Hell to Pay

by Rachel Amphlett

‘Thought I’d find you here.’

  Kay jerked upright, shaken from her thoughts, and turned her head to see Barnes approaching along the tow path towards her.

  She moved her handbag and shuffled up the bench seat so he could join her, then turned her attention back to the line of narrowboats neatly moored along the opposite bank, mist rising from the water in the early morning sunlight.

  He handed a Styrofoam cup to her.

  ‘Coffee?’

  ‘Spicy pumpkin soup. Marie at the café said it’d warm us up faster.’

  ‘Thanks.’

  She removed the plastic lid and blew across the hot surface of the liquid.

  The tow path next to the River Medway had become a favourite haunt of Kay’s over the summer months.

  Tucked behind the grandeur of the Bishop’s Palace, it provided a sanctuary from the bedlam of the police station and a respite from the noise of the café the team frequented.

  Barnes had stumbled upon her there late one morning, and the two of them had spent time together since, mulling over various cases while devouring sandwiches or chatting over a quiet coffee.

  ‘How’re you doing this morning?’ said Barnes. ‘I heard, of course.’

  ‘I’m okay,’ said Kay. ‘Frustrated and upset we didn’t find out sooner. We might have saved some of them.’

  ‘Can’t play “what if”, Sarge, you know that.’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘Are you going to tell me what’s going on?’

  Kay lowered the cup and turned her eyes to his. ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Come on, Hunter. This is me you’re talking to. How long have we known each other?’

  ‘Too long.’

  ‘Very funny. Look, I realise you probably didn’t want to say anything front of Miles and Piper the other night, but come on. Something’s troubling you.’

  She sighed, and leaned back against the hard wooden planks of the seat, her gaze returning to the river and a pair of swans that glided past.

  ‘I used to like this job, Ian. When I joined up, I thought I’d make a difference.’ She choked out a bitter laugh. ‘Now, I know that sounds naive, but it’s true. That’s why I worked so hard to make it to DS. After the past eighteen months though, I’m beginning to wonder if I’ve made some sort of mistake.’

  She sighed, and squinted up at the washed-out pale sky as a pair of jet trails stretched across the town, her thoughts turning to Adam.

  The prospect of trips to the Continent with him excited her – they hadn’t had a decent holiday in years, and if he could get some work on the conference circuit as he’d suggested, she’d be more than willing to tag along.

  Barnes took a sip of soup, and then frowned. ‘You’re not quitting, are you?’

  She shrugged in response.

  ‘’Cause if you did, it’d be a real shame. I know you’re shaken up about what we found in that building – we all are. It’s not a reason to get despondent about the number of criminals we’re up against though.’

  ‘It’s not that, Ian – I mean, that was nasty, yes – it’s the politics of everything. It’s all the secrets and layers above us.’

  He straightened, and shifted his weight so he could face her. ‘Is this about Harrison?’

  ‘I guess.’

  ‘Because he’s just like Larch, you know. Ambitious.’

  ‘Speaking of ambitious – did you know about O’Reilly’s secondment to SOCU before he appeared back here?’

  ‘No – news to me. Mind you, we’ve always worked on different teams here, so our paths haven’t crossed, to be honest.’

  Kay sipped her soup. ‘Seems a strange choice, that’s all. I never took him for a particularly good detective.’

  ‘Oh?’

  ‘Well, it’s like that business with the attack on Gavin. It’s gone nowhere.’

  ‘In all fairness, Kay, you know how hard it is to get a result with attacks like that. No witnesses, and his attackers covered their faces.’

  Kay shrugged, unwilling to concede the point. ‘I’m still angry Harrison didn’t come forward until now to tell us about his involvement though.’

  ‘Think he did that on purpose?’

  ‘Positioning himself to take over the case, you mean? Maybe.’

  Barnes’s eyes narrowed. ‘I knew I didn’t like him for a reason.’

  ‘I suppose he has to protect his people. I can see it from his point of view.’

  ‘Well, I’m glad you can. I guess you haven’t lost that sense of ambition after all.’

  Her jaw dropped open, and he winked.

  ‘Be honest. You’re not going to quit. Remember what you said to me after we found Emma that day? Take a break. Have a think about it.’ He gestured to the swans paddling away from them and brushed his trousers down as he stood. ‘But, I reckon you’ve done enough thinking for one day. Come on.’

  He took her empty cup from her and tossed both into a bin next to the tow path before turning back to her. ‘What about what happened to you with the Professional Standards investigation? Are they going to do anything about it?’

  Kay shook her head. ‘I want Demiri, Ian. That’s why I insisted Harrison let me onto his investigation. He couldn’t really say no – they’re understaffed as it is.’

  Barnes emitted a low whistle, and shook his head.

  ‘I hope you know what you’re getting yourself into, Kay.’

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Kay cast her gaze over the people that filled the incident room.

  Each and every one of them wore a grim expression; word had got around about what had been discovered within the bowels of Demiri’s nightclub, and Kay knew what was troubling them.

  Somehow, he’d managed to run his sick business without any of them knowing, and they had no idea how many women had been slaughtered before their bodies were dumped by Demiri’s men.

  Even O’Reilly seemed subdued, his normal bravado silenced by the scenes from the raid.

  She watched as Gavin wandered over to Carys’s desk, placed a steaming cup of coffee in front of her, and patted her shoulder.

  Carys managed a smile, and the two of them spoke in hushed tones, bowed over their drinks.

  Kay looked up as Sharp walked into the incident room, a shorter man at his heels who wore a vexed expression and a receding hairline.

  ‘Let’s have your attention, everyone,’ said Sharp as he passed the desks and headed towards the whiteboard at the end of the room.

  Kay picked up her coffee mug and followed her colleagues.

  Sharp paced the floor while they gathered, and then gestured to the other man.

  ‘This is Colin Fox of the UK Border Agency,’ he said. ‘We’ve been meeting with DCI Harrison and the Chief Super about yesterday’s events, and although Demiri appears to be in hiding at the present time, we’re of the opinion that what he’s been doing has been too lucrative for him to simply walk away. We also have Gareth Jenkins’s assertion that Demiri was expecting another “shipment”. In light of what was found yesterday at the nightclub, I think we can safely say that “shipment” refers to people, not drugs as was previously thought.’

  Sharp continued to bring the rest of the investigation team up to date on what had been found.

  ‘Of particular note is that the cellar hasn’t been cleared of trace evidence – Harriet’s team have plenty of forensic data they’re compiling including fingerprints on some of the implements found.’

  ‘Demiri?’ said Kay, leaning forward in her seat.

  ‘No. No trace of Jozef Demiri at all down there.’

  ‘Leaving us clues to who his clients were, do you think, guv?’ said Barnes.

  ‘Quite possibly. Harriet and her team are still on site, and probably will be for some time yet,’ he concluded. ‘In the meantime, Colin has a separate team monitoring the Kent coastline for Demiri’s boat. Colin, do you want to brief the team on your efforts to date?’

  ‘Thanks, Sharp. We’ve had suspicions that Jozef De
miri has been smuggling people into the country via boat, but it’s proven impossible to date to pinpoint exactly where the drop-offs occur. I believe some of you were involved in tracking movement of his fleet of trucks between here and the Continent, and that’s certainly how we thought he was bringing in people to start off with.’

  Kay raised her hand. ‘Why haven’t you been able to monitor incoming boats? Why have they been missed so far?’

  ‘Detective, this county has three hundred and fifty miles of coastline. Our teams are constantly being redirected to support ongoing anti-terrorism efforts at Heathrow and the Channel Tunnel. Why do you think we missed them?’

  Sharp cleared his throat. ‘I think what Hunter meant was, how is Demiri managing to get these people into the country via the English Channel? It’s a busy shipping lane, after all.’

  Fox shrugged. ‘He’s running a very lucrative business. He can afford fast boats. They’re small, too, so often we don’t spot them. A lot of our successes to date in relation to people smuggling rely on tip-offs, or when the boats are in such a bad condition to start off with that they capsize before reaching land and the Coast Guard have to rescue the occupants. We have look-outs stationed along the coastline – we educate the local population and they help by reporting any unusual night-time activity. It’s often the local fishermen who are our best assets. The problem is, Demiri and all the other people smugglers up and down the coast have their own lookouts.’

  ‘So, you’re up against people who are probably paying good money to the same informants you use and they look away?’ said Barnes.

  ‘Exactly.’

  The room fell silent as the team began to gain an understanding of how hard Fox’s role was, and why the Border Agency was under so much pressure.

  Kay glanced over her shoulder as Harrison entered the room and stood next to O’Reilly, his arms crossed as he listened.

  ‘You’d think knowing there’s such a problem with migrants entering the country along the coastline, the government would recruit more people into the Border Agency,’ said Carys.

  ‘Maybe. Like I said, most of our resources have been relocated to cope with increases in immigration queues at Heathrow, though, so that’s not always the answer.’

  ‘What do you need from us?’ said Sharp.

  ‘Well, given your involvement from time to time with the joint Serious Crime Directorate, we could certainly use your assistance on this one. You know the locality, and any contacts you’ve got will help to add to the intelligence we’ve gathered to date.’ Fox ran his hand over his hair. ‘As it is, we’re only going to get support from one Border Agency vessel.’

  ‘One?’ said Gavin. ‘Surely they can provide more than one?’

  Fox shook his head. ‘Border Agency has five cutters. One of those is in dry dock for maintenance, one’s down in the Mediterranean for the next three months, and I’m afraid we can’t divert the other three without leaving other parts of the English coastline exposed to illegal vessels.’

  Barnes emitted a low whistle. ‘How many illegal boats do you catch?’

  ‘Not enough. And we have no way of knowing how many we’ve missed. It doesn’t help that we know a lot of French fishermen are exacerbating the influx by accepting bribes to bring people over the Channel.’

  ‘I thought the Navy would be sent to the Mediterranean,’ said Gavin.

  ‘Budget cuts,’ said Fox. ‘And the government expects the Border Agency to make up the deficit.’

  A collective groan passed through the incident room.

  ‘In the meantime,’ said Harrison, moving to the whiteboard, ‘I’ve just heard from the Chief Super. We can’t get any more staff support for our investigation, either, so we’ll have to do the best with what we have.’

  Sharp thanked Colin Fox, and led him from the room as Harrison worked his way around the detectives, seeking an update on their work.

  Exasperated, he turned away from Carys. ‘Does anybody have anything to progress this investigation?’

  Gavin held up a sheaf of paperwork. ‘Demiri’s got more businesses, linked to his legitimate one, as subsidiaries to the main organisation.’

  Harrison clicked his fingers and pointed at Gavin. ‘Good point. He builds layers, so it makes it harder for us to investigate them. We’ve closed down some of them over the last two years, and there have been some convictions, but we’ve never got near Demiri himself. He’s been too clever to get directly involved.’

  Carys took one of the reports from Gavin, and ran her gaze down the page before wrinkling her nose.

  ‘Garlic? He ran a business importing garlic?’

  ‘One of the easiest ways to get illegal entrants into the country by road,’ said Kay. ‘Before everything happened eighteen months ago with the evidence going missing, we’d had some success arresting some men working for that garlic import business. They used to drive to the Continent once a month and come back with their van loaded with garlic for the French farmers’ market in Lenham.’

  She smiled at the look of confusion that swept across Carys and Gavin’s faces. ‘Garlic puts the sniffer dogs off the scent of people hiding in secret compartments built into the back of the vans. We only caught that lot because of a tip-off.’

  ‘Like Fox said before, a lot of what we do is reliant on public vigilance,’ said Sharp, returning to the front of the room and standing next to Harrison. ‘Someone out there must know something to help us.’

  Kay raised her hand to get his attention. ‘Guv? If Demiri’s been making snuff films of his clients’ exploits, there might be another way we can find out where he might be. Those films had to be distributed for him to be making the sort of money we’re talking about.’

  Sharp frowned. ‘Like what?’

  ‘Not what. Who. Bob Rogers.’

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  ‘Who the hell is Bob Rogers?’

  Sharp closed his office door and gestured to the visitor chairs opposite his desk.

  Kay sank into the least threadbare one, and bit back a smile as Harrison eased into the other, his lip curling at the lack of cushioning while he shuffled to try and find a comfortable seating position.

  ‘Rogers was responsible for making snuff films of young girls,’ said Sharp as he lifted a sheaf of paperwork off his chair and sat down, blatantly ignoring the sticky note marked “urgent” that had been placed on top of the documentation. He shoved the papers into a tray on the corner of his desk and loosened his tie. ‘Kay was the assistant SIO on the case and helped put Rogers and his accomplice, Eli Matthews, behind bars for a long time.’

  ‘What’s he got to do with Demiri?’

  ‘Rogers never told us who was distributing the snuff films for him,’ said Sharp. ‘Eli didn’t know – he was responsible for kidnapping the girls and arranging their deaths. Very elaborate in the case we were involved with. Rogers acted as middleman. Somewhere above him was the buyer and distributor.’

  Harrison’s brow furrowed. ‘I remember hearing about that one now. Father and son, weren’t they?’

  ‘That’s right.’

  ‘My point is, for them to get away with it for so long without being caught meant Rogers had to be dealing with a highly sophisticated distribution network,’ said Kay.

  ‘One whose clientele would be willing to pay a lot of money to ensure anonymity,’ said Sharp. ‘And, like Kay said, Rogers wouldn’t talk. We were never able to find a toehold into that distribution group.’

  ‘Eli died in prison six months ago,’ added Kay. ‘He was attacked by two men and subsequently died of internal injuries four days later.’

  ‘What happened to his attackers?’

  ‘Charged with manslaughter and had their sentences extended,’ said Sharp.

  ‘Did they say why they attacked him?’

  Sharp shrugged. ‘The prison houses a lot of sex offenders. Despite that, attacks on young girls are still viewed as the worst, even within those walls and amongst those people. At the trial, wh
en evidence was brought forward about Rogers’ business history in Suffolk, it transpired that Eli’s youngest victim was eight years old.’

  ‘Where’s Bob Rogers now?’

  ‘Still here, in Maidstone Prison,’ said Sharp.

  Harrison beamed. ‘Convenient.’

  ‘We should talk to him as soon as possible,’ said Kay, warming to her subject. ‘Perhaps if we find a historical link between Rogers and the nightclub, we can use that to our advantage. He might give us some information about Demiri at last.’

  ‘It’s a long shot, but I agree we should talk to him. Make some phone calls this morning and see how fast a meeting can be set up. Tell them it’s urgent. We need to talk to Rogers today,’ said Harrison, wincing as he rose from his chair and straightened his trousers. ‘It’ll give him less time to prepare. I’ll brief headquarters while you’re doing that.’

  Sharp’s lips thinned, but he nodded.

  Kay waited until the DCI had left the room, closing the door behind him with a soft click, and turned to Sharp.

  ‘I’ll make the call if you want.’

  ‘Please. Despite what Harrison thinks, I’ve got better things to be doing than act as his secretary.’ He gestured to the pile of paperwork waiting for him.

  Kay grinned. ‘He’ll have you making cups of tea for him next.’

  ‘Very funny. Clear off.’

  Chapter Thirty

  The smile she wore as she left Sharp’s office left Kay’s face as she walked back into the incident room and saw Gavin hurrying towards her, his face stricken.

  ‘What’s wrong?’

  ‘Uniform have located another site.’

  ‘Another site?’

  ‘Three more women, dead. Asphyxiated.’

  A chill swept across the back of her neck, a split second before she backtracked to Sharp’s office.

  ‘Guv? Gavin says uniform have found three more victims. Could be linked to Demiri?’

  Sharp pushed his chair back. ‘Gather everyone. No sense in Gavin repeating himself.’

  A quick phone call roused Barnes and Carys from the canteen, both out of breath by the time they appeared in the incident room, the older detective dabbing his mouth with a napkin as he took a seat.