‘I can tell you that she was terrified. She was calm and even-tempered when other people were around, but when she was alone, she was quite distraught. I walked in on her and saw her sobbing more than once. I got the feeling she was in some kind of untenable situation, as though a difficult decision needed to be made. She seemed to be unsure of what she should do.’

‘Well, she had been through a terrible ordeal.’

‘Yes, of course, but she was so determined to keep it hidden, that’s what concerned me. She didn’t ask for advice, or help. I’ve seen this kind of thing before.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Those injuries that she sustained, they weren’t the first. Not by a long shot. There was evidence of injuries and breaks going back a long time. Without saying too much, I think you are looking for a very vulnerable individual.’

‘Did she use the phones at all? Did you see anyone else hanging around the hospital? Did you see her speaking to anyone who wasn’t staff?’

Imogen fired the questions without giving Hadley the opportunity to respond. Hadley was so guarded with her responses and Imogen didn’t have all day.

‘She was very jumpy whenever someone walked into the room, expecting someone to come for her, I think. I don’t think she is running from the law, she is running from someone else. Pure speculation, of course, but I work predominantly with women who are either sexually assaulted or in domestic abuse situations. The marks I saw on her body are consistent with those I have seen on women who are in abusive relationships. As she didn’t tell me directly and as this is conjecture on my part, I don’t feel like I am breaking confidentiality in this instance.’

‘Thank you, Doctor. We’ll contact you if we need to speak to you again.’

Imogen showed Dr Hadley out of the liaison room and walked back to her desk. Finding Jane Doe seemed more pressing than ever.

Chapter Seventeen

Adrian clicked through all the images Gary had compiled. As they had barely any information on John Doe, he could have been reported missing at any point from anywhere. The things they knew were that he had naturally brown hair and brown eyes, and was no younger than twenty and no older than forty. He was five foot eleven and Caucasian. Anyone who didn’t fit those criteria was immediately removed from the list.

‘Dr Forrester said he would have something for us in less than half an hour,’ Gary said as he returned to the room with two hot coffees from the secret coffee machine in his office.

‘I’m down to under three hundred now, much better than what we started with,’ Adrian said. ‘I feel like we should be investigating all of these, anyway.’

‘It’s definitely depressing.’