I didn't even need to knock when I made it back to Cutter's office, he must have heard my footsteps and looked up just as I came through the doorway. He smiled back at me and took a bite out his apple and the juice ran down his chin.

'Welcome back,' he said, standing up from his perch on the edge of his desk.

'Hm, any luck?' I returned and made my way through the booby trap of paper piles. He reached out to give me a hand, taking the books out my arms and gesturing for me to sit down.

'You know, we haven't found anything yet. Stephen's on a donut run.'

'Donuts?'

'I think he just wanted an excuse to take a break.'

I nodded knowingly and agreed 'yeah' under my breath as I picked up a pile of papers from a chair and sat down with them in my lap.

'May I?'

I looked up to find him with my notebook still in his hands as he sat in the chair behind his desk. 'Sure,' I replied, and he opened my notes and began flicking through.

He turned the page to the sketch of Rex I'd managed to scribble down a week or so ago. 'This is amazing.'

'I... um... thanks,' I managed to respond and ducked my head behind the papers to hide the heat flooding my cheeks.

'So you're an artist as well,' he complimented airily.

'I can sketch,' I returned, because I could scribble a bit but I wasn't very good at much else. 'But I've never really been a drawer. Even as a kid I was always more science.'

'Physics?'

'Yeah.' I nodded. 'And biology. And chemistry, but probably from more of a Bio-Chem perspective.'

'That's what your BSc's are in?'

I sort of wobbled my head. 'No... Except, I mean, technically I'm a doctor,' I explained, half under my breath like I didn't want him to hear me so that I wouldn't have to explain but his face lit up in surprise.

'I'm sorry?'

'Oh, right, yeah. I finished my A-levels when I was 14 and I was bored so I studied medicine for 5 years and did my general training but ... you know, stuff happened and um... I decided I wanted to do something a bit different. I did my masters last year and now here I am.'

'You're a doctor?' he repeated again.

'Yeah,' I nodded, 'I don't use it, I think Doctor Havisham makes me sound old.'

He chuckled for a moment under his breath, presumably in disbelief, before he lowered his gaze back to my equations. 'And the maths?'

'Just to A-level,' I replied, 'I promise. I'm just good with numbers. Half of physics is maths so that's helped.'

'Okay,' he replied, 'you'll be better at deciphering this then, no doubt.' He gestured to the papers littering the room.

I just shrugged. 'That depends. I never met Helen, I don't know how she thinks.'

'Apparently neither do I,' Nick added in amusement. Then, reclining in his chair he looked away from me for a moment to the window, then sighed. 'It was my fault that she disappeared.'

'Why would you say that?'

'I was supposed to go with her on that last field trip. But as hard as I tried, I couldn't work with her after she left me.'

'You mean she was on to the anomaly?'

'No not as such but she'd become convinced that there was no conventional scientific answer to certain evolutionary puzzles. And, well, obviously she was right.'

'Nobody could have guessed that...'

'But she did.'

'You're not to blame you know.'

'What if she's dead? I mean she was lost 2 hundred million years ago in the past, what else could she be?' he proposed, then a moment later he shook his head as though doubting what he'd just said aloud.

'I know you don't think she's dead. And if you believe she's still alive then that's what I believe too. Who would have thought, though, whoever could have predicted this?' I gestured all around me at the cluttered office space and sighed.

'I thought that was the point with anomalies,' Nick responded, 'they're unpredictable.'

'We'll work it out,' I responded.

There was no sign of Stephen more than an hour later. Nick and I had continued to read through the pages of Helens work, occasionally discussing something that had been written, more often than not trying to decipher what the scribbles actually said as neither of us seemed all that adept at reading her handwriting.

'So tell me the plan,' Nick continued.

'What plan? What else can we do?' I replied with a shrug, I leant back in the chair and propped my feet up on the edge of his desk. 'I'm not sure we're inside the proverbial tent, so to speak.'

'Well, we could start off by telling everyone the truth.'

'At the moment it's just a rumour mill for conspiracy freaks like me and Con, and the Home Office- they can contain that but can you just imagine the panic, hysteria, potential lawlessness?' I said. 'Anyway, who would believe us.'

'You think they'll cover it up?' he asked, earning a nod. 'Connor will be thrilled.'

'It's not a cover-up. Well it is, but they have to do it.'

A voice from the doorway suddenly cut us off. 'Sorry... I know... I'm back!' Stephen said hurriedly as he came into the office wielding a tray of donuts and wearing a totally different set of clothes to what I'd seen him in earlier that evening. 'Thought I'd follow your lead and get a shower while I could. But, as promised...' He negotiated his way through the room towards us and offered me first pick – minus a few that he had already eaten – and I took one. Then, he put the tray down on Nick's desk and swapped it for my notebook and started flicking through. 'You talking about the cover up again?'

I hummed through a mouthful of jam.

'Wouldn't you rather know, Doctor?' Nick continued.

'I don't know if I would believe it,' I said honestly.

He nodded in response. Then, as his lips curled into a smile, he recited: 'There's a lot of science we don't understand yet. When you're open to every possibility, you're prepared for them all.'

I smiled back at him. 'I guess I did believe it,' I admitted. 'I'm probably an exception though,' I speculated, 'we shouldn't use me as a basis. My brain isn't exactly... normal.'

'To be honest, that's why I'm glad you're here,' Nick replied. 'Just the right kind of thinker to get what this means.' He fluttered his pages explanatorily.

'Why do you think that?'

'Because... you're the type of clever she wanted to be.'

I ducked my head down, hoping I wasn't blushing at the compliment– or at least hoping neither of the guys could see it if I was– and didn't respond. I wasn't exactly sure what to say to that.

It felt a little weird to me. I'd never been great at taking compliments, part of me had gotten more used to it when it had happened more frequently, but recently they'd been few and far between.

It wasn't a confidence thing; it wasn't like I was really in-doubt of myself, my abilities or whatever, it was just a little uncomfortable to hear sometimes. And I knew that my childhood had taught me to often expect something afterwards. Compliments could feel transactional. Give something to get something.

I quickly started to rescan the same paragraph I'd already read three times on the page I was holding; I wasn't paying enough attention to it and it wasn't going in.

Stephen stood up, and with the movement my head rose for a moment, watching him as he stepped across the room through all the mess towards the alcove. 'I'm gonna put the kettle on,' he said, 'anyone want a coffee?'

'Please,' I replied.

He seemed to fill the kettle and set it to boil without lifting his head even once from my notebook.

I only got halfway down the cup before I got distracted, and the rest of my coffee went cold so I didn't finish it.

The sound of Nick sighing in exasperation brought my attention over to him, and he dropped the book in his hands to his desk before he reached up to rub his eyes. 'Oh, this is just ridiculous!' he complained with another short sigh. 'It's been a month and we don't really know anything more than we did back in the forest. We don't know why this is happening, we certainly haven't found anything here. I should have known better than to think she would be helpful...'

'It's going to take time,' I replied, as I too lowered my sheets to my lap and looked back at him sympathetically. 'And I've been running some equations and stuff. I know nothing's turned up yet, but at least we've ruled somethings out,' I explained, 'to be honest, that's just as helpful. What might be best for all of us now is if you got some sleep.'

Stephen sat forward in his chair. 'We could all do with some rest, start fresh in the morning?' he suggested.

'Yeah,' Nick agreed. 'Yeah, you're probably right. Sometimes it's hard to stop, you know. It always feels like I'm just one more line away from a breakthrough.'

I knew exactly what he meant. 'Always one more page before I have that epiphany,' I agreed with a knowing smile, 'but you know what, it's all still gonna be right here in the morning.'

Stephen groaned.

'Did you know her?' I asked, because it occurred to me that I didn't have a lot of information about Helen Cutter, and I wondered if Stephen felt just as lost as I did reading her words, or if he had more of an idea where she was coming from.

His gaze flashed to Nick, just for a second, before he replied. 'Uh... not really. Just in passing. I'd seen her around.'

'But you didn't know her? You don't have some sort of insight to how her brain worked?'

Stephen shrugged. 'I don't really know.' He cleared his throat. 'I mean...' he shrugged again.

I hummed. 'Yeah... it feels a bit like I'm treading water and seriously out of my depth, I mean half these sentences don't seem to end they just–' My phone started buzzing against Cutter's desk, vibrating so loudly – amplified against the wood– that I just stopped talking as I quickly snatched it up and glanced at the number.

It wasn't one I recognised.

I flipped my phone open and held it up to my ear as I answered. 'Hello?'

The voice on the other end was sort of crackly– I couldn't hear it very clearly but I just about managed to catch the question 'Is this Anna Havisham?'

'Yes,' I responded, slightly confused and ready to ask who it was who was calling me at half 2 in the morning when the voice on the other end explained. Immediately my stomach dropped. 'Oh my god!' My mouth went so dry so quickly I couldn't speak and instead started to nod even though the man on the other end couldn't see it. 'Of course– yes. I'll be there right away. Thanks.'

And I flipped my phone closed again.

'What is it?' Nick questioned.

I was already on my feet and looking around for my car keys but the place was such a mess I couldn't see anything. 'That– that was the police,' I replied quickly. 'They've found a tent and a rucksack with Connor's wallet in it. They think he could be trespassing except there's no sign of him.'

Cutter frowned. 'What? Where is he?'

'He thought he found something but he said he wouldn't go but I guess he did and now he's missing?'

'Anna, where is he?' Nick repeated calmly in response, as both he and Stephen quickly got to their feet and started pulling on their jackets.

'New forest. I'm not exactly sure where.'

'Get your coat.'

As I sat in the front seat of the car besides Nick with the phone to my ear listening to the endless bleeps of the dialling tone. 'Fuck... Fuck!'

Out the corner of my eye, I saw Nick pull his attention quickly off the road to glance around at me. And I tried to calm myself down by exhaling a long, deep breath, but it did nothing, and instead just succeeded in removing all the air already in my lungs.

'I can't reach him either,' Stephen said, from the backseat of the car.

Even though I knew he was just trying to be helpful, I rather wished he hadn't said anything at all.

'This is all my fault,' I said, and my head started shaking.

'No, it's not. Nothing is your fault because nothing's happened,' Nick assured me in response, 'he'll be okay.'

'Then why isn't he answering his phone?' I pressed my palms over my eyes. How would I ever explain this to Nana? 'You don't understand. I never should have left him in that house on his own. I can't lose him too, Nick.'

We turned off the main road a moment later, and it only took a second before we were pulling up beside the police cars.

Our arrival turned heads.

There was a group of policemen all standing around by the edge of the lake, and as they looked over towards the vehicle, I peered at them through the windscreen, just about able to read the expressions on their faces.

My heart stopped.

I pushed the car door open and climbed down without blinking.

And they looked so serious, so sincere that my eyes started to tear up before any of them could move. But I couldn't take a single step towards them. My legs were so numb the only thing keeping me upright was the car door.

It wasn't until the Sergeant broke away from the others to come towards me, leaving a gap in the group of policemen, that the figure they were all crowding around ducked back to look at what was going on.

Connor stood up and peered over the top of their heads.

Next thing I knew my arms were around him and I was squeezing him so tightly he probably couldn't breathe. But I didn't care.