Chapter 1:
Rachel ran into the briefing room, 10minutes late - as usual. She looked away from prying eyes such as Kevin, and ignored the glare Godzilla was giving her.
She couldn't think of anything today, today was too special to her, too important, and filled with too many memories.
She remembered this day - 5 years ago, a friend, who was only 13 at the time, her brother was 10. Their mom had done exactly what Rachel's had done - ran off without looking back.
Rachel was the FLO for this family, their dad was killed in a car crash after he was being chased by some drunken twats with the IQs of a pork pie, how devastated that family had been - not only with the bereavement of the dad, but the fact only 2 weeks after his death, the mother had done a runner because she 'couldn't cope'.
This poor girl, she had no life from then on! Losing both her parents in the space of a month, and although she lived with her Nan, she was still responsible for her brother - so mothered him, like theirs hadn't.
Rachel's daydream was snatched from her was she could hear Gill scream at her. She could tell she was worried about her, but she had to keep the team focused on today's murder.
Gill spoke 'Blond woman,52, quite short found dead in her home quarter past five this morning, neighbor Just came back from night shift and saw the door was open - he called upstairs, looked around and with no reply rang us'
'Has she been identified?' Asked Mitch, busy making notes on what was jotted on the board.
Gill replied 'CSI's are looking around the house for any personal items that could help, but not at the moment' at that moment Andy's phone rang, he jumped up and walked out the room to answer his call.
He walked back in a few minutes later and said, 'the woman has been identified, we will need a family member to make a formal ID but they're confident our victim is Nora Jones'
Rachel's head shot up. She had been slumped over her notepad until now - but she was fully alert. That name rang a bell, where had she heard that before? Was it someone she knew? No, it couldn't be - or could it? Was her mind just playing tricks on her - she hadn't got a great night sleep last night - Sean's little boy had been staying over, Haydn. He kept coming in in the night because he was having nightmares. She thought nothing of it, until later...
Janet looked at her face - she knew something was wrong she couldn't ask her though, not whilst Gill was still explaining the format of what was going to happen.
Half an hour later, after everyone had been assigned their jobs and went off to collect CCTV and witness statements, it was Janet and Rachel's job to deliver the death message.
On any normal day Rachel hated this, but today it was made worse by the flashbacks that kept coming back from 5 years ago, that poor little girl, whose life had been changed forever, and she was forced to forget about her childhood and grow up to be responsible for her brother.
The car journey was silent, Rachel busy with her thoughts and Janet listening to Heart FM. After what seemed like ages Janet spoke; 'are you ok? You don't seem yourself today'
Rachel lied and said she was fine, but deep down she really wasn't, and Janet knew it.
They pulled up outside the block of flats, it was quite modern, they looked well looked after and the area didn't seem that rough. They went up onto the third floor, and found the door numbered 20. They paused for a brief second, before knocking on the door. There was no reply, so after a couple of minutes they tried again.
'Alright I'm coming!' A small voice from the other side of the door called back.
Rachel and Janet looked at each other.
The door began to open and Rachel did the usual; 'I'm DC Bailey and this is DC Scott, Manchester Metropolitan Police Major Incident Team...' She trailed off as she saw who had opened the door
No way, this couldn't be happening - not her, not today, of all the days not today...