“Did he ever ask you to do anything you found unusual or suspicious?” Deborah asked.

“Like what?”

“Deliver a package or a message, for example.”

“Never.”

“Have you ever seen him with anyone he shouldn’t have been with?”

“How would I know who he should or shouldn’t be with?”

“You know what I’m talking about. Anyone shady. Anyone you recognized, with your skills. From the past, perhaps, or from one of the many photographs you’ve seen.”

“No,” said Zelda, feeling her nose itch again.

“You said you worked in the field on occasion. I understand you visited airports and train terminals to scan the crowds?” Danvers said.

“Sometimes. If we had information that a person of interest might be coming in, someone from Special Branch or MI5 would come and take me off for the day. But it didn’t happen often. My area of expertise is relatively narrow, and very specialized.”

“I think what we’re getting at is whether you ever saw Mr. Hawkins with any of these people you might have spotted at airports or railway stations?”

“No.”

“And what is your role exactly? How do you work?”

“You already know that.”

“Clarify it for us,” said Deborah.

Zelda swallowed. She never liked this bit. “Faces,” she replied. “I told you. I don’t forget them.”

“Why should that be of value to this department?”

“You know as well as I do that we’re concerned with identifying and, with any luck, eventually catching, anyone involved in the illegal traffic of young women for the purposes of sex.”

“And your own experience as a sex worker would make you an expert on this?” Deborah asked. “You see, this experience is very unclear in your file. Almost so unclear as to be nonexistent.”

Zelda looked at Deborah. She was enjoying this, she thought. Enjoying humiliating her. Or trying to. She sighed. “I have never been a ‘sex worker,’ and I resent your use of the term. ‘Sex worker’ implies I was a willing participant. I wasn’t. Not ever. As you said, I have a ‘personal acquaintance with the area under investigation.’ That’s because it happened to me. It is not something I like to broadcast, but I was abducted at the age of seventeen and spent the next ten years either on my back or on my knees servicing clients. That’s when I wasn’t being beaten, tortured or raped. And if either of you believe that I might possibly be working on the side of the bastards who did those things to me, then you’re more fucking stupid than I think you are.” Zelda noticed Deborah redden and felt a little jolt of pleasure at her reaction to the outburst.

Danvers coughed, put his pen down again and glanced sideways at Deborah. “Well, I think that’s just about all for now. Unless you have anymore questions, Deborah?”

Deborah shook her head and scribbled something on her notepad before smoothing her skirt. She avoided looking at Zelda.

Danvers stood up and gave a slightly mocking bow. “Then we’ll trouble you no more, Ms. Melnic.”