Symphony

A Busy Day

Nikki has just dropped Maddison off at nursery and is now taking Poppy to school, it's her first day at her new school after leaving the other primary school two weeks ago. Nikki has just put Freya in the pushchair and is walking towards the new school with Poppy holding onto the pushchair, "Mummy... my tummy feels weird" Poppy speaks, as she speed walks and attempts to keep up with Nikki.
"Don't worry Poppy, they are butterflies, Daddy told you about them, they will pass," Nikki smiles as she walks up the driveway of the school towards the reception and presses the buzzer.

"Mummy, what if my teacher is mean like Miss Edwards..." Poppy speaks.
Nikki looks down at the four-year-old, "I promise you, baby girl, your new teacher won't be mean" Nikki smiles as she crouches down to Poppy's height, "You are going to be just fine" She adds and kisses her forehead.

"Mummy, will you come with me to my new classroom? I'm a tiny bit scared" Poppy smiles.
Nikki chuckles at her daughter, "Of course darling" She smiles and cups Poppy's cheek and strokes it before standing up as the receptionist opens the door and allows Nikki inside.

"Hi, I have Poppy Hodgson here, it's her first day here" Nikki smiles.
"Ahh Yes, here she is..." The receptionist smiles as she looks at her computer, "Poppy will be in Mrs. Holder's class, I shall show you there now" She smiles as she gets up and then shows Nikki and Poppy to the classroom.

Nikki smiles as they enter the classroom, she leaves Freya just outside the door due to space, the Mrs. Holder walks over towards them, "Mummy!" Poppy panics as she hides behind Nikki's legs.

"Hello you must be Poppy Hodgson, I'm Mrs. Holder" The young teacher smiles as she crouches down to Poppy's level, "Don't you look smart in your new school uniform, why don't we go meet the class? and we can get you a buddy for the day" She smiles softly hoping to copse Poppy from behind her mother's legs.

Nikki moves out the way and crouches down beside Poppy, "I promise you will have a good day baby, and I think Daddy will be picking you up today with Maddison, how would you like that? I can see about him sneaking you a cheeky ice cream too from the cafe?" Nikki smiles and Poppy's face lights up and she nods before stepping forward and hugging her Mum before taking hold of the teacher's hand and goes to be introduced to the class.

Nikki smiles as she watches Poppy walk off and then her phone rings so she steps out the classroom and answers the phone before taking Freya in her pushchair and exiting the school while she is on the phone to Thomas.

Twenty minutes later Nikki arrives at the Lyell after being called in by Thomas to sit in on a briefing due to one of her own cases coming back up by the police. "Nikki?" Thomas speaks as Nikki walks through the office doors with Freya on her arm in the car sear. "When you said... you were coming... I didn't expect you to bring the baby..." Thomas speaks.

"Yeah... sorry, Couldn't get hold of the nanny, she will probably sleep through the meeting, are they in the meeting room?" Nikki questions as she puts her handbag down and quickly brushes her hair.

"Nikki you can't just walk in there with a baby" Thomas speaks.
"Watch me," Nikki speaks as she lifts the car seat with Freya in and then grabs her notes before walking off to the meeting room.

Nikki walks into the meeting room to see everyone sat around the meeting table waiting for Nikki, "Dr. Alexander, nice of you to finally join us, Jack was just about to take us through the forensics from the original crime scene" a male police officer speaks and Nikki smiles as she nods and then looks at Jack who raises an eyebrow and mouths 'what is she doing her' meaning Freya.

She just sits down and gets Freya out of her car seat and cradles her during the meeting, halfway through the meeting Nikki stands up and shows her findings by using the computer at the front of the room. Still, with Freya sleeping soundly against her chest she begins to talk, "Mrs. Gullivar sustained a coup head injury which my findings found was one of the main reasons for death," Nikki speaks.

A young police office raises his hand and questions Nikki's findings, "Excuse my ignorance but what is a coup head injury?" He quizzes.

Nikki smiles and decides to explain it to him and the rest of the police officers attending the meeting, "So a coup injury like Mrs. Gullivar's occurs under the site of impact with an object, and then a contrecoup injury which is different to a coup injury occurs on the side opposite the area that was hit... Coup and contrecoup injuries are associated with cerebral contusions, a type of traumatic brain injury in which the brain is bruised."

The young police officer nods as he begins to understand what Nikki is talking about. "... My findings found that Mrs. Gullivar died at the hands of Mr. Gullivar after he took a house brick to her head and proceeded bludgeoned his wife to death..." Nikki speaks she looks down at her post mortem notes again and swallows hard before reading further, "Mrs. Gullivar... upon examining the body... I could confirm that she was... at least... eight weeks pregnant" She breathes.

Jack looks at Nikki from the far end of the room and nods at her, "Although went testing the DNA against Mr. Gullivar I could confirm that the fetus wasn't his... and when my Hus... Jack ran the DNA through the database we found a one hundred percent match to a co-worker of Mr. Gullivar's, name Adrian Cookson."