Baby Lies (Reissue) Page 23

  She met his gaze. ‘He’s a nice guy, uncomplicated.’

  ‘As opposed to—?’

  She simply shot him a meaningful look.

  ‘Thanks. What was it that you “haven’t had the chance” to talk to me about?’ Mariner persisted.

  Suddenly it was harder for her to maintain eye contact. ‘I’ve handed in my notice at work,’ she said. ‘I’m going to take the receptionist’s job. It’s a great opportunity and I’d be silly not to.’

  ‘We’re not discussing this?’

  ‘Like I said to Gareth, we haven’t had the chance. When are you ever here to discuss anything? Besides, we’ve been “discussing” moving out of the city for almost a year now and we’re no further forward. If I don’t take this chance soon it’ll be lost.’ Her words rushed out. She was hiding something.

  ‘I’ve put in for a transfer but nothing has come up.’ Mariner defended himself. ‘These things take time.’

  ‘Not this much time. You’ve been dragging your heels on this from the beginning because it’s not really what you want, is it? I think it’s time for a fresh start.’

  ‘I thought that was what this is all about.’

  ‘No. I mean a real fresh start.’ Her eyes locked onto his.

  It took a couple of seconds for the underlying message to hit its target. ‘Without me,’ Mariner said, when finally it did.

  ‘Let’s be honest, it’s not the sort of life you really want, is it?’ said Anna. ‘You were miserable down there, like a fish out of water.’

  ‘Because I play dominoes?’

  ‘You know what I mean. You hardly spoke to anyone that week.’

  ‘What did you expect?’ Mariner retorted. ‘I was knackered after the abduction case and had the trial coming up. I had a lot on my mind.’

  ‘You always have a lot on your mind.’

  ‘And Doctor Gareth doesn’t?’

  ‘Don’t keep calling him that!’ she snapped. ‘His name is Gareth. And of course he has a lot on his mind, he’s a GP. It’s just that he knows where to draw the line between work and play. He’s good fun.’

  ‘Life isn’t always about fun.’ Mariner could feel his defences rising.

  ‘Life is never about fun with you anymore.’

  Mariner had a sudden recollection of the odd way that she had greeted him when he got to the pub in Upper Burwell, and her reluctance to engage in any intimacy with him. Realisation rendered him temporarily speechless. Finally he had to ask; ‘Are you sleeping with him?’ From her avoidance of eye contact he knew immediately that she was. He waited out the silence.

  ‘Once,’ she said, eventually. ‘It was just before you came down for the christening. I hadn’t intended to, it just sort of happened. I’m really sorry, Tom.’ She reached out and stroked his arm. ‘It hasn’t happened again, but I want to. It feels right. I think I’m in love with him.’ She glanced up, her eyes glistening.

  ‘Bloody hell,’ said Mariner. ‘It’s all pretty sudden, isn’t it?’

  ‘Not really. I’ve always liked Gareth, you know that.’

  ‘This is about more than liking him. When did it get to be more?’

  ‘I guess it started to develop back in April if you must know.’

  ‘After you lost the baby, our baby?’ Christ, it was Mariner’s idea that she should go and spend some time with Becky. How stupid was that?

  ‘Gareth was so sweet.’ Anna allowed herself a smile. ‘He understood. He had the time to talk to me.’

  ‘I would have talked to you, but you didn’t want to.’

  ‘I know. I think it helped that Gareth wasn’t emotionally involved.’

  ‘It certainly helped him.’

  Her eyes flashed. ‘At least this isn’t some sordid little one night stand.’

  Wow. He wasn’t expecting that. ‘Millie? That was years ago, and it was completely different.’ But as he said it he had to question whether it really was.

  She gave a weary sigh and reached out for his hands, taking them in hers. ‘Things haven’t been right between us for a long time, have they, even since before the bombing. I get the idea that you’re only going along with this move to please me, and that’s not a good enough reason. It should be because it’s what you want too. I think this is better for both of us. In a way it might not be the worst thing that we lost the baby. The time wasn’t right for us and I don’t think it ever will be. I’m sorry. I can’t help the way I feel.’

  ‘Obviously,’ said Mariner, recognising that her decision was made. ‘When are you going?’

  ‘At the weekend probably. I’ll stay with Becky and Mark until I can find a place. I’ve got to get ready to leave here anyway. The agents will be exchanging contracts in the next couple of weeks, and then I’ll have to move out.’

  ‘I think I’ll go and stay at my house tonight,’ said Mariner, after a moment.

  She made no attempt to stop him.

  * * *

  On his way over, Mariner stopped at the off-licence and picked up some bottles of the strongest beer he could find. It felt unreal and beyond comprehension that after all he and Anna had been through in the last few years, it wasn’t enough to keep them together. Sitting in an armchair in the lounge, the room around him began to get blurred around the edges. Rubbing a hand over his eyes he found that his face was wet.

  Mariner woke up the following morning, still in the armchair surrounded by a collection of empty brown bottles. His mouth was dry and he had a slight headache, but the biggest pain filled up his chest, which felt as if someone had been stamping all over it all night. And as his mind replayed the previous evening his eyes began watering again. An hour later he was showered and dressed in time for Charlie Glover to pick him up, but he could tell from Glover’s face that he still looked like shite and he was grateful that Charlie could read his body language well enough not to ask what was wrong.

  They stopped off at the Daffodil to collect Katarina, with Lorelei as a chaperone, and after initial greetings and light conversation everyone seemed content to sit back and watch the scenery go by, such as it was on the southbound M6. At the Catthorpe interchange Glover took the A14 towards Huntingdon to the immigration compound at Oakington, a fenced in collection of boxy, temporary-looking buildings that could equally have been a prison complex or a university campus.

  After passing through heavy security, Mariner and Glover were taken to wait in a small windowless room, while Lorelei and Katarina went to speak to the other girls. The two men sat for what seemed like an age, watching the minute hand of the wall clock tick slowly round. Half an hour later Katarina reappeared and for a moment Mariner thought they’d had a wasted a journey, until he spied the small, slight figure almost hidden from view behind her. ‘This is Valenka,’ Katarina told them. She spoke to the girl in a language that wasn’t English and the girl tentatively reached out to Mariner and passed him a small snapshot. It wasn’t the picture they’d given Katarina, but a real photograph, probably taken on an instant camera, of a young girl cradling a newborn.

  ‘This is her friend Nadia, after her baby came,’ Katarina told them, as Mariner and Glover stared down at a snapshot of the girl they’d all come to know as Madeleine. Her hair seemed a little darker than in the reconstruction, but other than that there was no doubt.

  ‘Bloody hell, it’s her,’ breathed Glover.

  ‘It’s a baby boy?’ Mariner asked.

  The girl nodded assent. ‘She called him Nikolai.’

  From his pocket Glover retrieved a polythene packet containing the silver crucifix that they had retrieved from Madeleine’s body.

  ‘Do you recognise this?’ he asked. Valenka nodded miserably in reply.

  ‘What can she tell us about Nadia?’ Mariner asked inviting the girls to sit.

  Valenka spoke and Katarina translated for her, a strange halting conversation.

  ‘Nadia was already living in the house when I came here. She was kind to me and we became friends. Nadia was already pregnant then b
ut she hadn’t told anyone. She was afraid because she wanted to keep her baby but she knows that if they find out they will make her get rid of it.’

  ‘Who’s “they?”’

  ‘The men who brought her to the house.’

  Mariner took out a picture of Alecsander Lucca. ‘Is this one of them?’

  But it was a moot question. He only had to see the sheer terror on her face. She gabbled something to Katarina, who repeated to Mariner, ‘He’s coming back?’

  ‘It’s all right,’ said Glover. ‘He’s dead. But so is her friend Nadia.’

  At the translation the girl’s eyes widened and she shook her head. Katarina hadn’t told her. ‘No. She went home.’

  ‘We found her body ten months ago. We recently found the body of her baby.’

  The girl took the news with blank resignation, but her eyes filled up and a single tear trailed down her cheek. Suddenly the room felt hot and claustrophobic.

  ‘What happened when Lucca found out about the baby?’ Mariner asked.

  ‘He says she can keep it if she works until one month before it will be born.’

  ‘Dear God, she’s eight months pregnant and she’s turning tricks,’ said Glover in disgust.

  ‘Some men like it,’ said Katarina. It was a simple observation.

  ‘Where did Nadia have the baby?’

  Valenka picked up the story. ‘They take her to another house. I thought they had gone to the hospital, but when she came back she says it was another house. There was . . . a baby nurse—’ Katarina, translating, groped for the right word.

  ‘Midwife?’ Glover volunteered. ‘A nurse who delivers babies?’

  ‘Yes the midwife come. She stay there for a few days and then they take the baby from Nadia. They tell her they will take it back to Albania to be cared for by her family.’

  ‘Did she see the midwife? Can she tell us what she looked like?’ asked Mariner.

  ‘I don’t see her. I only hear her in another room, talking to Nadia.’

  ‘And afterwards Nadia came back to the house on Foundry Road, the house where we found you?’

  ‘Yes, but only for two, maybe three days and then she left again. I ask where she is and they tell me she has gone home to be with her baby. I am surprised because I know that Nadia owes them money for bringing her here, and we are never allowed to go out of the house. And she leave the picture behind.’ Valenka leaned forward and picked up the snapshot. Tears were streaming down her face by now and she brushed them away, murmuring something unintelligible to Glover and Mariner.

  ‘Did Lucca take Nadia’s baby?’ Mariner asked.

  ‘No. Lucca bring her to this country. The big man take the baby.’

  ‘The big man? Does he have a name?’

  ‘Zjelic, she thinks Zjelic.’

  Mariner and Glover exchanged a look. ‘Could it be Zjalic?’ Mariner asked. They had interviewed a Serbian, Goran Zjalic, as part of the murder enquiry at the address where Lucca lived. At the time Zjalic had claimed that he and Lucca just happened to live in the same house and they’d had no reason to disbelieve him.

  Katarina translated and Valenka nodded miserably. ‘Maybe.’ said Katarina.

  ‘What else does she know about Nadia?’ Glover asked. ‘Another name, her birth date or where she is from? We want to find her family to tell them what has happened.’

  Valenka was able to provide them with Nadia’s family name, her age and the name of the town she came from. They hoped it would be enough.

  ‘Will Valenka come back with us to do a formal interview — make a statement?’

  Valenka agreed and Katarina went with her to collect her things.

  ‘Have you heard of this happening before, a girl being allowed to have her baby?’ Mariner asked Lorelei, as they waited for the two girls to return.

  ‘Only in isolated cases, and usually it’s by accident. Some of these girls are so young and inexperienced they don’t even know they’re pregnant until they go into labour. They don’t know about contraception and the punters prefer sex without, so their pimps don’t enlighten them and pregnancy is the inevitable result. They’re undernourished anyway so they wouldn’t put on much weight. If they do realise what’s happening, some of the girls get rid of the babies themselves using the crudest of methods, or more commonly their pimps get it done for them.’

  ‘It’s barbaric,’ said Charlie. ‘What about antenatal care? Medical care before the baby is born.’

  ‘There isn’t any. They just see a midwife at the time when the child is born. Often we pick up girls who have been thrown out of the brothel they’re working in and left to fend for themselves on the streets.’

  ‘And if a baby does go to term, and survives, it is murdered in cold blood like Madeleine’s baby.’ It left a nasty taste in Mariner’s mouth.

  Lorelei was pragmatic. ‘What’s the alternative? The men who run the operations know that most families would reject a child born in these circumstances. It’s much less trouble to just get rid of the child.’

  ‘But why then kill Nadia too? She could still be useful to them.’

  ‘Perhaps motherhood gave Nadia a different perspective on her way of life and she didn’t want to give up her baby. The maternal bond is immensely powerful. Maybe she got too difficult to handle, so Zjalic dealt with her and her baby instead. It would be the simplest thing. There are plenty more girls to take her place, they are disposable commodities.’

  ‘Or more accurately he had Lucca do some of the dirty work for him,’ Glover reminded him. ‘It was Lucca’s prints all over the tape. We only have Zjalic’s word that the two men didn’t know one other. And the witness who saw someone dumping something in the small hours last November identified a tall man. Zjalic is certainly that.’

  ‘We need to find Goran Zjalic.’

  Chapter Fifteen

  The drive back to Birmingham was mostly a silent one, punctuated by occasional murmured exchanges between Katarina and Lorelei. Mariner and Glover were lost in their own thoughts, the euphoria of identifying Madeleine replaced by the grim realisation of what the end of her life had been like. They took the two women back to the project hostel. ‘When is Ocean Blue likely to come to trial?’ Lorelei asked Mariner.

  ‘It could be months, why?’

  ‘We’re running out of space. I don’t know how long we’ll be able to keep Katarina here. Our beds are in constant demand and she is no longer in immediate danger. It’s getting hard for me to justify her presence.’

  ‘And if you can’t keep her?’ said Mariner.

  ‘We may have to consider letting her go back to Albania.’

  ‘What will happen to her if she does?’

  ‘It’s hard to tell, but to be truthful, the prospects aren’t great. I doubt she’ll be going home to mum and dad. My experience is that most of the girls we send back either get caught up in the sex trade in their own country, bought again by traffickers or, worst-case scenario, will end up killing themselves. They’ve been through so much that they’re not in a fit mental state to be reintegrated into their families.’

  ‘When I talked to Katarina about it she said she’d feel too ashamed.’

  ‘Wouldn’t you be?’ said Lorelei ‘It’s a common response.’

  ‘But that means we might lose her and we might never get her captors to court in time for her to testify.’

  ‘Regrettable though that is, it’s not really my problem,’ said Lorelei, candidly. ‘For the moment Katarina is safe. There are other women out there whose need right now is greater.’

  ‘How long have we got?’ Mariner asked.

  ‘I could only guarantee her a couple more nights, then an alternative will need to be found.’

  * * *

  First things first though. Immediately he and Glover got back to Granville Lane, Mariner called the police officer he’d made contact with in Tirana at the time when Nadia’s body was discovered, and followed up by faxing through the description and photograph of Nadia.
The officer seemed optimistic that they would be able to trace her family, and would arrange for one of them to fly over.

  No rush, Mariner wanted to say. It was a meeting he didn’t anticipate with any pleasure.

  The other item low on his list of anticipated events was going back to Anna’s house, but even so, what he saw on the drive came as a shock. Snuggled in behind Anna’s car in Mariner’s usual spot was a gleaming one-year-old silver Audi TT. The front door of the house was open, so some little way back down the road Mariner reverse parked into a row of cars from which he could observe without being seen. His worst fears were confirmed when after a few minutes, Dr Gareth appeared from the front door. He went round to the boot of the Audi and opened it up, at the same time as Anna emerged from the house carrying a cardboard box. The laughter and playful banter between them made Mariner’s chest constrict and his eyes well up again. He waited until they’d retreated again into the house, pulled out of the parking space, did a three-point turn and drove back to his house.

  Mariner had never been afraid of his own company, and there were times in the last few years when he’d craved solitude. But that had been from the safe position of having an alternative. Suddenly he felt very alone and the house very empty. One of the next things he’d do was let out the second-floor flat as he had done in the past, once successfully when Tony Knox was temporarily homeless, and then rather less successfully when Kenneth McCrae had taken up his unfortunate short-term occupancy. He might not feel like opening up his home to the general public quite yet, but there were plenty of trainee officers looking for cheap lodgings. He climbed the stairs to inspect the rooms. They’d need a bit of a clean, but otherwise everything was in good order. He’d get an ad put on the Intranet tomorrow. It wasn’t until he was standing under the shower the following morning that he had a much better idea.

  DCI Sharp’s car was in the car park so Mariner went straight to her office. ‘I need to talk to you about Katarina, the girl we interviewed from Ocean Blue,’ he said.

  ‘All right.’ Sharp sat back in her chair.

  ‘They need her bed at the hostel. But I’m concerned that if we let her go we run the risk of losing our star witness. Katarina is the best we’ve had for years and we have no way of knowing what she’s going back to, or whether we’ll be able to keep track of her.’