Costa Crew 3: Make or Break

Chapter 6 - Another Family

"Morning, Becky."

Becky blinked herself awake at the sound of the voice. For the first time in what felt like forever, she had actually had a good night's sleep. After prison's sorry excuse for a bed and the constant fear of death, it was a blessing to wake up on a soft feather mattress in a safehouse surrounded by only her closest friends. If only she could live in this moment forever.

"So this is where you spent our last mission together," continued Hannah from the bed opposite Becky's. "Nice place. You probably got hot chocolate too."

Becky raised an eyebrow. "Did Joanne seriously never give you hot chocolate?"

Hannah shook her head. "There was always some excuse - it's too warm, we're all out, the machine's broken, some creepy guy has a job offer for you - but for some reason I never actually got it. Not that it mattered in the grand scheme of things."

Becky sighed. "I imagine they'll be looking for me by now. Better get to work."

Becky and Hannah walked through to the living room (merged with dining room and kitchen) where Charlotte, Paul and John were waiting. "Before we start I want to thank you all," Becky said. "This is the first time in a while I've felt like a person. Sure, I won't properly be free until this case is closed and my name cleared. But it's a nice breath of fresh air."

She grinned when her eyes fell on her laptop. "Hello, old friend."

Paul smiled. "Becky, you want breakfast?"

Becky shook her head as she logged in using her alternate password, giving her access to her hacking software. "Once I've done this."

"Are you sure? There's pancakes."

"And bacon," added Charlotte.

Becky stopped. "Tempting. All right, I'll get some breakfast then hack the Metropolitan Police."

Once Becky had demolished a stack of pancakes and bacon, she returned to her laptop. "So the DNA records must have been altered, right?"

The others nodded. "Remember when we did online school and had to use OneNote?"

"Yeah…" Paul replied, not really sure what Becky was talking about. "And it never worked."

Becky grinned. "Exactly. It kept saying it couldn't merge changes. So you could always see previous versions of your work. I can separate the DNA records out to see previous versions, which will show me where there's been a switch. And maybe we can crack this case wide open."

Becky was silent as she worked. The others couldn't tell what she was thinking, for she simply frowned and didn't take her eyes off her laptop. "Yep, there's been a few cases of foul play here. A lot of the Operation Godfather cases have had evidence erased, meaning the police weren't able to get a conviction. I've run a check on all the teams handling the cases, and there seems to be one common factor."

"Erica," said Charlotte gravely.

Becky nodded. "She's been messing with evidence for as far back as I can see. And that's not all."

She turned round the laptop. "Erica's DNA records that are stored on file now aren't the same records that she initially submitted as elimination samples. So I ran her old records through the police databases and we got ourselves a partial match. Not with a police officer, but someone already on file. And Paul, we've watched enough Line of Duty to know what this means."

Everybody was in too much shock to point out the fact that all of them knew what this meant, not from a TV show but from their years spent in the police academy. Paul stared at the name on the screen, shaking his head slowly. "Blood relatives."

"Poor Erica," Hannah sighed. "Can't imagine she grew up with a lot of hot chocolate."

Becky smiled wryly. "True. This just tells us that she's a relative of Joanne's though, it doesn't tell us how. We'll have to ask her about that. And chances are Joanne's more likely to know than Erica."

Paul nodded in agreement. "Okay, what about the DNA found on Amelia's body?"

Becky's hands flew over the keyboard as she worked, relishing every second that she spent on her computer. She stopped, reading through the results of her work, then went a deathly shade of white, unable to stop herself from shaking.

John frowned. "Agent Hidgens?" he asked. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

Becky gulped and turned the laptop round to show them. "You're not far off."

"Sorry, I'm blind, what's happening here?" asked Charlotte.

"First of all, my DNA records haven't been altered. The DNA found at the crime scene was mine. That means that it was me, which I hope nobody believes, or that someone's planted evidence, which tracks if there's corrupt officers involved. But there has been a DNA swap."

She took a deep breath, steadying herself. "These are the medical records of the body found at the crime scene, which matched Amelia Murphy. But they don't match the records that Amelia provided when she was initially arrested. Which means…"

She buried her head in her hands, unable to finish her sentence. But they were all thinking the same thing.

The DNA samples taken from Amelia when she was arrested four years ago had to be the real deal.

And yet they didn't match the body.

Meaning whoever had been found dead inside Amelia's cell...wasn't Amelia.

Amelia Murphy was still alive. Somehow, somebody had taken her place and she had escaped prison.

And would almost certainly be coming after Becky.