In between, Naomi made calls to her mother and sister, John dealt with some emails, and they watched Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.
John managed to concentrate on the show for just one question, but within moments had lapsed back to his inner world. To the terrible guilt he felt for what he had done. If he hadn’t spoken to that journalist, Sally Kimberly, then there would never have been all the publicity. Perhaps no one would have taken any notice of them. Whoever had taken Luke and Phoebe, and for whatever reason, he felt certain he was in some way to blame.
He didn’t know what to say to Naomi, what to do about it, how to deal with it.
For the first time ever in his life he felt that if he were to die, it would be a blessed relief. And what he deserved. All that kept him going was the knowledge that somehow he had to be strong for Naomi, to keep every ounce of pressure on the police.
After the ten o’clock news Naomi said, ‘Do you think they will ever find them, John?’
‘Absolutely.’
‘Alive?’
‘Yes.’
She stood up, walked over to the window and stared out. There was no view, just a windowless brick wall the other side of an enclosed courtyard. ‘They’re too smart, too intelligent. People who think they’ve seized a couple of pretty children to abuse are going to find themselves with more than they bargained for. When Luke and Phoebe suss that these people they trotted off with so damned happily are actually monsters, then they’re going to start resisting – and when that happens, what the hell are these creeps going to do? What would you do?’
John walked over to her and put his arms around her. ‘Maybe they’re smart enough to escape. Perhaps this is the time that the advantages we’ve given them in life will pay off.’
She looked at him. ‘Really? Well, if you can explain all these wonderful advantages they have – how come they were foolish enough to go off with these people in the first place?’
111
‘Did you manage to sleep?’ Pelham asked John and Naomi.
‘A little, thank you.’ Naomi stared across the round table in the detective inspector’s office through raw eyes and with a throbbing head. Her scalp felt tight and uncomfortable, as if it had shrunk around her skull.
Pelham was accompanied by Tom Humbolt and a third man, a lean, good-looking American in a dark suit, whom the DI introduced as Special Agent Dan Norbert of the FBI, who was based at the American Embassy in London.
‘Thanks for coming down on a Sunday,’ John said.
The agent spoke in rapid-fire bursts with a Southern twang, his lips barely moving. ‘Not a problem, we’re full out on this case. Real sorry ’bout your kids. Gonna get them back for you, that’s what we’re here to do. We’re gonna get ’em back fast as we can.’
He spoke with a certainty that gave Naomi a spark of hope. ‘What’s happened?’ she asked. ‘Have there been some developments? Do you know where they are?’
‘We believe we do,’ he said.
Pelham said, ‘I decided not to risk waiting for the Greek authorities to get around to opening up the left-luggage locker and sent an officer to Athens airport myself last night. He found a bag in the locker containing amounts of cash in a number of currencies, the business card of a taxi company in Thessaloniki, and the deceased woman’s real passport sewn into the bottom. Her name is Lara Gherardi. That mean anything to either of you?’
‘No,’ John said.
‘ Lara Gherardi? No.’ Naomi shook her head.
Pelham continued, ‘The FBI say she was reported missing three and a half years ago by her family in Chicago, who believe she was linked to a religious cult. She had a history of mental illness and instability, and had twice in her teens run off and joined cults. On those occasions, her family used to get communications from her, but they’ve heard nothing in three and a half years – they say it’s as if she disappeared off the face of the earth.’
Naomi looked at the American agent. ‘Where do you think our children are? Have you found out anything about the plane?’
‘We haven’t gotten any useful information on the Gulfstream yet. But we’re closing the loop in another direction. The man who was found with a gunshot wound on your doorstep on Friday morning – who was murdered yesterday – we believe is Timon Cort, a member of the Disciples of the Third Millennium cult.’
‘It really exists?’ John asked.
‘The Disciples?’ The agent tilted his head. ‘Uh, you want to believe it exists. We’re pretty certain we’ve located their base, and we’ve been monitoring all their electronic signals for several months by satellite, picking up all their digital communication packets. We’ve been tracking this Timon Cort character through emails – all coded in weird religious tracts of the Bible – for the past eighteen months. We linked him to Iowa, where there was a mass death of a family who had been to Dr Dettore, then to Rochester, New York State, where another family who had been to Dettore were killed. Then we lost him. Turns out he comes to England and pitches up on your doorstep.’
‘Who shot him outside our house?’ Naomi asked, tightly, shivering.
‘Can’t answer that,’ Dan Norbert said. ‘You get seriously screwed-up people in these cults. Two factions disagreeing about what to do, that kind of stuff.’
‘And you know where they are?’ she said.
‘Thanks to Miss Gherardi’s left luggage ticket.’ He chewed his gum for a moment. ‘Our office in Athens has been on to the cab firm who told us where they picked this woman up from yesterday. Her photo was in Timon Cort’s wallet. She got sent to kill him, presumably to keep him from talking, but that doesn’t interest us. It’s the connection between them, that’s the thing, that’s the absolute proof for us.’
‘I thought the Disciples killed people – that they were dedicated to eradicating children conceived in Dr Dettore’s clinic?’ John said. ‘Why would they abduct them?’
‘Seems like they’ve had a change of policy. In the past week in the United States, three sets of Dettore twins have been reported missing by the parents. They’ve just vanished, leaving even less for us to go on than yours have.’
‘ Three sets of twins?’ John said. ‘They’ve kidnapped six kids in the past week?’
‘We don’t have evidence the others have been kidnapped, but it seems likely. They’ve all just slipped under the radar, vanished into thin air.’
‘And you think they’re in the same place as Luke and Phoebe?’ asked Naomi.
‘We’re gonna find out pretty soon.’
‘How soon?’ she persisted.
‘Well, ma’am, appropriations are really being pumped, and we’re just getting our proactive procedural safeguards locked in – we want to ensure we don’t give these bastards one inch of wiggle room, right?’
‘Right,’ she echoed blankly, barely understanding a word of what he had just said.
Then he went on. ‘I’m sorry to have to make you go back over ground you’ve been covering with these good people for the past forty-eight hours, but I’m going to need to start at the beginning with you.’
‘It’s not a problem,’ John said. ‘We’re very grateful for your involvement.’
It was three in the afternoon before Special Agent Norbert was done with his questions, and Pelham escorted him out of the door, back to his car.
112
John and Naomi sat in silence for some moments as they waited for Pelham to return. Naomi, completely drained, looked at Tom Humbolt, who had an expression on his face that seemed to be saying, Why do guys like Special Agent Norbert treat everyone who isn’t FBI like they just fell off the back of a truck?