—It was Naomi’s idea for Zach to vanish? If that’s true, she must have known where he went.
—Maybe. If she did, we didn’t know about it. It makes sense though, especially after Mr Cryer died. I think without him, Mr Crystal was a bit lost.
—Did Naomi Crystal and James Cryer ever butt heads? It seems like there was a bit of a power struggle at Crystal Forest?
—No. Not that I saw, because it was all for him, all for Mr Crystal. They were dedicated to him. Both of them. Then Mr Cryer sadly passed and Mr Crystal disappeared.
Just a quick reminder: the body of James Cryer was found in the early hours of a cold, January morning by Naomi Crystal. Cryer had been deep in the middle of Crystal Forest and had slipped, falling from the edge of a hidden ridge, hitting his head on a large boulder. The circumstances are odd but not entirely suspicious. I ask Craig what he thinks Cryer was doing out there in the first place.
—I mean … he could have been doing anything. What I and everyone else think was that Mr Crystal saw something and sent him to investigate. I don’t think it was much more complicated than that.
—I’m interested in the place where he was found. You knew Crystal Forest like the back of your hand – was there anything odd, anything that stood out about where he fell?
—It was just another one of those caves, like the one I found those poor lassies in. There were lots of them, where trees had fallen or where there were rocks.
—How was Naomi when you came upon her with Cryer’s body?
—Bless her. She’d try to revive him, tried to drag his body up the hill. She was covered in mud. Poor woman. I felt for her too. She’d just walked into a nightmare.
—A few months later, Zach Crystal vanished. What about the staff at Crystal Forest? Was there a lot of speculation about the disappearance?
—Ach, we all had our theories. Some said he’d gone into rehab, probably. Or to some kind of retreat. It was only when Naomi wanted to sell up and get rid of the place that we thought he must be gone for good. She was in full control of it all by then. She stayed in a guest suite and sent Bonnie away. Away from the bad atmosphere, I suppose. Loads of folk were let go, great sections of the place was shut down, boarded up. The swimming pools, the gym, all that. Naomi wanted the tree house taken down too. She wouldn’t even go up there.
—Why was that, do you think?
—I’m not really sure. I know one place that Naomi didn’t like, and that was the ‘memorial room’.
—Memorial room?
—Aye. It’s gonna sound odd but I think I understood it. Mr Crystal had kept a lot of his ma’s things up there, when she passed. Her clothes and her trinkets and all that. The thing about Mr Crystal was that he never threw anything away; he’d put all the clothes on mannequins and that, you know, to keep them. He’d got his ma’s old dresser and put all her stuff on it, her jewellery and all that, you know?
—Did you ever see the memorial room?
—No, but the housekeepers used to talk about it. They said he would never let them clean in there. He would take their trolleys and do it himself.
—Did that strike you as odd?
—Aye, maybe, but the guy was a bit odd. I mean that in the most respectful way, of course. He was … eccentric.
—When Zach Crystal disappeared, did anyone think that maybe he’d actually died?
—Some of us thought that maybe he was dead. But more likely he’d fled overseas, vanished, you know? The guy had enough money to do it and it would be very like him. Leave a mystery like that. I think his parents dying, then his best mate, it fucked him up bad. So that’s why we were so shocked when he came back.
Craig says that the Crystal Forest staff that remained in service were as shocked as the rest of the world when Zach Crystal returned. But while he was there, in the house again, it was like he was not, Craigs says. He was rarely seen by anyone. It was like he was a ghost, flitting briefly into sight, and only ever accompanied by his sister. Zach never explained where he’d been, but it seemed not to matter. A new album and a tour was on the cards and it felt like the world had fallen in love with Zach Crystal again.
Unfortunately, we have come to the part of the interview I’ve been dreading. So far Craig has been affable, good-humoured and willing to engage. He’s told me there are things he is still conflicted about, but it’s clear he still has a great deal of respect for Zach Crystal, and that he was genuinely sad when Crystal passed in 2019.
—Aye … the fire. It was such a … such a sad thing to happen. I’d been there since the place was built. Yeah, it was a fucked-up place sometimes, but this was the biggest star in the world. Things were never going to be normal, you know? I was sad, aye, when it burned. I was very sad. It, and him, had been a big part of my life, a huge part of it. I have a lot to thank him for, I’m not going to lie.
—Was there a degree of relief at all? For him, if you see what I mean?
—Aye, aye, I see what you mean. Finally he found peace. I know there’s a lot of folk out there who hate him, who don’t have any sympathy for him. I get it. But when you’re there, right there, at the time, it’s different. When he came back – it just felt like things were back on track at Crystal Forest, if you know what I mean? Then that Ian Julius popped up and started claiming he’d caught Mr Crystal online. Catfishing wasn’t it?
—A lot of fans blame that for Zach Crystal’s death.
—I see that side too. I think if it had been a few years ago, then the Bastard Squad would have been able to control it a bit better, but in 2019, people were more switched on and everything was online, Twitter and whatnot. Ian Julius chose the right time to do it, if he was lying that is.
—What do you think?
—I don’t know. I’m sorry, but I’ve seen a lot of crazy things. I’ve been along for most of the ride, and one thing I’ve learned is that you have to deal in facts. You have to be sure. I never saw Mr Crystal do anything to anyone. Certainly nothing they’re accusing him of. But I wasn’t there all the time. Could he have done it? Maybe. Like I say, I only know what I saw.
—One last thing, Craig. Every single person who lived or worked at Crystal Forest was out when it burned down, all except for Zach Crystal. That seems amazingly coincidental.
There’s a long silence. Craig sighs.
—I know. I know. It was though – just a coincidence. Bear in mind, even though Mr Crystal was back, there was still only a skeleton staff at Crystal Forest. And none of us really saw Mr Crystal anymore, anyway, not to talk to. I guess we just … we all had somewhere to be. I can’t speak for anyone else but I was out on perimeter that night, with some of security. I guess it was just another one of those weird things.
It’s nigh on impossible to track down any other members of Crystal Forest staff who were working that night. Craig tells me they all had confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements in their contracts. They all knew the power of those agreements and what could happen to them if they spoke out.
They still do, he says.
—So why have you been so gracious, so generous with your time?
Craig smiles and shrugs. He tells me he’s not worried.
—I guess a part of me wants to find out what happened as much as you do.
Something occurs to me, and I’m suddenly paranoid. I look warily around the busy café. There are two men in suits sitting a few tables away. Is that too obvious? I look at the woman with her baby on the table beside us.
—Can I ask – did you seek permission from Naomi Crystal before speaking to me? Are we being watched? Recorded?
Craig laughs, long and loud. This certainly turns a few heads. He hunches his shoulders and speaks to me in a stage whisper.
—Maybe we are. But put it this way: if we were, there’s not a lot we can do about it now, is there?
With that, Craig Kerr, trusted employee of Zach Crystal for nearly twenty years, is gone. His hulking shape disappears through the café doors and out into the street, t
he luscious mountains rising all around.
It’s hard to know what to make of this interview. We’ve learned a lot about the goings-on behind the walls of Crystal Forest, but little about Zach Crystal himself. I think, sadly, the star proved as elusive to Craig as he did to the rest of us.
There are some troubling aspects from this episode: the discovery of a child’s clothing, for example. Was that a simple, isolated incident? It seems Zach Crystal had a whole team around him, led by James Cryer, then his sister, dedicated to picking up after him. The gradual breakdown of Crystal’s psyche is the most troubling of all – his desperate need for power and the ease with which he was able to wield it.
I didn’t expect too much in the way of revelations from Craig. I am left feeling slightly unfulfilled, though. Craig was very good at not elaborating on certain aspects of his time at Crystal Forest. As much as the folklore surrounding the place is interesting, there is much about Crystal himself and the strange circumstances surrounding his death that remains elusive. I’m lucky that at least someone from the Crystal camp has spoken to me, I suppose. Of course, there are legal restrictions around what Craig can and cannot say, and ramifications if he breaks these. I do still suspect that someone, or someones, in the employ of the Crystal estate, was either present in that café or else Craig was recording our interview somehow. I think the need for control that Zach Crystal displayed during his life has most likely continued since his passing. His sister Naomi, who now runs the Crystal estate, has been a fierce defender of her late brother’s honour. Bonnie Crystal has never spoken about her uncle. She has, in fact, successfully avoided the gaze of the public eye completely. I’d certainly admire anyone who would attempt to get through Naomi Crystal to speak to her.
This episode has given us some rare insights, though, and I would not be surprised if Craig Kerr becomes more in demand after this episode has aired. Maybe that’s why I was permitted to talk to him.
I pack up all my equipment, get to my feet, shrug on my jacket and walk into the car park. That paranoid feeling still clings to me, and I watch every passer-by, but the looks I get back only make the feeling worse. Just as I try to force my mind to take a more logical approach, I spot that a note has been pushed under my windscreen wiper. I left the cafe not long after Craig; if he put it there, I didn’t see him do it.
Or was it someone else?
I think about the video that’s recently gone online – the inside of the cave and Craig’s staunch refusal to even look at it – in case it’s real.
I stand for a while, looking around me. Aviemore is a small but bustling tourist town; the roads are constantly busy with people crawling up into the Cairngorms. Aviemore is also not so far from Crystal Forest, and I wonder if, among the waiters, cooks, dishwashers or even patrons in the cafés and restaurants here, there’s someone who maybe once worked at Crystal Forest? Clearly the power of Zach Crystal has a long reach.
The paper is a printed copy of a small article from the Inverness Courier, undated. The article contains a blurry photograph of a teenage girl and the headline ‘Please Come Home – Mother’s Plea’.
Beneath is only a few lines:
Inverness mother Marie Owen (42) has reached out again to beg her daughter Kirsty, who turned nineteen this month, to come home. Kirsty Owen has been missing from the luxurious family home in Upper Myrtlefield, Inverness, for the last three years and is thought to be living in Edinburgh or northern England with a community of fanatical Zach Crystal fans.
‘I just want Kirsty to know that I’ve forgiven her. She’s in no trouble, and I’m sorry.’
Anyone with links to Kirsty Owen is asked to contact Inverness police.
Below the article is a phone number, handwritten on the paper in felt tip.
As has happened before, someone is trying to control the narrative here. For what end, it is hard to see. So I guess, like we’ve done before, we’ll go with it.
This has been our third.
And I have been Scott King.
Until next time…
RUBY
Episode 246: Zach Crystal
Legendary Presenter Ruby Rendall’s exclusive interview with pop megastar Zach Crystal. More >
1 hr 45 • 9pm 20th Jul 2019 • Available for 28 days
RR: ‘Dead Eyes’, everyone. What a song. It’s just … stunning. Welcome back to a very special edition of Ruby. We’re live with the enigma that is Zach Crystal. We do apologise for a few earlier technical hitches. I assure you that we seem to be back in business. Also, I need to say that, unfortunately, the presence of my guest has proved too much for some of our studio audience, and I just want to assure viewers that everyone’s OK; those who need assistance are being attended to.
[The camera pans around to the audience, who are cheering. There are a number of empty seats and many more members of security standing among the crowd.]
ZC: Thank you … oh Ruby, you’re making me blush again.
RR: You’ve just announced your tour; tickets will go on sale very soon. I hear there’s a new album coming too. I can’t wait. Zach. The world can’t wait!
[Cheering getting louder]
ZC: You’re very kind – you’re all so kind. Thank you so much. It’s been a long time coming. Finally, I’ve felt ready to come back out and face the world.
[More applause]
RR: Zach, you’re so humble. I really admire that in someone of your stature. You’ve helped so many young people, and I just wonder, maybe it’s now time to help yourself.
ZC: [nodding and tearful] Maybe it is, Ruby … maybe that’s something I haven’t done yet.
RR: You’ve had great heartache recently, great tragedy in your life.
ZC: That’s true, Ruby, the last few years have been very, very hard. People look at the money and the fame, and they have their own opinions. They think that when you’re famous, maybe you shouldn’t, or you can’t, feel things as much. It’s not true, it’s just not true. All the money in the world cannot stop the grief of losing your parents. Losing your best friend.
RR: Your parents passed in 2009, didn’t they?
ZC: That’s right. Both of heart failure. Very close together. It was a terrible, terrible thing. It was sudden, very sudden.
RR: I can’t imagine how hard that must have been.
ZC: The media, the tabloids, were swarming like flies, trying to get pictures of me and my sister’s grief; it was awful.
RR: You have to be a certain way in front of the cameras, don’t you?
ZC: You’re so right. You have to make sure you’re upset in the ‘correct’ way. My sister, Naomi, she has a beautiful soul, but she doesn’t show a lot on the outside. She maintains a strong … a strong mask if you know what I mean?
RR: Sure … sure. Of course.
ZC: The press said she was ‘stone-faced’, that she didn’t care. I felt like I had to cry for both of us. I had to cry for her, to show them. It’s why I spent so much time hidden from them, so much time away.
RR: We’ve touched a little on the tragedy in your life. To come back from all that, well, it’s just mind-blowing.
ZC: I made a resolution to myself, Ruby, after my parents passed away. Whatever I felt, whatever pain and guilt that I felt, I would plough back into helping others.
RR: And that’s what you continue to do. For so many.
ZC: But I know there’s more. Much more I can do.
RR: You’ve given so much of your money…
ZC: No, no. I don’t mean money. Money is all well and good, but there’s something better. Something far better I can do. It’s something I’m working on. Something that will change the world for good.
RR: You’re full of surprises Zach. Can you share with us what it is?
ZC: It’s all about opening your mind, all about belief. I believe very much in the ability to turn bad things into good things – I feel I can do that. I feel like I am on my way to be able to do that.
RR: Wow, that’s quite something. Ca
n you elaborate? Can you tell us more?
ZC: Since the passing of my parents, since the passing of my best friend, I’ve realised there are signs in the world that tell us when bad things are going to happen, but most of us have closed our minds to them.
RR: You mentioned this earlier didn’t you? About how we’re conditioned into not believing in magic. It struck me as quite sad. Would I be right in thinking that Crystal Forest is some way of fighting back against that?
ZC: It’s true, Ruby. It’s true and it works. What I’m discovering is that I can change things. I am trying to harness the power – that magic – to heal people, to help people. The young people who I work with, they’re helping me understand how to do that.
RR: I think I follow you…
ZC: I built the tree house in Crystal Forest to be a place where you don’t have to see things normally – it’s a place of magic, where you are able to use your imagination. I have thousands of clothes to dress up in, jewellery, makeup. You can be what you want to be up there; you can be ageless, timeless. The young people I help, they’ve often had to grow up too fast. They’ve had that time taken away from them, that time when they could read, and they could dream. I give it back to them. I show them the place my music comes from, and I see their minds starting to open up again.
RR: Almost like regression?
ZC: For me, maybe, but for them it’s beautiful. There’s magic up there, real magic. Magic heals wounds. I heal them with it and their magic heals me.
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