Pop Goes the Weasel

81

Helen stood stock still, barely able to breathe.

The first signs of trouble had come with repeated calls to Helen’s mobile from Southampton Central’s media liaison unit, flagging repeated attempts by the Mail to get access to Helen. Then the same again from Hampshire Police HQ and this time it was the editor of the Mail who had called. There was confusion all round – media liaison had assumed it was to do with their current investigation into the killings in Southampton, but actually they wanted to talk to Helen about someone called Robert Stonehill.

At the first mention of his name, Helen had switched off her phone and raced back to the nick. Once there she had demanded sight of tomorrow’s front pages. Most led on the ongoing hostage crisis in Algeria, but the Mail had gone for something different. ‘Son of a Monster’ splashed across the front page and beneath it a grainy, sinister-looking picture of Robert, shot from a distance on a long lens. Marianne’s police mugshot leered out underneath – the details of her crimes rehashed with relish.

Dropping the paper, Helen sprinted from the media suite, racing down the stairs and out to her bike. As she raced to the outskirts of the city, one question kept swirling round and round her head. How? How had they found out? Emilia must be involved somehow but Helen hadn’t told anyone about Robert, so unless he had… No, it didn’t make any sense. When had Emilia suddenly become omniscient, able to penetrate the most secret chambers of Helen’s life?

All she wanted to do was find Robert and comfort him. Protect him. But as she approached Cole Avenue, she could already see the press pack assembling. A TV crew had just pulled up and there was a growing crowd of hacks ringing the doorbell, demanding an interview. Helen’s first instinct was to barrel through them to find Robert, but wisdom prevailed and she stayed where she was. Her presence would only inflame the story and the Stonehill family had enough to deal with already.

How could she help him? How could she stop the shit storm that she had brought crashing down on this innocent young man? This was her fault and she cursed herself bitterly for her weakness in ever contacting Robert. He had been happy. He had been ignorant. And now this.

In trying to save him, she had damned him.