Dead Tomorrow

82

Fat snowflakes were falling as Ian Tilling parked his clapped-out Opel Kadett on an empty stretch of street, just a couple of hundred yards from the front entrance of the Gara de Nord. As usual when he turned off the ignition, the engine rattled on, continuing to turn over, coughing and firing for several seconds before finally quitting.

He climbed out, along with Andreea and Ileana, and slammed the door. He liked Ileana. She was a committed carer, totally dedicated to helping the deprived of Bucharest. She had a pretty face, even with her predatory, aquiline nose, but, almost as if to deliberately deter admirers, she kept her fair hair fiercely combed back into a matronly bun, wore unflattering glasses and dressed in functional rather than feminine clothes.

On more than one occasion when they had worked together, he had thought about how stunning she could look with a makeover. He had also been amused by how persistently the randy Subcomisar Radu Constantinescu had attempted to get her to come for a drink with him, and how adroitly she had rebuffed him on each occasion.

Sometimes there were prostitutes out along the street here, but to his disappointment there were none tonight. This was where they had been hoping to find the girl called Raluca. With Ileana leading, they walked up the steps in the icy night air, and into the cavernous, gloomy interior of Bucharest’s mainline railway terminus. Almost immediately, Ian noticed a gaggle of street kids over to their left. A hundred yards further on, beneath the feeble sodium glow of the overhead bulbs, a small group of policemen stood smoking and sharing a joke.

‘Those are friends of Raluca, over there,’ Ileana said to him quietly, jerking her gloved thumb at the group.

‘OK. Let’s take them something.’

Followed by the two girls, he walked across the deserted concourse, past the closed METROPOL café, and an old, bearded man, in a woollen hat, ragged clothes and gumboots, swigging a bottle of spirits, who had been there, sitting on the ground with his back against the wall, in this same location, in those same clothes, for as long as he could remember. He sidestepped and dropped a five lei note on to the small group of coins spread out in front of the man and received a cheery wave for his troubles.

In the echoing silence, Tilling heard the clanking of a train’s wheels, steadily picking up speed, departing from a nearby platform, and his eyes mechanically flicked up to the departures and arrivals board. The confectionery stall was about to close for the night, but Ian persuaded its surly proprietor to allow him to purchase an armful of chocolate bars, biscuits, crisps and soft drinks, which they then lugged over, in several bulging plastic bags, to the street kids.

He knew a few of them. A tall, thin boy of about nineteen, called Tavian, wearing his blue woollen hat with ear flaps, and military camouflage jacket over a windcheater and several layers beneath. He held a sleeping baby, wrapped up tightly in a blanket. Tavian always smiled – whether it was his nature or because he was permanently smashed on Aurolac, Tilling did not know, but suspected the latter.

‘I have some presents for you!’ the former English police officer said, in Romanian, holding out the bags.

The group grabbed them, jostling each other to peer inside, then digging into the contents. No one thanked him.

Ileana turned to another girl in the group, a Romany of indeterminate age, dressed in a pink day-glo shell-suit top and shiny green bottoms, with a scarf wound around her neck.

‘Stefania,’ she said, in Romanian. ‘How are you?’

‘Not so good,’ the girl said, ripping open a packet of crisps. ‘The weather’s shitty, no? It’s a really bad time. Nobody has money to give to beggars. Where are the tourists? Christmas is coming, right? Nobody has money.’

A tall, sullen youth, with a small moustache, wearing an embroidered woollen hat, a black fleece and grimy jeans, and gripping the neck of a plastic carrier, doubtless containing Aurolac, began ranting about how the turkeys – their slang for the police – were treating them recently. Then he peered into one of the bags Stefania was holding open and pulled out a chocolate bar.

‘They don’t leave us alone. They just don’t leave us alone.’

‘I’m looking for Raluca,’ Ileana said. ‘Has anyone seen her tonight?’

The group shot each other glances. Although it was clear they knew her, they all shook their heads.

‘No,’ Stefania said. ‘We don’t know any Raluca.’

‘Come on, she was here with you last week. I spoke to her with you all!’ Ileana said.

‘What has she done wrong?’ another girl asked.

‘She’s done nothing wrong,’ Ileana reassured her. ‘We need her help. Some of you street kids are in real danger. We wanted to warn you about something.’

‘Warn us about what?’ the sullen youth with the moustache said. ‘We are always in danger. No one cares about us.’

Ian Tilling asked, ‘Have any of you been offered jobs abroad?’

The youth gave a sneering laugh. ‘We’re still here, aren’t we?’ He broke off a slab of chocolate and crammed it into his mouth. Chewing, he said, ‘You think we’d still be here if we were offered a way to get out?’

‘Who is this man?’ A strung-out-looking girl at the back of the group pointed at Ian Tilling, suspicion in her voice.

‘He’s a good friend to us all,’ Ileana said.

Andreea pulled the e-fit photographs of the three dead teenagers in Brighton out of one of her anorak pockets.

‘Can you all please look at these and see if you recognize any of them?’ she asked. ‘It is very important.’

The group passed them round, some looking carefully, some indifferently. Stefania studied them for the longest and then, pointing at the face of the dead female, queried, ‘Is that Bogdana, possibly?’

Another girl took the photograph and studied it. ‘No, I know Bogdana. We sheltered together for a year. That’s not her.’

They handed them back to Ileana.

‘Does anyone know a boy called Rares?’ Ian Tilling asked. He held up the close-up of the tattoo.

Again they all shook their heads.

Then, suddenly, Stefania stared past him. Tilling turned around and saw a girl of about fifteen, with long, dark hair, clipped up, wearing a leather jacket, a leather miniskirt and knee-length shiny black boots walking towards them, looking furious. As she got closer, he saw she had a black eye and a graze on her opposite cheek.

‘Raluca!’ Ileana said.

‘Fucker!’ Raluca said angrily, addressing all of them and none of them. ‘Do you know what this man wanted me to do in his truck? I won’t tell you. I told him to go to hell and he hit me. Then he pushed me out into the street!’

Ileana stepped away from the group, put an arm around Raluca and led her a short distance across the concourse, out of earshot of the others. She examined her eye and the graze for a moment and asked her if she wanted to go to hospital. The girl refused vigorously.

‘I need some help, Raluca,’ Ileana said.

Raluca shrugged, still brimming with anger.

‘What help? What help does anyone give me?’

‘Listen to me a minute, please, Raluca,’ Ileana implored, ignoring the comment. ‘You told me, some weeks ago, that you had heard of a woman who was offering kids jobs abroad, with an apartment? Yes?’

She shrugged again, then conceded that she had.

Ileana showed her the photographs. ‘Do you recognize any of these?’

Raluca pointed at one of the boys. ‘His face – I’ve seen him around, but I don’t know his name.’

‘This is really important, Raluca, believe me. Last week, these Romanian kids were found murdered in England. All their internal organs were taken. You must tell me what you know about this woman who offers the jobs.’

Raluca blanched. ‘I don’t know her, but – I…’ Suddenly she looked very frightened. ‘You know Simona, and Romeo, her friend?’

‘No.’

‘I saw Simona, just a couple of days ago. She was really happy. She was telling me about this woman who has offered her a job in England. She is going to go – she had a medical…’ She stopped abruptly. ‘Oh shit. You have a cigarette?’

Ileana gave her a cigarette, took one herself and pulled out her lighter.

Raluca inhaled, then blew the smoke out quickly.

‘A medical?’

‘This woman told her she needed – you know – to check on her health. To get the travel documents.’

‘Where is she?’

‘She lives with her guy, Romeo, and a group, under the street, by the heating pipe.’

‘Where?’

‘I don’t know exactly. I know the sector. Only that, she told me.’

‘We need to find her,’ Ileana said. ‘Will you come with us?’

‘I need money for my drugs. I don’t have time.’

‘We’ll give you money. As much as you could earn tonight. OK?’

Minutes later they were hurrying towards Ian Tilling’s car.