CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
‘So what did you make of it?’ Cristy asked, as she and David finished listening to the playback later.
They were at the Ritz-Carlton now, in a penthouse suite that could probably swallow up her entire apartment, with glorious Gulf views from the wraparound terrace and such sumptuous soft furnishings it would be easy to sink into them and never come up.
Completely over the top, in her opinion, although as far as she could tell just about everything in Naples was, with its glossy white mansions, toweringly exotic palms and its perfectly turned-out residents with their luxury cars.
A sun-baked playground for the super-rich and overprivileged if ever there was one.
David reached for his champagne flute – there was so much Krug in their personal bar it would have seemed rude not to open at least one bottle. ‘Do you mean the whole thing,’ he asked, ‘or specifically Janina’s disappearance?’
‘Both, but overall, did it strike you as a true retelling of what happened all those years ago?’
He didn’t take long to answer. ‘Actually, it did,’ he replied. ‘I had a couple of issues here and there, but they kind of got ironed out the deeper in we went. How about you? Are you having a problem with it?’
She shook her head. ‘Like you, I did once or twice, but it came clear.’
‘And Albescu Junior being involved in Janina’s disappearance?’
She sipped her drink, and gazed out at the sea spreading like a ground swell of starlight before them just as a pelican dipped down into the waves.
‘I think it’s possible,’ she replied, ‘but it’s also easier for Gabe to believe that than it is to accept she might have gone off the road and will never be coming back. ’
‘Would Albescu really still have her, over twenty years later?’
‘Josef Fritzl,’ she responded, referring to the Austrian who’d kept his daughter in a cellar for almost a quarter of a century, raping her thousands of times and fathering seven children on her.
Conceding the point, distasteful as it was, he said, ‘So the next step has to be finding out where Albescu is these days?’
‘Indeed.’ Cristy checked her laptop as it signalled a call, and clicked on to let Connor join the conversation. ‘You’re up late,’ she commented, as he appeared on the screen, tousle-haired and unshaven.
‘Just gone ten,’ he replied. ‘Looks as though you’re living the good life over there.’
‘We’re doing our best,’ she smiled, saluting him with her glass. ‘So, have you listened to the interview with Lukas?’
‘Just finished, and by the way, I’m recording this. So, here’s my answer.’
CONNOR: ‘What he told you is pretty sobering, that’s for sure, but one of the big takeaways for me, apart from having paternity confirmed – that’s major, obvs, and we need to talk about breaking it to Sadie … But it seems Lottie’s story about finding Sadie on the beach is rooted in truth.’
CRISTY: ‘Yes, that was a standout for me too, so a case of truth being stranger than fiction. Must keep that in mind. What are your thoughts on Janina’s disappearance?’
CONNOR: ‘I guess it’s my one difficulty. Not that I don’t believe Albescu caught up with them, there’s a chance he did, but that it happened right when Janina was on her way to see the sisters …?’
Cristy let that hang as she glanced at David.
DAVID: ‘Am I allowed to speak?’
CONNOR: ‘Go ahead, we can always edit around if necessary.’
DAVID: ‘Are you thinking that Lottie might have found a way to contact Albescu while she was supposed to be considering the possibility of Janina seeing her daughter?’
CRISTY: ‘She knew about Albescu because Janina had told her.’
CONNOR: ‘Exactly, and now we know that there was no earlier contact with Janina’s child being the object of some ungodly transaction, we have to come at it differently. So, we’re agreed that Lottie had time to find Albescu before making contact with Janina again?’
CRISTY: ‘It’s possible. Keep going.’
CONNOR: ‘OK, Gabe said he suspected Lottie for a while, so what happened to convince him that it could have been Albescu?’
CRISTY: ‘Didn’t you see the link I sent with the rest of the interview?’
CONNOR: ‘No, I … Oh shit, here it is. I’ll listen and get back to you. Or no, give it to me now.’
CRISTY: ‘OK, apparently Gabe and Janina’s landlady in St Peter Port had a visit from a man with a foreign accent who didn’t leave his name, but he was asking for Janina. This was a day or two prior to Janina’s car going off the road.’
CONNOR: ‘So this guy turns up out of the blue, finds the landlady and what? Gets confirmation they’re staying there?’
CRISTY: ‘I guess so.’
CONNOR: ‘So he watches the place until Janina shows up then he follows her when she drives to meet Lottie – that’s what we’re being asked to believe?’
CRISTY: ‘It’s what Lukas and Gabe believe.’
CONNOR: ‘Then answer me this: why would Albescu want her dead instead of back where he could control her?’
CRISTY: ‘Because Lottie made it worth his while to abandon his own plans and adopt hers? But, remember, there was no body, so maybe he got hold of Janina and took her off the island.’
CONNOR: ‘And no one saw it happen? Finding that hard to swallow, but I guess it’s possible. Did anyone see this guy again, after he turned up at the landlady’s door?’
CRISTY: ‘We don’t know, but the assumption has to be that he left the island as soon as the job was done.’
CONNOR: ‘OK, what did Gabe do after the search for Janina was abandoned?’
CRISTY: ‘He eventually went back to the farm in Somerset hoping she’d manage to escape again and come to find him there.’
CONNOR: ‘But she never did. How long did he wait?’
CRISTY: ‘A few years, apparently. His cousin Verity, whose insanely rich husband seems to have bankrolled a new start for Gabe, turned up one day in 2010 and persuaded him to return to the States with her. I think he was pretty destitute and desperate by then, and she promised to pay someone to keep a watch on the farm in case Janina did turn up. So he went with her. The someone who was keeping an eye out was in fact a private detective by the name of Sean Littleday, who found Lukas in 2015. That’s when Lukas and Evie were hired by cousin Verity to take care of Gabe.
He’s … I’m not sure how to describe him … ’
Cristy looked at David.
DAVID: ‘To quote Gabe himself, he’s not quick and clever like the rest of his family, and frankly you can see how easily exploitable he must have been back then.
Probably still is, actually. He’s the type who would have been bullied at school; definitely shunned by his parents.
Fast forward to him as a lonely forty-something when he answered an ad he found in a newspaper offering to connect the right clients with companions or housekeepers, and the rest, as they say, is history. ’
CRISTY: ‘So let’s get back to Janina’s disappearance. Did she go off the road in a tragic accident, or was Albescu, possibly hired by Lottie, making sure she wouldn’t be able to come back for her daughter again?’
DAVID: ‘Why would Lottie only target Janina when she knew that Gabe was also on the island?’
CONNOR: ‘If, as you say, he’s not the fastest on the uptake, maybe she decided that he wasn’t going to be as much of a problem.
And if she could persuade him Albescu had made a return …
Plus, Gabe was – is – very well connected.
There could have been a hell of a lot more fuss about him disappearing, estranged from his family or not. ’
CRISTY: ‘You’re quite good at this.’
CONNOR: ‘Which is why you pay me the big bucks – not. Anyway, we need to talk to that landlady, find out what she remembers. Lucky I’m in Guernsey now, so if you can get me a name, or an address, or both, I’ll see if I can track her down.’
CRISTY: ‘OK. Meantime, let’s listen to the whole interview again and then we should probably send it to Sadie. As you’re there, perhaps you and Anna can break the news about Gabe being her father so it doesn’t just come at her the way it did for us.’
CONNOR: ‘Got you. OK, this is me ending the recording.’
As the red light disappeared on their screens, Connor said, ‘How do we feel about recording Sadie’s reaction to the news? To the whole interview, in fact. Do you think she’ll be up for it?’
‘The fact that we now know Gabe was very much more victim than villain,’ Cristy replied, ‘definitely makes it worth asking. Especially as he seems to have really loved Janina. That’ll mean a lot, I’m sure. Where are you staying?’
‘Chez David. Your mother and Anna insisted.’
David laughed. ‘I hope they’re taking good care of you.’
‘The best.’
‘Have you interviewed Corny, the housekeeper, yet?’ Cristy asked.
‘This morning,’ Connor replied. ‘I’ll send it over, but she hasn’t added anything we don’t already know, so she’s either been briefed by Mia, or she really was in the dark about Sadie. Needless to say I can’t get near Mia herself. How have you left things with the ex-pat trio?’
‘We’re meeting for dinner at their club tomorrow evening,’ Cristy told him, ‘which means we now have the onerous ordeal of trying to fill our time in this rich man’s paradise.’
‘Hard. I guess you must be feeling quite at home there, David, being one of them and all that.’
‘Already got my eye on a property or two,’ David assured him dryly.
‘After Sadie’s listened to the interview,’ Cristy said, ‘or even before, make sure you tell her that her father and uncle are very keen to meet her.’
‘Will do. Something that just occurred to me, do we ask Gabe to prove paternity? I mean, we can tell her it’s possible he’s her father, in fact highly likely, but …’
‘It’s already in hand,’ Cristy assured him, ‘and Lukas is doing the same. You’re right to think of it, because we’ll need the cover once we go live with this and the army of cynics get stuck into it.’
‘But we’re not foreseeing a problem?’