The drive home took longer than expected, Mira took the wrong turn twice, by the time she pulled into her street, she had decided two things, she wouldn't think about it again and she would find Jones.
She managed the first task for about four hours and by evening, she tracked down Jones, or so she thought, at Elara's, right where she expected. It wasn't Jones, but evidence she'd left behind.
Mira had been visiting all the spots she'd gone to with Jones, hunting for clues. When the server handed her a sugar sachet and walked away, she felt something hard inside, she slipped it into her jacket and left after paying the bill for her half-finished coffee.
She didn't open it in the car or at home, after feeding Morse, Miller and herself, she spent the whole day in a chair, stuck on the same page of a novel. By evening, she picked up the reports Miller had written in the library, fed everyone again and briefly wondered when Jones had left the evidence before deciding to let it go. Determined to talk to Jones when they met, she grabbed the reports, got in the car and headed to Vasic.
Petra Vasic read everything without expression, when she finished, she set the documents down and looked up, "This is sufficient."
"They must have people in court who can shift the case before we file." Mira said with concern.
"I have a friend in court, we'll get the work done early tomorrow morning, before anyone can access or alter it." Petra paused for a moment, "Jones deserves recognition for her work."
"I will make sure of it." Mira hurried out and sat in the car for a moment. Her phone lit up, she watched his name on the screen through three full rings, he tried again and she let it ring. An hour later, when she was at home, a message arrived.
'I know you won't want to see me, I am asking anyway, fifteen minutes in public place, please Mira.'
She typed response twice and deleted it, she understood that fifteen minutes in a public place was not an unreasonable request and still couldn't make herself want to sit across from him.
'You managed a situation.'
She heard herself say it in the flat, his jacket still over the chair. The part she couldn't move past was not that he'd had a role at the beginning, it was that he had stood there, seen her frightened for him specifically and chosen to let her stay there.
She picked up the book and did not meet Arthur.
She woke up in the chair with the book still in her hand and the lamp still on, Morse was on the arm of it, the window was grey, she glanced into the kitchen to find Arthur, but he wasn't there making coffee for her, she skipped the coffee, stood in the shower until the water went cold, got dressed and went to work.
Soane glanced at her as he stepped through the door, then quietly made his way to his office.
"He gave me a look I didn't appreciate." Chen moved toward Mira.
"A lot of things you won't like are going to happen in the coming days." Mira did not look up.
Her phone rang next minute, she looked at Chen with expression that said the trouble arrived, she picked up the call anyway.
"Detective Mira Cooper, I want you to understand something, what has been done this morning is irregular, it is premature and it represents a serious failure of process that will not be overlooked." Callow said with a measured tone he used when he was angry, "There are procedures, there are channels that exist for a reason, what you have done, what you have participated in doing bypasses every one of them, do you understand the exposure that creates for this department? For the people in it?"
She let him keep talking, at no point he said anything she hadn't already heard in some form from men who stood at windows and believed the view belonged to them, when the silence came, she asked, "Is that everything?"
"You should think very carefully about your next steps."
"I will." She ended the call.
Diane's case was on the news by nine, a colleague Mira hadn't spoken to in four months appeared at the edge of her desk, "Quite a morning."
"Yes." Mira glanced at him briefly and looked back at her screen until he left, her phone kept ringing and she cut each call as short as possible, the last call came on the burner after she'd decided not to answer any calls, but she did anyway and walked to the window to pick up.
"Is this Mira?" A woman spoke carefully, "You don't know me, she told me that if I ever saw the Aldric Group's name in the news, I should call you."
"You knew Diane?" Mira asked.
"She told me I would see Aldric group's name in news and when I do, I should call this number."
"Where are you?"
"In city for another hour, we should meet before I leave." She cut the call.
Mira glanced at her phone for a moment, a message with address appeared the next minute; she read it, memorized it and then deleted it.
"I need some air." Mira came back to desk and looked at Chen, "If Reyes asks, I am going to Platform Nine."
"I'll keep you updated on Soane's suspicious activity." Chen said without looking at her.
Mira kept a straight face and pretended to work for another fifteen minutes before heading out. She took a few wrong turns before making her way to the address she had memorized. The neighborhood was dotted with new buildings, many still under construction and she was heading to one of them. West Park Avenue, almost finished and ready to be inhabited. She took the stairs to the fourth floor, kept her gun loaded and in hand.
"Detective Mira Cooper." A woman's voice echoed from the darkness and she appeared seconds later as Mira reached the fourth floor, around sixty years old, her hair was partly white and partly brunette, her face held an unspoken pain.
Mira stood near the door, positioned so she could see both the floor and the stairs, "Who are you?"
"I'm Susan Tucker. About a month ago, Diane gave me this drive, said it was separate from all her work and asked me to keep it safe until she found something useful to do with it. Then one day, she called and told me to destroy it if I saw her name in the news and the case was wrapped up, or to hand it over to the detective handling her case if I saw the Aldric Group's name in the news as criminals." Susan took a break, she was lightly panting from talking.
"Did she tell you what's in it?" Mira still kept her guard up.
"She did not." Susan replied curtly.
"How did you know Diane?" Mira inquired.
Susan walked to the window and gazed at the bustling city, at people go about their days, unaware of her existence, she turned back to Mira and sighed, "She was my daughter."
To be continued...