A Dark and Twisted Tide (30 page)

‘You didn’t look where you were going?’

Nadia was shaking her head. ‘No. I must have seen a few things, but when it was over I tried so hard to forget it all.’

‘I understand, really I do. But anything you do remember, anything at all, will be very useful to us.’

‘There was something else. Something I never really understood.’

‘What was that?’

‘There was a woman. She was outside, I think. I heard her through the window.’

‘A woman doing what?’

‘Singing,’ said Nadia. ‘She used to sing to us.’

67

Dana

‘
BIG HOUSE IN
Blackheath, Ma’am.’ Barrett had just got back from tailing Nadia Safi to the place where she lived. ‘In its own grounds with remote-controlled access gates.’

‘OK, these are the options,’ said Dana. ‘We can bring Nadia in, make her our responsibility, but if there’s nothing more she can tell us about the people who brought her here or where she was kept, we could be putting her or her family at risk for no good reason. We can also bring in her current employers, see if we can find out who’s supplying their illegal staff, but again we risk putting the gang on full alert and not necessarily gaining much. Or we keep Nadia as a contact. She’s given Lacey her number now, so at least we can get in touch if we need to.’

‘I honestly think she’s told us all she can for now,’ said Lacey.

‘Exactly,’ said Dana. ‘For now. She may see one of the gang at the house. Something else could come up. I’d also really like her to give you a hair sample, Lacey.’

‘A hair sample?’

‘Yes. I want to find out what medication she was given while she was in the riverside house. Has anyone here ever heard a real doctor talk about English germs?’

Silence while everyone thought about that.

‘They could just have been trying to use language a new immigrant could understand,’ said Mizon.

‘Possibly,’ admitted Dana. ‘But who were these doctors and nurses? Nobody pays house calls these days unless the patient’s practically at death’s door. And how come they weren’t asking questions about these young women under house arrest?’

‘Not real doctors?’ said Lacey.

‘They could have been anyone, giving her anything,’ said Dana. ‘All the other girls in the house as well. Lacey, can you ask her for a hair sample? She can pop it in the post to us if she’s worried about meeting you again.’

Lacey nodded, as Dana glanced at her phone. ‘That was uniform,’ she said. ‘The search of Deptford Creek and its surrounds begins at dawn tomorrow. If anyone’s hiding out near the creek, we’ll find them.’

68

Lacey

BY SIX IN
the evening, the sun had lost much of its strength, but the ground seemed to be radiating back the heat it had absorbed during the day. Even Ray and Eileen’s boat, with the benefit of the creek’s breezes, had been unbearably hot and it had been a huge relief to get off her bike and step inside the green shade of the Sayes Court garden.

The circular wrought-iron table she’d been shown to was on a raised deck to one side of the house. The surrounding buildings blocked the view of the river, but Lacey could see the treetops in the orchard across the creek. Tiny apples, pears and plums, as fresh and green as the miniature grapes on the vine growing overhead.

‘Are you ready to tell us what’s troubling you?’ Thessa gave Lacey that odd, sideways glance she liked to use a second after she’d thrown a difficult question her way like a hand grenade.

‘Tell her to mind her own business.’ Alex, approaching from the house, was carrying a large tray. ‘You never know, it might work for you.’

‘I imagine when you work in the medical profession other people’s business inevitably becomes your own.’ Lacey smiled at Thessa. ‘It’s similar in the police. And then in social situations, it becomes a little difficult to switch off.’

‘If that’s your best attempt at a polite ticking-off it’s not going to work.’ Alex put the tray down on the table. ‘She’s far too brazen to be warned off by subtleties. Help yourself. All cold, I’m afraid. We’ve both been working all day, but the bread is very fresh and that Brie looks like it’s about to run off the plate.’

‘It looks great,’ said Lacey. ‘It really was very kind of you to ask me over. And what’s this we’re drinking?’

There was an unopened bottle of Chablis on the table, condensation running down it like raindrops on a window, but Thessa had mixed another of her cordials and, given the heat of the evening, they’d started with that.

‘Blackberry,’ said Thessa. ‘With a few drops of truth serum.’

‘Do tuck in, Lacey.’ Alex passed her a plate. ‘And just ignore her. Although I have to confess to being rather curious about the incident at Deptford Creek today.’

‘You saw it on the news?’

‘Thessa was out in that paddle-boat of hers and saw the police on the river. I’m surprised one of you didn’t run her under. She called me and I kept an eye on the local news for the rest of the day.’

‘Then you’ll know we found a body,’ said Lacey. ‘Not the first of its kind. There was another just over a week ago, one that I found when I was out swimming.’

‘You swim?’ Alex looked genuinely shocked. ‘In the Thames?’

‘I did,’ admitted Lacey. ‘Haven’t since then. I’m thinking of giving it up completely.’

‘Yes, please do. No one should be swimming in that river. That’s probably what happened to the two poor souls you and your colleagues found.’

If only. Lacey leaned forward and added bread, cheese and cold chicken to her plate. As she settled back, she caught Thessa glaring.

‘What?’

Thessa’s eyes went pointedly to the mixed salad in a carved wooden bowl.

‘Silly me.’ Lacey leaned forward again. ‘This is a work of art, Thessa.’ The salad was sprinkled with flowers, tiny cherry tomatoes and small, jewel-like fruits and berries. ‘Looks too good to eat.’

‘Nevertheless.’ Thessa watched, lips pursed, until Lacey had
loaded up her plate and begun the process of putting leaves in her mouth.

‘You’d make a good mum.’ Lacey was wondering how much of the green stuff she had to force down before she could spread that rich, runny cheese over bread that looked as though it had been baked with walnuts. ‘Of course, you could be already. I shouldn’t assume.’

Silence fell like a shower of summer rain. The breeze from the river seemed to have changed direction. She couldn’t hear the usual river sounds of traffic and water fowl. Instead there was a soft, almost musical sound, like water flowing.

‘Can I hear a fountain?’ she asked, when the silence became uncomfortable.

‘Yes, it’s coming from Thessa’s Koi pond at the front,’ said Alex. ‘There’s quite a collection in there. And to answer your question, neither of us have children.’

Lacey kept the smile steady on her face.

‘I married very briefly, not long after we arrived in the country,’ he continued. ‘It didn’t last long and I wasn’t inclined to try again.’

‘There’s a bond, you see, between twins,’ said Thessa. ‘Especially identical ones. A closeness that I imagine anyone would find it difficult to break into. Alex’s wife always felt like the odd one out, I think.’

It was on the tip of Lacey’s tongue to ask whether they’d all three lived together in this house and, if they had, which of them really – honestly – had thought it would be a good idea.

‘But you can’t be identical,’ she said. ‘Identical twins have to be of the same sex.’

‘Of course they do. I think my sister was just making a general remark. What about your family, Lacey? Where are they?’

This was why she didn’t have friends. Friends asked questions to which there were no easy answers. Lacey stole a glance at Thessa, who was intent on the contents of her glass, but whose ears were practically flapping.

‘I don’t really have any family,’ she said.

Thessa looked up. ‘Everyone has a family. Even us, although the chances of our ever laying eyes on any of them again are pretty slim.’

‘I was taken into care when I was quite young. When I grew up,
I lost touch with my foster family and I have no idea about my real one. There’s just me, I’m afraid.’

‘Until you marry and have a family of your own,’ said Alex. ‘Which can’t be very far away, I’d imagine.’

‘Yes, how is that young man of yours?’ said Thessa. ‘Behaving himself any better, is he?’

Lacey smiled patiently.

‘Oh, you’ll tell us everything in time. They always do.’

‘They?’

‘My sister has pet projects,’ said Alex. ‘Patients, usually. She won’t rest until she’s worn them down physically and spiritually with her combination of pills, cordials and relentless intrusion into their private lives.’

‘I consider myself warned,’ said Lacey. ‘But the young man in question works away a lot. He’s away at the moment and I’ve been rather surprised by how much I’m missing him.’

‘He’ll be back,’ said Alex. ‘Unless he’s a complete buffoon.’

Lacey smiled. Alex had fallen into the habit of paying her gentle compliments over the past couple of weeks. Normally, compliments from men meant a sexual interest that she was always very careful to guard against, but she never had that feeling from Alex. His compliments were always respectful. They were almost paternal – yes, that was the only word for it. It was something new in her experience, the unquestioning, unconditional approval of an older man.

‘That’s not all, though, is it?’ said Thessa. ‘The sadness in you goes so much deeper than just missing your man.’

Lacey glanced at Alex, wondering if he were going to jump in again, but he was unusually silent.

‘I was a detective,’ said Lacey, ‘up until a couple of months ago. It was all I’d wanted to be since I was young. But this time last summer I got involved in a very difficult case. I ended up right in the thick of it. After that, I was sent away on a job. It was supposed to be just routine surveillance, but it turned out to be anything but. I nearly died.’

She looked from Thessa to her brother. Two sets of large, dark-blue eyes were unwavering. They were good listeners, these two. Too good.

‘I came back to London on the verge of leaving the police for good,’ she said. ‘I was a wreck. And the last thing I needed was another bad case, so of course that’s exactly what I got.’

‘You weren’t involved in the South Bank murders, were you?’ said Alex. Lacey nodded. ‘Dear me. They were particularly distressing.’

‘I’ll say,’ agreed Lacey. ‘So I gave up my career as a detective and went back into uniform. I just want to patrol, uphold law and order on the river, help keep London safe. I know that sounds a bit cheesy, but it’s all I can manage right now.’

‘So what went wrong?’ asked Alex.

‘I found that body. A week ago. And, as luck would have it, it wasn’t a suicide or an accident. It was something much worse. Then, this morning, another one popped up, practically on my doorstep.’

‘But you can’t be involved, surely?’ said Thessa. ‘CID or Special Branch or the Flying Squad will handle it now?’

‘No prizes for guessing who gets her knowledge of police operations from the television,’ said Alex.

‘The Major Investigation Team at Lewisham are dealing with it,’ Lacey explained. ‘But they have co-opted me back on the team because, like it or not, I seem to be involved.’

‘And that’s a problem in itself?’ said Alex.

Lacey nodded. ‘I can’t be involved and I can’t not be. How screwed up is that? Sorry to be so self-indulgent, it’s really not like me.’ She looked pointedly at the jug of cordial. ‘You weren’t kidding about the truth serum, were you?’

‘You’re a lot stronger than you think you are,’ said Thessa, without hesitation. ‘Midsummer babies always are.’

‘I was born in December,’ said Lacey. ‘I’m sure we’ve had this conversation.’

‘Whatever. The important thing is, you’re not on your own. Not any more, anyway. You’re quite right, you know. I would make a very good mum.’

‘Sometimes my sister is beyond ludicrous.’ Alex was shaking his head. Then he stopped, reached over and gave Lacey’s hand a quick, almost furtive pat. ‘And sometimes her instincts are absolutely spot on.’

69

Dana

‘
SO HOW DID
it go?’

Dana looked up. In the reflection of the bedroom window she and Helen made eye contact. Suddenly stiflingly hot, Dana reached out and pulled the sash window open. The effort made her robe loosen. She waited for the breeze to cool her skin. It didn’t come. Outside the air was still and heavy.

‘I lay on my back in a small cubicle with my knees in stirrups and a nurse syringed the sperm of a complete stranger into my uterus,’ she replied. ‘If I think about it too carefully, I feel the start of physical revulsion.’

The frown line between Helen’s brows had deepened. Even feet away, reflected in the glass, Dana could see it, like a short, vertical scar on her partner’s face. ‘Did it hurt?’

‘A bit. Not as much as childbirth, I imagine.’

Helen was moving closer, but slowly, as though nervous of approaching too fast or too suddenly. It was unlike her, this sudden uncertainty. ‘I guess a big case will help take your mind off things over the next couple of weeks.’

Outside, Dana could see a small brown bird on the lilac tree in the next garden. It started singing, a shrill, sweet sound of summer. Funny, that against the background of one of the biggest, busiest
cities on earth, against cars revving, horns sounding, people shouting, this tiny bird was the clearest thing she could hear.

‘Except I can’t help thinking this case is about pregnancy,’ she said. ‘Lacey and the others suspect some twisted branch of the sex trade, but I’m less sure.’

‘No trace of that hormone, whatever it was, in the woman you found this morning,’ Helen reminded her.

The bird was a song thrush. Smaller than a blackbird, with creamy yellow breast feathers, speckled with grey. It seemed to be singing directly at her now.

Helen’s eyes dropped to the spot just below Dana’s waist where the edges of her robe touched. ‘Want me to bring a drink up?’