Everything to Lose (3 page)

5

Southsea
,
Hampshire
,
England

Laraine McSwann lay out on the sofa in her living room, staring at the television screen, not really taking in the scenes or the dialogue. Russell Crowe was giving a powerful performance as Cal McCaffrey in the movie 'State of Play' but Laraine couldn't keep her mind on the plot.

She
wore a low neck, sleeveless beige cotton top with tapered hemline and skinny jeans. Always trying to keep her youth she looked like a teenager but didn't sound like a teenager. Well it's tricky when you get past thirty. Her two bedroom terraced house in Stansted Road was cluttered, muddled, unloved but clean in essential places. It was just after nine p.m. and the rain outside was falling in sheets. She plucked and fidgeted with the neckband of her top.

Upstairs
Laraine's six-year old daughter Jessica was supposed to be asleep but she heard a car draw up outside their house. She jumped up and ran to her window.
It's
daddy
she thought as she grabbed her pink fluffy dressing gown and threw it around her pink bird print and check pyjamas. But the two men getting out of the car were strangers. She started to turn away from the window when she saw one of the men look up at her bedroom window. She saw his face.

"Mum.
Mauumm!" Jess shouted in a voice that's every mother's nightmare.

"What?"
Laraine called back and leapt up from the sofa.

"The
men in the red car," Jess shouted from the top of the stairs.

Laraine
rushed to the front door. Pushed the lock bolt and slammed her back against the door.
Keep
calm
,
they'll
go
away
,
they
won't
stand
in
that
rain
she thought. Her breathing picked up pace, her heart raced and her hands trembled.

"Mum
call the police."

"Go
to your room. Close the door. Now!"

She
hadn't told Jess the landline phone had been disconnected. Her mobile was on the charger in her bedroom upstairs.

The
banging on the front door stopped after two minutes. She heard angry kicking of her refuge bins around the back of the house. Harder banging started on the glass panel of the back door.

She
darted to the connecting door between the hall and the kitchen. She grabbed a bath towel from the hall radiator and wedged it under the door. She didn't really expect it to keep the door closed. Panic kept her from thinking clearly.

Yordan
kicked the back door in the kitchen so hard she heard a loud crack from the frame. He was inside. His hair and jacket dripping wet onto the kitchen floor. One strong shove and he was through the connecting door into the hall. Laraine stood on the first two steps of the stair. She hesitated. Run to Jess's bedroom and barricade the door or stand and fight. Laraine squealed and tried to lash out at him as he walked past her to the front door.

Yordan
hit her with a vicious backhander to the side of her head and she collapsed onto the stairs. The second man Ivan was waiting outside in the rain. Yordan let him inside and he closed the door. Ivan shrugged the rainwater off his coat. He wiped his head with his hand and flicked the surplus water onto the floor. He removed a scarf from his neck.

Ivan
S Fillipovar was mid forties, five foot ten, bald, tanned, with thick eyebrows. He wore a dark grey collarless 'grandad' shirt, black soft leather three quarter length coat and black trousers.

Yordan
I Letchikova was two inches shorter with broad shoulders and he was in his thirties. He wore an oversized leather jacket that made his body look obese, a black shirt and dark trousers. His brown hair was close cropped and looked as though he had put oil or cream on it to make it lay flat.

Laraine
stayed down with her body lying across the first four steps of the stairs. Ivan walked past and went into her living room. Still shaking water from his coat. Yordan grabbed Laraine's hair and forced her to follow.

"Sit
down," Ivan said.

They
were the same two foreign men who turned up at Jess's school yesterday asking confusing questions in fragmented English. When she tried to get away from them they tried to drag her and Jess into their red Ford estate car. Jess's piercing scream brought the school lollipop man and two parents to their rescue.

Laraine
thought they had the wrong person because she didn't understand what they wanted. They were Eastern European and she didn't understand their truncated English. Yordan pulled Laraine into her living room and pushed her into the armchair nearest the door. He stood behind her.

Ivan
walked casually into her kitchen. He dried his hands on a kitchen towel then returned with a long kitchen knife. He handed Yordan a towel to dry his head. He stood in front of the armchair and ran the knife through the palm of his left hand. The knife-edge was blunt and barely left a mark on his palm.

She
stared at her kitchen knife. First time she had ever seen someone handle a knife in a threatening way. He stepped closer to her and she moved her feet apart while trying to keep her knees together.

He
pointed the sharp end of the knife at her chest. She moved her eyes away from the knife and focused on his hand. His fingers were puffy and his nails long and dirty.

Laraine
tried to move her body in the chair. Ivan eased the knife slowly toward her sternum. He pressed the knife into her skin just above the neckband of her top and she felt the hard cold metal. A fraction more would break her skin.

She
moved her gaze to his face, now not more than two feet from hers. His tanned face and baldhead were wet as if he was sweating but it was rainwater. The strain in her legs became unbearable. She moved her feet and knees to a more relaxed position. The knife pressed harder against her chest. Her pain intensified and terrified anguish defined her face. He knew he was hurting her. A little push further and the tip would slip into her chest.

She
agitated her hands as if she was going to grab his arm to make him stop. Yordan grabbed her head from behind. She clawed the arms of the armchair. Clamped her eyes shut expecting the knife to penetrate.

Ivan
moved the knife to her face and set the tip on her top lip under her nose. He turned the knife so it was perpendicular to her nose.

He
levered the knife upwards against her nose. She opened her eyes and their eyes met. She arched her back up in the armchair. She was frightened, sweating and panting. Her eyes glared and Ivan decided she was ready to talk. Ivan turned rapidly and threw the knife into a sideboard on the opposite side of the room. He stepped back from the armchair.

"Oliver
Mansole. Where is he?" he asked.

"I
don't know," Laraine said with surprise.

"She
lies. I kill her. I take her girl," Yordan threatened.

"You're
his woman," Ivan said.

"No
I'm not. He's my friend that's all."

"You
were with him at judo night. Where is he now?"

"No-one's
seen him since that night. I don't know where he is."

Ivan
stood at the sideboard. He looked at the knife stuck in the door. He looked at a display of photos of Laraine and her family. He turned back and showed her a silver foil blister pack containing sealed vials of amber liquid.

"He
leave more of this here?" Ivan asked.

"He
didn't leave anything here."

"Tell
truth or I ask child."

"He
didn't leave anything here. I swear on my daughter's life."

"I
find him. If he says my gear is here. I rip your house to pieces. I take your child."

He
pointed to the room upstairs where he'd seen Jess through the window. He saw the reaction on Laraine's face.

"If
I had anything, I'd give it to you."

The
two men looked at each other and decided she was too frightened to hide anything. Ivan knew it was a long shot but others said she and Oliver were involved so he had to check her out. As they sat in their car waiting for a pause in traffic, Yordan reverted to his native Bulgarian tongue.

"
Her girl is perfect."

"Do
you mean replacement for Galina?"

"She's
a strong girl, good age."

"Maybe."

"I want to take her now."

"Not
now Yordan, wait. We have to find this pig Oliver Mansole before we can deal with our own business. You tell Margarita you have found her a new daughter. She will have her soon."

Yordan's
ten-year-old niece Galina disappeared as she walked home from school along the outskirts of Yuzhen Park, south of Sofia, six weeks ago. His sister Margarita was relentlessly melancholic over the gap in her family.

Galina
was snatched by a children traffic gang and started her new life as a street beggar in Amsterdam. Yordan decided that Jess would fill the gap left by Galina. Jess wouldn't work the streets begging but she would work long hard hours in the house as second slave to Margarita's large, ungracious and violent family.

In
Yordan's circle the fundamental law, an eye for an eye, means; if someone steals your child, you steal someone else's child. Two hundred and fifty thousand children disappear in Europe every year. Around five percent are abducted by strangers.

Jess
and Laraine sat at the top of the stairs cuddling each other.
Why
is
the
world
shitting
on
me
? Laraine screamed in her thoughts.

"Mummy
I'm scared."

"Shush
darling they've gone."

"What
did they want?"

"I
don't know darling."

"I
want daddy. When is daddy coming back?"

"I
don't know sweetheart," Laraine said and her voice quivered.

"If
I promise to be really good. Will daddy come back?"

"He
knows we love him. He just needs time to think about things."

"He
doesn't need to think. I'll be a good girl, tell him, please, I'll be good," Jess said and she got up and ran to her room in a flood of tears.

"It's
not your fault sweetheart," Laraine called after Jess.

"It's
not your fault," she repeated quietly.

Jess
lay on her bed, hugging her pillow, sobbing painfully. She missed her dad. Laraine stared through the front door at the bottom of the stairs. She felt a near death moment with everything seeming to flash past.

She
remembered her wedding day so happy and wonderful. The proud day her husband Bob came back to tell her about his new job as a personal trainer. The special day her child Jessica was born. That day was wonderful and everyone was so happy and relieved that Jess was born healthy.

They
were comfortable and the house was proud in those days. Bob was happy in his job. Money was good. Love was strong for them both. Seven wonderful years then without warning it started to change when Jess was almost four. Life just turned upside down.

His
parents seemed to know what was happening to Jess. At first they offered understanding and advice on specialist treatment. Then they insisted. Bob supported Laraine when she refused the treatment they suggested. Then his parents demanded, as if they knew best, as if they had the right to make a decision for Jess.

That's
when the thundering arguments started. His parents forced him into an impossible choice; them or her. He was torn between his wife and his parents over what was best for Jess. Her in-laws became outlaws. In fact she grew to hate them.

She
felt betrayed and abandoned. It was nine months since Bob left her. Nine long months without one word from him. Nine painful months without his salary to pay the bills. She had no idea where he was or what happened to him.

He
left her on her own to look after Jess; to face his parents who blamed her for his disappearance. He left her to run a home and put food on the table with no income. He left her alone to cope with Jess's curse. He left her a bank mortgage, credit card debt and a car loan to deal with. Eviction and all the ensuing pain were around the corner and making their way straight to her door.