Peter Lovesey - Skeleton Hill

‘I’ve never known him to fire it. We’ve both been under a lot of pressure.’

‘Since he took over from Sergey?’

Her eyes widened at how much he knew. She gave a nod.

He judged that she was as ready to co-operate at this moment as she ever would be. ‘I expect Keith asked you about the Ukrainian woman we found buried in Bath?’

She gave a nervous, angry sigh, registering that she’d been manoeuvred into this. ‘He thought I might know her.’

‘From so far back?’

‘I was around then. I can tell you what I told him, if you’ll leave me alone. We talked about two girls I remember who were trafficked a couple of years after independence.’

‘Which was when?’

‘Independence was 1991. This must have been 1993.’

‘What age would they have been?’

‘Late teens. No older.’

‘Did they work for you?’

‘For me?’ She shook her head. ‘I was nobody then, just a prossie. We were all trapped in the game, but we knew each other and there was a kind of team thing. I mentioned these two because they got away. It was a scary time. High summer, which is always the worst. The mob were at war for control of this part of London. Pimps were murdered and at least one girl was shot. These two seized their chance and fled. One of them got back to the Ukraine and years later I had a card from her. I don’t know how she got my address.’

‘News can travel both ways. You’re well known, I gather. And so is your address.’

‘Maybe. This girl Tatiana was asking if I knew what happened to Nadia, the other one who escaped. They split up because Nadia didn’t want to return to the Ukraine. She had no family to go back to. She’d been raised in an orphanage and left at fifteen and immediately was forced into sex work. That’s not unusual. The traffickers take the good-looking girls straight from the orphanages. They leave with just the clothes they’re wearing.’

‘Did you know Nadia personally?’

‘Not well. By sight, I would say. After they made a run for it, her plan was to get out of London. She took a train from Paddington. That’s the last anyone saw of her.’

‘Paddington? She headed west. She could have made it to Bath or Bristol. Would they have followed her there and killed her?’

‘The mob? I doubt it. They were too busy with their battles here.’

‘Later, then?’

She shook her head. ‘She wasn’t worth the trouble. Girls are just goods, like fruit machines. They get replaced.’

Callous words. He could see that in her terms they were accurate. ‘You say you knew her by sight. Can you describe her for me?’

‘About my height – average. Blue eyes widely spaced. Straight nose. Even teeth. Good legs, very good.’

He thought of the femur he’d held in his hand.

‘Hair colour?’

She smiled faintly. ‘We all changed our hair often, to reinvent ourselves. It made us feel better. She could have been any colour. It was straight and long. I know she was an orphan but I always thought she was from Cossack stock. She liked watching the racing on TV, not to bet, just to see the horses. They adore their horses, the Cossacks. And she was confident, believed in herself. If she didn’t survive, I’m surprised.’

‘Do you know her surname?’

‘I didn’t at the time. In the trade we use first names and some of them are false, but Tatiana mentioned it in her card. She was Nadia Berezan.’

‘Thanks.’ He made a note.

Nadia Berezan, call girl.

She was still a long shot, but she was Ukrainian and she’d travelled to the West Country at about the right time. And from what he had learned about her origins, no one would have reported her as a missing person.

Forced this time to do his own driving, he headed out of London in the slow lane of the M4 at a rate that required everyone else to overtake, even old ladies in rusty Minis. For much of the journey he was reflecting on the shooting of Keith, questioning his own motive in sending him to deal with Vikki whilst taking Andriy for himself. He’d let Keith talk him out of his first intention, which was to go to Marchant Road. He couldn’t even argue that it had been about dividing forces according to risk. The decision had been taken on nothing more serious than Keith’s offer to cope with another house visit, another chorni khlib and kvas welcome. Up to then, Vikki had seemed the softer option and, being the guv’nor, he would have taken it as his right – in which case, his conscience would still have plagued him. Face it, Peter Diamond, he thought, either way, you’re a selfish bastard.

As another exit sign came up, he forced his thoughts to the challenges still to come, primarily his next skirmish with Georgina. She was certain to hold him responsible for the shooting of Keith and she might well think an enquiry was required. Diversionary tactics were called for.

At Membury services he stopped to fill up and let the team know he was returning. Ingeborg took the call. She ought to have been impressed that he was using the mobile. It merited at least a ‘cool’. But no, she was completely focused on Keith.

‘He’s still in the world of the living,’ he told her and then the demon inside made him say, ‘I saw him this morning, happy as a pig in shit.’

‘No kidding?’

‘We’ll have to drag him out of there if you want to see him again. The nurses are real babes.’

‘Swell,’ she said flatly, her concern for Halliwell on the wane. ‘Last night you sounded seriously worried.’

‘Tired, I expect. The good news is that we have a name to work with.’ He told her about Nadia Berezan. ‘Do what you can on that miraculous computer of yours to see if there was ever a woman of that name in Bath or Bristol.’

‘Wouldn’t she have changed her name?’ Ingeborg said. ‘I would, if I was on the run from the mob.’

‘Not so simple as you think, Inge. She’d need proof of identity if she was applying for benefits, as she’d surely need to. A false passport is expensive and takes time to acquire, even if you know where to go for one.’

‘I guess.’

‘We have to work with what we’ve got. Or rather you have to work with what I’ve got.’

‘Can’t argue with that, boss.’

‘How’s it going in the incident room? The Bristol boys behaving themselves?’

‘They’re trying to reconstruct Rupert’s last few days on Lansdown, looking for more witnesses.’

‘It sounds the way to go. And you? Have you successfully infiltrated the Sealed Knot?’

‘I don’t know about that, guv. I’ve started my basic training as a foot soldier. So far it’s as exciting as the girl guides. Learning the rules and how to carry a pike. Lesson Three is tonight. We’ve been promised some swordplay.’

‘Where do you meet? I’m tempted to sneak in and have a peek.’ ‘I’m not telling.’

‘I must get on the road again. By the way,’ he threw in casually, ‘is Georgina on the premises?’

‘She was here at the crack of dawn this morning, extremely uptight about Keith. She said she was going to phone the hospital. She thought it best if all of us didn’t pester them with calls.’

‘Sensible.’

‘She’ll be over the moon to hear he’s recovering so well. I’ll tell her as soon as I’m off the phone.’

‘I’d rather you didn’t.’

There was a pause. He could almost hear her trying to work it out. ‘Don’t you want her to know?’

‘Keep her guessing a bit longer. Sympathy sits better with Georgina than good news.’

He resumed his sedate drive and eventually left the motorway at Junction 18, south on the A46, the busy route over the rump of the Cotswolds and down into Bath. Only he wasn’t ready for the city. After Dyrham Park he detoured right, onto a road known as Gorse Lane that links to Lansdown. All the intensity of London and the Ukrainians had left him needing to reacquaint himself with the source of the mystery.