Title: Footwear
Fandom: Lewis (tv)
Rating: G
Length: 515
Summary: Inspector Lewis discovers that having leaking shoes may lead to inspiration.
My thanks to my beta fortesomniare

It was typical, Lewis thought, that his shoes would start leaking the minute he began walking across the wet grass to where the body of Lucy Garner had been found.  It meant that he could look forward to the next few hours with cold, wet feet while they tried to establish the chain of events that had led to a murder on the edge of the woods.  He walked over to join Hathaway, who was also apparently not too happy with the conditions, since he was blowing on his fingers to try to keep them warm.

“Should have brought some gloves, sergeant,” Lewis said.

“I left them in my other coat,” Hathaway replied, ramming his hands deep in his pockets.  “I shall have to buy a second pair.”

Hathaway watched as Lewis shuffled his feet around.

“Are you all right, sir?” he asked.

“My shoes are leaking and my feet are probably colder than your hands at the moment.”

“You should have worn wellies.  Your grandson had some lovely ones on at the weekend.”

“Somehow I doubt that they make green wellies covered with dinosaurs in my size.”

“When you two have finished discussing your preferred footwear, maybe you would care to come and see what I have found,” Laura Hobson called out.

***

Early afternoon and Hathaway answered the phone in the office he shared with Lewis.

“Yes ma’am ... He’s just popped out for a few minutes ...I’ll tell him when he gets back.”

When Lewis returned to the office, Hathaway glanced at Lewis’ feet and said, “I see you were successful.”

“Yes.  And while I was there I had an idea...”

Hathaway held up his hand, wanting to pass on his message, “Innocent wants to see you.”

“I’ll go up in a minute,” Lewis replied.  “But do you remember the words of the shopkeeper, when we showed him Lucy Garner’s picture and he said that she and her friend came into the shop quite regularly?”

“Yes.  He said he had seen the friend that morning.  He remembered it particularly because he’d reached up for some teabags for her.  He’d thought it strange, because she could normally reach that shelf.”

“Right.  She can’t have shrunk, but if she was wearing different shoes, she might have seemed shorter.”

Hathaway nodded.  “I don’t see why that’s particularly relevant.”

“That’s what occurred to me at the shoe shop - why wasn’t she wearing heels?  Then I remembered our Lyn used to wear flat shoes when she was driving, and would take her other shoes to wear when she got to her destination.”

Hathaway thought for a moment before saying, “The shop was a few doors away from where Lucy and the friend, Emily Fielding, worked, so you’d expect Emily to be wearing her heels.  But if she wasn’t, is it because she had to leave home in a hurry this morning?”

“Precisely,” Lewis agreed.  “Because she’d had to drive to the woods with Lucy’s body.  I think we should bring Emily Fielding in for an interview.  Can you arrange that while I go and see Innocent?”