the landlord of the Crown and Anchor was complaining how he couldn’t get any decent bar staff.”
“That is the pub here in Fethering?”
“Yes.”
“Well, if I could work some hours for him, I could pay you some rent.”
“I’ve told you, you don’t need to.”
“It would make me feel better. And I have worked in a bar a lot. I know what to do. In Warsaw I work in bars. There of course I take money in zlotys, but I am quick learner. I soon catch on to money in pounds.”
“Well, I’ll give him a call. His name’s Ted Crisp.” Jude hesitated. “I just wonder, though…”
“What?”
“Ted’s…um, how shall I put this? Very English.”
“English in the way that he does not like foreigners?”
“Yes,” Jude admitted.
“This is perhaps because he has not met many foreigners?”
“Quite possibly, yes.”
“Then I think he should meet one. Me. Zofla Jankowska. I will show him how a good worker works.”
Jude chuckled and looked at her watch. “I’ll give him a call later. After the Saturday lunchtime rush. Ooh, by the way, there is something more we’ve found out about that woman your brother spoke to in October.” And she told Zofia the information she’d had from Carole. “As I say, the husband hung up on me, but at least we’ve got a name, which is more than we had this time yesterday.”
“Maybe you will be able to find her.”
“I hope so.”
“I also thought of two people I could try to talk to.”
“Oh?”
“One is back in Warsaw. A friend of Tadek, called Pavel. He was in the band. I try to call him this morning, but his mother say he off playing music in Krakow. She will pass on message when he call her. But I think that will not be soon.”
“Why not?”
Zofia shrugged ruefully. “Pavel like Tadek. Not good keeping in touch.”
“But your message will get through eventually?”
“Eventually, yes. But his mother say he not even picking up emails in Krakow.” She looked glum for a moment, but then a spark returned to her eyes. “A second person I think of, though. I had forgotten about him until this morning, but there was another friend of Tadek who used to play in the band with him. In Twarz. Not for a long time. He was the drummer, but not a very good drummer. He left the band a year before Tadek finished at the university. He was called Marek Wisniewski and he used to get on well with my brother. But why I think of him is I remember he came to England. I think he get work as a waiter.”
“How long has he been here?”
“More than a year. A year and a half perhaps. But perhaps Tadek get in touch with Marek when he come to England.”
“Have you got a contact for him?”
“Not here in England, no. But I know his brother in Warsaw. I will ring him, see if he knows where Marek is working now.” The girl shrugged. “It may be nothing, but everything is worth trying, isn’t it?”
“Certainly,” said Jude.
They both made their phone calls that afternoon. Zofia got through to Warsaw and was given the address of a Brighton restaurant where Marek had been working when his brother had last heard from him. A bored man at the restaurant said he still worked there, but he was off on a few days’ leave. He thought he would be back on the Tuesday. She asked the man to give Marek her mobile number, but she didn’t feel very optimistic that the message would get through.
“Nothing else we can do at the moment,” Zofia said gloomily when she’d ended the call.
“No, but if you don’t hear, we can go and see him. Brighton’s not far away. Anyway, now I’ll phone Ted.”
The timing couldn’t have been better. The landlord of the Crown and Anchor had just been let down by one of the barmaids who was meant to be doing a shift that evening. If the girl Jude was talking about could come down straight away…“That is, if she has had experience of bar work. I haven’t got time to train anyone up.”
“Oh, she’s had experience of bar work,” said Jude. She and Zofia had agreed that they would not mention her relationship to Tadek. That might make for an uncomfortable atmosphere in the bar of the Crown and Anchor. Nor on the phone did Jude mention the fact that Zofia was Polish.
Of course, it was something that Ted couldn’t fail to notice when they were introduced. Behind the ragged beard his face took on a look of suspicion. “From Poland, you say?”
Zofia Jankowska smiled brightly. “Yes.”
“Well, you can help out tonight, because I’ve been let down,” he said grudgingly. “But I don’t know if I’ll be able to offer you anything more.”
“Let’s see how tonight goes, yes?” said Zofia, unfazed by his less than enthusiastic welcome.
“All right,” he conceded.
“Please, you show me where everything is, and where is written down the costs of the drinks.”
As Ted Crisp turned to get a price-list, he cast a reproachful eye on Jude. She’d put him in a situation where he couldn’t really make a scene, and he felt she’d rather pulled a fast one on him. There were already far too many foreigners around the country; he didn’t want any of them actually working for him.
Jude, however, went home happy. She felt confident that Zofia would do everything that was required of her. And also from behind the bar of the Crown and Anchor, the girl would be perfectly placed to hear any gossip relating to the death of her brother.
? Blood at the Bookies ?
Twenty-One
Though Carole was not good at lying, that did not mean that she was incapable of deviousness. She woke in the small hours of the Sunday morning, frustrated by their inability to contact Melanie Newton. The only way to the woman was through her husband’s mobile phone, and when Jude rang him Giles Newton clearly had not wanted to play ball. There had to be another approach. And by the time, an hour later, Carole drifted back into sleep, she felt confident she had found it.
She reckoned half-past ten was a reasonable hour to call someone on a Sunday, so after a brisk walk on the beach with Gulliver and a skimpy perusal of the
When Giles answered, she said, “Good morning. My name is Carole Seddon, formerly of the Home Office.” Which was entirely true, but she hoped the words ‘Home Office’ would have such a strong effect on the man that he would hardly be aware of the ‘formerly’.
“Oh yes?” He sounded puzzled, but not as if he was about to put the phone down. Which was already better than the response Jude had got.
“I’m calling in connection with the death of Tadeusz Jarikowski.” Again, not untrue, but hopefully misleading about the level of offlcialness in her enquiry.
“Who?” He sounded genuinely mystified by the name.
“Tadeusz Jankowski. A young man who died in Fethering some ten days ago.”
“I’ve never heard of him.”
“There’s been a lot of media coverage, on national television and in the papers.”
“I wouldn’t have seen it. I’ve been in Dubai the last three months.”
“Oh?”
“I work in oil exploration. I tend to be away for long periods.”
“Ah. Well, in fact, it was your wife I wanted to contact. Melanie…is that right?”
“Yes.”
