A Dark and Twisted Tide (35 page)

‘What’s Dana doing now?’ said Weaver.

‘Very little. She’s been moving quite a bit – you know, wandering to the window, maybe going to the bathroom. She’s been still for about four minutes now, so she may be trying to get some sleep.’

‘Which is exactly what we should do,’ said Anderson. ‘Nobody got much kip last night and this could go on for another twenty-four hours.’

The sergeant was right. The surveillance equipment would be monitored all night. If anything happened, they’d know about it.

Nobody moved.

‘She isn’t moving, she’s asleep,’ said Anderson.

‘No, the locket isn’t moving,’ said Weaver. ‘She could be anywhere.’

‘With respect, Sir, that just proves you’re too tired to think straight. There’s a red and orange glow on the thermal-imaging camera that is a warm, healthy body in exactly the same spot as the tracker. Not wishing to put too fine a point on it, if that healthy glow starts to look a bit blue, then we can panic. For now, she’s fine.’

76

Dana and Lacey

WHEN DANA WOKE
in the night, it was with the immediate thought that she hadn’t expected to sleep, and yet she felt strangely rested, if a little groggy. Had the food she’d eaten been drugged? If so, it had been with a sleeping draught only, no harm done.

She’d heard something. Something had woken her, and yet now there was complete silence, as though, around her, everyone slept.

The room wasn’t as dark as she remembered it being when she’d switched off the light, and a pale-grey glow surrounded the window. She got up and pressed her face against the glass. Yes, definitely getting light out there, and if she listened hard, she might be able to hear early-morning traffic on the river. So the day was coming. She’d survived the night.

The doctor will see you.
Christ, she wanted to see the doctor like she wanted a hole in her head.

The table and chair she’d pushed against the door before getting into bed were still in place. They’d have made useless barriers, but the sound of them scraping along the floor would have given her a couple of seconds. And there was that noise again. Listening to it properly, it was definitely the sound that had woken her, just an
hour or two before her body was ready to be woken. The sound of someone crying near by.

When Lacey woke in the night, it was to the sound of the tide coming in. It sounded different on Ray and Eileen’s boat. A soft movement in the main cabin told her that the officer guarding her was still on board. She sat up, opened the hatch above her head and climbed out.

The air around her was heavy with the chill of night and the moon was a sliver of cheese, about to fall below the horizon. High tide would be in about an hour. Her own boat swayed gently on its moorings, rocking and pitching in time with the bigger boat at its side. They looked like two drunk dancers, clinging together on the dance floor at the end of the evening.

Lacey crept forward until she could sit on the edge of the cabin roof and look out at the water. She could see quite well. It couldn’t be long till dawn.

Some time during the day, the operation at Sayes Creek would come to a head. With luck and a fair wind they’d get DI Tulloch out safely and find out what had been going on. They’d make arrests, close the operation down. The bodies bobbing on the river bed at South Dock Marina would be brought to the surface, identified and, eventually, laid to rest properly. It would be over.

Except why, when the ongoing criminal operation depended upon the bodies not being discovered, had someone been practically hurling them into her path? She’d assumed the killer was playing games, had chosen her as a conduit to the police, as a means of taunting them, but did that really make sense? What little they knew of the set-up suggested something big and organized. Professional. Generally speaking, professionals with big sums of money at stake didn’t play games.

It was surprising how quickly one lost track of time on the river. There was something almost hypnotic about the relentless flow of the water, broken only by debris that was big enough to be seen and pale enough to catch the starlight.

Sudden movement on the water made Lacey jump, as a dozing bird was disturbed and flapped its way to safety. The sky was
definitely getting lighter. The sounds of avian panic faded, the ruffles in the water settled and for a moment the incoming tide moved smoothly. Then, about twenty yards from the boat, the rounded shape of a human head emerged.

WEDNESDAY, 2 JULY

77

Dana and Lacey

DANA WAS IN
her bathroom. The crying was coming from the next room. The tone and strength of the sobs suggested a woman. She bent and saw the pipework beneath the washbasin.

Tap, tap, tap.

No response. No break in the crying. Dana got up again, ran into the bedroom and found the spoon from dinner the night before. They hadn’t given her a knife. Back in the bathroom, she tapped three times on the pipe. And again. The crying stopped. Three more taps. Silence from the next room.

‘Hello?’ tried Dana, just as footsteps sounded in the corridor outside.

She heard someone enter the next room, a low exchange of conversation, the rattle of crockery, then the door being closed and locked. Dana sat on her bed and waited. Her own door opened and the woman from last night entered, carrying a breakfast tray. She had Dana’s clothes over one arm and her bag over the other.

‘Thank you,’ Dana risked.

‘Did you sleep well?’

Dana nodded. In the brighter light, the woman had an eastern European look about her. Her eyebrows were dark, her skin sallow,
her eyes dark and rather deep set. There might also be a trace of accent about the deep voice.

‘You should get dressed,’ said the woman. ‘I’ll be back in an hour.’

‘A car’s just arrived outside the house,’ Lacey told her two colleagues. ‘Looks like other people are arriving.’

The Marine Unit had been on the river since before dawn: Sergeant Buckle, Finn Turner and Lacey in a small dinghy hovering near the entrance to Sayes Creek. Buckle was at the helm, Turner sat at the bow. Lacey was monitoring radio activity.

She hadn’t gone back to bed after seeing the swimmer again. Before she’d had a chance to call the officers on duty, the head had disappeared.

While she’d been staring out at the water, Ray had joined her, and between them they’d decided to say nothing for now. Monitoring the situation at Sayes Court and keeping DI Tulloch safe had to take priority for the next few hours. She’d report it once Dana was safe.

‘They’re opening the big warehouse doors,’ she said. ‘The car’s driving into the building.’

In the centre of the river, a passenger ferry went past at speed, one of the first daytrips heading towards Greenwich. The wash came towards them and Buckle turned the dinghy to face it.

‘Two people got out of the car,’ said Lacey, after a few seconds. ‘That makes seven people in the building, including DI Tulloch.’

The woman came back for Dana exactly an hour later. After dressing and eating, Dana had watched the morning news on television. When she heard footsteps, her hand went up to the locket as though clutching at a talisman, but when the door opened, she was standing ready, her breakfast tray in her hands.

‘Go ahead.’ The woman took the tray from Dana. ‘Down the stairs. Next floor down.’

Dana did what she was told.

‘Next door on your right,’ said the woman, as Dana arrived at a door that wasn’t properly closed. ‘Go straight in.’

‘OK, so the house population has increased by two,’ Lacey told her colleagues. ‘There are seven people in there now. One on the top floor, one on the ground. DI Tulloch and her guide are on the first floor, as is someone who might still be asleep because he or she hasn’t moved since last night. There are also two in the room that DI Tulloch seems to be heading for.’

She paused, there were a few moments of static, then more information.

‘OK, DI Tulloch’s in the room on the first floor with two others, her guide’s left her there and is heading back down the stairs.’

Turner’s eyes dropped; Buckle stared straight ahead. They were picturing the layout of the house, as she was. Seven people: one on the top floor, two on the ground and four on the first, three of whom were now in the same room. Remember that. If they had to go in suddenly, they didn’t want any surprises.

‘This could be it,’ said Anderson over the radio. ‘Stand by, everyone.’

‘Hello, Maya,’ said the thin white woman standing behind the desk. ‘Welcome to the United Kingdom. We’re so happy to see you here.’

‘I’m Doctor Kanash,’ said the young Asian man by the window. ‘This is Nurse Stafford.’

The doctor will see you tomorrow
. Kanash and Stafford. Real names? Remember everything you can. Kanash is about thirty-five, has a tiny scar just above his upper lip on the left side, and his very dark skin and eyes were making her think Sri Lankan rather than Indian or Pakistani. Stafford is older, maybe early forties, thin hair cut into a bob, mousy brown but with strands of grey. She’s wearing a wedding ring.

‘Thank you,’ said Dana, knowing something was expected of her. ‘Thank you very much.’

It was OK to look round, wasn’t it? Any woman would look round the room nervously. A couch pushed up alongside one wall, with a long runway of tissue paper along its length. A height measure and weighing scales. A blood-pressure kit on the desk. A box of surgical gloves. Some sort of electronic scanning equipment.

‘You had a long trip, I know,’ Kanash was saying. ‘A very difficult trip, but it’s over now.’

‘Have some tea.’ Stafford had moved from behind the desk and was now beside an urn of hot water. ‘We have jasmine, or peppermint?’

They were being nice to her. Should that make her feel better, or worse?

‘Please, I am very – I don’t know the words. What will happen now?’

‘We completely understand,’ said Kanash, as Stafford gave Dana a smile. ‘Everything is very new. But there’s nothing to worry about. We have a very nice job waiting for you. A very nice couple who want someone to look after their house, especially when they are travelling. It’s a beautiful house. Not so much to do. You’ll be very happy.’

‘Thank you. Do I go today?’

The two exchanged a glance. ‘I’m afraid not,’ said Stafford. ‘There is much to sort out first. Lots of paperwork. Work permits and visas and immigration papers. The British need so much paperwork. But while it is being sorted out, you will stay here with us and we will take very good care of you.’

‘Thank you,’ said Dana.

‘Hold still a moment.’ Stafford had picked up a camera from the desk. As Dana stared at her, she pressed the button. ‘Just for your file,’ she said. ‘So we don’t get you mixed up with one of the other ladies.’

‘How are you feeling after your trip?’ asked Kanash. ‘Any health problems we should know about?’

Dana shook her head, knowing she looked scared and that it was probably exactly how every other girl in this room had looked.

‘Right,’ said Kanash, and Dana had a sense he’d got to the end of his stock repertoire of pleasantness. ‘Let’s get you on the scales, shall we?’

‘She’s on the move again,’ Lacey told the crew. ‘She’s being escorted back upstairs.’ She looked at her watch. ‘Better part of an hour,’ she said. ‘What was all that about?’

She hadn’t expected an answer. ‘She must know something after that,’ she said. ‘We could go in now.’

‘She’s still fine,’ said Buckle. ‘They said twenty-four hours.’

‘Lacey, are you there?’ Anderson’s voice sounded agitated.

‘I can hear you, Sarge,’ she replied.

‘Has a boat or vessel of any kind gone up Sayes Creek in the last fifteen minutes?’

‘Negative, Sarge.’ Lacey saw her own puzzlement reflected on the faces of both Buckle and Turner. ‘No one’s been in there since we came on shift.’

‘Well, there are eight people in the house now and nobody else arrived by car.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘Course I’m bloody sure. DI Tulloch and one other on their way back upstairs. Two in the room she’s just left, that’s four. One more on that floor who hasn’t moved since we started surveillance, and one in the room next to DI Tulloch’s on the top floor. And two characters on the ground. So how did number eight squeeze in? Teleportation?’

‘We didn’t see anything, Sarge.’ Beads of sweat burst on Lacey’s temples as she began to scan the water around them.

Back in her room, Dana went straight into the shower. She ran the water as hot as she could bear and stood beneath it, telling herself to calm down.

They’d done nothing except carry out a perfectly ordinary, if extremely thorough, medical examination. She’d been weighed and measured, against a background conversation of how she was a little on the slim side but still very attractive. Kanash had listened to her chest and pronounced her heart and lungs perfectly healthy. He’d taken her blood pressure and seemed quite happy with that, too. She’d been sent into a toilet cubicle and asked to provide a urine sample. They tested it there and then, finding no traces of sugar or protein, which was good, apparently, but explained that it would need to be sent away for further testing. Then Stafford took blood, but did it so smoothly and expertly that Dana barely felt the needle go in. Kanash had put headphones on her and asked her to listen
out for tiny pin-pricks of sound. They’d asked her to read from a card on the wall, a card with pictures on it, for women who couldn’t read the Latin alphabet. ‘Boat,’ Dana had said. ‘Fish, tree.’ She’d mimed apple and scissors for good measure.

Then she’d been asked to lie on the couch. At this point, Stafford took over, although Kanash remained in the room, hidden from sight behind the drawn curtain. Dana had been asked to undress to her underwear, and when she’d looked reluctant, Stafford had explained that the British government would only issue permits to people who were perfectly healthy.

‘Have you ever had a child?’ Her fingers had roamed over Dana’s stomach, pressing and probing. ‘Ever been pregnant?’ She’d mimed a bump over her stomach, in case Dana hadn’t understood. ‘Lie back and bring your heels towards your bottom.’ The look on her face told Dana that this was the part when it usually got difficult.