Charlotte had paled. ‘Are you telling me that my life is in danger?’
‘We’re just warning you to be careful, that’s all,’ said Gerry. ‘Seeing as you employed Marnie and supplied her for the party, another possibility is that some people might have got the impression — the wrong impression, of course — that she was part of the entertainment, and that what happened to her was partly your fault, that you should share some of the blame with the rapist and with Blaydon himself. Maybe Marnie told her father, or her boyfriend, what happened? Maybe one of them killed Blaydon? People jump to conclusions sometimes and act before they think. That’s what makes our job so difficult.’
‘So what are you suggesting? That you give me police protection?’
‘Love to,’ said Annie, ‘but we’re stretched to the limit right now. Still waiting for those twenty thousand new coppers we’ve been promised.’
‘So what are you saying?’
‘OK, here’s the deal,’ Annie said. ‘You go away and have a good think. A good long think. And you see if you can remember what you haven’t told us, then come back and put that right. Especially if you’ve heard rumours of anyone Marnie may have hung around with at the party, or anyone who’d been bothering her. Say, perhaps, one of the other girls working that night noticed something. If it was Blaydon who raped Marnie, you can tell us. You don’t have to worry about him. He’s dead. But if it was someone else, someone still alive... well, time becomes an issue.’
‘But how can I? I don’t know anything.’
‘You know some of the characters involved. Names. Maybe some of the same people were at previous parties? Maybe you noticed someone expressing an unusual interest in Marnie when you dropped by? Perhaps this person asked Blaydon for a special favour, and Blaydon had good reason to grant him his wishes. Who was he trying to win over, or impress? Perhaps you stood in the way? Maybe that’s why he sent you to Costa Rica, to get you out of the picture, clear the decks so to speak. Have you ever thought of that?’
‘No, I haven’t,’ said Charlotte. ‘But thanks for putting the idea in my mind. I can try to think back, if you like, but what about in the meantime? What am I supposed to do?’
‘In the meantime,’ said Gerry, ‘you can send us the information we asked for, then take our advice and be very careful.’
On the second visit, Tadić stood over Zelda. ‘You know why you’re here?’ he asked.
‘No,’ said Zelda. ‘I don’t even know where here is.’
Tadić laughed, a hoarse, phlegmy sound. ‘That doesn’t matter. Do you know who I am?’
Again, Zelda shook her head.
‘My name is Petar Tadić. Does that help?’
Again, Zelda said, ‘No. I’m hungry and thirsty. Can I have—’
With surprising speed, Tadić gave her a backhander that sent her head sideways into the cast-iron radiator. She could taste blood and her head was ringing, starting to throb with pain. She thought she could feel blood oozing into her hair and over her ear.
‘Does that help your memory?’
She was about to say no again, but realised what would happen if she did, so she kept quiet. Tadić was a man who liked the sound of his own voice, she remembered.
‘Let me tell you, then,’ he said, squatting in front of her. ‘You’re the bitch who murdered my brother.’ He put his face so close to hers that she could smell curry on his breath. It almost made her sick. ‘Eh, my beauty? Am I right?’ He caressed the side of her face where he had just hit her. ‘Am I right?’
‘I don’t know what you mean,’ Zelda said. ‘I haven’t—’
But before she could say any more, he hit her again, in the same place. Her head reeled, and she tasted burning bile in her throat. Luckily, this time her head didn’t crash into the radiator.
‘It’s no use denying it,’ Tadić said. ‘I saw you on the hotel CCTV. The sexy red dress. Yes? Oh, I saw you. My men are very good. They talk to Foley’s girlfriend, Faye Butler. She tells them plenty before she dies. They find restaurant where you saw her with Foley and Hawkins. They find taxi driver who drove you back to your hotel after you kill Goran. They find out your name and where you live from hotel. But not quite, because you give no street and number, do you? Just house name Windlee Farm and that village. Lyndgarth. But we find it. And now we have you. What do you think of that? Good detective work, yes?’
Zelda vomited down the front of her T-shirt.
Tadić jumped back up so fast he almost fell over, but he couldn’t escape getting a few flecks on his polished leather Italian shoes.
His partner lurched towards Zelda, but Tadić held him back. ‘No,’ he said. Then he took a handkerchief from his pocket, cleaned off his shoes and tossed it in a corner.
‘Kill her now, boss,’ the man said. ‘Let me kill her.’
‘No. That is too easy.’ Tadić towered over Zelda. ‘Why did you kill him?’ he asked. ‘Why did you kill Goran?’
Zelda tried to control her breathing, raised her head, and looked him in the eye. ‘You and your brother abducted me outside an orphanage in Chișinău many years ago.’
‘I don’t remember you. Or Chișinău. Is that why you killed my brother?’
‘Yes,’ Zelda spat.
Tadić kicked her again, this time in the stomach. She doubled up in pain. They stood looking down on her as she struggled to hold back more vomit. When she could trust herself to speak again, she asked, ‘What are you going to do to me?’ Her voice felt thick. She probed a broken tooth with her tongue, tasted blood and vomit.
Tadić grinned. ‘Do? I could sell you to the Albanians. They know what to do with a kurva like you. But no. Like killing you, it is also too easy. No. I have a friend who tell me about special house in Dhaka. Do you know where that is? Bangladesh. Long way. Sick old men who go there like young girls or boys best, but a white woman like you will be novelty. For a while. Do not worry. You will not survive for long. If the diseases don’t rot your pretty little pićka, the drinking water will poison you. But it will be a slow death. Long and slow and painful. You will have much time to remember what you did to Goran.’
Zelda felt panic rush through her. She jerked and tugged at her chains again and tried to drag her hands apart so much the plasticuffs bit into her skin.
Tadić and his friend just stood there laughing. ‘You can scream as loud as you like,’ Tadić said. ‘There is no one to hear you.’
When the strength went out of Zelda’s struggle, she was aware of the light disappearing and the door closing. She lay in the darkness alone again, her face and her teeth aching, head throbbing, and the thought came to her that she would not be able to bear the future they were planning for her, however short it was likely to be. Not only that, but she couldn’t let it happen. And the only way she knew of stopping it was to kill herself before they got her to Dhaka.
11
According to Charlotte Westlake’s records, Marnie Sedgwick had lived in York on a cul-de-sac terrace of tall, narrow Victorian brick semis. It wasn’t far from the city centre, and most of the houses were divided into flats and bedsits. Though it was some distance from the university, it looked like student housing, and Annie wondered if Marnie had been a student, working part-time for Charlotte.
They walked up the steps and Annie rang the bell with the empty nameplate beside it. They had phoned ahead and the landlord said he would meet them there. They heard someone coming down the stairs and Duncan McCrae, the landlord, opened the door for them.
‘Right on time,’ he said, rubbing his hands together.