The list from the previous night included the usual stuff—two calls from some angry people between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. about noisy neighbours. Three kinds of drunk people: one who called by accident, asking for a taxi; one who called on purpose, because they’d lost their mates in a nightclub and they wanted the police to help find them; and one exceptionally drunk person calling because there really was an emergency—his friend had been assaulted, then he’d collapsed and stopped breathing. This was where the skill of the operator was crucial, because it was so hard to tell the difference with drunk people. There were also several calls from stupid people (who were sometimes drunk, too, which didn’t help): one calling because the cat hadn’t come back, one because someone had refused to make tea when it was their turn.

Some of it was funny, but much of it was deadly serious. The list itself might have been indecipherable to a civilian at a glance, just columns of lingo dotted with police code and numerical data. But Harper could see that, hiding in the midst of the crank calls, were those entries heavy with the weight of human tragedy. The cold record of the moment a person decided they were not strong enough to deal with whatever was in front of them. These were genuine cries for help.

At the top of the last page, one of the items caught her interest. In the early hours there had been a call from a mobile phone located in the Royal Infirmary Hospital. It was marked as 4—the lowest possible priority, judged to be a false alarm. But the description read “Attempted Child Abduction” so she clicked on it. Reading the notes, her breath quickened.

1. Time: 0429: 999 report from a mobile phone

2. Details of Person Reporting: Lauren Tranter, address (unable to obtain)

3. Detail of Incident: reported intruder in maternity ward of Royal Infirmary, reported assault, reported attempted abduction of newborn twins. Reporter is calling from inside locked cubicle, both babies inside cubicle with reporter, intruder outside door attempting to breach

4. Opening Incident Classification: 1 (URGENT)

a. Action: hospital security alerted by telephone as first-on-scene

b. Action: mobile patrol officers alerted by radio e.t.a. 16 minutes

5. Time: 0444: contact by telephone from hospital security: false alarm: picked up by MHS

a. Action: Mobile Patrol cancelled by radio

6. Closing Incident Classification: 4 (NO ACTION REQUIRED)

MHS stood for Mental Health Services. So, whoever had called, the mother of the twins, was seeing things. Those with mental-health issues often called the police, and it was quite often “picked up by MHS”. All seemed to be in order, in this case. The dispatcher had probably been correct in ranking it 4. Harper went back to the main screen, looked at the rest of the list. Drunk people, stupid people, Road Traffic Incidents. Nothing that needed her attention. Her cursor hovered over the red button in the corner of the programme window. Better be getting on with planning that training session I’m delivering later, she thought.