SAY YOU

NEVER

MET ME

Martin Yallop

Copyright © 2008 Martin Yallop

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study,

or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents

Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in

any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the

publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with

the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries

concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.

Matador

9 De Montfort Mews

Leicester LE1 7FW, UK

Tel: (+44) 116 255 9311 / 9312

Email: books@troubador.co.uk

Web: www.troubador.co.uk/matador

A Cataloguing-in-Publication (CIP) catalogue record for this book is

available from the British Library

Matador is an imprint of Troubador Publishing Ltd

While this is a work of fiction, most of the named locations are real: London Bridge Station and Leadenhall Market exist, there are clubs with signs advertising ‘cabaret’ and ‘live show’ clustered beside the port roundabout in Lanarca and, until the latest extension was completed, there was a bar upstairs in ‘Departures’ in Terminal One at Heathrow.

All the people and events are entirely imaginary. Nevertheless, the stories of cruelty to the trafficked girls and women are typical of what really happens and ae often drawn from press and other reports. Despite the efforts of campaigners, governments and national and international law enforcement agencies, trafficking continues and the willingness of ruthless people – mainly men – to exploit and abuse vulnerable women is unabated.

This is for Jennifer

Paranoia! Paranoia!

Everybody’s coming to get me.

Just say you never met me.

I’m running underground with the moles,

Digging holes.

from ‘Flagpole Sitta’ by Harvey Danger

London Records