Lips White As Snow

3-A Message In A Cup Lid.

Hawes and Edmund retreated from Farthing House to Lesser Farthing Tea Shop, where Edmund explained the new problem.

Hawes was chewing her lip more than the chocolate tiffin she had bought to tide her over. Edmund hadn't touched his coffee due to how much talking he had been doing, and it was beginning to cool to a grim lukewarm.

"So how are we going to track this gang?" Edmund was asking. Hawes drummed her fingernails on the table-top.

"I'm not sure" she said pensively. This wasn't the first time she had uttered these words; Edmund had in actuality been going around in circles for the past fifteen minutes.

At that point, a waiter crossed over to their table, and inquired politely if everything was OK. Edmund saw Hawes look quizzically at him, but he wasn't entirely sure why.

"I'll have a tea" the D.I. told their waiter fixedly. "And my sergeant will have another coffee. His current one's gone cold. Both to take away, if possible. Thank you."

"What is it?" Edmund muttered, as the waiter hurried away. Hawes gave him a stern glare and wolfed the rest of her tiffin down in one. Edmund understandably shut up.

The waiter returned with their drinks in two takeaway cups, and Hawes jumped to her feet, beckoning Edmund to follow with a finger. The pair left the teashop, and they headed off down the street until they reached Hawes's car. Hawes herself was in the process of prising open the lid of her takeaway cup.

"What?" Edmund asked again. Hawes, after checking the lid of the cup, poured the contents down the drain. She then checked the inside of the cup, as Edmund looked on, his left eyebrow raising bemusedly.

"Nope" the D.I. murmured. "Gray, hand me your coffee."

"Are you going to tip it down the drain?" Edmund said warily, not wishing to give up his beverage.

"Are you going to stop asking obvious questions?" Hawes snapped back. "You should have drank the last one."

Reproachfully, Edmund handed over his nice, warm, rich, creamy cup of coffee. Hawes ruthlessly snapped the lid off.

"Ah" she smiled.

"What?" Edmund asked for the third time, now a little irritated.

In reply, Hawes showed him the lid of the cup. On the inside, smudged a little by the condensation from the coffee, read a hastily scrawled address.

For a moment, Edmund was stunned. But upon seeing that, Hawes smiled smugly, and that coerced him back into action.

"How the hell did you know that was there?" he complained angrily, as Hawes put his cup of coffee on the roof of her car and twirled the lid around cockily in her fingers.

"Well" she sighed patronisingly. "You tell me. Run through what happened from when we entered the teashop up until now. In as much detail as possible."

Edmund scowled at her, but did as he was told, sitting down with a thump on a low wall next to the car.

"We walked into the teashop" he recalled. "We spoke to one of the waitresses, who...apologized for the lack of staff. We sat down at the table, and ordered...a cup of coffee and a chocolate tiffin. We talked about how the hell we were going to get our hands on this gang, then the waitress brought us our order, then we talked some more, then you ordered two take away drinks, we left, and somehow my cup happens to have an address on the bloody lid."

"You aren't there yet" Hawes sighed, drumming her fingers on the roof of the Hyundai. "Why is the café short staffed?"

"You're enjoying this, aren't you?" Edmund grumbled. "Why do you have to be so bloody patronising...?"