I've Never Been So Cold

Helpless

The police had taken over the Lyell, looking at CCTV of the surrounding area, checking the car park and the surrounding area for any evidence. Jack had been warned off the case, as he was too closely involved, and he felt helpless. It wasn't in his nature to sit around not doing anything, particularly as this involved Nikki.

Simone was being great, and he was so grateful to her for being there, but he did miss Clarissa. He wanted to call her, to hear her voice, get some advice, run things by her, but he didn't want to worry her.

'I can't take this anymore' he said, jumping out of his chair. 'I have to do something'

He went out into the car park and over to Nikki's car. The police SOCOs had been over the area but Jack was sure there must be something to find. His feelings towards the police were well known, and he didn't trust them to meticulously search like he would, especially because it concerned Nikki. They had dusted her car for prints and had found mainly Nikki's, various others but nothing that was on the database. Jack trawled the floor around the car, going in wider and wider circles away from it until he had covered most of the car park, looking for something, anything, that could lead him to Nikki.

'Here' he shouted, spotting some undergrowth at the edge of the car park that had been disturbed, as if someone had walked or been dragged through it recently. It definitely looked as if something had been dragged through it from the car park into the waste ground next door. There was a footprint too. 

'He must have had a vehicle parked here' he told the DI. 'He's got her at her car there, dragged her across here, and put her into a vehicle. We need any CCTV from this area, ANPR cameras, there isn't much traffic going into this waste ground usually, so we should be able to track him. You need to sort this now. Please, we need to find her. I need to find her'

He ran back up to his office to get Simone's help. 'We need to analyse the undergrowth around this footprint, see if we can establish where he's been before he took her'

They both went back out to the car park. Jack took a cast of the footprint, whilst Simone took a soil sample for analysis. Jack hoped they could narrow down some possible locations from the evidence left by the footprint. He knew it was a long shot, but it gave him something to do, so he didn't feel so helpless. It made him focus, stopped his mind wandering to what could be happening to Nikki right now. He shuddered. He really didn't want to think about that.