Chapter 21

Harry swiftly entered the room the next morning, only to find Nikki already sat at his own desk, "Nikki, once again, what are you doing at my desk?"

"Working..." Harry took his place behind her, waiting for her usual offer to switch, this had become almost a routine that they seemed to playout almost daily, however Nikki didnt move. Harry cleared his throat in mock annoyance. She swirled the chair around so that she was facing him. "Mine's been taken over and I figured you wouldn't really mind."

"Is that so?"

"Mm..hmm." Nikki looked up at him, a wryly smile plastered on her face. "Furthermore, you would like the excuse to exert your male superiority."

"Is that a challenge? You're asking me to ask her to move?" He glanced over to where Ellie had left her backpack and its contents, her black file expelling its insides around its base and threatening to amalgamate itself with Nikki's own paperwork. "She probably felt more at home on yours anyway….. but in contrast to you two I could really do with some sense of calm organisation, namely my desk."

"Your call."

"How you use me woman! No I'm not having that I'll use Leo's whilst he's out." He went to leave but then on reaching Leo's door he spun round and returned to his desk. Once there he playfully pushed Nikki's wheelie chair aside and opened his top drawer. "Before I do that I'll just retrieve what I came for." Not finding what he had been looking for, he moved behind Nikki and reached over shoulder and into the desk draw on the opposite side, his arm brushed her shoulder and she felt a shiver of anticipation at the closeness of their bodies.

"Damn it, they're not there."

"What have you lost?"

"My box of rubber bands, I need to secure these samples before I send them to the lab"

Nikki turned back to her screen, in order to hide the smile that was beginning to appear. "Maybe they have been confiscated."

"Confiscated?"

"Yes, don't want you venting your frustration by pinging them across the lab at me." Harry, looked back at her with mock confusion, her smile broke through.

"No, Ellie's got them in the conference room."

"Do I want to know why?"

"I do, she went out mumbling something about whether the recession had really got so bad that children had to be responsible for their own instruments." It was good to see Nikki smiling again, Harry mused.

Once Harry had departed she reopened the top drawer of his desk, there on the top of the pile was an envelope with a Hungarian postmark, she turned it over in her hands, it had been opened...

The Case Leo that Leo had handed him the previous day initially seemed like it was an open and shut case. An overdose wasn't uncommon. The location of the body had been slightly more. But so far it looked like a cut and dried suicide. They had found two empty packets of a drug commonly used as a sleeping pill in her pocket, zopiclone, and a half empty bottle of vodka by her feet.

The body laying in front of them was a young ish girl, long dark hair was now pooled around her shoulders and spilled out down the side of the table, her skin was pale and unblemished, apart from her hands and forearms that were pitted by a red angry rash. Harry had guessed her age to be in her mid 20s. He still hadn't managed to ID her, there was no photo ID in her belongings and no sign of any mobile phone. It was odd, few people wandered about without mobiles these days.

The detective on the case was hovering at his side. DI Stanton. She hadn't yet revealed her first name and from what Harry had ascertained from her current position and the notebook in her hand, she was clearly going to be someone who was keen to get the job done and do it properly.

Harry, reached for the scalpel and held it close to the chest of the body, he pressed it gently and pulled it down her body to reveal any secrets the is girl might have within. He then looked back at DI Stanton, she didn't flinch or show any sign that she was squeamish, Harry was pleased he didn't fancy having to clear up the mess.

As he reached for the rib cutters, he heard her phone vibrate, she apologised and left the room. Harry proceeded with the PM speaking into the microphone as he did so. After a few minutes, DI Stanton returned, she seemed more animated suddenly and was waving a piece of paper in his direction. "Brittany Ledgers... Harry, that's who she is." Harry raised his head to look at the face of the girl before him, Brittany, yes that could fit.

Di Stanton continued, "She's come over from New Zealand, I'm trying to trace her family. It looks like she was over here to teach, so I'll ring around some of the school's on the route and try and work out where. I'll let you carry on and pop back later for your report." She then left, leaving Harry to continue alone. He worked steadily for a while, methodically examining each organ in detail. At one point he looked up to see Nikki gazing at him from the other side of the glass viewing area, he signalled to her to join him and she willingly obliged.

"Young woman, gets on a bus, takes some pills and dies." He summarised as she appeared, now decked out in her white scrubs.

"Any physical signs of anything."

"Nope. The people around her just thought she was asleep."

She stood next to him as he worked, occasionally she would reach for a tool to hand to him or move part of the body aside for him to get better access. He never needed to ask, she knew exactly how he worked and he enjoyed this rare chance to work with her, it didn't happen very often these days, they were normally too busy on their own cases.

"Have you seen this," Nikki drew his attention to her uterus,

"5 or 6 months?"

"It looks like it."

"Poor girl, she must have been really struggling to want to kill herself and her baby."

"Well It's a big change, isn't it. People often feel out of control when they are experiencing big changes in their lives. Sometimes, it can be completely overwhelming, especially if you are not prepared for it."

With Harry's reply ringing in her ears, Nikki moved her attention to the face of the woman before her, she pretended to be interested in examining it for any clues to her tragic fate. In her mind, Harry's statement replayed again and again.

The Lyell had been a central part of her life for so long, Harry and Leo it's central pillars. The winds has buffeted many times, their time in Hungary being the most recent, change had been threatened but ultimately they returned to this place again and it's unstoppable stream of work. Harry had come back to them and now it was like it had never happened, life had moved on, or maybe it had simply returned to the way it had been. Change seemed to be coming again and she feared that the same wouldn't be true this time.

A voice suddenly pierced into her trance, "Nikki?..." She looked up at Harry who had placed down his scalpel and was now looking at her perplexed. "I'm guessing wherever you were is better than being here with me…." Realising that she had been truly lost in her own thoughts, Nikki jolted herself back to reality.

"What?"

"You've been staring into space for the past few minutes."

"I was just thinking…"

"Dangerous stuff." She forced herself to refocus on the woman before her.

"She's wearing make-up. It looks almost fresh."

"Yes, the rest is in her bag. "

"If you were going to kill yourself, why would you make yourself up first and why would you carry spares?"

"Perhaps it was never her plan, maybe she went somewhere first? Met someone…"

"Then topped up her makeup? Then killed herself. It's not like anyone would care how she looked."

"You're talking about it. You noticed. Maybe she was thinking about what you would be thinking."

"When I die, I'm not sure I want to think about the person cutting me up…"

"That's incredibly morbid, Nikki."

"I was just thinking out loud."

Harry paused for a moment, "I don't think I would mind...I'd be dead, I wouldn't care. Although... I would be sure to ask for you, at least I could trust you to do it right."

"I've seen yours, don't forget. Well at that point I thought I was. It's not an experience I want to repeat." Harry fell quiet, his mind reminding him that Hungary was again rearing its ugly head and he still hadn't got around to telling Nikki. Telling her would make it real again and he still hadn't forgiven himself for the pain he had caused her the last time. Nikki remained silent, silently pleading with him to tell her about what she already knew from his letter.

"Perhaps she never meant to die, perhaps she wanted someone to save her..." Harry finally said. Nikki felt her heart sink heavily with disappointment.

"But no one did…." She finally replied. Then he picked up his scalpel and prepared to continue with the next stage of his investigation, before adding, "But that's not for us to find out is it? We're just hear to find out the facts Nikki."

At the end of the pm, once they were both changed and heading to the office, he reached out to take Nikki's hand, she however, pulled it away from him. It was a small rebuff but it left Harry feeling slightly confused and a small but lingering doubt swiftly resurfaced, maybe things were not as perfect as he thought.