Broken Girls: A totally addictive and unputdownable crime thriller (Detective Bernadette Noel Book 2)

by Joy Kluver

  ‘Hi, Gemma Proctor from BBC Points West. Laura’s been missing for what, three days now. Just how concerned are you?’

  ‘Very,’ Bernie answered. ‘This is out of character for Laura and from what we’ve managed to discover so far, it seems as though she was only planning on staying away for one night. Thank you, Gemma. I’ll take one more.’ Bernie knew she couldn’t ignore Clive any longer, sitting on the front row, waving his arm in the air.

  ‘Yes, Clive.’

  ‘Thank you, Detective Inspector Noel. It’s obvious you and the family are concerned. Is that because the body of a young woman was found in woodland last week? Do you think the two cases are connected?’

  Bernie hesitated. Worth’s earlier words were ringing in her ears. She had to phrase her answer carefully.

  ‘I’m not working on that particular case so I can’t comment on it. But, like with all our enquiries, I’m keeping an open mind in regards to Laura’s disappearance. We’re hoping she’ll see the press coverage and get in touch. Thank you, everyone, for your cooperation.’

  46

  Caroline Moffatt sat in the witness questioning room. Bernie thought about what Chloe Hampton had told her in this room, only a few hours before. She had deliberately held back on the information in the statement but she knew she had to tell Caroline the truth.

  ‘You did really well in there, Caroline,’ said Bernie.

  ‘But I didn’t say very much. I just froze.’

  ‘It doesn’t matter. You said the most important thing.’ Bernie paused. She waited for Caroline to drink some more of her tea before continuing. ‘Obviously, when we do a press conference, we tell the media what we want them to know. Sometimes, we have to keep information back.’

  Caroline’s hand started to shake and she spilt tea down her. ‘Oh, that’s hot.’

  Kerry grabbed some paper towels and Bernie took the mug from Caroline.

  ‘Is she… dead?’

  Bernie reached out and took Caroline’s hand.

  ‘Not as far as we know. But what we have uncovered, is that we think we know who Laura was supposed to meet.’

  Caroline looked from Kerry to Bernie. ‘What? Who? Why didn’t you say in the press conference?’

  ‘We believe she was due to meet a boy who she knew as Luke Davidson. They had met on Instagram. However, we don’t think he’s called Luke and we don’t think he’s seventeen.’

  Caroline clasped her hand to her mouth as she gagged.

  ‘There’s a toilet right next door. Kerry, could you?’

  Kerry quickly led Caroline out.

  There was a knock at the door and Jane Clackett came in.

  ‘Sorry to bother you but Clive Bishop is still hanging around. Wants to talk to you.’

  The only thing Bernie wanted to do to Clive Bishop was hit him for his insensitivity.

  Jane had been right. Clive Bishop was still hanging around. As much as Bernie found him annoying at times, he was also a very good source.

  ‘Clive, what do you want? I have a girl to find and you have a story to write.’

  ‘Nice to see you too, Detective Inspector. I’m sorry if I was out of line. It just seemed too much of a coincidence that one young woman is dead and then a girl goes missing. Especially since the dead woman was found close to the girl’s home.’

  Bernie frowned. They hadn’t released the exact location. ‘What makes you think that?’

  Clive grinned. ‘I’m an investigative journalist. It’s my job to find out things.’

  ‘And I thought you were just a reporter on the local rag. Oh no, wait a minute. It was your paper that had the tweet about the body.’

  Clive waggled his finger. ‘Exactly. I find out things. Now, do you want this information or not?’

  Bernie narrowed her eyes. ‘What information?’

  ‘You know I’m not going to give it up that easily. You’re holding back details about Laura. Is there one little snippet I can have and I promise not to print it until you tell me I can?’

  ‘You have to give me some idea first.’

  Clive laughed. ‘You’re good at haggling. Two words – Rupert Fox.’

  Bernie tried to keep her demeanour the same but her heart was leapfrogging.

  ‘Why would I be interested in Rupert Fox?’

  ‘Because there was a Forensics van outside his house the other day. I live round the corner from him. Do you want this info or not?’

  Despite Worth’s clear warnings, she knew she had to find out more. She thought carefully. What could she afford to give away? ‘When Laura left the shop, she changed her hairstyle. It had been in a very high ponytail, as you could see in the photo. She tied it looser, with the hairband at the base of her neck.’

  ‘What did she do that for?’

  Bernie shrugged. ‘Maybe she wanted to change her appearance.’ But Bernie had already guessed the real reason. It would be hard to fit a motorbike helmet over a head with a high ponytail. She wasn’t planning on giving that information away, though.

  ‘So, give,’ she said, though she could tell Clive wasn’t overly impressed.

  ‘OK. You’re asking Rupert Fox the wrong questions. In fact, you’re the wrong team to be asking him questions.’

  ‘So which team should be talking to him?’

  Clive merely raised his eyebrows at her.

  ‘Oh God. You can print the hairstyle change now. But that’s all you’re getting.’

  Clive smiled. ‘Fraud team. Have a closer look at his business. Ask yourself how he managed to pay for all the work done on his house. And that’s all you’re getting, for now.’

  Energy pulsed through Bernie’s body. There were so many things going on in her brain. She knew she ought to pass on Rupert Fox’s name to the Fraud Squad as a person of interest but they couldn’t get warrants to look at his accounts without some idea of criminal activity. She was sure DCI Worth was mixed up with it somehow. And if that was the case, then Anti-Corruption would have to become involved. Did she really want that blowing up in her face?

  She walked back to the witness questioning room. Caroline looked a little better but not much.

  ‘Please tell me everything you’ve found out,’ Caroline said before Bernie had even sat down.

  ‘Are you sure?’

  Caroline nodded.

  ‘OK. It seems as though Laura has been in regular contact with Luke Davidson. They have been sending private messages to each other. Very private. Laura has sent photos of herself, including… topless ones.’

  Caroline shut her eyes and gripped the chair arms. ‘Carry on.’

  ‘Laura had been invited to a party by Luke. He arranged to pick her up in Salisbury and take her there.’

  Caroline opened her eyes. ‘Why didn’t you say this in the press conference?’

  ‘Because we don’t want to alert him. Laura isn’t the only girl he’s in contact with. Do you know Chloe Hampton from Laura’s form at school?’

  ‘I’ve met her a couple of times.’

  ‘Well, Luke is friends with Chloe as well and there have been similar messages with her. In fact, she was supposed to go to this “party” too but couldn’t because of a family wedding.’

  ‘And then you would have had two girls missing. Oh God. I didn’t go to the meeting at school last year about online safety. I wish I had now.’

  ‘You can’t blame yourself, Caroline. I spoke to Mr Gardener and he told me about the lessons Laura had. Even if you didn’t hear about the dangers, Laura did. And we’re going to try and use social media to our advantage. We have Chloe’s and her mother’s permission to use Chloe’s accounts to contact Luke.’

  ‘So, you’re going to try and capture him that way? And find Laura?’

  ‘That’s what we’re working on. I have an officer looking into it at the moment.’

  ‘Then message him now.’

  ‘We’re going to wait until after the news this evening, when Laura’s story is reported. I can’t promise you this will
definitely work. But it’s our best chance.’

  Bernie and Kerry waved as Caroline drove away.

  ‘You didn’t tell her everything,’ said Kerry. ‘You didn’t mention the motorbike photo that Luke sent Chloe and the possible link to the dead young woman in their woods.’

  ‘How can I? I can’t watch her hope drain away.’

  47

  ‘So, Matt, how’s your inner pre-teen girl coming along?’

  Matt smoothed back his brown floppy hair. ‘Pretty good, actually.’ He threw a notebook across his desk towards Bernie. ‘Have a look.’

  Bernie picked up the notebook and read aloud. ‘“OMG Luke! Have you heard about Laura? She’s gone missing. Did she make it to your party on Saturday night?” Is that it? Is that all you’ve written?’

  ‘No. Turn over. I’ve made a list of Chloe’s favourite phrases on the other side and her patterns of speech, in particular, all the abbreviations she uses. I can’t write more because I don’t know how he’s going to respond.’

  ‘Well, I can tell you right now that she would say, “Shit, Luke!” rather than OMG because she was swearing at school this morning. Think it needs more work, and fast.’

  Matt huffed. ‘Well, maybe it should be a woman who does it, ma’am.’

  Bernie put her hand on Matt’s shoulder. ‘I’m sorry, you’ve done a lot of work here. Would it help if you watched Chloe’s interview? Hear how she phrases things?’

  ‘Yeah, that might help.’

  ‘Great. Kerry, can you set that up, please, and help Matt with the phrases? Really important to get it right. One false move and he’ll be on to us. Now, Tom, how are you doing with Luke Davidson?’

  Tom shook his head. ‘God, the things he’s writing to these girls! Really hope we can catch him later. He’s bloody clever. But I’m determined to find that IP address.’

  ‘Ma’am, I have good news.’

  Bernie looked up to see Anderson had come in. She was glad he’d stuck to calling her ma’am in front of the others.

  ‘Tom, you’re going to be interested in this too. I’ve had a text from the Italian police officer I’ve been working with. He’s forwarded an email from the phone company. We know who owns the phone that belonged to our murder victim.’

  He sat at his desk and opened his email. ‘Here we go. I’ll translate it. OK, so the IMEI number shows that the phone was registered in the name of… oh, Bruno Manetti. Not a woman.’

  ‘Did Ria, assuming that’s her name, steal it? Is that why she changed the SIM as soon as she got here?’ Bernie asked.

  Anderson read to the end of the email. ‘No, she didn’t steal it. Well, not from a stranger. From what Inspector De Luca says here, she was Manetti’s girlfriend. He assaulted her a while back and he’s on bail. Case is due to be heard end of the year. But guess what? He skipped bail three weeks ago and no one’s seen him.’

  ‘So when Father Adrian said that she was scared for her life, had this guy made contact with her?’ Bernie asked.

  Anderson shrugged. ‘No idea but it’ll be worth checking to see if he’s entered the country. I can do that. But the main thing here is that this guy has a long record and is seriously nasty.’

  ‘But he can’t be Luke. Our guy’s been chatting to Laura and Chloe for six months now.’

  ‘I agree. But could he be the guy who raced Luke? Ryan said he didn’t know who raced him. Was there another stranger there that night?’

  Bernie rested her head in her hands. None of this was making sense. She lifted her head. ‘So what you’re suggesting is that our murder victim, believed to be Ria, might not have been killed by Luke Davidson but by this Bruno Manetti? But Laura is with Davidson. So they’re not connected at all?’

  ‘Actually, ma’am, I think I might be able to help you with that,’ said Tom. ‘Do you know Ria’s surname, DS Anderson?’

  ‘Yes. Greco. The inspector is chasing up dental records as we speak to confirm ID.’

  ‘So, Ria Greco. Or maybe, Maria G.’ Tom pushed back his chair from the desk to show them the screen. ‘She and Luke have been messaging.’ He scrolled down. ‘Quite a few messages here. Basic English but very sexually explicit… and whoa, there’s a photo.’

  A naked young woman was on the screen. Tom clicked to enlarge it but then covered her body with his hand. ‘Does her face look a bit like Rosa?’

  Bernie and Anderson both stared at the screen.

  ‘Yes,’ Anderson said. ‘Can you crop that headshot, please, and I’ll send it to the inspector?’

  ‘And I’ll send it to Harriet Fox,’ said Bernie. ‘But we go ahead with messaging Luke. Because I’m sure he has Laura.’

  The door to MCIT banged open so hard, Bernie thought it was going to come off its hinges. Worth’s face was almost purple with rage.

  ‘I thought I made myself very clear that you are not a part of this murder investigation, Detective Inspector Noel,’ he spluttered.

  Bernie turned round. She was getting fed up with Worth’s unpredictable moods. ‘I know that, sir.’

  ‘So why did you answer a question about it in the press conference?’

  Bernie steeled herself. Although she was getting used to his temper, Worth seemed particularly angry this time.

  ‘I was asked a direct question by Clive Bishop. I said I couldn’t comment but was keeping an open mind. In case you’d forgotten, sir, it was Clive’s paper that Laura tweeted to about the body being found. We should be grateful he didn’t reveal that information. And we should be keeping an open mind.’

  Bernie paused. She wasn’t sure if it was enough evidence to link the cases but she knew she had to pass on the picture they had seen of Luke Davidson.

  ‘Sir, you have asked for more proof that the cases are linked; the evidence is stacking up. Laura has been messaging a man called Luke Davidson she met on Instagram. We’ve discovered he’s been chatting with several girls online, including a girl from Laura’s class at school – Chloe Hampton. And also a Maria G who we think might be Ria. Luke encourages the girls to send him photos, very revealing ones, but he’s resisted sending photos back. Except for one time, when he sent a picture of himself in a black leather jacket and black motorcycle helmet, with the visor down.’

  ‘And that’s the photo you showed Ryan Willis?’

  ‘Yes, sir.’

  ‘You didn’t tell me where that had come from.’

  ‘I didn’t get the chance to, sir.’

  ‘What’s your plan of action?’

  ‘We have Chloe and her mother’s permission to use her account to try and contact Luke. I plan to do this with Matt after the local TV news. There should be a story about her.’

  Worth was quiet for a minute before speaking. ‘We’re not looking at entrapment here, are we?’

  ‘No. I’m hoping we can arrange a time to meet but I’m not planning on trying to lure him into suggesting things online.’

  ‘Do you think you can pull this off?’

  ‘I have no idea if we can be a convincing twelve-year-old girl who’s pretending to be fifteen but it’s our best shot.’

  Worth sighed. ‘All right. Go ahead. And maybe we do have to keep an open mind. Tomorrow morning we’re having an update meeting to discuss everything we have on our dead woman. I’d like you to be in that meeting since you were one of the first on the scene. The chief constable is keen for progress to be made.’

  Bernie was itching to smile. Chief constable wants me in then. ‘Thank you, sir. We’ll keep you updated.’

  Anderson waited for Worth to leave before speaking. ‘You didn’t mention Bruno Manetti.’

  Bernie gave a wry smile. ‘Not my case. Up to you to tell him. Maybe do it later. After we’ve tried to contact Luke.’

  48

  Laura’s face filled the screen. Gemma Proctor from BBC Points West had done a good job. Bernie wondered if Caroline Moffatt had watched it. It would have been hell for her. She looked around at her team. Everyone was silent during the report. Although
she knew they had to maintain a professional distance, a missing child still got to them all. Bernie switched off the TV as the report ended.

  ‘OK, team, here we go. Matt, you’ve looked at this the most. Which social media site is best?’

  Matt walked over to his desk and picked up his notebook. ‘Most of the messages have been done via Instagram but the more recent ones have been on WhatsApp.’

  ‘WhatsApp uses mobile numbers, right, Tom? Can’t we just ring him and use the signal to get a position on him?’

  Tom gave a weak smile. ‘Already tried. I did my best “Hello, sir, I’m ringing today to talk to you about the car accident you’ve had in the last three years.” He hung up immediately. WhatsApp uses an internet connection to send messages, either through Wi-Fi or data. So I’m hoping we can find his IP address, especially if he uses the desktop version. We need to be careful though. Chatting to him now might gain some clues but…’

  ‘But what?’

  ‘One false move and he’ll know it’s not Chloe. Plus, if he’s fastidious as I think he is, he might notice that it’s not her IP address.’

  ‘What the hell can we do about that?’

  ‘Cover story. She’s at someone else’s house. I’ve set up the desktop version on Matt’s computer to use. We have protection on our address so Luke shouldn’t be able to see where we are. Maybe she could be at her aunt’s house and her geeky uncle is a bit paranoid about the government watching him or something.’

  Bernie moved her chair next to Matt’s. ‘Seriously? Is that the best story you can come up with?’

  ‘See if he asks where you are. If he does, then we know he’s monitoring her.’

  Adrenalin started to pump round Bernie’s body. Her stomach felt like it had a snake writhing around in her. She breathed out slowly.

  ‘OK. Matt, you ready to do this?’

  Kerry and Anderson stood behind. Tom stayed at his desk, ready to track Luke’s IP address.

  Matt began typing.

  oh shit, luke! did you see the news about laura?