AUTHOR'S MESSAGE

Previously on Photo Finish: Katie goes to see Naomi and Emily and tells then that she thinks she is being followed and watched by someone. Naomi gets the shocking news from the police that they think the girl in the picture anonymously sent to Naomi has been found murdered and that they want to call round and see her and Emily in the morning.

CHAPTER FOUR: AN INSPECTOR CALLS

Neither of them had got much sleep that night, despite the knowledge that PC Miller, presumably on explicit instructions from DI Straw, had been outside the house when the two girls had returned late in the evening and had remained there stoically on sentry duty well beyond the early hours of the morning. The comfort of having their very own personal bodyguard on immediate call should International Rescue be required didn't serve to alleviate their very real fears about their safety.

The girls clung onto each other in bed as if they were determined that not even a heavy duty, industrial strength crowbar would suffice to prise them apart. For Emily, this was a show of emotional unity, a resolve that no-one was going to get anywhere near harming her Naomi without them having to deal with her first. All for one and one for all. If you want to take her out, Mr Psycho Killer, you'd better be prepared to take me down as well. The fear she felt grip every muscle in her body wasn't for herself but for Naomi. As for Naomi, who was feeling the pressure of being the inexplicable target for this terror campaign, she was trying to immerse herself in the need to protect Emily from being dragged into something that appeared to be none of her making in order not to think too long about how afraid she was for herself.

They had both hoped that spending an evening with their friends might help them relax a bit more and push their troubles and anxieties to one side for a few hours. Sadly it was not to be, as JJ in particular only compounded their state of nervous agitation by attempting to apply his logical and scientific mind to the conundrum of the mystery killer.

'You have to examine this rationally and with cold, precise logic if you want to get to the bottom of it,' he explained, his animated eyes sparkling with excitement at the prospect of solving the problem presented to him. 'You can't go at it half-cock. There has to be method and reason behind the detection process.

'That's what's the police are there for, JJ,' Lara gently pointed out with a wry smile at Emily and Naomi. 'Just leave it to the professionals. This is no time for your feeble impersonations of Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot.'

'Yes, but it's always the more intelligent amateur sleuth who solves the crimes, never the stupid, bungling policemen. He sees things that they can't; he asks all the important questions that never occur to them, he uses the little grey cells while all the police have to work from is a very limited training programme which takes no account of the complexities of the human condition.'

'And you reckon you can work out who's behind all this, do you, JJ?' Naomi forced an unconvincing smile at JJ. She had always liked the wacky, oddball side of his character but on this occasion his love of scientific facts and the application of rational argument seemed ill-equipped to deal with uncovering the identity of a psychopathic terroriser and killer of young women

'Well, I think I can have a decent stab at it, at least,' he said with more than a hint of cautious optimism in his voice. Lara winced and apologised immediately to Emily and Naomi for her boyfriend's stunning lack of sensitivity.

'Not the best choice of words, JJ. Have you ever thought of taking up counselling? You'd be a natural.'

'Oh! Sorry girls, I wasn't thinking. I mean…..I was thinking but…well, maybe a bit too much, if you see what I mean. I just wanted to help you, that's all…'

'It's okay, JJ,' said Emily kindly, though she gripped Naomi's hand even more tightly as if terrified that if she let go of it, the tall blonde would be plucked out of the room by a giant bloodstained hand and whisked far away from her.

But JJ had got the bit between his teeth now and was on a roll. 'You see, when you're in the kind of trouble that you girls are in, when your lives are being threatened by an unknown psychopathic killer, you need one of two kinds of people to help you out. Either you find a big, strong, fearless sort of guy who will willingly lay down his life to protect you. Or you need the other kind of saviour. You need the small, weak and feeble, nerdy type of guy who's afraid of his own shadow. The kind of guy who couldn't hold off a five year old armed with a water pistol for five seconds but who's ….well, clever, super intelligent, actually. That's where I come in.'

Emily and Naomi began to giggle hysterically, despite their prevailing sense of doom and gloom, and Lara contented herself with shaking her head and rolling her eyes in mock despair at JJ's comical yet wholly accurate description of himself as the world's weediest and most unlikely superhero.

'No, seriously girls, I'm totally confident that, given all the relevant facts of the case, I could arrive at the solution to this mystery killer's identity in….well, less than a week. Without even having to visit the crime scene, talk to all the suspects or put my own life at risk in any way whatsoever.'

'You haven't a snowball's chance in hell, JJ. You're totally off your trolley! Mind you, I've known that from the start. It's one of the things that attracted me to you in the first place, the fact that you come from a completely different planet from the rest of the human race.'

JJ gave a typically nervous little giggle on hearing Lara's backhanded compliment but continued with his bold claim as he was clearly warming to his theme.

'Did you know, for example, that Hercule Poirot once solved an entire crime without even leaving his study? He simply got Captain Hastings to ask the suspects all the questions that he would have wanted to ask and then when Hastings reported back to him with the answers, he leant back in his chair, thought about them for a while….well, maybe a few days or even a week,…..and then worked out the solution to the mystery all on his own without having to leave his flat.'

'So, you see yourself as a modern day Hercule Poirot, do you, JJ?' asked Emily. 'Well, if you're going to do it, can you hurry up please because I don't know how long I can stand the strain of living on my nerves every minute of the day?'

A loud knock at the door just after ten o'clock – the doorbell still wasn't working – announced the much dreaded arrival of the police. Both the girls had been up for hours, mooching around the house, not being able to concentrate on doing any one thing except for anxiously watching the clock hands go round until they reached the appointed hour.

Naomi went to the door and opened it, leaving Emily sitting in the living room, twisting strands of hair around with her nervous fingers. Naomi fully expected to see DI Straw standing on the doorstep and in that respect she wasn't disappointed. Who she most definitely was not expecting to see, and she couldn't conceal her shock and surprise at the sight of her, was DS Blunt standing beside the Detective Inspector. Naomi let out a small but clearly audible gasp upon recognising the policewoman who had given her and Emily such an uncomfortable ten minutes when they were interviewed by the police after Sophia's death last year.

DS Blunt nodded without a smile at Naomi when they were introduced by DI Straw but that apart betrayed no other sign of emotion. Naomi showed them into the house and took them straight through to the living room, inviting them to sit down which they duly did. Emily instantly recognised DS Blunt and they exchanged greetings which it would be an exaggeration to say were warm and friendly.

'Hello, Emily,' said DS Blunt.

'Hi,' said Emily quietly and she fought hard to cover up the feelings of discomfort and apprehension that immediately washed over her at the sight of the formidable detective sergeant. She was fearful that any re-acquaintance with DS Blunt, however short-lived and innocuous, would serve only to bring back painful memories which she was all too desperate to banish right out of her mind.

'I thought it would be a good idea to bring DS Blunt along this morning seeing as she's already met the pair of you before during that tragic business with Sophia Moore,' DI Straw explained to kick off proceedings.

'But we weren't able to help you with your enquiries, were we?' stated Naomi firmly, looking DS Blunt straight in the eyes. 'So why are you here? I mean, surely this has got nothing with that girl killing herself, has it?'

'Well, we don't know that…..yet,' said DI Straw. 'That's why I've asked DS Blunt to join my team on this case. Any knowledge or information she might have about you, Miss Campbell, could be extremely useful to us in helping us to catch this man.'

'So what happened last night with the girl in the picture?' Emily took the first opportunity she could to turn the conversation away from the investigation into Sophia's death and back to the present and Naomi's safety which was her only concern. 'Who is she?'

'Her name is Michelle Read,' said DI Straw. 'She was found last night hidden in the woods only a few hundred yards away from your college. She had been stabbed several times, probably with a very sharp knife. We estimate she had been dead for at least forty-eight hours.'

A stunned silence descended upon the room as Emily and Naomi slowly digested the shocking news delivered in such cold, clinical terms by DI Straw. Naomi closed her eyes and bit her lip hard to stop herself from crying out loud, a fear which Emily was singularly unable to accomplish. The redhead started crying softly and Naomi instinctively reached out for her, took her in arms and hugged her, stroking her back and whispering, 'It's okay, sweetheart, it's okay. Everything's going to be all right.' The blonde either had momentarily forgotten about the presence of the two detectives in the room or more likely didn't give a toss about what they might think of her spontaneous and unashamed display of love and concern for Emily.

'Last night at the police station you both said you didn't recognise the girl in the photograph. Does the name Michelle Read mean anything to you?' asked DS Blunt without revealing so much as a flicker of emotion on her face as she sat watching the two girls slowly pull themselves out of their embrace.

Naomi and Emily both shook their heads and each said they had never heard of the name before.

'You're quite sure neither of you knew this girl?' Blunt persisted gently with her questioning, looking at them both in turn with eyes that were not kind, even if they weren't exactly hard.

'No!' insisted Naomi, who was starting to get fed up with Blunt's apparent reluctance to believe them. 'Why won't you believe us?'

'We're not saying we don't believe you, Miss Campbell,' reassured DI Straw after shooting a quick glance at DS Blunt. 'We just want to be absolutely sure that there is no connection between you and the dead girl, however slight or unimportant. You might have met her occasionally without paying much attention to her and you might have forgotten that fact, that's all.'

'Well I haven't,' stated Naomi with an air of total conviction. 'I've never seen her before in my life, I'll swear to it.'

'Nor me,' added Emily before either of the two detectives could ask the same question of her.

'Well, clearly whoever it was who sent you the photograph and the note seems to know you or at least who you are. So there must be a reason why he, or she, has decided to send you these things. At this stage we must presume that the intention is to scare the living daylights out of you.'

Emily's reaction to DI Straw's summing up of the situation was passionately expressed if a bit too predictable and unhelpful.

'Well, he's doing a fucking good job of that so far! We're both terrified out of our wits!'

'Of course you are, Miss Fitch. Understandably so, and that is why we will be doing everything possible to protect you from now on. But the best way to protect the two of you from any further threats to your lives is to catch this person. That's why I must come back to the question of whether you can think of anyone, anyone at all, who might have a grudge against you, Miss Campbell.'

Naomi waited for a few seconds before answering in the negative with as much conviction as she could muster in the circumstances. Her voice didn't waver and her eyes were steely in their determination to stare down her two inquisitors and return their persistence in kind.

'You see at the moment,' said DS Blunt, trying s different tack to get through to the girls and directing her words and her gaze more at Emily than Naomi 'we've got two different crimes to solve. We've got the killer of a murdered girl to find and we've got to find whoever sent a picture of the same dead girl and a threatening note to Naomi. But we can't say for certain at this stage that it's the same person who did them both.'

Naomi and Emily looked at each other in silence. For a second Naomi thought that Emily was on the verge of saying something and, in a blind panic, she blurted out the first thing that came into her head to prevent Emily from speaking.

'Oh, come on! That's pretty unlikely, isn't it, surely?' Unless you're looking for two people acting together in some weird kind of sick double act!'

'It could be two different people, however unlikely that seems. For now the only connection we have between these two very different crimes is you, Miss Campbell. You may hold the key to helping us solving both of them. That's why we need you to have a good think about it and come back to us immediately if you think of anything at all which may shed some light on this mystery.'

With those parting words, which to Naomi appeared to take on the mantle of both a heartfelt plea and a subliminal warning, the two detectives rose and started to take their leave. Whilst they were being accompanied to the front door, DI Straw reassured a plainly agitated Naomi that a uniformed policeman would be permanently stationed outside the house to protect them

'Obviously I can't make the pair of you stay in the house twenty-four seven, but if you do decide to go out anywhere one of my men will be keeping a very close watch over you, you can be sure of that. Not that I think you'll be in any danger during the daylight and you'll be safely protected in the evenings and at night. Nobody will able to get to you at all, I can promise you that.'

On that cheery and positive note the two coppers left and Naomi almost slammed the door behind them and ensured it was locked before returning to a miserable and terrified looking Emily in the living room. Naomi went over to the redhead and held her tight in her arms. They stood like that for some minutes, each holding on to the other for dear life as if letting go would mean allowing the last breath to be painfully extinguished out of the other's body.

Eventually it was Emily who broke free of their self-imposed stranglehold on each other and pulled back to look up at Naomi with a combination of fear and beseeching in her eyes.

'Please, Naoms, you've got to tell them?'

'Tell them what?'

'Oh, come on, Naoms. I was watching your face last night when the inspector asked us if we knew anyone who might have a reason to hate you. I know what you were thinking. The same thought, the same name was going through your mind as it was mine.

'No.'

'Yes, Naomi! We were both thinking about Matt. He's the only person who would have a reason to hate you this much and want to get back at you.'

'He wouldn't kill an innocent girl just to get back at me, Ems! Don't be ridiculous! If he really was that much of a psycho and wanted to get revenge for Sophia he would just go after me.'

'Not if he wanted to make you suffer first, Not if he wanted to terrify the life out of you for a while before trying to kill you! It all fits, Naoms! It all makes sense. We've got to go to the police and tell them about him.'

Naomi shook her head violently from side to side and without any warning ran out of the room, tore up the stairs and virtually threw herself into the bathroom, locking the door behind her, leaving a distressed Emily. who had followed forlornly in her wake. crying helplessly outside the bathroom door and pleading for Naomi to come out