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appointment to meet with him at his home office in the Coventry countryside near Ryton on Dunsmore. The surrounding greenery on the short drive out, with golden sunlight streaming across rolling open fields, made a welcome change from my usual airless windowless surroundings lit only by flickering fluorescent strip lights, but soon had me reaching for my sunglasses. Evidently I'd have to start finding more reasons to get away from my desk before I started growing fangs and anaemia set in.
    His home was practically an estate, with electronic gated access that necessitated me climbing out of my car and announcing my presence, before I was permitted to drive along the winding gravelled driveway. The house itself told me I should have concentrated harder at school, being as it was, a grand example of what bespoke architecture and a bottomless wallet can achieve together. I brought the car to a gentle standstill and stepped out, dropping my sunglasses on the driver's seat, and taking in the view of floor to ceiling glass held in place by a network of thick oak beams.
    The front door was already opening before I'd even completed my appraisal, and the Doctor's wife, a tiny pale smiling lady with a waist so improbably small that I thought I could get two hands to meet around it if I wished, bounded energetically into view.
    'Good morning, you must be Zara.'
    I locked the car, immediately wondering why I was bothering in such surroundings, there was infinitely more likelihood of it being broken into on my own doorstep than here.
    'Yes, guilty as charged, Mrs Hardwick.'
    I jogged up half a dozen gleaming wooden steps to greet her, offering my outstretched hand.
    'Please call me Anne, Mrs Hardwick makes me feel every single year of my age.'
    She ignored my hand and instead opted to pull me into an unexpectedly tight hug, forcing me to stoop to accommodate her and enveloping me in a cloud of floral perfume tinged with something chemical that I couldn't place.
    'Well thank you for making me feel so welcome here already, Anne. From the outside your home is really quite something. I'm starting to feel guilty for bothering your husband on what is probably a fool's errand.'
    I delicately extricated myself from her insistent grasp and put some space between us, and noticed for the first time how glassy her stare was, as if she was intoxicated despite the hour.
    'Oh the Doctor won't mind. He's big on investigators following up their hunches, he's even started research on it to try to isolate what that intangible factor is that experienced detectives seem to have which points them in the right direction time and time again. Yes, the house is rather lovely, we had it built to our own specifications in fact, it's just a shame that we'll be moving out soon.'
    I barely had time to process the strange formality in how she'd referred to her husband, when her face suddenly dropped and panic bloomed in her eyes.
    'Oh my! Here's me keeping you standing on the doorstep waiting when he's expecting you.'
    She grabbed hold of my hand and practically pulled me into the house, shutting the door behind us with a bang. Then started to usher me quickly through the hallway, with its galleried staircase, and towards the rear of the property.
    'The Doctor has an office down at the end of this inner hallway here.'
    She stopped at the head of the passageway and pointed, clearly expecting me to continue onwards alone.
    'Thank you, Anne. Can I just ask why you're planning on moving home? I mean, if I had a place as beautiful as this I can't imagine ever wanting to leave.'
    The question hung in the air for a long moment before a deeper voice answered on Anne's behalf.
    'That's what I like to see, a detective who can't break the investigative habit, even with their colleagues. With your successful track record I sincerely hope I'm not on your list of suspects, Ms Wade?'
     
     

Chapter 14
     
    I felt my face working up to a scarlet glow as I sheepishly turned round to