“Hi Ellie, I’m so pleased you could come by.  When the DI said he wanted to talk to us, I thought it best meet him at my place, that way I didn’t have wayward kids running lose at Scotland Yard!” Emma said, greeting Ellie at her front door.

“No worries, did he say why he wanted to speak to us?”

“No,he said he’d let us know when we meet.  Do you want a coffee?”

Ellie sat at the marble topped breakfast bar.  Emma’s house was located in the blue ribbon area of Marylebone, she once boasted that Madonna and Guy lived down the street.

“No, thanks, just a chilled glass of water, will be fine.”

“He didn’t say much on the phone and I had the kids running around so I couldn’t really talk.”

“Where are the kids now?” Ellie queried, peering into doorways of the neighbouring rooms, all immaculately furnished.

“They’re upstairs with the nanny.  They’ll be busy until it’s time to go to school!”

“How is the new nanny working out?”

“The kids love her, which makes things easier.  I just hope she can stick around for bit longer than the last one!  Hey, how are things with you and Doctor Love?”

“Look, Sergio is back.  We spent the weekend together.  I haven’t seen Mike since Kate was discharged from he Royal Hospital, last week.”

“We’re you happy to see Sergio?”  Emma queried, handing Ellie her coffee.

“Yeah,of course!” Ellie began but before she could elaborate the door bell rang.

* * *

“I’m so pleased you were able to make time to see me.” DI Thompson said, sitting across from Ellie in one of Emma’s plush lounge chairs.  They were in the comfortable lounge room all creams and soft browns with exposed aged beams.

“We have uncovered some more evidence that confirms it was an attack against Kate.  We suspect she knew her attacker.  The door locks and safety chain were in tact, no forced entry and Kate has a peep hole, so she would have checked, especially considering she had come out of the shower.” DI Thompson continued, “do you know who she may have opened the door for?”

Emma and Ellie looked at each other, “Well it wasn’t one of us!” Emma began, “Ellie was at work and I had just dropped the kids off, Susi isn’t due back from the US until tomorrow, she has been there since the beginning of the month, she’s directing or something for a new project.  Jules has been in Australia he’s shooting some film there since January, I’m not sure when he’s back, so I’m not sure who else it would have been?”

The DI looked at Ellie, “could it have been a delivery guy?” Ellie offered.

“Yes we’re looking into that, there were no packages left, but it maybe the reason she opened the door!”

“Kate sometimes uses drugs,” Ellie continued, “perhaps it was someone delivering something like that, perhaps Kate didn’t have the money on her?” Emma gave Ellie one of killer looks, but Ellie felt it was important, who knows if the attacker may come back again.  She shrugged at Emma.

“Ok, well that helps.” The DI scribbled into his minute notepad, Ellie felt like offering him one of her normal sized notebooks from her handbag.  “Kate seems to have drawn a blank on remembering anything after getting out of the shower to the doorbell.  She certainly didn’t offer that she was a user.  We are checking CCTV footage and also re-investigating Rhys’ death last December.”

“Oh, why is that?” Emma asked, concerned, “surely all the evidence in that case would be buried, with him?”

“No, we still have evidence found at his death on file, we just want to be sure we haven’t got a serial killer here, seeing as the incidents are so close together and Kate and Rhys were close!”

“Are you worried about her safety, then?” Ellie asked.

“Yes, we don’t want her back at the flat just yet, that’s why she’s staying with at her mother’s place.  We also asked her to stay in or to only frequent familiar places, where she was known in order to ensure she is safe.”

“How long is she going to need to stay at her mother’s for?” Emma questioned.

“Well, she doesn’t have to remain there, it was a request we put forward to her, which at this time she has taken up, however, she is free to go back to her flat at any time.” He closed his notepad and looked at them.  “Well, if you have nothing else to offer that could be of help, I’ll be off?”

“No, I can’t think of anything else,” Emma said looking at Ellie.

“Well, if you think of anything else, here is my card, don’t hesitate to call” he offered as he stood.

Emma walked him to the front door, then returned to sit down next to Ellie again.

“Can you believe it? It seems so unlikely that this would happen to us!” Emma began, “why would anyone want to kill off everyone in our group? That’s what the DI was saying?”

“No, I don’t think he was saying that.  But Rhys did die of an overdose and Kate takes drugs, perhaps it was motivated by that, maybe they had the same drug dealer?”

“Oh, I don’t even want to think about it!” Emma shivered.

* * *

Emma handed Ellie a coffee while she sat back on the same stool in the kitchen.

“So you saw Kate out on Saturday night?  She must have just been released from hospital that morning.  She was at the Royal on Friday, I saw her there!  I can’t believe she was out already.”

“Well she was off her face.  Perhaps we should talk to her about her use, especially if this attack was due to that!  What kind of people is she mixing with to get her fix?”

“Yeah, we should say something, we are her closest friends.  I doubt her mother would say anything and Troy is a druggie as well.  I wonder why he is back on the scene again, I thought Lady Stane kicked him out a while ago?”

“Perhaps he’s clean?” Ellie offered, looking dubious.

“Yeah and maybe pigs will fly!  I’ll organise a spa day, when Susi is back, we can all hang out then and talk, what do you think?” Emma looked at Ellie

“I think it’s a great idea.”

“Mum, mum! Kayden is teasing me, and he won’t give me my Barbie back, he says he’s going to pull her arms off! Tell him mum, tell him!!” Kailyn ran into the kitchen, closely followed by Kayden.

Oh, well so much for confiding in Emma, Ellie thought as got up from the breakfast bar, she had to get back to work anyway, .

“See you Emma, I’d better go, I’ve got a late one at the office!  These author visits really take it out of me and I still get the same amount of paper work coming across my desk!”

“Ok, I’ll give you a buzz later in the week.” They air kissed each other and Ellie let herself out the front door of the three storey terrace.