Woman in Black (32 page)

As it was, the focus of the holiday had largely been alcohol-related and, although there were large groups of girls around, Steven hadn’t really had the courage to talk to anyone. Barry and Jacob were the two who had confidence, although they were frequently too drunk to do anything other than leer and shout. Steven hadn’t really enjoyed the break at all. He wanted things to do that didn’t involve spending most of the day in bed or on the beach, then all night drinking. For some people that inertia would sound like an ideal day but, for him, it was boring.

He was currently in a bar just off the main through street in Faliraki. It was English-themed and the fact they’d flown for five hours to sit in a bar and eat full English breakfasts at five in the afternoon wasn’t an irony that was lost on him, even if it clearly was on both Barry and Jacob. On the first night, Matthew had suggested trying a Greek restaurant near their hotel but he had been instantly shot down by Jacob saying, ‘I’m not eating that foreign shit’. They’d had either fry-ups, chips or burgers every day since then. The current bar was the one they had started the last three evenings in. St George’s flags were pinned along the wooden frames of the structure and a giant television at the back had British sports channels on continuously. When there was no live sport to show, cheesy pop music blared out of speakers over the bar. It wouldn’t have been Steven’s choice of venue but it was admittedly cheaper than some of the bars in the area.

‘Where’s Ed?’ Jacob asked, not directing his question to any of the other three in particular.

Matthew, Lewis and Steven all exchanged looks to query who Jacob had been speaking to but it was Steven who answered. ‘I think he’s off with that girl again.’

‘Pfft,’ Jacob said dismissively. ‘What a deserting little prick. It’s not as if she’s even got any friends for the rest of us.’

Steven was actually a little jealous. On the second day of their break, the six of them had been in a bar on the main street. It was crowded and noisy but, after an hour or so, Matthew noticed Ed was no longer with them. They had found him outside on a raised kerb talking to a girl. According to Lewis, who played rugby with him, Ed was still a virgin and everyone seemed surprised it was him who had been the first to hook up with someone of the opposite sex.

In the days that followed, Ed and the girl, who they had found out was called Sam, had spent pretty much all their time together. Barry and Jacob hadn’t taken it too well but it was clear to Steven their jealousy was based around the fact they hadn’t had any luck with women since they had arrived on the island of Rhodes. Steven didn’t actually resent Ed as they seemed to – he was simply envious because he wanted to find someone of the opposite sex he could hang around with.

The evening progressed much as the previous few had. Jacob and Barry drank constantly while Steven, Matthew and Lewis had just enough to get them drunk without going completely over the top. They moved from the English bar into one of the clubs. Most people went there to dance but the five of them sat in near-silence close to the bar watching the swaying crowd. Jacob would make the odd grab towards girls if any were unfortunate enough to get too near but, aside from that, the night was as uneventful as the rest of the holiday had been.

The next night they would be going home and, for Steven, it couldn’t come soon enough. After an hour or so, Jacob made one lunge too many towards a girl and they were thrown out. The places didn’t have bouncers like clubs might at home but the threat of the police had convinced Jacob it was time to go. After he hurled a mouthful of abuse at the few security staff, the five of them started to walk towards their apartment block.

Steven found the hotel itself horrible. There was no air-conditioning, which made sleeping at night almost impossible, while sharing a room was something he wasn’t overly comfortable with seeing as he was an only child and not used to it. Barry was a bad snorer but at least tended to fall asleep after they got back. Matthew wasn’t too bad and the other three were in the room next door. Although they were all clearly struggling to sleep, Steven would at least lie on his uncomfortable bed and try. In the adjoining room, Jacob would put music or the television on and generally make life miserable for all of them. If it had disturbed Barry, he would have probably stopped but Jacob knew the other four were intimidated by him, so did whatever he wanted.

The walk back to the hotel was slow and tortuous with both Jacob and Barry offering to fight bystanders for no reason other than the fact they were there. Steven, Matthew and Lewis kept quiet and walked a few paces behind, trying not to get caught up in things. Over the course of the week they hadn’t said too much to each other but had bonded in a silent way because of the way they had been mutually bullied into submission.

Eventually they arrived back at the apartments, making their way up the outside stairs to their rooms on the fourth floor. Steven had the key and opened the door but was hit by a wall of humidity as he walked into the room. The evening was cool but the room was far hotter. He had barely reached his bed when he heard Jacob’s unmistakable voice from the next room. Barry had opened the door that connected the interiors and was standing in the doorway cheering before crossing into the other room. Dreading what he might see but feeling inquisitive, Steven followed Matthew into the adjoining room.

It only took a moment to see what the noise had been about. Ed was in a bed on top of Sam. They had clearly just been disturbed while having sex and the look on the woman’s face was pure horror. Because they had been thrown out of the club, they had returned to the rooms around an hour-and-a-half earlier than they had in previous days.

Sam was holding the thin white sheet across the top of her chest with Ed lying half on top of her, also under the cover. Jacob was still cheering. ‘Waheeeeeyyyyy. Have you brought her back for us all to have a go? Good lad.’

Steven could see the disgusted look on the girl’s face. Her blonde hair was tangled across her face and he could see thin tan marks on her skin from where she had been wearing a bikini. She looked directly at Jacob then glanced across at the other men. It was obvious she was associating the five men together. ‘Fuck off,’ she said venomously, clutching the cover to herself. Ed looked as if he was going to say something but Barry was now standing next to the bed. Jacob was a little further back in the room next to Steven, Lewis and Matthew.

‘Mind your fucking language,’ Barry said, snatching the sheet away. Jacob started laughing as there was a brief tug of war with Sam desperately trying to hold onto the sheet. Ed’s eyes were wide with fear, Sam’s full of fury. It only took a second or two before Barry managed to grab the sheet away, leaving both Ed and Sam naked on the bed. The woman tried her best to cover her body as Barry and Jacob sneered with joyous laughter.

Steven felt sick and ashamed as he took in her thin frame but said nothing. The humid air suddenly felt cold. He shivered as Jacob stepped forward. ‘Nice of you to bring your little girlfriend around to give us all a go.’

Ed was reaching towards a pile of clothes on the floor. ‘Leave her alone.’

Jacob lunged forward and slapped the man across the face with a large crack. Steven heard Lewis gasp next to him and felt stunned himself. ‘Do you think you’re better than us?’ Jacob said loudly. Ed was shaking with what Steven guessed was a mixture of shock and anger. Jacob slapped him again. ‘You think you’re better than us just because you’ve got yourself a whore for a week.’

The man’s words were slurring together, the alcohol in full effect, but Ed seemed unable to speak himself. Steven felt frozen and neither of the other two men standing next to him said anything. Sam was staring at Jacob herself, still trying to cover her body. ‘Leave him alone,’ she shouted.

Jacob picked Ed up and shoved him to the ground then sat on the bed as Sam tried to shuffle away from him. Her clothes were in a pile with Ed’s on the opposite side of the bed from where she was. Sam went to stand but Jacob reached across and snatched her hand away so she was no longer covering her top half. ‘Why, what are you going to do about it?’

Barry threw the sheet across the room and walked to the door connecting the two rooms, closing it. He then went to the main front door and locked it. Steven watched on, too intimidated to say anything. As the doors were shut he saw the look on Sam’s face change from defiance to outright fear.

‘Let me go,’ she said fiercely. Ed had taken a pair of shorts from the floor and put them on. He stood and tried to hand some clothes to Sam but Barry snatched them away and flung them across the room.

At seeing her clothes being tossed around, Sam repeated her words but it sounded far more of a plea second time around. ‘Let me go.’

Steven finally found his voice but it faltered and cracked as he spoke. ‘I think we should just leave things.’

Jacob glared across at him furiously, then he used his free hand to point at Steven and the other two men standing next to him. ‘If any of you fucking move, I promise you won’t be getting on that plane back home in one piece.’ He then turned to Ed. ‘And if you try anything, you’ll get the same treatment.’

He yanked the young woman fully on to the bed by only her wrist. She started shouting but Jacob put a hand across her mouth and pushed her hard into the mattress. Steven would never forget his next words. ‘Bazza, she’s all yours.’

TWENTY-NINE

As Steven finished talking, he was in tears. Jessica felt a sickness in her stomach that she’d only had on a few occasions and she was furious. ‘Did you just stand and watch?’ she said, barely trying to control her anger. Izzy looked close to tears next to her.

The man shrugged. ‘I tried not to watch.’

‘Well, that’s all right then. Some innocent girl was attacked by two men while you did nothing but because you were staring at the ground, everything’s just fine.’

Jessica rarely lost her temper when interviewing but she couldn’t control it. She hadn’t thought throughout speaking to Steven that he was involved in cutting off people’s hands but they now had someone who had a motive as good as any. There couldn’t be many better ways to tell people to keep their hands to themselves than by cutting them off. It was also now obvious why they had been left so publicly – the poor woman wanted the police to know what the men had done.

Jessica realised she was jumping to conclusions but wondered if ‘Sam’ was the person responsible or if it was someone she knew. An enormous part of her wished the woman luck but there was still a part of her thinking rationally as a police officer, trying to calm herself. Steven hadn’t said anything and was still crying gently to himself.

‘Do you know her last name?’

‘Sam’s?’

‘Who else?’

‘Sorry, I don’t remember. I’ve tried to forget.’

‘Do you have any photos or anything from the holiday?’

Steven was snivelling. ‘I think I might have a copy of the one you’ve got somewhere but that would be all. When we got back no one ever talked about it. It was as if it never happened. I didn’t really see them after that, only Barry.’

‘Could you describe Sam?’

Jacob gave them a vague description of a girl with blonde hair and brown eyes. Jessica said she would arrange for him to see someone who could digitally create an image from his description but she doubted it would do much good.

‘Do you think I’m in danger?’ he asked.

Jessica forced herself not to say what she was thinking, ‘
You should be
’, but instead answered professionally. ‘I don’t know, possibly. We might be able to arrange someone to come around and be with you.’

‘What about my wife and children?’

‘What about them? We would protect them too.’

‘I’d have to tell them why there was someone here.’ Steven seemed frightened, his eyes wide and teary.

‘That would be up to you,’ Jessica said.

‘Couldn’t you put someone…I don’t know, like a secret plain-clothes officer or someone across the road or something?’

‘It doesn’t work like that,’ Jessica said. ‘Besides, they would have to follow you wherever you went. If you want protection, I can ask and see what we can arrange. It’s up to you if you want to explain that to your wife.’

The man nodded dejectedly. ‘Am I going to be in trouble?’

Jessica stood and Izzy followed. ‘I don’t know, we’ll come back to you. We’ve got to get back to Manchester but I’ll leave you my card. If you want me to ask someone about sending an officer here, you’ll have to let me know.’

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

The drive back to Longsight was a lot shorter as the motorway had been cleared but the two women sat in near silence. Although Jessica had said she would get back to Steven about whether he’d be in trouble, she knew he most likely wouldn’t be. She would check the records but unless a crime had been reported in Faliraki itself, there would be no record of the attack. Not only that but, without a victim or formal complaint, all they actually had was his confession to watching an assault happen. She didn’t want to tell him that straight away though. Jessica also doubted he would contact them for any sort of protection because he would want to keep things from his wife and children. If she thought for a moment his family could be in danger, she would have gone out of her way to arrange it regardless but, so far, no one else had been harmed except for the four men.

Jessica thought back to her own meeting with Jacob and the cocky way he had eyed her and Izzy. At the time she had ignored it but she could see it in a different light now and was a little unnerved.

Back at the station she went straight to see Cole, taking Izzy with her and passing on everything Steven had told them. It was tough to know where to go from there because they had so little information on Sam. At some point Steven could be brought in for a formal interview but Jessica doubted he would have much more to add than what he’d told them. If anything, he’d offer less because he’d be more nervous with a tape running.

Izzy left to see if she could find anything from the police in Faliraki. None of them had ever liaised with the Greek police in the past but there were interpreters available if the language proved too much of a barrier. If the crime had been reported, the woman’s full name would have been recorded. Meanwhile, Jessica and Cole talked through the few options they had. Steven insisted the girl had an English accent but, because the attack had happened overseas, they had no idea what part of the country she might come from. They couldn’t exactly launch a national ‘Were you assaulted eleven years ago in Faliraki’ media campaign and they had nothing else other than a first name to work with.