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* * *

It was late afternoon when Nadia finished. She described the other girls and what she remembered of their captors.

Sophie thanked Mary Porter for her careful interpretation.

‘It’s a privilege, Chief Inspector. It’s probably been the most harrowing afternoon of my life, and I won’t forget it. I did try my best.’

‘I know, Mary. Thank you. Can you make it back tomorrow morning? I need to find out more about her life in Romania. Family, friends, that kind of thing. But I now need to get Nadia to somewhere safe and secure for a few days. Barry and I will get our heads together to work out where we go from here.’

Mary Porter left.

‘Barry, I’m taking Nadia away with me now. She’s too tired to wait around here. We’ll make a fresh start in the morning. Can Jimmy keep trawling through the records for a while? I also wonder if any of the coast watch organisations have records of boat movements. These men probably sneak across under cover of darkness or mist, but someone may have spotted the boat at some time. It’s not urgent but if you have any ideas, that would be great. Call me if you find anything. But don’t stay late. It’ll be better if we’re all fresh in the morning.’

Chapter 6: Bodies in the Field

Thursday Evening & Friday, Week 1

Jade Allen was chopping vegetables in the kitchen when her mother arrived home with Nadia.

‘Hi, Mum. Hi, Nadia. I’ve just made a pot of tea for you, and thought I’d start on the dinner. I’ll show Nadia her room if you want, Mum.’

Jade hugged them both and held Nadia’s hand as she led her out of the room. Sophie could hear her chattering fade as they went up the stairs.

Sophie set out cups and saucers and poured the tea, adding a plate of chocolate biscuits. She carried the tray through to the lounge, kicked off her shoes and settled into one of the comfortable armchairs. She shut her eyes, trying to dispel her fatigue. She took a sip of hot, refreshing tea. She’d always thought that Jade was the less sensitive of her two daughters, more likely than Hannah to blunder into situations. Today she had revealed a completely new side to her character. Maybe she might become a good doctor after all. Sophie was annoyed with herself for underestimating her own daughter.

The sound of girls’ voices came through from the hallway. Goodness, she’d drifted off to sleep. She took another sip of tea. It was still hot so she hadn’t slept for long
.

The two young women came into the lounge. Nadia was a good three years older than Jade, but they looked almost the same age. Jade’s sleek, dark hair was tied back into a ponytail and she was a couple of inches taller, but they were both slim.

‘Nadia’s offered to help me with dinner, Mum. We’ll take our tea through to the kitchen if that’s okay.’

‘Of course.’ Her daughter just went on surprising her.

‘You can doze off again, if you want to,’ said Jade.

‘Was it that obvious?’

‘Slightly pink cheeks, Mum. And you’ve been doing it for a few months now. But don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone. I don’t think Dad’s noticed. He does it himself. Either that or he keeps quiet about it.’

‘We’ve struck a deal, Jade. Neither of us reminds the other about the onset of middle age. The one who breaks the deal first gets to pay for the next meal out.’

‘Cool.’

Sophie finished her tea and settled back into the chair. She picked up the daily paper. It wasn’t often that she managed more than a quick glance at the headlines. She yawned again. The emotional turmoil of the last few days had affected her sleep. She was James and Florence’s closest living relative and this unexpected discovery, wonderful as it was, meant that she now had their health and wellbeing to think about. But discovering the circumstances of her father’s disappearance had stunned her to the core. She turned the pages of the newspaper without reading them. She put it aside and thought about the coming Sunday and the planned visit to Gloucester. Maybe she could ask Lydia to come across and spend the day with Nadia. The young detective would be home from her training course by then.

She finished her tea and walked through to the kitchen. Nadia was showing Jade how to chop an onion at high speed.

‘I learn in hotel kitchen,’ she explained.

‘Nadia is doing a hotel management degree, Mum. Sounds interesting.’

‘Well, if there’s food involved, Jade, I can understand your interest. What are you making?’

‘Mixed grill. I’ve halved the steaks, there’s some bacon that needs to be used up and I’ve decided to introduce Nadia to the joys of black pudding. Dad bought some at the weekend.’

‘I might have known. Any excuse for you and your father to eat that foul stuff.’ Sophie laughed.

‘There’s white wine in the fridge, Mum. But I think Dad would have a fit if we had it with this. Do you want to open a red so that it’s ready?’

‘You’re too young to know all these things, Jade. We’ve ruined you.’

‘Yeah, well, don’t worry about it. It’s all cool.’

* * *

Martin did his best to appear relaxed when he arrived home, but Sophie could sense his tension. He was too conscious of Nadia’s story, she thought. And she was aware of the frustrated anger he felt towards abusive men.

‘Jade’s chosen some wine that she claims will be appropriate for black pudding,’ she told him. ‘She sounded like a real expert.’

‘It’s all Dad’s fault. He’s the one who tells me all about choosing wines to go with the food. All that stuff about real ale and getting the hoppiness right. I could never be a binge drinker. All my mates’ll be knocking back the booze by the pint, while I’m still sniffing the bouquet. Do you realise how much you’ve ruined my future? I’ll be mentally scarred for the rest of my teenage years. I’ll get to my mid-twenties and all my friends will have passed through the binge drinking phase. I’ll have missed a whole important phase of my development, and he’ll be to blame. Wine-tasting. Huh.’

‘What have I done to deserve this?’ asked Martin.

‘It’s alright, Dad, I’m only kidding. Nadia’s going to help me with the dinner. It’ll be ready in about half an hour, okay? Now kindly leave us alone to get on with our work.’

Sophie and Martin dutifully returned to the lounge, a little shell-shocked. The sound of giggles drifted in from the kitchen.

‘How did you and I manage to create that girl?’ asked Martin.

‘Maybe there was a full moon on the night in question. I can’t think of any other explanation. But I tell you what, I feel a whole lot more cheerful than when I first came home. She does wonders for my mood. And she’s looking after Nadia so well. That cheerful prattle is just what the girl needs, and no one could do it better than Jade. In fact, I’m not sure anyone else could do it at all. We’re all treating her with kid gloves, and maybe all she needs at the moment is light-hearted chatter with someone her own age. Jade seemed to know that instinctively. I keep thinking that I might have underestimated her, you know.’

‘One of the staff from her place was across at my school today. He looked at me in amazement when he found out who I was. “But you seem so normal,” was his first comment. Apparently Jade did a song and dance routine at school assembly which brought the house down. Everyone loved it apart from the head, who thought it lacked a moral message. Jade told him that it did have a message — have a good time. He added that she is far and away the brightest kid in her year, so we must be doing something right.’

‘So that was the reason for all the thumping from her room. Do you think we should ask her about it?’

‘Probably better not to. We don’t want her to think we’re spying on her.’

Sophie’s mobile phone rang. She told Martin what Mark Benson had said.

‘Rohypnol traces in her blood. We’d guessed that they’d used something like that on the girls.’

‘What do you plan to do with her for the next few days?’

‘She’ll be coming into the station with me tomorrow, and possibly Saturday morning. I may ask Lydia to look after her on Sunday if we go to Gloucester. They might have to stay here if she’s still fragile. Is that okay?’

‘I’ve no objection as long as she’s with someone you trust. Remember that we don’t really know her, Sophie. We don’t know what she was like back in Romania. We don’t know anything about her family.’

‘We’ll be pursuing all of that tomorrow. I’ll make some more decisions then.’ She paused. ‘By the way, I phoned Archie today and reassured him that I was alright.’

‘And did he believe you?’

‘Not really. He’s like you. You can both see below the surface.’

* * *

As Sophie expected, Nadia’s next interview was far less draining. She went into the girl’s family and social background, and then the contact that had lured her away from her college course. Sophie wanted as much detail as possible so that she could alert the Romanian authorities. The girl described the other young women who had been brought across to England with her. She was worried for their safety, particularly the youngest of the group, a sixteen-year-old called Sorina with whom she had formed a close friendship. Sorina had been an only child in her home country and had been lured away from a job in a hotel restaurant with the promise of formal training as a chef in the UK. According to Nadia the girl had spent most of the journey in terrified silence and had found the ordeal at the farmhouse hard to bear. Nadia doubted whether she would last very long under the brutal treatment of the gang.

Sophie called the Romanian embassy in order to check on progress. She then arranged for Nadia to call her parents, with Mary Porter listening in to the conversation. She’d advised Nadia to keep the details of her ordeal to a minimum at this stage. After talking to her daughter for a few minutes, Nadia’s mother spoke to Sophie through Mary Porter.

As the conversation finished Sophie’s mobile rang. She heard tension in Barry Marsh’s voice and walked out into the corridor.

‘We’ve found a body at the farm.’

‘Where?’

‘One of the fields adjoins the copse and there’s a strip of rough grass between the two. The body was there. We wouldn’t have spotted it, but we had a dog with us, as you suggested. It started pawing at the ground and whining, so we started digging. Forensics are on their way. It must have been there for some time because there are weeds and stuff growing on top of it.’

‘Can you tell anything about the state it’s in?’

‘No. We stopped once we realised what we had. It’s wrapped in a rug, and we just uncovered the feet, so we can’t tell yet whether it’s male or female. The thing is, ma’am, the dog is behaving the same way in another spot. We think there might be more.’

‘I’ll be over directly. I’ll get someone here to look after the girl. Is David Nash still there at the farm?’

‘He’s gone, but the rest of his team are still here. They were about to pack up but now they’re staying around. Nash is on his way back.’

‘Leave everything until he gets there. He’s the expert, so he can decide the best way of extracting the body. And well done, Barry. It was a good idea to take the dog out of the yard.’

Sophie left Nadia in the care of Tom Rose’s assistant, and drove out to the abandoned farm.

* * *

Sophie was thankful for the dry weather. Even so, the area around the grave was beginning to get churned up.

‘We’ve kept everyone away from the site, apart from the marked path,’ Marsh told her. ‘We’ve also marked out the other area where the dog was sniffing.’

Sophie looked around. ‘It’s a well-chosen spot. That low ridge at the top of the field means it’s out of view from the farm. And the copse hides it from this side.’ She turned back to Marsh. ‘How deep?’

‘About a foot and a half. That’s when we reached the upper part of the rug. We uncovered it, opened it up and found a foot.’

Sophie had a quick look at the excavation.

‘We’ll just leave it now for forensics, but keep someone here on watch. What else did you find?’

Marsh pointed to one of the sheds. Traces of blood had been found on the floor.

‘We’ll have a chat with David Nash before he starts.’

The forensic chief was busy instructing the squad who were to extract the body. They had spread large sheets of plastic on the ground nearby, ready to receive the extracted soil, and they were erecting an open sided forensic tent. Nash greeted Sophie with a wave.

‘We’re just about ready to go. I did wonder about bringing in a mini-excavator, but if there are other graves nearby I wouldn’t want them compressed with the weight of the machinery. So we’ll use the old fashioned method. The soil’s not too heavy at the moment, so we won’t lose too much time.’

‘Are there enough screens up there on the rise to prevent Joe Public from seeing what we’re up to?’ Sophie said.

‘Yes. I’ve just walked the area, and we’re as private as we can be. Your people up on the road can keep their eyes open for anyone trying to trek over here from the lane.’

‘Well, let’s get started.’

It took less than thirty minutes to extract the first body. The rug was still intact enough to be lifted out without difficulty. Inside was the body of a young woman. She was in an advanced stage of decomposition and they could not tell her age. She was laid out on a trestle bench, and the digging team moved a few yards away to the second spot identified by the dog.

Marsh took Sophie into one of the farm buildings. They ducked under the tape stretched across the entrance.

‘In here,’ Marsh said. ‘Blood in some of the cracks between the stones. And quite a lot, from what Nash said.’

‘So this is where he was killed. If Nadia was telling the truth there would be traces of her vomit as well, probably against one of the walls. Did he say anything about that?’

‘Not to me, but he was going to get a summary to you this afternoon. Maybe it was in that.’

They walked back to the grave site. As they arrived, one of the diggers called out, ‘found something!’

Sophie stood beside Nash and they watched the team brush soil from another rug-encased bundle.

‘Dave, were there traces of vomit found in that shed? Probably against a wall?’ she asked.

‘Yes. Someone had used farm disinfectant but we found blood between the flagstones in the middle of the floor and some traces of vomit over to one side. We’ve got a sample. It’s on its way back to the lab for analysis. You look relieved.’