Author's Note: Interesting how the books you read can provide a lift to your work. I've just read the brilliant popular science book '10% Human' by Alanna Collen (out now from Harper Collins) about your gut microbes. Your gut microbiota is individual to you, but similar to the people that you live with, so you can tell that one microbial sample comes from one house as opposed to a microbial sample taken from another house. I thought that was a neat, real-life science thing that I could slip in. :)

R x

CHAPTER 38

Tuesday

Early morning at the Grey's mansion brought a package by courier from the University of Missouri, which Luke Sawyer pushed over the table to Beth McCready.

"A gift. We know your labs don't have this."

Beth looked at the large, brown box. "Thank you, but what is it?"

"The very latest testing kit for isolating microbial DNA. You have the standard version. But this is the next level and not yet commercially available. It's faster, more accurate and needs fewer microbes to get a result. Consider it a donation from GEH."

"I don't think we can accept such gifts."

Luke sat down at his computer. "Mr Grey squared it with the Commissioner."

Beth rolled her eyes. "Of course he did."

Luke Sawyer's eyes narrowed. "Do you want to stand there being flippant about these women's deaths and the attack on Dr Collins, or do you want to catch your serial killer?"

"Sure, but if they're not leaving us any residue, then we can't identify them."

"Oh come on, surely you know this? Semen, hair and fingerprints are so twentieth century. Your forensics team will tell you that a person's microbiota is as individual to them as their DNA. Get this over to them and let them run the samples through it."

"Why don't you send it straight over?"

"Because part of the protocol for getting this through the eagle-eyed public auditors is the pretense that we just had it lying around the office and don't need it. So you can take it in with you."

Beth lifted her chin. "This all seems a little underhand."

Sawyer lifted his. "This all seems like getting the job done. Now go check in with Marsh."

McCready gritted her teeth. Sawyer may look like Daniel Craig but he was still pissing her off. "I need to see Keeley."

"She isn't up yet," said Taylor from his computer. Beth had left him scrolling through traffic data late last night and had discovered him in the exact same position this morning. He had, however, changed his shirt.

"She stayed here?"

"Of course she stayed here," Taylor turned to Beth. "She's one of them now."

Beth scoffed. "What do you mean, 'she's one of them'? You make her sound like Bella Swan. Should I alert the Quileute wolves?" None of them seemed to get the reference. "And why don't I get to be 'one of them?'"

Prescott looked up. "Well, firstly, because Keeley got to David Brannigan before you did and secondly, because of what happened at Northwestern University, Evanston campus, on October 21st 2014."

Beth searched her memories and suddenly froze. "Holy sh… How did you know about that?"

"Background check," muttered Sawyer. "An invaluable tool to make sure that if there are skeletons in the closet, then we know about them."

"And that's too much of a skeleton?"

Prescott got up from her seat and grabbed another coffee. "Honey, that's a whole damned mortuary. How you got into the Police with that on your record, I'll never know."

"Jeez," muttered Beth and blew out a breath. She grabbed her purse off the desk. "So what should I do today?"

Sawyer didn't look up. "Go to your morning briefing and come back."

"Go all the way there to come all the way back here?"

Luke turned to her and raised an eyebrow. "What's your problem?"

"Well, gas, for one thing. It's a waste of it."

Sawyer got up, pulled a key off a board on the wall and tossed it to her. "Take a pool car. The one that says CGF49 on the licence plate. Gas problem solved. Let us waste ours, instead."

"Thanks. CGF49? You have forty nine cars?"

"Don't be stupid." Luke Sawyer stared at her as if she'd dribbled on her shirt. "Did you see forty nine cars parked outside?"

"No."

"Then we don't have forty nine cars. And how we code the ones we do is none of your business."

"I take it you didn't get any from your wife last night?" Beth muttered, picking up on Luke Sawyer's case of 'pissed at the world.' She saw Taylor's cheek rise with a smile.

Sawyer ignored her. "Just get to your briefing Detective McCready and let us know what's going on down there." He pushed the box towards her. "Don't forget your very expensive gift."

She took it and stalked out of the office.

xXXx

Upstairs, Keeley Fox was discovering the benefits of being around the very rich. Late last night clothes in her size had been delivered to the house and this morning found her snipping the tags from underwear she'd walked right by in Neiman Marcus as being completely out of her price range. She'd been happy to drive back to her apartment and grab some clothes, but Christian Grey would hear none of it. In the early hours David arrived from Boston and slipped into bed beside her. It woke her and for a while they talked. He told her about Alice, while she talked about the shock of finding herself catapulted into the heart of a family she'd only seen in glossy society magazines at possibly the worst time in their lives. Of Ana there had been little sign and that was understandable. She had retreated to be with the children. Christian had been constantly on the phone last night, either talking to people or replying to messages. There was an implacable look on his face, as if he'd 'shut down' and hidden his true self behind an invisible mask. Gone was any trace of warmth about him. The easy-going family man she'd once met at Seattle Marina now looked ruthless and, if she was honest, a little dangerous.

David was in the shower as Keeley dressed, brushing out her long brunette hair and winding it up into a neat chignon. She pulled on a soft ivory silk shirt and exquisitely tailored plum-coloured pants and a jacket to match. There were even new shoes – this was too much - she could at least wear the same shoes. She put her usual ones on and found that they didn't give her enough height to keep the pant legs off the floor. She swapped them for the new sky-high black patent pumps. She checked herself in the mirror. She looked too smart to be detective and she couldn't run in these shoes.

"That really suits you."

David was stood in the bathroom doorway with a towel around his hips and looking extremely tempting. "It does, she smiled. "I usually stick to black or dark blue for work, but this is lovely. The shoes are…" she lifted her leg and took in the lethal heels. "A little impractical."

He walked towards her. "You can always take them off. Got time to take a little more off?"

She shook her head with a smile and stepped away from his oh-so-tempting arms. "It's eight o'clock. Time I was downstairs and making myself useful to the Grey family."

The house was quiet. Although there were staff and family members around, nobody seemed much like talking. Keeley helped herself to coffee and a fresh warm breakfast muffin from the pile in the kitchen. She checked her emails, noting the message from Dad, saying that he would update her again after the morning briefing. He was polite and businesslike, but she could almost hear his demand of 'where were you last night?' radiating from her phone. Last night. Mmm… last night. She came face to face with Astrid leaving Mr Grey's study. The anguish on her face drove all thoughts of David from her head. The mental agony that this woman was in was etched clear on her face.

"Astrid?"

Astrid turned back to face Mr Grey.

"Keep the car," came his low voice.

"No…sir…"

"I insist. You need a car."

"Thank you, sir." Her voice was one of utter defeat and she closed his door. Keeley caught up with her.

"Did he fire you?"

"No. I resigned. What else am I supposed to do?" Astrid scooped a stray lock of hair behind her ear. "Not that he was for letting me."

"Why not?"

"I've been with them since Teddy was a baby. The children have a routine with me and he doesn't want to mess that up. It's taken me nearly an hour to convince him that I can't stay."

"Why can't you stay?"

"I think that's self-evident."

"No, it's not. This wasn't your fault."

"Perhaps not, but right now it isn't the way I see it. I just can't continue to work with a family that I've let down so badly." Astrid shielded her eyes with her hand. She turned to go. Keeley placed a hand on her arm but Astrid pulled away. "Please, let me go."

Keeley let her.

xXXx

Forensics were as excited as kids on Christmas morning as Beth left them salivating over the gift of test equipment from GEH and rushing to get their samples from the recent attacks prepped. How people could get that excited about things you couldn't even see with the naked eye, she had no idea. But if it helped them to track down this killer, then they could run any test they damn well liked. She walked back into the department to see the place looking way tidier then she remembered. Leaning towers of old casefiles were straightened up and secured with ribbons to prevent the occasional slide onto the floor. The desks were clear and the tops of cabinets around the room had been cleared and dusted.

"What happened?" She asked Sparshott.

"Kendall Fox happened." Ryan sipped coffee from a clean mug, not one bearing the stain rings from the previous day.

"You're joking. He did this?"

"No, he got us to do it. Even for those people who weren't here. Behold, the shit tip that was your desk is no longer a shit tip." Beth looked over at what was usually grounds for the declaration of a Federal Disaster Zone and found it neatly arranged. Even Betty, her begonia plant, was looking healthy.

"Wow. What did you do to Betty?"

"Gave her water. You know the thing that plants need?"

"Five minutes," came the call from Kendall Fox and he strode off to the meeting room.

"Christian Grey's arrived," said Sparshott. "Wasn't expecting to see him."

"He has? Neither was I. Where is he?"

"I saw him going in the direction of the Commissioner's Office. So how was your night at the Grey's mansion?"

"I don't know, ask Keeley."

"You didn't stay there?"

"No. I stayed in a Comfort Inn in Bellvue, while Little Miss Perfect Background Check spent the night with her thighs wrapped around lover boy in the guest suite."

Sparshott laughed. "You need a perfect background check to stay at the Greys?"

"Apparently so."

"Bet they got you on Northwestern."

"Fuck! How the…" Beth dropped her voice and leaned over the desk to him, her face in his. "How the hell do you know that?"

Sparshott tapped the side of his nose and got up from his desk. Beth trailed after him.

"How do you know? Tell me. Tell me!"

Sparshott walked into the meeting room and took a seat. Beth dropped into one beside him.

"Social media," he said. "My roommate in College was the brother of one of the guys you attacked."

"And did he tell you why I did it?"

"No. Why did you?"

Beth tapped the side of her nose as Kendall Fox called the room to order.

"I am pleased to report that overnight we have made progress in locating Roger Carter, but he is managing to keep one step ahead of us at every turn. Doesn't take a genius to work out that vanishing before the school semester is even out is drawing attention to himself that isn't consistent with a man who considers himself not guilty. We have his details on every media outlet possible. We have patrols alerted down into Oregon, east into central Washington and Idaho and north into Canada. However, that's a precaution. There's no reason to suggest that he's crossed the border as cameras would have picked him up. Detective Marsh is continuing to lead the hunt to bring Carter in. Meanwhile, as the search continues for Darcey Grey, there has been a slight shift in personnel at the request of Mr Grey himself this morning. He's with the Commissioner now, but will drop into to see us later, so be on your best behaviour as he's just donated an extremely expensive piece of forensic test equipment to us. Detective Fox has been assigned the role of family liaison, while Detective McCready is our link with the Grey's own security team. Samples taken from the Carter's house and from his office at Bremerton Elementary are going to be analyzed to look for a match with the samples taken from all three recent attacks. The new tests are quick so we're expecting to have answers later this morning. Any updates from the team?"

"Mr Grey's security are going through traffic footage," said Beth.

"Make sure they understand that any resultant searches need the correct paperwork and that's our department."

Kendall Fox made a reasonable request, but Beth was pretty sure that Sawyer, Taylor and Prescott would disregard it. They weren't the sort of people who waited around for the correct paperwork before they went in – probably all guns blazing. If they could get that little girl back before the Police department had so much as got in their cars, they'd do it, she was sure of it.