Before going to bed, the hotel staff informed me that the American chat show crew was here, but not the main man himself yet. The crew had been reported as being jetlagged and grumpy, so I would leave them alone for now.

  Ghosts of the past

  David Hutton called me the next day. ‘That fucking sealed fireplace has things hidden in it!’

  ‘What … things?’

  ‘Old black and white photos and movie reels, 8mm. The photos are of young girls!’

  ‘Pack it all up, do it yourself, tell no one, I’ll have Miles O’Grady pick it up.’

  ‘Not the local police?’

  ‘They could be involved and connected, and the evidence could disappear.’

  ‘Might be stretching a few laws by not handing it in…’

  ‘Deny all knowledge of it afterwards. Who knows about it?’

  ‘A builder friend opened it but he never saw the package, it was black with soot. I found it later.’

  ‘I’ll call Miles to pick it up, so you forget about it, but keep searching, and give Miles the name of the previous owner and the dates he lived there. And relax, at least there are no skeletons. Well, not yet.’

  ‘Cheerful fucker.’

  I called Miles next, who was soon in his car and heading for David Hutton in Leicester, a sooty package to pick up, and maybe some evidence with which to convict a few old friends of Roger Pearson.

  After informing Carter, he called it in to his former boss, Biggs, but Carter had not been officially let go yet, so Biggs was still his de facto boss.

  It was Olesya’s turn, so at 5pm I led her to her room, doors locked and checked before we hit the shower. She had a good look at my bruises and scars, not upset by them.

  On the bed, I knelt with some pain and moved to get comfortable, a good massage for Olesya but a loud quick finish for her – she had missed me. Laying down, I let her get on top, and she eased slowly down onto my cock, gasping as if about to die right there and then.

  Cuddled up later, it was good to just lay here and hold her as she slept for a while, her head on my chest.

  Staring up at the ornate ceiling and cornice work, and running my fingers gently through her hair, I could see in my mind the flames and I could now smell the smoke, and I was suddenly very glad to be alive - and to be here with Oleysa and the twins.

  If Oleysa could have seen my facial expression she would have been concerned, but thankfully she was out of it as I stared up at the ceiling, wondering about what might have been.

  In the restaurant that evening I met the TV crew, four of them plus a make-up lady, and they hoped that the main man would arrive in a day or so.

  Well, they hoped he would miss the flight, or crash and die, so that they could enjoy this hotel break without him, but I was not about to tell him that when he did finally arrived.

  Later that evening the Holy Roman Empire came calling, Bishop Armani, and I sat down with him and an assistant as Brad detailed the planned movie outline.

  Armani noted, ‘There was a priest in Copenhagen during the war, one of ours, and he assisted a few Jews to escape.’

  ‘I read about him, yes,’ I agreed. ‘And I think he may have had a hand in moving people known to my family, so we can check the detail. If he assisted my family directly then he should be in the movie.’

  ‘We have records,’ Armani offered. ‘And newspaper cuttings from after the war. I’ll have them delivered here.’

  ‘Is there a photo of the priest?’ Brad asked.

  ‘I would guess so, he would have had a file record on him, and there was a black and white TV documentary that included him, made in the 1960s. We have a copy of that.’

  ‘It all helps,’ Brad agreed. ‘Ricky wants the names and dates dead accurate, and so does the studio.’

  The bishop was not objecting to any of the scenes, and he liked the idea for the final scene - a shot of me placing a flower on the original Katerina Mary’s grave.

  With the bishop gone, after a cup of coffee - and a chat about our planned new charity, I spent a few hours with Brad and he took notes, a laptop to type ideas directly into, and we had the outline of the film already, as well as some detail with which to flesh out the sections.

  The aircraft crash would be accurate, my part would be accurate, the hospital crowds to be shown from TV news footage. We also discussed the Mercedes adverts, the first iconic advert to be shown just as it was seen by my parents at home.

  Taking a break, I enjoyed a late swim despite the pool now being closed - and despite security gently complaining, followed by a four-hand massage from the twins – no complaining evident.

  But with the twins asleep I again stared up at the ceiling, seeing the smoke and flames and wondering what I could have done differently.

  The extended chat show

  At 8am I sat with Jacqueline near the pool for breakfast, the twins doing lengths to keep their bodies in shape, Rolf having a check-up from an expensive Swedish doctor, but that doctor was a man that Rolf had been in school with – so the rates were affordable.

  Upon our eventual return to Sweden we would be booked in for scans, top quality scans, this same doctor to be on hand and to look for micro fractures in our bones and in our spinal discs. The Italians had scanned us, a few lines on the scans being possible points of interest, but Rolf wanted to be sure.

  At 2pm two boats were made ready plus an English speaking guide, and I set out with Jacqueline - the twins in the motorboat behind us and sticking close enough to hear what was being said.

  Around the lake, our guide pointed out many large houses belonging to film celebs, most of those celebs having made their money in the sixties. And there were a great many houses here belonging to celebs, a few known to Jacqueline.

  Back at the hotel, and my chat show host was now here with two additional staff, but he was jetlagged and very grumpy – so reported by his crew, who were avoiding him. They also asked me if I could drown him in the lake.

  He appeared at the restaurant later looking tired, but we sat chatting for a while as he ate, talk of the hotel in Corsica and of long flights here from New York. Depending on how he felt in the morning we might make a start.

  After he had retired to the massage room I spoke to each survivor in turn, and they agreed to take part in the mini documentary free of charge, a final interview with us all sat together.

  The next day at 2pm the crew were set-up ready for my interview in a quiet side room used for hotel functions, the room very ornate and displaying a wall-to-wall bookcase, a good backdrop to the interview. I had on my new expensive suit, and we both sat on stiff chairs, facing each other at forty-five degrees.

  ‘Ready,’ came from the small crew. ‘Three … two … one …’

  ‘Ricky Roskov, welcome back to the show, and it’s been a very dramatic few weeks for you. How are you healing after the horrific plane crash?’

  ‘When the aircraft hit the trees it was knocked side to side, so my hips hit the seat rests and my body tugged on the seatbelt. I was bruised badly around my thighs and hips, and the violent movement was enough to break my hips in two places.

  ‘I’ve had daily massages and ultrasound treatment, and that has helped a great deal with the bruising and swelling, but right from the third day - the day after my surgery, I snuck out of bed at night and walked around my room.

  ‘I figured that if I lay still for too long my stiff back would only get worse, so I took the pain and I walked around my room. But after many years of playing soccer I was used to injuring my legs and I was used to taking the pain.’

  ‘When did you know that the plane was in trouble?’

  ‘I had just turned my head to speak to my bodyguard when the explosive decompression hit us, and my left ear popped and started to bleed.

  ‘We descended quickly, but I figured that we should have been OK because aircraft suffer explosive decompressions a few times a year and they typically land safely, so … I was optimistic.

  ‘But after we had levelled off for a minute the engines cut out and it fell silent, and I knew then that we were in trouble, so I discussed it with the twins’ father, Rolf, who was sat next to me.

  ‘We had descended down to ten thousand feet, which meant that we were only a few thousand feet above the mountains – little room for manoeuvre, and I could see the snow-capped mountains clearly through the window.

  ‘I told Rolf that we were going down, and … we discussed morbid topics, such as enough money left for his family and for mine.’

  ‘Were the passengers panicking?’

  ‘It was dead quiet, and few passengers would realise that a quiet plane means trouble. Everyone was sat down, the air hostesses sat down, and we just waited quietly for something to happen.

  ‘But then we banked hard left then right, and that shook people up, and I could see the forest ahead, a rectangle of what looked like grass from distance but was actually trees, a plantation of evergreens.

  ‘We banked hard again, nose down and up, and that caused a few screams, then we got the message that no aircraft passenger ever wants to hear: brace for impact.

  ‘But the pilot did an excellent job for us, and he skimmed the trees perfectly, slowing us down. Problem was that the trees were not uniform, in growth size or position, and with the aircraft wings hitting the trees we started to violently shake side to side.

  ‘Up front it was much worse, and I saw an air hostess thrown around like a limp rag doll. The noise then increased to a roar that drowned out all conversation, and the vibration was horrendous.

  ‘So I lifted my left armrest and turned side on, and that helped ease the pain a little, and when we came to a halt the seat in front of me broke and ended up bent forwards.

  ‘And then it fell silent, a few moans, no vibration, nothing, it was just dead quiet. I had an immediate terrible fear of burning, so I undid my seatbelt and tried to stand, but the pain was just too severe.

  ‘So I hit upon the idea of tightening my trouser belt, and that helped a great deal, the pain in my hips deadened. I stood, dragged Rolf out and to the exit; we had been sat just one row back from the middle exit over the wing on the right hand side.

  ‘I read the instructions quickly and opened the door, letting it fall outside, but we were immediately choked by the smell of fuel, which scared the hell out of me. It was like sitting in a barrel full of petrol and hoping that no one dropped a match.

  ‘I eased Rolf outside, followed by an old Italian lady that was sat in the exit seats. It’s fair to say that she screamed in agony as I dragged her out, and with Rolf helping me we assisted her down the wing.

  ‘I say wing, but we couldn’t really see it, there was six inches of leaves, the evergreen conifer type of leaves, and those leaves made it easier to walk on than a slippery metal wing I think.

  ‘I left Rolf and the old lady at the end of the wing and went back. I had asked Rolf to assist me but he could hardly move, so I told him to take the old lady further away from the crash site.

  ‘Heading back, it was … freaky, in that it was dead quiet, the sun beating in through gaps in the trees, and behind the aircraft I could see all the way out five hundred yards, and it looked like a giant lawnmower had trimmed the forest plantation.

  ‘As I clambered back inside … a man was crawling towards me, so I lifted him and literally threw him out the door before I followed him out. I helped him along to Rolf, who grabbed the man as I went back in.

  ‘A teenage girl was out of her seat already and she fell towards me and I caught her, so I shoved her out the exit and she crawled well enough by herself.

  ‘When I turned around, the girl’s mother was frantically going after her daughter, but she collapsed, so I helped her outside, where she fainted.

  ‘I carried her along the wing and dumped her at her daughter’s position - accidentally dropping her in a few inches of muddy cold water, Rolf assisting them on his knees, and the man I had helped get off the plane was crawling away towards the distant forest track.

  ‘Back inside, a man one row behind the exit seat, left side, unclicked his belt so I grabbed him, but he seemed to be protesting me helping him.

  ‘I figured it to be the pain, but … he was speaking in Swedish and asking me to get his pregnant fiancé out, she was sat right next to him.

  ‘After I had dumped him down with Rolf I went back – and I had shouted for my bodyguard to get with it, and I figured that he could stand outside the exit doors as I passed people out.

  ‘At that point I noticed that there was someone down the plane crawling towards us, someone at the rear crawling towards us.

  ‘I lifted my bodyguard up and out and towards the exit, but he just flopped, so I had to drag him to Rolf. When I got there I could see two big forest workers rushing in to help us, and that they had reached the first survivor.

  ‘Rolf didn’t want me to go back in, he said that the plane was about to explode, but I could see someone in the exit door looking out at me, so I started towards them – just twenty yards away.

  ‘A second later the fire started on the far side of the aircraft, not my side, so I turned back, away from the fire, just before the vapour exploded, and it burnt the back of me as I flew off the wing and flew through the air.

  ‘Luckily there was an area of black smelly water, at least six inches deep, and I landed in it as the flames passed me. It was freezing cold water, and that helped to wake me up I think.

  ‘When I got onto my hands and knees the old lady was on fire, but my hands were covered in wet mud, which was great for patting out the fire without burning myself.

  ‘Rolf took one side of her, I took the other side, and we crawled towards the track, the noise behind us like an earthquake, the heat about to give us sunburn.

  ‘We had gone ten yards when the two big forest workers ran in and grabbed the old lady and Rolf. I could stand, so I walked after them, and we made it to the track, and … without those forest workers I think some of us would have burnt - or suffocated in the thick smoke.

  ‘The fire spread quickly, it’s the end of the Italian summertime now, and the trees were very dry. That and the abundant leaking fuel. The forest workers dragged people down the track and to a grassy field, and when we looked back the area where we had been was on fire, black smoke everywhere.’

  ‘And you heard the baby…’

  ‘My left ear was damaged, the roar of the fire was like a freight train next to us, but somehow I heard the baby’s cry and I pointed out the position to a forest worker. He just shoved me away from the fire, so I hit him.’

  ‘You hit him?’

  ‘I elbowed him a good blow and hit him in the face before I darted into the trees. The smoke enveloped me and … Rolf figured I was dead and gone.

  ‘But I found the white cot, the baby and the note left with it, and from that position I could see the cockpit, less than ten metres away. I grabbed the baby, closed my eyes in the smoke and ran, onto the grass and around, the forest workers very surprised to see the baby.

  ‘We then started to move away from the tree plantation and … within twenty or thirty seconds the forest where the baby had been was on fire.

  ‘When we got to the road most everyone just collapsed, but I was stood holding the baby looking back, knowing that the plane had a hundred passengers on board, and … the image that will forever haunt me was the final man, a face seen peering out of the exit. Twenty seconds more and I might have saved him.’

  ‘Or been burnt alive!’

  ‘Well … yes. If I had been back inside a few seconds later I would never have made it out.’

  ‘Does it give you nightmares?’

  ‘I’ve had a few dreams where I’m trying to get more people off the plane, and frustrated that I can’t, beaten back by the fire.

  ‘But I won’t let it affect me, I have family to consider, girlfriends and staff that I need to look after. I’ll move on from it and try and enjoy life once again, and I’ve been on the phone most days running my businesses.’

  ‘At the hospital you rallied the survivors, they said…’

  ‘I made a point of walking around and seeing each one in turn and checking on them and their mental state. Most had family visiting them early on, within a day, and the old Italian lady - the contessa who owns this hotel, I handed her the baby to play with and that seemed to cheer her up.’

  ‘She’ll recover?’

  ‘It will take time, but she has just the broken hips to worry about, we all did apart from the teenage girl, and we all had graphite pins put in, the same operation. Now it’s just a matter of time to heal, and I’m young enough to heal well.

  ‘Here, in this hotel, I’ve been swimming a few times a day, we have several massages each day, so we’re doing well, and the survivors have all bonded apart from the one man, and … I can understand his pain and torment; I took him off the plane and left behind his pregnant fiancé.’

  ‘Not your job … to be rescuing people when injured, that’s a bonus for the injured not a passenger’s legal requirement. If I was in a plane wreck I’d get my wife and daughter off and run, I think most people would, but you did the hero bit, so that guy is wrong to be mad at you.’

  ‘He has Survivor Syndrome I think, the guilt of being alive when he left someone behind.’

  ‘Could he have dragged her off?’

  ‘No, he needed me to drag him off.’

  ‘Then we hope he gets some good help with his recovery, and with the loss of his fiancé and child.’

  ‘Apart from him, the other survivors are doing well, and doing well emotionally,’ I stated.

  ‘And Luka?’

  ‘She’s making good progress, off the drugs now and eating well, sleeping well, and … not being forced to take drugs and work as a hooker.

  ‘Her boyfriend-pimp has been arrested in the Czech Republic, now being questioned about a murder there, and there will be questions here in Italy about abandoning the baby on a hillside, and that should be an attempted murder charge.’