I didn’t want to ask my question but I didn’t have much choice. ‘One of my colleagues is missing. I need to know whether he’s shown up at your morgue or one of others in the city.’
For a long moment, Laura didn’t answer. ‘Oh, Emma. I’m so sorry.’
The sympathy in her tone almost finishedme and a mist of tears descended. I clenched my jaw and held back the tide. Just. ‘He’s in his late fifties. Caucasian, grey hair, clean shaven but with pock-marked skin. Average height and weight. His name is Anthony Brown.’
‘No one of that name has come in here, and we have no John Does of that description. Wait a minute – I’ll check the computer. It’ll tell me if he’s shown up elsewhere.’
‘Thank you.’ I clutched the phone through the kitchen gloves. It felt reassuringly substantial, as if it were the only thing in the world I had to cling on to. Seconds that felt like minutes ticked by. Then I hear Laura’s voice again.
‘He’s not been taken to any of the morgues in the city.’
I closed my eyes. There was still hope. ‘Good.’ I breathed out. ‘That’s good.’
‘It sounds like you’re in over your head.’ Laura sounded worried. ‘Maybe it’s time you reported what’s happened, Emma. I’ve delayed your post-mortem for another forty-eight hours but, if both you and your colleague are in danger, that might not be a good thing.’
I fixed my gaze on a hairline crack in the ceiling. ‘If I’m no further forward by then, I’ll come clean to whoever I need to. Right now, I need some time. I know you’re taking a risk but—’
‘Pah! Risk-shmisk. I’ve not had this much excitement for years. The dead aren’t as interesting as most people think. I’ll follow your lead, Emma. Just remember that what happened to you might not have been a one-off. You cheated death once. That doesn’t mean you’ll cheat it again.’
A fact that I was grimly aware of. ‘Thank you, Laura,’ I said again. ‘I’ll be in touch before the forty-eight hours are up.’ I replaced the receiver, Laura’s warning ringing in my ears.
I couldn’t stay out on the streets armed with nothing more than a paperweight. Lukas had told me about the weapons housed at Supe Squad. If I was going to find Tony quickly, I had to return to the office anyway. I straightened my shoulders. I had a plan. Of sorts.
***
I made it out of Tony’s building and all the way to Supe Squad without seeing Will, Lukas or any knife-wielding maniacs. At that point, I was prepared to count that as a win. Max the bellman’s shift must have ended; he’d been replaced by another man in similar livery but with an entirely different disposition. He glared at me as I walked up to the Supe Squad building and fumbled with the key.
I leaned back from the door and met his irritated gaze. ‘Were you working here last night?’ I asked.
I could tell from his expression that he was no fan of the police and that he wanted to tell me to piss off. Fortunately, he also knew that it was in his best interests to answer me, so reluctantly he bit out a nod.
‘Did you see anybody coming and going from here?’
‘No.’
‘No one at all?’ I pressed.
‘No.’ He folded his arms across his chest. ‘Nobody is ever around here at night. Your lot are part timers.’
I wondered what he expected, given that there was nothing for us to do. ‘Well,’ I said, offering him a dazzling smile, ‘I’m here now.’
The bellman grunted and turned away. I didn’t take it personally and let myself into the building.
The familiar hallway was shrouded in darkness. I found the light switch by touch, flicking it on and exhaling with relief when the weak lightbulb overhead lit up. I didn’t feel comfortable in the dark any more. I wondered if I ever would.
Although I was itching to investigate the third floor and the weapons Lukas the vampire had mentioned, I restrained myself and headed into the main room on the ground floor. I glanced at Tony’s silent computer before walking over to it and, without sitting down, tried to enter a password. This time I typed in ‘Melissa’ and pressed return, holding my breath. I cursed when it didn’t work. Damn it – I only had one more try before I was locked out.
Fortunately, accessing Tony’s files was only one of my ideas. There was another computer and, trainee or not, I could use it to get the information I needed because we’d been set up with our own logins during our first week at the Academy. Anything I searched for would leave a trace, but this was all about risk versus reward.
The easiest place to begin was Tallulah. Tony’s grubby car was far too old to possess a GPS tracking system, but there was more than one way to skin a cat. Within moments, I had the Automatic Numberplate Recognition system up and running. If Tony had driven anywhere in London, the ANPR programme would find him. It didn’t matter that I wasn’t looking for real-time data; ANPR held its records for two years. Tracking Tallulah for the last twenty-four hours, especially within the city, would be ridiculously easy.
I didn’t have a photographic memory, and I’d not paid attention to the grubby Mini’s numberplate yesterday, but she’d been used to pick me up the previous day. It was a piece of cake to plug in the Academy’s address and the time that Tony had arrived. You have to love technology – and Tony’s shoddy, borderline illegal parking methods. In less than five minutes, I had Tallulah’s numberplate.
I typed it into the ANPR system, then picked up the phone while I was waiting for the computer to do its work. Tony’s mobile might be switched off but that didn’t mean it wasn’t still useful.
Every mobile has its own International Mobile Equipment Identity number, one that is unique to each handset. Even if the SIM card is changed, the IMEI remains the same. Whenever the phone checks in to a local base station, it transmits that number. I couldn’t pinpoint the location of Tony’s phone, but I could find out roughly where it was when it was last turned on – and that might make all the difference.
‘Good evening,’ I said into the phone. ‘I’m calling from Supernatural Squad. I need a mobile number traced and tracked immediately.’
