“Oh, that’s too bad. We were all hoping for some good news.”
Anais was suddenly worried.
“Why? What’s happened?”
“Don’t worry,” Arcadia laughed. “Nothing has happened. We’ve just been worried, that’s all. It would have been nice to get some good news for a change. Did you want me to get Mama for you?”
“No, but could you tell her that we will be here for a while. It was actually Andrew I was hoping to speak to.”
“I’ll let her know. Andrew? Hmm. I’ve not seen him all day. He’s probably in the cellar on his computer. I’ll just go get him.”
“Thank you.” She could hear the tap tap tap of Arcadia’s heels as she moved away from the phone. It would take a while for her to get from the entrance hall, where the house phone was, to the cellar, so Anais sat back in her seat and made herself more comfortable.
“What are you calling Andrew for?” asked Aethelu, who had finished cleaning up and, now, placed a coffee in front of Anais, this time with milk in it. James joined them at the table.
“I was just wondering if he’d found time to look at the gallery’s phone records. He said he was going to.”
“Did he?”
“He did. I’d forgotten about that. I’ve been so busy looking after first Rafe, then Alex, that it had slipped my mind.”
Anais took a sip of her coffee and waited. It took a full five minutes before anyone came back on the line. Anais tried hard not to think about the phone bill she’d be getting after such a long international phone call.
She was pleased to hear Andrew’s voice.
“Anais! Arcadia tells me that you’ve not been successful in finding James’ daughter. I have to say, I thought it was a wasted journey. Are you all coming home now? Would you like me to book flights for you?”
“No. Actually we were planning to stay here a while longer to see if we can find her from here, but thanks for the offer. Actually, we were hoping you can help us.”
“I’m very busy at the moment. I think I might have a lead on Amber and Abel.”
“Really? That’s great. I was just wondering if you had checked the gallery phone records.”
“The what? Oh I remember, the gallery where James sold his paintings. Actually I did. There were no international phone calls, either in or out, in the three months prior to Sabine going missing up until the day I checked. I forgot to mention it, but it wasn’t any help anyway. Now if you’ll excuse me,” he put the phone down on her.
“That was rude!” exclaimed Anais, “He hung up on me.”
“Was he busy? You know what he’s like when he’s onto something. What did he say?”
“No go, I’m afraid. Local calls only. I guess Jago must have been in the area at the time, which doesn’t help us at all.”
“There are many, many, hotels in Florence. He could have been staying in any of them,” said James.
“Most likely under a fake name,” added Aethelu, drinking her coffee.
“I wonder if he ever came to pick up the paintings,” mused Anais out loud.
“What do you mean?”
“James, didn’t you say that he had sent cash for two paintings? I wonder if they were ever picked up.”
“He did say that. Surely, it’s doubtful that he would come for the paintings. It was just a way to get me out of the house on a specific day, so he could take Sabine.”
“Yes, you are probably right. Still, I think we should take a trip to this gallery at some point, to see if the owner can remember anything else.”
“Alright guys,” shouted Alex from another room, “I have a job for you all.”
The three of them stood up from the table and made their way out of the kitchen.
Chapter Twenty Four
Alex sat in a comfortable lounge surrounded by paper. The two sofas were the only furniture in the room not made of oak. There was an oak dresser to the side filled with pretty plates and ornaments. An oak cabinet filled another wall and a small set of oak stacking tables, now covered in paper, were dotted around the room. Oak beams, holding up the ceiling, finished off the look. The floor was also wooden but covered in a huge bright red rug. A few paintings, which Anais took to be James’ decorated the walls.
“Right,” said Alex, handing each of them a stack of papers as they sat down. “I’ve finally finished printing them out. These are the passenger lists for every flight that left the airport at around the time Sabine was seen. I’ve printed out twenty-five passenger lists in total which takes us over the four hour time after she was seen, but you never know.”
It wasn’t just the names of the passengers on each paper, there was also a scan from each passenger’s passport.
“You have photos of every passenger!” exclaimed Aethelu. “This will make it easy to find her.”
“Not as easy as you might think. I’ve had a quick scan of each picture as they came out of the printer, but I’ve not seen Sabine in any of them. Obviously, there is the possibility that I may have missed her. I don’t know her that well, but the likelihood is that she used a passport with a picture of a woman resembling her but not actually her. Either way, I think if we go through all the passports, discount all the men, all the women who are too old or too young or those travelling with families, then James could check the rest and we should go from there.”
It was a laborious task going through pages and pages of passport pictures and information. Twenty five flights didn’t sound like a lot but there were hundreds of passengers on each flight which put the number of passports to look at in the thousands.
They spent hours going through page after page of information. All the passports that belonged to men went on one pile to be thrown away. Likewise, anyone under the age of fifteen and over the age of sixty.
Every other passport printout was kept, whether it looked anything like Sabine or not.
They worked late into the night, but, eventually, had to concede that they were too tired to do anymore that day. They left the lounge as it was and all made their way to their bedrooms.
Anais had expected to be sharing a room with Aethelu, so was surprised when she was shown to a small room of her own. A single bed, once again made out of oak, almost filled the tiny room leaving only enough space for a wardrobe and set of drawers. An old-fashioned floral blanket covered the bed, matching the floral curtains that hung on the window.
She changed into her pyjamas and lay on the bed exhausted. She was almost asleep when she heard someone creep into her room.
“Shhhh.” It was Aethelu. She squeezed into the small bed next to Anais and put her arm around her.
“I think James gave us separate rooms on purpose,” Anais said, “He’s probably uncomfortable with us sharing a room.”
“I’ll sneak back in the morning before he wakes up. He’ll never know. That is unless you want me to leave?”
“Not a chance,” answered Anais and put her arms around Aethelu. She could smell the strawberry shampoo as she drifted off to sleep.
She awoke the next morning to find that Aethelu had already gone back to her room. She checked her watch and saw that it was ten o’clock. She must have been more tired than she thought. Finding a bathroom, she had a quick shower and cleaned her teeth before joining the others downstairs. A delightful smell reached her nose and she saw that fresh croissants and coffee had been served.
“Morning,” Aethelu said cheerily and winked.
“I’m so sorry, I’m so late out of bed.” Anais joined them at the table and grabbed a croissant. It was still warm.
“Don’t worry,” said Alex. We’ve not been up much longer than you. It was a late night. James went to the local bakery and brought us all fresh croissants. He only just got back a few minutes ago.”
“You’ve been all the way into Florence this morning?” asked Anais taking a bite. Flakes of pastry fell onto the plate.
“No, the other direction. There are a few shops just half a mile down the road in a little village. It has th
e most wonderful bakery as you can see. I also bought us some freshly baked bread.”
That accounted for the wonderful smell that permeated the kitchen.
After the delightful breakfast they all made their way back into the lounge. The papers were still in half-organised piles all over the floor and tables. Anais opened the curtains and light flooded into the room. The sun was shining brightly, making the beautiful view look even more stunning. After weeks of rain and dreary weather, she longed to be outside. She looked at a couple of nearby trees and could see no movement, meaning that there was no wind. She could also see a patio set overlooking the gorgeous view.
“Let’s do this outside. It seems a shame to be stuck in here when the weather is so beautiful.”
They each picked up a stack of papers and followed James out of a back door to the patio. He put his papers down and re-entered the house, returning minutes later with a large jug of fresh orange juice and four glasses. He also carried a bag of what looked like seed which he scattered liberally on the ground. It didn’t take long for Anais to understand why when she saw a number of hens run toward them and started pecking at the seed.
“The neighbours must have been looking after them for me. I was surprised to see they were still here, but I confess, I’ve been so worried about Sabine that I forgot all about the chickens.”
Anais sat, feeling the warmness of the sun heating her face. It felt good. The only time she had felt sun this hot in the last six months was the couple of days she spent in Tenerife and the time in Las Vegas. She sipped at her orange juice and started on the pile of papers next to her.
It was late into the afternoon and after quite a few slices of pizza for lunch that they finally had a pile of passport photocopies of women aged between fifteen and sixty. All the rest were put in a neat pile to shred.
There were approximately eight hundred passport copies for James to go through after all the others had been discounted.
“Good job he had lots of printer paper huh?” Alex joked as he handed a stack to James.
The plan was to have James look at each passport photo carefully and see if he could spot Sabine. After that, the others would recheck each one and see if they spotted anything strange about the passport. It would be difficult to tell in a photocopy, but they could look for signs of forgery too.
As James was doing the first round of checking, Anais decided to take a break and go for a walk. She felt stiff from sitting in the same position all day and the leg that had been broken was aching. Aethelu had promised to make the dinner, so it was Alex who offered to accompany her on her walk, much to Aethelu’s obvious annoyance.
The sun was still bright as they both walked in the direction James had told them the village was.
There was no pavement at the side of the road, but as no cars passed them, it didn’t really matter.
“You probably shouldn’t have offered to come with me. Aethelu will be upset.”
“She’ll be fine, besides I wanted to come for a walk, too.”
Anais didn’t respond. Alex was right. Aethelu knew that Alex and she were friends. She had to trust them to spend time alone together at some point. She still felt a little guilty, though.
“Wonderful view isn’t it?” Alex speaking broke her away from her thoughts.
She looked around. Fields of green and gold spread out in front of her under bright blue skies. A few wisps of cloud lazily made their way across the sky. The only sound she could hear was their footsteps on the road. It was an idyllic spot and Anais could see why James had chosen it for his home.
They passed another farmhouse, which looked similar to James’s complete with their own hens clucking around the yard. A rounded woman pegging out washing waved to them as they passed. This must be the neighbour James had mentioned earlier. Anais waved back and smiled. They continued their journey until they got to a little village. It was tiny, couldn’t have been more than a hundred houses in the whole village and they were all painted white. Many had red flowers in hanging baskets or window boxes. A little village square marked the centre and it was here they found the bakery where James had bought the bread that morning. The front window was filled with the most decadent looking cakes Anais had ever seen. A couple of white tables and chairs sat just outside the bakery for anyone who wanted to sit and try a slice of cake. A notice announced that they also sold coffee.
“Let’s get a slice!” Alex looked greedily at the shop window.
“We can’t. Aethelu is making dinner for us.”
Alex looked so disappointed that Anais had to laugh.
“Ok, then. I’ll treat you to a coffee and cake, but I’ll buy four slices and have it wrapped up for after dinner.”
“Great!” said Alex, licking his lips.
Anais entered the quaint little bakery and ordered two cappuccinos. The lady behind the counter didn’t speak any English, so Anais had to order the cake by a process of pointing and nodding. In the end, she couldn’t choose between all the delicious looking cakes, so she ordered four completely different slices and had them wrapped up for later.
She brought the coffees out to Alex, who eyed up her paper bag greedily.
“Which cake did you get?”
“I couldn’t decide, so I got four different slices.”
“Please tell me you got some of that huge chocolate fudge cake,” he said, whilst reaching for the bag.
“It just so happens, that I did,” she grinned whist slapping his hand away, “and you can have it after dinner.”
They drank their coffee down quickly, as they didn’t want to be out too long and risk Aethelu’s dinner burning or going cold.
As they ambled back slowly, Anais asked Alex if he thought there was much hope in finding Sabine in the passport records.
“I know that I’ve only seen a couple of photos of her, but I’m pretty sure that none of those passports were hers. Maybe James will find her, but I doubt it.”
“It does seem unlikely. She must have flown out that day though, so she did use one of those passports. I guess the next step is to look at each picture and further discount the ones that don’t look like her, the blondes and redheads for starters. We already know that she wasn’t wearing a wig or in disguise at the time. The photo must have looked like her, at least a little, to pass through the airport security.
“I once read a story of a guy who travelled through four airports with a picture of his dog replacing his passport photo. Not one airport caught him. He was a journalist and wrote about it.”
“That can’t be true!”
“Afraid so. Still, Sabine was probably doing her best not to be caught, so more than likely that passport photo she was using does bear a resemblance to her.”
“Let’s hope so.”
Dinner was just being served as they arrived back at the farmhouse. James had taken a break from looking at photos and helped Aethelu make lasagne. It was an old recipe of his wife’s that he had taught Aethelu how to make. It was certainly wonderful to have an authentic Italian dish served up.
After dinner, James went back to sorting through photos in the lounge, whilst Alex and Anais cleared the kitchen. Aethelu stayed with them, probably to keep an eye on them, but she claimed it was because she didn’t want to disturb James.
They ended up disturbing him anyway when they brought him a slice of cake and cup of coffee.
He got the lemon poppy seed and Alex jumped on the chocolate fudge leaving a spicy jam filled creation for Anais and a vanilla sponge filled with fresh cream for Aethelu.
By the end of the day, James had finally gotten through all the photos, to no avail. Sabine’s photograph wasn’t on any of the printouts.
The four made their way, rather dejectedly, to bed ready to go through the photos once again the next day.
The next day followed more of the same.
James, Aethelu and Anais went through all the photos once again and sorted them into two different piles. Ones that had a vague resemblan
ce to Sabine and ones that looked nothing like her. Alex then took each photo from the ‘resemblance pile’ and sorted them into twenty five piles, one for each flight. By the end of the day they had twenty five piles of photos of women with dark hair. Some of the piles had only a few photos although some had nearly a hundred. Anais and Aethelu had double checked each one, looking for some kind of clue in the name or something obvious. In the end they found nothing suspicious with any of them and had to give up.
When they came downstairs for breakfast the next morning, they found that Alex had labelled each pile with the flight number and destination, twenty five in total. Anais wondered where they were supposed to go from here. They couldn’t visit all these places. It would take forever. They were mostly in Europe, but there were a few further afield. When Alex finally looked up, she asked him what he planned to do next.
“I’m going to check these women out. Make sure they are real and try to discover if they really were travelling that day. I’m going to have to check records from every one of these countries, plus read the emails, Facebook, Twitter, whatever social media each one favoured to see if they did indeed travel that day.”
“Won’t that take a long time?” Anais looked at the huge amount of paperwork and tried to calculate the enormity of the task.
“I think it’s safe to say that we will be here for quite a while.”
As it was. two weeks later, Alex still hadn’t gotten through the pile of women.
Anais had done everything she could to keep James’ spirits up and to keep him occupied. They had spent a lot of time helping him tend his garden, which had become rather overgrown in his absence and cleaned his house from top to bottom. Whenever he looked sad, they took him to the village for coffee and cake, not forgetting to take a piece for Alex.
April turned into May and the sun heated up even more. Flowers began to bloom in the garden and Anais and Aethelu both developed a tan from spending so much time outdoors. The neighbour who had waved at Anais on her first trip to the village came around often, and although only James could understand her, she chatted all the while. She even taught the girls to make traditional Italian bread.
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