A/N: Thanks to all the readers who have stayed with this until now. I really enjoy that you enjoyed it this far. And thank you for your comments.

By the way, all the research with G Street View was a great fun and got me distracted one or the other time, wandering about in London ;-)


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Busted Party

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"Ms Stevens. Umm..." DI Morton eyed Tommy closely while she addressed the woman again. "It's so important that you don't call him, that we'd like to leave one of our officers here and make sure you really don't. I'm afraid that it's essential for the further course of this case. Please be assured that PC Miller won't disturb you. And she'll leave in the second we've found your father and talked to him."

"Is it really necessary? If I promise not to call him..."

"I can't constrain you to have her staying, but I'm sorry to say that either she'll stay with you or you'll have to come with us."

"Well then..." Nathalie sighed and nodded. "I guess he's more in trouble than you say."

PC Miller was called inside and informed about her duty. With a nod she acquired a position near the wall. Miller would stay with Nathalie and prevent her from calling her father while the rest of the team left to check that house in Hampstead.

DI Lynley already sat in the car, impatiently waiting to drive on, when DI Morton turned around again in the door. "One more question, Ms Stevens." she said. "And I don't want to appear rude, but you mentioned your father's husband... and... err..." She looked attentively at the young woman to give her enough room for her own explanation.

"Oh, that!" Nathalie laughed. "Well, I'm of his first marriage. A teenage marriage. Before he's realised that he actually is gay."

"Ah, well, I see." Cass smiled. "And again, sorry for the inconvenience and thank you for your cooperation."


In the moment she got into the car her mobile phone rang. "Morton...yes... Okay... Yes, I see... Right. Thanks." DI Morton rang off and turned to her colleagues. "This was the desk sergeant. Patrol in Bexleyheath have informed him that they've spotted McGuire's van in front of his house. It has graffiti smeared all across the right side. It's clearly visible. There was none on the footage, was there?" Raj shook his head. "Okay. So we can tick off McGuire."

"We only have to find Nolan Stevens." Tommy stated with a grim expression.

Cass nodded and the cars were set in motion.


The drive towards the house where they expected to find Stevens took them about eight long minutes without police speed. It could not be fast enough for Tommy but he knew that blue lights still were no option, not to mention the announcing sounds of sirens.

It was ten o'clock and already dark when the team arrived in the street Stevens' daughter had given them. They had found the searched for house quite easy with Nathalie's accurate description of its surroundings. In the driveway there were two cars and a white van. It was blocking half of the pavement with its back part. The windows of the van were tinted and when they came closer they saw the iconic flag stickers on its rear side. It was clear for everyone that they must have found the right van so one of the patrol cars obstructed it, just to make sure nobody would get away with the vehicle.

Redington Road was rather silent. In the distance a dog barked and a church had just ended its bell's ten o'clock ringing. Only behind a few windows in the neighbourhood the lights were on. The house with the searched for van was dark, except for a faint yellowish light coming from one ground floor window. It looked as if it only shone through open doors inside and originally came from the backside of the house. There also was the flickering from open fire reflected from the walls of a small alleyway between the house and a boundary wall. When a male voice and laughter was heard from the garden it was clear that they would not knock at the front door but only post two officers there in case someone would try to escape this way. They organised it without a word.

The other uniformed officers accompanied DI Lynley, DI Morton and the detectives when they quietly went around the house and entered the garden. Nobody there would expect them and nobody even recognised them at first.

Except for a few candles on the table on the veranda and some torches surrounding the grass area the back garden was dark. No artificial light was on, not even at the wall near the veranda. A bundle of red balloons was tied to a railing. Lynley remembered the single balloon escaping the van, when that clown had taken Barbara off the pavement. It hurt to see the others here.

Around the table with used plates, a few empty lemonade bottles, two bottles of wine and several glasses, there were some people sitting and talking quietly. It looked like a party had taken place earlier. It must have been the party Nathalie had told them of.

With one look Tommy noticed that Barbara did not share the round at the party table. His heart clenched not for the first time today. When they had driven here, the hope that all this could have been just a stupid prank had come up again. But seeing that she was not sitting here destroyed the remnants of that hope in an instant.


DI Lynley, as well as the other officers, quickly scanned the persons on the veranda. One of the men at the table had dark skin and a bald head. A knitted cap in happy colours laid on his knees. Its fake dreadlocks were bopping in the rhythm of the knee's nervous twitch. Another man in the clothes of a clown sat next to him. A red curly wig was seated on a third chair to his left. Although he did not wear a clown's make-up anymore, it was clear that this must be the man who had dragged Barbara into the van.

The Jamaican flag and the Union Jack. The Rastafari and the English Clown. Juma and his husband Nolan. Of that there was no doubt at all. For none of the officers.

Just at the moment these two men were grinning smugly towards each other and raised their glasses as if they cheered for some success. Tommy almost groaned, having vague ideas what that success could be, letting his imagination briefly wonder about several gruesome scenarios. He had to breathe in and out to get these horrible images out of his mind quickly. Everything could have happened to Barbara. And they still had not found her.

Cass nodded at two uniformed officers. "The Clown and the fake Jamaican." she simply said. In an instant the officers stood behind the spotted men and laid their hands solidly on their shoulders to signalise that they should stay put.

"What the...?" the Clown exclaimed highly confused about the sudden appearance of the police. A firm pressure on his shoulder prevented him from getting up. The fake Jamaican groaned in annoyance but did not move either.

"Hey!" one of the women at the table cried out. "What's this about?"

Tommy moved closer. He fought hard to keep his anger under control, but Cass kept him from storming towards the party on the veranda by unobtrusively stepping in front of him. Still she walked up the little mound behind the house while she introduced herself. "Good evening. I'm DI Morton. We're sorry to interrupt this little party but we're investigating a possible crime and have a few very urgent questions."

"Pah! Party!" Tommy grunted snidely. He would have loved to simply beat the very urgent answers out of the clown and the bald one but another sharp look from Cass towards the fuming DI saved the men from their doom.


For a few heartbeats it was silent. The clown, presumably Nolan Stevens, was the first to move. He inhaled and lifted his face towards DI Morton. He was not able to say anything because someone else spoke first. It came from the dark part of the garden.

"Sir?" That was Barbara's voice. It was a bit shaky and uncertain.


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