Page 48

She paced back and forwards, a dozen confused thoughts tumbling one over the other.

Having walked out on Christopher, Helen had headed straight back to the sanctuary of her flat.

Usually, the serene quiet of the place, the familiar surroundings, had a calming effect on her.

But today it afforded her no such relief, hence why she now found herself pacing back and forth, cursing herself.

How had she not seen through Christopher’s lies?

How had she allowed herself to fall into a relationship with a man who was neither committed nor honest?

They had met infrequently, but always Helen now remembered mid-week, usually on a Wednesday night.

Did that coincide with some regular commitment of his wife’s – a book group, a gym class?

Or had he invented some engagement of his own to disguise his duplicity?

Staff training? Mentoring? Something operational even?

The very thought sickened her, the grubby, premeditated duplicity that had facilitated their liaisons.

What had once appeared fun, spontaneous and exciting, now seemed sordid and soiled.

Angrily pushing aside thoughts of her faithless lover, Helen stalked across the room to her desk.

There were many questions to be answered – what to do about the baby?

Whether to sever contact with Christopher completely?

Whether to tell anyone else about her predicament?

– but they would have to wait. There were more pressing matters demanding her attention, now that she finally had a lead as to the whereabouts of Selima and her fellow workers.

Firing up her laptop, Helen seated herself at the kitchen table.

There was only one way to further her quest for the mystery van and it would take her into murky waters, with potentially damaging consequences for herself and her old friend, but Helen could see no other practical way forward.

Steeling herself, she pulled up the familiar portal, the Hampshire Police logo springing to life on her screen.

Technically, she should have deleted this application from her computer, making good on a promise she’d made to Rebecca Holmes in the wake of her sudden departure from the Force.

But she hadn’t and HR had not followed up on it, which meant she potentially still had access to the Police National Computer.

The problem of course was that her personal access had been rescinded, as she was now a civilian.

Which is where Charlie came in. Her friend would go berserk if she got wind of what she was up to, but as Helen knew nobody else’s access details off by heart, this was the only way.

Swallowing her misgivings, Helen typed in Charlie’s username and password, waiting while the screen buffered.

If Charlie was already logged in, then Helen would be in trouble, denied access to the system, her digital trespass flagged.

Happily, however, the screen now sprang into life, opening up its riches to her.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Helen started typing.

Speed was of the essence now if she didn’t want to be detected.

Hammering the keys, she fed in the transit van’s registration details, then punched ‘Enter’.

It didn’t take long for the system to react, but the results were disappointing.

The van was legally owned and had not been linked to any recorded crimes. It was clean.

Annoyed, Helen read on. The only notes of any interest pertaining to the van were to be found a little further on – three unpaid parking tickets accrued within the past nine months, all for the same location.

Intrigued, Helen leaned in closer, drinking in the details.

On three separate occasions, the van had been ticketed for parking across a hatched loading bay at South Hants hospital.

More interestingly still, all the offences took place late at night – 11.

05 p.m., 11.12 p.m. and 11.17 p.m. respectively.

This was well after visiting hours, suggesting to Helen that the van’s presence there was work-related, especially given the haphazard nature of the parking.

If the van was planning on lingering, they would presumably have parked properly.

Parking illegally in a loading bay suggested a brief, temporary pitstop.

Were they delivering something? Picking people up? Dropping them off?

The most recent ticket was issued just ten days ago, suggesting to Helen that this line of work – whatever it was – might still be active.

Scrolling further, she looked eagerly for more details on the owner of the mysterious van.

Here too she was frustrated, as the van was not registered to any specific individual, but rather to a company.

This did, however, give her a steer as to the nature of the van’s business at the hospital and provided Helen with a solid lead, her next port of call.

The van was registered to Regus Cleaning Limited.