Warren sat opposite John Grayson, bringing his superior officer up to speed on the day’s events, before the upcoming raid on the Cullen farm.
‘The full name of the young woman that we have in custody is Anica Vuković. She killed Stevie Cullen by accident when they wrestled over a knife, after she defended Biljana Dragić from a serious sexual assault.
‘Apparently, Stevie Cullen was a nasty piece of work. According to Wilson, he always asked for a massage from Biljana, and was often sexually suggestive. She says that Biljana had kept his behaviour to herself, since she was worried that if she complained to her aunt, Cullen would wreck her business. She didn’t even tell her sister.’
‘It’s always the same bloody story,’ muttered Grayson. ‘Shits like Stevie Cullen think they can do whatever they want.’
‘Wilson says that when she spoke to Biljana, she said it had been happening for months. Until then, however, she had managed to fend him off. On the day in question though, he wouldn’t take no for an answer, and threatened her with a knife if she didn’t give him oral sex.’
‘So how was Annie involved?’
‘She doesn’t usually work that late, but she was doing an extra load in the washing machine. When she heard strange noises coming from the back room, she decided to investigate. That was when she found Biljana on her knees with a knife to her throat, and Cullen had his pants down. She claims not to remember what happened next, just that she found herself wrestling with Cullen over the knife. At some point, Cullen lost control of the blade and he was stabbed.’
‘Why didn’t Malina hear anything?’
‘Wilson says that she was watching a music video on her phone.’
Grayson frowned. ‘Why have the sisters kept quiet? They are literally facing life imprisonment.’
‘Wilson says that the girls have become really close to Annie, but more than that they felt that Annie had risked her life to save Biljana and they couldn’t let her go down for murder. She claims that she tried to talk them out of continuing the lie, but they refused to back down.’
‘Do we know what Annie’s relationship is to the sisters and Wilson?’
‘They didn’t even know each other until a few months ago. Silvija Wilson initially claimed that Annie turned up at the massage parlour needing work, and that she agreed to give her some casual labour, cash in hand, and not ask too many questions. She now admits that was a lie.
‘Annie came to the UK about three years ago, on a temporary visa. She won’t go into details, but it sounds as though she had a pretty bad home life back in Serbia, and she’s clearly trying to escape something. She came here to work illegally, ending up working in a café in Newcastle with some other Eastern Europeans, and doing cleaning in the evening. Again, all cash in hand. From what she’s said, it wasn’t actually too bad. The people who employed her were pretty dodgy, as you’d expect, and housed them two to a room in some run-down terraced house, but otherwise they treated her all right. It was better than what was at home and she made some good friends, or so she thought.’
‘So how did she end up down here?’ asked Grayson.
‘She’d been putting away a bit of money and was thinking of moving on to something better. She thinks that she may have told the wrong person, who then let their gangmasters know about it. One night, as she was walking back home, a white van pulled up alongside her. The person inside asked her for directions in Serbian – although she now realizes that their accent and pronunciation were all wrong. The next thing she knew, somebody grabbed her from behind, shoved her in the back of the van and closed the door. They put a knife against her throat and pulled a bag over her head.’
‘And drove her to the Cullens’,’ completed Grayson.
‘Basically, yes. That was about two years ago. When they let her out, they had all of her belongings from her room, which was how she knows that she was betrayed by someone she lived or worked with.’ Warren shook his head in sympathy. ‘The poor woman didn’t even know which part of the UK she had been moved to. All she knew was that the people here spoke a lot differently than the customers she’d worked with up in Newcastle.’
‘I’ll bet,’ said Grayson. ‘I suppose that’s part of the way they control them. Keep them completely in the dark, so they have no idea where they are or where they can seek help.’
‘The Cullens house – or rather imprison – about a dozen workers, men and women, mostly Eastern European, and a few from the Far East, in converted shipping containers on their farm. Stevie seems to be the mastermind behind the whole affair, although the rest of the family are also involved. When she first arrived, they were mostly helping the Cullens on their own farm. But a few weeks later, they started working on other farms, as well as non-seasonal work, such as car washes or private cleaning. There were also a couple of Vietnamese women working as nail technicians at Silvija Wilson’s. She wanted to help them escape, but they were too scared, and they don’t have a common language. Fortunately, they kept her presence at the massage parlour quiet.’
‘So, where do the dead bodies in Farley Woods come into the picture?’ asked Grayson.
Warren sighed. This was where the story became even more tragic.
‘The male and female workers were kept in separate containers and weren’t supposed to fraternize, but human nature …’
‘She got pregnant,’ finished Grayson.
‘Yes. Another worker, by the name of Emil …’ Warren paused. ‘He’s our victim in the woods, and the baby is his.’
Grayson closed his eyes briefly. ‘That poor, poor woman,’ he said quietly.
‘Annie intimated that she wasn’t the first person to fall pregnant.’ He swallowed. ‘The Cullens didn’t let them complete the pregnancy.’
‘Bastards,’ said Grayson. ‘I suppose that’s why they tried to escape?’
‘Yes. They had no choice, and by the summer she was starting to show, it wouldn’t be long before someone figured it out. And then she started getting twinges. She knew that it was far too early and that she would need medical attention, so they had to work out what to do.
‘The escape was Emil’s idea. They were fruit-picking at Ray Dorridge’s farm. They’d got behind with their work, and so they were working late at night under electric lighting. Emil had managed to cut a hole in the fence one afternoon when Frankie was too drunk to pay any attention. That night they made a run for it. But she went into early labour and couldn’t run very fast. Stevie, Frankie and their father, Seamus, came after them with shotguns and dogs. Emil was shot. He crawled back towards the Cullens to distract them whilst Annie tried to escape, but she collapsed and went into labour. What we know now was a purely coincidental flyover by a police helicopter chasing joyriders on A506, frightened the Cullens off. She gave birth in the woods, but she knew that the baby was stillborn, so she hid it and managed to find her way to the main road, where she was picked up by a passing car. She had no idea what happened to Emil.’
Grayson shook his head. ‘How did she end up in her current situation?’
‘Sheer chance. When she arrived at the hospital, she managed to tell them that she spoke Serbian, so they tracked down a Serbian-speaking nurse. When Annie explained her situation, and that she didn’t want to go home, the nurse agreed to help. She had an aunt who had looked after her when she first came to the UK. That aunt had also been a registered midwife before she decided to set up her own business.’
‘Silvija Wilson.’
‘Exactly. They smuggled her out and Wilson took her back to her own house at first, until she was better, then let her move in with her nieces.’
‘Christ,’ muttered Grayson, ‘what was she running from back home that meant she would rather go through all of that, than go back to Serbia? She might have been here illegally, but she was the victim of a serious crime. She might have been deported in the end, but you’d think that would be better than staying, after all of that.’
‘Neither Annie, Wilson nor her nieces are saying,’ said Warren.
‘So how confident are we that this is the final version of events?’ asked Grayson. ‘Silvija Wilson has changed her story more times than I’ve changed my socks.’
‘I think we need to speak to the sisters again. If they contradict what she’s said, then we’ll know that we still don’t have the full story.’
‘But even if they do, they could just be telling whatever version they agreed upon that afternoon,’ pointed out Grayson.
‘Which is why we need to speak to those two nail technicians; they are currently our only independent witnesses. Let’s hope that they are on that farm.’
Grayson leant forward in his chair and lowered his voice. He glanced at the window, as if looking for eavesdroppers. ‘You’ve done a fantastic job, Warren; under circumstances that can’t have been easy for you.’
‘Thank you, Sir.’
‘But there are still questions that need answering.’
‘Northern Man,’ stated Warren.
‘Exactly. Who is this person? Are we sure he even exists?’
Warren nodded his head, vigorously. ‘We have independent sightings from both Joey McGhee and his dealer Kourtney Flitton, and the mobile phone evidence is compelling. But it’s everybody else’s reaction that convinces me. Ray Dorridge, Silvija Wilson, Annie, Malina and Biljana. All of them deny his existence and all of them are lying. I can see it in their eyes.’
‘Have you shown them photographs of Bergen?’
‘Among others, but they refuse to even look at them. They’re terrified, Sir. Bergen is a senior officer in the SOC. I can’t begin to imagine what he’s threatened them with. And to think I let Bergen have a go at interviewing them …’
‘Christ,’ muttered Grayson, ‘we can’t justify a raid without him, and Professional Standards aren’t ready to move. But if he is bent, who knows what sort of information he could be feeding back to the Cullens?’
‘Which is why we need to raid that farm as soon as possible. There is an immediate threat to wellbeing, and it’ll give him less time to prepare.’
Grayson nodded. ‘Then get it done now.’