Chapter 9: Homecoming

Saturday. London Airport. The third day after Jennifer's release

Terminal 5.

Three days after she was found in Stockholm, Jenny arrives back in England...

The last time that Jenny was at London Heathrow Airport she had she come to surprise Joe as he returned from trip abroad. It was a happy time for her.

For Joe the feeling is different. Joe can never forget the day, a few months later, when he returned alone to Heathrow, to begin a fruitless search for his wife.

Today, they stand in the queue for passport checks, holding each other's hand tightly, shuffling slowly forwards. At the front of the queue is a row of kiosks beneath a dark blue and white sign announcing 'UK Border'. The queue continues to moves slowly forward. Finally it is their turn next; Joe stands back half a pace, letting Jenny go forward. He wants to see Jenny cross the border first. To see her safe inside her own country once more. She is called forward. She shows the temporary documents she received from the British Embassy. The official looks at it. Looks at her. Looks at his monitor. Joe can just about read his lips as he says, "Just a minute, Ma'am."

Joe's heart sinks. He knew it wouldn't be easy but he tries his best to switch into emotional low gear and let plodding officialdom take its tedious course.

The border official glances up at Joe and points to him, calling him forward. As he does so, he picks up a telephone receiver. Joe hears him say: "that's them here now".

To Joe and Jenny he says. "Someone needs to speak with you. Just wait here a moment. Oh – don't forget these!" and he hands Joe's passport back to him and the temporary documents back to Jenny. That's a good sign at least, Joe thinks.

A few moments later Joe sees Jane Borland edging through the crowd towards them. He's pleased that it's her. She always seemed sympathetic when they spoke before. She had done what she could, he felt, and she'd helped him get through the whole gruesome police investigation process as painlessly as he supposed was possible. This time, there is someone else with her Joe does not recognize. Another woman. She is dressed rather less formally than Borland and has a pale skin with a nest of black curly hair. As the woman turns her head to say something to Borland, Joe notices a small flash as the lights catch and reflect off a stud in the woman's nose. She looks... slightly freaky... to Joe.

At the barrier, Borland sees Colonel and Mrs Palmer, Joseph McEwan - and his missing wife. She has seen Jenny's picture on Joe's phone and in different versions which had stared down from the wall every time they had talked about the case back in the office. The photos of the pale-skinned, slim, happy girl with brown hair and then sometimes blond hair but always with sparkling eyes had been a continuous presence in the enquiry.

Now she sees a dark-skinned, bald, muscular woman that has the aura of someone worn down by fatigue. The fatigue is hardly surprising but the change in Jenny's appearance is more of a shock. Borland hopes that shock does not show in her face but professional training comes to the fore. She stretches out her hand.

"Mr McEwan. So nice to see you again and you must be Mrs McEwan! I have heard such a lot about you. My name is Joan Borland. I am with the Metropolitan Police. Can I also introduce a colleague, Annie Elba."

At this point Andrew Palmer lays a hand on Joe's shoulder and Inga embraces Jenny.

"Look", says Andrew to Borland, "I'm guessing in the normal way you would not need us but I would feel a lot happier if Inga and I could see Jennifer and Joseph safe at home? He turns back to Joe and Jenny. "If you're happy to see us home safe Sergeant we'll leave you now and get this pair home?" He indicates Joe and Jenny with a nod of his head.

The other woman, Annie Elba interrupts. "Actually, It would be helpful if I can perhaps have a word with Mr McEwan and Mrs McEwan's parents, before anyone goes anywhere? This will not take long."

"and I could perhaps speak with Mrs McEwan?" adds Sergeant Borland, "I have made arrangements to have your bags picked up so they will be waiting for us when we are finished."

Joe says, "We'll be fine with that, won't we, Jenny?"

Jenny looks confused. She's not used to having to decide on things anymore and she looks from Joe to Borland and back to her parents. Eventually she nods wordlessly – and then realises that actually this is not a decision for her to make. It's more like an order to be followed. Orders. She knows where she is with orders. She smiles in relief and then in agreement.

The little party moves off deeper into Terminal 5 to reach a small suite of rooms, a small sanctuary from the bustle of the Terminal. Jenny and Sergeant Borland go into one and Joe, Inga, Andrew and Annie Elba enter the other.

Joe notices that there is nothing really to show that Annie Elba is working for the police. What did he expect? Handcuffs on the desk? A truncheon hanging from the hook on the back of the door? There's a desk but Annie suggests they all sit on comfortable chairs around a low coffee table.

Let me begin by introducing myself. I am Dr Annie Elba and I am a forensic psychologist working with the Metropolitan Police. DCI Grantby had a conversation with a colleague from the police in Stockholm to say that Mrs McEwan had been found and that she was finding it a bit of an effort to adjust to being at home with you all again?"

We had a preliminary psychiatric report from our Swedish colleagues and we thought that it might be helpful if I met you all and said a little bit about how Jenny might be feeling right now," Annie begins.

Joe replies. "I know how she's feeling. We all do. Scared and relieved and worried about whether the people that took her will come after her again. I don't need to be told."

Dr Elba does not react to Joe's impatience but merely carried smoothly on: "I'm sure you have seen how anxious she seems and how relieved she will be to get back. That's only what we would expect of course. I just wanted to prepare you for some of the other emotions she might show. Some things you might find surprising or even upsetting."

"Go on Doctor," Inga is leaning forward, listening carefully. Andrew is sitting upright with his arms crossed, much as he always does, looking like he's going to stand up at any moment. Joe glances around the room again, not wanting to be delayed by abstract conversation.

"Mr McEwan," the sound of his name brings his attention back to Annie. "Mr and Mrs Palmer, I know you are all worried about your daughter and I want to explain what I am hoping to do and what I can't do. First of all, a little of what Jenny is going through. It's quite clear she has undergone an ordeal and that she is not prepared to share the details of it. From what I have learned so far, I'd say she is suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. My concern, on behalf of the police is to discover whatever I can to identify wrong doing and bring any offender to account. I can't treat Jenny as a patient, that's not my job. Do you understand that?"

The three of them nod, with varying degrees of certainty

"However, I can say this. Jenny's attitude to her experience appears ambivalent. On one hand there is some dismay at what has happened and on the other she is very defensive when she is asked about where she has been or who she has been with. This may be because she wishes to protect others or because she wishes to protect herself."

"Protect herself?" Andrew asks.

"Yes. There are two possibilities in this situation, don't forget, and the police - and I - will have to look at both of them. The first is that Jenny was abducted, that she was kept prisoner until she escaped. Given the time she was held and the fact that she seems to have been well treated apart from her confinement..."

This seems absurd to Joe. "Well treated! How can you say that?"

"Compared to many cases of people trafficking that I have seen, Mr McEwan, Jenny has been well cared for in her absence. She has been well fed. She has not been physically mistreated in any way that has left physical scars, damage or impairment. She has not become addicted to dangerous narcotics as far as we can see. Anyway, given that she will feel two things. One will be a sense of loyalty to those she perceives as having looked after her. This is quite common in abduction – especially when the victim is not brutalised – and it is not unusual for that sense of loyalty to overcome any feelings of anger at what has occurred. This is especially true if the victim projects onto themselves some sense of responsibility for what has occurred. This leads us to the other feelings that she may experience. There may well be a sense of guilt over the fact that she has escaped, if for example she has formed a close attachment with others that remained behind after she left."

"I've seen this in battle fatigue cases," Andrew intervenes. "Soldiers that have survived an attack that has killed their colleagues feel guilty that they were not the ones wounded or killed."

"That's a very similar response," Dr Elba replies, nodding. "In fact there are many commonalities between the effects we would observe in a case of post-traumatic stress disorder resulting from armed conflicts and what Jenny could be experiencing at the moment."

"You say 'could' and you said there was a second possibility other than this loyalty and guilt reflex," says Joe who is finding Dr Elba's little talk all rather too abstract and indefinite.

"The second possibility is that Jennifer was not, in fact abducted. I know that is what we all assume but it could be that her insistence on keeping the secrets of those that supposedly abducted her is that they do not exist or that her relationship with them was not that of captor and captive."

"But she escaped from them. Why else would she have spent so long away?"

"I know that's what we assume, Mr McEwan, and my feeling is that is the most likely explanation but it's also possible that what has happened to Jennifer has been entirely the result of her own actions and that her "secrecy" now is because she can't confess to herself, much less anyone else, what she has done."

Joe glances across to Andrew. His folded arms say he doesn't believe what this woman is saying either. Inga is quiet, listening attentively to but not joining the discussion.

"I know this is uncomfortable for you. I will have to talk to Jenny more before I can come to any conclusions but I thought it only fair to tell you the possible outcomes might be."

"Of course," Andrew responds in clipped tones. "Thank you. Do you have any advice for us, in the mean time? How we should help Jenny?"

"Well, as I say, I can't treat her as my patient but you should encourage her to seek help to cope with the effects of the stress, whatever has caused it. I can let you have the name of someone who might be able to help. They've worked with victims of mental and physical abuse. I'm sure they would help Jenny, whatever has gone on." Annie passes Joe a business card. It has a doctor's name and phone number on it but Joe does not take in any more details. He is still thinking about what Dr Elba has said, about Jenny not being an abductee after all but someone who had fled from her parents, her friends, her job and of course, from him, Joe, her husband. That's something that would be even harder to deal with in every way.

Annie Elba is still talking, "She may also need medical support if, against what we believe at the moment, she has in fact been given drugs to alter her mood and to make her more compliant. I believe she has had a thorough physical examination in Stockholm and we are waiting for our colleagues there to send us their reports but finally, looking at her physique, she ought to be exercising as well. The consequences of going from a physically active regime to a sedentary one won't be beneficial physically or mentally. And now ... I think Jenny ought to go home," she says bringing the discussion to a close.

Inga thanks Annie for her help. Andrew gives Joe a "what do you think of that?" look and I he shrugs in response. Together we leave the office. Jenny is sitting on the couch outside smiling up them all.

"All finished?" she says. "Can we go?"

Joe says: "Look, Andrew I am sure Jenny and I will be perfectly OK. After all, we are in England now. I think we just need some time together. Sergeant?"

Joan Borland says, " I think you are probably right Mr McEwan but let me at least make sure you get your train safely!"

It occurs to Andrew that they may be in England - London even, but London was where Jennifer disappeared and perhaps even here, danger lurks unsuspected and visits from unexpected directions. After all, there was the incident at the Summer House just as they arrived back from Kungsholmen. Someone being hustled away by the police. When he asked about it later, the police merely said that the person had been identified and was of no further concern? For the moment, he takes his cue from Sergeant Borland who must be more experienced in these matters than he, but he resolves to keep a careful, watchful eye on his daughter and son in law. Complacency is not in his nature. Inga and Andrew pause for a moment. They do not want to lose sight of their daughter too soon. Not until they are sure she is moving on safely. It is an oddly fragile moment.

"I expect we will see one another soon Sergeant?" Andrew and Inga shake Borland's hand. Borland smiles in reply. Andrew waves and gently turns Inga away. Just as the Sergeant promised, their luggage is waiting for them. Andrew and Inga take theirs and begin to make their own way from the building and the only case remaining belongs to Joseph because as Jennifer could have told him, the slave Vyera did not have anything of her own.

"I just wanted to make sure you arrived safely and caught your connection home", says Borland to Jenny and Joe. "Are you planning to get a train back to Warwick? If you are, I can give you a lift to Marylebone."

"So tell me again how you knew we would be on our particular flight?, asks Joe.

"Oh, that was easy. A lady called Anna Thomassen from the Stockholm Police called to let us know Mrs McEwan had been found and we thought we should meet you, to make sure you had arrived safe."

"We?"

"Chief Inspector Grantby and me."

"Ah", says Joe

"Erm", says Jenny, glancing downwards at the mention of the name Thomassen, "I am very tired. I would like to go home now."

Borland looks across again at this strange ill-looking woman. "Of course", she replies. "It would be nice to speak with you again but another day?"

Jenny just nods

"Let's go to my car", says Borland.

Jenny takes Joe's hand once more. She walks in a daze, following Joan Borland out of the airport terminal. She's going home. That's what Joe and her parents have told her. Home. The question is, which home? She has had so many places described to her as 'home'. She isn't quite sure which one it will be or why it will be the one it is.

By 7:30 pm in the evening, the McEwans get down from the white and blue train and stand on the platform of Warwick Station. A small red brick pavilion with white painted windows and dark blue paint offers a few passengers shelter. There has been a recent shower of rain. The air has a characteristic tangy smell.

They take a taxi home. Jenny finds the journey difficult. It brings back memories. In her recent experience, cars take you to places you would rather not go.

The journey ends in a street of strange (to Jenny's new eyes) newish houses. They are familiar and unfamiliar, at the same time. She follows Joe up the front path and through the door into the silent house. They stand, together. Joe thinks, home at last! Jenny is not so sure. She would be happier if she knew that her other family had not forgotten her...