A Rush of Blood

Twenty-six

‘How quickly can you get an interpreter?’ Wilding and Montell heard Cowan ask as they came back into the CID office. ‘OK,’ she said, firmly, a few seconds later, ‘do it. The force will pick up the tab.’

The DS frowned. ‘Was that our money you were spending, Alice?’ ‘Don’t worry,’ she assured him. ‘The DI wouldn’t have any problems with it if he was here. While you two gourmets were at the sandwich shop, I had a call from the Royal. Our girl’s started to respond. Her name’s Anna, and she’s hungry; that’s all they’ve got from her so far, but one of the nurses there is Polish, and she says that she’s speaking Russian. When they ask her questions in English, all they get are blank looks, and they say she’s still way too wandered to be putting it on.’

‘Who were you speaking to just now? The Polish nurse?’

‘No, one of the administrators. They have non-English speakers admitted quite often, so it’s something they have to deal with. They have a list of people they can call on at short notice. They guy I spoke to says he can get a Russian translator from the university; she should be there by the time we are.’

‘Shouldn’t we go to that massage parlour place first?’ Montell suggested.

‘Why would we do that? We were going there to question the manager about the girl. Now we can question her about him. . if that’s where she came from.’

‘True,’ Wilding agreed. ‘How about I go along for a look at this massage parlour place?’

Cowan glared at him. ‘If it turns out that our girl has been held there, I want to be the one that kicks the door in, waving a search warrant. If you pull rank on this, Ray, I will be in a very serious huff.’

He chuckled. ‘Anything but that! OK, you two head off to the Royal. See if you get any sense out of this lass; that’s the first priority, right enough.’

‘Can we take ten to eat our sandwiches?’ Montell asked. He delved into a large paper bag that he was carrying and handed a film-wrapped baguette to Cowan. ‘Corned beef and pickle,’ he told her. ‘That OK? They didn’t have any pastrami left.’

‘That’ll do, I suppose.’ She grinned at him. ‘First thing you’ve got right today.’