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CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

N ina stepped away from the wall, a grin blooming on her face. Beside her, Billy snorted. ‘A while ago, I’d have been on a real incident board. Now I’m making one.’

Aye, if not for Robert showing some faith in the man, he would probably have found himself in a jail cell again. Just like without Robert’s faith in her, she’d have either fled the country and given up everything she’d worked for or been caught.

‘He’s a good man. Any woman would be lucky to have him.’

After all they’d been through, Nina didn’t just know it; she’d witnessed every reason that made Robert Muller exceptional. She trusted him; cared for him deeply. But when all this was over, when the killer was caught, would he want to stay with her? Especially when he rejoined the police.

Nina crossed her arms in front of her chest. Why the hell was she thinking about a future with a man? Besides, Robert might have no intention of pursuing something new. And nor did she, not until they resolved this case and knew for sure her next contract wouldn’t be with the prison service.

Nodding at her own thoughts, and at Billy, Nina focused her attention on the wall they’d spent hours sticking intel to.

This she could deal with. In the last couple of hours, Finn had helped her make sense of the numbers. He’d hit the nail on the head with his initial assessment. The first few images of the rosters did list passport numbers.

Billy, on the other hand, had tacked together a list of Shah’s businesses.

They now studied Finn’s list. On closer inspection, each passport number had been assigned another set of numbers, and these new sets of numbers recurred in the tables photographed in the latter images alongside a date. While those tables didn’t disclose anything new or give them anything to investigate, Finn was using his expertise to see if he could identify the people whose passport numbers these were. The work, tedious though it may be, had the potential to blow this entire thing wide open.

Billy strode up to the wall and tapped his finger on Shah’s name. ‘He was a prick, but I doubt he could’ve come up with all this. Selling vulnerable people the wrong goods – that’s what he did. But look at all that. Moving actual people across the country… hell, according to your notes, they’re being transferred across countries. That’s a lot of planning, and a shite ton of greased hands.’

‘It brings in a shite ton of cash too,’ Nina replied, sticking her hands into her jacket pockets. ‘During my research, I traced them back to Eastern European countries. Thanks to the war, there are many immigrants hoping to find a home in the UK, and these lawyers swoop in and promise them a home, only their methods are illegal. Isn’t that vulnerable people being sold a false dream?’

Billy huffed. ‘Arseholes.’

A crash came from the back office, followed by a curse, then Finn emerged from the back room. His tie now sat loosely around his neck. His hair stood up in spikes, and his shirt had wrinkled, especially at the elbows.

Nina raised an eyebrow. After she’d thanked him for his help, the man had asked for a quiet space and disappeared into the small office nook with his laptop. Busy trying to figure out the jumble in front of her, Nina had forgotten about him.

Now he strode towards them holding out a sheet of paper. ‘There’s no metadata on the hidden images. No matter how hard I try, someone’s wiped it clean. But I found something else. And they’d buried it good, but I found it.’

Nina checked the paper he was waving around. It contained names… familiar names. ‘Hold on, I remember these. Aren’t they partners at Malcolm and Associates?’

Finn grinned. ‘Someone went to great lengths to bury the website, erase as much as possible from the archives. You said this website disappeared after “that night”. I reckoned there was something fishy on it they didn’t want you to find.’

Finn set his laptop on the counter and pointed to the list in Nina’s hand. ‘The first man on your list is Dave Price.’ He pulled up an image on the screen. ‘You might think this is what he looks like; I did too. But then I noticed this shadow around the man’s shirt’s buttons. It’s going in the opposite direction to the other shadows.’

‘It’s a touched-up photo?’ Nina asked, hoping to move things along.

‘Nope.’ Finn snapped his fingers in front of her face. ‘That’s not a real image – stock or otherwise. This is what artificial intelligence thinks Dave Price looks like.’

Oh fuck!

Nina read the list of names again. ‘Are they all like that?’

Finn nodded. ‘All the images they put up on the website are fake. But those lawyers? They existed.’

Scrolling through more images, Finn ran her through each name. ‘They needed a valid registration number for each lawyer to pass off as legit for anyone looking them up. I cross-checked the names of the lawyers and uncovered a surprising puzzle. Ali Khan, Berta Adams, Dave Price and Liam Barker were all registered lawyers. Were . They’re dead.’

Nina’s mouth fell open. Talk about planning things to a T. ‘So that’s how they’re fooling people.’

Finn sighed. ‘Aye.’

‘Fuck,’ Nina muttered. The more they uncovered, the more Nina realised what a huge scale this operation functioned at. If they had any chance of bringing these people down, they needed more than notes and strands of evidence. Something like?—

The door to the pub burst open, and her knight in shining armour strode in. His hair was mussed, his clothes wrinkled, and he had a crazed look in his eyes, but that grin on his face gave her hope.

Another woman followed him inside, her eyes flitting across the room. Daisy made up the rear-end of the brigade. She kicked the door shut behind her then gestured to the other woman. ‘That’s Candace.’

Robert nodded, running a hand through his hair and upsetting it further. ‘She has something to tell us.’

Candace’s eyes flickered between Robert and Daisy, then landed on Finn, Billy and finally Nina. ‘I’m not sure?—’

‘I trust them.’ Robert gestured to everyone present. ‘All of them. They won’t rat you out to anyone. No one’s going to be after you. Please, please help us out. Help your friends out?’

She nodded, shrugging out of her coat… shrugging out of Robert’s coat. Nina smiled a small smile. Aye, the man couldn’t help himself.

Robert drew out a stool for Candace to sit, then asked, ‘Coffee?’

She grimaced. ‘Could you please make it something stronger? Anything. I need liquid courage for this – desperately.’

Once she sat down, hands on her lap, Nina noticed Candace’s restless fingers. Her right foot tapped a beat against the bar, and she kept gulping.

After a minute of silence, Candace whispered, ‘I’m not sure I can do this.’

Finn opened his mouth to say something Nina was sure wouldn’t be complimentary. She shook her head at him and walked up to the girl. Fifteen years ago, Nina had moved countries. She remembered how scary it was, even with legal documents, to be in a new place and not know anyone you could reach out to. And something told Nina, for Candace, this entire transition hadn’t been a walk in the park. So despite it feeling entirely stupid and like a new boot that made your foot ache, Nina reached out to clasp Candace’s hand.

To Nina’s surprise, she squeezed it back and lifted her watery gaze to Nina’s. ‘Have you moved too?’

Nina nodded. ‘It was a long time ago, but I remember how scary it was.’

Candace swallowed, then opened her mouth to speak. Only no words spilled from her lips.

Billy held out a glass of something that looked like lemonade. ‘Just breathe, lassie. And take a sip of this.’

The woman complied, taking a small sip. ‘Wow, that’s strong. Appreciate it.’

Billy patted her shoulder and slunk back.

Nina stepped away, unsure how to make Candace comfortable. Then the AA meetings she saw in movies came to mind. In those meetings, people sat in a circle so the focus wouldn’t remain on one person. Perhaps that would ease Candace’s worries.

Nina began arranging their chairs accordingly. After she settled the third chair in place, Robert’s hand slipped around her waist. ‘That was kind of you.’

‘What was?’

Robert dipped his head and placed a kiss on her forehead. ‘You reached out to her – she appreciates that. And I appreciate it. A lot.’

Nina clutched his shirt. ‘Thank you. Let’s get through his, shall we?’

After everyone sat down, Candace gnawing on her lower lip, Robert pulled his chair ahead. ‘Er, before Candace takes over, I have a few things to report. When I went to the Dumb Buck Arms to find Candace, I sort of ran into Dickheadson.’

Billy cursed. ‘What was your boss doing there?’

‘He’s there more often than you think.’ Candace’s statement rang out across the room. She set her drink down on the floor and swallowed. ‘He comes by every so often.’

Daisy reached out and squeezed Candace’s knee. ‘I’ve never seen him before.’

Finn hissed out a curse, then sank back in his chair with a shake of his head. ‘Sorry.’

Candace gripped Daisy’s hand. ‘No, he’s only comes by to talk to Felicity – that’s the receptionist. She… books appointments. But I don’t think he’s a client.’

Robert leaned in. ‘I’m not sure I understand you.’

‘He isn’t there for a session, I mean. But I’ve seen him arriving. He comes in to book an appointment. Once he asked for an appointment with m-me, so I kept an eye out. Only he didn’t arrive, but Felicity left with an envelope in her bag. The next week, he returned to make another appointment.’

That didn’t make any sense. ‘So he’s running his own wee op?’ Daisy asked.

‘No,’ Billy said. ‘No, he’s setting up a meeting. A pal of mine used that system to meet with me. He was, um, wanted by the police. So one of his lads would set up appointments and you had to go meet him at those times, instead of him coming to you.’

‘And he’s clearly passed her something in that envelope,’ Finn grumbled. ‘Or he’s asked her to send that envelope along to someone else.’

Still, Dickheadson’s actions didn’t link him directly to their case. Nina leaned in. ‘Candace, did you see him do anything else, anything to do with?—?’

‘How I came into this country? No, not really. But Daisy and Robert told me what you’re doing, and I… I… Back in 2016, an official came to my dance class scouting for talent. He picked me and my two best pals. We were booked into a few jobs initially, within the country. A year later, they told us we’d been selected for a big theatre production in London. They had photographs, letters, first-draft pamphlets for the show… Excited, I moved with my pals.’

A tear streaked down her cheek, and her lips trembled with the effort of holding her emotions in. ‘We came here on a plane. Back then, we didn’t need a visa – or that’s what we were told. Just scan the passport and that was it. Only, the moment we crossed the border, they took our passports for “safe-keeping”.

‘We were a bunch of eighteen-year-olds in a new country, so we listened. Only, instead of the glamour they promised, we were driven to a creepy place and separated. I haven’t seen my pals since.’

Nina’s previous informants had told her something similar. ‘So they took your passports and you couldn’t escape.’

‘The lawyers at Malcolm and Associates gave me an English surname and a British passport. They said it was all above board. They also gave me a job, but I never earned enough, and the accommodations they placed me in were barely legal. Then one day they told me I had to get married to a foreigner.’

Oh fuck! Nina gripped her chair, fighting the urge to wrap the girl in a warm hug. Even a fool could guess what had happened next.

Candace powered on. ‘I’d never seen the man before, so I refused. Later, I heard most of these marriages ended up being abusive. Good riddance, I thought, but they didn’t take no for an answer. They said I had no choice. Back then, I couldn’t speak a lick of English, but I told him I’d go to the authorities if they threatened me. They… laughed, told me I wasn’t a citizen, let alone a legal immigrant. The real Candace Matthews had died aged twenty. If I went to the police, apart from being here illegally, they could also arrest me for identity theft and fraud.’

‘Fuck,’ Finn muttered.

Robert leaned forward in his chair. ‘So you never reached out?’

Candace’s lower lip wobbled. ‘I ran away. I had to make ends meet, but I couldn’t get any decent employment where they’d check my background… Daisy’s been teaching me English, but being illegal, I’m still stuck.’

Aye, the girl had enough reasons to be scared.

Nina stood and pulled up an image of Shah on her phone.

Candace’s eyes widened, and she dropped her glass and shut her eyes tight. ‘H-He was there! I heard him talking to Felicity and that policeman. He’s second in command to the boss.’

Robert’s words were a whisper, but he gave voice to the question in everyone’s head. ‘Who’s the boss, Candace?’

‘The vilest person who ever lived.’