Faithfully: Chase & Halshaw #1 Read Free

and stretched. Chase
found himself staring at her tanned midriff, her trim navel, the neat roll of
flesh above the waistband of her jeans. He swallowed hard and looked away
quickly.
    “Didn’t you say something about a taxi,” prompted her Mum.
    “Oh yes,” sighed Amy. “I broke a heel on the way back from
the tube station, and this taxi driver gave me a lift home.”
    “Why didn’t you drive to work?” asked Anna, sharply.
    Amy turned to her mother. “I told you, Mum. Because of the
gas main works on Cardigan Road. It takes over an hour to drive during rush
hour, and it’s only three stops on the tube.”
    “But you were working late!”
    “I didn’t know I was going to be working late, did I?
Monday’s my gym night, don’t forget.” She sighed. “Look, Mum. I had to go through
my presentation for today with Bryn. But he got caught up in an emergency with
the website, and it was gone five before we even started. Then he wanted me to
make a whole load of changes, of course.”
    “But...”
    “Before you give me the lecture, Mum, it was wet and dark,
and I could barely walk after my stupid shoe broke. I made a note of the
cabbie’s license number, and I gave him the wrong address.” She turned back to
Chase. “I’m not completely stupid, you know.”
    “I’m sure you’re not,” he replied. “Now then. You gave a
statement to my Sergeant last night. Anything you want to add or change? Now
you’ve had a chance to sleep on it, I mean.”
    “No. Nothing. Sorry.”
    “That’s all right. What about you, Mrs Birkdale?”
    Anna shook her head. “But I don’t understand,” she blurted.
“Surely you can trace these people from the DNA in their... what they left
behind?”
    “We might be able to do that, it’s true. If it was their own
excrement, that is.”
    “Their own... how do you mean, Inspector?”
    “It was canine excrement, Madam.”
     

4
    “Penny for ‘em, Ken,” said Chase.
    Detective Sergeant Thomas tore his eyes away from the front
door of 10, Chalfont Parade, and looked across at his passenger.
    “I just don’t get it,” he continued. “Amy Birkdale’s bedroom
is at the front of the building. So the burglars would have been in full view
of the street if they’d climbed up outside. Yet nobody saw them. Why?”
    “Amy said it was very quiet that evening,” Chase said.
“No-one much about.”
    “Well, it was pouring with rain.”
    “True,” mused Chase. “Was there any sign of a forced entry?”
    “No. But she’d left a vent window open in her bedroom. They
must have been able to reach in and unlatch the main window.”
    “Unless they had a door key, of course.”
    “That’s a possibility,” replied Thomas, in a voice that implied
the exact opposite.
    “So no-one saw anything?”
    “No. But she claimed she’d heard footsteps, just before she
broke her heel. Perhaps she heard the burglars running away or something.”
    “Maybe. Or perhaps something just spooked her. A cat,
perhaps. Or a fox. It happens to us all sometimes.”
    “Mmm. Perhaps,” said Thomas, uncertainly. “I’d like to get
hold of that cabbie, the one who took her home. Maybe he saw something.”
    “Didn’t Amy say she’d made a note of his license number?”
    “Yes, she did. A mental note. But of course she forgot all
about it when she discovered the break-in. We’re still trying to trace him.”
    “Quite understandable, I suppose.” Chase thought for a
moment. “Does she have a burglar alarm? I didn’t notice one.”
    “Yes, she does. But she hadn’t switched it on. She leaves it
off unless she’s away overnight, she said in her statement.”
    “Would the burglar have known that?”
    “How could they?” retorted Thomas.
    Chase said nothing.
    “Time for one last drive around? Maybe chummy will be out
and about tonight. You never know.”
    “All right, Ken,” sighed Chase. “Let’s go.”
    Ken Thomas started the engine and nosed the unmarked Mondeo
away from the kerb. He