Mummy's Little Girl by Jane Elliott

Author:Jane Elliott [Jane Elliott]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780007287178
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2008-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

DCI Barker was already in the office when Hayley returned to work after her day off. Checking her watch, she saw that she was ten minutes late, and from the look he was giving her, it was clear that the fact wasn’t lost on her boss. She tried to avoid his glance as she briskly removed her coat and hung it on the back of her seat; but even as she switched on her computer, she could sense him walking towards her.

‘You’re late,’ he growled.

‘Sorry, sir,’ she said, not looking at him.

‘Yeah,’ Barker retorted. ‘I’m sure you are. And I’m sure it’s very stressful, sitting behind that desk all day doing the typing. But while the rest of us are doing some proper police work, it’s not too much to ask that you grace us with your presence on time, is it?’

Hayley looked coolly up at him. ‘If you don’t need anything else, sir, I’d like to start work now.’

Barker’s eyes narrowed. ‘Thin ice, Miss Carter,’ he threatened quietly. ‘Very thin ice.’ And with that he turned and made his way back to his glass-fronted office. As he walked, he failed to see Ryan making an insulting gesture with his wrist. Hayley smiled, despite herself.

The morning passed slowly as Hayley typed up reports without even registering the words she read. Her attention was elsewhere. Barker wouldn’t be in the office all day, she hoped; when he left, perhaps she could steal a few minutes at one of the station’s terminals of the PNC – the Police National Computer, a database for, well, nearly everything.

Ten o’clock came and went. Eleven o’clock. It was gone twelve when Barker curtly stood up and left the office without a word to anyone else. His jacket remained on the back of his chair, but Hayley wasn’t fooled by his little deception – he often did that when he wanted people to believe he was still in the station. She gave it a few minutes, just to convince herself that he wasn’t coming back anytime soon, and then headed across the open-plan office.

There were two terminals in full view of everyone in the office, but Hayley couldn’t use either of those. These were strictly for police use, and a mere secretary had no business accessing the databases. In fact, as far as she could guess, it would be a sacking offence. There was a briefing room, however, seldom used, which housed a third terminal, and it was here that she headed. As she expected, there was no one in there, so she took a seat at the terminal and faced the screen.

Hayley stared at it blankly. The truth was, she didn’t know where to begin. She had a date of birth, but no name – no nothing. What was more, she had never used one of these terminals before, and—

‘Found anything interesting, Miss Carter?’

Hayley’s stomach lurched, and she spun round to see DCI Barker standing, arms folded, in the doorway.

‘I … I was just—’

‘I can see what you were doing,’ Barker announced as he stepped further into the room.

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