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Back in the major incident room, the team were eagerly awaiting more news. There wasn’t much they could do — dog units were out on the ground and Hotel Oscar Nine Nine, the regional police helicopter, could be in the air within minutes. But first they needed to know whether Lucas was on foot or not.
Culverhouse had held out on requesting the chopper, knowing there was a chance Lucas would have used the taxi firm at the station. He didn’t have a car of his own, and he would have had to rely on another form of transportation to reach Middlebrook in the first place. It wasn’t on the major bus routes, so that only left taxis or favours from friends. And it wasn’t often people called a friend for a lift to go and kill themselves.
Once he heard back that Lucas hadn’t taken a taxi, he’d hav
