seemingly endless collection of anecdotes and start telling dodgy stories about this or that night on the town and the disreputable character he'd hooked up with. It was only when the silence fell that Kate realised she'd not seen James hold court like this for months.
'I'm not much of a sister, am I?' she said.
'What?'
'I should have noticed something was wrong. I should have asked about it.'
'Don't be daft. You've been up to your ears with training.'
'Still.' The silence that fell then seemed like it would swallow them whole, and they stared into their wine glasses.
'James, how does this end for us?'
He looked up and his face said it all.
'Why haven't you gone to the police?' she asked.
He shook his head. 'Too scared. Why haven't you?'
'Don't tell him,' Cooper had told her two weeks earlier. 'No matter what. I know he's your brother and all, but from what I can gather he doesn't seem the kind who could keep a secret.'
Kate gave James a look that said 'why do you think?' and he nodded. 'Right,' he said.
'I have an idea, though,' she said. 'Something we can do to help ourselves.'
'Hit me.'
'I've considered it.'
She got up, grabbed a notepad and pen from the kitchen counter, and sat down again. 'I want you to tell me everything, and I mean absolutely everything that you know about their operation. Dates, times, locations, personnel. Everything.'
He looked wary. 'For why?'
'Insurance.'
'Oh, Sis, that's not…'
'Do you trust me?'
'With my life.'
'Then spill.'
So he did, until eventually he checked his watch and told her it was time to go.
It was a cold, clear night, cloudless and silent.
The yard was lit by sodium lights mounted high on the posts that marked out the limits of the chain link fence. Huge containers were piled high in blocks, forming a kind of maze. The fleet of articulated lorries that ferried them across Europe and beyond were lined up near the entrance, seeming naked and unwieldy without their cargo. The pungent stink of rotting vegetables and the cry of hungry seagulls betrayed the presence of a tip nearby.
Two portacabins, one on top of the other, sat at the heart of the maze. Their lights were on and Kate could see movement inside as she and James walked towards them.
James didn't knock, he pushed the door open and they stepped into a fug of warm, damp, gas-heater air that smelled of stale coffee and cigarettes.
The giant was sitting on a tatty old armchair which seemed comically small for him. His knees were up around his ears. A group of four crowded around him, sipping coffee from plastic cups and smoking. They were talking and joking in what Kate assumed was Serbian.
Kate was relieved that Spider wasn't present, even though she'd known he wouldn't be. Cooper had told her he normally ran things from Manchester.
The giant unfolded himself and rose as the siblings entered. The men fell silent, watching them with eyes that betrayed only the barest smidgin of interest. Each of them glanced briefly at James and then shifted his attention to Kate, sizing her up and finding her either adequate or wanting, depending upon their taste. One of them smiled at her, revealing crooked yellow teeth. She ignored him.
'You have the medicine?' asked the giant.
Kate held up her bag. He seemed content. He handed James a clipboard and a large manila envelope. Her brother took it without question.
'Come on,' he said to Kate, and led her back outside to a set of stairs that led up to the portacabin above. A young man stood outside the door, on guard. He unlocked the door as they ascended and ushered them inside. Kate heard the door lock again once they were in.
The small room held eight women and girls. All were sitting on the floor, crowded around a gas heater, warming their hands. They wore simple, functional clothes and had obviously not washed in days. There was a pungent smell of BO.
'Hello ladies,' said James, smiling. Kate was disturbed at how easily he slipped into this role. She wondered how many times he had done this before. 'If I can please have your passports and travel documents.'
One of the women, the oldest of the bunch, maybe twenty or so, Kate thought, translated James' request to the other, and they each reached into their pockets and produced their passports. Kate thought the meekness with which they did this spoke volumes. These girls were scared. They hadn't admitted it to themselves yet, but they knew, deep down, that something had gone wrong, that they had been fooled, that something awful was about to happen to them.
James collected the passports and visas cheerfully, placing them in the manila envelope. He turned to Kate as he did so. 'Best get on with it, Kit,' he said.
Kate crouched down and opened her bag. Inside were the syringe needles and ampoules that she had stolen from the hospital. Vitamin shots, wide spectrum antibiotics and, as ordered, mild sedatives. She told the girls to rollup their sleeves. Again the oldest one translated.
'What is that?' she asked.
'Nothing to worry about,' Kate lied, feeling a tiny part of her die as she did so. 'Just vitamins and stuff. Something to give you a boost. You've had a long trip in that lorry.'
The woman was suspicious but there had been that faint air of resignation to her question which betrayed her powerlessness. Kate gave each of the trafficked women a shot.
While she did this James got each woman to stand up as he examined them, scanned a list of outstanding requirements on the clipboard, and decided which of the various distribution points they would be transferred to. The skinny one with the blonde hair was pretty enough for the high rollers, so she'd go to London. The three chubby ones were disposable but functional, they could go to Manchester. There was a special request for a young girl for extraordinary duties. James picked out the redhead, who couldn't have been more than sixteen, for this role.
Kate felt sick as she watched him do this.
James tried to present a cheery front as he consigned these women to their various fates. He knew what he was doing; choosing which ones would be raped, which would be murdered, which would vanish into the cellars, and which in the penthouses. But he didn't want them to know what was going on, so he smiled and joked, even though he knew most of them didn't understand what he was saying.
When the allocation was complete, and the injections had all been administered, James told them it was time for sleep because they would be collected early in the morning. He turned off the light as he left them to snuggle together for warmth on the floor, sunder ragged duvets.
Kate and he went back downstairs, handed the clipboard to the giant, and waited as he studied it. Eventually, he nodded.
'Good,' he said. Then he allocated each of them four men a girl or two to transport. James was also given an assignment, driving to Manchester. Kate was dismissed.
The men left and went up the stairs to collect their by now unconscious cargo. James hung back, drinking coffee with the giant.
'I thought you were driving one of them?' she asked.
James stared at his feet, unable to meet her gaze.
'I am,' he said. 'But they'll… they'll be a while.'
The giant laughed. 'This is not real man. Not like girls.' He laughed again, as if this was the funniest thing in the whole wide world.
Kate wanted to grind broken glass into his face.
