The following morning, feeling as though everything was taking a truly surreal turn, Andee was settled into a business class seat on the 7.40 flight to Stockholm from Heathrow. Given the short notice of the trip, she’d paid a quick visit to Oxford Street yesterday to gather up enough essentials to last for three days, though no one had told her she’d be away for that long. In fact, there had been no mention of a return flight at all, and the ticket she had was only one-way.
‘Don’t worry,’ she’d told Tim when he’d pointed this out. ‘I’m sure no one’s planning to kidnap me, and I can always buy myself a ticket to get home if need be.’
He still didn’t look happy. ‘You don’t feel you might be walking into some sort of trap?’ he challenged.
It hadn’t crossed her mind until he’d suggested it. However, now, as the plane soared off into the blue beyond, she was asking herself if she was crazy to be following a stranger’s instructions to fly to a country she’d never visited before, as though this were some sort of game for which she knew the rules – which she patently didn’t.
There was no point trying to second-guess things; she had absolutely no idea what to expect when she got to Stockholm, apart from a meeting with Sven Sylvander, and after that, presuming it happened, she’d just have to wait and see.
In an effort to distract herself from the continued taunt of misgivings she tried to focus on her mother, whose concern about this trip to Stockholm hadn’t been so very different to Tim’s.
‘I wish Graeme was around to go with you,’ Maureen had commented with a sigh. ‘It doesn’t seem right you having to go there when I’m sure this man could just as easily come here.’
‘It’ll be fine,’ Andee had assured her. ‘I just want you to stop worrying and let me know immediately if either Penny or her son get in touch again.’
Having wondered earlier if this trip was some sort of ruse to get her mother on her own, Andee had already texted Blake to ask him and Jenny not to let Maureen out of their sight. She’d also alerted Gould and Johnson of her movements and of course Tim knew, and would have come with her had his wife not been returning from York today.
Remembering that Alayna had emailed her a further update last night, she scrolled to it and felt her curiosity growing, along with confusion and unease, as she tried to make sense of it.
OK, girls first. Seems like seven of those I checked yesterday are living in London. No actual addresses, but that’s not unusual, only a moron would give that sort of information on social media. They’re still active on various sites, but nothing unusual about their posts since those a couple of months ago, apart from the fact that they no longer seem to be in contact with Martyna. I went back a bit further on a couple of pages and found some interesting entries about someone called ‘Polina’ who ‘didn’t want to go through with it’. Have attached a screen shot. See where someone says, ‘Oh my God, that’s terrible. No one will ever find her.’ The responses are all weepy emoticons, apart from a couple saying that she had a choice so it’s her own fault. Couldn’t find anything to explain what it meant. The next weird, or interesting thing, is a post from someone called Inga reminding them that they should be using their private chat room.
Sorry, got to go now, Jay’s waiting. No idea what any of this means, or how real it is. Will try to check.
Love you, A xxx
(PS – Will focus on the guys next.)
Making a mental note to forward this to Leo when she landed, Andee refused a second coffee and croissant from the steward and closed her eyes. Although none of this confirmed Tim’s theory, it wasn’t ruling it out either; in fact it was making her increasingly uneasy. But organ-trafficking? Really?
Feeling faintly queasy, she turned to gaze at the clouds. Nothing was making sense to her, from Alayna’s social media report, to Martyna’s comments about Penny, to John Victor Jr’s – Jonathan’s? – need for help.
After an easy pass through immigration Andee wheeled her new overnight bag through to Arrivals, where a portly, well-groomed woman of around fifty was displaying a board with her name on it. Going to her, Andee found herself responding to the warmth of the woman’s smile with some enthusiasm of her own.
‘I’m guessing you’re Selma,’ Andee said, as they shook hands.
‘Indeed I am,’ Selma replied, her gentle voice confirming her as the woman Andee had spoken to on the phone. She was also the ‘assistant’ who’d sent the email containing flight details. ‘I am very happy to meet you. Please come this way. The car is not far.’
With the pleasing anticipation of being in a country she’d never visited before mixing with some apprehension, Andee took in her surroundings as she walked alongside Selma to a large black Mercedes, where a chauffeur was already holding open a rear door.
‘Is this your first visit to Stockholm?’ Selma asked, as they merged with the traffic heading towards the city.
‘It is,’ Andee confirmed. ‘I read something recently about Sweden being in the top ten best places to live.’
Selma’s smile was full of pride. ‘It is a beautiful country, and Stockholm, as you will see, is a very special city. Maybe you already know that it is made up of many islands which are linked by, I think, forty-two bridges. This is why we call ourselves the Venice of the North. Our waterways are much wider, and very blue at this time of year. Plus, we have many quaintly cobbled streets, historic buildings and a magnificent palace in Gamla Stan, which is the old town. Of course there are also many boats and cafe´s on the waterfronts, and also some of the best restaurants in Scandinavia, possibly the world. And then there is the coffee.’
Andee’s eyes twinkled.
‘I am reading your mind,’ Selma told her mischievously, ‘which is why our first stop will be at a very special place which is not far from your hotel.’
Interested to hear that she would be in a hotel, Andee said, ‘When will I meet with Sven?’
Selma grimaced an apology and glanced at her watch. ‘I am afraid it cannot be today. I will explain over coffee, meantime, if you will forgive me there are some urgent calls I must make.’
Deciding now wasn’t the time to object to being kept waiting, Andee simply gazed out of the window, having no more success in reading the passing signs than in understanding whatever Selma was saying on the phone. She truly was in a foreign country, excluded by the language and possibly even the culture; however, she wasn’t feeling too anxious yet, only curious and even vaguely excited.
Checking her own phone as it rang, she saw it was Graeme and gladly clicked on. ‘Hi, how are you?’ she asked quietly.
‘I’m fine. Where are you? That wasn’t a British ringtone.’
‘I’m in Stockholm.’
‘Stockholm? Why?’
‘It’s a long story. I’ll tell you later. Have you ever been here?’
‘Yes, a few times. I used to go with a client to buy art at the Auktionsverket. How long are you going to be there?’
‘I’m not sure yet.’
‘I’m guessing it’s something to do with Penny?’
‘It is.’
‘Are you alone?’
‘Yes and no. I was invited by Sven Sylvander, who I haven’t met yet. He’s someone Penny’s son wants me to be in touch with.’ If Selma was listening she showed no sign of it.
‘Is Penny going to be at this meeting?’
‘I’ve no idea, but I don’t think so. Are you managing to get things back on track at your end?’
With a sigh he said, ‘Don’t get me started.’
‘Oh dear. How’s Nadia behaving?’
‘The way she usually behaves, passionately.’
Not sure she liked the answer, Andee said, ‘Is she with you?’
‘Yes. I mean, not at this moment, but she’s at the villa every day now and I really wish she’d go back to Spain for a while.’
Liking that answer much more, Andee fell silent for a moment, not sure what else she wanted to say, but not wanting to ring off either.
‘I miss you,’ he said softly.
Swamped by feeling, she said, ‘I miss you too.’
‘I’d like to be the one to show you Stockholm. It’s one of my favourite cities.’
‘If you can get here …’
‘If I could I’d be on the next flight.’
Forty minutes later, having journeyed along a motorway surrounded by more glorious pine forests than she’d ever seen in her life, to be greeted in the city by the most entrancing baroque architecture on just about every street corner, Andee was sitting outside a famous café in the Gamla Stan being invited to name her bean type, grind size and froth style.
The coffee shop was on a quaint, cobbled street adjacent to a waterfront with towering and colourful old houses soaring skywards, and a tantalising glimpse of the royal palace glistening in the bright midday sun.
When eventually their bespoke brews arrived Selma raised her cup and said, proudly, ‘Valkommen till Stockholm.’
‘Tack,’ Andee smiled, using the only Swedish word she’d managed to pick up from watching every episode of The Bridge.
‘When we are finished I will take you to your hotel,’ Selma told her. ‘It is not so far from here, in the area known as Ostermalm, which is like your Kensington or Knightsbridge in London. You will probably enjoy to freshen up a little before we begin our tour.’
Andee blinked. Tour? ‘Oh no, I really don’t want to put you to any trouble,’ she protested. ‘I’m quite …’
‘It is no trouble. I am happy to do it,’ Selma assured her, ‘and Sven insists that you should see something of our beautiful city before you leave. I’m afraid it isn’t possible for him to see you today, because he is very sick. He has – how do you say leukemi …?’
‘Leukaemia?’ Andee ventured, hoping she was wrong. Who’d wish it on anyone?
‘This is correct,’ Selma confirmed. ‘Yesterday he was receiving chemotherapy. He insisted he would be strong enough to see you today, but of course it is not true. He needs another day to regain some strength.’
‘Oh, goodness,’ Andee murmured. ‘I’m so sorry.’
‘We are all sorry, because we love him very much and sadly he is not going to recover. The doctors are keeping him with us for as long as they can, but not so long that his life becomes unbearable.’
Andee couldn’t think what to say as Selma sipped her coffee and waved to someone she knew. In the end she said, ‘Have you worked for Sven for long?’
Selma smiled. ‘Since I was twenty. He is a very good man to work for, which is why he is so much loved.’
Andee weighed up her next question, and decided simply to go for it. ‘Do you know my sister?’ she asked.
‘Oh yes, very well,’ Selma replied, clearly unfazed. ‘We call her Kate, which is what she prefers. Others know her as Michelle, and of course to you she is Penny.’
Andee had got stuck at Kate – the evil Kate Trask from East of Eden? – until the mention of Penny. ‘So you know who she really is?’ she asked incredulously.
Selma simply added more sugar to her coffee.
‘Is she here?’ Andee wanted to know.
‘No, we have not seen her since Jonathan disappeared.’
‘Jonathan? Her son?’
‘That’s right. He has been in touch with you?’
‘With my mother. He wanted me to contact Sven. Penny calls him John. John Victor.’
Selma’s eyebrows rose.
Hoping for more of a response, Andee waited, but none was forthcoming. ‘What did you mean when you said he’s disappeared?’ she asked.
‘He is not in contact with Kate or Sven.’
‘Why?’
‘It is Sven who must answer this question. I am here to keep you company for today and make sure that you have everything you need.’
Realising that Selma would have her instructions and that nothing she, Andee, could say would make her sway from them, Andee decided to resign herself to the wait and simply enjoy her tour.
By seven that evening she had crossed so many bridges, admired so much stunning architecture and gasped at such an abundance of picture-postcard views, many from Heaven, a rooftop bar in the Sodermalm district, that she couldn’t imagine why she’d never been here before. The city was far more fascinating – and friendly – than she’d expected, and she couldn’t help wishing Graeme was with her so she could enjoy his stories of previous visits.
Since she was eager to talk to him, she waited no longer than it took to get to her hotel room and pour herself a large glass of wine before connecting to his number. To her frustration she went through to voicemail, so after leaving a message for him to call as soon as he could, she sank into a plush armchair and opened her emails.
No more from Alayna, nor from Leo; however there was a curt note from Penny that immediately infuriated her.
For all these years I’ve left you alone, never digging into your life or trying to interfere with what you’re doing. It would be to your credit if you would afford me the same courtesy.
‘I can’t believe the nerve of her,’ she exploded to her mother when she got through. ‘It’s like she’s completely forgotten that she got in touch with us. And how dare she say she’s never dug into my life when she’s so blatantly been having me watched. I don’t suppose you’ve seen the boy again?’
‘I’d have told you if I had. I keep thinking about him though, and wondering why he said time was running out. What on earth do you think he means?’
‘I’ve no idea, Mum, but hopefully by this time tomorrow I’ll be able to give you an answer.’
The following morning Andee was already waiting in the hotel lobby when Selma and the chauffeur arrived to take her to meet Sven. Having consulted a guidebook she was aware that the area they were travelling through – Ostermalm – was home to some of Stockholm’s wealthiest residents, and this was very evident. The baroque and Renaissance buildings, immaculate in their upkeep and made glorious by ornate turrets, spires and onion domes, were as opulent and elegant as anything she’d seen in Paris or London, maybe even more so. She tried to imagine Penny moving around the area, speaking the language, meeting friends, shopping in the stylish boutiques, enjoying the history and charm. It wasn’t easy, but given how little she knew of her sister’s life that was hardly surprising.
Eventually they turned off a wide, busy boulevard with a tree-lined walkway down the centre of it into a quiet, triangular construct of exclusive mansion blocks. They came to a stop outside an ivory-coloured building with black wrought-iron balconies rising up over several floors, and a set of heavy black doors to mark the entrance.
‘Sven also has a home at Djursholm, overlooking the sea,’ Selma informed her as she put in a security code to enter the block. ‘It is where he prefers to be, but his treatment means he must spend most of his time in town.’
Concerned for how sick he actually was, Andee said, ‘Are you sure he’s up to seeing me today?’
‘Oh yes, he is looking forward to it.’ Selma nodded her thanks to a security guard who was showing them into an elevator.
At the fifth floor the doors opened and they were greeted by a slightly bent old man with a complexion like tree bark and an expression that appeared half happy, half tragic, the result, Andee suspected, of a stroke. ‘Thank you, Erik,’ Selma said gently. ‘You can tell Freja that we are here and will take coffee in the lilla salongen when she has it ready.’
‘Of course. It will be my pleasure,’ Erik responded with an awkward little bow.
Moved by the politeness of them speaking English, presumably for her benefit, Andee looked around the extraordinary circular entrance hall with its elaborate mid-European decor and wide marble staircase that curved up to the next level. There were statues and paintings everywhere, fresh flowers in large oriental urns and a rack filled with so many styles of walking cane that Sven – or someone in the household – must surely be a collector.
‘Through here,’ Selma invited, pushing open a large oak door with iron-studded hinges and, incongruously, but sweetly, a child’s drawing of a house pinned to the front. Underneath the drawing were the words Pappa’s Den.
‘We found it the other day while going through some things,’ Selma explained, ‘and we decided to put it up again.’
The lilla salongen turned out to be a cosy, oak-panelled room with tall sash windows along one wall offering views over dense green treetops, a black and gold marble fireplace with a gilt-framed mirror over the chimney breast, and three matching sofas in mahogany leather forming an intimate square around a circular glass table.
‘Sven will be with us shortly,’ Selma told her. ‘He favours this room above the others. It is less formal, he says.’
Andee was by now so riveted by the photographs on just about every surface that she was barely listening. Penny was in so many of them, staring out with watchful, almost solemn eyes, or seemingly trying to avoid the lens altogether. In some she was smiling, but only a few, and in others she was much slimmer and younger than she was now. Andee presumed the older man who often featured alongside her was Sven, and the young boy was surely John – Jonathan – at various ages. Selma also appeared, but the woman who really caught Andee’s attention, apart from Penny, was a truly striking beauty. There was so much gaiety radiating from her in just about every shot that Andee felt a strong desire to meet her.
‘Sven’s wife, Ana,’ Selma said softly, seeing Andee transfixed by the woman’s appearance.
Before Andee could respond, a door beside the fireplace opened and the man from the photographs came to life. For a bizarre moment Andee felt thrown, for as strikingly similar as he was to his captured images, there was also an enormous change. The shock of white hair had gone, as had the swarthy complexion. His age-spotted head was completely bald, and the skin on his face was waxen and crusted. He was painfully thin and stooped, but his eyes, behind their frameless spectacles, were such a deep and arresting blue it felt almost as hard to look at them as it was to look away.
‘Andee? May I call you Andee?’ he asked, holding out an unsteady hand to shake. This was the voice she’d heard on the phone, low and gravelly and slightly hypnotic.
‘Yes, of course,’ she replied, feeling the knotted bones of his fingers as her own closed around them.
‘Thank you for coming to Stockholm,’ he said, holding her gaze in a way that felt authoritative yet reassuring. ‘I am sure Selma has explained why it is not possible – or let us say it is not easy – for me to travel these days.’
‘Yes, she has,’ Andee replied, ‘and I’m very sorry to hear what you’re going through.’
He dismissed it with a wave of his hand, which he turned into a gesture for her to sit down. ‘Ah, here is Freja with our refreshments. I hope you’ll forgive me for not taking anything myself – doctor’s orders – but please enjoy the coffee, and Freja makes the most excellent kladdkaka, which I expect you know is a Swedish version of chocolate cake.’
Andee hadn’t known it, but she was happy to try it, along with the coffee, which turned out to be excellent. As for the patisserie … She wondered how she was going to limit herself to only one slice.
‘Selma will stay with us,’ Sven informed her, as Freja set a bottle of mineral water and a glass on the table next to him. ‘I don’t think I’m going to collapse or die in the next hour or so, but just in case, it would be awkward for you to deal with it alone.’
The merriment in his eyes was so infectious that Andee had to smile.
‘Now, I think we should come straight to the point of why you’re here, don’t you?’ he said. ‘Jonathan gave you my number, yes? Have you seen him?’
Startled by the suddenness of the question, Andee said, ‘No, but my mother has. He gave her your number to pass to me.’ She wondered whether to bring up the issue of the name, but decided to leave it for now. ‘Why doesn’t he approach me himself?’ she asked.
Batting the air, as though there might be a fly near him, he said, ‘Because he suspects his mother is having you watched, and I am sure he is correct about that.’
Andee’s eyes widened. Apparently he didn’t find anything inappropriate about this, or if he did he wasn’t showing it. ‘But there is always email, and the phone,’ she pointed out.
‘He believes his mother to be capable of monitoring all things.’
Andee held his gaze, an unspoken request for him to expand. When he didn’t, she said, ‘Is she?’
He smiled. ‘I really have no idea, but I can tell you that she is very resourceful.’
‘So what is going on? Why am I here?’
‘To answer that I must tell you that I have not spoken to Jonathan in several weeks, but I imagine he has put us in touch because he wants me to ask you to help him.’
Andee’s eyebrows rose. ‘Why does he need help?’
Sven shifted uncomfortably, but waved Selma back to her chair as she made to get up. After sipping some water, he said, ‘He has got himself into a situation that does not please his mother. It could end up causing her some … difficulties and she is very keen to avoid that. I’m afraid he can be as stubborn as she is.’
Realising she needed to back up slightly, Andee said, ‘How did he even know about me?’
‘Ah, yes. This is a good question. He knows because I told him, and once his mother realised I had done this she guessed he would go to you if things should go wrong between them. I confess this was my intention, although the current circumstances – I refer to the reason for his disappearance – were not in existence at the time I told him he had another family. I did it as a form of insurance. Once my cancer was diagnosed I needed to be sure someone would be there for him should things ever become … complicated, as they are apt to do with his mother.’ He paused as Selma refilled his glass and passed it to him. ‘He has come to you now,’ he said, after taking a sip, ‘because he feels that his situation is … It is becoming urgent. He should let me help, but he won’t because of my health, and to be frank, I’m not sure he fully trusts me. This makes me sad, of course, but I understand it.’
Andee said, ‘If you want me to help him, then you’ll need to be more specific.’
Sven smiled and nodded. ‘Of course, and I will be, but to explain properly means that first I must tell you about your sister.’ He gave a ponderous shake of his head, suggesting dismay, even sadness. ‘It still surprises me to think of her as part of another family, but of course, I’ve always known that she is.’
‘If you’ve always known it then why didn’t you …?’
He raised a hand to stop her. ‘I will tell you everything, from the beginning, and hopefully this will answer your questions.’
She regarded him carefully as, for several moments, he appeared to sink into his thoughts, until eventually his mesmerising eyes returned to hers. ‘Kate came to us,’ he began, ‘Kate is what we call her. I hope that is not difficult for you?’
Andee shook her head, and wondered if he knew why Penny had chosen that name, if she’d even chosen it for the reason Andee suspected.
‘Kate came to us when she was twenty-one,’ he said. ‘We found her … I should say we were told where to find her, by John Victor, who I know to be your uncle. He is also the man who sold us her twin sons four years before.’
Andee inwardly reeled. John Victor had sold Penny’s twin sons. So there were two, just like in East of Eden.
‘I realise you will think it a terrible thing that we bought two children,’ Sven continued, ‘but my wife was unable to have any of her own, and she so desperately wanted them. We could have adopted, of course, but it can take so much time and we weren’t getting any younger. So we decided on a different route. It wasn’t easy to find the right people to help us, but then I was introduced to John Victor …’
He paused and drank more water, and used a folded handkerchief to dry his lips. ‘We were introduced, your uncle and I,’ he continued, ‘by a mutual friend whom I trusted and who assured me that Victor could help us. It turned out to be true, at least in one sense. At our second meeting Victor told me about a young girl who would willingly carry my child, so I paid him a great deal of money to keep the pregnancy and birth under the radar until it was time to bring the newborn – we didn’t realise at the time there would be twins – by private jet, to our home in Connecticut. By receiving the child there and not returning to Stockholm for a while, it would be easier for us to pass the baby off as our own. So Ana faked her pregnancy, and one day we got a call from Victor to let us know that the girl had given birth to twins. It didn’t matter. There was never any hesitation. We wanted them both. So Victor brought them to us, and Ana and I remained in America for the next two years, moving around quite a lot to avoid becoming too close to people, and of course to avoid awkward questions. After obtaining birth certificates and passports for the boys we brought them to our home in Djursholm.’
Andee was so stunned she hardly knew what to say. To think of two tiny babies, her own nephews, as the victims of such exploitation and bartering was so shocking and unacceptable that she simply couldn’t deal with it right now.
‘They thought, believed,’ Sven went on, ‘that we were their parents. Their birth certificates say that we are …’
Unable to stop herself, Andee said, ‘Why would you call one of them after John Victor?’
Sven nodded soberly, apparently considering this a reasonable question. ‘At the time he brought them to us he was our saviour. We felt very much in his debt, even though we had paid him a great deal of money. It was his wish that one of them should be named after him, so that is what we did, altering it slightly to Jonathan. We had no idea at the time what Victor was really like, although you would say that we should have, as no normal person would have been able to pull off what he had. I guess we only wanted to think about the boys and how blessed we felt, and how blessed they were too to have parents who wanted them so much, when their own mother had only given birth to them for financial gain.’
‘Did you know that for certain?’ Andee challenged.
Apparently chastened, he said, ‘We took Victor at his word, and got on with our lives.’ He stopped, took a shaky breath and drank some more water.
‘The boys were four years old when Ana, my wife, was seriously injured in a car accident and Alexander, Jonathan’s twin, was killed.’
Andee felt the blow, and could see how deeply affected Sven still was by the tragedy.
Seconds ticked by. He was staring at nothing as he eventually said, ‘When it became clear that Ana wouldn’t walk again, that she’d be unable to do many things for herself … This was when she started to believe that we’d been punished for taking the boys the way we had. She became convinced that their mother hadn’t wanted to part with them; even if she had, she might have changed her mind by now. She decided that we must try to find her, that she should be given the chance to be a mother to her son. I think she believed that only by doing this would she ever be able to forgive herself for the death of Alexander.
‘So I contacted John Victor and for another considerable sum he told me where the mother could be found.
‘It was appalling. The conditions she was being kept in were the worst I’d ever seen; I didn’t even know that people lived like that. She wasn’t alone; there were a number of girls there, and boys, barely existing in the kind of squalor I hope never to see again. She was so emaciated and sick that her captors were glad to be rid of her, but of course they made me pay. I didn’t mind, I’d have given them twice as much, ten times as much, to get her out of there. She had no idea who I was; she was in no state to know anything. She just did as she was told, collected up the few possessions she had: a hairbrush that was clearly rarely used, a ragged selection of clothing; only one pair of shoes; a toothbrush and a book.’
A book.
‘East of Eden?’ Andee asked quietly.
He nodded, though he didn’t appear to find her accurate guess either surprising or relevant. ‘I brought her here, to this apartment,’ he continued. ‘Ana and Jonathan were still in Djursholm. I didn’t want them to see Kate, as we came to know her, until she was well. It took a long time to get her well. I hired a nurse to help take care of her. She had the best medical and psychiatric attention, but it was still more than a year before she was able to converse without forgetting her words, or eat without vomiting, or even walk down the street without thinking someone was coming to get her. The psychological effects of her ordeal were profound.
‘Eventually, when the doctors declared her well enough, I took her to Djursholm to meet Ana and Jonathan. By then she’d chosen her new name and we decided that she should also have ours, so she became Kate Sylvander. We did everything we could to get her started in a new life, and she did everything she could to help care for Ana.’ He paused to take a breath. ‘We could see right away that she was finding it difficult to bond with her son,’ he said, ‘and she showed no outward signs of upset when she was told about Alex. We understood that she had been forced to internalise her emotions for so long that she was still afraid to show them, so we simply continued as we were. Jonathan called Ana Mamma and me Pappa and that was the way it stayed.’
His luminous eyes came to hers, and seemed to leave his own thoughts behind to penetrate hers. ‘You are wondering,’ he stated, ‘how much we knew of Kate’s background when we brought her here.’
He was right, she was asking herself that, along with many other things.
‘The truth is, we knew everything, because John Victor had told us before we entered into our agreement. He would not get his money unless he provided us with a full history of the mother. There could have been medical or psychiatric issues, and we needed to know what sort of legal complications we might face if she ever found the boys and wanted them back.
‘In the event it was never a problem. After we took her in she was happy to stay with us. She felt safe, she said, as though she belonged. She and Ana became close, and I knew it would break Ana’s heart to lose her, so there was never any question of her leaving and returning to you. It was her choice, never forced on her by us.’
His eyes remained on Andee’s, slightly defiantly, showing that he’d known then, and knew now that he’d done wrong, but he wasn’t sorry.
‘You are wondering,’ he said, reading her mind again, ‘if she ever asked about you and your parents. The answer is no, she didn’t. That isn’t to say she didn’t use the Internet to read about her disappearance, because she did, and she frequently Googled your name during the time you were with the police to find out what you were doing. But she never talked about you, at least not to me or Ana. We tried to encourage her, told her that we’d understand if she wanted to be in touch with you, but she insisted that she didn’t. By then she’d begun working with me, helping to manage our properties here in Sweden, also those in London and the United States. She was very adept; a quick learner and as it soon turned out, a shrewd businesswoman. I promoted her through the ranks of the company with far greater speed than I had with anyone else, which didn’t make her popular, but she never seemed to mind about that. She wasn’t in it to be liked, she would tell me, she was in it to repay me and Ana for our kindness, and to do whatever it took to help girls, or boys, who, through no fault of their own, found themselves in the same position as I’d found her.’
Andee sat quietly as he drank more water. She had the sense that he was moving forward too quickly, glossing over things to try and show his Kate in a good light, but there were shadows, far too much obfuscation for her to let it go that easily. However, for now she’d let him speak and if he didn’t mention John Victor again, she’d come back to it.
‘Of course I couldn’t help but admire her ambition,’ Sven continued, putting his glass down, ‘and I was more than ready to support her personal project, which she’d been working on quietly and diligently almost since her health had been restored. It was unusual, to say the least, but I was soon persuaded. Ana, on the other hand, was not. In fact she was very much opposed to it. We tried hard to persuade her to see things our way, but she never did, and I wasn’t prepared to back it without her blessing.
‘In the end it went ahead, but not until after Ana died.’ He swallowed hard, and so did Andee. Ana had objected to Penny’s idea, and now Ana was dead. Kate Trask had removed the madame from the path of her ambitions in East of Eden and had gone on to achieve them all, foul and depraved as they were. So how had Ana died?
‘The project was not without its dangers,’ Sven was saying, ‘and this was a big concern to me, which is why, when we decided that we would press ahead, I wouldn’t allow Kate to undertake it alone. We sought expert advice and hired people to escort her to various parts of this great continent to meet with the traffickers.’ His eyes were boring into Andee’s, gauging her response.
Traffickers. Her mouth turned dry, her heart began a heavy, dull thud. ‘What were they trafficking?’ she asked, matching his even tone.
‘People,’ he replied.
Again he showed no emotion, while she was finding it hard to stop herself reeling.
‘Her project became very successful very quickly,’ he continued. ‘She gained a reputation for paying well and in cash, and she never divulged the whereabouts of the traffickers to the authorities.’
And this was a good thing? What kind of world was this man living in?
‘Her operations have become more refined over the years, but they are still …’
Forcing a calm she was far from feeling, Andee said, ‘What kind of deal is she doing with these traffickers?’
He nodded, clearly ready to come on to that. ‘She selects, she buys, the prettiest girls – and boys – the traffickers can offer and takes them under her wing. Everything is explained to them ahead of their departure, so if any of them don’t want to go they are free to stay where they are. Of course, once they find out what Kate – or Michelle as she is for her business – is offering, they always want to come. She turns their lives around in a way that would never have happened if they’d stayed in their homelands, or with those who’d promised them a better life. This is not the only way she finds people. These days she now has many scouts and intermediaries working for her in several parts of the world. I do not get closely involved myself; she doesn’t need my help, and now I am in no position to give it even if she did.’
Andee started as he waved a hand towards the open window, and Selma quickly went to close it.
‘Do you need a blanket?’ Selma offered, clearly concerned. ‘Maybe you should take a break for a while?’
He shook his head and gestured for her to sit down again.
‘You must be wondering,’ he said to Andee, ‘what Kate is offering these young people that is so irresistible to them. It would be easy to say a way out of poverty, a means of helping their families, we all know that is why most people leave their countries and those they love, to seek a new life. With Kate, instead of being cheated and lied to, beaten, raped, sold on to other traffickers and forced into prostitution and slavery, they are brought to Stockholm or Paris or London and installed in the various apartments we own around these cities. They are taught how to present themselves in the best way possible, so their hair is cut into sophisticated styles, their skin is given help if it needs it, they visit dentists, doctors, personal trainers, and then they are videotaped talking about themselves. They say their names and ages, where they are from, what sort of hobbies and ambitions they have, all sorts of things. These videos are then shown to couples in America, the Middle East, Asia, wherever they happen to be, to see if the girl is suitable for them. The girl’s task is to carry a child for people who are unable to have children of their own. If they like the look of the girl Kate has selected for them – and they almost always do as she is very good at putting people together – then everyone meets. If they are still sure about going through with it, the necessary papers are drawn up and so it begins. Sometimes the husband will donate his sperm, or even have relations with the girl, I am told, but where that isn’t possible a suitable donor is found. The fertilising process is carried out at one of the medical centres Kate owns in America. Surrogacy is legal in many states over there, as I’m sure you know.’
Whether Andee did or didn’t hardly began to rate on the scale of issues being raised.
‘There are so many people in the same sad position Ana and I once found ourselves in,’ he continued, ‘eager, desperate to have children but denied by nature. They are prepared to pay very handsomely for someone – a healthy and beautiful young girl – to carry a child for them. If a sperm donor is being used then he too is very carefully selected. From conception the child belongs to the couple the surrogate mother has entered into an agreement with, and when she is safely delivered the infant is handed over to the happy parents.’
Instinctively knowing it couldn’t be that simple, or as perfect as he was trying to paint it, Andee said, ‘And the surrogate mothers? What happens to them?’
He smiled fondly. ‘They are free to go home, if this is what they wish to do, or they can help another couple to have a baby, which many of them do. Or Kate and her team will help them to find jobs and places to live until they are ready to return to their families, if they have one. Sadly, some don’t.’
‘What sort of jobs?’ Andee asked, wondering if she already knew the answer.
He held up a hand to stop her. ‘This is not important,’ he declared, ‘and I’m afraid I am getting tired, so we really need to talk about Jonathan and why he needs your help.’
Andee gestured for him to continue.
‘For some time,’ he said hoarsely, ‘Jonathan has been working with his mother, mainly in an administrative role, but they rarely see eye to eye. It is odd, given what she does to help others, how Kate seems to have very little maternal instinct of her own. She is not comfortable with her son, or with strong feelings, I have always known that. She is very focused on her work, which she finds much easier than many people would. Over the years I have heard her described as anything from a psychopath to a narcissist to a sadist, but I have heard many good things about her too, and it is on them that I prefer to dwell. She has brought us a lot of happiness, not least through her boys, especially Jonathan, who is the gentlest, sweetest soul you could wish to meet. It’s hard sometimes to believe they are related. I think the fact that he isn’t more like her is what frustrates Kate the most about him. She considers him weak, which is not the truth at all. He is as determined and strong-minded as she is, but over different issues, which is why she is rarely kind to him. I doubt she has ever told him she loves him, and this could be because she doesn’t. To be honest, I don’t know how capable she is of love in the way we know it.’
Certain that she wasn’t, Andee said, ‘Does he know who his biological father is?’
Sven’s eyes narrowed as they came to hers. ‘Do you?’ he countered.
She could feel herself tensing as she said, ‘Is it John Victor?’
He shook his head.
Experiencing an unsteadying relief, she continued to regard him, meeting his unflinching gaze with one of her own. ‘Then it’s you?’ she said quietly.
He didn’t deny it.
Andee looked at Selma.
‘We never told Ana,’ Sven said. ‘It felt like a betrayal, to sleep with a girl I didn’t know, to be able to produce a child when Ana couldn’t … I wanted her to feel that we were equal parents. And when Kate came to join us … It would have been too hard for Ana if she’d known the truth. She was confined to a wheelchair, she was so helpless and we were unable to be close, in a physical sense, any more. She would have looked at Kate, and me, in a different way. Please believe me when I tell you that apart from the time the twins were conceived there has never been anything of that nature between Kate and me. She is like a daughter to me.’
Putting aside thoughts of her own parents, Andee said, ‘Does Jonathan know how you came to be his father?’
‘He does now.’
Since there was no more to be gained from exploring that, Andee said, ‘Going back to John Victor. Do you know what happened to him? I mean how he died?’
From the way Sven looked at her she could tell that he did.
‘Were you the man the neighbour saw getting into a car with him, just before he disappeared?’ she asked.
‘Yes, that was me.’
‘Was Kate involved?’
Once again he simply looked at her. It was answer enough.
Andee turned to Selma, but Selma was looking at no one.
‘Jonathan,’ Sven stated, bringing them back to the reason they were there, ‘is protecting one of the girls from his mother. The girl, Juliette, is pregnant, and the baby has already been signed away to a couple from Texas. The trouble is, she has decided she wants to keep it and Jonathan is trying to help her to do this. I am not sure when the birth is due to happen …’
‘In two weeks,’ Selma put in quietly.
Sven nodded. ‘She should already be in the States, at one of the clinics, but as far as I am aware she is still in England, or perhaps Jonathan has taken her somewhere else by now for her protection. I think not, or he would be more likely to face his mother, or to approach you himself. The fact that he won’t means the girl must still be with him.’
Andee could hardly begin to work out the implications of it all, legal, moral or emotional.
Sven waved a hand towards Selma, her cue apparently to continue.
‘If the girl goes into labour,’ Selma said, ‘which of course she will at any time now, Jonathan will have to get her to a doctor or a hospital, which will make it easier for Kate to find them.’
‘But what can she do?’ Andee protested.
‘She will take the baby.’
‘She can’t just walk out of a hospital with a baby that isn’t hers.’
Selma didn’t argue, nor did Sven, who was looking at her again. The answer was clear in their eyes: Kate would find a way to do it because Kate was Kate.
‘You have to help him,’ Sven said. ‘You see, the baby is also his.’
Andee’s eyes closed in shocked dismay. How much worse could this get? ‘What do you want me to do?’ she asked.
‘That will be for you to decide after you’ve spoken to him. I imagine he is hoping your law enforcement connections will be helpful.’
‘And how do you propose I do that when he won’t come near me?’
‘We’ll make it happen,’ Sven assured her. ‘We just have to know for certain that you’re on his side.’