A/N: We're jumping ahead a bit now in the timeline to AFTER Secrets :)

Series 23, Episode 44/45: A Model Murder

Date: Saturday 12th/Sunday 13th July 2008

Investigating Officers: DCI Jack Meadows, DI Neil Manson, DS Stuart Turner, DC Joanne Masters

"Max, move it!" Hannah shouted up the stairs, jangling the car keys in her hand. "If you want a lift to Ed's house on our way to the station you've got precisely 3 minutes to get down here before we're leaving."

"We're already gonna be late, babe." Jo told her with a shrug.

"I know that! I…" Hannah pulled a face. "I need a wee."

The brunette chuckled as her pregnant girlfriend threw her the car keys and waddled away. No sooner had she shut the bathroom door, than Max appeared at the top of the stairs, pulling the hood of his top up and shoving his hands into his pockets. Jo shook her head at the thirteen-year-old, pulling his hood down as he passed her.

"Oi!"

"It's not raining in here, so you don't need that on." She told him bluntly, causing Max to mutter something under his breath and slouch against the wall.

"Where's preggo? I thought she was in a hurry."

"Hannah needed the loo." Jo said, pulling her phone out of her pocket as it beeped loudly. She read the message with a frown, glancing up as her girlfriend reappeared. "Babe, I've had a shout. Can you drop me on Gretton Way?"

"Course. Anything interesting."

"Could be something for MIT." Jo told her, glancing meaningfully at the teenage boy leaning against the car impatiently. "Cindy Statham."

Max's head snapped up. "Cindy Statham? That model bird? She's hot."

"Thank you for that eloquent and enlightened insight, Maxwell." Hannah muttered, scowling at the driver's seat. Jo had been the last person to drive the car and she'd moved the seat forward, meaning that Hannah and her bump couldn't fit into the space without moving it back again. The problem was, she had to bend down to reach the lever under the seat. "Bloody thing!"

"D'you want me to move it, babe?" Jo asked.

Hannah scowled at her. "I can do it!"

"OK, OK!" Jo backed away with her hands in the air, nudging Max into getting into the back of the car, while she walked around and got into the passenger's side.

They dropped Max off at his friend's house first. He got out of the car without saying a word and slouched up the driveway. They waited until the door opened and Max sent them a nod, before heading inside. Both women smiled fondly, amused by his behaviour.

"OK, no children present, what's the case?" Hannah asked, pulling away from the curb.

"That model Cindy Statham was found dead at her townhouse this morning. Apparently it's definitely suspicious."

"Any signs of a break-in? Could it be a burglary gone wrong?"

"I don't know, that's all Stuart said." Jo saw the look on her girlfriend's face and shook her head. "You are not getting involved, Han. You're on office duties, remember."

The red-head scowled, unable to forget that she had only been allowed back to work a fortnight previously on the condition she didn't take an active role in cases. "Sodding baby…"

"Hey!" Reaching out, Jo squeezed her leg before putting her hand on Hannah's stomach. "You know it's for the best, babe." She grinned. "You can't even tie your own shoe laces anymore."

"Alright, mock me! You'll be sorry when I kick you out of bed tonight."

Seeing through the threat immediately, Jo smirked as Hannah parked up behind one of the several area cars on Gretton Way. She leant over and kissed her girlfriend on the cheek, laughing as the younger woman turned her head so that she missed her mouth, before placing several kisses under her jaw. Hannah pouted at her for a moment, before leaning in and kissing her properly.

"Be careful." She ordered softly.

"Unless we're really lucky, I doubt the murderer is still waiting there with the weapon in their hand."

Hannah glared at her. "Jo!"

"I'll be careful." The brunette promised, kissing her softly, before getting out of the car.

Jo gave a little wave as she crossed the road, watching Hannah driving away. As soon as she met Stuart, the detective was completely professional once more. She accepted the boiler suit and shoe covers one of the forensic team held out, putting the overalls over her clothes quickly and making her way into the house with Stuart and Lorna.

"We're waiting for the Crime Scene Photographer to cover the scene, but I can show you the highlights." Lorna told them as they paused to cover their shoes so they didn't contaminate the area. "Here she is… severe head injuries. Did you not see that anti-fur ad campaign they banned recently? The mock crime scene pictures?"

"Oh… yeah, yeah, yeah! That rings a bell." Stuart agreed nodding. "So what this is the model, is it?"

"Take a look, that's it over there."

They turned their heads to glance over to where the CSE was pointing. Jo moved around the breakfast bar to get a closer look. She shuddered.

"You'd think twice about wearing fur after seeing that, wouldn't you?" She murmured.

"Yeah, well… it's not exactly the same, is it?" Stuart pointed out. "She's not wearing fur for a start." When both women just looked at him, he relented. "Yeah, yeah. It's similar… spooky."

Lorna raised an eyebrow. "Moving on." She pointed to a candle stick that was lying next to the body. "That looks like the murder weapon. She's taken a couple of blows to the back of the head as if she were attacked from behind or trying to get away from someone."

"So… did she surprise an intruder or something?"

"The forced lock suggests that." The CSE agreed. "No signs of any other forced entry; rear garden has a high wall with a security door in it, but it was left unlocked."

"So anyone could have just walked in and forced the door." Jo said, shaking her head. "I thought she was smarter than that."

Stuart scoffed. "Since when did models become smart?"

"She was no mug, Sarge. She used her profile to raise some serious issues."

"Oh, right, so she was Mother Theresa, excuse me." He mocked. "What about security cameras?"

"Cameras front and back, but no tape in the recorder. There's an empty sleeve next to the machine, so I'd bet the tape was stolen." They all turned at the sound of movement behind them and Lorna smiled. "Ah, the photographer's here. Hi Rachel. What's the matter?"

She looked up distractedly. "It's Cindy… we knew each other from school. They… they told me the name when I took the call, but I didn't quite believe it was her."

"Oh… oh, listen, you alright?" Stuart asked, going over to her. "Here, let me take those." As he took her equipment off her, Jo glanced sideways at Lorna, barely managing to suppress her smirk. "Listen, could you use some fresh air?"

"Show them a pretty face and it never fails, does it?" Jo murmured cynically in her friend's ear. "I'd better grab Romeo or we'll be late for the meeting."

Jo retrieved her partner and dragged him away from the crying photographer, assuring him that Lorna would take good care of her. With a brief smile at the woman, the two detectives left the crime scene and returned to the station. Jo considered teasing Stuart about what had happened with Rachel, but thought better of it, seeing what kind of mood he was in.

She left him at the door to the Incident Room, going to perch on the desk her girlfriend was sitting at. Giving Hannah a brief account of what they'd seen, she finished by telling her about Rachel's entrance and Stuart's predictable behaviour.

"Oh, the photographer's pretty, is she?" Hannah demanded. "You noticed that, then? I feel so sorry for you, investigating the death of a beautiful woman with the help of another beautiful woman."

Jo kicked herself for provoking the younger woman's hormone induced irrationality. "They've got nothing on you, babe."

Hannah scoffed. "Really? I bet she's not the size of a whale."

"But you're a very cute whale." She promised, tapping her on the nose. Hannah simply pouted in response, turning to the door as Jack strode in.

"Right, morning everybody. Right… HOLMES are calling this Operation Venus and, as you can gather, it's a big one. I'm just gonna give you a brief run down for those of you who're not up to speed. Then after that we'll get into teams and get into more detail." He explained. "So if there's any questions or I miss anything just shout out. Right, I'm sure you're all aware of this supermodel, Cindy Statham. She was found murdered in her townhouse last night in Gretton Way. She'd been beaten about the head. Stuart, what've we got on time of death?"

"Well the pathologist's best guess is between ten o'clock last night and one o'clock this morning. The body's still in situ, so we have to wait for the post mortem."

"Now the front door was forced, so we could be looking at an attempted burglary. But if the break in was staged we could be looking at something more sinister."

"Stalker?" Mickey suggested.

"An over-zealous fan." Hannah muttered, glancing sideways at Jo, who rolled her eyes.

"That's a possibility. She is a celebrity, so we can't rule that out."

"What about other known associates?"

"Well, as you can imagine she had quite an entourage of family, bodyguards, PA..." Jack said with a shrug. "She owned a photographic studio and also a talent-spotting firm. She's got her family coming up from Somerset and a boyfriend, Robert Harvey, who's coming up from Guilford. What d'you know about him, Jo?"

"He's an artist, Guv, minor celebrity… been going out with her for years."

"There's also a half-brother kicking around somewhere, isn't there?"

"That's right." She agreed.

Jack nodded. "The point is, all these people are in the frame until we decide otherwise. OK, well, Jo and Stuart attended the scene, so they're gonna be leading this. Where are you gonna start, Stuart?"

"Well I thought we'd do some interviews, Guv. I've got a guy down in the front office, Steve Bryce, Cindy's ex-manager. Then we'll head down to the scene after that."

"Right, in the meantime, Uniform are going to be coordinating a house to house, collecting CCTV from a half-mile radius of Cindy's house." He said, before glancing around. "Right, let's get into teams." As Hannah stretched before getting up, he called her over. "I want you here, coordinating everything."

"But–"

"You know the deal, Hannah." He said firmly.

"Yes, Guv." When he'd gone, she glared down at her stomach, prodding it with a finger. "This is all your fault, you know that, right?"

Mickey chuckled, making her jump. "You don't mean that really."

"I do." She retorted defiantly.

"I don't believe you. You're gonna adore this kid as much as the others." When Hannah just shrugged, he looked around the now empty room and pulled her down to sit in a chair, while he perched on the desk. "Han?"

She sighed. "I just… I was done with all this." She waved a hand over her bump. "When Jo and I… I thought… I thought that if we were to have kids, she'd be the one to go through all this. I imagined…" She shook her head. "Oh, it's stupid."

"Tell me." Her friend prompted gently.

"I imagined a little mini-version of Jo; with her eyes and her smile… but that's not going to happen, is it? Every time I look at this child… I'm going to be reminded of… him."

Mickey frowned slightly. "Does that happen every time you look at Molly? Do you remember what happened with Jamieson?"

"No…" Hannah conceded. "But the situations are different. With Jamieson I willingly put myself in that position. I went undercover and I got close to him. With Henderson… I didn't even know, Mickey." Tears sprung to her eyes. "I still don't… I don't remember anything…"

He wrapped her in a tight hug. "You need to speak to Jo about this."

"I can't." She argued softly. "She's already driving me crazy being all over-protective."

"That's because she is so in love with you it's disgusting." He teased, making her snort with a mixture of laughter and tears. "I heard what you said about Cindy Statham and that Crime Scene Photographer. Do you honestly think Jo would even look at anyone else, however pretty they are?"

"No." Hannah conceded quietly. "I know she wouldn't. She's… she's… she's perfect."

As she broke into a fresh wave of sobs, Mickey rocked her gently. "Maybe you should go home. Everyone would understand, I mean you are seven months pregnant."

Her demeanour changing completely, she leant back and scowled at him. "No way. Do you know how hard I had to work to make Jack agree to let me come back to work? If I go home there is no way he'll let me back in until this kid is about five."

Mickey laughed and lifted a hand to rub the tears and smudged makeup off her cheeks. "Alright, alright. Just… take it easy, OK?"

"Not much chance of me doing anything else, is there?" She muttered, moving away to set up at a desk close enough to the board at the front of the room that she wouldn't have to walk far to get to.

She had just settled herself comfortably in the chair, when the doors opened and Jo and Stuart walked in with the DCI. Hannah glanced up interestedly, waiting to hear what they had to add to the information that was already on the board.

"Have you been crying?" Jo asked, stopping and furrowing her eyebrows at her girlfriend.

Hannah rolled her eyes. "Course not. What've you got?"

Stuart brought up a webpage while the pregnant detective struggled to get out of her chair, moving round so that she could see whatever they were looking at. It was a video of Cindy Statham on the Fur Defence League website saying that she wasn't going to stop wearing her fur.

"It looks like her halo just fell off." Stuart said, not sounding remotely bothered. "Never mind, Jo, no one's perfect."

Hannah glared at the brunette beside her, but Jo ignored her. "The sound quality's so bad that you can't even tell if she's the one who said it."

"Either way, the believe it." Stuart said, pointing at the screen where the model's address was displayed, along with a message encouraging people to 'teach the evil bitch a lesson'.

"That's incitement, whichever way you look at it." Jack pointed out.

"Maybe the similarities with that poster aren't a coincidence." Stuart suggested, turning to look at the huge mock crime scene photo pinned up with the rest of the information.