Big thank you's to Serenbex, MelBell, Guest and HMbookqueen for your lovely reviews. Keep 'em comin'! ;)
And to MelBell, I want to say a MASSIVE thank you for your super sweet review! It means so much to read them and see your opinions so it's much appreciated.
Oh by the way, HMbookqueen, there will be a slanging match between Max and Harriet but it won't be for quite a while yet. But there's an interesting turn of events for Harriet and Max before that. ;)
Enjoy! :)
The CCTV tapes didn't help push the case further on. Harriet had spent the majority of the afternoon watching tape after tape to no avail. She hoped the door-to-door might have brought something to their attention but when Callum returned later that afternoon he revealed that they'd only managed to get a description of the attackers clothing and a height presumption.
"Well we can rule out all the small men of Canley, then," Harriet muttered bitterly when Callum informed her that the attacker was around six foot. "That makes things so much easier."
"Does he pop up on CCTV?"
"Nope. He's good at this, alarmingly. He avoids the cameras like the plague."
"I better go and tell the DCI the good news, I suppose." Callum stood up and headed away towards CID. Harriet closed her eyes and sighed. She was sure they were missing something that, if they took a step back, would be screaming at them in neon lights. Shaking her head, she ejected the CCTV disk from the player and returned it to the plastic case it came in.
"Sarge?" Harriet turned and frowned at Beth who was stood in the doorway. "There's a Caroline Lowery at the front desk. She asked for Sergeant Stone but I can't find him so I figured you'd be the next best thing."
"Hang on, Lowery?" Harriet furrowed her brow. "I know that name… She's Lauren Peters neighbour. What the hell's she doing here?"
Harriet jumped to her feet and rushed towards the front desk. "I dunno, Sarge, but she's pretty shaken up."
"Go find Callum, Beth, he's in CID." As the PC headed away towards the staircase, Harriet pushed through the door to the front desk. "Miss Lowery? Im Sergeant Barclay."
"Oh," The woman's face fell. "I'm here about the guy who attacked Lauren Peters."
"Has something happened, Miss Lowery?" The door behind them swung open and the woman's face lit up.
"Sergeant Stone!"
Harriet raised an eyebrow at the woman as she almost ran over to the man. Suddenly she felt the overwhelming urge to pull her back and put herself between them. Catching Callum's eye, she half smirked at the awkward and confused look on the man's face.
"Let's go into the interview room, Miss Lowery." Callum smiled weakly. As the woman walked in front of them, Harriet forced herself to smile at the man teasingly.
"Looks like you've got yourself an admirer." Harriet nudged him with her elbow.
"You jealous?" Callum grinned at her as the woman took a seat at the table.
"No." Harriet snapped. "Why would I be?" Callum glanced back at her and opened his mouth but Harriet simply pushed past him and took a seat across from the woman already sat at the table.
"The guy who attacked Lauren," Caroline continued before the two officers could say another word. "He came back about fifteen minutes ago."
"To your house?" The redhead nodded. "What happened?"
"I was upstairs dusting the bedroom and there was a knock at the door. I went downstairs and opened it and he just pushed his way in. He grabbed me round the throat and held a knife to my head." She pointed to her temple to show where he'd threatened her. "He said if I told anyone what he looked like he'd kill me."
"Anything else?" Harriet scribbled notes into her notebook quickly.
"He smashed up the vase on the coffee table and the photo of my nieces that I keep on there, too." Caroline sniffed suddenly and burst into tears. "I was really scared."
Callum stood up and moved to sit beside the younger woman, rubbing her back soothingly. Despite what had happened to the woman, Harriet couldn't help herself curling her fist into a ball under the table, especially when she rested her head on Callum's shoulder. As she turned away from the woman, Harriet caught Callum giving her a knowing look.
"Are you willing to give us a description, Miss Lowery?" Harriet put her personal feelings aside and attempted to keep her focus on the case.
Still resting her head on Callum's shoulder, she sniffed and nodded slowly. "He was tall, around six foot, and he had short and spiky black hair and brown eyes."
Harriet nodded along as the woman spoke. "Miss Lowery, is there any reason why the attacker came to your house? How did he know it was you who called it in?"
"I was in the kitchen window when it happened and it looks out across the garden. He must have seen me when he ran out the back." Harriet smiled tightly at the woman and motioned with her head towards the door at Callum, indicating she was going to inform Jack and Sam of the new developments.
Once the brunette had delivered the details to CID, having to leave them with Max as Sam was out with Jo and the DCI was in a meeting, she headed back downstairs and towards the front desk. She stopped as she heard Callum and Caroline talking just behind the door.
"I don't think that other Sergeant likes me very much."
"Sergeant Barclay? Why not?"
"I think she likes you." Harriet narrowed her eyes angrily at the door.
"Sergeant Barclay is a professional, Miss Lowery, she wouldn't make this case personal"
She heard murmurs of conversation before the door opened and Callum appeared. Harriet immediately pretended to be busy reading through her notes. He smirked and shook his head at her.
"You're a terrible actress."
"Shut up" Harriet glared at him before sighing. "I've left the notes with Max and there isn't much else we can do for today."
"What about the description?"
"Until we hear anything, Callum, you know that there's nothing we can do." She sighed. "Im off shift now, anyway, so I'll see you in the morning."
"Actually, Harriet, I was-"The woman turned and looked back at the man as Mickey bounded round the corner and poked her in the ribs. Once he'd continued down the corridor, she turned back to Callum and raised her eyebrow at him questioningly."Doesn't matter. See you in the morning." Harriet frowned but continued towards the locker rooms, her mind running over what the man could have wanted to say. Her mind settled on one thought but she immediately dismissed it as stupid.
X-X
Harriet couldn't sleep that night. She tossed and turned until she had to get out of bed. Opening the bedroom window, she sat herself on the windowsill, relishing the night breeze on her sweaty skin. Her mind wouldn't stop turning over the day's events.
They were slowly gathering more and more evidence in terms of the case and she was certain that with the description they'd been given, they were getting increasingly closer to the attacker. Yet Harriet still felt as though there was something they were missing, however, and she was determined to work it out. The other four rape cases had happened in the park yet Lauren Peters had been raped at her home. In Harriet's opinion, the case was so much more personal to Lauren Peters than it was to any of the other victims. She just didn't know how.
Added to that, her mind kept reverting back to Callum and the comment he'd made – "You jealous?" She was certain that she and Callum were nothing more than friends. Ever since she'd broke down at the hospital and told him everything, the ice had broken between them and most of SunHill had noticed how much more friendly the pair of them were around each other. But whenever she was around Callum, she couldn't help noticing how her stomach flipped and a lump appeared in her throat. She was certain it was just nervousness because the man knew so much about her but she couldn't help feeling like there was something else there.
As if on cue, her phone buzzed and she glanced over at the lit up screen, almost falling off the windowsill as she reached over.
'You okay? C'
'I can't stop thinking about the case… I think were missing something BIG! H x'
'I can see why you'd think that. I've had a funny feeling about it all day. But let's not think about that now. Let's get some rest. Night, Harriet X'
'Night, Callum x'