Lyn slumped back in her chair.

"How much longer is this going to take? I've told you everything I know, and you know where to find me if you have any more questions."

"We're almost finished."

"That's what you said half an hour ago! I have an lab to rebuild."

"And we are making sure we can find the person responsible for destroying it."

"I thought you already did that? You arrested him."

"And we will charge him when we have enough evidence to bring a prosecution."

"What more can you possibly need? You've got eyewitness statements! You-"

A tap at the door interrupted her diatribe, for which the detective was grateful. He was only doing his job. He opened the door.

"Yes?"

Someone passed him a note. He read it, grunted, and said to Lyn, "I'll be back in a minute."

He was more than a minute. Lyn made some more phone calls in the meantime. She called Alice's sister to express her sorrow and regret at what had happened, but her sister was just rushing out of work to get to the hospital. She tried Alice's parents so she could reassure them everything was ok and Alice was going to be fine, but they didn't pick up from their home number in York, so Lyn left a message and her number.

She tried the lab, out of curiostity more than the expectation someone would answer but Iain picked up.

"Lyn? Where are you? Are you ok?"

"I'm fine. I'm still at the police station."

"Still?! I thought you must have gone to hospital."

"I'm ok. Sam is here too somewhere. I didn't know there were going to be so many questions."

"They got the guy though, right?"

"Yeah, he's in a cell downstairs probably. Hey, did you know anything about what he took?"

"I didn't know he took anything. He came in through a fire exit waving a gun around and forced his way into the lab. We ran when he blew it up. What did he take?"

"My samples from the fridge."

"What? Why? Isn't your DNA all over the internet?"

"Yes. You sit in front of it every day. It's not exactly a secret. Look, I just need to know everyone is ok and safe."

"A couple of people went home, or to the hospital but only for minor injuries. The rest of us have been let back in to the office."

"Already?"

"There's some people here taking pictures, but we are going through room by room once they give us the all clear."

"Ok. Can you tell everyone I appreciate what they are doing?"

"Sure."

"Ok, I'll be back as soon as I can."

"Ok, bye."

"No, wait," Lyn shouted into the phone. "I just thought of something. Can you check to see if we have had any requests for my DNA in the last few weeks?"

"Sure. Once we find a working computer I'll see what I can find. Good luck with the cops!"

"Thanks. I think I'm going to need it if this goes on any longer."

She hung up, took a deep breath, and told herself to be patient. Just a little longer...

Fifteen minutes later the detective returned with a leather folder stuffed with pages. He was accompanied by another detective.

"Lyn, this is detective Allen. Detective Allen, Lyn."

Lyn leaned forward and shook her hand.

"Please don't tell me you have more questions."

"Just a few more," said Allen. She smiled warmly. On any other day Lyn would have smiled back and been her usual charming self, but today was unlike any other.

"Can you tell me again what work you do at Zoitech?" said Allen.

"Can you read his notes?"

"Please, this will just take a few minutes. We just have to make sure we have everything clear. I'm sure you understand how important it is to get the details right?"

"Yes, fine, of course. Zoitech is a biotech research company specialising in genetic causes of infertility and treating genetic conditions during pre-natel development."

"Like test tube babies?"

"It's a bit more complicated than that, but yes, if you like."

Detective Allen leaned to the side and made a note on one of the sheets of paper in the folder.

"Can you tell me what a...hablotype is?"

"Do you mean a haplotype?"

"Possibly, I'm sorry."

That's an odd question, thought Lyn, but she answered anyway. "It's a name for a group of genes a child can inherit from a parent."

"Like a human child?"

"No, I mean child in the sense of any descendent of an organism, it could be a human, or a dog, or a pea."

"Why is that significant?"

"What do you mean?"

"Why are hablo- sorry, haplotypes important?"

"They're not important, as such, they are just a word to describe groups of genes."

"Can you give me an example?"

"This information is online you know if you need to research anything. Our website has an introduction to genetics if that would be helpful?"

"It would be helpful if you explained it for us, perhaps to keep things simple, you can use only humans as an example?" said Detective Allen. She smiled again.

"Ok," said Lyn slowly, not understanding where this was going. "You're familiar with DNA?" They nodded, but Lyn wanted to avoid any backtracking so she started at the beginning.

"All life on this planet shares DNA, a molecule which carries the instructions for how life will development. Think of DNA like a computer program, and genes like the individual instructions. A haplotype is group of related instructions. So every living thing on earth contains DNA, and a lot of it is shared between species."

"Like humans and apes?" asked the male detective.

"Like humans and anything. You share half your DNA with a banana." He bristled at once. "I'm sorry, I'm not trying to be rude," she lied. "DNA is a complex molecule so we can examine it in smaller sections to learn more about it. Chromosomes are long strands of DNA which contain everything needed for replication. A gene is a small region of DNA which codes for a particular function. Sometimes a whole group of genes might be need to turn something on or off in their host."

"I thought a gene did one thing, like there is one for blue eyes, one for green eyes, and so on."

"It's a common misconception, but no. Genes are like building blocks. Sometimes you need lots of them acting together to make something work or, if you like, the house will fall down, or the windows won't open. Sometimes the house won't get built properly and it's hard to know where the problem is. That is what we are trying to do at Zoitech."

"Build a perfect house?"

"No body is perfect. We just want to build houses that work, without congenital defects, without the transcription errors that mean the house is built wrong."

"So, biologically perfect? Isn't that like playing god?"

"Don't be silly, it's nothing like that. We just want to help solve problems and make people better, healthier."

More notes were made, and more papers examined.

"Have you come across the phrase 'the genetic eve'?" asked Allen.

"Of course," said Lyn. Allen waited for her to continue. "The genetic eve is a common concept in hereditary studies. She is the oldest recent common ancestor we know of, based on studying different population groups around the world.

"Why not an Adam? Wasn't he the first man?"

Now it was Lyn's turn to smile. "So I've heard. Unfortunately for Adam, his wife's dna is far more robust than his own. The DNA of a man is passed to the offspring via recombination, so it is difficult to trace. Part of the DNA passed through the female line is done so without recombination, so that means we can trace the female line back thousands of years. Ten's of thousands."

"Where to?"

"East Africa is the current best guess."

"That's something of a coincidence, isn't it?"

"What do you mean?"

"You're from Eritrea, aren't you?"

"Oh, yes," Lyn laughed. "I see what you mean! I suppose it is, although I'm only half Eritrean. My father was Irish, believe it or not. And I'm from Croydon."

"So does this mean the real Eve existed?"

"No, of course not. It's just a name. Eve means mother, so the genetic eve is just the name we give to the most recent common ancestor. If we find an older common ancestor we will call her Eve and start again."

"And where would this genetic Eve live now?"

"I don't follow."

"Where would you find her today?"

"Oh, well, nowhere. She is a composite based on studying the DNA of women around the world. She doesn't exist as a person. Women have been having children and populations growing and spreading for hundreds of thousands of years. Have you seen that diagram about the tree of life?"

"I think I remember it from school..." said Allen.

"Can I borrow your pen? Thanks." Lyn grabbed a piece of paper from the folder without asking and flipped it over, and began to draw. "Like this, a couple have some children. Say two, to make this easy. Each of them has two children, and each of their children has two more, and so on." She drew as she spoke, one line branching into two, then two into four and four into eight, into sixteen, into thirty-two. "If you keep this up for a hundred thousand years you end up with billions of potential heirs, but along the way disaster happens." Lyn began crossing through lines at random. "This woman dies in childbirth, this one from a disease, this one in an accident. The lines are cut short, and the DNA we would use to trace heredity are gone. She doesn't exist in one person, she exists in all these people. Each woman carries a part of the original DNA, but single women has it all."

Lyn clicked the pen closed, dropped it on the folder and spun the sheet of paper around so the detectives could see it better. When she drew it the lines fanned out across the page in the shape of a classic family tree. Upside down it looked more like a funnel.

The two detectives studied it politely for a moment then turned it back over so they could read their notes. An unspoken message passed between them.

"Thank you, Miss Asmara, I think that is everything for now."

"I can go?"

"Yes. I think we have everything we need, and we have your number in case we have any further questions. Here is my card if you need to speak to me about anything related to the case, and here is a case reference note." Detective Allen circled some information on the paper. "If you call that station on this number, and quote this reference, you will be put through to someone on my team who will be able to help you further. And of course, if it's an emergency dial nine, nine, nine."

"Thank you." Lyn hastily folded the paper and dropped it with the card into her bag. "Is Sam finished now?"

"He should be. I'll escort you both out."

The detective and Lyn walked she short hallway back to the waiting area where Sam sat fuming.

"Are we done here?" he said when he saw Lyn approaching.

Allen nodded. "Yes you are," and offered Sam her card. He refused and marched ahead of them to the front desk and the way out.

"Do you think we will find another one?" said Allen, as she held open the door for Lyn. Sam was already outside.

"Another Eve? It's certainly possible. Research is ongoing and people discover things all the time. It takes time, though. It's not like this is all online, is it?"

Detective Allen smiled. "No. Just yours."