by Alex Caan
‘I think he might be tracking it. She has GPS on it; he might already know where she is. It might explain why he’s gone dark.’
Kate remembered the charming young man she had met. The man Laura Day had wanted her daughter to be with. And now? Was it possible he had taken Ruby? What was his motive? Was it Rachel?
‘She’s not going to tell us anything. The way she attacked Brennan, she must be involved somehow. I feel for her. James Fogg has truly messed her up.’
‘So what do we do?’ said Zain.
‘Find me something that will make her talk. I need to shatter the illusion that is James. And get DS Helen Lowe alerted. I want her leading the search for James in Hampshire. We haven’t found the gun he used on Ruby, so he is potentially armed and he’s probably desperate. Especially when he realises what’s happened. And desperate people are always the most dangerous.’
Kate looked again at Rachel, the child woman who was tapping at her face, running her fingers through her hair. There was something so innocent about the gesture, so normal. Kate wanted to comfort her, let her know she wasn’t to blame for what James had done to her.
Part of Kate was disappointed. She had wanted it to be Byrne and his father; she had wanted to bring them down for what they had done. Finish Ruby’s work. Finish work she had started with her own father. Rachel didn’t seem like a deserving villain, someone to punish for all this. The sympathy was too distracting, though. It had to be kept for later.
First, Kate had to run Rachel through the fire, make her reveal her secrets.
Chapter One Hundred and Seven
Zain felt odd being back in Regus House. Everything felt like it was happening for the last time. There was no coming back from the things he had done. Hope, Barry, Jed. He had acted out too many times. Kate would have no recourse but to get rid of him.
‘How’s it going?’ he asked Michelle.
She turned a pale face to him, her eyes red. She shook her head, and he thought she was about to cry.
‘What did you find?’
‘I can’t even . . .’ she began, and pointed to the printer instead.
Zain picked up the stack of documents, went back to his own desk, started reading through them. He understood then why Michelle was in such a bad place. She had kids. Zain thought of his own step sisters. The same age as the girls on the pages he was reading.
‘Fucking hell,’ he said. ‘I’m going to rip his balls off when we find him.’
‘I’ll help,’ said Michelle.
Zain was in the conference room with Kate and Michelle. Rob was on Skype from the house James and Rachel shared.
‘It’s not easy listening, this,’ Zain warned everyone in the room.
‘You never are, mate,’ said Rob.
‘Michelle asked me to deliver this, so hope that’s OK,’ said Zain.
Michelle looked away, and for a moment Zain thought she might be physically sick.
‘James Fogg’s computers have revealed some disturbing things. For starters, there are files on there going back years. This isn’t something new. All of it behind passwords, so even those living with him wouldn’t be able to access it without knowing his security. And I doubt he shared any of this.’
‘What are we looking at?’ said Kate.
‘Messages. That’s the first thing. From his YouTube account, from his Instagram and from his Twitter. He’s been interacting with his fans. You see, even though he’s no longer doing videos, he still gets hits. And young girls are still contacting him. And he’s replying to them. And it’s not just a thank you for watching and liking. He’s sending them personal messages. Most are deleted, but the recent conversations are all on there.’
‘He’s a paedo?’ said Rob.
‘Looks like it. There are girls as young as ten we’ve found so far, that he’s sent suggestive messages to. It’s the teenage girls, though; they’re the ones he’s been messing with. Sending them inappropriate pictures.’
‘We’re all adults here,’ said Kate. ‘I want to know what we’re working with.’
‘Usual crap. Selfies, torso shots, dick shots. He’s then asked them to send him revealing pictures back. Persuading some of these girls to send him pictures of their breasts, of their . . .’
‘I don’t want to know. I’m in the fucking pervert’s house,’ said Rob.
‘And they respond to this?’ said Kate.
‘He’s groomed them, sent them multiple messages daily, made it seem as though he’s having a relationship or something with them.’
‘Is it all virtual? Has he met any of these girls?’ said Kate.
‘Yes. It’s clear from the messages he’s swapped numbers online. Then it goes quiet online. Only a couple of girls have messaged him afterwards saying how great it was to meet him.’
The room was quiet. They were all probably conjuring the same images as he and Michelle had. This was the worst. No matter who you spoke to, anything involving kids was always the crappiest part of their job. Luckily, he had mainly dealt with men threatening to release smallpox onto the tube system. None of it made him feel as sick as he had felt reading through James Fogg’s hard drive. All the time he was transposing the faces of Holly and Lucy, his step sisters, onto those of the girls involved. If someone did this to them, Zain would tear them apart. And these girls were someone’s daughters, someone’s sisters. He would do the same on their behalf.
‘We also found pictures he kept. And videos.’
He didn’t want to explain; he didn’t need to. No one asked him to.
‘Is there any evidence that Ruby knew?’ said Kate.
‘No. We looked. There are no messages. We do have the texts and phone calls to James. She asked to meet him a few times, saying she really needed to speak to him. Nothing to say it was about this.’
‘Then we keep looking,’ said Kate. ‘Pelt, I know it’s not pleasant, but I need you to check for anything that might be a keepsake. And I want his clothes bagged and checked. Rachel and Ruby are not the only victims in this.’
Zain felt bile rising up his throat.
‘Now we just have to find the fucker,’ he said.
Chapter One Hundred and Eight
Kate sat opposite Rachel, who was calmer now. She had her lawyer with her, Augusta Khew, who specialised in cases of child abuse. It was a dirty job, dealing with paedophiles.
Augusta had explained to Kate that she had started off with lofty ideals at one time. Only, as a woman back then, she found it difficult to break through. The biggest cases she got were the ones nobody else wanted, so experience made her an expert at dealing with the worst dregs of society.
With Augusta was Melissa Sweeney. She was a psychologist, working on the opposite side to Augusta. She dealt with the victims, not the abusers.
Rachel was both in a way. She was a victim without doubt in Kate’s eyes. She might also be a criminal, though, if she had helped James.
Augusta had advised Rachel to answer any questions put to her that she felt able. ‘No comment’ was never a good option when the charges were serious, she told her. Juries always took it as a sign of guilt.
‘When did you and James first have sex? Can you remember?’ Kate asked.
‘No,’ said Rachel. ‘I was old enough. I was sixteen.’
‘You can’t remember the date you first had sex? Was he your first?’
‘Yes.’
‘I don’t know, Rachel. I’m probably three times as old as you, nearly,’ said Kate. ‘And I can remember. Girls don’t forget. I could give you the date, time, place and who it was with. Even now. And you can’t remember such an important thing that happened within the last seven months? Because you only turned sixteen then, right?’
‘It was in May sometime,’ she said. ‘Yes, May the fifteenth.’
‘What day was it? Was it in the morning or evening?’
‘I can’t remember the day . . . it was in the evening . . .’
‘At his home?’
‘Yes.’
‘And you were already living together by then?’
‘No. I didn’t move in until September.’
‘So in May, you were still living with your parents?’
‘Yes.’
‘So you came down from Bristol? For the day?’
‘No, I stayed over.’
‘With James?’
‘Yes.’
‘How did you get here?’
‘By train.’
‘How did you buy the ticket?’
‘Cash.’
‘What did you tell your parents?’
‘I said I was meeting a friend in London.’
‘And they just let you go?’
‘Yes.’
‘So you can remember how you paid for the train, how you got here and what excuse you gave your parents, yet you struggle to recall the date? I don’t believe you, Rachel,’ Kate said.
‘Steady on, detective. My client has answered your question. She probably just needed time to remember the date under pressure,’ said Augusta.
‘Do you remember your first time?’ said Kate.
The lawyer arched an eyebrow, didn’t reply.
The interview room was stuffy when Kate went back in. Melissa had asked for a break when Rachel had started crying. Kate had pushed her on alibis for herself and James, the evening Ruby disappeared. Asking her to describe what they had done in detail, what they had watched.
Rachel hadn’t been expecting to be in this situation, and she wasn’t prepared for being scrutinised. Kate had confused her, causing her to crack.
It had been thirty minutes now. Kate had checked in with Harris, who said they still had no trace on James. He might be driving with his licence plates hidden, he thought.
Rachel was drinking water when Kate sat down and spread her paperwork over the table between them. She switched the recording device back on. A digital camera capturing image and sound, and time stamping the interview.
Kate knew Rachel was under a spell, devoted to James Fogg and caught up in some misplaced, ill-advised sense of love and loyalty to him. She wanted to break that, and she had a feeling she knew how.
‘Rachel, we pulled these documents from James’s computers. The ones we took from your home. I’ll give you a few minutes to read through them.’
Kate watched as Rachel turned the pages, her eyes speed-reading the messages. The shaking started up again. Augusta and Melissa both read their own copies, both keeping their faces impassive. Augusta locked eyes with Kate at one point, gave a subtle shake to her head.
‘They are messages, some sent only yesterday. One this morning. To other girls. Children. We found messages to some as young as ten. Did you know James was communicating like this?’
‘It’s not him; it’s these girls. They’re crazy, they stalk him, send him messages all the time, say they love him. He doesn’t do it, and when he does, it’s only to be nice to them.’
Kate handed over copies of the next batch of messages.
‘These are from girls he’s met. There’s a girl there, lisauk99. We checked her account. She was born in 1999. She’s fifteen. James met her last month. Were you aware of this?’
Rachel stared at the page in front of her, at Lisa’s message, no doubt, saying how she enjoyed them meeting up. How she loved him and couldn’t wait until they were together properly.
‘Do you think he’s sleeping with these girls when he meets them?’ said Kate.
Rachel opened her mouth, but nothing came out. She must be crumbling inside, thought Kate.
Kate slid over some more documents, pictures this time.
‘We pulled these from James’s computer, from his Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Vine. These are images he has asked for from these girls. This one, she’s only thirteen. He sent her eighty-seven messages over two hours, until she gave in. And when she sent him one, he threatened to expose her if she didn’t keep sending more.’
Rachel’s shaking led to tears now.
‘Rachel. How old were you when you met James?’
No reply.
Kate swiped her tablet, handed it over to Rachel.
‘There are a number of videos on there. You can hear James in the background, directing these girls, telling them what to do. We found messages to most of them. There’s a pattern. He tells them he loves them, and then he sends them pictures of himself. He then persuades them to send him pictures, and as soon as they send a compromising one, he then asks for a video. I’ll leave you to watch these, shall I?’
Kate needed to breathe, needed some space between what was happening and herself.
Chapter One Hundred and Nine
Kate checked in on her mother in the break. She was asleep on the sofa in Trent’s office, exactly where Kate had napped earlier. It seemed like another day, but it wasn’t. Time was in a vacuum. The morning had started with Maggie Walsh, the MP. And even then, she’d had no idea how it would end, where this case would lead her.
It was approaching 11 p.m. Kate was tired, but she was close, she knew. Rachel was processing exactly who James was.
In the interview room, Rachel was being comforted by the psychologist, Melissa. Augusta had a hard set to her face. That could be good or disastrous.
‘I want to remind you, Rachel, that you are facing charges of attempted murder and assault separately to anything we discuss here. This is extremely serious. Your parents should be here soon,’ Kate added.
At the mention of her parents, Rachel looked worried.
‘They don’t know anything yet. Just that you have been brought in, and that they should probably come down. Did you watch the videos?’
‘Yes,’ she said, in a whisper.
‘And how do you feel? Do you still think it was those girls harassing James?’
Rachel was free-falling, her eyes searching the corners of the room. Then staring at Kate.
‘He cheated on me, didn’t he?’ she said. ‘All these other girls. He’s been cheating on me.’
Kate felt something inside her ache. She didn’t think preying on young girls deserved to be labelled with anything as normal as ‘cheating’. That’s what boyfriends and husbands, girlfriends and wives, did. It’s what she did with Ryan. Grown adults making the decision to stray – that was cheating on someone.
There would be time to heal Rachel later. Years, possibly, if there ever was a time she could be whole again. For now, Kate picked away at her delusion, joined in the act.
‘Yes. He lied to you, and he betrayed you.’
‘He kept saying that to Ruby. Traitor. And all the time, it was him. He is the traitor.’
‘When did he do that?’ said Kate.
‘In Dan’s house. In his basement. I tied her wrists. All that time, she thought James belonged to her. And he didn’t. Even when he was with her, he was still sleeping with me.’
‘How did you know about the cottage?’ said Kate.
‘James knew, I don’t know how.’
Ruby possibly told him, thought Kate.
‘How old were you when you met James?’ said Melissa.
‘Let Detective Riley conduct this interview,’ said Augusta.
‘I have a duty of care,’ said Melissa.
‘Do you feel the detective is pushing my client too hard and we should terminate the interview?’ said Augusta.
Melissa did, Kate could see it in her eyes. She answered in the negative, though; she understood what Kate did. Now was the time for truth, for justice, for harshness. Rachel could be mended later.
‘Rachel, answer Melissa, please,’ said Kate.
‘Fourteen,’ said Rachel. Her eyes were still, staring at a place where she was conjuring up images of her past. ‘That’s when we met. He took me to Patisserie Valerie in Soho, for my birthday. I thought it was so grown up, so special. I’d never done anything like that before. I was always the boring one, the model student. And he told me I was beautiful, and clever. I still remember having my first latte. I loved him so
much, before we met.’
‘Did your parents not realise?’
‘I played truant from school, got the train to London. James paid for my ticket. And I was back home before they realised, faked a sick note the next day.’
‘How long had you been messaging each other? On YouTube?’ said Kate.
‘Maybe six months. It wasn’t a fling, or anything; we had a proper relationship. And when he dumped Ruby, finally, we could be together.’
‘I know this is going to be difficult for you to answer, Rachel, and it is a hard question. When did your relationship become physical?’ said Kate.
‘I was sixteen,’ she said.
‘Rachel, if you want us to help you, we need you to be honest. If James did nothing wrong, then we have nothing to worry about, do we? With these other girls – he won’t meet them and harm them, will he?’
Rachel stared, and she deliberated, and she broke down. Then she raised her head, and through sobs, she told Kate the horrible reality.
‘It was four months before my sixteenth birthday. Exactly. I do remember the date. He came to Bristol, and he booked into the Ramada Hotel.’
Chapter One Hundred and Ten
There was still no sign of James. He had no car registered to him, and Kate guessed he had hired a vehicle using false ID. Rob had found fake documents, including passports and a driving licence, in James’s Goodmayes house.
Zain had found complex software programmes on the hard drives, code ripped from the most extreme hacking sites on Tor. James even had bitcoins, and a history of travelling down the silk road – the illegal trading routes hidden from most web users.
‘Rachel, can you talk me through what happened the night you took Ruby. Why did James need Ruby out of the way?’
‘He said she had hurt him. That she was flaunting herself and Dan all over, and he wanted to hurt her back. And I helped him, because I thought, if she’s not around anymore, then I won’t have to worry. She was messaging him, you see. All the time leading up to it. Messages, all the time. He said she wanted him back. And I couldn’t let her. You see that, don’t you? But I think she knew.’