Breaking the Circle (16 page)

‘What?’

‘If this gang has the connections I think they have, it won’t take them long to find you. We’d better put you under protection immediately. Category one.’

Maya looked horrified. ‘No. I don’t want to be confined to the house. I’ve only just gone back to school. Put me on watch, please! The gang don’t know where I live and
there’s no way Gerard can find out now.’

Simon raised his eyebrows. In answer, Maya nodded.

‘I’m pretty sure he’s dead. He was in a terrible state and nobody was helping him.’

‘And Kay?’

‘She won’t give me away.’

Simon tapped his fingers on his jeans while he was thinking. ‘Maybe you’re right. We don’t want to do anything to alarm the gang. The best way to draw them out is for
everything to appear normal. You go to school, see your friends. I’ll make sure you’re discreetly tailed.’

Maya pulled at a strand of hair, puckering up her face. ‘I don’t like it. It doesn’t feel right. I just go about my normal everyday life while Kay and the other girls
suffer.’

Simon stood up and held out his hands, gesturing, palms upwards. ‘Let’s face it, Maya. These girls are just a few out of many.’

Maya’s cheeks burned. ‘I know them, Simon. If I close my eyes, I can see their faces. And you know, I was once like that – a little girl without any hope. It could be me in
that stinking brothel.’

For a moment there was silence. Helen looked shocked, Zac looked away.

But Simon always had an answer. His voice was smooth and practical. ‘Then that’s why it should be important to you to stop this horrible trade, not just for the girls you know but
for all girls.’ He pulled his mobile from his pocket and examined it. Then, turning back to Maya, he said in a brighter voice, ‘Your mum will be home soon. You’ll feel better
then.’

‘Yeah, course I will,’ she answered. And she would, she knew she would, everything was better when Pam was around, but she couldn’t fix everything and while she was completing
her mission, time was running out for the girls in captivity.

‘Right, let’s get a few more details before I leave,’ Simon said.

He asked Helen’s permission to take Maya into another room so that he could question her in more detail. While she was explaining the trail of events that led from her first sighting of
Kay to her plunge into the canal, she heard Helen and Zac talking and laughing in the kitchen. It made the catalogue of events she was relaying to Simon seem bizarre and almost unbelievable. She
wasn’t even sure she believed it herself – the past couple of days had seemed like the scenario for an action movie.

‘I didn’t go looking for adventure, you know,’ she said to Simon. ‘It just happened.’

Simon pursed his lips and regarded her with an expression of wonderment. ‘Couldn’t you just rent a few DVDs, watch
The X Factor
?’

For the first time that day, Maya laughed. ‘Yeah, right.’

Simon put away his laptop and stood up. ‘Confirm all this in your report,’ he said, moving towards the door.

After saying goodbye, he stood on the doorstep, looking out for a moment, then he turned to Maya. ‘Don’t think I don’t value what you’ve done, Maya. You’re
intelligent and brave; you’ll make a great agent, if that’s what you want to do.’ He reached out and patted her shoulder. ‘I’ll send somebody to pick up your report
tomorrow. You’re on to something big here. Drugs – not my department, but smuggling illegals, a cross-country operation – I may get a look in. Drug Squad are wily devils, like to
keep things to themselves, but if it gets passed on, I’ll keep you informed.’

‘Thanks,’ Maya muttered.

Before he turned to go, he looked hard into her face once more. ‘But leave it now, understood? And tomorrow get yourself checked over. Swallowing putrid water can do nasty things to
you.’

She nodded, closed the door and returned to the kitchen where Zac was stirring something inside a big pot on the stove. He looked up when he heard her enter and smiled.

‘Your gran is teachin’ me how to cook.’

‘Great,’ Maya said, and suddenly she felt very tired.

Helen, ever watchful and astute, advised, ‘You should go and rest.’

Zac was tasting his cooking and looking very pleased with himself.

‘Want to go into my room and play some music?’ Maya asked.

He looked questioningly at Helen. ‘Go on,’ she said. ‘I’ll finish the curry.’

The bedroom was bright with evening sunshine, the breeze gently ruffling the leaves brushing against Maya’s window.

Zac’s eyes lit up when he entered. ‘So, who else sleeps in here?’ he asked.

Maya laughed. ‘Just me, I have a lot of stuff.’

‘I can see that,’ Zac said, wandering round the room. ‘Hey, loads of books. You read?’

‘I read.’ Maya thumped down on the sofa. ‘Zac, I have to think.’

He sat beside her and looked serious. ‘You not happy ‘bout Kay.’

‘No, how can I be? Those men were evil. Ginger, the guy who . . . you know . . . he had a gun. He shot at me. If Kay kicks up a fuss, they won’t hesitate.’

Zac came and sat beside her and put his arm around her.

Maya turned to look at him. ‘Kay has to have a chance. She hasn’t lived yet. She’s been in one bad situation after another; her family killed, con men promising her a new life
in England then betraying her, living on the streets.”

‘It sucks,’ Zac said, softly.

She took his hand and stroked his fingers. ‘I promised to help her. Fat lot of use my promise was – just like all the others, I failed her.’

Zac slipped his arm round her shoulders. ‘You aren’t responsible for what them men are doin’.’

Maya leaned against his shoulder. ‘There has to be something I can do.’

‘
We
can do,’ Zac said. ‘I want to help. It was horrible when I saw those heavies takin’ you. I wanted to do somethin’, but if I did they’d have got me
too – then there’d be nobody to tell Simon.’

‘You did the right thing.’

‘Yeah, but it didn’t make me feel good. I want to do somethin’.’

Maya held up her hand. ‘Wait, I’m thinking.’

* * *

When Helen called upstairs to say dinner was ready, a fragrant aroma of spices was in the air and, sitting at the table with Helen and Zac, Maya felt some sense of normality
returning.

The curry was delicious, but she found it hard to eat anything. Her mind was turning. She knew Simon was right – the only way to break the circle was to catch all the players – the
dealers, the smugglers, the traffickers and drivers. And so the Drug Squad, with the aid of Interpol, would gather information, set up surveillance, wait for the right moment and then strike. But
all that time, Kay and the other girls would be in danger. By the time the ring was smashed, Kay might be dead.

‘This is amazin’,’ Zac said, waving his spoon over his almost-empty plate.

Gran smiled. ‘Plenty more. You eat, I’ll keep it coming.’

Zac emptied his plate and held it up. ‘Most meals in our house come out of cardboard,’ he said.

Gran moved from the stove and plonked the casserole dish down in the middle of the table. ‘Here,’ she said turning the ladle towards Zac, ‘help yourself and there’s more
rice in the dish.’

He grinned. ‘Thanks. Won’t say no.’

Out in the hallway, the house phone chirped. ‘I’ll get it,’ Maya shouted, pushing back her chair and racing into the hall.

It was a surprise to hear Pam’s voice. ‘Maya! Thank God you’re safe. Are you all right?’

‘Yes, I’m OK, Mum, really.’

Then came the serious words Maya dreaded. Pam never shouted at her and rarely told her off, which made her warnings all the more significant. There was no use protesting – Maya knew it was
deserved.

‘My mission is crucial,’ Pam said tersely. ‘I’m involved in sensitive and delicate negotiations. I can’t abort this mission to come home and deal with you. I have
to be able to rely on you while I’m away.’

‘I’m sorry, Mum. I’m really sorry.’

Pam’s tone softened slightly. ‘What on earth were you up to? Where were you?’

An answer was tricky. Maya didn’t want to lie, but it was no use worrying Pam with all the details while she was so far away, and it was complicated to explain. ‘I was trying to help
some friends and I came into contact with a nasty gang. But I’ve handed it on to Simon and he’s dealing with it. So don’t worry.’

‘Well, Simon seemed pretty concerned. Are you sure you’re telling me everything?’

‘I’ll fill you in when you come home, but honest, I’m fine – everything’s OK. I just should have told Helen what I was up to.’

‘Yes, you should and make sure you do that from now on.’

‘Yeah, I love you, Mum, miss you.’

‘Miss you too, darling.’ Pam sniffed, and Maya knew that, as tough as her mum was, she was holding back the tears. ‘You know you always come first,’ she continued, her
voice breaking slightly, ‘but I need a few more days, then I’ll be home. Will you be all right?’

Silence crackled over thousands of miles. It would be fantastic to have Pam home, to have her help and support, but Maya knew how important her mum’s job was. It was no exaggeration to say
that world peace could depend upon her.

‘No, Mum. Please stay and finish what you have to do.’

‘All right. Be careful, Maya, understood?’

‘Understood.’

‘I love you. See you soon.’

‘Love you, Mum.’

It was a sober Maya that returned to the kitchen table. She gave Gran the news – Pam would be home soon.

‘So, why aren’t you jumping for joy?’ Helen asked, eyeing Maya suspiciously.

‘It’s great, I’m really happy Mum’s coming home, course I am.’ She looked over at Zac, who was still eating, but her food sat on her plate, largely untouched, and
now she couldn’t face another mouthful. She was flooded with sadness. ‘It just seems so unfair for me to be happy when Kay’s in deep trouble.’

Helen put a hand on Maya’s arm. ‘You can’t make the world right for everybody, Maya.’

There was a few minutes’ silence, which Zac broke by offering to wash up. Maya looked at him in surprise.

‘What?’ he exclaimed. ‘I do it all the time at home.’

‘Offer appreciated,’ Helen said, ‘but I’m going to stick it all in the dishwasher.’

For a moment Zac was floored. ‘Oh, right,’ he said. ‘I should get one of them.’

Upstairs, Maya closed the door to her room, went over to the window and gestured for Zac to follow. ‘Can you stay for a while?’

Zac nodded.

‘I want you to help me,’ she said. ‘It’s nothing dangerous, I promise, no direct action – just research. We have to find out about Stefan’s
organisation.’

She put on some music while she told Zac what she wanted to do. He listened then put his arm around her and pulled her close. ‘You are crazy,’ he said.

Half an hour later, he went downstairs and said goodbye to Helen in the kitchen, while Maya crept through the hall and out of the front door. She checked the street, but couldn’t see
anybody watching the flat – friend or foe. It was only a matter of time, though, before Simon put one of his team on watch.

Standing behind a wall opposite the squat, Maya and Zac were relieved to see there were no cars parked outside the house – the street was empty. Peering through a hole
made by crumbling bricks, they could see the house clearly; one of the upstairs windows was open, a curtain flapping in the breeze.

‘Nobody home,’ Zac said, staring at the open window.

‘Yeah, somebody would have closed that,’ Maya whispered.

‘Can’t be certain,’ Zac said softly.

‘No, they won’t come back,’ Maya whispered.

‘So, why we whispering?’ Zac replied, in a slightly louder whisper.

They smiled at each other and broke some of the tension. But watching the empty house was one thing, to enter it was another. Fresh in Maya’s mind was the terror of staring down the barrel
of Ginger’s gun. It wasn’t the first time a gun had been pointed at her, it probably wouldn’t be the last, but it was something you couldn’t get used to.

Crossing the road to the house, she had to control her thoughts and ignore the fear. Standing in front of the house, Maya experienced a moment of panic and clutched at Zac’s arm.

‘You don’t have to do this,’ Zac said.

‘I know,’ Maya said softly. ‘But actually I do. If I can discover anything that may help rescue Kay, then I have to do it. She spoke up for me and that may have saved my
life.’ In a firmer, bolder voice she added, ‘Don’t worry. The gang won’t dare come back to this place, now their cover’s blown.’

Despite her brave words, she approached the house cautiously, creeping up to the side gate, grateful to discover it open, the wire fence broken down. Continuing down the side path and round the
corner of the house, Maya reached behind her and put a steadying hand on Zac’s shoulder.

‘Listen!’

A faint tapping sound could be heard from the kitchen.

‘Stay there,’ Maya said, and she continued moving forward until she could push open the back door and peer into the kitchen.

The place had been cleaned up. A horrible smell of rotting food and grease emanated from some bags of rubbish in a corner, but the surfaces had been wiped clean. Holding her nose, Maya tiptoed
into the hall and stood, listening and waiting. There was no sound to indicate that anybody was in the building, so she pushed at the door which led into the living room. The room was empty, the
window still open from when she’d tried to make her escape. Behind her, a sudden loud creak spooked her.