The Yacht Party (Lara Stone)

‘What trouble, Rebecca?’

The young woman hesitated.

‘I know you know something, Becky. And the more people you tell, the safer you’ll be.’

The young woman’s eyes were glittering.

It was a few seconds before she spoke again.

‘Helen saw something,’ she said. ‘Trafficking.’

It was just one word, but it made their whole investigation come together. Lara wanted to let out a whoop, but it wasn?

??t the time or place. Besides, they were a long way from proving it.

‘Helen loved photography,’ continued Rebecca. ‘As soon as she got to Haiti she started a project photographing the people; she wanted to show the beauty of the country as well as the poverty, she had some idea about putting on an exhibition once we got back to Scotland. So she used to wander about on her own taking photos.’

Lara gave a sad smile, imagining Helen’s spirit.

‘On one of the photography trips, Helen saw a man put a young Haitian woman into a pick-up truck. Helen recognised her. Her name was Esther. Barely sixteen and until recently she had lived in one of the orphanages in Port-au-Prince. Helen tried to find Esther, but she had disappeared.’

‘Helen thought she had been trafficked away from the area?’ said Lara.

Rebecca nodded.

‘Helen asked around and found out that over the past few months, fifteen young women had gone missing from the Cité Soleil slums alone.’

‘Did Helen tell anyone? The police or one of the charities?’

Rebecca gave a cynical smile.

‘The man with Esther, the one who put her in the truck? His name was Nils. He worked for ImpactAid.’

Lara looked at her in disbelief. ‘Seriously?’

‘Yep. Helen told Diego, our manager, showed him the photos she’d taken of Esther and the pick-up truck. Like that,’ – Becky clicked her fingers – ‘Nils disappeared too and we thought he’d been arrested or something. But no, one of our friends saw him a few days later up in Port-de-Paix on the other side of the peninsula.’ Rebecca jabbed a finger for emphasis. ‘He was still working for the charity.’

‘Wow,’ said Stella and Rebecca nodded. She seemed calmer now, almost relieved to be finally telling her story.

‘Helen was furious. She said she was going to go straight to the top because it turns out that Victoria Sachs, the founder of ImpactAid, was coming into town, for some photo-story for one of the big American papers.’

Stella was standing closer now, fascinated by the story.

‘Did she see her?’

‘Oh yeah, Helen was ballsy. She went to Victoria’s hotel, showed her the photos and told her how many girls had disappeared. How she believed Nils was involved in the trafficking. How she thought his role was to use his knowledge of the locals via his ImpactAid work to identify vulnerable girls.’

‘Because they’d trust Nils,’ said Lara grimly.

Rebecca nodded. ‘Victoria was outraged, said she’d launch an immediate inquiry.’

‘And did she?’

Rebecca looked at Lara, her eyes glistening.

‘I don’t know. All I know if that two weeks later, Helen was dead.’

Chapter 24