“You think Kara’s been trafficked, don’t you?”
“I honestly don’t know. I’m not jumping to that conclusion.”
“We need to go to the police. Get them in on this.”
“Constance, please. I’m afraid there’s nothing for the police to act upon yet. And it’s not always a good idea to go in blindly. I’m afraid that I suspect a small number of people of high rank—police and politicians and others—of either turning a blind eye or having some involvement in certain shady activities. And sometimes, when you expose one of these bad apples, you lose all paths to your target. As a detective, I had that unfortunate experience. To put it simply, sometimes, exposing flaws means closing doors.”
“Okay, I’m jumping the gun. But it’s simply not like Kara to have anything to do with someone like Mr Carlisle. Something very wrong is going on.”
“Look, there’s a chance Kara could have just decided to go travelling. This whole thing might be nothing to do with Wilson or any other shady character. But, as I said, I’ve been monitoring trafficking pathways for years. And to that end, sometimes I’ll take photographs of missing persons down to airports and docks. And so I did that with Kara’s photograph.”
I realised I hadn’t let Rosemary finish what she was telling me before. “What did you find out?”
“I found out that Kara was seen boarding a private flight to Greece.”
I hesitated, swallowing. “Are you sure it was my Kara? Not just another young blonde girl?”
“I showed them several photos, of different girls. I pretended to be looking for all of them. That’s a method I often use. I know exactly what police would say. I just let them think I’m a plainclothes detective. Two of the staff members picked Kara out. And also, one heard her speak. He said she sounded like Blanche from The Golden Girls. That’s the right accent.”
For a moment, I let myself luxuriate in that thought. Kara had been seen and heard. Proof my baby girl was alive. I prayed she was okay. But the thought of her being trafficked was terrifying. “Where in Greece? Did they know?”
“Athens. But Constance, we can’t be certain she’s there. We don’t know if she went somewhere else after that. This was days ago.”
“It’s the best we’ve got. We have to go there. Right now.” I tossed my drink in the trash. “Should we go together or separately?”
“It could be a wild goose chase. I need you to remember that. Tracing people takes time, especially if they haven’t put down roots anywhere. But yes, I’ll be travelling there today. We can go together. It makes for a better cover to have two women travelling together. Dress touristy.”
“I’m all ready to go. I bought clothes this morning.”
“Wonderful. Then pack up your things and meet me at my hotel room. Room 2416.” She gave me the name and street of the hotel. I committed them to memory. “Don’t tell anyone where you’re going.”
“Yes, of course.”
“There’s something else.”
“What is it?”
She hesitated. “The workers at the airport—one of them also identified Evie Harlow.”
“What?”
“I know. It doesn’t make sense. But he was certain.”
“Why did you have Evie’s—？”
“Remember you gave me her name yesterday? I looked her up online and then printed out photographs from her social media accounts. It was to cement her face in my mind in case I spotted her in any public photographs taken of Wilson Carlisle in Australia. To see if she has a connection with him, too. I didn’t intentionally add her photograph to the pile I took with me down to the airport. I just needed a variety of girls. But one of the workers identified her.”
“What if he just wanted the money you were offering?” I said dubiously.
“Of course that was the first thing to cross my mind. But he also correctly identified Kara, and he was also the one who correctly told me what her accent was like. He also said that Evie came the day after Kara. Which matches up with the timeframes.”
“Is that enough? Did he hear Evie speak?”
“No. But he did describe a bracelet she was wearing. He remembered it because it was unusual. It was a silver chain with charms of tiny swords and war hammers.”
“That is distinctive. I’ll call Gray and ask him to confirm the bracelet.”
“Constance, no, I’m sorry. You can’t tell Gray. Or anyone. Not yet. Obviously, this is going to become a police matter at some point, at least in terms of Evie. Maybe in terms of both Evie and Kara. But I need a bit of time. Right now, there’s no firm proof. I want something solid before we go to the police with this.”