“Female?” repeated Gardener. “Any identification?” His heart sank. He could only think that they had finally discovered Sonia Knight.
“No,” replied Nice.
“Where is she?”
“The waiting room.”
“Is she conscious?”
“Yes she’s conscious, but I get the feeling she’d rather not be.”
“Why?”
“You need to see for yourself.”
Eager to stop wasting time, Gardener and Reilly followed Nice onto the platform, noticing PC Steve Graham waiting at the top of the ramp. On their left was a ticket booth, a frame to stand by, a poster advertising the services and timetables of the trains, and a plaque presented to the residents of the town for opening their doors to evacuated children in World War II. On the right stood a London & North Eastern Railway board with timetables, and more plaques. Before turning left to the waiting room, Gardener glanced to his right, along the tracks. He wasn’t sure what he expected to see, but everything appeared normal.
But it wasn’t, was it?
Nice told them that no one had been inside. The door was open, and Gardener glanced beyond.
The girl was naked, sitting in a chair. Her arms were behind her, her legs intertwined with the chair’s. As Gardener could not see any restraints, he quickly came to the conclusion she had somehow been bonded to the frame so she couldn’t move. The chair was high-backed, like those found in most dining rooms, only taller. A plain white envelope was pinned to each wing. But for the girl in the chair, the room was bare.
Closer scrutiny revealed the female was completely hairless, her head, between her legs, even under her arms from what he could tell.
Her lips had also been sewn together, like Alex Wilson’s.
“Is this how you found her?” he asked Nice.
“Middleton found her. Called us immediately. Obviously, she can’t speak, but I have the feeling she hasn’t been conscious very long.”
“Have you tried to speak to her?”
“Only a couple of questions that she could have nodded or shook her head to, but she hasn’t communicated at all.”
Gardener and Reilly quickly suited and booted, using the scene suits they had brought with them, and stepped gingerly into the room.
The girl’s complexion was ash grey, and she was lean and fragile. As he slowly walked towards her, she opened her eyes so wide that he thought they were going to fall out. Her body started to shake, thus demonstrating the means by which she had been held in place.
She had been glued to the chair.
Gardener had never, in all his life, seen someone so frightened. He couldn’t begin to imagine what kind of an ordeal she had suffered.
Apart from the stitching to the lips, he could see no further scarring, which he hoped was a good sign. The girl tried to move from the chair, but it was impossible. The chair scraped along the floor as she retreated a couple of inches. Gardener sensed that she was trying to move away from him. As he drew closer, he noticed the female jerk her head ever so slightly down towards the floor.
“I want you to do something for me,” said Gardener. “If you can’t move, please blink your eyes once.”
The girl calmed a little, and blinked to indicate that was the case.
“Is your name Sonia Knight?”
She blinked once. She then tried to move her head again, blinking furiously as she did.
“Something’s rattling her, boss,” said Reilly.
The Irishman leaned further forward, and Sonia Knight pushed away with her feet so hard the chair nearly went over. Reilly grabbed the leg to prevent that from happening.
Knight was growing extremely agitated. She opened her eyes as wide as she could, and angled them down as far as they would go, glaring down at her side. Gardener slowly stepped around the chair. Strapped to it was a mobile phone.