Page 111 of Don't Believe A Word

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’salso 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 beachisrooted 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?’