Dead Tomorrow

black boots walking towards them, looking furious. As she got closer, he saw she had a black eye and a graze on her opposite cheek.
    ‘Raluca!’ Ileana said.
    ‘Fucker!’ Ralucasaid angrily, addressing all of them and none of them. ‘Do you know what this man wanted me to do in his truck? I won’t tell you. I told him to go to hell and he hit me. Then he pushed me out into the street!’
    Ileana stepped away from the group, put an arm around Raluca and led her a short distance across the concourse, out of earshot of the others. She examined her eye and the graze for a moment and asked her if she wanted to go to hospital. The girl refused vigorously.
    ‘I need some help, Raluca,’ Ileana said.
    Raluca shrugged, still brimming with anger.
    ‘What help? What help does anyone give me?’
    ‘Listen to me a minute, please, Raluca,’ Ileana implored, ignoring the comment. ‘You told me, some weeks ago, that you had heard of a woman who was offering kids jobs abroad, with an apartment? Yes?’
    She shrugged again, then conceded that she had.
    Ileana showed her the photographs. ‘Do you recognize any of these?’
    Raluca pointed at one of the boys. ‘His face–I’ve seen him around, but I don’t know his name.’
    ‘This is really important, Raluca, believe me. Last week, these Romanian kids were found murdered in England. All their internal organs were taken. You must tell me what you know about this woman who offers the jobs.’
    Raluca blanched. ‘I don’t know her, but–I…’ Suddenly she looked very frightened. ‘You know Simona, and Romeo, her friend?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘I saw Simona, just a couple of days ago. She was really happy. She was telling me about this woman who has offered her a job in England. She is goingto go–she had a medical…’ She stopped abruptly. ‘Oh shit. You have a cigarette?’
    Ileana gave her a cigarette, took one herself and pulled out her lighter.
    Raluca inhaled, then blew the smoke out quickly.
    ‘A medical?’
    ‘This woman told her she needed–you know–to check on her health. To get the travel documents.’
    ‘Where is she?’
    ‘She lives with her guy, Romeo, and a group, under the street, by the heating pipe.’
    ‘Where?’
    ‘I don’t know exactly. I know the sector. Only that, she told me.’
    ‘We need to find her,’ Ileana said. ‘Will you come with us?’
    ‘I need money for my drugs. I don’t have time.’
    ‘We’ll give you money. As much as you could earn tonight. OK?’
    Minutes later they were hurrying towards Ian Tilling’s car.

83
    The Airbuswas on its landing approach, steadily sinking through the clear, but bumpy sky. The seat-belt lights had just pinged on. Grace checked his seat was upright, although he hadn’t touched it during the flight. He had been concentrating on the notes a researcher had prepared for him on liver failure, and planning what he wanted to get out of his meeting, later this morning, with the German organ broker.
    They were twenty-five minutes later than scheduled, due to air traffic control delays at take-off, which was a sizeable dent in the preciously short time he had here. From his window seat, he peered down. The snowy landscape looked very different from the previous time he had come here, in summer. Then it had been a flat, colourful patchwork quilt of farmland, now it was just a vast expanse of white. There must have been a recent heavy dump, he thought, because even most of the trees were covered.
    The ground was looming closer, the buildings getting bigger with every second. He saw small clusters of white houses, their roofs covered in snow, then several thin copses and a small town. More clusters of houses and buildings. The light was so bright he regretted, for a moment, not bringing sunglasses.
    It was strange how time changed everything. Not long ago he had come here, to Munich, with real hope that he might find Sandy, finally, after close friends had been sure they had spotted her in a park. But now all those emotions had gone, evaporated. He could honestly say to himself that he no longer had any feelings towardsher. He really felt, for the first time, that he was in the final stages of laying all the complexities of his memories of her to rest. The darkness and the light.
    Grace heard the clunk of the landing wheels locking beneath him and felt a sudden prick of apprehension. For the first time in so, so long, he really had something to live for. His darling Cleo. He did not think it