Part 8 (1/2)

'Eleven oh-four.' Ben noted.

'Knocking on the door, moving to the stairs, reappearing outside the artists' studio. Leaving flowers and cards. Disappearing back to the stairs. Reappearing on the floor below the artists' studio.'

'Leila and Mamie's apartment,' Ben commented.

'Knocking on the door. Waiting for a reply. One minute,' Liam observed.

'That's a long time; you'd think she'd realise no one was in.'

'The apartments are vast,' Amy reminded Ben. 'You could fit ten of mine into one of them. If someone was on the balcony, it could take them a minute to answer the door.' Amy watched Zee take cards and rosebuds from her oversized handbag. She laid them in front of the door before walking through the fire doors to the stairs and vanis.h.i.+ng. 'There are no cameras on the stairs?' Amy checked.

'Only the exits to the street and yard,' Liam confirmed.

Zee was next seen outside Bruno Gambrini's apartment, where she again left flowers and cards.

'She didn't knock,' Ben murmured.

'Probably a.s.sumed the chefs had left for work,' Amy suggested.

Zee left the lift in the foyer at 11.10. She approached the porter's desk and spoke to Ted.

Amy studied Zee, looking for signs in her body language that might indicate she was having an affair with the porter. 'I wish I could hear what they're saying.'

'I wish I could see the expressions on their faces,' Ben added.

'They seem friendly but not over-friendly,' Liam interposed. 'She's there for thirteen minutes. I'll bring up the outside CCTV images on the screen to the right.'

The officers followed Zee's progress. She left Ted and the foyer through the automatic doors. She hesitated in front of the building for forty-two seconds, lifted her arm, looked at her watch and turned right.

'These are the last sightings,' Liam warned. 'When she leaves the area covered by the building's CCTV, she appears on the one fixed in front of the florist's a block away.'

'You fetched that tape this morning?' Amy asked.

'I put in a request for all the CCTV images covering this street between eleven o'clock and one o'clock, which was when I arrived.'

'Efficient.'

'I try, ma'am,' Liam responded dryly.

'Sorry,' Amy apologised. 'I didn't mean to patronise.'

'Zee walking past the florist's.' Liam looked back at the screen.

'Eleven twenty-three.' Ben noted the time.

'She stops, looks at the flowers. Turns. Something's attracted her attention,' Ben remarked.

'She looks over her shoulder, steps back alongside the van, and that's it. She disappears.' Liam froze the frames before replaying them.

'Go back one,' Amy ordered. 'That van in front of the florist.'

'She could have got into it,' Ben agreed, 'but she could also have entered the shop, or climbed into the Fiat parked in front of the van, or the BMW behind it.'

'Has anyone visited the florist?' Amy asked Sergeant Reece.

'Sergeant Reece sent constables to check out the premises two hundred yards either side of this building. Only the florist remembered seeing Zee. When he was out at the front arranging flowers, he noticed a lady from Barnes Building stopping to look at the display.'

'The van?' Ben prompted. 'The BMW and Fiat? Have they been traced?'

A constable approached the desk. 'The results have come in on the Fiat, van and BMW, Sergeant.'

Sergeant Reece left his chair.

Chapter Nineteen.

'How's that for efficiency, Inspector Miller?' Liam took the paper that the constable handed him. 'The Fiat belongs to the florist. The BMW is owned by a local resident. He's an editor and returned to pick up a ma.n.u.script he'd forgotten to take to work.'

'The van?' Amy questioned.

Liam fast-tracked the images until they showed the transit driving away. 'It was parked too close to the BMW and Fiat for the number to register on CCTV. Once it pulled out into the traffic, it was out of range of the street cameras. It left the kerb at eleven thirty-seven a.m. and was caught on a speed camera at the end of the road at eleven forty a.m. See the number plate.'

Amy frowned. 'It looks blank.'

'It's been painted with photo-blocker paint.'

'What's photo-blocker paint?' Ben asked.

'It's invisible when painted on. But when the plate pa.s.ses a speed camera the paint produces a high-powered gloss that reflects light back to the camera. It overexposes the image, which makes the plate unreadable.'

'This paint is legal?' Ben asked.

'It's legal. You've never worked in the traffic division, sir,' Liam commented.

'Any distinguis.h.i.+ng marks on the van?' Amy asked Liam.

'It's a white transit, like a few thousand others in London. We can't be sure that the paint is a ruse. Hundreds if not thousands of vehicles have photo-blocker paint on their plates. The van might not be connected to Zee Barnes's disappearance at all.'

Sergeant Reece returned to the incident room. He, Ben and Amy retreated to a smaller office. Amy closed the door.

'Nothing in the artists' studio, ma'am. I sent a constable to the gallery with Anni Jones and Michael Barnes,' Sergeant Reece reported. 'And no clothing bloodstained or otherwise in the skips or rubbish chutes. I've sent for a dog handler. Forensic are working on stains on the floor of the boiler house. There's an incinerator there.'

'Good work, and you can call me Amy when we're in senior officer-conference, Sergeant. I remember playing football with you and Dad when I was small.'

'I never thought that one day you'd be my boss. The name's David.'