Hardy reversed his car into the only available parking space adjacent to the Hazelwood estate.
He glanced at the clock on the dashboard, it was now 3:45 a.m.
His sergeant had volunteered to return to the station to start preparing the incident board for the morning’s briefing, but Hardy had insisted that he go home to his wife and try to catch a few hours’ sleep, before the morning shift.
Hardy could see no benefit in both of them ruining their night. In his mind this case was still most probably going to turn out to be of the ‘wild goose’ variety, but he at least had to show some enthusiasm as the superintendent would expect a full report by the morning.
On his way over Hardy had contacted the station and asked for an address for Natasha’s boyfriend on the estate.
Their initial findi
