14 When Ego got back to Erica’s apartment, she found Zack was just arriving, taking out coffee cups and wraps of burgers from Uber Eat paper bags for his officers. The tension in the apartment shifted from tactical planning to a frantic legal and forensic debate. Erica paced the small living room, her fingers...
The Case of Erica Te – 13
13 The atmosphere in the small flat was suffocating. DCI Zack Ferguson stood in the centre of the living room, his coat still damp from the mist, looking like a man who had walked into a crime scene and found a ghost story instead. He didn’t interrupt; he simply stood there, his face hardening...
The Case of Erica Te – 12
12 The tension in the flat was thick enough to choke on. Chris stood by the window, his hand resting on the frame as he watched the street, while Ego sat on the edge of the bed, her eyes fixed on the pulsing red dot on Erica’s laptop. “This is it, Erica,” Chris said,...
The Case of Erica Te – 11
11 Just as she reached the safety of the Green Park tube station, her phone buzzed in her pocket. It wasn’t Erica. It was a text from Bill Morgan. FROM: BILL MORGAN “Ego, where are you? I need you back at ETC Tech immediately. There’s been an urgent development here that requires your presence.”...
The Case of Erica Te – 10
10 The shadows in Chris’s guest room seemed to lengthen as Erica sat up, her face a pale moon in the dim light. The STV report was still echoing in her mind, the image of the divers, the mention of the doorbell cameras, the walls closing in. “I can’t stay here, Ego,” Erica whispered,...
The Case of Erica Te – 9
9 The flickering light of the television was the only illumination in Chris’s living room. Erica sat huddled on the sofa, a thick blanket draped over her shoulders, her face ghostly and drawn. Ego sat on the floor, leaning against the seat, while Chris stood by the window, peeking through the blinds at the...
The Case of Erica Te – 8
8 The morning light was grey and unforgiving, filtering through the blinds of Chris’s spare bedroom. Erica lay propped up on a mountain of pillows, her face the colour of parchment. Every shallow breath was a calculated battle against the pain radiating from the heavy bandages wrapped around her torso. Chris sat in a...
The Case of Erica Te – 7
7 She checked her banking app with shaking fingers. The balance was there. £112,000. Close to the exact amount she needed to kill Bill’s control and save her life’s work. But as she looked around her dark apartment, every shadow felt like a spectator. The “castle” hadn’t stayed in the Highlands; she had brought...
The Case of Erica Te – 6
6 On Friday, the transition from the salt-aired streets of Aberdeen to the interior of a luxury vehicle felt like being ushered into a sensory vacuum. Erica had chosen a neutral meet-point—a busy hotel lobby in the city centre, to ensure the “Vesper” trail ended far from her front door. The men in the...
The Case of Erica Te – 5
5 The next morning, Erica stood in the centre of Bill’s office, her shoulders squared, waiting for the explosion. She had her “war face” on, the one she usually reserved for a server-side breach or a pitch to a hostile board. She laid out the terms with icy, surgical precision: the breach of contract,...