Free DS Jessica Daniel series: Think of the Children / Playing with Fire / Thicker Than Water – Books 4–6 by Kerry Wilkinson Page B

the way.
    ‘Do we at least have the name of whoever was leading the investigation?’ Jessica asked. She saw Izzy and Reynolds swap a nervous glance and felt something sink in her stomach. She
knew the name of the person involved before the inspector spoke the words: ‘It was DI Harry Thomas.’
    Jessica stared at the row of six intercom buzzers and took another deep breath, her third in less than a minute. Each time she hovered her finger over the button, before
withdrawing it. She was standing at the top of a small flight of concrete steps outside the block of flats where Harry lived. She hadn’t seen him in over three years and hadn’t thought
she would ever do so again. At the station both Cole and Reynolds had offered to visit Harry instead of, or with, her but Jessica insisted she wanted to do it on her own. Both officers knew how
close Jessica had been to him at one point as they were both already detectives when she started in CID and Harry was their colleague too. As with a lot of things, probably too many, they trusted
her judgement and, on this occasion, Jessica wanted to go on her own.
    In most cases where a former officer needed to be spoken to, he or she would be invited to the station formally if it was something serious, or it could be a lunchtime chat in the pub if it
wasn’t. Harry had deliberately cut all ties to his former workplace so Jessica talked her fellow detectives into letting her doorstep him. No one was confident he would be helpful if they
gave him much notice. As far as they knew he hadn’t moved to another property but there was only one way they would find out for sure.
    Jessica again raised her finger to the doorbell without putting any pressure on it but her mind was made up as a pitter-patter of raindrops began to fall behind her. She hunched her shoulders
and pulled the top of her jacket over her head. It was almost as if a higher power was telling her to get on with it and Jessica finally relented, pushing the button and hearing a buzzing noise
from the intercom. The noise of the rain increased and she tried to shelter her body under a small roof that overhung the front door. If anything, it was only making her wetter as water dripped
from where she could see the eroded sealant above her.
    Jessica stabbed the intercom again and, just as she was beginning to eye her car parked on the road as the only available dry spot nearby, the device finally crackled into life. ‘Who is
it?’ said a voice from the other end.
    ‘Harry? It’s Jessica Daniel. Can you let me in? It’s shitting it down out here.’
    The intercom hissed and went silent. For a moment, she thought nothing was going to happen before a click indicated the door had opened. Jessica quickly pushed her way into the deserted hallway
and pulled her jacket back down from over her head. The rain reminded her of what Kayla Hutchings said that morning about how she would have picked her son up if it had been a wet day. Jessica
thought about how entire lives could change because of something as random as whether or not it rained.
    Jessica had visited Harry at his flat in the past and started to walk up the hard, echoing concrete steps at the back of the porch. The place where he lived was in a row of old civil-service
buildings not far from the city centre. Each property had been converted into six flats around twenty years ago, and then sold off to private investors. At some point they would have been
attractive places to live but Jessica could see paint flaking from the once-cream walls as she walked up the stairs.
    Harry lived on the third floor and Jessica was dripping water up the steps as she moved. She wondered if the man she once thought she knew so well might be waiting for her but the landing on the
top floor was as deserted as the rest of the building seemed to be.
    The falling rain echoed on the roof as Jessica walked along the corridor to Harry’s flat. She knocked but the door swung inwards as it