Once the woman had stopped talking I could only sit and stare at her. My brother was alive when their paths crossed, and this woman had had the power to bring him back into the bosom of his family. Instead he had been used as part payment of her debt.
I reminded myself it was a debt she didn’t accrue.
But then there were the other kids she passed on. Whatever happened to them?
She could have gone to the police and stopped it all.
Would they have believed her?
My mind was a morass, full of contradictory thoughts and emotion. I’d found Thomas and lost him again, all in the one breath. This woman was caught up in that, but she’d been in an impossible situation. I felt sorry for her – it was clear that her confession was relieving her conscience somehow, so much so that she now seemed to be throwing caution to the wind. But at the same time I wanted to scream in her face for thinking only of herself.
A car horn sounded outside followed by a squeal of brakes. Elsa was on her feet, the disturbed dog once again barking as it danced around her feet.
‘Who is it?’ Elsa asked as she peeked out of the window, as if afraid to get too close. ‘Can you see?’
Chris got to his feet and stepped to the window.
‘Wait, get back,’ Elsa shouted. And I could see she was beginning to regret having opened up to us.
‘It’s a wee bit late to be worrying about that, Mrs Brown,’ Chris said. Then when he read the very real fear in her eyes his expression changed. ‘You okay?’
‘What have I done?’ Elsa cried. ‘I shouldn’t have let you in. They’ll come for me now.’
‘No one will come for you, Mrs Brown,’ Chris said. ‘We’ll get in touch with the police. We can tell them to keep an eye out.’
Elsa snorted. ‘The police can’t stop these people. And I’m not scared of the police anymore. I’ll confess to my part in all this if they come for me. It’s these others I’m terrified of.’ She paused. ‘The police are bloody rubbish anyway. Mrs Dawson three doors down was robbed two years ago. She kept her life savings in a biscuit tin. Never saw a penny of it ever again, and the people who stole it were never caught. Not even a whisper of it. The police are next to useless for people like us.’ As she spoke, she squared up to Chris showing a bit of the fight that had brought her this far in life.
‘Are you really that scared they’ll come for you, Mrs Green? This was something that happened a long time ago,’ Chris said.
‘Do you think it all stopped after your Thomas went missing?’ She looked from Chris to me. ‘This is not an old crime, son, and I’m certain those involved are still at it.’ She fell back onto her chair. ‘What have I done?’
‘If you’re that worried, do you have somewhere else you can go?’ Chris asked. ‘Visit a relative for a few days?’
‘They’ll not get me out of my house, son.’ As she replied she sat bolt upright. ‘Besides, I’m the last in my family. Everyone else is dead.’
‘This is not part of an official investigation, Mrs Brown,’ I said, trying to offer some perspective. ‘We just need to know what happened to our brother.’
‘Now that you know this much are you going to stop digging?’ she asked, her eyes pleading.
I was tempted to lie to give her some peace of mind, but I couldn’t. ‘I’ve got to carry on, Mrs Brown. The people who harmed him need to be caught and punished.’
‘Oh, son, you really don’t have a clue, do you? These people have been at this a long time. No way will you and your wee crusade affect them in any way.’ Bitterness came off her in waves. ‘Your brother is long gone. Probably trafficked to some distant country where horrible old men prefer boys with light-coloured hair. Save yourself a lot of pain and just put him out of your mind.’ She grabbed at my hand, her voice quivering with fear and shame. ‘That I had a part in your brother’s demise is a guilt that I’ll have to take with me to the grave, son. But not one of those kids they took ever came back. It’s best you accept that and move on.’