Page 42 of Don't Believe A Word

As Gita sat with that, Connor said, ‘If it’s OK with everyone, we’ll start recording now?’

Robert gestured for them to continue, and as soon as Connor had mic-ed them all up, he sat down with the equipment and gave Cristy the nod to begin.

‘OK, Robert,’ she said, ‘Connor and I will provide the actual intro to this section, but just to make sure we get it right: it was when you saw the photos Connor sent to your mother of a young couple with a small child that you recognized the woman as someone you’d met while staying with your parents back in 2000?’

‘That’s right. I knew it was her right away. She was very striking.’

‘Good. Fine. So, if you could lead us in by telling us about how you met.’

He nodded slowly, and stretched an arm along the sofa back as he rested an ankle on one knee.

ROBERT: ‘I’d only been in Somerset for a couple of weeks the first time I saw her … She was sitting on a bench in the park at the start of the South West Coast Path. I probably wouldn’t have noticed her if the child on her lap hadn’t dropped something as I passed. A rabbit, I think it was. I picked it up and handed it over and as the young woman thanked me I remember thinking … Bear with me on this, I thought of my father, a lifelong fan of Marlon Brando,On the Waterfrontbeing one of his favourite movies. This girl was very like a young Eva Marie Saint. I saw it right away and wondered how often she might have been told that. I guessed she was in her mid-twenties … The other thing I noticed was that she hadn’t spoken in English when she thanked me. It wasn’t a language I recognized, but she didn’t seem keen to engage any further, so I just went on my way.

‘I didn’t think any more about her, and probably wouldn’t have again if I hadn’t come across her a day or two later,further along the trail. In fact, the only reason I knew she was there was because I heard someone crying. There was no sign of anyone, but the distress, the sobbing wasn’t something I could ignore. So I followed the sound down into a nook, and there she was, huddled into a ball crying as though she’d never stop.

‘I’m sure she had no idea I was there until I sat down on the grass a short distance from her. She didn’t acknowledge me at first, but when she did … It took a while for her to bring herself under control, but I was in no hurry. I simply sat with her and when her breathing was steadier I asked if there was anything I could do.

‘She thanked me and said she’d be fine. I asked about her child, thinking perhaps something had happened to it and that was why she was so upset, but she said she was fine too. “Playing,” she told me, “today she is playing in the camp.” I presumed she meant Butlin’s, which was, and still is, just along the coast or maybe one of the local caravan parks. She spoke English, quite well, although it was heavily accented. I half-expected her to get up and leave then, but she didn’t, and eventually we got talking, about the view and the weather, where I was from and why I was in Somerset.’

CRISTY: ‘Did you ask where she was from?’

ROBERT: ‘I did, but she waved an arm as if to say it didn’t matter. It was pretty clear she didn’t want to talk about herself so I didn’t press it.’

CRISTY: ‘Were you anywhere near the sisters’ house at this point of the trail?’

ROBERT: ‘I’d say we were probably half a mile or so away, close to where the path forks to start climbing steeply to the moor one way and dips down gradually towards the coast the other.’

CRISTY: ‘And this encounter was before your mother told you about the little girl who’d turned up at the sisters’ house?’

ROBERT: ‘As far as I recall, yes it was.’

CRISTY: ‘And you had no reason to think the young woman you were talking to might know the sisters?’

ROBERT: ‘Not then, no. As I said, we didn’t talk about anything in particular. By the time we’d walked back to Minehead together I still didn’t even know her name.’

CONNOR: ‘Did she live in Minehead?’

ROBERT: ‘I’ve no idea. When we got to the coastal end of the high street, she thanked me for being kind to her and we went our separate ways.’

CRISTY: ‘But you saw her again after that day?’

ROBERT: ‘Yes, about a week later. She was in the park, on the same bench. When she saw me she called out and beckoned me over. She seemed a little brighter that day, and I’m pretty sure that was when we properly introduced ourselves. She said her name was Janina and told me that she came to Minehead whenever she could to see her brother who worked at the Butlin’s holiday camp. Apparently he’d sneak her little girl in to play with the other children and ride on the carousels. While she was waiting she either went for walks or read books; if it was raining she took refuge in the library.

‘I’m not sure how it came up, but I recall how …interestedshe became when I mentioned that my mother worked as a housekeeper for two women who’d rented a place on the edge of the moor for the summer. She asked if I meant the Winters sisters and when I said I did she began telling me all about them and the work they did in various parts of the world to help poor communities … I remember being surprised that she seemed to know so much, and feeling I was letting her down when I had to admit that I’d never actually met them.’

He stopped talking as his mother gave a feisty little snore. Laughing, he said, ‘I often have this effect on her.’

‘I’m listening,’ Gita assured them, ‘just resting my eyes. Tell them about the second time you saw her with the child.’

ROBERT: ‘They were in a café close to the seafront. I was passing by on my way to the trail, as usual … The child was sitting on the lap of a young man with a hat perched on the back of his head. He appeared to be teasing her and she was trying to grab his face. I wondered if he was the brother Janina had mentioned. She hadn’t talked about a husband, at all, or about her child’s father.’

CRISTY: ‘Did she ever tell you her brother’s name?’

ROBERT: ‘I found out later that it was Lukas, with a k.’

CRISTY: ‘What about her little girl? Do you know what she was called?’

ROBERT: ‘I tried very hard after Janina disappeared to remember if she’d told me, but I don’t think she did.’

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