Mitsuko looked puzzled but said, ‘Sure,’ and told them. Gerry had heard of the footballer but not the guitarist. Annie knew of neither.
‘What about the man who threw the parties,’ Annie asked. ‘The man whose house it was? Connor Clive Blaydon?’
‘Was that his name? She never said. Just that she was working for an old friend of her boss.’
‘Did Marnie say exactly what she did there?’
‘A bit of everything. Dogsbody, she said. Loading and unloading the dishwasher, arranging trays of canapés, opening wine bottles and tins of caviar. She’d lend a hand with just about anything if they got busy or someone didn’t turn up.’
‘What about meeting the guests, serving drinks and so on?’
‘She got to serve drinks occasionally, but she didn’t like it much. Mostly they had a bunch of scantily dressed women to do that.’ Mitsuko lowered her voice. ‘She did say there was stuff going on, you know. Escorts and that sort of thing.’
‘Did she mention anyone in particular, anyone who had shown interest in her?’
‘I don’t think so.’
‘What about unasked-for attention?’
‘Uh-oh. Well, that’s always a given, isn’t it, for someone like Marnie? Even here. She isn’t exactly beautiful, but she’s definitely striking. And sexy, I suppose. In that innocent sort of way, you know, without realising it, or at least without emphasising it or playing it up at all. She just is, you know.’
‘Natural?’
‘Very.’
‘Anything serious? At the parties.’
‘She got offers, you know. A thousand quid if you spend the night with me. That sort of thing. Some old wrinkly who liked young girls. Maybe the occasional pat on the bum.’
‘How did she react?’
‘Shrugged it off, mostly, like you do.’
‘Did she mention any names?’
‘Apart from the footballer and guitarist? Not really. Not that I remember.’
‘The name of anyone who propositioned her?’
‘No. I don’t know if she even knew their names. I mean, I’m not saying it happened a lot, just that she thought it was a bit of a laugh, that’s all.’ Mitsuko paused and frowned, as much as her tight forehead would let her. ‘Is this going somewhere? Why are you so interested in the parties? Did something happen to Marnie there?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Annie. ‘Did something?’
‘It wasn’t long after her last party gig that she... you know... Did something bad happen to her there?’
‘Did she talk to you about that particular party?’
‘No. That’s when she... she went strange. We never got to talk about it. Oh, my God. That’s what this is about, isn’t it? Something happened to her. Is she hurt? Is she dead?’
‘Nothing like that.’ Gerry rushed to reassure her. ‘We’re just trying to find her, that’s all.’
‘But something happened, didn’t it? Please tell me. Was it drugs?’
‘I’m sorry, Mitsuko,’ Annie said. ‘We can’t give you any information. Right now it’s confidential. You mentioned escorts. Did she talk to you about the things that went on at these parties? Sexual things, or other stuff.’
‘She said there were drugs. Mostly cocaine. But she never took any. She wouldn’t do that. And she thought some of the women with impossibly big boobs were hookers. They would sometimes disappear with a guest for a while. Apparently, the place had a lot of bedrooms. Sometimes people got lost, she said, and wandered into the kitchen and got embarrassed. And once she saw some naked girls swimming in the pool.’
‘Sounds pretty exciting,’ Gerry said.
‘Marnie didn’t think so,’ said Mitsuko. ‘She just thought it was sad. Or funny. But it paid well.’
‘Did she ever mention Charlotte Westlake?’
‘Her boss?’
‘Yes.’
‘Once or twice, just in passing, like.’
‘Did she say how she first heard of Charlotte?’
‘No. She didn’t tell me. And I never thought to ask. It was just a job, you know, like this. I did... never mind.’
‘What were you going to say?’ Annie prompted her.
‘Nothing. It was just an impression, but from the way she talked, I sort of felt she’d known this Westlake woman from before.’
‘From before? When?’
‘I don’t know. But don’t you just get feelings like that sometimes, from the way someone talks about someone? I don’t know, body language, a facial expression. It was just a passing fancy.’
‘Did Marnie drink much?’
‘She liked a drink — white wine was her favourite — but she didn’t overdo it, no. I’ve only seen her drunk about once or twice in all the time I’ve known her.’
‘How did it affect her?’
‘First she’d get very funny, silly, then she’d fall asleep.’
‘You mentioned drugs. Did Marnie take any? You said she didn’t touch coke; what about others?’
Mitsuko looked away.
‘You can tell us,’ said Annie. ‘We’re interested in finding her, not arresting her for smoking a spliff or whatever.’
‘Ecstasy a couple of times, at parties. And maybe the occasional smoke. But that’s as far as it went. Never the hard stuff. Like I said, she wouldn’t have taken any of that stuff at those parties she was working.’
‘Did she have a boyfriend?’
‘She went out a few times with Rick, one of the guys from the pub we hung out in. The Star and Garter. He’s nice enough. Fancies himself a poet, and Marnie was a sucker for artistic types. All that goth darkness and stuff. But I don’t think it was serious.’
Gerry made a note and Annie asked, ‘Is Rick still around?’
‘Sure. Should be. But I don’t think he’ll be able to tell you anything. They split up around the same time she started getting strange.’ Mitsuko paused. ‘I’m still really worried about her, you know. That she might do... you know... might harm herself. She was soooo depressed when she left.’
‘Do you know if she saw a doctor?’
‘I suggested it, but she just shook her head.’
‘Did she give you any idea at all of what might be going on, what caused her state of mind?’
‘No,’ said Mitsuko. ‘And in the end, I just learned to stop bothering her. She’d get mad, tell me to shut up and leave her alone. I couldn’t get through to her. And it hurt, you know.’
‘I can imagine it did,’ Annie said. ‘Do you know where she went?’
‘No. She just took off after that incident at work. I was working here that day, too, and Mr. Baldini said I should go after her and make sure she was all right. He’s very nice. So I did, but when I got back to the house, she was packing a few things in a suitcase. I asked her where she was going, and she said she was just going away for a few days to be by herself. I asked her what was wrong, but she told me it was nothing, not to worry. And that was it. I was dismissed. She drove off and she never came back. I left emails and messages on her mobile but got no response. I’ve been worried about her ever since. It’s been over six weeks now and not a word. When you find her, please let me know. I won’t try to see her or anything if she doesn’t want. I just need to know that she’s all right. Will you tell me?’
‘Yes,’ said Annie. ‘Do you have a recent photograph you could share with us? The one we have is very poor quality.’
‘Sure. I think.’ Mitsuko pulled out her mobile from her back pocket and searched through her photo library. ‘We went for a cheap city break to Rome last October,’ she said. ‘It was amazing. We saw the Sistine Chapel, the Colosseum, the Pantheon, everything. Here.’ She turned the phone so they could see a clear picture of Marnie with a Roman ruin in the background. ‘That was taken in the Forum.’
‘Thanks,’ said Annie. ‘Can you email it to me?’