The Last Witness (3 page)

  The Ryalls looked at each other briefly. Cameron Ryall answered with a slight shrug.

‘No, not that we can think of.’

  ‘Anything at all?’ Nadine pressed. ‘However small and irrelevant it might have seemed at the time?’

  Nicola Ryall’s expression lifted, as if a fresh thought had suddenly struck. ‘Well, she did complain not long ago about problems with some school-work. History, I think it was…’

  ‘Yes, yes,’ Cameron Ryall quickly picked up. ‘Her spoken English is quite good now, but she still has problems with written English. And for history she has to do a fair few essays.’ He forced a weak smile. ‘She finds them something of a struggle.’

Nadine started in on the rest of her check list: Progress with other subjects? Friends at school and how was Lorena settling in generally? Outside friends and interests? Lorena was settling in fairly well, no problems with other subjects that the Ryalls could think of. A few friends made at school, only one from outside that they knew of. After a moment, Elena partly faded it out. Nadine had pre-warned that with much of it routine questioning, she’d be largely redundant until they talked to Lorena. She was there to comfort and reassure Lorena, nothing more.

  Cameron Ryall answered politely and methodically, with his wife providing only sporadic input. Eagerness to satisfy any concern was the general tone; no hint of defensiveness or agitation that Elena could pick up on.

Elena got up and walked towards the picture window. It wasn’t so much her redundancy, but frustration that suddenly settled hard. Left to her, she’d have bulldozed in with a chain of direct, awkward questions and by now had the Ryalls pinned in the corner. But that wasn’t, as she knew from past often tedious experience, how the Social Services worked.

  Procedure. Questions had to be open, devoid of angle. ‘Subjects must have the opportunity to volunteer information without undue prompt or influence.’

  Elena looked out over the gardens and pool. With the winter light fast dying and a chill wind, it looked inhospitable. She recalled two photos Lorena had sent with a short note five months back: one of her in the pool with an oversized beach ball in bright sunshine, the other of her blowing out the candles at her April birthday party with a few friends – probably taken in the breakfast or dining room. Happy days with her new family. Few signs now of a child’s joyful activity, thought Elena; the atmosphere in the house was flat and sterile. Pretty much like Nadine’s interview technique.

The softly-softly approach might work with some, but Elena doubted it would with Cameron Ryall. She remembered from the first adoption report that he’d been a practising barrister for three years before going into business. With now almost thirty years of hard-edged trading under his belt, he could run rings round the Nadine’s of this world.

  But then Nadine had told her that probably little would be revealed until they spoke to Lorena directly, and then if anything looked suspicious she would hit the Ryalls with bigger guns at a second interview. Perhaps her attachment to Lorena was making her
too
anxious for a quick solution, which was no doubt why Nadine had reminded her so pointedly to stay in the background with the Ryalls, ‘However angry and indignant you might feel. And after the initial introductions with Lorena and putting her at ease, leave everything to me.’

  Her husband Gordon, too, had tried to calm her crusading spirit when she’d told him about the meeting with the Ryalls. ‘It may all come to nothing, you don’t know yet. And even if something
is
happening, it’s not your problem anymore, it’s the Social Service’s. You did your bit by caring for those children until they found homes. You can’t be expected to stay responsible for them all forever.’

  But that was the problem, she
did
still feel responsible for them all. And in that moment, she felt a strong pang of guilt that in twelve years of marriage, she’d never told Gordon why. Perhaps he was right, it would all come to nothing, and she would never have to tell him. It would stay her secret, as it had done already for half her life.

‘No, no. There’s no problems.’

  ‘Are you sure?’ Nadine let out a slow breath. ‘This is quite important. It’s why we’re here.’

  A moment’s hesitation from Lorena, but it was quickly brushed aside. ‘No, really. Everything’s fine. I was worrying for nothing.’

  They were in the music and playroom they’d passed earlier. Lorena had been ushered in from her room by the maid, then they’d been left alone, the door closed.

  There had been a tense moment towards the end of interviewing the Ryalls when Nadine had asked a similar question: ‘Moving closer to home, is there anything here troubling Lorena that you can think of?’ Elena had turned from the window and moved a few paces back towards the Ryalls, focusing intensely and staring almost straight through them – not sure whether she was still looking for tell-tale signs or was hoping to unnerve them. Cameron Ryall had answered the same as Lorena, though without any hesitation.

  Lorena appeared to have grown almost two inches since Elena had last seen her, was now close to five foot. Her hair was long and straight and somewhere between light-brown and corn, with just a hint of red in certain lights. Her eyes were a large and expressive blue-grey with a sprinkling of pale green flecks. In a few years, she could no doubt pass for a stunning pre-pubescent cat-walk model, and perhaps that had partly contributed: because she was so pretty, it was easy to believe the worst about Cameron Ryall. Elena tried to detach herself from that thought, but it was difficult.

  Lorena’s English was near-perfect, though still with a distinct Eastern-European accent, its edges now smoothed by a gentle
Dorset
lilt. The combination was quite cute and endearing.          

They’d hugged enthusiastically on greeting, and Elena felt reluctant to part, clinging on to Lorena’s hands a moment longer as Lorena asked if she got the photos, and she in turn commented that Lorena had grown and asked how she was. But it became quickly, painfully obvious that there were few safe footholds without getting to the business at hand, so Elena made the introductions and offered some encouragement – ‘Nadine’s here to help you. Just tell her everything in your own words, in your own time’ – then let Nadine take over.

  Nadine started with the softer ground covered earlier with the Ryalls – friends at school or from outside, how she was settling in generally, problems with her history essays – before zeroing in with questions about problems at home. But it seemed to have served little purpose; Lorena was still edgy, ill at ease.

  Nadine was uncertain whether to ease back and circle slowly in again, or to be more direct. She glanced at Elena, whose frustration and impatience was painfully evident. The risk with a direct blast was that Lorena could clam-up completely; but there was probably little to lose, she certainly wasn’t getting anywhere with the soft approach. 

  ‘When you phoned Elena, you mentioned that Mr Ryall was coming to your bedside late at night, and that this disturbed you. Why did this disturb you?’

  ‘It just did, that’s all.’ Lorena looked down for a second. ‘He used to come to read me bed-time stories, but I told him I was too old for that now.’

  ‘But has he still continued to come?’

  ‘Yes, but less now. Now it’s more for when I have the dreams than to read me stories.’

  ‘The dreams?’

  ‘Yes, I…’ Lorena glanced towards Elena. ‘I used to have bad dreams that I was underground, trapped… couldn’t breathe.’ She put one hand up dramatically to her throat. ‘They stopped finally, but not long ago, maybe six or seven months, they come back again.’

  Elena could see that Nadine was still grappling for a full picture, and cut in. ‘Lorena lived rough on the streets of
Bucharest
for almost a year after the first orphanage closed. In the winter, to keep warm, this often meant them making their beds and sleeping underground in the sewers. For a while afterwards at the second orphanage, before she came to
England
, she was plagued by nightmares about that.’

  ‘I see.’ Nadine nodded. ‘And when Mr Ryall comes to your bedside over those dreams, does anything else happen? Anything that might disturb you?’

  Lorena’s brow knitted. ‘In what way?’

  Nadine swallowed imperceptibly and stayed staring steadily at Lorena. ‘Has there ever been any physical contact?’

  Lorena blinked slowly, absorbing the weight of the question. ‘No, well… only him soothing me, stroking my head, you know, to calm me.’

  ‘Nothing else?’

  Lorena shook her head. ‘No, nothing.’

  Elena remembered many a night soothing Lorena’s brow at the Cerneit orphanage, and now Cameron Ryall had taken her place. Elena noticed the dark, fearful shadows return to Lorena’s eyes with talk about the dreams, but did something else lay behind those shadows? Natural discomfort of a young woman fast growing-up with a man visiting her bedroom late at night, or was something more worrying going on? Was this a safe and secure, loving home – everything Lorena had always dreamed of and more – or a gilded prison?

  Lorena would have grown up quicker than most, Elena reminded herself: she’d have had to think and act like an adult just to survive on the streets of
Bucharest
. She’d had so little real childhood. And perhaps, as a result, she just couldn’t relate to the Cinderella and pink-ribbons images Cameron Ryall was trying to sell with his bed-time stories. She was keen to embrace adult-hood quicker so that she could blot out her childhood completely; kid herself it never happened. Maybe the only way she felt she could be truly happy. Certainly it would explain a lot.

  ‘How often do you have these nightmares now?’ Nadine asked.

‘Sometimes I’ll have none for two weeks or so. Then two or three might come only days apart.’

‘And is it always Mr Ryall that comes to see to you, or does Mrs Ryall sometimes come?’

Lorena shook her head. ‘It’s usually him. She usually only comes to me when he’s away somewhere on a trip.’

‘And does Mr Ryall visit your room late for any other reason now apart from the dreams? Does he read you some stories still?’

‘No, no stories anymore. But sometimes he comes to my room just to talk – you know, asking about schoolwork, how I’m getting on. Things like that.’

‘Does that happen often?’

Lorena shrugged. ‘Mainly when he’s been away somewhere and hasn’t seen me for a few days. Apart from that, not much.’

Nadine asked a few more questions, trying to get it clear just how often Mr Ryall visited her room late at night. One way or another, Ryall managed to visit at least once a week, sometimes twice a week.

‘How about when Mr Ryall is around you at other times? Do you feel comfortable then?’

‘Yes, it’s… it’s okay.’ A flicker of uncertainty for a second, then Lorena shrugged nonchalantly. ‘No problems.’

‘And Mrs Ryall? You get on well with her?’

‘Yes.’

‘You never feel uncomfortable around her at any time?’

‘No.’ Lorena smiled faintly, as if the question was slightly ridiculous.

Elena watched Lorena intently throughout the exchange. The atmosphere in the room became tenser with each question, and Elena’s emotions were seriously divided. A chink of uncertainty in Lorena’s eyes, and she’d feel like screaming: ‘Stop shying away, covering up! If you don’t say something, speak up, we can’t help you. You’ll stay trapped here at Ryall’s mercy.’ But when Lorena appeared sure-footed and confident, it would hit that other part of her that wanted desperately to believe that nothing was happening; though maybe she too was selectively erasing, unwilling to accept any possible horrors after what Lorena had suffered in
Romania
.

Nadine took a fresh breath. ‘So, more or less, all of your problems stem from your discomfort with Mr Ryall coming to your bed late at night now that you’re older. Is that about it?’ Nadine tapped her pen on her folder as she waited on Lorena’s answer.