Free Woman in Black by Kerry Wilkinson

Things hadn’t moved on since the identification of the second hand. Izzy and Dave were both trying to find a second link from Lewis Barnes to anyone else on their missing persons list. So far no other names had matched. Meanwhile, there had been no sign of January Forrester. She hadn’t returned to her flat the previous day and there had been no sightings of her. It didn’t help that even the local television channels and newspapers were fully focused on Christine Johnson. If it wasn’t for that, the press office might have been able to push to get January’s photo somewhere high up the news bulletins or near the front of the papers. As it was, the search for her was barely mentioned. January’s photo had been put on the force’s website and posted on social media networks but Jessica knew hardly anyone looked at those. She had once jokingly suggested in a meeting a few months ago that the best way to get the public to visit their website was to have a pornographic image at the top of each page. The idea hadn’t been warmly received.
    If that wasn’t enough failure for one twenty-four hour period, the Scene of Crime team hadn’t found the black cape at January’s flat and had come away with little other than the slice of linoleum which might have a blood stain on it. Jessica spoke to one of the scientists the previous evening but they told her it would be hard to get a solid match given someone had tried to clean it and it would have likely been walked on many times since. If they could get something conclusive from the cutting, it wouldn’t be in a hurry.
    Jessica was contemplating the state of everything when the officer on reception phoned to tell her Charlie Marks had arrived. At the front desk, a man she didn’t recognise was standing to one side, nervously moving from one foot to the other. He wasn’t very tall but his frame was lean and tight, as if it were mainly muscle with little fat. The mini heatwave was somehow still lasting and Jessica thought the checked shorts and T-shirt he was wearing looked a lot more comfortable than the suit she was in. He had short sandy hair that was tousled in a just-got-out-of-bed way some men seemed to prefer. Because of the shade, she couldn’t tell if it was bleached or his natural colour.
    She held her hand out for him to shake. ‘Are you Charlie?’
    ‘Yes. Detective Daniel?’
    The two shook hands and Jessica asked if she could take the swab. He had no objections and she passed the sample to an officer who would arrange for it to be taken across the city to the laboratories to be tested. Because Jessica had known a day ago they would be getting the saliva, she had already spoken to one of the scientists to tell them to expect it. With the first hand having already been tested, the person assured her it wouldn’t take very long for Charlie’s DNA to be compared to it.
    Charlie was standing around looking a little lost and Jessica felt bad about bringing him in for something that had taken just a few moments. As with Vicky Barnes, she figured she could at least get as much information as possible from him to go with the missing persons file. Even if it turned out the first hand didn’t belong to the man’s brother, at least she would have done something.
    Jessica invited him through to her office. With Louise seeming to be constantly out of the station, it seemed as good a place as any. Jessica wheeled the absent sergeant’s chair around to the other side of her desk, offering it to her guest, before moving a few stacks of paper from her table so they could see each other. ‘Do you want a cup of tea?’ she asked. ‘It’s only from the machine and tastes a bit like washing-up liquid but I’ll go get you one.’
    ‘Were you a salesperson before you took this job?’ Charlie replied, smiling.
    Jessica grinned back. ‘Yeah but I only sold coffee.’
    ‘I think I’ll be all right, it’s too warm for a hot drink anyway.’
    She fully agreed but could