‘Why do you need to know that?’

‘Don’t worry, Poppa. I’m not knocked up. But the “situation” I’m dealing with … I need someone with that sort of expertise. Can you get me in touch with … what’s her name?’

‘Elise … and she is sitting right near me.’

‘She’s heard all this? You’ve had us on speaker?’

‘Of course not. But, as I said, I trust her. And she’s helped a lot of women.’

‘Would you put her on then?’

I handed over the phone to Elise, saying Klara wanted to speak to her.

Elise took it from me and was immediately professional and friendly with a hint of take-charge in her voice. As their conversation continued I decided that a fresh cigarette was needed. I got out of the car, closing the door quietly behind me. There was a bus stop nearby with a bench inside its shelter. No one was waiting there. So I took up a corner of the bench and lit up.

Fifteen minutes and three cigarettes later Elise got out of the car, waving me back. Once I was inside and behind the wheel she handed me my phone and said:

‘Your daughter is a brave young woman. Maybe recklessly so – to the point where I fear that she could be in possible danger. But we have a small window of opportunity here. She got a call two days ago from a young woman named Amber. She told Klara that, for the past three years, she’s been kept in seclusion … by a man who essentially found her in a home for homeless adolescents. And this very rich and powerful man happens to be a certain Patrick Kelleher.’

‘Jesus Christ …’

‘Jesus is certainly part of his twisted theology – even though I sense Jesus would be against everything that Kelleher is doing in His name.’

‘Why did this girl contact Klara?’

‘It seems that Kelleher is going to subsidize the women’s shelter where Klara works. Your daughter met him there and he got her phone number …’

‘Yeah, I heard all about that meeting. And how he asked her for her card and invited her to lunch.’

‘Amber got hold of that card. It seems that she’s been kept in a separate cottage on a corner of Kelleher’s estate in Brentwood. He comes to see her a few times a week when he wants to have sex. It’s not like she’s being held in a tiny room. It’s an actual little house. And she told Klara that, after the bleakness of that Catholic home for homeless girls, she initially felt spoiled at Kelleher’s. Like he was a surrogate father. Until, that is, he started insisting that they have sex whenever he wanted it. That started very quickly after she arrived there three years ago. When she was just fourteen years old.’

I felt myself take a short intake of breath.