Chapter 4

There was something that Marilyn could do while she was at her computer. It would be doubling up Ians’ work, but she called up Ancestor and entered Geoff Hunter and his known year of birth. She tracked through the family tree, finding that he had five brothers. One, who would be the right age as the man that Rose had seen, was called Henry Hunter.

Chapter 3

Tapper looked as if he’d been hit, and Marilyn watched him closely. He was silent, and they could see that his tear ducts still worked. He took a deep breath.

Chapter 2

They walked into the office to see most of the team already studying computer screens. Marilyn went into her own office and spent two hours working on administrative paperwork, to clear her mind. At around ten, she had a call on her mobile.

“DI Houseman.”

And now, as they say in the classics, for something completely different. This is a pair of stories triggered by watching a very realistic British crime series on TV. The term ‘flower’ further into this, is used in York, in a similar way that ‘pet’ is used in Tyneside.

Chapter 1

I wake to the ache still there, low in the back, radiating forward. Emily's side of the bed is empty and cool - she's been getting up before me lately. I lie there for a moment with my hand on my lower abdomen before I've decided to be awake.

Then the intestines register - a liquid looseness, insistent, making its announcement before I'm ready for it. I get up. Bathroom. Now.

Then the routine. Sit, wipe, flush. Nothing unusual on the tissue. The dark boxer briefs feel slightly damper than normal when I pull them up, the baseline returning after the dry spell. I move on.