DS Jessica Daniel series: Locked In/Vigilante/The Woman in Black - Books 1-3 by Kerry Wilkinson

read them but would often have a flick through
when she was alone.
    Between the two of them, they didn’t really watch too much television and hadn’t bothered paying for anything like satellite or cable. Given their jobs, both of them lived pretty
busy lives but Jessica had never been much of a television-watcher in any case.
    Caroline had plenty of DVD box sets but Jessica only really watched the news and late-night reruns of trashy morning talk shows. Not that she would have admitted the talk-show watching to her
colleagues, of course. You would lose plenty of credibility if you confessed that one of your hidden pleasures was staying up at night to see what the results of the previous show’s DNA tests
would throw up.
    But, after arriving back in her flat, there was a man she didn’t know sitting on their sofa drinking from a can of lager.
    ‘Er, hello?’ Jessica said as his presence caught her by surprise while she had half-kicked off one of her shoes.
    ‘Oh, hi . . . is it Jessica? I’m Randall, Caroline’s boyfriend.’
    Caroline had re-entered the main room at the sound of the voices. She said she had been changing in her room and added that she hoped Jessica didn’t mind Randall coming over. ‘It was
just that I wanted you both to meet but everyone is always so busy so, in the end, I just invited him over. I hope you don’t mind.’ Caroline explained.
    Jessica didn’t mind, well not really, but it would have been nice to have been asked.
    As it was they weren’t having a bad evening. Randall was decent-looking – just under six feet tall, with a shaven head and blue eyes. He clearly had a decent physique judging by the
tight fit of his T-shirt and must work out, though his muscles weren’t bulging in a grotesque way. There was some kind of spiky-lettering tattoo visible on the lower half of his right arm but
Jessica couldn’t figure out what it was. He wasn’t really her type; she didn’t go for guys who spent so much time working out and tattoos and piercings had never been too
appealing. He did seem nice and Caroline could barely take her eyes off him.
    Although she preferred the sofa for comfort, Jessica had left it to Randall and Caroline to share while she took the recliner. They half-watched some nonsense game show, laughing at the
contestants’ lack of knowledge while Caroline tried to get her best friend and boyfriend to interact with each other. The bottle of wine the two women had shared was certainly helping in that
regard.
    ‘So, you met over shoes then?’ Jessica said after an hour or so of small talk.
    Caroline and Randall looked at each other and giggled then had a mini argument over who should tell the story in full. If it had been anyone other than her best mate – and if they
didn’t look so happy – Jessica would have felt sickened by their show of affection. There was nothing more annoying to her than happy couples.
    It was Caroline who spoke. ‘He did such a good job fixing them and they
are
my favourite going-out heels.’
    She smiled and squeezed her boyfriend’s hand.
    ‘Isn’t it just a bit of glue?’ Jessica asked, not meaning the question to sound quite as blunt as it did. She was moderately interested but probably could have phrased the
question better.
    Randall laughed. ‘Well, yeah. You just take the names, addresses and phone number if they’re cute, wait until they’re gone, get the old superglue out then charge ’em for
the privilege.’
    Jessica assumed it was a bit more complicated than that but laughed along.
    ‘Wait, you only get the phone numbers if they’re “cute”?’ Caroline asked with mock indignation.
    ‘I got yours, didn’t I?’
    ‘Oh yeah, that’s all right then.’
    ‘At least you’ve got a story for the grandkids anyway,’ Jessica said. ‘Grandma fell over and broke her shoes, while Grandpa fixed them for her.’
    ‘Whoa. Who said anything about grandkids?’ Caroline laughed.
    ‘Or kids.’ Randall joined