‘You don’t look confident.’
‘We’ve met his type before.’
***
Wendy sat with Gabbi Gaffney, explaining what was happening in Cardiff, the woman’s husband sitting alongside her, holding her hand. It was touching, Wendy thought, but it wasn’t going to help if she continued to hold back the full truth.
‘We have Analyn in custody. In the Philippines, what name did she use?’
‘Analyn,’ Gabbi’s answer.
Wendy, tired of the charade, turned to Gabbi’s husband. ‘I suggest you tell your wife to be honest with me. If she was prostituting herself in Manila, I need to know. If she’s not told you the full truth, then it’s too late. You’ll just have to sort it out between the two of you afterwards.’
‘I know the whole story,’ Mike Gaffney said, squeezing his wife’s hand harder.
Wendy wasn’t sure he did. There was a sordid underlife that had not been told. According to Gabbi and Mary Wilton, both Gabbi and Analyn were decent women attempting to make the best in an imperfect world.
Wendy had no issues with that, but lying to the police was an offence. She had no desire to deprive the woman of her husband and baby, but if she had to, she would.
‘Tell her,’ Mike Gaffney said.
‘Analyn, although that wasn’t her real name, not in the Philippines,’ Gabbi said.
‘Leni Ramos,’ Wendy said.
‘Yes, Leni. She had had it rough, a more difficult childhood than mine; poverty, an empty belly. It stunts the brain; makes you do things you’d rather not.’
‘Shows for the sex-tourists?’
‘Not at first. We came from the same area in the Philippines, although we had not known each other. In Manila, we bonded, dealt with whatever life threw up at us, and, yes, shows, degrading, disgusting. But what option did we have? Our families were suffering.’
‘Did they know?’
‘It wasn’t something that was ever spoken about. Mike looks after my family now; it’s not a lot of money, and they never cheat him, sit on their backsides waiting for the next cheque. My father is very religious, but not naïve; my mother is. I think my father realised the extent of it more than her.’
‘Is any of this a surprise, Mr Gaffney?’ Wendy said.
‘The past is the past. I judge the person, not their history, no matter how much it might disturb me.’
‘And it does?’
‘Man’s inhumanity to man, or in this case, women, is inexhaustible.’
‘Gareth and Naughton. In the audience?’
‘We met them on our day off. Gareth never saw me perform, nor did Vincent see Leni, or should I say, Analyn?’
‘Either will do,’ Wendy said.
‘I told Gareth the truth, and he said he’d look after me as long as I didn’t return.’
‘Out of love?’
‘Not then, not for either of us. He was in the country for a few weeks; he wanted a woman to be there for him.’
‘For sex?’
‘Not only that. He was interested in the culture, wanted me to show him around.’
‘And you had no problems with this?’
‘It was better than what I had been doing. A good hotel, plenty to eat, clean sheets on the bed. To me, it was a paradise.’
‘He married you.’
‘He used to have these terrible nightmares; he said that I calmed him. In time and another couple of visits, he asked me to marry him and to go and live in England.’
‘The shows, prostituting yourself?’
‘Not after I met Gareth. He used to send me money regularly, enough to rent a small place to live and I got a job in a shop selling souvenirs. Life was good; I had a benefactor, and we were married.’
‘But he changed?’
‘Later, in England. The nightmares never went away, and then he was away more often, and then, one day, I was no longer in the house.’
‘He holds you responsible for leading us to him.’
‘And you say he kills people.’
‘Yes.’
‘Which means he could kill me, or Mike or our baby?’
‘Not now, he can’t. Let’s get back to Analyn.’
‘Her story is similar to mine. Gareth and Vincent, or Ian, as you call him, were firm friends, inseparable. I went with Gareth; she went with Ian. Ian was better educated than Gareth, and he always seemed to have plenty of money. She fell for him in a big way, and he married her, love at the time for both of them. But...’
‘But what does that mean?’
‘Both men were secretive, both men had a dark side, but, Ian, sometimes he seemed distant. As though he was calculating the odds, deep thinking. I don’t know what it was, but sometimes I felt uncomfortable around him.’
‘Analyn?’
‘She never saw it, not until she was in England.’
‘Mary Wilton’s?’
‘She had managed to get away from him.’
‘Violent?’
‘Never.’
‘He’s a charming man, so I’m told,’ Wendy said.
‘Mike believes it’s all a pretence, and that the man’s cold and calculating and dangerous.’
‘Your husband is right.’
‘Is she in trouble?’
‘She is probably guilty of a crime, but she may have acted under duress, a fear of her husband.’
‘She would have.’
‘Then there would be mitigating circumstances. If she’s honest with us, then it will go in her favour. She may not know the full extent of what has happened.’
‘She would, but fear is a powerful force. So many people have died; she would be frightened for her life.’
‘Ian Naughton. Possessive?’
‘Not in Manila, and I haven’t seen him for a long time. He could have changed. Analyn said he had.’
***
Analyn, although her correct name was Leni Ramos, sat in the interview room. She had been supplied a legal aid lawyer at her request.
Isaac and Larry sat opposite the woman and her lawyer, a man in his fifties, shabbily dressed,
