The Next Girl(Detective Gina Harte #1)(15)

‘I’ll be back soon.’ He kissed her on the cheek and left, locking the door behind him.





Nine





Gina threw her bag into the corner of her office and turned her computer on. It was almost lunchtime.

Several emails pinged up as her computer finally came to life. As expected, a mass of calls had been made to the helpline in relation to the baby. Jacob and the team had sifted through a handful of them and only come up with one that was meaningful.

She picked up the phone and dialled his extension. ‘Jacob, I’m back in my office. Pop through and we can talk through these calls,’ she said, searching in her drawer for some paracetamol. She placed the receiver back in its cradle and massaged her temple as she popped a couple of pills onto her desk.

Jacob knocked and entered with a steaming Styrofoam cup. ‘Coffee. You are my saviour,’ she said, taking it from him. She placed the pills in her mouth and took a gulp, flinching as the heat from the coffee burned the back of her throat.

‘You’re welcome. Feel more human yet?’

‘I will do in a minute. My head has been pounding since I left the hospital.’ She swallowed and grimaced, realising that her throat was starting to feel like sandpaper.

Jacob grabbed the chair opposite her and placed his notebook on the desk. ‘How were things there?’ he asked as he loosened his tie.

‘Just routine. I spoke to the doctor in charge, a Doctor Nowak.’ Jacob scribbled the name under the rest of his illegible notes. ‘I asked him to circulate a message requesting that the staff keep an eye out for anyone coming to the hospital and acting suspiciously.’ Gina scrolled through her emails and came across a flagged email from Jacob. ‘What’s this? Must be important if you’ve flagged it.’

He leaned forward. ‘We had one call that struck a chord. It just came in a few minutes ago. The rest are still being sifted through, but they were basically descriptions of the many people that had been in the area that day. We have tall, short, fat, thin, workmen and women, wearing yellow jackets and suits – the usual. There wasn’t anything that really stood out on the first scan except the one I’ve highlighted. The officer who took the call said the man sounded distressed. The recording is very crackly. It sounds like the caller had a piece of cloth over his mouth. He appeared to be mumbling to himself, taking about a baby and his love. To cut a long story short, he basically begged us to run a DNA test on the baby. He screamed and yelled before bursting into tears.’

‘I can see why you flagged that one up. Why would someone call and request that we do a DNA check on the baby? I wonder if he’s the father. Or maybe it’s another crank.’

Jacob looked into her eyes. ‘He also said that the baby had a birthmark on the back of her right leg, just above the knee.’

Gina took another gulp of coffee. ‘Have you verified this?’

‘I called the hospital immediately and spoke to the nurse in charge. She confirmed the presence of the birthmark.’ He began to chew the end of his already worn-down biro as he stared at his notes.

‘We need to get that baby’s DNA sample to the lab. I’ll get it cleared with Briggs. There’s more to this story. Where’s the mother, for heaven’s sake? Have we traced the call? It sounds like our suspect was on the phone for a long time?’ Gina swigged the last of her coffee, pulled a cereal bar from her bag and began eating it.

‘Not as long as we’d hoped. He blurted everything out at speed then hung up. The only thing we managed to get was that the call came from an unregistered phone. We tried to call him back but the line was dead. He’s probably ditched it already.’

‘That’s a bit of a pain but not unexpected,’ she replied. The intensity of her headache began to reduce. She cleared her dry throat and smiled. ‘Right. I’ll arrange the DNA sample. Go through the recording again and listen for anything that may help us. Something’s really off about this case.’

Jacob stood and walked towards the door. ‘If you want a sausage roll, there’s a bag in the main office. O’Connor brought them in. Apparently, his wife made them yesterday.’

‘What would we do without O’Connor and his talented wife?’ Gina asked. Jacob smiled and closed the door as he left.

This wasn’t a usual request from someone involved in this type of case. If he were the father, he’d more likely be asking if the baby was safe and well. Where was the mother? A man had called, but a woman had recently given birth and she certainly hadn’t been assisted by anyone with any midwifery skills, given that the cord was cut so badly. Somewhere, there was a woman in pain, in distress, yet this man was calling and begging for the baby to be DNA tested. Something didn’t compute. This wasn’t a typical abandonment.

There was no way it could be a crank call, as the caller had given them a description of the birthmark. What if there wasn’t a match? In that case, their only hope of making any progress with the case would be to wait for another call.

She opened up a new email and addressed it to Briggs. Even though she was more than fond of him, his new tight-fisted approval process on anything that ate into their measly forensics budget was wearing her down.





Ten





An email from Briggs popped up on her screen, requesting her immediate attendance in his office. She swallowed as she stood and made her way through the main office and along the corridor. She took a deep breath, scooped her messy hair up into an elastic band and knocked. She heard Briggs bellowing down the phone as he ended his conversation. Her stomach grumbled and she felt a wave of nausea sweep through her. As soon as their conversation was over, she needed some lunch.