Marina turned to the solicitor. “Shall I answer?” He nodded.
“Well, hardly at all. He was just a face on a dating website, and we got into the habit of chatting from time to time – there’s nothing wrong with that.”
“No, of course not, “said Maggs. “But you must understand that it is a bit unusual for someone in an important job with the British navy to start exchanging information with an officer in the Russian Navy. Did you not think of that?”
“No, not in that sense,” she replied. “It was just that he looked nice and we seemed to have some interests in common and we began to get to know each other better, in stages.”
“You spent quite a lot of time together yesterday. What did you talk about?”
“It was the first time we had met in person,” Marina replied, rather coyly. “We just had so much to catch up on and I think we both realised that we had become really close, in spite of being at such a distance until now. It really seemed like we had known each other for ages, which of course we had.”
“Did you tell him that your grandparents came from Russia?”
The solicitor whispered to her, “You don’t have to answer that.”
But Marina replied, “It’s not a secret, and it gave us an interesting subject to talk about.”
“Did it make you feel you were both on the same side, as it were?” asked Maggs.
The solicitor, warming now to the importance of his task, and in spite of a sleepless night, intervened and suggested quietly that she should refuse to say anything further at this stage. She appeared to agree, so he said to the detectives, “Unless you have any further matters, I think Miss Peters needs a rest.”
Maggs turned to his sergeant and said, “Right. I think that is all we need for now. So would you arrange for Miss Peters to be released on conditional bail and make sure we know how to get in touch with her if we need to? And find a driver to take the young lady home.”
She began to feel relieved, but before she left, he added rather sternly, “Please remember that, because of your job, you signed the Official Secrets Act, so be very, very careful what you say to anybody. That includes your friends and particularly the press. And by the way, we have been to your flat and now have your laptop computer and mobile phone here. We will get someone to return them by tomorrow. Thank you, Miss Peters, and goodbye for now.”
The young solicitor interjected and asked: “Can you just go to Miss Peters’ flat and take her computer like that without a warrant?”
“It was done correctly, Mr. Scott; this is a national security matter,” came the instant reply. On the way out, the solicitor handed his card to Marina and told her to ring him later to discuss the next steps. He advised her again not to talk to anyone else about the events of the past 24 hours, especially the press.
She paused at the door and turned back to the CID chief. “Where’s Nikolai?”
“I’m sorry, but I can’t tell you that,” replied Superintendent Maggs. “And by the way, you can collect your handbag on the way out, but we need to keep your mobile phone a bit longer. We will return it with your laptop as soon as we can. Oh, and you should ring your father in London. He has called your mobile a couple of times this morning.”
“Did you speak to him?” asked Marina. And when he told her they did not answer the calls, she said, “Then how did you know it was him?”
Maggs replied, “His number was on the phone as the caller.”
Marina, still hovering in the doorway, was alert by now and asked, “How did you know it was his number?”
“We know everything,” said the CID chief as he finally walked out. “We will be in touch with you again as soon as possible, and maybe by tomorrow I will know more.”
A kindly woman police officer arrived and escorted Marina to the lobby where she collected her handbag. They went down to a police car in the underground car park and drove her back to Marina’s flat at about noon.
Marina took her door keys from her handbag – and suddenly realised that the police must have used them to get into her flat earlier. Using the security code, she opened the door into the lobby and took the lift to the first floor. She used her key to open the door and entered gingerly, but everything appeared to be normal, except that her laptop was missing from her desk and it had been disconnected from her printer. As she looked around, she began to think of a myriad of questions about what she should do next. She must call her father straight away. Who could she contact to find out what had happened to Nikolai? Her solicitor perhaps? And what about her job? She could not e-mail anyone without her laptop. Then her landline phone rang, and it was Betty.
“There you are at last,” she said. “I have been worried since the press came to see me this morning to find out if I knew where you are? I thought you were missing and gave them a photograph to help them find you. What’s happened? I must come over to have a chat and see how you are.”
“I am very tired and all mixed up,” said Marina. “I’ve been with the police since yesterday afternoon – I need a sleep, so can you make it later in the day?”
“Of course, if that’s best for you, I will. Look, I’m on duty tonight, so I will pop in on my way. I’ll give you a call first… but aren’t you going back to work?”
“I don’t know what I am doing yet. You’ve reminded me that I had better call the office to find out if they know anything. Do I even still have a job? I’ll let you know later.”
Marina wandered round the flat aimlessly. She tried to call her father, but his phone line was busy. She found she had some milk in the refrigerator and made herself a cup of tea – there were a few biscuits in the tin – then she found some bread to make toast. After another snack, she tried again to reach her father.
“Hello, my dear Marina. I am so worried about you,” he began, in his still-accented English. “Where have you been? You have not answered your mobile. Are you all right?”
“Yes, I think so, Pa,” she said. “It’s a long story, and I don’t know where to begin. It’s all because I have been chatting to a Russian sailor on my computer and this has created a bit of a stir and the police are investigating. But don’t worry. I’ll try to see you over the weekend and tell you everything. But don’t talk to anyone, please, because I think the press may want to find out about it. They have already contacted my friend Betty.”
“But who is this Russian fellow?” asked Victor. “Is this why I just had a call from the Russian embassy this morning, wanting to come to see me? Why me? I don’t know anything….”
Marina’s head was spinning.
“I’ll call you again later, Pa, when I’ve had a rest, and give my love to Mum,” she said and went slowly to her bedroom. Why did the Russian embassy contact her father, she wondered? She lay down and fell into a deep sleep almost instantly.
She was woken when the phone rang, and then the external doorbell buzzed insistently. She looked at the time, and it was only four o’clock. She had slept for less than three hours and decided to ignore the callers. Then peering cautiously around her curtained front window, she could see three cars parked outside. A small group had gathered down below at the front of her block of flats.
She quickly guessed that it was the press. In fact, reporters from the national and local press had started descending on Portsmouth following the Foreign Office statement. Radio and TV reporters and cameramen were there, too – and although there was no confirmation about Marina’s involvement, Mike Morrissey had passed on her address to the visiting reporters (and knew he would get a fee for his information). Mike had been given the address by Gary, and the two of them were the first ones there that afternoon. When they got no reply from the call button for her flat, they spoke to her neighbours as they came and went but could discover very little useful information. Just a few snippets…