'Oh! Hello Daisy!' Alex had picked up the phone. 'How're you getting on? Can I put it on the speaker so John can hear!' She pressed a button on her phone.

'Can you hear me John?' Daisy's voiced squeaked in the distance.

He nodded and Alex spoke. 'Yes! He can! What's happened then?'

'Sorry it has been three weeks. But we think it might be all over!' Daisy paused as if waiting for an answer. 'We pulled Nastasha Smerova's body from the Thames last night. It looks like she's been there for about three to four weeks and that she'd been strangled. She was still wearing the tartan skirt! So we've now got a murder enquiry!'

'Oh dear!' Alex replied. 'The poor girl! So was Stephen Williams the last person to see her alive?'

'Probably not!' Daisy voice echoed around the room. 'Her neighbour saw her come in and then go out almost immediately about ten on the night we got the phone call. We've not had any other sitings, despite the fact we know exactly what she was wearing! She did stand out too! No CCTV pictures either! Of either her or Stephen Williams!'

'Did where she live give you any clues?'

'Not yet! Well not to the call and the bombings. She lived in a smart flat on the other side of Victoria Park. We've been through everything, including her computer and her phone records. All that sort of thing! Nothing at all! No fingerprints! Lots of unknown DNA! It seems she had a broad taste in men!'

'How do you mean?' Alex asked the question rather naively.

'She may have been earning money on the side as a discrete and very up-market prostutite! She owned a lot of bizarre leather and latex clothing. But then you don't know these days, as she may have worn it clubbing!'

'Surely you can prove she was on the game from the phone calls and e-mails!' John called across. 'Or was she using an anonymous e-mail. Hotmail? Yahoo?'

'If she was we haven't found it yet! She could also have been picking up clients in a chat-room! That's the normal way they work these days.' Daisy offered an explanation. 'It's very difficult to trace.'

'Do you want to see what we can find?' Alex made the offer! 'John can often make sense of nothing!'

'I know! I'll send him all the details, we have!'

***

'Any other news on the bombs and the demands?'

'Yes! We've had two other threats; one from Manchester and one from Liverpool, Or should I say Richard Burton and Michael Caine! There have also been several attempted calls from a mobile in Russia. Are they connected? We're tending to think it something to do with friends of Natasha! Or perhaps some form of hoax!'

'You had better be sure!' Alex's voice showed her worries. 'Can you afford to ignore them?'

'No! And we're definitely not!'

'Perhaps!' John paused to pick his words carefully. 'Stephen Williams is leading you a merry dance. From my further discussions here, it would be typical!'

'But then who killed Natasha?' Daisy paused. 'He may be a bit weird but everything we know about him and his type, say that he wouldn't kill. Where's the motive?

'Perhaps, she used to make a lot of noise through the wall and that annoyed him?'

***

'Why do you think he did it?' Alex had come over to John and was standing behind him. 'Did George tell you something you haven't told Daisy and myself?'

'I came clean with George!'

Anger showed in Alex's face. 'You were told not to! Do you want us all to end in Court?'

'Daisy asked if I would do anything to get at the truth. That's just what I'm doing!'

'Well!' She was still very angry. 'If it gets no further I hope it'll be alright!'

'It won't get any further!' John had made sure of that with a very large threat! 'George and I go back a long way!' He wasn't going to disclose to Alex the night they had spent in Paris at a conference! They had not been alone! In fact they had been outnumbered!

'So what did he tell you?'

'A few years ago, one night after work they went for a drink!' John smiled! 'Well several. George likes to be friendly and get to know who he's dealing with!'

'Just like he sussed who Daisy was!'

'Yes! And the guard dropped a little!'

'But did he say enough to incriminate himself?'

'No!' John's smile had dropped. 'But he laid out a scenario exactly the same as the one that is unfolding now. Both believed that if the bombs were planted some years before, how could you find the evidence?'

'George was just leading him on!' Alex was not impressed.

'But how do we explain the fact that Stephen Williams has about six million Euros in his bank account?'

Copyright 2004 by Ewart Higgins