Page 93 of Don't Believe A Word

CONNOR: ‘What about his sister, Audra? Do you have any contact details for her?’

NATALIE: ‘I wish. I tried finding her, but none of the Audra Andrises I got in touch with knew him. That’s if they spoke English at all, and not many of them did so I didn’t hear back from all of them. I think she was married, so she probably had a different name.’

CRISTY: ‘Did Lukas ever send you any photographs when you were still in touch that might indicate where he was when he took them?’

NATALIE: ‘Oh yeah, Lukas at Blackpool Tower; Lukas and Evie paddleboating on a lake somewhere; Evie with a Beefeater; both of them outside Buckingham Palace … He used to send snaps more regularly than he did messages, I guess as a way of keeping in touch and letting me know he was still alive. That’s why I’ve been so worried since everything suddenly stopped.’

CRISTY: ‘OK. Can I take you back to the time you were all in Minehead for a moment? Did you ever meet any of the other so-called “Russian brides”?’

NATALIE: ‘No, like I said I didn’t even know about them until way after it was all over.’

CRISTY: ‘Did either Janina or Lukas ever talk about Sasha’s father?’

NATALIE: ‘Never got a mention. I presumed he was someone she’d left back in her own country, or later, I thought he was probably one of the scumbags who trafficked her. Could have been just a random punter. I never liked to ask.’

CRISTY: ‘Is there anything you’d like to say to Lukas, in case he listens to this podcast?’

NATALIE: ‘Yeah, sure, be in touch you crazy bastard! I need to know you’re OK. Same goes for you Janina, wherever you are. I really cared about you guys, still do, so give me a break here and call or message. You know how to find me, Lukas, the mobile number hasn’t changed.’

Cristy looked around to see if anyone had anything else to add. They all shook their heads, so Connor stopped the recording and Cristy said, ‘I can’t thank you enough for this, Natalie. You’ve added something very special to the series by bringing Lukas and Janina to life in a way no one else has been able to so far, apart from Robert, the doctor Janina met a couple of times.’

‘Yeah, I heard his interview. Sounds like an interesting guy, his mother came over well too. I guess you still don’t know what really happened with those sisters? Myself, I reckon that finding achild on the beach stuff is bullshit, and I especially do now you’ve posted those shots of one of them with Symmonds-Browne and Janina. What the heck was all that about, is what I’d like to know?’

‘So would we,’ Cristy responded. ‘I’ll let you go now, but if anything else comes to mind you think might help us, you know where we are. Your interview should be in the next episode, so please let us know if Lukas, or anyone, gets in touch after that. Or before.’

‘Let’s hope it happens. I’ll sleep a lot easier if I could be sure he’s not out there somewhere, six feet under.’

As she disappeared from their screens, Jacks gave it a moment and said, ‘In case anyone’s interested, I’ve heard from the supersleuths. Apparently the “Naples” message got forwarded because we didn’t mention anything about the theory of witness protection, or identity switch, in the pod, so it was decided this one could have some cred.’

‘Someone on that team is doing their job,’ Connor commented approvingly.

Agreeing, Jacks said, ‘I’ve also heard back from the anonymous sender. I’ll put it up for you all to read, but here’s what it says if you want to record it for a drop in.’

Receiving a thumbs up from Connor, he continued,

JACKS: ‘“Sorry, my mistake. Please ignore last message. Good luck.’”

Cristy regarded him thoughtfully. ‘That was a fast about-turn,’ she commented. ‘Any way of tracing the sender?’

‘I’m on it,’ Jacks replied, ‘and I’ve tried messaging again, but so far being blanked. Interesting aside, the English, what little there is of it, is pretty damn perfect. Which isn’t to say Italians can’t speak our language fluently, just making the point, is all.’

‘And Brits do live in Naples,’ Cristy reminded him. ‘OK, let’s see how you get on trying to track our Napoleon friend down. That’s not what you call natives of Naples, is it?’

‘Neapolitan or Napolitano,’ Connor provided.

Grinning, Cristy turned back to Jacks as Clover asked if there was anything else from the supersleuths worthy of follow-up.

‘Nah, only stuff we’d have rejected out of hand if we were doing the job,’ he replied. ‘A lot of fan mail apparently, especially for you, Connor.’

Connor started. ‘Me?’ he protested. ‘Tell them to bin it, right now.’

‘I think it all goes into folders in case we need to refer to it. Anyway, sounds like you haven’t looked at your profile page on the website in the last twenty-four hours. Iz has posted some of the “at home” shots of you with Jodi and Aurora, and now there are lots of women out there wanting to have your babies.’

Cristy gave a snort of laughter as Connor groaned and sank his head into his hands.

‘If it makes you feel any better,’ Clover said, ‘they’re pretty good. All very tastefully done –and,’ she added, meaningfully, ‘they’re going to appear in one of the upmarket colour supplements at the weekend. So I think Iz has done you proud.’

Clearly not ready for any sort of Iz praise yet, Connor said, ‘OK, can we get back to what we’re supposed to be doing here …’