CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Cristy and the others were watching their screens fill with the shots Clover had taken of five original photographs and uploaded onto Hindsight’s main clipboard.
They’d come to the office early to discuss this unexpected breakthrough – bombshell Connor was calling it – before making a decision about whether or not to change the episode due to drop tonight.
‘Where the heck did you find them?’ Cristy asked, as they came into full focus.
‘They were in this,’ Clover replied, holding up a crumpled, bright yellow Kodak envelope with Quality Photos stamped on the front. ‘It fell out of a notebook I was going through and the minute I saw the first one I knew I had to send it straight to you.’
‘Anything in the notebook explaining them?’ Connor asked, studying them closely.
‘Not that I’ve found so far.’
All five of the shots showed a much younger Lottie seated on one side of a table with George Symmonds-Browne and Janina Andris facing her.
Both Lottie and Janina appeared animated, unsmiling, as if arguing about something, while Symmonds-Browne’s position hardly changed as he sat watching them.
In one photo his hand was over Janina’s, in another Janina’s head was in her hands.
The last showed all three of them leaving the café, Symmonds-Browne very close behind Janina, Lottie ahead, already turning away.
‘What are they telling us?’ Connor demanded. ‘What was going on at that meeting?’
‘The shots were taken with a long lens,’ Jacks mumbled, almost to himself.
‘They’re obviously in a café, or coffee shop,’ Clover observed, ‘but nothing to say what the place is called or where it is.’
‘We need to know when they were taken,’ Cristy stated. ‘Is there any way of finding that out?’
‘It’s got to have been sometime around 2000,’ Connor said, ‘you only have to look at Janina to know that. She looks the same as she does in the other shots we have of her.’
‘Is there a date stamp on the backs of the originals?’ Jacks asked Clover.
She shook her head. ‘Already checked and there isn’t.’
Articulating what was on everyone’s mind, Cristy said, ‘Are we looking at photographic evidence of Lottie negotiating for Sadie?’
‘Not possible to say for certain,’ Connor answered, ‘but we could be.’
‘What I’d like to know,’ Jacks came in, ‘is who took the shots, and why.’
‘And how did they end up with Lottie?’ Cristy added.
It wasn’t hard to work out. ‘It’s smacking of blackmail to me,’ she said.
‘Symmonds-Browne set Lottie up for this and made sure it was on record. Which makes it possible, likely even, that these photos are what turned up in the envelope just after the sisters took Sadie in.’
Sitting back in his chair, Connor said, ‘We can end tonight’s pod with it. It’s a great cliff-hanger – photographs have just come to light of Lottie Winters meeting with Janina and suspected trafficker George Symmonds-Browne. We’ll bring you more in the coming episodes.’
Cristy wasn’t sure. ‘Do we actually want to out him as a trafficker yet?’
‘I say we do,’ Connor replied. ‘We can run all of Catherine Shilling’s interview, with an emphasis on the parts where she talks about Symmonds-Browne. Then it’ll have a proper impact.’
‘OK,’ Cristy agreed, ‘but before we do anything that dramatic we need to let Sadie see the photos. It’ll be pretty devastating for her if they’re painting the picture we fear, but I guess she’s more than half-expecting it, and we can’t let her learn about them through the pod.’
‘If you want to warn her they’re coming,’ Jacks said, ‘I’ll package them up and send when you’re ready.’
Cristy was checking the time. ‘She’s going to be with David at some point today – she’s found some sort of safe that needs opening and we’re hoping he’ll be able to help her.
So let’s send them to him first. That way he and Anna can be with her when she sees the shots of her mother with Symmonds-Browne, quite possibly trying to extract the highest price for her.
’ Even saying the words made her feel sick.
It wasn’t how any of them wanted to view Janina, but who knew what kind of pressure she’d been under at the time, what dark forces had been at work in her life, so it wasn’t a good idea to rush to judgement.
‘I’ll get everything lined up ready for the edit,’ Connor said, ‘and I guess we’d better check with Sadie before adding anything to the website.’
Cristy reached for her mobile and pushed right on past the flutterings inside as she clicked to call David’s number.
‘Hi,’ he said when he answered, ‘this is a nice surprise so early in the morning.’
She smiled. ‘I’m glad you think so, but please tell me you’re not still in bed.’
He laughed. ‘Actually, I’ve just dropped Laurent at school, and believe it or not I was about to call you.’
Pleased, she said, ‘Really?’ Then, ‘Oh, does that mean Sadie’s already been in touch with you?’
‘No, but from the sound of it she’s going to be?’
‘I’m sure she will,’ and after explaining about the safe and then the photos, she said, ‘So is it OK if we send them to you first?’
‘It’s fine,’ he assured her. ‘You’re right, she shouldn’t be alone when she sees them for the first time, although I think my mother and Anna will be her best support with that. I’ll be around if she needs me, obviously, and meantime I’ll be happy to see what can be done about the safe.’
‘Thanks,’ she said warmly. ‘I really appreciate it. Oh, I’ve asked Sadie about the will, by the way. You can probably imagine my surprise when she told me that Lottie hadn’t left her anything.’
‘I can tell you now,’ David said, ‘that it was a surprise to Victor Dubois, the lawyer, as well. She didn’t explain her decision when she made the change.
Apparently she simply told him it would be easier for Mia to sort everything when the time came, should she live the longest, and if she didn’t then she, Lottie, would adjust accordingly. ’
Unsure what to make of that, Cristy said, ‘Have you managed to find anything out about Lottie’s cause of death?’
‘It’s why I was about to call you,’ he replied. ‘Nothing suspicious according to the records. She suffered a massive heart attack, and apparently it wasn’t her first.’
Blinking with surprise, Cristy said, ‘So she had a pre-existing condition?’
‘And was taking medication for it. Apparently the first attack happened when she was in her early forties, and there was a smaller one about ten years ago.’
Cristy nodded slowly as she considered this, not entirely sure whether she felt more relieved or baffled by the verdict of natural causes.
‘Does this help or hinder your investigation?’ David asked.
‘I’m not sure it changes anything,’ she replied, ‘but it’s good to have it cleared up. Have you managed to talk to anyone about the time the sisters came to Guernsey?’
‘I have, but so far nothing particularly interesting to report. I’m trying to track down the agent who sold them their house, he’ll probably remember them pretty well. He doesn’t live on the island any more, but someone’s getting back to me once they’ve found out where he is now.’
‘OK, thanks, and for taking care of Sadie today. I’m glad for her sake that she has your family to lean on, because heaven knows what Mia’s up to these days.’
‘Or any day, but I’m told she’s back to normal health and is planning to reinvent herself as a Sixties Bond girl the next time you visit.’
Cristy choked on a laugh. ‘Tell me you’re not serious.’
‘I’m not, although it wouldn’t surprise me. Anyway, I’ve just arrived home and Sadie is at the front door waiting for me. I’ll call later to let you know how things go.’
As Cristy rang off, feeling uplifted by how relaxed they’d been with one another, she spotted Connor playing an air violin and scowled menacingly at him before giving Jacks the all-clear to send the photos to David now.
*
It was just after seven in the evening by the time they finally uploaded the latest episode – unusually late, but they were more concerned about getting things right, especially where the outing of George Symmonds-Browne was concerned, than hitting their self-imposed deadline.
By then they’d recorded Sadie’s response to the photos so were able to include it at the end of the episode, before the closing comments.
SADIE: ‘To be honest they made me feel horrible inside. I mean, obviously we have no idea what was being discussed around that table, but the fact that Lottie was meeting with Janina and George Symmonds-Browne … Well, it kind of speaks for itself, doesn’t it?’
CRISTY: ‘Once this goes live your aunt Mia will know about the photos. What do you think she’ll have to say about them?’
SADIE: ‘I’ve no idea, but frankly I’m more concerned about what was being done to my mother at the time they were taken.’
CRISTY: ‘That was a very sombre and sad-sounding Sadie earlier today. My heart goes out to her, and I’m sure you all feel the same.
Imagine how it must feel to learn that your mother was being controlled by a criminal gang to the point she was forced to give you up.
If that’s what these photos are telling us, and as Sadie herself says, it’s hard to see them any other way. ’
CONNOR: ‘We know from our interview with ex-Detective Sergeant Catherine Shilling, who was part of the surveillance team watching Symmonds-Browne’s farm at the time Janina was there, that she, and many young women like her, were lured from their homes with promises of good jobs and better lives only to be forced into prostitution and probable slavery. ’
CRISTY: ‘We don’t know how many more children might have been born to those young women, at this time we only know about Sadie.
I think, I hope, that, like us, you care deeply about helping her to find the truth of who she really is.
And what happened to her mother, Janina Andris, who we now believe to be Lithuanian. ’