Kate took the corner at pace, closing the gap with every step, and was soon grabbing the woman’s arm to stop her.

‘What’ you want?’ the woman demanded, out of breath, her accent Hispanic.

Kate released her. ‘Why were you running?’

‘Is free country… I do exercise.’

Kate already suspected exactly who the woman was, but needed confirmation. ‘You were coming to see, Maria,’ Kate said, finally getting her breath back.

‘Who?’

There’d been a flicker in her eyes at the mention of Maria’s name. Kate was about to press on when Laura caught up, still holding the evidence bag.

‘Everything okay, ma’am?’ she said, barely out of breath. ‘Who’s this?’

‘Unless I’m very much mistaken we all have a mutual friend. Naomi Hendrix says hi, by the way.’

A second flicker in the woman’s eyes. ‘I don’t know who that is.’

‘Of course not. Listen, I just want to ask you a few questions about Maria. Will you let me buy you a drink so we can talk?’

The woman looked beyond the detectives, as if she was contemplating whether she’d be able to outrun them. She eventually sighed. ‘Okay, but we need to get off the streets before someone sees us.’

---

With some coaxing, the woman revealed her name was Sofia. The pub she brought them to was dark and grimy. Although it was barely midday, the bar was already being propped up by four men drinking in pensive silence. In the background, Phil Collins sung quietly from the stereo speakers.

‘You were the one who told DI Hendrix that Maria was missing, right?’ Kate asked when they’d collected their drinks and were squashed around a small table as far from the bar as they could be.

Sofia nodded, placing the straw delicately between her thick red lips, and slurping the double vodka and orange juice she’d ordered. ‘She’s dead, isn’t she?’

Kate considered the question. ‘I don’t know for certain, but it’s looking probable. My colleague is taking nail clippings we believe to be Maria’s to be examined. If it’s a match, then I’d say it’s a strong possibility that she is. I’m sorry.’

‘At least she is out of the life; that’s all she wanted.’

‘Can you tell me about her? I’d like to know as much as I can, so I can catch whoever is responsible for her death.’

‘Sure. Wha’ you want to know?’

‘Everything – her full name, how old was she, where was she from, how the two of you met?’

‘We – the girls I work with – we don’t use last names; I think most don’t use real names. I am Sofia now, but was not always the case. You understand?’

Kate nodded.

‘But Maria, she was different. She knew who she was and she didn’t hide that. I know her… three years, I think. She’s like a sister to me; we share experiences and help each other. She was born in Serbia, I think, come to this country to study, but drop out of university, because too expensive. She didn’t want to leave UK, so she did what she had to stay. That’s how we meet.’

‘You told my colleague that Maria was trying to buy her freedom?’

‘Is true. She decide she want to pay the boss to go free.’

‘You told my colleague that Maria managed to raise ten thousand pounds to buy that freedom. Did she give you any clue as to how she got that money?’

Sofia shook her head despondently.

Kate chose her next words carefully. ‘In your line of work, how could you lay your hands on that amount of money quickly?’

‘I wish I knew… In my experience, girls who earn biggest money either do the parties, or they take on other jobs.’

‘Other jobs?’

‘You know, like, delivering drugs, that sort of thing.’

‘Do you think she was working as a mule?’

Sofia shook her head. ‘I think not. Listen, everybody take them to get by – it goes with the job – but Maria turn her back on all that last year. When she decide she want to buy freedom, she get herself clean. I don’t think she would do those jobs to make the money.’

‘You mentioned parties?’

‘Sometimes a client speak to the boss because he want to hire several girls for friends at party. Me and Maria never do that. Some of the stories make us feel sick. But maybe Maria did decide to do it, I don’t know.’

Kate had heard plenty of horror stories but she’d need Hendrix’s support to go much deeper into that line of enquiry.

‘Have there been any of those parties recently, do you know?’

‘I don’t know. The boss, he know I won’t, so he not ask me. Maybe, Maria ask him and not tell me, or maybe she get money another way. I don’t know, I’m sorry.’ Sofia finished the last of her drink. ‘I need to go.’

Kate reached for her hand across the table. ‘No, please, stay a bit longer. I can buy you another drink.’

But Sofia placed her free hand over the top of the glass. ‘I have had enough. I can’t be late or the boss not be happy.’

‘Okay, quickly then, do you know if Maria actually managed to pay off her debt? Did she give your guy the ten grand he wanted?’

‘I don’t know. Last I see her, she say she has the money and going to take it to him, and then she gone. I never see her since.’

‘We believe she had a tattoo removed from her ankle last week. It’s been described as a brand of some kind.’

Sofia raised her own foot, allowing Kate to see the full scorpion and the initials C and E.

‘I think maybe the partial scar we saw resembles that.’

‘All of us are forced to have it, so we marked as his property.’

‘Would he have allowed her to have it removed?’

‘If she had bought her freedom, then I suppose so.’

‘Sofia, is there a chance that she took the money to your pimp, and he killed her for it?’

Sofia chewed on the straw, suddenly conscious of anyone who might walk in and see them talking. ‘I have to go. I’m sorry.’

She teetered to her feet, knocking the table as she went. Kate watched her leave, tempted to go after her, but not certain what additional information Sofia would be able to give her. In her gut, Kate now had no doubt that the victim dismembered in the school grounds was Maria; everything she’d learned till now steered her in only that direction.

But that left the bigger question: how had Maria managed to get her hands on ten thousand pounds so quickly, and had she been killed because of it?