The Red Dahlia

'I suppose that case must have helped to get you a promotion. Congratulations,' Lewis said.

She couldn't help noticing an undercurrent of sarcasm in his tone; it had obviously not helped him. The duo then followed Langton into his office.

The young DC came out from Langton's office which faced the Incident Room and so had blinds for privacy. Anna watched as the DC filled three mugs with black coffee and a plate with doughnuts.

'Good-looking, isn't he? Nice suit,' she said.

Anna smiled. 'He hates his coffee cold. If that's stewed, I'd get the canteen to make a fresh pot.'

'So you've worked with the DCI before?'

'Yes, a while back.'

'Is he married?'

Anna turned away. 'Not as far as I know. That coffee will be cold if it wasn't before.'

As the young DC moved off, Anna looked over to the officer working at the next desk. 'What's her name? I keep forgetting?'

He didn't even look up. 'Bridget; like the diaries.'

Anna smiled. The young DC was slightly overweight but very pretty, with silky blonde hair, unlike Anna's own spiky red. Anna had tried to grow hers longer but it didn't look right, so she had gone back to her usual cropped cut which held in check the curls that liked to spring up.

There was a strange atmosphere in the Incident Room. Langton's remark about their lack of results had hit home and the team were feeling out of sorts. Nevertheless, Anna worked at gathering names and addresses of Louise's known associates and, along with the rest of the team, began arranging interviews. Her first priority was to go to Louise's flat to reinterview Sharon herself.

Louise had lived in the top-floor flat of a narrow four-storey house off Balcombe Street, close to Baker Street tube station. Anna paused to catch her breath; the stairs were steep. The staircase narrowed as she approached flat nine. She knocked and waited.

'Come in,' Sharon called out. Anna pushed the unlocked door open. The small hallway was as narrow as the stairs and was crammed with photographs of Sharon, some of her modelling teenage clothes and others in which she was rather more scantily dressed. There were none of Louise.

'I'm in here,' Sharon called from the kitchen, interrupting Anna's scrutiny. 'I've put the kettle on; do you want tea or coffee?'

'Coffee, please. Black, no sugar,' Anna said as she entered.

'It's only instant,' Sharon said, busily wiping down a sink that was stacked with dirty crockery.

'That's fine.'

Anna sat at the small folding plastic table; the rest of the space in the tiny kitchen was taken up with cheap cabinets, a fridge and a washing machine.

'I don't think there is anything I can tell you that I haven't said already,' Sharon said as she poured boiling water into two mugs.

'I just want to go over a few things to find out what type of person Louise was.' Anna took her notebook and a tape recorder from her briefcase. 'Do you mind if I tape us? It's in case I don't write something down I'll need to check out.'

Sharon hesitated and then nodded, drawing out the other chair.

Anna checked her tape was running. 'You gave us a list of Louise's friends and we'll be talking to them, but can you think of anyone else?'

'I went through my address book again last night and there's no one that I can think of.'

'Did Louise have a diary?'

'I don't know.'

'Maybe we could have a look around later? If you would like to see the Section Eight warrant?'

Sharon shrugged as she munched a chocolate chip biscuit, not even glancing at the document that Anna showed her.

'You mentioned to DCI Morgan that Louise was seeing someone.'

'I don't know his name and I never met him. I only saw him the once, when he rang downstairs for her. He didn't come in. I was just going out, so I saw him go to his car and wait for her; well, I presume that's what he was doing.'

'What type of car?'

'I was asked that. I don't know. It was black and shiny, but I don't know what make.'

'Can you describe this man?'

'I already have.'

'Yes I know, but just for me.'

Sharon finished her biscuit and wiped the corners of her mouth with one finger. 'Tall, maybe six foot. He was wearing a long dark coat, very smart, and he had short dark hair. I only really saw the back of him. Oh yeah, slight hooknose, I remember that.'

'What age, do you think?'

'Hard to tell; thirty-five to forty-five? He wasn't young and he wasn't her usual type.'

'How long had Louise been seeing this man?'

Sharon shrugged. 'I dunno; I think she knew him before she moved in here. She didn't see him that regular, but she was very keen on him.'

'What makes you say that?'

'Well, when she did have a date with him, she spent hours getting dressed, changing her clothes; she even borrowed some of mine. She said she wanted to look smart for him, sophisticated, and she bought some new shoes: very high, spike-heeled ones.'

'Are they missing?'

'I don't know. I haven't looked.'

'We can do that later. I'll also need you to look through her wardrobe and see if any of her clothes are missing.'

'I can do, but I don't know if I'll be able to tell; you see, we shared the flat but, I mean, we weren't close friends.'

'Really?'

'She answered an ad I put in Time Out when my last flatmate left. It's rented and I couldn't afford to live here by myself, so I needed someone fast.'

'When was this?'

'About seven months ago. I dunno where she lived before; she didn't have that much luggage. She didn't have a lot of money either; well, her job paid peanuts.'

'You said she worked for a dentist?'

'Yeah, but they paid her a minimum wage, 'cos she was having some of her teeth fixed. She needed some caps and fillings done, so I guess when that had been finished she would leave. She didn't talk about her work much; just that it was really boring and she had this thing about hearing the dentist's drill.'

'And you work as a model?'

'Yes, mostly catalogue work. I also do part time at a cafe up the road.'

Anna ploughed on, keeping the questions simple, not wanting to unnerve Sharon before trying to ease her onto more personal topics.

Langton, Barolli and Lewis spent the entire morning sifting through the case history. By two o'clock, having worked through lunch, they closed the files.

'They've got nothing,' Langton said, quietly.

'Yeah, well at least they've identified her.'

'We'll have a briefing at the end of the day; in the meantime, I'll go over to interview this Sharon, her flatmate.'

'Travis is there,' Barolli said.