On the Friday morning Carole found that she had run out of Gulliver’s dog biscuits. This was most unusual. Her shopping was normally planned with military efficiency, a monthly run to Sainsbury’s at Rustington for the big stuff, and shorter weekly visits for perishables. For running out of dog biscuits she awarded herself a very serious black mark. It offended her image of her own efficiency. She hadn’t been concentrating, thinking too much about the Lady in the Lake case.
As a result she had to make one of her rare visits to Allinstore, Fethering’s famously inefficient supermarket. And while she was passing the shelves of newspapers in there, she saw a familiar face looking out of one of the front pages.
It was in The Argus, Brighton’s daily newspaper, and the photograph was of Iain Holland. The headline read: ‘COUNCILLOR SLAMS SOCIAL SERVICES.’
Back at High Tor over a coffee, to the sound of Gulliver demolishing a dog biscuit on the floor, Carole read the article. Iain Holland’s outburst had been prompted by the disappearance of a teenage girl in care. Bolstering his credentials as a crusading local politician, he lambasted the inefficiencies of Brighton’s Children’s Services. He also mentioned how much he empathized with the family of the missing girl, because his own daughter from a previous marriage had disappeared and never been found.
Carole checked out the time-line. The report had been published the previous day. So when she’d met Iain Holland in the Two Ducks on the Wednesday he must have known it was about to appear. No wonder he had been so ready to see her. If there was anyone out there who knew that Marina was still alive he’d obviously wanted to keep them quiet rather than reveal how he had used her disappearance for his own political ends.
Carole thought back to how their Wednesday meeting had ended. Of course she had refused his offer to buy her silence, but the fact that he had made it seemed to confirm that Iain Holland knew Marina to be still alive. Where, though? Why hadn’t she contacted her mother in all these years? Was she being imprisoned in some way? Abroad? In Russia? Or had her father bought her silence in the same way he tried to buy Carole’s?
But more important than all these questions was the big one: how was Carole Seddon going to find out where Marina Holland was?
Gulliver got the bonus of another walk on Fethering Beach as his mistress tried to work out her options. There weren’t many. The big advance she had made was in deducing from Iain Holland’s behaviour the certainty that his daughter was alive. Otherwise, the only clue she had to Marina’s whereabouts was still just the name. Vladimir.
Carole decided the only thing she could do was to put through another call to Donna Grodsky. Having made that decision halfway through their customary circuit of the beach she turned and headed straight back to High Tor. Gulliver was extremely disgruntled by this disruption to his routine.
The baby was gurgling happily in the background when Carole got through. Once she’d identified herself, she said, ‘Kyle sounds happy.’
‘Yes,’ Donna Grodsky agreed. ‘I’ve been piling up his beakers for him and knocking them down. He loves that. So then I do it again. And again. Terrific job for a grown woman, isn’t it?’
‘I think it’s something most mothers have to go through.’
‘Yes. Are you calling about Marina again?’
‘I am. You remember you talked about this boy called Vladimir. .?
‘Uh-huh.’
‘. . and you couldn’t remember his second name. Well, I know it’s a long shot, but I was just wondering whether, by any chance, something’s jogged your memory. .?’
‘And I’ve suddenly remembered what it was?’
‘Yes.’
‘Wouldn’t that be wonderfully neat?’
‘It would,’ Carole agreed, feeling a little foolish.
‘Well, as it happens, you’re in luck.’
‘Really?’
‘That night, the night after we met at the George’s Head, Kyle woke me about two, like he usually does — and suddenly I remembered.’
‘Oh, that’s brilliant!’
‘It came back to me, because I remembered Marina talking to me about this guy she really fancied who she’d met down the Russian club and she said it was a coincidence that his name started with the same letter as mine.’
‘So what was it?’
‘Gretchenko. Vladimir Gretchenko,’ said Donna Grodsky.