CHAPTER FIFTEEN #2
With the formalities out of the way the interview began.
CRISTY: ‘So what can you tell us about gang activity in the Minehead area at the time Janina and Lukas Andris were known to be there?’
CATHERINE: ‘Well, it first came to our attention via social services. They were concerned about the occupants of a house near Kylve. Do you know the beach there? It’s famous for its fossils.
Anyway, the house in question, Mannycott Farm, turned out to belong to a distant relative of a prominent aristocrat and landowner – think Gloucestershire, Worcestershire and Wiltshire rather than Somerset.
Not that said highfalutin’ aristo had any involvement in what was happening at the house, or none that I ever knew about.
I simply tell you that as part of the background we had on the main resident. ’
CRISTY: ‘And what was happening at the house?’
CATHERINE: ‘If you’d listened to the neighbours you’d have thought all sorts of terrible things – slavery, trafficking, prostitution, drugs …
All on the edge of this sleepy west Somerset village.
They claimed he – George Symmonds-Browne, Lord Mannycott as some called him – had a constant procession of Russian brides being supplied by his very dubious foreign cohorts.
They had it – the locals – that these “brides” were tested out by Symmonds-Browne and his cronies before being passed on to the highest bidder. ’
CRISTY: ‘You’re sounding sceptical?’
CATHERINE: ‘No, I think in part that bit might have been true, but our surveillance of the property soon told us that local reports were … exaggerated. Girls were living there, no doubt about that, but not in numbers. In fact there only ever appeared to be three or four there at any given time, and whoever they were they seemed free to come and go as they pleased. Sometimes they went out with men, other times on their own.’
CRISTY: ‘So you don’t think they were being held against their will?’
CATHERINE: ‘It didn’t look like it, but I’m sure you know as well as I do, trafficking gangs hold leverage over their victims by threatening to harm the families they’ve left behind. So running away wouldn’t have been an option for those girls.’
CRISTY: ‘Did you ever speak with any of them?’
CATHERINE: ‘No, our instructions were simply to observe and report back.’
CRISTY: ‘Do you know what nationality they were?’
CATHERINE: ‘Not specifically, but I’m not sure they were actually Russian, the way the locals claimed. Definitely not English though.’
CRISTY: ‘How long did they stay at the farm before being moved on?’
CATHERINE: ‘That’s hard to answer, because the surveillance wasn’t constant, no twenty-four-seven or anything like that.
More a couple of times a month for a two-to-three-day period.
We soon learned that our little stake-out was small fry in comparison to what was going on with the op in the rest of the country.
The big boys in London weren’t particularly interested in what we had going in Kylve unless we could report sightings of certain individuals, or vehicles, they had a special interest in. ’
CRISTY: ‘And could you?’
CATHERINE: ‘Not at first, no. You’ll find more details in those files there on the table, along with the identities of some of the key gang members.
Not people to be messed with, that’s for sure, and I can tell you we wouldn’t have wanted to give it a go.
More than one officer lost his life during that particular op.
None of ours, the unlucky were London- or Midlands-based, but none of us was keen to add to the number.
‘Anyway, the risk of that was removed as soon as we reported the sighting of one Matis Albescu. That would have been late 1999, I think. We’d been on the case for a good year by then, and he’d been one of their top POIs – persons of interest – long before we were brought into the picture.
Then, suddenly one night, there he was, right in front of us.
A tall, wiry bloke with a lot of facial hair, and a gammy left leg – meaning he walked with a limp.
We knew it was him right away, and got plenty of shots of him entering the house, and coming out again a couple of hours later.
That’s when the London boys took over and we, of course, were mushroomed …
Kept in the dark about whatever went down from there.
However, I can tell you that Albescu is no longer with us.
He was shot and killed during a dawn raid in Birmingham a year or more after we laid eyes on him. ’
CRISTY: ‘So that would have been sometime in 2001?’
CATHERINE: ‘Could have been early 2002. It’ll be in the file.’
CRISTY: ‘And what happened to the resident of Mannycott Farm?’
CATHERINE: ‘Symmonds-Browne? Nothing as far as we knew. Everything calmed down after the sighting of Albescu in late ’99 – at least for us it did.
There were still the occasional reports from neighbours of girls at the farm, but nothing that got anyone excited enough to send us back there.
Then one day, I guess it was in the late spring/early summer of 2000, we got a call from a local vicar expressing concern about the disappearance of a young woman.
He referred to her as “one of the Russian brides” who, he said, had been living at the farm for the past couple of years.
Years. Not months, which was how long most of them seemed to stay.
This one, apparently, had been there the whole time since the surveillance was called off, maybe even longer.
Obviously the vicar didn’t know anything about the Met operation that had targeted the house, but he was able to tell us that the young woman – he didn’t know her name – had a child and no one had seen them for the past several weeks. ’
CRISTY: ‘Did he say why he was concerned about her?’
CATHERINE: ‘I think mainly because of the child, and how long the young woman had been there – and then suddenly she wasn’t.’
CRISTY: ‘So what happened after you received the vicar’s call?’
CATHERINE: ‘We went to have a chat with Symmonds-Browne, asked about the mother and child and, would you believe it, he started to cry. Proper threw us, that did. Sobbed and blubbered like a great big kid saying she’d gone back to wherever she’d come from and she’d never got in touch with him again.
It was all an act, of course, but it worked, because it got rid of us well enough. ’
CRISTY: ‘Was any follow-up done on it? No, first, did he tell you the names of the woman and child?’
CATHERINE: ‘I wouldn’t have remembered, but it’s in the file. She was Janina Andris and the child was Sasha.’
Cristy broke off for a moment, the surprise of hearing the names resonating deeply and almost electrifyingly through her.
She glanced at Connor and saw it had affected him too.
It was all real, this confirmed it, not that they’d seriously doubted it – Robert and Gita’s interviews didn’t allow for that – but even if they’d continued to have concerns they were dispelled by this.
Janina and Sasha had lived at Mannycott Farm in Kylve.
She had almost definitely been a so-called Russian bride, even if it wasn’t her true nationality.
Sasha’s father … could have been anyone.
After making several quick notes for herself, she continued.
CRISTY: ‘Was the mother and child’s disappearance investigated?’
CATHERINE: ‘Not that I ever knew about. Our higher-ups got in touch with the Met and we were told no further action was necessary. Whether that was because the mother and child really had returned to their homeland, or because they didn’t want to waste resources trying to find illegals, I can’t say. ’
CRISTY: ‘And you knew they were illegals?’
CATHERINE: ‘They would have been then, if they were from one of the Eastern European countries, and the vicar seemed to think they were.’
Cristy turned to Connor to see if there was anything he wanted to add.
CONNOR: ‘Do you have any idea where George Symmonds-Browne could be now?’
CATHERINE: ‘For all I know he’s still at the same address. If not, you’ll find the names of his blue-blood family in the file, maybe they can put you in touch with him.’
CONNOR: ‘Does the name Lukas Andris ring any bells for you?’
CATHERINE: ‘No, I don’t think so. What was he, a relative of the mother and child?’
CONNOR: ‘Brother and uncle.’
After the recording was over and Connor was packing up the equipment, Catherine said to Cristy, ‘I heard the first episode of your new series, so I’m going to assume that Sadie Winters is the Sasha I just mentioned?’
‘It’s looking very likely,’ Cristy replied. Then, ‘Do you happen to recall anything about the Winters sisters being on Exmoor back in 2000?’
Catherine wrinkled her nose as she thought.
‘I’m not sure I’ve ever heard of them. Who are they?
Oh, hang on, were they a couple of wealthy Londoners who holidayed at Hilltop Lodge …
That’s right, I remember them getting a few tongues wagging for a while, something to do with them being there one day and gone the next.
’ Her eyes narrowed suspiciously. ‘If I’m reading this correctly, you’re thinking they took the child with them when they left? ’
Meeting the direct question with a slightly less direct answer, Cristy said, ‘It’s looking that way.’
‘And now what you’re trying to find out is if they had some sort of arrangement with Symmonds-Browne or one of his … suppliers, to make the child theirs?’
‘Do you think it’s possible?’ Connor asked.
The detective gave a mirthless laugh. ‘I never put anything past anyone, not after the things I saw when I was with the police. In this instance … Well, let’s say, there’s certainly a coincidence of events and times that warrants further enquiries, which is of course what you’re doing.
’ She went further. ‘My best guess is that someone made your girl Janina disappear so your sisters could have the child they wanted.’
Wishing they could have got that on tape, while also knowing they’d be unable to air it, or certainly not at this stage, Cristy thanked her warmly and followed Connor out to the car.
As they drove away, she said, ‘So where do you think Janina’s knowledge of the sisters fits in with this? I’m thinking of Robert’s interview now.’
‘God knows,’ Connor replied. ‘But it’s looking increasingly likely that Lottie’s beach story is nonsense. And if that is, what about everything else?’
As neither of them had an answer several minutes passed with the Chew Valley and its winter-sunlit lakes falling away behind them until a sprawling vista of Bristol opened up ahead.
‘Let’s call Clove and Jacks,’ Cristy said, taking out her phone.
‘If they’re still in Minehead they can swing by Kylve on their way back to find out if Symmonds-Browne is still at Mannycott Farm. ’
‘And if he is?’
‘They should leave it to us to go talk to him. If he’s no longer there, maybe they can start work on where he might be now.
Also, we need to check the files Catherine Shilling just gave us for the vicar’s name.
If he’s still around he could be worth a few words.
They can handle that themselves once we’ve briefed them. ’
Fifteen minutes later, with Clove and Jacks on their way to Kylve, and all sorts of scenarios still flashing through their minds, Connor said pensively, ‘I can’t stop wondering, given the suddenness of Lottie’s death and the fact that no more extracts have yet come to light …
I’m asking myself, did someone get to her before she could write any more? ’
Cristy frowned. ‘Talk me through that.’
‘Frankly, I don’t know where to go with it, apart from the obvious place.’
She glanced at him, her hands tightening on the wheel. ‘You mean Mia?’
He nodded soberly.
‘That doesn’t make any sense when the story is designed to cast them as rescuers of a child from social services, rather than anything more … sinister. She surely wouldn’t have had a problem with that.’
‘It was still illegal to hold onto the child, and maybe Mia found the rest of the story and … destroyed it? She wouldn’t want any of it getting out for the very reason she’s facing now: Sadie is looking into it and wants to know more.’
Slowing as they reached the Ashton Gate traffic lights, Cristy said, ‘And we know that Lottie’s computers were disposed of quite soon after her death. Was that Mia’s way of making sure nothing more came to light?’
‘Seems a reasonable conclusion to me.’
‘There must have been a post mortem following Lottie’s death. We’ll get Jacks onto it.’ She thought about it some more and added, ‘I think we should keep this to ourselves for now, at least until we’ve got something a bit more substantial to work with.’
‘Clove and Jacks?’
‘Obviously we’ll share with them, but at this stage it’s absolutely not something to share with Sadie.’