Alice was still reeling from Katy’s bombshell about Enya as she hurried back towards the office. She couldn’t wait to tell Jinx what she’d found out. But the second she stepped through the agency’s doorway, she sensed a weird atmosphere. Something was up.
‘There’s someone here to see you,’ Jinx whispered, nodding to Alice’s office, where Alice could now see a well-presented, middle-aged woman in a denim skirt and polo neck under a Harris tweed jacket sitting in the chair opposite her desk. Only her boots gave her away — square toed and rubber soled. Most definitely a utilitarian European brand.
‘Miss Beeton?’ she asked, standing up, as Alice came in.
‘Yes. Hello. How can I help you?’
‘My name is Gerda.’ Her accent sounded vaguely Germanic and vaguely familiar. A faint alarm bell started ringing in Alice’s mind. She was absolutely sure she’d never met this person before, so why did she feel this recognition? ‘I am … was … a friend of Enya’s.’ She sniffed loudly, rubbing her nose. The poor woman clearly had a dreadful cold. Alice recoiled. She could really do without getting ill herself.
‘I read about what happened,’ Gerda said, proffering Monday’s copy of the paper, Alice’s quote outlined in red.
‘Oh, I’m so sorry for your loss. It’s really quite awful,’ Alice said.
Gerda sniffed loudly again and let out a shuddery breath. Alice looked through the glass at Jinx, making wide eyes. She came in with a box of tissues and handed them silently to Alice and then backed out again.
‘Excuse me, sorry, but how exactly do you know each other?’ Alice said. ‘You and Enya?’
Gerda sneezed, accepting the tissues gratefully.
‘We used to work together. As au pairs. Then for hotels. She was younger than me, but she was my best friend.’
‘I see,’ Alice said, remembering her manners. ‘Please. Sit down.’
‘But now she has been …’ Gerda seemed to be steeling herself ‘ … murdered.’
‘The police aren’t exactly sure that—’
‘Murdered,’ Gerda repeated. ‘I know this as fact.’
‘But how?’ Alice stared at her, alarmed.
‘On the night she died … she called me. She said she was frightened for her life. She was scared.’
‘Of whom?’ Alice asked, shocked.
‘I don’t know. That’s why I’m here.’
Alice swallowed, feeling completely out of her depth. ‘I’m not entirely sure why you think I can help. Surely this is a matter for the police?’
‘I can’t go to the police.’ Gerda vehemently shook her head.
‘Why not?’
‘They don’t like people like me. I have the wrong visa. And Enya …’ Gerda said, looking up ‘ … she was the same …’
Alice nodded. She thought about the CV printed on the thick paper that Enya had handed over from the very spot that Gerda was now sitting in. How perfectly official and above board it had looked.
‘She was such a fine person,’ Gerda said in a small voice and the lightbulb pinged on in Alice’s head. The voice. It was her voice.
‘Was that you I spoke to on the phone? Pretending she’d worked for you at The Dorchester?’ she asked.
Gerda nodded, her cheeks now burning. ‘She begged me to. She said she’d found the perfect job. One that was easy and paid well and she was determined to get it.’
Alice slowly shook her head. She really had been made a fool of, hadn’t she? She was half-tempted to tell Gerda to get out there and then, or even call the police, but what was she guilty of? Other than having tried to help a friend out in need?
‘Why did she want the job so badly?’ Alice asked, because the events of the past few hours had made it very, very clear that Enya Fischer had wanted the job at the Messents’ very badly indeed.
‘For the money, of course.’
‘She needed money?’ Alice asked. This didn’t tally with what Katy had said.
‘Her mother. She was sick. Is sick. She’s dying,’ Gerda said. ‘The money was for an operation.’
‘Do you have a number for her mother? A real number,’ Alice warned.
Gerda shook her head. ‘No, nor for any other family. But then, I don’t think Enya was her real name. A lot of us, we take on fake ones. To keep the authorities at bay. That’s why the police … they won’t be interested in what’s happened to her either … not once they find out she was an illegal worker,’ Gerda said. ‘They never are.’
‘I’m sure that’s not true. They’re taking this case very seriously.’ Alice couldn’t help rushing to Detective Rigby’s defence.
Gerda shook her head and coughed. ‘They will drop it. There will be no answers.’
‘I’m sure that’s not true at all—’
‘So, you must find out,’ Gerda said, leaning across the desk to grip Alice’s arm. ‘Please.’
‘Me? But I, I …’ Alice stumbled. ‘I can’t.’
‘You met her.’ Gerda’s bloodshot eyes bored into Alice’s. ‘How would you feel if the person closest to you was cut down in their prime? Wouldn’t you want answers too? What if it was your friend out there?’ Gerda nodded through the glass towards Jinx, who, caught out staring, turned quickly on her Manolo heels. ‘We were this close,’ Gerda said, crossing her fingers, her voice breaking. She dabbed at her eyes with a scrunched-up tissue.
Alice looked at Jinx, standing in the kitchen, her heart tugging with sympathy for this poor woman. Because if something happened to Jinx, wouldn’t she do everything in her power to get answers?
‘But … but how?’ Alice said. Because how could she help?
‘Talk to the other staff there.’
‘But Enya was the only person I placed. Other than Jacques. And he’s already told the police everything he knows.’
‘But the cleaners. And others. Please,’ Gerda said. ‘You surely must be able to find a way to find out more?’
Maybe she was right. It wasn’t like Alice didn’t know anyone in the industry. She should be able to track these people down and talk to them. ‘I’ll do what I can, but I’m not promising anything.’
‘You know she’s very sweet,’ Gerda observed. She reached down to stroke Agatha’s ear.
‘She’s also very spoilt,’ Alice said, as the dog gently wagged her tail.
‘She’s like your family?’ Gerda asked.
‘Yes, I guess so.’ Alice smiled down at Agatha. ‘Although she can be very naughty at times.’
But it was only after Gerda had left that Alice realised she’d totally failed to get her full name, address or telephone number.
And neither had Jinx or Helly.