Waiting for Wednesday

with displaced furniture and computers. In the end he led Yvette,
Munster and Riley down some stairs and into the canteen. Riley dumped a pile of files on
a table, then they all queued for coffees and teas. Munster and Riley bought a bun each,
covered with white icing. Karlsson looked disapproving.
    ‘While we’re here,’ said
Munster.
    ‘I missed breakfast,’ added
Riley.
    ‘As long as you don’t get the
files sticky,’ said Karlsson.
    ‘We’d better get used to
this,’ said Yvette, as they settled at their table in a corner of the canteen by a
window. ‘When the cuts take effect, those of us who’re left will be fighting
for office space.’
    ‘Hot desking,’ said Riley.
    ‘What?’ Karlsson frowned.
    ‘It’s the modern kind of office.
Nobody has their own desk. The idea is that you only occupy space when you need
it.’
    ‘What about your stuff?’ said
Munster. ‘Your paper clips and coffee mug.’
    ‘You keep them all in a locker.
It’s a bit like school.’
    ‘Not like my school,’ said
Munster. ‘If you left anything in your locker there, it got broken into and
nicked.’
    ‘If you’re quite ready,’
Karlsson interrupted.
    ‘Hang on,’ said Munster.
‘Is Bradshaw coming?’
    ‘He’s busy today,’ said
Karlsson.
    ‘Probably appearing on TV,’ said
Yvette, and Karlsson gave her a look.
    ‘You go first,’ he said.
    ‘The situation is pretty much what you
saw at the scene. We’ve had officers taking statements up and down the road. Plus
we sent a couple of them to spend time there for the next two or three afternoons, just
in case there were people who walked there at that time of day. There’s nothing
that leaps out.’
    ‘Fingerprints?’ said
Karlsson.
    ‘They’ve got dozens of
them,’ said Yvette. ‘But this was a family house, people in and out all the
time. They’ve started to eliminate family prints, but it’s hopeless until we
can narrow it down.’
    ‘Weapon?’ said Karlsson.
    ‘We haven’t found
one.’
    ‘Have you searched?’
    ‘Within reason.’
    ‘There was a bin collection the next
morning,’ said Munster. ‘A few officers had made a preliminary search the
previous afternoon. But we didn’t have the men.’
    ‘I don’t even know why I’m
bothering,’ said Karlsson. ‘But I’ll say it anyway: CCTV?’
    ‘Nothing in the road itself,’
said Yvette. ‘It’s residential. It doesn’t have them. We’ve got
the footage from a couple of cameras on Chalk Farm Road. But we haven’t been
through it yet.’
    ‘Why not?’
    ‘We’ve got a window of three or
four hours and crowds of people wandering down to Camden Lock and we don’t know
what we’re looking for.’
    There was a pause. Karlsson noticed a smile
on Riley’s face. ‘Is something funny?’ he asked.
    ‘Not really,’ Riley said.
‘It’s different from what I expected.’
    ‘Is this your first?’
    ‘You mean murder? I dealt with a death
near the Elephant and Castle. But they caught the guy at the scene.’
    ‘Where’s the fun in that?’
said Karlsson. He turned back to Yvette. ‘The woman, Ruth Lennox. Why was she at
home?’
    ‘It was her afternoon off. Her husband
said it’s a day she normally goes shopping or does things around the
house.’
    ‘Meets friends?’
    ‘Sometimes.’
    ‘That day?’
    Yvette shook her head. ‘He showed us
her diary. There was nothing in it for that day.’
    ‘How are the family?’ asked
Karlsson.
    ‘In shock. When I interviewed them they
seemed stunned. They’re staying with friends a few doors up from their
house.’
    ‘What about the husband?’
    ‘He’s not the demonstrative
type,’ said Yvette, ‘but he seems devastated.’
    ‘Have you asked him where he was at
the time of his wife’s murder?’
    ‘He told us he had a four
o’clock meeting with a Ms Lorraine Crawley, an accountant for the company where he
works. I rang her and she confirmed it. It lasted about half an hour, forty minutes.
Which makes it very unlikely that he could have got back to his house in time to kill
his wife and leave before the daughter came home from school.’
    ‘Unlikely?’ said Karlsson.
‘That’s not good enough. I’ll talk to him again myself.’
    ‘You suspect him?’ said
Riley.
    ‘If a woman is killed and
there’s a husband or a boyfriend around, then that’s something to be be
taken into consideration.’
    ‘But look,’ said Munster.
‘As you saw yourself, the little girl found broken glass next to the front door
and