Woman in Black Read Online Free PDF

news coverage could have spooked her and the last thing anyone wanted was for her to disappear. Jessica already had the basic facts as well as January’s criminal record, which at least gave them a reason to question her.
    Mrs Barnes seemed delighted they were going to pick up her son’s girlfriend and Jessica had to make clear they weren’t arresting January, merely bringing her in so they could ask her questions about Lewis’ disappearance. She checked the address they had was still valid and then walked through to the main floor. The person she was looking for was at a desk by himself so she walked around out of his eye line, creeping behind before cuffing him across the rear of his head with the back of her hand.
    ‘Oi!’ he yelled.
    ‘All right, Dave. Fancy a road trip?’
    Detective Constable David Rowlands spun in his chair, holding the back of his head. He had turned thirty just over six months ago and was a little delicate over it – especially as the string of girlfriends he’d had over the past few years had started to slow down. He liked to maintain an air of being young, free and single but Jessica wasn’t sure the last two were by choice any longer. She was an only child and considered Rowlands her best friend in the force, even if he was more of an annoying brother-type than anything else. They had been good mates before but, if anything, had become even more so since the death of their colleague and friend Carrie Jones the previous year. Both of them had been close to her and, in some ways, hadn’t got over her death. Their way of coping was by constantly winding each other up. Regardless of that, Rowlands was one of the few colleagues Jessica was happy to spend time with away from the station.
    ‘What did you do that for?’ Rowlands said. At first he’d had an angry scowl on his face but, once he saw who it was that had hit him, it turned into an aggrieved grin.
    ‘I was just flattening down a sticky-out bit of hair for you.’
    ‘Is this because I signed you up for careers day duty?’
    ‘You did what?’
    Rowlands seemed surprised, then his smile widened. ‘Oh, you hadn’t noticed?’
    ‘Did you really sign me up?’
    ‘Erm, maybe. You know the DCI would have sent you anyway. This way you come off looking positive about things. You should thank me.’
    ‘You do know you’ll never beat me in this escalating war. I outrank you so you sign me up for careers day, I get you to work your way through that giant pile of freedom of information requests no one else wants to do.’
    ‘Oh come on. That’s playing dirty. What did you want me for anyway?’
    Jessica explained they were going to collect January Forrester for questioning but they weren’t going to arrest her. She chose two uniformed officers to go with them just in case and the four of them set off in two marked cars.
    * * * * * * * * * * * * *
    January lived in a flat above a row of shops in the Abbey Hey area. There were far worse districts in Manchester but, as they arrived, Jessica could see a grubby rank of stores with a dirty-looking and smelly pizza shop, a hairdressers and a convenience store. Each shop was separated by a single door leading to three upstairs flats. Frome what they could see, there was no back entrance to the properties, only loading areas for the shops.
    Jessica rang the doorbell as Rowlands and the two other officers stood behind her. They had parked the cars in the alley which led to the delivery yard in order to not be too obvious.
    There was no answer so Jessica rang and knocked again.
    ‘Did Lewis’ mother tell you if January worked?’ Rowlands asked.
    ‘She said she’d never known her have a job and that she was always in.’
    ‘It doesn’t bode well if she’s gone missing, especially with everything that’s been on the news.’
    ‘She could have just popped out to the shops.’
    Jessica turned, leaning against the store’s window next to the front door. The other three officers were