“Ah, okay. I’ll keep quiet then,” Jack replied in a huff.

Sally glared at him, not that he bothered to look her way to see how annoyed she was at his stupid remark. Whether he had problems at home or not, his attitude wasn’t welcome during his shift, and especially not at a crime scene where everyone’s observations mattered.

“It was a reasonable remark, Sergeant,” Simon said. “Looking from here, I don’t think I’m going to be able to add anything of significance, Inspector. The all-important evidence will again be the semen and the relative DNA.”

“I get it. You’re telling us to take a hike and get on with trying to find the killer, right?”

“Indeed. Unless you want to hang around and watch us carry out the mundane tasks. To me, this appears to be an open-and-shut case until I can carry out a full examination. I can give you a call after that, unless you want to attend the PM?”

“I don’t think that will be necessary. All right, we’ll leave you to it and get started on tracking down what we can find out about the victim. My guess is she’ll turn out to be another barmaid. I’ll ring you later this afternoon.”

Sally marched out of the warehouse with Jack close on her heels. Once they were inside the vehicle, she paused and turned to him before she started the engine. “Either you tell me what’s bugging you, or I’m going to send you home. Now spill.”

Jack’s face clouded over. He ran an agitated hand through his greying hair and stared straight ahead of him.

Sally waited several more minutes then gently prompted, “Come on, Jack. You can tell me, mate.”

He exhaled a few more times and finally said, “I’m going to be a grandfather.”

Sally sat with her mouth hanging open, just staring at him.

“Yeah, it effing shocked the hell out of me, too.”

“But… Teresa is only sixteen, isn’t she? That is who we’re talking about here, isn’t it?”

“Christ, I bloody well hope so—Diane’s only eight, Sally. Do you think I’d be still walking around free if we were talking about Diane?”

“Nope, I guess you’d have murdered the guy responsible by now. Jeez… I’m not sure what to say, Jack. No wonder you’re ticked off.”

“Ticked off? That’s the bloody understatement of the millennium. It was bound to happen. That sounded bad, didn’t it? I didn’t mean she puts it about or anything like that. She’s been dating this older lad for a few months now.”

“Older lad? How much older?”

“Only two years, but he’s had dozens of girlfriends even at that young age.”

“Has he managed to get anyone else up the duff? Sorry, pregnant?”

“Not that I know of. Donna is bloody beside herself over this. Just when we thought Teresa was getting her life mapped out, this happens. She only told us last week that she wanted to be a vet. That’s seven years studying, I believe. Now this. Well, Donna and I told her there’s no way we’re going to give up our careers to bring up her kid.”

“I hope you said it more tactfully than that, Jack.”

He shook his head. “No, it all tumbled out in anger. Now she won’t talk to me; keeps blanking me when I’m in the same room. Why the heck do we have children, eh?”

“I really can’t answer that. I’ve never had the desire or inclination to have a child. You knew from the word go that your life would be full of moments of joy and a lot of trauma, didn’t you?”

“Maybe this kind of crap only comes from hatching female eggs.”

Sally laughed at his analogy. “Good to see there’s still a teeny-weenie bit of sense of humour buried in there somewhere.”

“It wasn’t a joke, boss. Unless my biology teacher lied to me at school, there are definitely eggs involved in the process.”

He had her there. “Okay, I see what you’re getting at. So, Donna’s as narked about this as you are then?”

“Too right, she is. She’s done nothing but sob her heart out since Teresa told us. She’s a total wreck. I’ve told her if she isn’t better by Wednesday, she needs to go and see the doctor.”

“Really? What good will that do?”

“That’s what she said. We can’t send the child back from where it came, can we?”

“Hey, if you want my advice, mate, you’d be wise to start thinking of the baby as a human being. It’s not the child’s fault that its parents didn’t practice safe sex. I take it she’s going to keep it?”

“She wants to, yes. You’re right, though—when the time comes, I’m sure I’ll be the proudest grandfather around. It’s just too much of a bloody shock to take it in at this moment.” He shuddered. “A granddad at forty, can you Adam and Eve it?”

“That is hard to believe. I’m truly sorry. Hopefully, now you’ve vented, things will seem a lot better. It’s never good to keep things bubbling out of control inside. I have an aunt who breaks out in psoriasis whenever she goes through a bout of stress. Plus there are so many stories of people having heart attacks circulating the station at present. I’d hate to see your name added to that kind of list.”

“Gee, thanks. Well, if I wasn’t frigging depressed before, I bloody am now.”

She nudged him with her elbow. “You know what I’m getting at. It’s not worth getting stressed about something that is out of your control. By the sounds of it, Donna is doing enough of that on behalf of both of you anyway. Show her things aren’t as bad as they seem, and I’m sure you’ll both get used to the idea a whole lot quicker.”

“Ever the voice of reason, ain’t you?”

“I detect the scepticism in your voice and know exactly what you’re referring to. Let this be one of those situations where you do as I say and not as I do, eh? Anyway, you can’t poke me with that particular stick anymore, not since I divorced Darryl. So there.” She stuck her tongue out at him to lighten the tension in the car.

“Yeah, it took you bloody long enough to come to your senses on that score. I have a little under nine months to get used to this idea.”

“You’ll get there. All three of you will come through this. I have no doubt about that. One last question, and then we’ll have to head off.”

“What about the boyfriend? Is he intending to stick around?”

“As far as we know. We’ve got the daunting task of meeting his parents at the weekend to discuss the matter. Should be fun—not!”

“That’ll be good. Not every family would take those steps in this situation, Jack. They sound like pretty reasonable people to me.”

“We’ll see. The meeting was their suggestion, so they can’t be that bad.”

“Keep me informed. In the meantime, keep taking the chill pills. Got that?”

“Yeah, I’ve got it. You’ll have to excuse me if I go off on a tangent now and again, okay?”

“Sure. I guess I’ll have to give you a bit of leeway in repayment to the slack you’ve given me over the past few months, if not years. Hey, we’re partners, ain’t we? And partners stick together through thick and thin, right?”

“Yeah, yeah. Yadda, yadda! Do you think we should be going now?”

She winked at him. “On my way. Now quiet. I need to psych myself up to break the bad news.”

“Yeah, I’m glad you always take the lead on that one.”

The mid-terraced home on a small development in Drydon Close was a new construction. As she brought the car to a halt outside the property, Sally noted several other houses in the road were in different stages of development. “Hopefully, if she shares the house, the occupant is still around and hasn’t left for work yet.”

Sally knocked on the front door, and a few seconds later, a young woman opened the door. “Hello. I’m DI Sally Parker, and this is my partner, DS Jack Blackman of the Norfolk Constabulary.” Sally cast her eyes over the woman’s silk robe, which left very little to the imagination. “Is it all right if we come in and have a word with you for a few moments?”

The woman frowned and pulled her robe tight around her, clasping it with her clenched fist at the front. “About what? I haven’t done anything wrong, have I?”