Chapter 18

Despite saying it was most likely he would not see Lottie at college the next day, when Steve pulled into the car park with Kate in the passenger seat he saw Lottie walking alone with her overhead headphones on into the main building and turn left towards the student union. As she glanced out the window they locked eyes and she stopped dead in her tracks. She headed back towards the main entrance to meet the two lowering her headphones to sit around her neck as she did.

"I thought you said I wouldn't see you here?" she said quietly, clearly conscious of being heard by her peers.

"I couldn't help it if you happened to be walking through reception when we arrived."

"Fine, I'll give you that but if I see you again anywhere else on campus, I swear to God I will never speak to you again" Lottie hissed then turned to Kate full of smiles and good temperament. "Hi Kate, you look gorgeous today."

"Thanks, how did last night go?"

"Great" Lottie said and wanted to speak further but noticed Steve was uncomfortable. "I'll call you later. Got to go, I've got a study session in the student union with a mate. See you later."

They watched Lottie go before tracking down Liz Dawson nee McAndrew. Liz was sat at her desk typing away at her computer when Steve and Kate were lead into her office room she shared with three other people. Of everyone they had interviewed so far in this case, Liz was the one who had aged the best. Even though Charles was a close contender, Liz was something else. She had a regal grace and dignity to her that meant it appeared that nothing weighted her down. She had hardly any wrinkles and no dark bags under her eyes due to the lack of stress or strain in her life. Her hair, shoulder length and silvery shimmered in the artificial light. She made a simple high street suit look like a designer outfit she paid thousands for and her perfect posture made her seem taller than she was.

"Liz Dawson?" Steve asked making her look up from her screen.

"Yes." Even her voice in that one word was pure elegance and grace. Steve felt like he was in the presence of a member of royalty. Kate Middleton then popped into his head but he quickly shoved that thought away.

Kate and Steve showed her their badges and she looked confused. "DS Steve Arnott and DC Kate Fleming. We are looking into the disappearance of DS Christopher Wright and we have some questions for you. Is there somewhere we can talk in private?"

Her face didn't give away anything about how she felt in that moment. She simply stood up and indicated to follow her into a nearby empty meeting room. The three sat down.

"Are you from cold case?"

"Anti-corruption" Steve corrected her making her raise a single eyebrow. Steve never knew how people could do that.

"If you are going to say that Christopher was corrupt then don't expect me to co-operate. I will gladly live and die on that hill."

"We are looking into a case that Christopher was involved in and given he disappeared we are trying to get as much information from friends and colleagues" Steve explained. He didn't want to mention the bank robbery in case she tripped up and mentioned it first. She didn't ask which case, instead nodded slightly.

"How can I help exactly?"

"We were hoping you could tell us of your relationship with Christopher. We understand that you were colleagues and friends in the years before he disappeared" Kate opened up the questioning.

"That's right. We were best friends actually. We lived a few doors down from each other in the same block of flats on Harris Lane. We met in 1971 when I moved into his building. He helped me carry boxes up the stairs as the lift was broken. Very sweet to help out a stranger like that but that was who he was. Salt of the earth and didn't expect anything in return. Was a bit of a surprise when I walked into the MIT office and see him sat there in his uniform."

"So you didn't know he worked for the police when you came to work in the team?" Kate clarified.

"No idea. We met that day I moved in and the second time I saw him was when I went to the office. I was meant to be on a six month temporary contract to cover maternity leave and ended up staying for four years so we got to know each other."

"What did you do exactly in the team?" Steve asked.

"I worked mostly in the office rather than on the streets as it were. Someone has to deal with processing all the information and forming case files. Now all that is done online and through internal computer systems. I was the computer back in the day. Someone had to do it. I needed the money and was new to the area. Thought I could get some groundwork in acting as a temp across multiple departments. See how I go and if there was somewhere I felt I could stay I would apply permanently."

"MIT fit the bill for you?" Steve clarified.

"Christopher fit the bill. He was the reason why I stayed. The maternity leave role extended into a permanent position as the person I was covering decided not to come back. After he … after he was gone, I found it harder and harder to come into work. The team turned on me as my protector was gone. I stuck it out as long as possible and began 1975 by handing in my notice."

"What about after that?" Steve asked.

"I fluttered about doing admin roles and getting by as best I could. I think I stayed as long as I did because I hoped and prayed that I would hear something on internal systems that his case was being looked into and I could keep asking cold case to look into it but nothing ever happened. Twenty years I was in the force and I never found him."

"Did your relationship even go further than friendship?" Kate asked.

"Let me guess, Holly Lightstone tell you that?" she asked now we a bit of sass folding her arms.

So she was human after all Steve thought.

"I can tell you now, categorically, Christopher and I were never ever in a relationship. It never went further than friendship. Yes it was a deep friendship I will admit that. We were almost one person in a way. We just got each other from the moment we met. I was so upset when Christopher started dating Holly because I knew what a bunny boiler she was. There may not have been many WPCs in our building but there were enough for all of us to know things about each other. Holly was on another level."

"In what way?" Kate asked.

"Rumour had it; she attacked another WPC with a pair of scissors and nearly took that poor woman's eye out when the other WPC slept with her boyfriend. That's how she got thrown out of MIT. Don't know if it is on her file but it will be somewhere. She is dangerous."

"So why was it that the team believed you were dating Christopher?" Steve asked.

"Because that is what we made them believe. He needed to get away from Holly but no matter how many times he told Holly it was over she wouldn't listen and think he was playing a game. She'd laugh at his 'joke' and carry on as if everything was normal. At the same time I was being harassed by the men in the team. I was the easy target for sexual harassment and … I got assaulted. Christopher needed to get out of his relationship and I needed protection."

"Why didn't you report the assault?" Kate asked. Liz's face darkened.

"Who said I didn't? My report somehow disappeared from record and I couldn't quit because I had signed a contract and wouldn't have survived without it so that meant I was stuck there. Pretending we were in a relationship fit our situations. We desperately needed each other's protection. We devised a plan where we would deliberately get caught kissing in the office and Charles was the easy target being friends with Holly and all. It was the only time we ever locked lips. It went like clockwork although we didn't anticipate Nicholas punching Charles in the pub. Other than that all was good. Holly dumped Christopher and I got left alone. We kept our respective flats but we would often sleep at each other's places needing the warmth of another person in the night" She explained.

"So Nicholas punched Charles?" Kate clarified

"Yes. Christopher was really distressed by that. He didn't like violence despite working for the police and knowing that it was caused because of him that upset him."

Confirmed, that Charles and Liz's account of that night in the pub matched Steve wrote in his notepad.

"Did Christopher ever talk to you about a bank robbery?" Steve asked.

"In Manchester? Yeah, that messed him up a bit. I'll never forget that night. He came back to the office and looked like he had aged twenty years in less than four hours since I had seen him last. He was so shook up he didn't speak to me. Just sat there and stared into space. I took him home and brought him into my flat. Couldn't get him to eat or anything. In the end I had to slip him a sleeping pill. He was never the same after that. He started complaining of headaches and nightmares. He'd spend longer and longer time away from the flat … then one day he just … didn't come home."

"Did you work on that case file?" Steve asked.

"Dedicated weeks to it. I collected all the information possible. I made it my most detailed case ever done before or after that. Even made a copy of it because I knew something might happen to it. I got everything. The official reports, all the witness statements, the blueprints of the bank layout, I drew movement diagrams of police and those in the bank through the whole ordeal. I even tried to find that bloody car in the alleyway but nothing - fake plates. I wrote a report for the file to say that this didn't make sense and that most likely this was an internal job. No one ever got back to me on it because who would believe a WPC who just pushes paper? That case made no sense at all."

Kate and Steve looked at each other. 'Paper tears, crumples, slips away' they remembered Charles saying in his interview.

"You wouldn't still have the copy would you?" Kate asked. Liz sat back in her chair.

"So something did happen to the file? I knew it! I've still got it alright and if you are willing to drive me to mine, I can get it for you right now. I knew those bastards would screw me over. Perhaps anti-corruption are the right people to look into this case after all. Please, I beg you, if you find anything to do with Christopher, will you tell me?"

"You understand that being involved with Christopher's team there are limits on what we would be able to share" Steve said to which Liz nodded.

"Completely, but I am willing to do anything to get him found. It might sound insane but I understand what Heathcliffe in Wurthering Heights said. 'Take any form, drive me mad, only do not leave me in this dark alone where I cannot find you. I cannot live without my life! I cannot die without my soul'. Please? Will you help me?" Liz begged.

Kate and Steve looked at each other. Kate shrugged and being of lower rank it wasn't her call. Steve turned back to Liz. "Give us the file and we will do what we can but if we find out that you have told us anything that doesn't align with what we have, you get nothing from us" he said sternly.

"Done" Liz agreed. Kate and Steve took her home and as promised she went straight to a hidden safe in her study in full view of Steve and Kate and produced the file in full. It was very think and full of documents Steve and Kate had never seen. For certain, the internal record had been messed with and here was the proof. Now the hard work really began.

A couple of weeks passed by quickly and the build up to Christmas had arrived. It was mid-December, getting really cold now and the countdown to Steve's 'bad period' as Lottie referred to it had begun. Taking Lottie and Gwen's advice, Steve had started talking to a therapist about everything which was beginning to help him. He didn't tell anyone about it, not even Kate.

"I hate my job!" Lottie declared entering the Winslow before sitting down on an available chair opposite Kate with a huff. Steve was at the bar getting drinks and on seeing Lottie he added a drink for her to his order which Alex was taking.

"What's going on?" Kate asked.

"I can't go back to London for Christmas because of my dumb ass manager! I applied for Christmas Eve and Boxing Day off for travelling months ago but my manager rejected it and didn't bother to tell me until now. It's too late to do anything about it so I can't go. But guess who isn't working those days? AND for Christmas Eve we are working for four hours after the store closes to get it prepared for Boxing Day plus I've been given extra shifts from now on to cover the Christmas and New Year period. So as well as being a full-time student I am basically doing a full time job, and on Christmas Eve I'll be working 9am until 9pm. I hate my life!" She explained exasperated.

"That sucks. Christmas up here can't be that bad" Kate said trying to see the positive side.

"It'll be my first Christmas away from home" Lottie said sadly feeling a little teary eyed. "Fuck! My hormones are all over the place too. Perfect time for Endo to piss me off!" she said quickly wiping her eyes. Kate knew what she was talking about. Although Steve had kept his promise to Lottie never to tell anyone, that didn't stop Lottie from telling Kate herself. 'Endo' was Lottie's way of referring to her endometriosis without saying it. The two women had had many conversations on the phone or by text about it and Kate was the moral support that Lottie needed on both good and bad days.

"On the plus side, you have a boyfriend now who clearly likes you because he keeps looking over here since you came in" Kate said making Lottie smile weakly. "How is it going with you two?"

"Good, really good. I was rather nervous at first but now I am a lot more relaxed. It still makes me nervous though that he is so generous with me when I'm not used to it. Tickets to Fleetwood Mac to make up for lack of flowers on a first date? How do I deal with that? He is so kind and patient with me. I just worry though at some point his patience will run out. I'm not easy to love, plus he doesn't know about Endo yet."

"I think you are too hard on yourself. He isn't going to run away hearing about it from you like you fear, but the sooner you let him know the more piece of mind you will have. If he is too generous perhaps you need to tell him. Isn't honesty the best policy?"

"Yes it may be but … I can't right now especially with my hormones all over the place." Just then a sharp pain flashed through her abdomen making her grab the edge of the table and hold her breath.

"You alright?" Kate asked.

"Yeah just give me a minute" Lottie said before taking a deep breath. Right at that moment Steve appeared with a tray of drinks.

"Everything ok?" he asked seeing Lottie.

"Fine, just a spasm. It'll pass" she explained. After a moment she let go of the table and she went back to breathing normally. "I have some news. I can't come home for Christmas."

"What? Why?" Steve asked. Lottie explained everything that happened and once again she got teary eyed.

"I'm sorry Nushka. Wish there was something I could do."

"You could let me quit my job so my last day would be before Christmas Eve and then I don't have to work over Christmas and New Year" she suggested with a smile.

"Not a chance" came the response wiping the smile of Lottie's face. "Ok it is going to suck but think of all the extra money you'll have. If you aren't going home then nor am I. You aren't staying here on your own."

"But what about –" Lottie began to protest but another sharp spasm hit her and it stopped her mid-sentence. She grabbed the table again and closed her eyes. The colour began to drain from her face with the pain.

"Where are your painkillers?" Steve asked quietly.

"In my bag." Kate got them for her and Steve pushed Lottie's drink towards her.

"Let's get you home" Katie said watching Steve hand over the painkillers to Lottie who took them gratefully. Once she took the pills and felt more comfortable, the three headed for the door. Lottie looked over to Alex who was busy serving customers but clearly was concerned for her.

"Are you ok?" he mouthed to her.

"I'll call you" she mouthed back.

"There is a god!" Lottie said seeing a note in the post box to say her package was in the postal room across the corridor.

"Expecting something good?" Kate asked.

"Bath bombs! I ran out and did an emergency order with Lush. Thank you next day delivery" Lottie explained and headed for the post room.

"Someone is feeling better" Steve commented to Kate.

"Good I'm glad. The power of strong painkillers … Was thinking, if you aren't able to go to London for Christmas, you could come over to mine? Mark's parents are overseas seeing his brother for Christmas and Lottie I am sure will get on with Josh like a house on fire."

Hearing Kate talk about her home life and her child, it made Steve a little sad. He never would admit his real feelings to Kate whilst she was married to Mark. Having Josh it felt like Kate would never be in his reach. Spending Christmas with her family then would be a wonderful gesture but at the same time the hardest thing he would have to do.

"No pressure, but the offer is there."

"Thanks Kate. Let me run it by Lottie."

Lottie appeared with the package under her arm and Kate saw the Lush logo all over it.

"Enjoy the bath bombs Lottie. Have a good weekend you two."

Kate left the building giving Steve a soft smile as she passed him. He expected to have a relaxing evening at home now the Friday after work drinks were interrupted but it wasn't to be. As he sat watching TV hearing the bath water running a high pitched scream ripped through the flat which came from the bathroom.

"Lottie?!" he asked rushing over to the door. As he did the bathroom door flew open and a screaming Lottie collided into him. She clung to him with all her might. "What is it?" he asked and she pointed to the bathroom with her hands shaking. He managed to get himself free before he stepped inside and saw the package of bath bombs she had brought into the flat open in the sink. Instead of finding bath bombs inside, he instead found a severed hand and wrist on a bed of packing material with a signet ring on the index finger. Attached to the ring was a red ribbon and tag. On the tag all written in capitals in red ink was:

MERRY CHRISTMAS LOTTIE, LOVE HOLLY XXX

Steve stared at it for several seconds taken aback. He turned off the bath taps and left the bathroom before taking Lottie, who was stood outside the door, by the hand and lead her to the sofa. She was staring wide eyed at the floor, now white with the shock. He knelt in front of her to be able to look her in the eye.

"Are you ok?" he asked seeing she looked like she was about to be sick. She nodded after a few swallows. Steve pulled out his phone and rang Kate.

"That was quick. Lottie wants to come for Christmas?" Kate asked picking up.

"We've been sent a hand" Steve said.

"A what?" she asked confused.

"A hand. A human hand. Can you get the gaffer and forensics over to mine while I attend to Lottie?"

"Leave it with me. I'll be back at yours in five minutes."