Dani’s heart nearly erupted out of her chest. She jumped up and spun around. Easton too was on his feet and looking sheepish as he darted forwards to the doorway.
‘Bună ziua!’
Dani relaxed a little at the soft and untroubled female voice. She was soon out in the hallway with Easton where a young woman, in jeans and white tracksuit top, was by the now closed front door, just scooping up some bags from the floor, her puffer jacket hanging off her arm. She flinched when she looked up at the two coppers.
‘It’s OK, we’re with the police,’ Easton said, holding out his warrant card for the woman to see.
‘I thought I saw a car,’ she said, straightening up and hanging her coat over the banister. ‘What do you want?’
Like Brigitta, her accent was strong, though her grasp of English far more natural.
‘We were just asking Mrs Popescu a few questions about her grandson, Nicolae,’ Dani said.
The woman said nothing now as she stared.
‘Your name is?’ Easton prompted.
‘Stef. I’m her niece. Great niece, actually.’
‘Do you think we could talk?’ Dani said.
‘If this is about Nic, then I really don’t have much to say, but you can try.’
The woman squeezed past and into the lounge. She took a sharp inhale of breath and then a jumbled flow of vowels and consonants rolled from her tongue at lightning speed as she moved over to the curtains and yanked them open.
When she was done she turned to Dani and Easton in the doorway.
‘Sorry for this,’ Stef said. ‘I keep telling her not to live in the darkness, but she insists.’
With the winter sunlight reaching into the room, Dani could make it out properly for the first time. Her eyes instinctively fell upon the candles and pictures next to Brigitta. Now properly visible, it was clear the arrangement was a long-standing shrine, and the pictures there included those of at least two different young women. Not Stef, though.
Brigitta squirmed in her seat, her eyes squinting as she looked away from the glare and down to the floor. Stef berated the old woman once again though this time Brigitta bit back with her own Romanian tirade. Stef waved it off with an angry flick then looked over to Dani and Easton.
‘Could you tell me what this is about?’ Stef said, her tone bordering on hostile.
‘Perhaps we could speak with you alone for a few moments?’ Dani asked.
Stef looked unsure but then relented and she led the way into the kitchen where she quickly rolled up the blinds and turned on the overhead spotlights to reveal a dated but well-equipped space.
‘So?’ she said.
‘Your aunt mentioned Strigoi just now,’ Dani said. ‘Do you know what she means?’
Stef sighed and rolled her eyes. ‘She’s eighty-six, and her brain is barely there. Take no notice of her fairy stories.’
‘So what happened to her daughter?’
‘Claudia?’ Stef said and she looked a little unsettled now, but also suspicious.
‘Is that her name?’ Dani said. ‘The young woman in the pictures?’
‘Yes. A lot of those are Claudia.’ Stef looked down to the lino-covered floor. ‘She disappeared a long, long time ago. Before I was even born. When Brigitta still lived in Romania.’
‘What happened?’
‘Nobody knows.’
‘They never found her?’ Dani asked.
Stef shook her head.
‘How long has Brigitta lived here?’
‘More than twenty years.’
‘And you?’ Easton asked.
Stef glared at him. ‘About four.’
She sounded almost accusatory, as though waiting for a retort from Easton as to whether that was a sufficiently long time.
‘How well do you know Nicolae?’ Dani asked.
‘He’s technically my uncle, but I don’t know him well at all. Is that why you’re here?’
‘Kind of,’ Dani said. ‘Are you in contact with him?’
‘Me personally? No.’
‘But Brigitta is?’
‘It’s more that he’s in contact with her. When he wants to be. There’s no phone number to call him on. No address to send him letters. He just gets in touch sometimes.’
‘So he’s living—’
‘In Romania. In the mountains near Brasov. It’s where our family comes from.’
She took her phone from her pocket and typed away.
‘What do you do here?’ Easton asked.
Stef looked up from her phone with a scowl on her face. ‘Here at my aunt’s home? Or here in your country?’
Easton raised an eyebrow, perhaps questioning her snottily put together response. ‘You can answer both if you like. Not that I’m judging, just interested.’
‘Why?’
‘We’re following up on the death of a young woman,’ Dani said. ‘An unexplained death.’
‘A Romanian woman?’ Stef asked.
‘Actually, no.’
That seemed to throw her. Dani took out her own phone and pulled up the same two pictures that she’d earlier showed to Brigitta.
‘Her name was Clara Dunne, though she also went by Clara Doyle. We’re also enquiring about her brother, Liam Dunne.’
‘He’s dead too?’
‘Missing,’ Dani said.
Stef took the phone and studied the pictures for a few seconds.
‘I’m sorry. I don’t know them.’
‘You’re sure?’ Easton asked.
‘Why would I lie?’
‘Clara lived not too far from here, in Oldbury,’ Dani said. ‘She had pictures of your uncle in her room, alongside her brother.’
‘Pictures? Like—’
‘Clippings. Not framed photos. Not personal pictures. Clippings, pinned on the wall.’
Stef looked truly puzzled now.
‘I’m really sorry, but I have no idea what you’re talking about.’ She looked at her watch then shook her head impatiently. ‘Look, I’m behind already. I need to wash and change Brigitta, make her lunch, then I need to get back to work.’
‘And work is?’ Easton asked.
She gave him that same snotty look. ‘I’m a cleaner.’
‘That’s fine,’ Dani said. ‘We’ll get out of your hair.’
She pulled out a card and handed it over to Stef who looked at it suspiciously for a few seconds before taking it.
‘If you do think of anything, about Nicolae, or Liam, or Clara, just give me a call. Anything at all.’
Stef didn’t say anything more.
Dani and Easton turned to leave. As they passed by the lounge, Dani stuck her head inside to thank Brigitta and to say goodbye. The old lady was slumped in the armchair, eyes closed, snoring loudly. The black and white picture of Claudia remained held close to her chest.
Dani looked over to the shrine one more time, tried to push away the creepy feeling that continued to build, then turned and headed for the door.