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Suddenly the demands of the first and the second job shot into insignificance. ‘Well, where is she? Didn’t she say where she was going?’
‘It’s not my practice to get my team to tell me where they are for every waking moment.’ Gerry’s voice was calm, but Greg could hear the note of concern. ‘Otherwise I’d have cottoned on to you a lot earlier than I did.’
‘Yeah, right. Thanks for that, Gerry.’ He had to think. Ignore the other things that constantly seemed to be crowding in on him and concentrate. ‘Has she taken her coat?’
‘No. She must be here somewhere, but I’ve paged her and called her mobile and she’s not answering. Her sandwiches are still in the fridge.’
‘Hmm. She wouldn’t have gone far without them.’ His groundless, lingering fear that Jess would simply not turn up for work one day, that she’d disappear along with his child, was looking less and less like an explanation for this. No one did a runner at lunchtime, leaving their coat and san
dwiches behind. ‘Do you think she’s gone somewhere to put her feet up and fallen asleep?’
‘I’ve checked all the common rooms and overnight accommodation. And the canteen. She’s not down in A and E and she isn’t in the admin offices. I had Beverly look in all of the ladies’ lavatories and I’ve put a call out to all departments for her.’ Gerry shrugged. ‘I don’t know where else to look.’
The knot in Greg’s stomach was twisting tighter and tighter, as each possibility was ticked off an everdimin-ishing list. ‘Perhaps she’s been kidnapped.’
‘Leave off. This is a hospital, not a gangster movie.’
True enough. But Greg could—would—pay any sum to keep her safe. He wondered vaguely what safeguards his father had put into place on that score, and decided to shelve the matter until he got a chance to talk to Pat.
‘Yeah. I just can’t think. You don’t suppose it’s something to do with this history project she’s doing on the hospital?’
‘Maybe. She had a load of old photographs and was taking new ones for a “then and now” the other day.’
‘Yeah, but she’d take her coat for that, wouldn’t she?’ Greg hoped with every fibre of his body that none of those old photographs had taken her into disused parts of the building. ‘What about the basement? That’s where the records are kept, right? She told me that there was an old safe down there… ’ For a brief moment Greg and Gerry stared at each other. Then Greg was on his feet and running for the stairs.
He almost stumbled on the steps down to the boiler room, and made the records room breathing hard. Pulling the door open, he called for her.
Nothing. In the far corner he could see a large metal door and he ran down the narrow corridor between the stacked boxes, dislodging one and letting it spill unheeded onto the floor behind him.
‘Jess!’ He tried to open the door and then beat on it with his fist. ‘Jess are you in there?’
‘Greg!’ She sounded about a million miles away, but he could hear her.
‘Are you all right?’
‘Yes, I’m all right. Just locked in.’
‘Sit tight, baby. I’ll get you out of there.’ Greg looked around for something that he could force the door with and saw nothing. In any case, he doubted whether the heavy security bolts would respond to a man’s strength.
‘Don’t call me baby!’ Her voice was faint, but he could hear the outrage in it and Greg smiled. It sounded as if she was holding it together in there. ‘There’s an air brick over the door. Can you see it?’
‘Yes, hold on.’ Greg fetched a set of steps, which leant against the wall, and climbed up, clearing the cobwebs from around the brick. ‘Can you hear me better?’
‘Yes. It’s dark in here, Greg, the light’s broken.’ There was a plaintive note to her voice now.
‘Just hang on. I’ll send upstairs for the key.’
‘The key’s in here, with me, and there isn’t another one. The door slammed shut behind me, and there isn’t a keyhole on this side of the lock.’
Greg cursed under his breath. ‘Okay. Can you reach the air brick? Don’t try climbing on anything in the dark.’
There was a short pause, and the tips of her fingers appeared against one of the lower ventilation holes. ‘Just about. But the key’s too big to get it through.’
‘That’s all right. I can break a bigger hole out.’ The old brick was crumbling, and it looked as if a well-placed shove would knock it out. ‘Can you get back a bit? Be careful.’ If she fell, and couldn’t reach back up to the brick again, they’d be back where they started.
‘Right.’ He heard the sounds of her moving warily across the darkened room and then her voice again, fainter this time. ‘Okay.’
‘I’ll be one minute.’ Greg remembered he’d seen a selection of old tools abandoned in the corner of the boiler room. ‘Then, when I give the word, I want you to cover your face.’
