No Going Back (27 page)

Daniel took a seat opposite the two officers at the table, but Kat remained standing, drifting across to lean against the Aga.

‘Hello, Katya,' WPS Hunt said with a smile, but her friendly overture was met with stony silence and a look of profound distrust.

‘So why didn't you leave after Daniel warned you the men were on their way?' the WPS said then, turning to Hilary.

‘Because when Daniel first called, I'd just got back from a ride. I had a yard full of children, parents and ponies. It's a kind of organized chaos. I couldn't just abandon everyone. It shouldn't have taken more than ten minutes to sort out, and I thought that while everyone was here, I was safe enough. I planned to leave right behind the last client, so I sent Kat over here to fetch the Land Rover, the dogs and a few essentials, but then everything went wrong.'

‘In what way?'

‘One of the children got bitten by a pony,' Hilary said, handing the coffees round. ‘It was only a bruise – didn't break the skin and he'd probably asked for it – but you'd have thought he was a hospital case, the howling he set up. So of course I had to administer first aid, fill out an accident form, comfort the child, reassure the parents, give them a refund – it all took for ever. When they went, I looked up and there were Patrescu and Macek standing in the doorway, waiting.'

‘You recognized them?'

‘No, I've never seen them before, but I guessed who they must be.'

‘So what happened next?'

‘Well, I was petrified. Then the smaller one said, “Where is Katya?”'

‘And what did you tell them?'

‘I told them I had no idea. I said she'd come and gone days ago. I said dozens of children help out at the weekends. I never know who's going to turn up, but Kat only came a few times and then I didn't see her again. Then they started having an argument – presumably in Romanian. I didn't understand a word, but it was pretty clear that the big one, Macek, favoured a violent approach.

‘I didn't hang around to see what the outcome was. There's a door from my tack room through to the stable area, so while they were busy arguing, I slipped away and hid in one of the stables. I know it was a stupid thing to do because nothing could more surely prove that I'd lied, but it was just instinct, I suppose, to go to ground.'

‘And what did the men do then?'

‘They started shouting, saying I should come out because they would find me eventually, and when they did, it would be worse for me. I was terrified – I mean really shaking. They seemed to be here for ages. I could hear them moving about the yard and house, opening doors and slamming them, throwing things around and calling to one another. Eventually, they started looking in the stables, one by one. I heard them coming up the row and was convinced they'd find me, but Drummer came up trumps, bless him.'

‘Drummer?' Boyd looked mystified.

‘He's one of the ponies. Actually, he was the one who bit the child earlier. He's a smashing pony to ride, but a bit bad-tempered, and once his stable door is shut, he'll bite anyone who comes too close – except me, of course. That's why I chose to hide in there.'

‘And it worked?' Hunt looked at her appraisingly.

Hilary nodded. ‘I don't know whether he bit one of them, but there was an awful lot of swearing – that sounds the same in any language – and they argued some more. Then a minute or two later, they left. I didn't come out straight away, though, just in case.'

‘And what about you?' Hunt asked Daniel. ‘Bowden said he thought we might find you here.'

‘I parked in the village and came up to do a recce,' he replied, and briefly gave them his side of the story. ‘So when does the raid go down?' he finished.

‘Nineteen— Er, seven thirty,' Boyd said. ‘We wanted to be as sure as we could that everyone would be at home.'

‘What raid?' It was the first time Kat had spoken.

‘The police are going to Moorside tonight,' Daniel told her. ‘With any luck Macek and Patrescu will soon be in police cells and the girls will be free.'

Hope lit her face and she stepped forward. ‘Elena too?'

‘Most certainly,' he assured her.

‘What will happen to her – to us? Will they let me see her?'

‘Of course you'll see her,' Hunt said. ‘We're on your side, Kat. You won't be in any trouble. We'll look after you, I promise.'

‘But when can I see her? Can we go there now?'

‘No, I'm sorry.' Hunt shook her head. ‘We have to wait here. If we went, we'd be in the way. But they'll let us know as soon as there's any news.'

As the evening wore on, Hilary put potatoes in the Aga to bake, then went out to feed the ponies with Boyd as escort.

Seven thirty came and went. The potatoes were eaten with cheese and pickle, and a large pot of tea made. Conversation was desultory, everyone waiting on tenterhooks for the call to come through from Bowden.

At nine o'clock, Hunt and Boyd excused themselves and went outside.

Kat, who'd been pacing restlessly and demanding to know, every five minutes or so, why they hadn't heard anything, now stopped and wanted to know what they were doing.

Daniel had no answer for her, and after a moment, Kat announced that she was going to find out and, ignoring Hilary's protests, headed for the door.

‘Let her go,' Daniel advised. ‘They'll keep an eye on her.'

‘I suppose so.' Hilary sank back into her chair. ‘Have you spoken to Tamzin?'

‘Yes, I rang her earlier. They're keeping her in hospital overnight. Her mum's with her, but she sounded a bit depressed.' He paused, staring deep into the orange heart of the fire. ‘I feel so guilty, dragging you all into this.'

‘We've had this conversation before,' Hilary pointed out quietly but firmly. ‘You didn't drag any of us into it – we wanted to help.'

‘But you should have seen her face, Hilary – what he'd done to her.' He stared into the fire again, gazing mesmerized as sparks showered from a collapsing log and were sucked away up the flue. ‘He threatened to cut her, you know. What if he'd done it? If she'd been scarred for life, what then?'

‘It didn't happen,' Hilary reminded him gently.

‘But it did happen,' Daniel stated. ‘Last year. And it was all my fault. The thing was, on the surface, she seemed to be dealing with it, but her mother told me afterwards that she'd stopped seeing her friends – didn't go out. She said she just needed time, but then one day she took an overdose. Nobody saw it coming – not even her therapist. Her parents only went out for an hour or so, but that's what she'd been waiting for. She was dead when they got back.'

He fell silent, and after a few moments, Hilary asked, ‘Who was she, Daniel?'

He took a deep breath. ‘Her name was Sara. She was eighteen, very pretty and very bright. She'd just won a place at Oxford. She'd got everything going for her. The only thing she ever did wrong was go into the corner shop at the same time as me.'

‘What happened?'

Daniel glanced at her. ‘You don't need to hear this.'

‘No, I don't, but I think you need to tell me. What happened in the corner shop? Was it a hold-up?'

Daniel nodded. ‘A smack-head desperate for a fix and so thin it looked as though a puff of wind would have blown him over, but he had a knife. I'd just finished my shift and was heading back to the station, and I nipped in there for some milk. As soon as he saw my uniform, he panicked and grabbed the nearest person to him, who happened to be Sara. He held the knife to her face and started shouting at me to stay back.' Daniel frowned, reliving the moment, as he had so many times since. ‘Sara screamed and started to cry. The junkie was babbling like a madman. Other people were panicking. There was so much noise that I took a chance on calling for back-up over my radio. Then the junkie started to back towards the door, dragging the girl with him. One moment the knife would be at her throat, the next he'd be waving it at everyone else. She was crying and mouthing, “Help me! Please! Help me!” over and over again, and she was looking at me. Everyone was. I was the one in the uniform – I would know what to do.'

Daniel shook his head. ‘I tried to talk him down. If nothing else, I thought it might buy me some time until back-up arrived. It was tempting to try for the knife when he was waving it around, but I couldn't risk getting it wrong, for the girl's sake. I followed him to the door, but he was shouting at me, “Stay back! I'll cut her! I'll cut her!” All I could do was let him go and just hope that the other lads had turned up and were waiting outside . . .' He paused, his jaw tightening. ‘Through the window I saw him run off – just him, on his own – getting away. So I ran out after him. But then I found Sara.

‘She was sitting on the pavement, her hands over her face. I asked her if she was OK, but then I saw the blood.' He looked up at Hilary, his expression bleak. ‘The bastard had slashed her from forehead to top lip, right across her eye. For no reason, just because he hadn't got his own way.'

‘Oh, Daniel!'

‘I tried to comfort her while we waited for the ambulance, but she pushed me away. Do you know what she said?'

Hilary shook her head.

‘She said, “Why didn't you
help
me?” And every time I see her face, that's what she's saying – and I have no answer.'

There was silence as he stopped speaking, broken only by a log settling in the wood-burner.

‘But it wasn't your fault,' Hilary protested. ‘What else could you have done? And where was your back-up?'

Daniel shrugged. ‘Who knows? This was after I turned informer, remember. I wasn't the most popular copper at the Met just then . . .'

‘You mean they didn't turn up on purpose?'

He shrugged again. ‘I've got no proof.'

‘But that's appalling! It's criminal! Wasn't there an investigation?'

‘Of sorts, but it didn't turn up anything conclusive. And even if it had, the damage was done. It wouldn't have helped Sara or her family.'

This sombre reflection was punctuated by the return of Hunt and Boyd. They entered the room ushering Katya ahead of them, and on their heels came the burly form of Tom Bowden. He was looking grim.

‘Where is she? Where's my sister?' Katya turned and faced Tom.

‘She's not here. I'm sorry, Katya . . .'

‘Then where is she? They said she would be free.' Kat's voice held a note of hysteria and Hilary went over to put a restraining hand on her arm.

‘I'm sorry, Katya,' Bowden said. ‘We had the place surrounded, but I'm afraid when we went in, your sister wasn't there.'

THIRTEEN

I
t was two days after the night of the raid on Moorside when life started to get back to something approaching normality for Daniel. Whether it would ever get back to normal for Katya was another matter entirely.

She had been inconsolable that night. To begin with, she had stormed at Tom Bowden and then she had collapsed into Hilary's arms and sobbed with an intensity that was compounded of all the fear, stress and disappointment of the past few weeks.

Demonstrating remarkable powers of persuasion, Hilary had taken the girl upstairs, returning after three-quarters of an hour with the news that Katya had at last fallen asleep, exhausted.

From Bowden, Daniel had heard how the raid, meticulously planned and carried out, had caught Yousef Patrescu in the process of loading a minibus with a quantity of files, film-making and computer equipment. Overwhelmed by the sheer number of police he faced, he'd given himself up without a struggle, and inside the house, officers had found upwards of two dozen young Romanian women and girls locked in their rooms, bewildered and frightened at the turn of events. However, Elena Pavlenco and the young girl known as Molly were not among them, and neither, frustratingly, was Anghel Macek.

‘We had a man watching the front gates and he saw both Patrescu and Macek come back in the Nissan after you saw them at Briars Hill,' Tom reported. ‘But something must have put the wind up them because it appears that while Patrescu stopped behind to put their affairs in order – by way of a little bonfire in the grounds – Macek picked up the two girls, cut the fence at the rear of the property with a pair of bolt-cutters and drove off down the track that runs along the edge of the moor. He was long gone by the time we went in. It's all a bit of a mess, and with much of the evidence destroyed or carried off by Macek, it would have been a complete disaster if we hadn't been in time to collar Patrescu.'

With Macek still on the loose, it was not deemed safe for Kat to stay with Hilary, and in the morning, a social worker had arrived at Briars Hill. In due course, with much reassurance from Daniel and Hilary, Kat and the social worker had been driven away in one of the police vehicles. Sitting in the back seat of the car, she looked lost and suddenly a good deal younger than her fifteen years.

For his part, unenthusiastic about the idea of returning to the flat for the same reason, Daniel had gratefully accepted the Bowdens' continuing offer of hospitality. The flat had had limited appeal at the outset, and now, as he helped himself to toast and marmalade at the Bowdens' breakfast table, with the low winter sun slanting through the Victorian bay window, the thought of moving back to the gloomy and frequently chilly room above the former lawnmower showroom was a depressing one.

At the head of the table, Fred was sitting sideways with his legs crossed at the knee, reading the morning paper, while Meg was in the kitchen, making a fresh pot of coffee. Left alone with his thoughts, Daniel found himself wondering where Macek had taken the girls. Presumably the plan had been for him to meet up with Patrescu at some prearranged rendezvous, but when that hadn't happened, what would he have done? Were the two men freelance, so to speak, or part of a larger network?