Page 76 of The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels

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Pippa Deacon

Meant to ask earlier: any news on the baby?

Amanda Bailey

I’m meeting someone tonight who will give me the details.

Pippa Deacon

Great. That’s what we need to get sorted now, Amanda.

WhatsApp messages between me and Ellie Cooper, 12 July 2021:

Amanda Bailey

Ellie, I want to tell you, in confidence, what I’m doing tonight so you can call the police if anything happens to me. No need to panic. Nothing will.

Ellie Cooper

OK.

Amanda Bailey

I’m collecting Alperton Angels info from someone whose real name I don’t know. They want me to meet them in an unlit lane that runs through a dark wood behind a pub. The Ballot Box. It’s on the edge of Horsenden Hill in Greenford.

Ellie Cooper

Right.

Amanda Bailey

At 1.15 a.m.

Ellie Cooper

Oh.

Amanda Bailey

I’ll call you when I leave, and again when I’m home. It will take me forty minutes to walk there and back, plus however long it takes this person to tell me what I need. Once I’ve made that second call, you can forget everything – it all went as planned. OK?

Ellie Cooper

Why not drive?

Amanda Bailey

The car stores tracking data. They’ve told me to leave all my devices at home and walk there.

Ellie Cooper

So they know exactly where you live.

Ellie Cooper

They’ve picked a place you can walk to. So they must know where you live.

Amanda Bailey

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