Policewoman Stella woke with a jolt. She looked through bleary eyes at her bedside clock: 11. 06 am– she'd slept late.
She jumped from bed and grabbed her phone– no messages or missed calls. With an urgent hand she called Harry's mum. Unsurprisingly it went to voicemail, 'because of course she'd be at work by now,' thought Stella. She cursed herself for sleeping so late; but as she made coffee, she excused herself. After all, Ian's ideas had kept her up very late.
In the shower she thought about how she would present her findings to her boss. They were a small local force; the majority of the cases they dealt with were: domestic disputes, petty thefts and assorted drunken misdemeanours.
Stella slurped her coffee and whilst she dressed, she considered her own selfish interest in 'Ian's idea.' She was growing bored with the daily monotony of mundane paper work. Recently she'd been taking a keen interest in the few cyber crimes that had presented themselves at her station. Being one of the younger officers, these cases were assigned to her. They were nothing big; usually people 'over scamming' or pathetic attempts at online fraud. Stella found that she had an innate ability to handle these cases; and she did so with an expediency that impressed her bosses.
But this case, 'Ian's idea' was different; it was potentially huge. Stella felt that she'd just touched the tip of an iceberg. Her thinking was that 'Ian's idea' might be just one aspect of an alternative entertainment channel of 'extreme pranking' that operates from the depths of the unregulated 'Dark Web.' She shuddered to think how it could evolve if its audience grew to significant numbers.
Stella pulled on her jeans and thought to herself, 'this might be the cyber crime case that could establish and push my career in the direction I want to take it.'
Already she felt she was personally invested in the case and like an eager terrier, she was determined not to let go of what was hers. Plus, she felt a strong moral duty to stop this sinister venture before it had time to capture a sicko audience.
Professionally, Stella knew she didn't have the experience to handle the case herself, nor did her station have the resources to take on a case of this kind. She knew they would have to get in 'experts' in cyber crime if they had any chance of uncovering more and nipping Ian's idea in the bud.
Personally, Stella knew she had to talk with Harry's mum. So, she grabbed her keys and headed off to the supermarket wherein 'Hannah Stialz' worked.
###
Stella arrived at the supermarket at the same time as the lunchtime shoppers– it was busy. She didn't exactly know what Harry's mums' role was, and when she didn't see her sitting on any of the checkouts she stopped what looked like a floor manager, "Hello, does Hanna Stialz work here?" She asked.
The woman shot her a look that verged on angry, "She should be working here; but no doubt she's pulled a sickie to accompany that son of hers to his audition." The woman shook her head, "I can't be doing with pushy mums me; not when they put their kids ambitions before their own responsibilities," she said, her eyes scanning the busy shop floor.
Stella immediately pricked up, "What do you mean, has Hannah not arrived for work today?" She asked, concerned.
The woman seemed to sneer at her, "Of course she hasn't, she didn't even have the backbone to phone in sick herself, she had a friend do it for her." The woman spotted a colleague in need of assistance, "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm busy as we're short of staff, as well you know," she said, storming off. The woman looked over her shoulder and spoke as she walked, "If you see Hanna, tell her to get back here– now!" She shouted.
