‘Will you be gone for long?’ she asked.
‘Don’t know yet, but let’s not worry about it now.’
‘All right. Off you trot then. Back to Mummy.’
He grinned at her.
‘By the way,’ she said. ‘I meant to say earlier, I don’t know how I could have forgotten, but a girl from my house disappeared. Three or four weeks ago. I’ve been asking around, but no one seems to know anything about it. She was young. Underage I think, and Russian. I heard her crying. She said she was afraid.’
‘Do you know what she was afraid of?’
Riva shook her head. ‘No. Of something or someone, that’s all she said, and then she just vanished.’
‘I’ll ask around.’
‘Discreetly.’
‘Of course.’
Then he dressed and came to kiss her where she now sat on the edge of the bed. She pulled him towards her and undid his trouser buttons and his underpants.
‘Oh God,’ he groaned. ‘You have very quickly become such a wicked woman.’
CHAPTER 30
After Bobby’s mother had departed, and on a day when Riva had the night off, they were driving to Mdina to see Bobby’s uncle for the second time. She felt delighted to be seeing Addison and his beautiful hidden palace again and was looking forward to a night with Bobby too. She began to happily sing something she’d recently heard on the wireless.
Bobby reached across and brushed a stray curl from her cheek. She turned to smile at him, took his hand, and kissed it.
‘Careful,’ he said. ‘I’m driving.’
It was a beautiful day although a bit windy and she leant back to enjoy the feeling of sun on her face.
‘By the way, I have information,’ Bobby said, ‘about your Russian girl. At least I think I do.’ His eyes were focused straight ahead.
‘Good news?’ she said and looked at him hopefully.
But as he shook his head, she drew in her breath.
‘What then?’
‘I’m so sorry. It’s pretty awful, but the remains of a young girl turned up on one of the beaches.’ He turned briefly to her, his eyes grave.
Riva gasped. ‘Oh no!’
‘I have a friend at theTimes of Malta.I happened to mention what you’d said about a missing girl, and he told me about it. The authorities tend to hush these things up.’
‘When was she found?’
‘About two weeks ago. She’d been in the sea for a little while.’
‘Oh God. That’s awful. But why do you think it was her?’
‘Someone from Strait Street identified her as a Russian girl who’d only been here a couple of days before she didn’t turn up for work. They didn’t worry because people come and go so frequently.’
‘It could have been another Russian girl.’
‘They called her Anya.’
