Helen thumped her head against the wall, gently but repeatedly. She realized now that her hatred of Campbell had blinded her to what should have been obvious. Campbell’s sadism, his desire to dominate, his bad reputation had skewed Helen’s judgement, allowing her to walk straight into Mark Robins’s trap.
It was Robins who’d pulled her out of the canteen for her urine test, insisting that she complete it without delay. Furthermore, he had attempted to ingratiate himself with her afterwards, chivalrously offering to walk the injured Helen back to her cell. Was this how he operated? She knew a few of the girls were soft on him because of his boyish good looks, tousled hair and deep, chocolate eyes, but Helen was largely immune to his charms. Was he setting his cap at her that day? Lining her up as his next conquest? The thought made her shudder.
Leah didn’t have a friend in the place and Jordi, though popular, was prone to bouts of despair. She missed her old life, she missed her family and, in truth, she missed men. Robins would happily have taken advantage of that. He wasn’t married, had no girlfriend, in fact he was a bit of a mystery man, which only seemed to increase his appeal for some girls. How gullible, how trusting they had been. And how naïve she had been. She had been searching, searching, searching for Jordi’s killer, but Robins had flown under the radar the whole time.
He could have doctored her urine sample at any point, ensuring her segregation and thus taking her out of the equation for twenty-four hours. Was this simply so he could frustrate her investigations or was there a more sinister purpose for her isolation? Was he planning to strike again tonight? Was it even possible that he was coming for her? If so, this would be a great place to do it. There would be no chance of being disturbed and if any of the crazies happened to see or hear anything, who on earth would believe them?
Rising, Helen marched across the cell and slammed her fist into the suicide alarm. To her horror, nothing happened. No bells, no piercing alarm, just a horrible, empty silence. She punched it again. And again. But still nothing.
Now Helen was filled with a violent anger, furious at how this quiet, unassuming man had deceived her so completely. She was the only one who knew what he was doing but whom could she tell? There wouldn’t be an officer on duty until morning, which meant that she would spend the night here alone, miserable in her knowledge and utterly cut off from the world.