Free Lights Out by W.J. Stopforth Page B

problem, I was in a world of my own” he said embarrassed by
his sudden reaction to her arrival.
    “It helps me to get out of the office for a while. The renovations
are really distracting.”
    “Oh”, Sarah replied simply. “Me too. Running helps me to clear my
head and arrange my thoughts. It’s a good working process.” She glanced
sideways at Ryan. He looked uneasy with her running there beside him.
    They ran alongside each other for some time in silence, each
concentrating on their own thoughts.
    Ryan spoke first.
    “Any closer to finding out who the dead guy is?”
    Sarah knew that they weren’t, but didn’t necessarily want him to know
that they had no new leads yet.
    “Yes, we are making headway, it may be a while before we can announce
or confirm anything.” She said slightly breathless using her professional
police response rather than the truth.
    ‘Oh” Ryan replied, not knowing what else to say.
    He started to feel a bit awkward running alongside a Police
Detective. Had she followed him here? He started to wonder if this was just a
coincidence.
    “So, I guess you’ll just let me know if you need me for anything else?”
    Sarah picked up the hint from Ryan. This wasn’t her usual style,
bumping into a witness on a social level, however incidental.
    “Yes of course.” She said. “Enjoy your run, I need to start heading
back.”
    Sarah swiftly turned around and stepped up her running pace, leaving
Ryan running in the opposite direction bemused by their encounter.
    Before Ryan had a chance to respond she had disappeared around the
side of the mountain.
    Sarah felt irritated as she ran back toward her apartment. She was
frustrated that she couldn’t close the bank case. The Chief was still getting
pressure from the top, so likewise he was re-directing his frustration down to
her and her team. As for Harper, there was something about his involvement that
made her feel unsettled; she couldn’t put her finger on it. She just had a
feeling that things were not as they seemed with him. Or maybe she was just
imagining it. She chided herself for letting her thoughts run wild. Facts.
That’s what she needed, facts and leads, of which she had precious little of
either.
    Ryan finished his run, but didn’t feel any better for it. Hoping that
the run would free up his mind from the noise at the Bank, all he had managed
to achieve was to fill his head with thoughts of the dead Chinese man. Flash
backs of his pale waxy skin, the soaked overalls, wet with blood, the coffee
cup slowly rolling across the floor, spilling the brown liquid content onto the
white marble. He couldn’t shake it. He wondered if it was like this for
everyone who had ever seen a dead body. Constantly appearing at inappropriate
and unwelcome moments.
    Ryan stood under the hot shower in the
staff changing rooms for a few minutes. Finally thoughts of the old man began
to wash away and were replaced by thoughts of his afternoon ahead. Suddenly his
head was filled with deadlines and reports pleased that he had something that
would keep him busy for the rest of the day.
    He grabbed his towel and dried himself
down, then pulled out his clothes and sports bag from the locker.
    Once dressed, Ryan made his way back to
his desk and listened to the scraping and banging of the renovations.
     

Chapter
11
    AUGUST 8: 1:00pm
     
    Officer Chow was sitting at his desk carefully going over the case
files that Lam had placed on his desk before lunch. He was supposed to go
through every one in fine detail to see whether they had missed anything, any
detail, no matter how small. He had
read and re read the files, but there was nothing. He could sense that she was
under pressure. She was generally very non-communicative at the best of times,
but when she was under pressure from the Chief, she became snappy and irritable
and it was normally down to him to bear the full brunt of it. Finally, to his
relief, she had gone for a run to clear her head and would only