness.
    “Well, continue to question them, it is still possible that they made out the boys carrying a petrol canister or whatever and perhaps we can match any residue on their clothing. In the meantime, I will speak to the team and come up with alternative enquiries.” Hammond interrupted their thoughts by requesting that she remind him of an important lunch meeting “For Police Business” he had said as an explanation. He wasn’t yet aware of what Harris wanted to talk to him about, but since Harris had been his superior officer twenty years ago, it was still related in some obscure way to work.
    Detective Constable Michael Galvin was waiting for Hammond in the Briefing Room. He was perched on the table discussing the politics of football with Detective Constable Tom Edwards but immediately got up from the table and sat on the chair beside it as Hammond greeted them with a nod. Edwards however, continued to mock with sarcastic comments Galvin’s sporting ideals despite Hammond’s interruption. Hammond slammed the file with the original witness statement onto the table and demanded their full attention. Normally he would have waited, maybe even join in the banter between them but he was hungry and tired from his mornings flirt with a fitness regime.
    Galvin looked at Hammond with a raised eyebrow questioning the aggressive placement of the file, and then