Doc,’ Adrian said. ‘When do you think he will be ready?’
‘Give me ’til the end of the day. If I work through, I should have it done.’
Adrian and Imogen stood and watched as Dr Forrester rolled the clay carefully into tiny balls and placed each one in between the markers on the face – small foam tubes of varying lengths. He started on the jawbone, filling the space slowly with the small lumps of clay until they reached the required height, then he smoothed it over until you could barely see the markers anymore.
Adrian would have loved to stay and watch the man work all day, but they had to go and speak to the woman again. All this could be completely unnecessary. She might change her mind and give them the name of the man whose body they found floating in the River Exe. Even as he thought it to himself, he knew it wouldn’t be that easy. Whoever had hurt the woman had scared her enough to keep her mouth shut. Nothing they could say would change that. They had to keep trying, though. Someone was missing this man and they deserved to know the truth.
They were soon back at the hospital. Imogen had grown to hate this place: the smell, the noise, everything about it set her on edge. She had been here too many times already, not only with her own injuries, but also visiting Adrian, victims, witnesses. She had never been to hospital for a happy occasion. She didn’t have many friends, certainly none who were interested in having babies, and given her history, she wasn’t sure she would be that happy in that situation, anyway.
The injuries that Imogen had sustained in a previous case made the likelihood of her being able to have a child unlikely. She still thumbed at the scar that ran the length of her torso, given to her by a suspect of that case. The doctors at the time hadn’t completely ruled out having children, but she got the feeling they were just trying to spare her feelings. It wasn’t something she was preoccupied with at the moment, as she wasn’t ready to have kids of her own, but she knew that there might come a time when she might feel differently.
She had never talked about it with Adrian, nor any of her previous boyfriends, either. Adrian had a son, but Adrian was still young enough to have more children, younger than a lot of first-time parents these days. Hospitals made her think about these things and that was annoying; the rest of the time it barely crossed her mind.
They walked towards the ward Jane Doe was on and already could feel tension as people bustled about. Even from this distance they could see the uniformed officer they had left with her now walking in and out of rooms, looking for something or someone. They didn’t even need to hear it before they broke out into a run – their Jane Doe was missing.
‘What the hell happened?’ Imogen called, startling the young PC.
He stood bolt upright and she saw him fumbling for words.
‘Where is she?’ Adrian said.
‘I really needed the loo and I told her I would be back in five minutes. When I got back, her bed was empty,’ the PC said nervously.
‘When exactly did this happen?’ Adrian asked.
‘About twenty minutes ago,’ the PC said sheepishly.
‘You’ve called this in, right?’ Imogen snapped.
‘I thought I would be able to find her.’
‘Have you told hospital security?’ Imogen said.
‘I was just about to,’ PC Milbourne replied.
‘Twenty minutes? She could be anywhere by now.’
‘I’m really sorry.’
‘Call it in. We’ll see if anyone saw her leave,’ Imogen said to the PC, whose face was the colour of a raspberry.
She had wanted to add a few expletives, but time was of the essence and, realistically, aside from making her feel better momentarily, it would be completely pointless. The young man looked distraught enough as it was; he had learned a lesson. DCI Kapoor would have a few words for him, anyway.
‘Maybe she didn’t leave of her own accord. I’ll get them to pull up the CCTV and see if anyone was with her. Maybe whoever did that to her found her after that sodding footage got out,’ Adrian said.
‘Hey, this isn’t your fault,’ Imogen said, knowing that Adrian would already be blaming himself for allowing the woman at the riverbank to film him. ‘She probably just left on her own. Let’s find out what happened before we freak out.’
‘I’ll go check with security, you go check the main entrance,’ Adrian said to her and rushed off.
Imogen peered into rooms as she walked briskly towards the main entrance to the hospital. The buses ran quite frequently past the hospital and so she could be on a bus, or she could have walked into the residential area. Given that they knew nothing about her, they had no idea where to look.
It wasn’t just about her, either. They had a body they needed to identify and she was the closest thing they had to a witness. Imogen accepted that the woman had probably lied about not remembering anything and if she did, then she knew the who and perhaps the why. There was no reasonable explanation for her to run away if she genuinely couldn’t remember anything about her situation. Was she afraid of getting in trouble with the police? Was she afraid of a person? Was the man who died her husband? So many more questions …
Imogen knew before she got to the exit that she wouldn’t see the woman, that there would be no way to find her. This case was feeling like one door slamming in her face after another. She pulled her phone out and called Gary to check for any CCTV of the hospital and surrounding neighbourhoods. He could put someone on it while they searched the area. She should get him to make that young PC who was supposed to be watching the woman to do it as punishment, but she wouldn’t trust him not to miss anything.
‘I heard,’ Gary said as he answered the phone. ‘The DCI has already asked me to look for CCTV and she has dispatched a couple of cars to look for Jane Doe. DI Walsh is also on his way to the hospital to speak to PC Milbourne.’
‘We are going to look here as well. Adrian has alerted hospital security in case she is still in the building, but she’s had plenty of time to get away. He said twenty minutes, but I reckon we can add at least another ten minutes to that.’
‘There are cameras on the exits to the hospital, so I should be able to get an exact time for you soon enough. I’ve got the head of hospital security on the other line. I’ll text you when I know,’ Gary said before ringing off.
Imogen reached the exit and went outside. She surveyed the surrounding area, but it was desolate. The bus stop was empty and since they had banned smokers from congregating outside the main entrance, there wasn’t anyone to ask. Why would the woman run? Did she run?
Since the video had hit the internet, they couldn’t be sure at this point that whoever had hurt her the first time hadn’t come back to finish the job. Staring at the car park wasn’t doing her any favours, so she went to find Adrian.
What if they couldn’t find the woman? Was she in danger? Was she dangerous? They had no idea. They had less now than they had this morning, significantly
