Frustrated, unsettled, Charlie rose from her seat, heading out into the incident room, determined not to give into morbid introspection.The team were hard at work, unaware they’d just lost one of their team, but concrete results were proving elusive.DC Roberts was directing a small group of them, who continued to pore over freight immigration records, so instead Charlie bent her footsteps to DC Malik, with whom she’d tasked tracking Clint Davies’ movements over the last few months, hoping that she might offer some cause for optimism.
‘How’re you getting on?’Charlie enquired cheerfully.
The junior officer smiled wearily, before replying:
‘I’ve spent the last few hours checking and re-checking Clint Davies’ movements, seeing if triangulation can cast any light on his activities and I have made some progress, but I’m not sure it gets us any further on really …’
‘Go on,’ Charlie encouraged, happy to take whatever slender piece of good news her colleague had to offer.
‘So we know Davies lives in St Denys with his girlfriend,’ DCMalik replied, gesturing to the map on her screen, ‘and that each day he takes the bus down to the docks.’
‘Correct.’
‘Well, other than that, he doesn’t do much, he’s not the most social of animals.But when he does go elsewhere, he heads here.’
The junior officer gestured towards a series of red flags superimposed on a digital map of Southampton.
‘Where is that?’Charlie said, leaning in closer.
‘Highfield,’ DC Malik responded.‘Close to the uni campus.’
‘Good place to go for a cheap beer.’
‘Plus, there’s lot of clubs and bars.Discount stores too, selling anything from 5K TVs to dusters.It’s possible he goes there to offload some of his goods.Or maybe he just goes there for a night out.’
‘No links in his socials to any students?Anyone who might live in that area?’
‘Not that we’ve found so far.’
‘But it does seem to be an area of specific interest for him,’ Charlie said, intrigued.‘Have we checked out what these individual establishments are?’
She gestured at the red flags.
‘I was about to do that now,’ DC Malik responded.‘And once I’ve got a comprehensive list, I was going to give them a buzz in the morning.See if any of them know Davies, professionally or personally.’
‘Do you think that’s where he might have met his paymaster?’
‘Possibly,’ DC Malik responded.‘He was definitely in the area when he made the call that we traced.And obviously he had a stash of cash on him when he was … apprehended.’
She might have said ‘run over’, but avoided rubbing salt in the wound.
‘But he was on the move when we traced him and, as hevisited a number of different places in the area that morning, it’s not entirely clear to me yet where he’d been.’
Charlie nodded, wanting to appear encouraging and supportive, but as her eye fell on the screen once more, her heart sank.The Highfield area was dotted with red flags, so which ones should they prioritize?Where should they concentrate their efforts?
And would any of them hold the key to cracking this baffling case?
Chapter 54
It was getting late and already the hospital car park was starting to thin out.Parking up her bike, Helen scanned the bleak vista in front of her, but was unsurprised to find no trace of the battered white van.It was too early for that.She suspected it would only surface once the majority of ordinary folk had departed.Certainly that was what the timings on the parking tickets suggested, meaning she had time to kill.
Crossing the car park, she made her way to the Londis on the other side of the road.There was a fancy new M&S in the hospital foyer, but caution won out, as Helen couldn’t be sure there weren’t spotters in the vicinity, keeping an eye out for any suspicious activity or police presence before the arrival of the enslaved workers.Helen was a striking figure, well known to many local criminals, and it wouldn’t do to advertise her presence here, so she moved away from the entrance, stepping inside the convenience store.As she did so, her stomach growled angrily.Helen realized that she hadn’t eaten a thing all day, distracted by her distressing confrontations with Christopher and her ongoing hunt for Selima.Grabbing a packet of salt and vinegar crisps from the shelf, she moved on to the refrigerated section in search of a sandwich.Over the years, she’d toyed with various eating regimens, in an attempt to be healthier or more principled, butwas quite traditional when it came to her choice of sandwich, usually opting for a BLT, tuna mayo or a chicken tikka wrap.
Staring at the rows of colourfully packaged offerings, however, Helen suddenly realized that she couldn’t face any of those, the mere thought of them making her feel sick.This unnerved her.Was this her mind playing tricks on her or was her pregnancy once more making its presence felt?Pushing these thoughts away, she selected the blandest cheese and pickle she could find and marched to the till.
Heading back out onto the street, Helen made her way down the left-hand edge of the car park, keeping a wary eye out for any loitering figures.Her helmet remained on, in a deliberate attempt to conceal her identity, but in truth this was overkill, as the entrance to the hospital seemed deserted.Still, it wouldn’t do to linger, so she hurried on her way, ducking under a barrier to continue down the western boundary of the hospital building.The van’s parking tickets were for violations at the rear, where staff and tradespeople accessed the hospital.This made perfect sense as the workers presumably had a job to do and would be out of sight behind the main building, an arrangement that no doubt suited their handlers.
Keeping her pace high and purposeful, Helen walked fast down the towering open-air walkwaysbetween the main hospital buildings, before eventually emerging into a small courtyard to the rear.Immediately, she found what she was looking for, the yellow hatched area close to the rear entrance in which the van had been photographed by the enforcement officer.They were unlucky to have been ticketed so late at night, leading her to wonder if the authorities had been tipped off.Was it standard practice for the van to park up in a loading bay, ignoring the no-parking signs, provoking the ire of hospital staff?Was it a staff member who’d lost patience and called the traffic enforcementunit?If so, Helen suspected it made little difference, the van only needing to be in position for a few minutes to drop off and pick up the workers.Better to swallow the odd parking fine than loiter in plain sight on the street or by the front entrance, where CCTV cameras were plentiful.
