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Cornell was the one member of the team Lorne found hard to tolerate — she suspected envy often got in the way of the woman's work. Lorne had confronted her numerous times about her lousy attitude disrupting the team. But Molly had always insisted there was nothing intentional in her attitude; it was just the way she was.

    "It'll take as long as necessary, Molly," Lorne snapped.

    Pete took over before anything escalated between the two women.

    "Molly, leads are thin on the ground at this stage of the enquiry. So we have to make a start somewhere, right?"

    Molly smiled sarcastically and turned back to her computer.

    Lorne's eyes blazed with fury as she stared at the back of Molly's head. It was another confrontation she could do without. Pete was the master at dealing with Molly's obdurate behaviour and Lorne was happy for him to step in.

    "Pete, get in touch with neighbouring forces, see if any body parts have turned up. That includes the river police."

    "Sure thing, boss."

    Lorne left the group to get on with their tasks and walked through to her office. She rang Arnaud's secretary, who informed her that the post-mortem report wouldn't be finalised until late afternoon.

    After completing hours of mindless paperwork, Pete came to rescue her. His suggestion of grabbing a bite to eat was just the tonic she needed. Her head was pounding and her stomach felt empty after missing out on breakfast.

    They decided to eat at a little Italian restaurant on the edge of town.

    "Did Molly find anything of use?" Lorne asked, as the waiter placed a bowl of Penne pasta topped with a tomato and basil sauce in front of her.

    Pete delayed answering until the waiter had served him his lasagne, and side order of chips. "We've got three missing women to follow up on. They all disappeared about a month ago. A twenty-two year old, looks like she's run off with an old boyfriend. Next a forty-six year old bank assistant who suspiciously vanished along with ten grand from the safe, she's a possible. Finally, we have a woman in her sixties, who should've turned up for a family christening. Her family listed her as missing a week later."

    "Why the delay?"

    "It's a regular occurrence, her taking off and forgetting to tell the family, I mean." Between large mouthfuls of lasagne, he rattled off the details of possible victims.

    Lorne listened but kept her eyes focused on her meal; she found her partner's eating habits disgusting. A sandwich from the local deli was usually a far less messy option.

    "We haven't got a definite age from Arnaud yet, so until we do, we better check out the two older likely candidates. There's no way that was a body of a twenty-two year old." Lorne finished her meal and washed it down with a glass of iced water. "While we're on the subject of Molly, what the fuck is her problem? Next time you see her remind her she's on a final warning for her bad attitude, will you? Because if I have to put up with any more of her unnecessary crap…"

    "Yeah, she knows she's on a final warning, she just takes pleasure in winding you up, boss. I'll have a word when I can. The only thing I can say in her defence is that she comes up with the goods. Without her, we wouldn't have these names to go on. Leave her to me, I'll sort her."

    Lorne glanced out of the window then back at him and asked, "Have you brought the details of the missing women with you?"

    "Yup, I guessed you'd want to start chasing things up straight away. I thought we'd start with Sharron Fishland, she works, or worked, I should say, at the DFL bank in Castleway, about twenty minutes from here."

Chapter Seven

    Lorne drove, much to the 'Sherman tank' driver's annoyance.

    "You might want to wipe the remains of your dinner off your chin before we begin questioning people, Pete," Lorne suggested before they got out of the car.

    "I was saving that bit for Ron." The puzzled look on her face forced him to explain the joke. "Later on, Ron, get it? I despair of you at