Read DS Jessica Daniel series: Think of the Children / Playing with Fire / Thicker Than Water – Books 4–6 for Free Online

with one shoulder as she continued to drive. ‘Practice. When I first got out of uniform there was this old DI guy called Harry who let me tag along. He seemed to know
everyone and everything. We were around this bloke’s house once for an interview. He asked if I wanted tea. I wasn’t fussed and said “no” but then Harry asked for one
anyway. I was annoyed because I thought he was wasting time but then, while the guy was in the kitchen, Harry was poking around and sizing the place up. He reckoned you should never turn down a
drink whether you want one or not because, while the owner’s away from the room, it gives you a chance to look at the walls, the furniture and the carpets, things like that, and assess what
you might be up against.’
    ‘Clever.’
    ‘I know. Sometimes you’ll be talking to actual suspects, but most of the time it’ll just be a witness. Either way, you never know what might happen or whether someone might
slip up, so you learn to look for things.’
    ‘Like what?’
    ‘I don’t know, maybe stray shoes in a hallway? What size are they? Could they be male, female or a child’s? That kind of thing. It gives you a feel of the type of circumstance
someone might be living in. Daisy seems pretty straight-up but it does sound as if whoever took her car knew about her living arrangements. Who knows, maybe they’d knocked on her door once
and saw the keys hanging?’
    ‘Like a postman?’
    ‘Or a neighbour or someone else that knew she was an outsider living on her own. She said she didn’t recognise the photo of the driver but perhaps that just means someone else took
the vehicle? Something about him needing a map still doesn’t sit right. Ultimately, you get used to picking up on these things.’
    Izzy paused for a few moments, taking in Jessica’s words. ‘So what’s this Harry guy’s last name? Does he work in a different district?’
    ‘It’s Harry Thomas. He’s . . . retired.’ Jessica felt uneasy talking about the man. He had been stabbed in a bar fight a few years previously and, after spiralling down
into alcoholism, had had to quit the force while the person who attacked him was acquitted by a jury. It then emerged he could have been involved in inadvertently protecting Randall Anderson, the
serial killer who tried to murder Jessica and was currently in a high-security hospital. Only Jessica knew about his possible connection to Harry but she had never looked into it properly for fear
of finding out it was true. At least by not knowing she still had some good memories of the person who had mentored her but if those were taken away, she’d have nothing but bitterness.
    Perhaps it was Jessica’s tone but Izzy didn’t pursue the question. Instead they drove in relative silence, even when they were held up in unexpected traffic at Ardwick Green. Suited
and booted crowds were streaming out of the theatre, even though it was the afternoon, leading Jessica to assume there was a corporate event going on. If she had been driving a marked car, she
would have flicked on the lights but instead she waited with as much patience as she could muster.
    Jessica didn’t know exactly where they were going but the allotments were signposted and two marked police cars were already parked in front of a wide metal gate which separated the plots
from the road. As Jessica pulled in behind the vehicles, Rowlands got out of the one at the front and came towards her.
    ‘Do we know who runs plot sixty-one then?’ she asked, pulling on a jacket.
    ‘Sort of. We found out that the council owns the land but the running of it is handed over to individual allotment societies. Each society has a secretary. The one from here is the guy
that identified the key for us. Anyway, he says number sixty-one has been registered to a “Glenn Harrison” for the best part of twenty years.’
    ‘I don’t recognise the name.’
    Rowlands shook his head. ‘No, and we don’t have anyone in our files