The Doll's House

25

‘So what do we know about Pippa Briers?’

Helen was addressing the team who had now assembled in the incident room at Southampton Central.

‘Born in Reading in 1990 to Daniel and Samantha Briers,’ Helen continued. ‘Her mum died when she was six. Shortly afterwards Pippa was diagnosed as suffering from brachycardia – her heart beat too slowly – so she had a pacemaker fitted when she was ten. Her dad remarried shortly afterwards. It didn’t go down well and Pippa moved south following a bust-up with her stepmum, staying first with her friend Caroline Furnace in Portsmouth – have we tracked her down yet?’

‘Spoke to her on the phone this morning,’ DC Grounds replied. ‘Caroline’s had the occasional text, read the occasional tweet, but hasn’t seen Pippa for over three years now.’

Helen let this thought settle before continuing:

‘So she ends up in Southampton, having got a job at the Sun First travel agency in WestQuay shopping centre. What are they saying?’

‘She worked there as a travel agent for nearly six years,’ DC McAndrew replied. ‘Quiet girl, good worker, well liked. Great appraisals and attendance records, then one day she just didn’t turn up. Sent them a brief email from her BlackBerry saying she’d had enough of organizing other people’s holidays and wanted to travel herself. And they never heard from her again. They were irritated because she was supposed to work a month’s notice, but…’

‘When was this?’

‘Three years ago.’

‘Which is within the time frame of her abduction. Where did she live?’

‘She moved around a lot,’ piped up DC Stevens, one of the new officers on the team. ‘Bitterne Park, Portswood, St Denys. Mostly studio flats or bedsits, nothing very high end. Last known address was in Merry Oak. We’re checking it out.’

‘Quick as you can, please,’ Helen replied, with just the right mixture of admonishment and encouragement. They needed facts, not possibilities.

‘Friends? Boyfriends?’

‘We’ve taken a look at her phone records, her email accounts,’ DC Lucas, the new female DC, offered. ‘Plenty of socializing and lots of internet dating. Nearly all short-lived apart from one – an on/off boyfriend whom she dated for a year, then dumped when he turned out to be married.’

‘Name?’

‘Nathan Price.’