Read Online Behind Closed Doors by Elizabeth Haynes - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Elizabeth Haynes
Ads: Link
that would mean we could get her some help while she needs it. She’ll need to co-operate, though – and there’s some discussion about whether it’s possible to be trafficked back into your own country.’
‘What about her family?’
‘Apparently they’re on their way back from Spain.’
‘Apparently?’
‘I’m not convinced. The last we heard this morning, they’ve managed to get the travel company to subsidise them on a charter flight home tomorrow. I believe they had been planning to stay out there and finish the holiday, though, when it looked as if they were going to have to pay for new tickets to come back early.’
Lou let this information sink in. Their daughter had been missing, presumed by everyone to have been murdered and disposed of. No trace of her for ten years. And now she had been found, and this wasn’t important enough to bring them home from holiday?
‘Then they must have heard from her,’ she said.
‘That’s what we thought, but Clive denied it over the phone.’ There was no way anyone’s budget was going to stretch to a flight out to Spain, so all discussions with the family had been conducted by telephone.
‘That’s insane. Where do they think she’s been? You’d think they’d be rushing back.’
‘I think it’s all to do with the other daughter, Juliette. She’s got some sort of mental health problem by all accounts; they take her on holiday every year and she gets upset with routines being disrupted.’
Lou drank her Coke from the can. It was icy cold and made her shiver, but the sugar was beginning to give her a buzz. Thoughts and questions were bombarding her from every angle. Memories of Juliette – she’d been thirteen when Scarlett vanished. Lou had met her, and even then she’d thought her odd. But back then – inexperienced, as much as she hated to admit it – she’d put it down to her being a teenager, and deeply traumatised by her sister’s disappearance. ‘She did attempt suicide a couple of months after they got back from Greece,’ she said, remembering. ‘Paracetamol, I think. After that they tried to keep her away from all the drama.’
‘The boss is totally focused on the trafficking stuff, you know. He isn’t bothered about the family, since they’re not to blame for her going missing, for her being trafficked. He’s torn between wanting to get shot of her before the press gets involved, and waiting to hear what she’s got to say.’
Of course: there had been that mention of Nigel Maitland. To all outward appearances a respectable farm owner, Maitland had apparent connections to organised crime. He’d never been convicted of anything, but his name kept coming up in intelligence reports – and, after a young woman, Polly Leuchars, had been murdered on his property last year, Nigel’s business, along with that of his daughter, Flora, had been closely scrutinised. Lou knew as well as any of her colleagues that Nigel Maitland was up to something. The trouble was proving it.
‘What’s the connection with Maitland and the McDonnells?’
‘There’s historic intel suggesting that Maitland is the transport man for the McDonnells’ trafficking operation.’
‘Oh,’ Lou said, disappointed. She had seen the same intelligence. And, last year, boxes containing stolen passports had been found in the back of Flora Maitland’s car. The lack of forensic evidence, coupled with Flora’s steadfast claims that she had merely found the boxes littering the side of the road and had been planning to take them to the nearest police station, meant there was nothing to connect any of it to her father. In turn, there was not enough to pursue a prosecution. Yet.
‘Is that it?’ Lou asked.
‘There was a suggestion that some of the trafficked women had been put to work in Lewis McDonnell’s brothel in Carisbrooke Court.’
‘And Scarlett was working as a prostitute there?’
Caro shrugged. ‘Hard to say. She was on the premises, but the way
‘What about her family?’
‘Apparently they’re on their way back from Spain.’
‘Apparently?’
‘I’m not convinced. The last we heard this morning, they’ve managed to get the travel company to subsidise them on a charter flight home tomorrow. I believe they had been planning to stay out there and finish the holiday, though, when it looked as if they were going to have to pay for new tickets to come back early.’
Lou let this information sink in. Their daughter had been missing, presumed by everyone to have been murdered and disposed of. No trace of her for ten years. And now she had been found, and this wasn’t important enough to bring them home from holiday?
‘Then they must have heard from her,’ she said.
‘That’s what we thought, but Clive denied it over the phone.’ There was no way anyone’s budget was going to stretch to a flight out to Spain, so all discussions with the family had been conducted by telephone.
‘That’s insane. Where do they think she’s been? You’d think they’d be rushing back.’
‘I think it’s all to do with the other daughter, Juliette. She’s got some sort of mental health problem by all accounts; they take her on holiday every year and she gets upset with routines being disrupted.’
Lou drank her Coke from the can. It was icy cold and made her shiver, but the sugar was beginning to give her a buzz. Thoughts and questions were bombarding her from every angle. Memories of Juliette – she’d been thirteen when Scarlett vanished. Lou had met her, and even then she’d thought her odd. But back then – inexperienced, as much as she hated to admit it – she’d put it down to her being a teenager, and deeply traumatised by her sister’s disappearance. ‘She did attempt suicide a couple of months after they got back from Greece,’ she said, remembering. ‘Paracetamol, I think. After that they tried to keep her away from all the drama.’
‘The boss is totally focused on the trafficking stuff, you know. He isn’t bothered about the family, since they’re not to blame for her going missing, for her being trafficked. He’s torn between wanting to get shot of her before the press gets involved, and waiting to hear what she’s got to say.’
Of course: there had been that mention of Nigel Maitland. To all outward appearances a respectable farm owner, Maitland had apparent connections to organised crime. He’d never been convicted of anything, but his name kept coming up in intelligence reports – and, after a young woman, Polly Leuchars, had been murdered on his property last year, Nigel’s business, along with that of his daughter, Flora, had been closely scrutinised. Lou knew as well as any of her colleagues that Nigel Maitland was up to something. The trouble was proving it.
‘What’s the connection with Maitland and the McDonnells?’
‘There’s historic intel suggesting that Maitland is the transport man for the McDonnells’ trafficking operation.’
‘Oh,’ Lou said, disappointed. She had seen the same intelligence. And, last year, boxes containing stolen passports had been found in the back of Flora Maitland’s car. The lack of forensic evidence, coupled with Flora’s steadfast claims that she had merely found the boxes littering the side of the road and had been planning to take them to the nearest police station, meant there was nothing to connect any of it to her father. In turn, there was not enough to pursue a prosecution. Yet.
‘Is that it?’ Lou asked.
‘There was a suggestion that some of the trafficked women had been put to work in Lewis McDonnell’s brothel in Carisbrooke Court.’
‘And Scarlett was working as a prostitute there?’
Caro shrugged. ‘Hard to say. She was on the premises, but the way
Similar Books
