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.