Charlie hared off, Harwood following close behind.
‘What about me? What can I do to help?’ Tony asked.
Harwood paused, then turned:
‘You can go to hell.’
114
She was trapped. Helen had backed into the tiny bedroom to escape Ella’s advance, but was now boxed into a corner. For days she had been praying for this moment – when she would finally come face to face with their killer – but now it was here and death would be the only outcome. Helen hugged the baby closer to her chest, as Ella took another step towards them.
Had she deluded herself that she might be able to save Ella? That there would still be some residual humanity within her? She had to engage her if she could. Look past the madness and find a way in.
‘So you kill me, then what? The whole of the Force is out looking for you. They know your name, what you look like. They know you have a baby. Swampy downstairs knows I’m here, knows who you are, so you can’t stay. What are you going to do – go on the run with a baby?’
‘She’s not coming with me.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I don’t know what’ll happen to me, but it ends here for her. She’s been through enough.’
‘You don’t mean that.’
‘Why do you think I got the fucking formula?’ Ella shouted back. ‘I’ve got the pills. I was going to give them to her today. It could all have been so… right.’
‘She’s just a tiny baby. For God’s sake, Ella, you’re better than that.’
‘Stop saying my name. Ella is dead. The kid is going to join her and if I have to kill you to get to her, I bloody will.’
She took a step closer. She was only a foot away from Helen now. Helen tensed, expecting her to strike at any moment. Then:
‘Do it then. I’ll make it easy for you.’
Helen bent down, placing Amelia on the bed.
‘If you really want to kill her, I’ll make it easy for you. There she is. Do it.’
Surprised, Ella looked from Helen to her baby and then back again. The baby kicked out on the bed and – freed from Helen’s warm embrace – started to cry.
‘GO ON!’ Helen shouted suddenly.
Still Ella hesitated. Helen had been coiled tight, ready to spring if Ella made the slightest move towards the baby, but she didn’t. And in that moment, Helen knew she had an opportunity.
‘Ella, listen to me. I know, ok? I know that you are in Hell, that you feel the world is against you, that it’s full of vicious, violent men who want to hurt you. And you’re right. It is.’
Ella eyed her suspiciously, unsure if this was a trick. Helen took a deep breath and continued:
‘I was raped when I was a kid. More than once. I was sixteen, trying to find my way out of care, but I made bad choices. And I paid. I’m still paying. So I know where you are right now. I know you believe there is no way back, but there is.’
Ella paused, staring intently at Helen.
‘You’re making shit up.’
‘Would you look at me?’ Helen replied, suddenly angry. ‘My bloody hands are shaking… I’ve never told a soul about this, not a single soul. So don’t accuse me of lying.’
Ella didn’t break her stare. Her hand gripped the knife tightly.
‘I can’t pretend to know you,’ Helen continued. ‘I don’t know what your dad did to you, what those men did to you, but I know this doesn’t have to be the end. You can get through this. Whatever you’ve done, you did for a reason and when Amelia is older she will want you. She will need you. Please don’t abandon her, Ella, I beg you.’
For the first time, Ella dropped her gaze to her baby.
‘I know you have goodness inside you. I know you can do the right thing by your little girl. So please, let me help you. For her sake.’
Helen reached out her hand. She knew in that moment that it all came down to this. Her last shot at redemption. Her final chance to save Ella.
115
They were floundering in the dark – hapless figures scrabbling for a foothold as the ground kept giving way beneath them. Racing back to the station, Charlie had taken the lead. Harwood might be the boss, but she had the operational experience and she refused to trust anyone else with this – there was too much at stake. But they were getting nowhere.
McAndrew had read Helen’s files twice already but had unearthed no clues as to Ella’s whereabouts. They had tried triangulating Helen’s mobile phone signal, only to find that her phone was turned off. It had last been used six hours ago, when she was at the nick, so would be no use to them now. Traffic cameras had picked Helen’s bike up speeding north, but then lost her as she left the city centre. Where the hell was she? What had she seen that no one else had?
Charlie marched along the corridor, then down the stairs and out of the station. The team would continue to do their work as directed, but Charlie felt she needed to be out doing something. And as she neared her car, she slowed. A thought was forming, a past conversation coming back to her. Slowly an idea took hold and, electrified, she jumped in the car and roared off. Suddenly she knew exactly where to go.
Heads turned as Charlie marched between the line of desks, making a beeline for the office at the back. The security guards and receptionists, whose protests she’d ignored, hurried after her, but she had too big a lead on them and she was in Emilia’s office before they could get to her. Slamming the door shut, she rammed a chair under the handle and turned to face the startled reporter.
‘Where is she?’ Charlie demanded.
‘Where’s who?’
‘Helen Grace.’
‘I have no idea and frankly I’m not sure what you think you’re -’
‘How do you do it?’
‘Do what? Make sense, please, Char-’
‘You know where she is, you know who she is with -’
‘For God’s sake, why would I -’
Charlie was across the room before Emilia could finish her denial. Grabbing the reporter by the throat, she thrust her hard against the brick wall.
‘Listen very carefully to me, Emilia. Helen’s life is at stake here and I promise you that if you do not tell me what I need to know right now, I will nail your head to this wall.’
Emilia was choking now, Charlie’s hands growing ever tighter round her throat.
‘I have been through too much to let her down, so tell me how you do it. Are you bugging her phone? Intercepting her messages?’
Emilia shook her head. Charlie cracked it hard against the wall.
‘TELL ME!’
Emilia made a gurgling noise as if she was trying to speak, so Charlie loosened her grip. Emilia mumbled something.
‘What?’
‘Her bike,’ Emilia croaked.
‘What about it?’ Charlie demanded.
‘There’s a tracking device on her bike.’
So there it was.
‘How do you follow her?’
‘It’s linked to my phone. As long as she’s within a five-mile radius of me, I can find her.’
‘Good,’ Charlie said, releasing her victim. ‘Take me to her.’
116
The baby shrieked wildly on the bed, working herself up into a frenzy. Neither woman made a move to comfort her. They were frozen in time, on the cusp of salvation or destruction. Helen’s eyes remained glued to Ella. She had refused to take Helen’s hand or drop her knife. She was just staring at her screaming baby as if trying to penetrate some insoluble mystery. Helen thought that if she moved suddenly she could disarm Ella, now that she was distracted, but she daren’t risk it. Not now that she seemed so close to bringing her round.
‘I didn’t mean for this to happen.’
Helen was startled when Ella spoke.