No, it's just the sweats. I'll straighten out in a minute. Shut the door; go and sit back in the car.'

The driver was outside, leaning on the roof, unsure what he should do. Anna closed Langton's door, and nodded for him to return to the driving seat. They sat for a few more moments, then Langton said he was fine and they should keep going. They drove on, Langton leaning back on the headrest, eyes closed. Anna remained silent, watching him, deeply concerned; then she saw that he was sleeping and she started to relax. She caught the driver's eyes in the rearview mirror looking at her.

He's overworked,' she said quietly.

He nodded and continued to drive. Anna, like Langton, closed her eyes, but she didn't sleep. Instead, she tried to piece together the jigsaw and how the links all led to Camorra, as Langton had suggested. Had this nightmare man got hold of Gail's two young innocent children? If Vernon was the father of Gail Sickert's little girl, even though he had denied it, he didn't even react when he was told that both mother and baby were dead. These people, Anna thought: these sick, perverted men.

She also thought about the unidentified little boy whose body was found in the canal. The investigation into his death had concluded that the child could well have been used in some kind of voodoo ritual. He had quite possibly been brought into the country illegally; she wondered if he had any link to Camorra and decided that, on her return to the incident room, she would contact the officers involved in that enquiry.

When they arrived at the station, Langton was still sleeping. In a low voice, Anna told the driver to go and get himself something to eat, and not to close the car door.

She crept into the driving seat and sat beside him. His breathing was now calm, and she was loath to wake him. She checked her watch. It was after four, and she wondered if the team had any results; she could see by the line-up of unmarked patrol cars that they were back in the station, probably waiting for Langton. She eased open the car door, not wanting to wake him, but he stirred.

He sat up and looked out of the window. He said sleepily, We back?'

Yes.'

He turned in surprise to see her sitting in the driving seat beside him. What you doing?'

I sent the driver to get something to eat. It's after four. I was just going to wake you.'

Oh.' He took a deep breath and opened his door. He then hesitated, and turned to her. Might need a bit of help getting out; my knee's frozen up.'

She walked round and he held out his hand to clasp her arm as he slowly and painfully winched himself out, almost making her topple over as he stood up.

Sorry about this,' he said softly.

It's okay.'

He could not let her go, he was that unsteady.

Why don't you take off to that B and B you're staying at and get some rest?' she suggested.

I'll be okay in a second; my knees just got cramped from sitting in the car for so long.'

Being so close to him, literally holding him up, she felt such overwhelming emotion. If she had released her hold, he would have fallen.

Like old times,' he whispered.

She looked up at him. His five o'clock shadow made his face even more gaunt, and his eyes had deep dark circles beneath them.

I'm worried about you,' she said.

Don't beand give that driver a quiet word: tell him not to put this about. You know what gossips these stations are. See? I'm okay now.' He let go of her and bent into the car for his briefcase; he grinned, swinging it. Better get to work,' he said, as he slammed the car door shut.

She dangled the car keys. I'll give these to reception and see you up there.'

Okay,' he said, and moved past her; the strength of will it took for him to walk unaided and with no sign of pain touched her. She turned away to get her own briefcase out and lock the car, so she didn't see him lean against the wall, gasping, as he pressed in the entry code to gain access to the station; nor did she see him haul himself up the stairs, one at a time.

She also missed his entry, as he banged into the incident room and said cheerfully, We all gathered? Gimme a few minutes and we'll have a briefing.'

He sauntered into his office, everyone oblivious to how ill he felt and how much pain he was in, he slammed the door closed and shut the blinds, then opened his briefcase and took out a bottle of pills. He downed them using a cup of cold coffee left on his desk.

Anna went into the canteen and got a sandwich and coffee to take into the incident room. She had that quiet word with their driver, who was halfway through his eggs and chips, and had just reached her desk, when Langton's office door opened and he strode into the incident room. He was energized and showed no sign of fatigue or pain. He clapped his hands.

Okay, everyone, let's get cracking. I had a very interesting conversation with Vernon Kramer.'

As Anna ate her sandwich, Langton made large notes on the board, drawing more arrows linking the named suspects and pinpointing Camorra as the prime target. At the end, he tossed the pen aside and, hands on hips, looked to Harry Blunt and Mike Lewis.

Rightlet's hear about your day!'

Blunt and Lewis detailed their search for Camorra's residence. They had trawled the streets and the electoral roll, to no avail. They had questioned estate agents in the Peckham area, and done street searches of any property possibly owned by Camorra, but at the end of the day, had come up with zilch. They had no result from the press articles asking for information and no result from the television news coverage, apart from crank calls.

Langton was edgy and impatient; everyone was coming up blank. Even the update on Murphy's murder was negative. Both men involved were still held at Parkhurst, and there had been no change in the zombie state of Krasiniqe, apart from him now being incapable of feeding himself.

By now, it was almost six o'clock; everyone was tired and ready to quit for the night. It was Grace who stirred up their energy. She had read in the Evening Standard that a refuse company had called in the police after the discovery of a limb, found in a skip.

Langton covered his eyes, shaking his head. For Chrissakes, Grace, what is this to do with our case?'

It was in a skip close to Peckham; so far, the forensic scientists have been able to ascertain that the limb, a right leg with the foot attached, a sock and trainer-'

Langton moved closer to Grace. Yesand? Come on, Grace, it's bloody six o'clock; what's this got to do with our investigation?'

The leg, sir, is of a black adult male, around twenty-five years of age.'

Yesand?'

We have been trying to track down Camorra; we know he's supposed to live in Peckham and you have already stated in your briefing that it is possible that Joseph Sickert on the run would turn to Camorra. DI Travis's ident picture of him is in every newspaper...'

Jesus Christ,' Langton muttered, as he rubbed his face. I'm with you. I'm with you.'

They are still testing the dismembered limb and they will have results by tomorrow, but I just thought I would bring it to your attention. From the tests, they should be able to ascertain if the limb belonged to someone suffering from sickle cell disease.'

Well, if it is connected to our case, then it's a step forwards!' Langton joked, and it eased the tension.

The team then broke up for the night with instructions for an early start the following morning.

Anna drove home, feeling tense and irritable. She made some hot chocolate and toasted cheese, and took it to bed, where she read the evening papers, including the article about the discovery of the man's limb. Sighing, she put the paper aside and decided that, first thing in the morning, she would do something that she had never done before: she would call in sick.

She felt she needed to sit back from the enquiryand from Langton. She had not been able to add anything to the briefing; Langton had given all the details from their interview. She had felt under-used, and she didn't like it. She knew Langton was covering the fact that he was sick and in constant need of painkillers. If anyone should take time out, he should, but she knew he'd be first into the incident room in the morning. She was certain he would also be taking more of whatever had given him the energy for their briefing.

Anna sipped the chocolate. It was cold and she'd eaten only a few bites out of her toasted cheese. Tomorrow, she would take a long slow look at the entire enquiry to date. She would also instigate a couple of interviews and judge for herself whether or not the case should be reviewed and Langton brought to task. It felt strange to dissociate her personal feelings towards him from the way he was running the case, but she no longer had any hope of them getting back together. She did not look on this as any kind of betrayal; if he was moving out of control, he needed to be replaced, for his own protection.

Chapter Twelve.

Anna left a message with Grace to say that overnight she had come down with some kind of flu. If she didn't feel any better later in the morning, she would go to her doctor.

That done, she called the incident room who were investigating the discovery of the limb found in the skip, in her capacity as one of the DIs on the enquiry into the murders of Gail Sickert and her small daughter. She then spoke to the administration department at Wakefield prison to arrange an interview with Idris Krasiniqe, the man convicted of the murder of Carly Ann North. With the two appointments organized for the morning and the afternoon respectively, Anna sat down and, as Langton had done in the incident room, listed cases one, two, three and four.

Gail Sickert's murder was number one. Gail Sickert was, at first, known to them by her maiden name, Gail Dunn, but when she took over the lease of the bungalow, she had actually been married to someone called Donald Summers. They appeared to have no record of who he was, where he was, or if he even existed. All they did know was that, when they first interviewed Gail, she referred to Joseph Sickert as her partner and, by that time, she was using his surname. According to the dates that Vernon Kramer had given for Sickert's arrival at the bungalow, it seemed that there was only a matter of weeks before Gail and Joseph Sickert became involved with each other.

Anna checked her notebook for the date she had gone back there to confront Gail over the photograph. This was the time she had been confronted by an irate Joseph Sickert, who had threatened that she would get the same treatment as her bloke'.

Anna worked on through her copious notes. Just before Arthur Murphy's trial, she had been contacted by Beryl Dunn, worrying about her daughter. Nothing more was heard of Gail until her mutilated body was discovered at the bungalow (or, as Langton described it, the piggery). The murder team had also unearthed the body of Gail's little girl; or her skull, at least. They were now searching for Sickert and Gail's two other children.

Case two: the murder of Carly Ann North. Idris Krasiniqe had tried to bargain by giving the names of his two accomplices. Langton was then attacked in a halfway house. After that attack, Idris had withdrawn the names, denying he had ever given them to the police. Langton was hospitalized and almost died, and as yet no one had been charged with the attack. Idris was sent to trial and attempted to plead diminished responsibility, but the judge gave him fifteen years. He subsequently refused to discuss either the attack or his two accomplices, saying he had made their names up; he also maintained that he was scared of voodoo being used on him if it was discovered that he had given up information. Anna underlined this section, as Langton had not brought it up as a major factor in his enquiry.

Whilst Anna was working on the murder of Irene Phelps, using Gail Sickert's photograph of Arthur Murphy and Vernon Kramer, she had come face to face with the man later identified as Rashid Burry. This same Rashid Burry was connected to Sickert because he had helped him out with medical treatment for his sickle cell anaemia. Burry was also connected to Camorra, a known people transporter, who had at one time also lived at the same hostel. Camorra was also linked to Sickert, as it was likely that he had arranged his illegal entry into the UK.

Case three: the murder of Arthur Murphy. Killed in prison, his assailant was Eamon Krasiniqe, apparently no relation to Idris, though Eamon was also an illegal immigrant. Eamon was now in prison, in a zombie-like stupor caused by a so-called voodoo hex.

Anna underlined the two voodoo links. It was only ten-fifteen, yet she already felt tired out by trying to fathom how the cases all linked together. The unpalatable but obvious explanation that kept presenting itself was that Langton wanted them to be linked: this way he could, whilst ostensibly working on the Gail Sickert murder, make enquiries into his own attack.

At half past ten, she had to stop working and drive to Hounslow police station, where she would meet the DCI running the enquiry into the dismembered limb found in the skip. When she went into the reception, she was disappointed to be told he was not available; however, she knew it wasn't a wasted journey when Barolli walked in.

Eh, I heard you were coming in,' he greeted her.

I don't believe it, are you on this one?'

For my sins.'

I'd like you to tell me as much as you can,' she said affably, quite pleased to see him.

Barolli took her into an empty interview room and placed down a beaker of coffee. Listen, I don't mind who knows it, but when I was brought in on thisit's a step down, ha ha. Actually, we're all sick of footloose jokesbut I was surprised that Jimmy never asked for me to join his team.'

I heard it was because you were on a case.'

I was, but winding downI could have moved over. Mind you, schlepping out to the New Forest every day must be a pain.'

It is.'

Barolli munched on a sausage roll. She saw that he had indeed put on a considerable amount of weight, as Langton had jotted down in his notebook.

You got any further in ID-ing the owner of the leg?' she asked.

Yeah. We also know he was heavily into drugscrack cocaine. We reckon he may have been a dealer, but why he was bumped off, we're no closer to finding out. DNA gave us nothing from records. Young kid was tipping in bottles when he saw it; that was at eight-thirty. The skip gets emptied at eight forty-five, so it was a stroke of luck we found it. We've found no other body parts, so we were making enquiries with known drug dealers, then we got a call in from a woman reporting her bloke missing. Poor cow had to come into the morgue to see if she recognized his sock!' he chortled. What she did okay was a scar on his knee, as her boyfriend had recently had keyhole surgery.'

So do you have a name?'

Yeah, Murray White. We're still checking, but nobody has seen him for a couple of days; I reckon they'd spot him if they saw him, hopping along minus his right leg.'

What about his drug contacts?'

What about them? We're not going to get much out of any of them. As for the rest of him, he could have been sliced up and chucked in God knows how many skips around the area, been crushed and on the tips by now.' Barolli suddenly went quiet. How's Langton doing?'

Anna hesitated. Well, he's still in a lot of pain.'

Barolli shook his head. I honestly thought he'd never pull through. I had a couple of weeks' leave afterwards, you know. I just sort of folded. It all happened so fast, and seeing him covered in blood...' He sniffed. Keep on thinking, could I have done more? But I was behind him; when he got cut he fell against me, almost knocking me down the stairs.'

I know Mike Lewis feels the same way,' she said.

Yeah, but I sort of felt that maybe he reckoned I should have done more, you know? Reason why he didn't want me working alongside him again.'

I doubt that.'

When I talked to him, he sounded...Well, not like himself.'

When was this?'

Last night. I gave him all the details we'd got to date.' He cocked his head to one side. That why you're here?'

Yes, just checking it all out.'

Well, I don't see how it's connected to your case.'

Did Langton think it was?'

I guess soreason he called.'

But you don't think it has any connection to the attack on him?'

Barolli shook his head. Nahwell, apart from the guy being blackbut he's not, as far as we know, connected to the murder of Carly Ann North.'

Anna sipped her coffee, aware she had to play the interview carefully. The last thing she wanted was for Barolli to be suspicious and contact Langton.

This guy you sent down for Carly Ann's murder?' she began.

Idris Krasiniqe? Is he connected to our dismembered limb? I can't see it; we've not come up with any links to illegal immigrants. Our blokeif it is him, and we think it's pretty positivewas born in Bradford.'

What was he like?'

Who?'

Krasiniqe.'

Barolli took a deep breath. Crazy son of a bitch. We don't know if that's his real name, since all his documents were fakebut he admitted the murder; couldn't not, as he was found with the fucking meat cleaver in his hand trying to hack off her head. I tell you, this world is getting sickening.'

He's in Wakefield, isn't he?'

Yeah, down for fifteen, then they'll probably want him deported, but if you read the papers, that's a joke. All we really knew about him was that he was probably Somalibut even that could be a lie. He took all the blame, but there were two other blokes with him; after he gave us their names, he withdrew the statement and said it was a lie, but we acted on his information, and you obviously know the fucking result. We reckoned that even though the names were fake, the address wasn't, because of what happened to Jimmy, so someone had to have got to Krasiniqe whilst he was held at the nick. Suddenly he knew nothing? Bastard.'

You know there was a murder of a prisoner?'