Lips White As Snow

6-Karma for the Cupcake.

Hawes didn't say a word for the next fifteen hours. She had refused to leave the village, so they had put up for the night in the local pub, and Edmund had spent a very awkward period alone in the room he had been given.

Having been up for a good few hours and had breakfast, Edmund was lying on the bed, busy counting the swirls on the ceiling of the room when there was a sharp rap at the door.

Slowly, Edmund got up, rubbing his hands through his hair, and unlocked the latch.

"You've got a plan?" he asked, a little dozily, as Hawes strode into the room and claimed the desk chair.

"Essentially" she replied, knitting her fingers on her lap. "We need to ask more questions about our dead gentleman. Also keep the house under our control for as long as we can. You need to go back down that shaft-"

"Why?" Edmund groaned.

"Because. Look. We need to know two things. One-who killed the old man at Honeysweet Avenue, and two, where these wretched drugs are. Kovlova will email me the autopsy results later on today-what little they can decipher..."

"What if it's not him?" Edmund butted in suddenly. "What if the reason why his face is all mangled is so we wouldn't be able to work out who it was?"

"The teeth should tell us" Hawes replied briskly. "I'll text Kovlova and make doubly sure she gets the teeth right."

"Anna wouldn't get anything wrong" Edmund muttered. Hawes, thankfully, didn't hear him.

"The money we found has been taken to HQ" she carried on. "They'll deal with it. If the pile of scumbags don't nick it all in the process-"

"They're alright really" Edmund chipped in defensively.

"To you" Hawes replied curtly. "Anyway. We managed to keep our finding of the money quiet enough, so as far as the village knows, the man who used to live in 12 Honeysweet Avenue is dead and we're investigating."

"So your plan?" Edmund prompted, shuffling and sitting cross legged on the bed.

"With any hope, someone else who knows about the money will try and break into number 12 to see if it's still there" Hawes sighed, drumming her nails on the desk. "Either that, or someone will reveal something when we question them."

"So your master plan is that we go and talk to more people?" Edmund asked, a little scathingly.

"Have you got a better one?" Hawes snapped back. Edmund considered this, gave her the point, and rolled his eyes grumpily.

"Come on. And if you roll your eyes any harder, they'll disappear into your head."

Knowing he couldn't ever get the last word, Edmund scrambled up and followed Hawes out, down the small wooden staircase and onto the street outside the pub.

"We'd better go back to that wretched bakery first" Hawes announced, not really paying much attention to Edmund as she strode briskly along, on a mission once more. "I also want you to go back down into that tunnel, Gray, and try and map it out. With any luck, we'll be able to work out which buildings have entrances and which don't."

"Which first?" Edmund queried, shoving his hands in his pockets as he almost had to skip to keep up with Hawes's mighty power walk.

"Come to the bakery. I'll buy you something to keep your spirits up."

Edmund's stomach decided that free food definitely made up for another trip down into the tunnels, and he followed Hawes eagerly towards the bakery.

"Good morning" Edmund muttered, as he and Hawes entered and the woman on the counter, Mrs. Tooke, watched them suspiciously.

He then selected a rather over-zealous chocolate cupcake, and Hawes, judging him massively, took it to the counter.

"Good morning" she snapped at the woman. "I've some follow up questions and a small cupcake I'd like to purchase."

"What more is there?" Mrs. Tooke replied, a little nervously, as Hawes splatted a five pound note onto the counter-top to pay for the cupcake.

"I just want to know a little about your late father" Hawes replied curtly.

Mrs. Tooke hesitated.

"He wasn't anything special" she began. "He liked his garden. And his books. He was getting a bit blind in his old age, so I was always going over to read for him."

"I see" Hawes cut off, chewing her lip. Edmund sidled up beside her and sneaked away the cupcake, biting straight into it as Hawes continued her questioning.

"You see-Mrs. Tooke-it has come to our attention-granted it isn't confirmed yet-but there is a small chance that the man we found may not be your father. I was wondering if he ever had any visitors. Or anyone else who visited him regularly. Someone else who could answer our questions, as it is quite clear that I'm causing you no small amount of distress."

"Johnny Strange" came the eventual reply. "He's...a charity worker. Lives on Elm Street. Number four. He went in to help my father when I couldn't."

Hawes nodded serenely. Edmund tried to also nod, but got caught up in the cake.

"Thank you. Good morning."

She left, with Edmund trailing cake crumbs after her.

"Number four, Elm Street" Hawes was muttering.

"You'f fough' ov som'fing?" Edmund asked, through a chocolatey mass.

"I have" his boss replied. "I've a feeling that at least Mr. Tooke is mixed up in this somehow. The issue I'm having is on how to catch him out."

"Wel' 'ou are one ftep up om be" Edmund sighed. "I hab no cloo."

"You haven't actually met Mr. Tooke" Hawes pointed out frankly. "I can't say I blame you."

Edmund, amazed she had understood what he had said, was stunned into silence until he had finished his cake. They reached 4 Elm Street, and Hawes rapped on the knocker.

Once again, there was no response.

"Now-is he out or is he dead?" Edmund sighed, a little cynically. Hawes, meanwhile, was peering through the frosted glass of the front door.

"Out, I think. There's no coat on the hook. But I might be wrong. The car is still there. Let's give this guy the benefit of the doubt and come back later."

A little cheesed off, Edmund trudged back up the path.

"I'll check the village green, you check that tiny nature reserve place below Farthing House" Hawes ordered.

"Can I have another cake?" Edmund asked cheekily.

"Sod off and find me Mr. Strange. Then we'll see about cake. Piglet."

"Says you" Edmund couldn't help but say. Hawes glared like she had been stung.

"Don't patronise me. Now. Sod. Off."

Feeling a touch guilty, Edmund hurried off down the street towards Farthing House. He jogged down the street, and let himself through at the little gate. The nature reserve was small, with a few nice benches and a small play area behind a row of bushes. There was a man lying on one of the benches, and from a distance, Edmund assumed he was asleep. Coming closer, he noticed a stiffness to the body that wasn't normal.

"Oh, bloody hell..." Edmund gasped, as he put his fingers to the man's neck and, as he had suspected, found no pulse.

As Edmund stood up, he heard a small cough and a retch from a nearby bush. Moving quickly around, he saw a little girl lying weakly on the ground, semi-concious, in a puddle of what looked like her own vomit. Not knowing whether to comfort the girl or get help, Edmund merely managed to mutter some more obscene curse words before picking the little girl up and carrying her to the middle of the grass, where she retched violently again, and, cursing his limited first aid skills, Edmund put her in the recovery position. Sitting by the child for her comfort, Edmund pulled out his phone.

"Why is it always me?" he grumbled, as he dialled once again for an ambulance. "I mean, if this is karma for the cupcake then I really didn't enjoy it this much."