Jo sunk onto the top step, hearing the old wood groan beneath her weight. She allowed her head to drop forward, resting it in her hands, massaging her temples as her headache grew in intensity. Every time she closed her eyes, she was assaulted by visions of the body they had discovered. Nausea swept over her, the smell of death lingering in her nostrils. The blood from the corpse had been daubed over the walls, the same crude message from the notes adorning the tiles of the old shower block, 'Suffer the children for the sins of the father.' Sam seemed positive that the body belonged to Hugh Wallis, although it was impossible for Jo to back up that with any certainty. Whoever it was had been executed without doubt; hands bound behind his back, a single gunshot wound to his head, taking most of his identifying features with it, and from the position he had fallen in, it appeared as though he had been kneeling when he was shot. That was the considered opinion of the forensic pathologist called to the scene.
"Not the best first day back, eh Jo?" The brunette tilted her head sideways without lifting it to look at Terry as he squatted beside her. "They're almost done with Sam, I expect they'll want to question you next." She nodded, wondering if Sam would be ok, the blonde having been mute since finding the body.
"She talking yet?" Jo asked Terry.
"I don't know. From the expression on DI Morrell's face, I'd guess not." He offered.
"I don't understand why it couldn't wait 'til we got back to the station, why they insist on questioning us in there." Jo indicated the old clubhouse, knowing she would have to re-enter the scene of their nightmarish find herself once she was called and not relishing the prospect one bit.
"Oh you know what Morrell's like, she surrounds herself with this stuff every day, she forgets not everyone is as jaded as her." The door opened behind them, Jo springing to her feet as Sam appeared, squinting at the sudden intrusion of daylight. Wordlessly, Sam crossed to her lover who instinctively drew her into a warm embrace.
"No contact until we've interviewed you both ladies, you know the drill." DI Morrell barked from the doorway. "DS Masters, if you'll step this way." Jo defiantly brushed hair out of Sam's face, leaning down to kiss her cheek supportively before complying with the command. Sam clung onto Jo's hand, not letting go until she had no choice, her arm dropping heavily to her side as the door swung shut behind Jo.
"I understand that you came back to work today against medical advice, any particular reason you were so desperate to come back today?" DI Morrell paced up and down in front of Jo, having invited her to sit on one of the benches which lined the room.
"I thought my input might be useful to the investigation into the attacks on Joey Nixon… and I personally felt ready to return to work." Jo answered measuring her words, knowing that until proven otherwise she and Sam might be considered suspects.
"Can you account for your whereabouts at approximately seven o'clock this morning DS Masters?" Jo bit her bottom lip, knowing exactly where she had been but not wishing to share that information with the DI whilst so many others were in the vicinity to overhear.
"Yes but I'd rather not do so with an audience." Jo spoke quietly but determinedly.
"I assure you DS Masters, there is no one here remotely interested in what you have to say except me. Where were you at seven a.m.?" The DI pushed, standing directly in front of the squirming DS.
"In bed with DI Nixon." Jo admitted, a blush warming her cheeks.
"Asleep?"
"No, we were awake, both of us." Jo supplied through gritted teeth.
"Doing what? If you weren't sleeping, why were you still in bed?" Resentment flooded Jo's core, her eyes narrowed dangerously as her anger built.
"We'd had a late night, waiting for the locks to be changed on the house. That wasn't finished until around three so we were resting before going to work." She spoke slowly and deliberately, trying to stem the tide of rage gathering within her.
"How can you be sure you didn't drop off to sleep, given your late night you must have been tired?"
"Because we were due in work at eight, we were just taking a few moments before getting up." Jo ran a hand through her hair, glancing over to the corner which showed signs of someone having been staying in the hut recently; a sleeping bag, empty crisp packets and chocolate wrappers, a days old newspaper.
"Taking a few moments. And you're quite sure DI Nixon never left your side?" Morrell began pacing again.
"Perfectly. How many times do I have to tell you? She was in bed with me from around half past three until just after half seven when we showered, dressed and left for work – in the same car before you ask so I know she didn't take a detour on her way to the station." Jo iterated, the stench churning her stomach and the flash from the photographers camera adding to her headache.
She walked from the bathroom to make her drink, weariness adding to her chill from the long night. A gentle icy breeze washing over her stopped her in her tracks – the backdoor swinging open on its hinges and a man wearing a gas company's uniform standing before her. She only saw him momentarily before he sprayed her with something and then she was choking, fighting for breath, feeling as though her throat and lungs were on fire. She dimly remembered the feeling from CS gas training, knowing that she mustn't rub her eyes or risk making the irritation worse.
She was being dragged from the boot of a car. She tried kicking him, wriggled and writhed in the hope that he'd drop her and give her a chance to get free. Her arms stung from where he had slashed at her, blinded by the spray, acting on instinct alone as she had defended herself.
The same man stood before her in a dusty room, eying her with unconcealed venom as he brandished the length of pipe. She could hear him screaming at her, she couldn't move, her arms tied above her head. He rushed at her, swinging the metal pipe, the air gushing from her lungs as it connected with her chest. She heard a moan escape from her lips, the sound spurring him on and exciting him all the more as he came round again for another attack.
"Not so powerful, irresistible, independent, Miss Almighty now are you? I'm going to show you what you're missing out on, show you how sex should be: between a man and a woman, give you something to think about if anyone shows you enough pity to touch you ever again." Her energy was fading fast as she felt him fumble with the buttons on her trousers.
"Jo, listen to me, come on Jo, look at me." The voice coaxed her back from her vision. She could feel sweat trickling down her back between her shoulder blades. Bile seeped into her mouth as her awareness returned to the disgusting conditions around her. "Jo sweetheart, please look at me!" Sam's voice was tinged with panic, not having witnessed an episode like this before. Jo's face was devoid of colour, her skin clammy to the touch and her pulse pounding beneath the surface. Slowly, eyes that had been vacant and unseeing focused on Sam's concerned face. "You're ok, sweetheart." Sam nodded, trying to calm herself as much as Jo, flashing an irritated look at DI Morrell who hovered behind her tutting and checking her watch.
"He tried to rape me…" Jo's voice was quiet and shaky amidst the din of crime scene techs going about their business, studiously ignoring the state of their colleague.
"Who did Jo?" Sam was confused, wondering where Jo had been transported back to by her resurgent memory.
"I was tied up, he beat me with a metal pipe and then tried to rape me." Jo's pulse was still too rapid for Sam's liking, her fingers pressed to the inside of Jo's wrist monitoring her.
"Let's get you outside, get some fresh air and some water." Sam wanted nothing more than to take her lover home but knew Morrell would never allow that to happen.
"I haven't finished with DS Masters yet." The DI announced haughtily.
"Until such a time as she is fit to continue being questioned, I'm afraid you'll have to wait." Jack interjected seeing that Sam was about to go head to head with her opposing DI and deciding to intervene for all their sakes.
"DI Nixon shouldn't be allowed to speak with her without one of my officers present." DI Morrell insisted.
"You're not seriously still considering them as suspects in this death are you? They're police officers, damn good ones at that…" Jack protested.
"But this isn't the first time DI Nixon has been implicated in a murder investigation, is it? And I seem to recall that her daughter's integrity was at stake then, why not kill for her life?" Sam rolled her eyes thinking the link to be tenuous at best.
"I know you're just trying to do your job Detective Inspector but I was cleared of any involvement then and you will find no evidence of my involvement now. As I have already told you, I was at home, in bed with my lover at the time this man was killed. I will freely allow access to my mobile phone records and those for my landline also, you can check my emails, my written correspondence, anything you damn well please if it will cure your insane notion that I was somehow responsible for his murder." Sam barked at the woman charged with investigating the shooting, knowing her concern was making her even more tetchy than she would otherwise have been given the insinuations being bandied around.
"I'd still like to question DS Masters further about the events leading up to this afternoon's discovery of the body. Perhaps she can explain her reluctance to admit the extent of your relationship with her?" DI Morrell fished, hoping to fire up the dazed brunette and get her talking again, knowing that any information she could gather would help in the investigation and meeting only brick walls.
"That's enough. Sam get Jo outside, I'll be along in a moment." Jack waited for his staff to leave, for the door to close behind them, before he addressed DI Morrell again. "No matter what you might think of their relationship, those two have been through too much recently to have someone deliberately try and drive a wedge between them. I promise you, if you insist on trying to play one off against the other, you had better be prepared for a harassment charge – I will file it personally if Sam or Jo won't." He warned her. "Stick to investigating the facts instead of looking for conspiracies where there are none. If that man does turn out to be Hugh Wallis, it may well be Jo Masters' information that can nail the man responsible. I suggest you bear that in mind before alienating her completely. Now if you don't mind, I need to check my sergeant is fit to continue working." Jack's radio crackled to life as he finished, Zain's voice echoing over the airwaves.
"DC Nadir to DCI Meadows – Guv I think I've got a sighting on our biker. I'm going after him, I'll keep you informed."