Little Boy Blue

117

‘Do you have any eyes on her?’ Sanderson barked, her stress levels hitting the roof.

‘Negative.’

‘Any idea where she might have gone?’

‘She probably hopped the fence and made her way down the hill – but I couldn’t tell you in which direction.’

Sanderson cursed. Another member of the team looked up, intrigued, so pushing the door to Helen’s office shut, Sanderson lowered her voice.

‘Where is the nearest road? If she wanted to head back into town, where would she head to?’

There was silence on the other end, as the surveillance officer conferred with his colleague, then he eventually replied:

‘Probably Weston or Newton.’

‘Ok, leave one man at the cemetery in case she doubles back for her bike, but the rest of you get to Weston and Newton and fan out from there. We’ll circulate her description to uniform, but keep your eyes peeled. You lost her, you can bloody well find her.’

Sanderson clicked off, realizing too late that she had raised her voice once again, to the evident interest of her colleagues. It was not surprising – in spite of everything she’d experienced with this team she had never felt so stressed as she did right now. Getting Gardam to agree to the arrest had been hard enough, but then to lose her… They had got too close, blown their cover and Helen now knew that she was being pursued. Having been so upbeat earlier, Sanderson suddenly felt deeply anxious. She had no idea where Helen was right now and, more importantly, no idea of what she might do next.

Her phone rang suddenly and Sanderson glanced down eagerly at the screen. But it was just Emilia Garanita – again. Rejecting it, she marched from Helen’s office, slamming the door behind her.