Private London

Chapter 98

‘The first tape you made you were play-acting, the second time you weren’t. What happened?’

‘Annabelle…’ Hannah caught herself, the name seemingly tasting like ash in her mouth. ‘She kept me at her flat. She came back excited with the news that my father was flying over.’

I nodded. It was pretty much as I had deduced.

‘She made some calls. Soon after that some people came.’

‘Who?’

‘I don’t know. A woman in a burka and two men with her. But they were deferential to the burka woman. They were like bodyguards.’

‘And what did they say?’

‘I don’t know. They all spoke in Arabic. At least, the women did. The men said nothing. Then they tied me up, properly this time, and left me in Annabelle’s study. She didn’t talk to me again.’

‘And there was nothing else you can remember?’

‘When they arrived the women hugged. It was a long hug, not as though they had just met. It seemed more than just a greeting.’

‘Like lovers, you mean?’

Hannah shrugged, pink spots of colour brightening her cheeks. ‘Maybe,’ she said quietly.

‘And did she say a name?’

‘They both said the same thing.’

‘Which was?’

‘It sounded like “cut min holby”.’

‘Holby? Like the TV show?’

‘Something like that.’

‘Kht Mn Qlby?’ said Del Rio, speaking for the first time in a long while.