Chapter 17

Chapter 17

‘That's her . No question about it.'

Helen was pointing at the monitor, her voice tight with excitement. The screen was filled with a grab from the traffic cam, the timecode showing a young female entering the underpass last night.

‘Obviously it's not perfect resolution, but you can still make out her hair colour and her bright Doc Marten boots. Do we all agree it's her?'

Helen turned to face the rest of her team, who were gathered round her in the incident room. Almost everyone present nodded in agreement, even Jennings, though his offering was more of a shrug. Helen hadn't held out much hope for his solo mission through Southampton's mean streets, but against the odds he'd come up with the goods.

‘Good. So we're agreed that Naomi Watson entered this underpass just before 9 p.m. last night,' Helen continued crisply. ‘But she clearly isn't there anymore and, as DC Jennings' enquiries have confirmed, she wasn't there when the other rough sleepers using the underpass woke up this morning. So she vanished at some point during the night. The most logical explanation is that she got cold, tired or thought better of her location, but …'

Helen fast-forwarded the footage. As the minutes, then hours ticked by, many cars and the occasional pedestrian exited the underpass, but there was no sign of Naomi leaving. Helen said nothing, letting the footage play out, pausing it only when DC Jennings stopped to look up at the camera.

‘Fame at last,' DC Malik joked, staring at the frozen image.

‘Is that an unauthorized fag break?' DC Reid overlapped, earning a friendly punch from Jennings.

‘The point is,' Helen said, talking over them, ‘that Naomi doesn't exit on foot from this side of the tunnel …'

‘And we've checked the camera at the other end of the underpass,' Charlie piped up, lending her support to Helen. ‘No sign of her leaving that way either.'

‘Now the service hatches are locked, out of action, have been for years,' Helen continued, taking up the baton. ‘Which means …'

‘That she drove out,' DC Wilson offered, before correcting himself. ‘Or was driven out.'

‘Exactly,' Helen said meaningfully, letting this thought land before continuing. ‘Clearly, scores of vehicles pass through this underpass every day, but the traffic is lighter during the night and we're only interested in vehicles that took longer than usual to exit the underpass. There's no roadworks there, no temporary lights, so if you're obeying the 30mph speed limit it should take you less than thirty seconds to pass through the tunnel. A small number of vehicles took considerably longer than that, however. DC McAndrew?'

The experienced officer now stepped forward. Crossing to the whiteboard, she began to scribble the details of several registration numbers on the board.

‘There are five vehicles that spent two minutes or more in the underpass, before emerging from the tunnel. Three cars and two vans. Naomi could've been in any one of these, so we'll need to check them all out, but there is one that's of particular interest. A Renault Movano van, registration number OT16 VXL.'

Helen scrolled the traffic cam footage forward, freezing the image on the Renault van.

‘Could be any number of reasons why these vehicles stopped for longer than necessary. Could be perfectly innocent, but might not be, given that dealers and sex workers frequent this underpass. As DC McAndrew says, we'll need to investigate each individual vehicle, check out the driver's story, but what interests me about this Renault Movano is that it shouldn't be on the road, in fact it shouldn't even exist anymore.'

Confused looks from some of the younger officers, so Helen pressed on.

‘This van was seized as part of a drugs raid six months ago. It's working parts were shot, its chassis too corroded to think of selling it, so two months ago it was sent to the council pound for destruction. It should have been flat as a pancake and on its way to China weeks ago, but here it is, back on the roads …'

Now the team understood, their expression changing from confusion to excitement.

‘I'm heading there right now to find out what happened. DS Brooks and DCs Jennings and Wilson will check out the other vehicles, whilst DC McAndrew holds the fort here.'

Helen clocked DC Jennings' look of exasperation, but carried on regardless. ‘As of now, I am officially upgrading the Naomi Watson case from a missing persons to a potential abduction enquiry. I will action that now, deploying resources accordingly. I know we're spread thin, what with last night's shooting and Naomi's disappearance, so we'll have to be at our most dynamic and productive today, understood?'

She stared at them, expecting the team to jump to it, but they seemed uncertain, DCs Jennings and Reid looking particularly hesitant.

‘ Now, please ,' Helen repeated more loudly, making several members of the team jump. ‘We've two gunmen at large and a vulnerable girl whose life may be in imminent danger, so let's get to it …'

Thankfully, the unit now got the message, hurrying away to their desks. Shaking her head, Helen snatched up her jacket and marched to the door. Others might feel content to dawdle, but she was painfully aware of the danger Naomi was in, having faced similar dangers herself in days gone by. Had Naomi been abducted? Assaulted? Murdered? Helen had no idea, but she was determined to find the missing girl before it was too late.