LOGIN[POV: Lewis] (Location: Edinburgh)Hayes got through to the school office in under a minute.Lewis watched his face while he listened. Professional composure doing the work it was trained to do — nothing visible until the call ended and Hayes lowered the phone."Sandra Keane didn't come in this morning," he said. "She called in sick at seven forty. The head teacher assumed it was routine."Lewis was already calling McAllister."She's gone," he said when she picked up. "Same morning Brennan was detained. Either he warned her before he went to the facility or she's monitoring the situation independently." A pause. "She knows we identified her.""I'll issue a locate and detain." McAllister's voice shifted into operational mode immediately. "Home address, vehicle registration, known contacts. Do you have anything beyond what you've given us?""Nothing you don't have.""Keep your children home. James Croft can be at your door within the hour."Lewis ended the call. Looked at Hayes."Crof
[POV: Yessica] (Location: Edinburgh)Lewis's face went completely still.That was always the tell. Not the jaw, not the hands — the eyes going flat and the rest of him going quiet in a way that meant something very controlled was happening underneath."Thank you, Eleanor," he said. "Don't tell anyone else yet."He ended the call.Hayes looked between them, reading the room with the trained efficiency of someone who assessed threat levels for a living. "Do you need a moment?""Yes," Yessica said.Hayes took his laptop to the hallway without being asked.Yessica looked at Lewis. "Say what you're thinking.""I'm thinking she sat in this kitchen. She sat in Eleanor's conference room. She gave us names, documents, a timeline — and the whole time she was reporting every piece of it back to Neil Brennan." His voice was precise and cold. "I'm thinking we used her testimony as the foundation of our response to Catherine's welfare filing. I'm thinking she knew Victoria Brennan was outside our
[POV: Lewis] (Location: Edinburgh)McAllister was at the house by eight.She came without calling first, which told Lewis everything about how seriously she was taking the previous night's message before she said a word."Six weeks," she said, sitting at the kitchen table. "Catherine's communications were clean for the full six weeks prior to the prison review. No calls to network members, no mail to known contacts, nothing through her approved visitor list that we can connect to operational instructions.""So she built the network, then handed it to someone," Lewis said."That's the most likely interpretation, yes." McAllister set a folder on the table. "Before her communications were restricted, Catherine made twelve personal calls. Four to her solicitor — legitimate, documented. Three to Harrison, which he confirmed. Two to a charity she'd been associated with." A pause. "And three to a number registered to a private consultancy in Edinburgh."She slid a printed page across the t
[POV: Lewis] (Location: Edinburgh)Lewis was already moving."Stay here," he said to Yessica — not a request — and crossed the hallway in four steps, positioning himself between the staircase and the front door.McAllister was still on the line. He heard her issuing instructions before the door fully opened.The woman who stepped inside was not what he expected. Mid-forties, slight, wearing a rain jacket and carrying nothing in her hands. She stopped the moment she saw him.Her face did something complicated. Not aggression. Not the cool calculation of someone executing a plan. Something closer to a person who had driven to a destination and arrived only to understand, too late, that they'd made a terrible mistake."Mr. Sterling," she said."Put your hands where I can see them."She raised both hands immediately. "I'm not armed. I'm not here to do anything." Her voice shook slightly. "I just — I needed to see you in person. I needed you to know that I've been trying to get out of th
[POV: Yessica] (Location: Edinburgh)Lewis called McAllister before Yessica had finished reading the message twice."Another number," he said when she answered. "Same pattern, different sender. Forward incoming now."He took Yessica's phone and sent the screenshot while McAllister was still on the line. The call lasted four minutes. When it ended, he set both phones on the table and looked at Yessica with the specific expression she'd learned to read as controlled alarm — the version where the alarm was real but the control was a decision, not a reflex."She's sending a unit," he said. "She wants you to reply.""Reply.""With a message she'll draft. Keep them talking long enough to trace the number." He paused. "She says it's your call. You don't have to."Yessica thought about it for approximately three seconds."Tell her to send the draft."McAllister's text arrived in two minutes. Simple, direct, designed to sound like genuine fear rather than a tactical response. Yessica read it
[POV: Lewis] (Location: Edinburgh)The missing page meant someone with access to the evidence chain had protected Catherine's connection to Victoria Brennan.Lewis sat with that for the length of time it took Eleanor to finish explaining the implications. Not long. Eleanor was concise when things were serious."The chain of custody runs from Harrison, who provided the address book, to the prosecution solicitor who catalogued it, to the court archive." She was in her office; he could hear papers moving. "The discrepancy was discovered because Harrison's handwritten inventory — he listed the contents when he handed it over — references the Brennan entries. The copy submitted to court is missing that page. The gap occurs somewhere between Harrison's handoff and the archive submission.""Who had access in that window?""Two people. The prosecution solicitor and his junior associate." A pause. "I've already pulled the associate's background. Nothing flagged immediately. The solicitor him
POV: Yessica | EdinburghEleanor was on a call within ten minutes.All three of them — Eleanor, Yessica, and Lewis — plus David Ng from Bellamy's board. Eleanor's corporate contact joined four minutes later."Walk me through the authorization code," Eleanor said.Yessica pulled up the FCA notificat
POV: Yessica | EdinburghLewis got home at ten-forty.She was in the kitchen with a glass of water and her laptop open, not working, just having something to look at that was not the ceiling.He read the kitchen the way he always read rooms when he came in late — checking what had moved, what the l
POV: Yessica | EdinburghThe morning after Ethan's first nightmare, no one said much.Ethan ate his cereal with Button propped against his glass, the way he always did, but he was quieter than usual. He answered questions when Claire asked them and did not start any conversations of his own.Lewis
POV: Lewis | EdinburghHarrison was waiting in the corridor outside Catherine's room.He looked tired. Not the careful tiredness of someone managing how they appear, just genuinely worn out, the kind that came from a day that had asked too much."She has been waiting since seven," Harrison said. "S







