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

by Joy Kluver

  ‘I see. Have you heard from anyone at the race since then?’

  ‘No. I was ill that weekend with that horrible stomach bug. I was feeling a bit rough that night anyway. I was glad to get away. I don’t know who he raced.’

  ‘OK. Did he say anything else? Give anyone his contact details? We heard he wanted to make it a regular thing. He would have to be contactable somehow.’

  Craig shook his head again. ‘I don’t know. He only spoke to Ryan quietly. Otherwise, he was really loud and spoke to us all as a group. Trying to get us to race him. He was quite full of himself, really.’

  Bernie was about to ask one more question when John Moffatt interrupted her.

  ‘I think you’re done now. This is voluntary after all. You should be out looking for Laura, not hassling my son.’

  Bernie stood up. ‘I understand that, Mr Moffatt. But in order to find Laura, it’s important we gather as much information and evidence as possible. I have one final question. Did this man say the woman’s name at all? Or say anything to her that might be useful? Anything at all?’

  Craig thought for a moment. ‘I don’t remember him saying a name. He called her “babe”. Oh, but he rode past me later. I was almost home. I stopped so I could wheel the bike down the drive so Mum and Dad wouldn’t hear me. He was on his own. She wasn’t with him.’

  54

  The office was quiet except for the sound of Tom tapping away at his keyboard.

  ‘Any progress yet?’ Bernie asked.

  ‘Not on the IP,’ said Tom, his eyes glued to his screen. ‘But the phone company have come back about this phone registered to Manetti. We already knew it was switched back on last Saturday afternoon with a new number. And they’ve now confirmed it was in the Salisbury area.’

  ‘That’s great news.’

  Bernie was about to ask him more when Anderson appeared.

  ‘Ma’am.’ He smiled at her.

  ‘Oh. I thought you had gone to check out the racers,’ Bernie said, beaming back. They still hadn’t spoken about Saturday night but she wanted to, especially as she’d now cleared the air with Alex.

  ‘No. I was still on the phone to Gabriel when the order came in so the others went. However, it’s just as well I didn’t.’

  ‘Why? Did Gabriel have some information?’

  Anderson nodded towards Bernie’s desk. ‘Let me show you something.’

  Bernie sat down and moved some files while Anderson spread some sheets over the desk.

  ‘These are the messages between Luke and Ria. They stopped well over a week ago.’

  ‘Before the race then?’

  ‘Yes. But they’ve been messaging for a while. And if you go back, she makes reference to wanting to leave her job. Says her employer is hassling her for sex.’

  Bernie leaned back in her chair. ‘Really? That’s not how Rupert Fox portrayed it. He said it was consensual.’

  ‘Not according to this. Luke suggested she should film the next time she’s made to have sex and then send it to him.’

  ‘Oh God, this man is unbelievable.’

  ‘No, wait, he also asks for Rupert Fox’s email address. If you look here, Ria gives him two addresses – a home one and a work one. The plan was to blackmail Fox.’

  ‘But we know this already,’ said Bernie. ‘We’ve seen the footage. We’re pretty sure it was filmed from a teddy cam that Ria had in her bedroom.’

  Anderson tapped the paper. ‘You’ve seen the video sent to his home email. Maybe a different one was sent to his work address. Perhaps a more extreme one.’

  Bernie massaged her throbbing temple. ‘We’d need a warrant and old Worthless isn’t going to let that happen.’

  ‘You still think they’re friends?’

  ‘I’m not sure what it is exactly but something isn’t right…’ Bernie hesitated. Should she tell Anderson of her suspicions?

  ‘Spit it out.’

  She leaned in towards him and lowered her voice. ‘Clive Bishop suggested there may be something not quite right about our Mr Fox. And then I spoke to Alex last night…’

  ‘You spoke to Alex?’

  Anderson looked worried.

  ‘It’s over. I’ll tell you more later. We need to talk anyway.’

  Anderson raised his eyebrows. ‘Good talk or bad talk?’

  Bernie smiled. ‘Good talk. But we’re getting off the point. Alex told me Rupert Fox does a lot of mortgage surveys and he often finds fault in the houses.’

  ‘And?’

  ‘So the buyers then put in a lower offer for the house. Sometimes the vendors take the hit or the sale falls through. What if Rupert Fox is deliberately finding fault and then taking a fee from the buyers?’

  ‘Then that would be fraud.’

  ‘Exactly.’

  Anderson looked puzzled. ‘So where does Worth fit in?’

  ‘He moved house last year.’

  Anderson looked at her for a moment before speaking. ‘Do you know what you’re implying, Bernie?’

  Her stomach lurched. ‘I feel sick just thinking about it. Anti-Corruption would have to become involved and that doesn’t bode well for my future either.’

  ‘Assuming there is something wrong,’ said Anderson. ‘You have no evidence at the moment, just a suspicion. Do you think Alex would help? Could he get paperwork together to show us?’

  Bernie wrinkled her nose. ‘He probably would but not best timing really. I’ll text him and ask. So, in the meantime, do we hold fire on a warrant for Rupert Fox’s work computer?’

  ‘If it means asking Worth for the warrant, then yes. But I have a contact in Fraud. If we can find evidence of Fox doing wrong then we could pass everything on to them.’

  ‘And Worth?’

  Anderson gave a wry smile. ‘That’ll be up to Fraud to discover, won’t it?’

  A buzzing sound came from Anderson’s pocket. He reached inside and pulled out his phone.

  ‘Ciao, Gabriel.’ He stood up and walked over to his desk.

  Bernie knew she wouldn’t understand anything he said so she took her own phone out and sent a text to Alex. She hoped she wasn’t being too presumptuous. Although they had parted on friendly terms, she knew she couldn’t expect too much of him. She almost finished the text with her customary ‘xx’ but paused. She left it as, ‘Bernie’.

  Anderson came back. ‘Yes, hold on one minute, Gabriel. My DI needs to hear this.’ He switched his phone over to speaker and put it on the desk.

  ‘Hi, Inspector De Luca. I’m DI Bernie Noel. What do you have?’

  ‘Ciao, Bernie. Gabriel, please. OK. Let’s start with some background. Maria, or Ria, Greco was brought up in a children’s home for most of her life. She doesn’t appear to have any immediate family so we’re still working on next of kin. As a teenager she was arrested a few times and charged once for shoplifting. She pleaded guilty and was given a fine. Since then, as an adult, we haven’t seen her until earlier this year. She was assaulted by her boyfriend, Bruno Manetti. It was pretty nasty – he knocked a couple of teeth out. I’ve contacted Ria’s dentist and he’s confirmed all the work he did. He will send her records. I’m hoping to send DNA too but it’s difficult. Although she gave a sample as a teenager that was removed from the database when she got older. We have her DNA from the assault but it’s another team investigating so we have to get permission.’

  ‘So red tape’s holding you up,’ said Bernie.

  ‘Doesn’t it always? But more than that. The mention of Manetti and a phone has got everyone excited. We’ve been trying to put him away for years as a drug dealer but never managed it. We don’t know if Bruno gave it to Ria for safe-keeping or if she stole it. If you find it, please can we have it after you’ve finished with it? We think there’s vital evidence on there.’

  ‘I’m sure we can come to some arrangement, Gabriel, but we haven’t found where Ria was staying yet. Do you think he would kill Ria to get his phone back? We know it was switched back on for a few hours on Saturday i
n Salisbury. I have my own theory on that but Anderson said Manetti has skipped bail.’

  ‘Yes, unfortunately. He left Ria in a bad way so I think he could’ve killed her or have someone else do it. But I do have some good news – Rosa’s emails. When we looked at her sent box we found the emails she had sent to her grandparents. In her inbox, there are emails back from her grandparents and also another email address – no proper name, just a string of letters. It’s Ria. She’s been telling Rosa what she’s been doing as an au pair so that Rosa can then pass that on to her grandparents. Things like places she’s been with the children, games they’ve played.’

  ‘That makes sense,’ said Bernie. ‘Rosa needs her emails and phone conversations to sound authentic.’

  ‘Yes, that’s what I think too. Rosa has emailed a few times in the last ten days asking Ria what she’s been up to. She’s overdue with contacting her grandparents. She writes, “Where are you, Ria? I need to phone or email my grandparents. They’ll be worried. I need to know what to tell them.”’

  ‘That suggests Rosa’s alive and well somewhere. And hopefully safe.’

  ‘Oh, she’s definitely alive. She emailed her grandparents ten minutes ago.’

  55

  Bernie knocked on Worth’s office door.

  ‘Come in.’

  Bernie gave a measured smile as she entered. She no longer trusted Worth but she had to convey otherwise.

  ‘Sir, Tom’s had news that Ria’s phone was in Salisbury when it was switched back on and we’ve just heard from Inspector De Luca as well. He’s spoken to Ria’s dentist who’s confirmed the dental work. Manetti knocked them out and they’re looking for him for assault. The Italian police are particularly interested in the phone and would like it if we find it. Manetti is a drug dealer and they’re desperate to get him on that. We think Ria left Florence because of him. Circumstantially it fits but obviously we need to wait for confirmation before making it public.’

  ‘So our “terrible twins” really did pull off a switch.’

  ‘They did. I’ve asked Tom to look at Ria’s profile on Instagram,’ said Bernie. ‘She and Luke were messaging. I’m assuming that’s OK.’

  ‘Yes, for now.’ Worth glanced at his watch. ‘Have you heard anything yet from the others? Have they managed to speak to all those racing?’

  ‘I’ve not heard yet but I’ll chase them up.’ Bernie eyed the chair in front of her. ‘Sir, do you mind if I sit down? I have an idea I’d like to run past you.’

  Worth indicated that she could.

  ‘I’ve been thinking we have a great opportunity to catch our man. We have Chloe’s phone so we can contact him. I think it’s time for us to tell the public how much danger we believe Laura to be in. Let’s hold another press conference. Tell the media that we believe the same man is responsible and show the CCTV footage of the motorbike. Then “Chloe” can message Luke, saying he’s a liar and she’s going to go to the police.’

  Worth waggled his finger. ‘You want to lure him in for a meet-up.’

  ‘Exactly,’ said Bernie. ‘But we’ll be there to meet him, not Chloe.’

  The DCI breathed in slowly and deeply. ‘It’s risky.’

  ‘I know, sir. But Tom isn’t getting anywhere with finding the IP address. And I don’t think we’re going to get anything from the racers. We’re running out of time for Laura. We have to act now.’

  ‘And you think that dangling a teenage girl in front of him will do the trick?’ asked Worth.

  Bernie paused. She didn’t like the idea of it at all but getting Laura home was her priority. ‘We’ll make sure Chloe is safe, get her mum to pick her up from school. We’ll choose a safe place to meet. And we’ll make sure there’s enough of us there, including a police motorcyclist if we need to give chase.’ Bernie’s heart beat faster. She knew it was a risk and would backfire on her if it all went wrong.

  Patrick Worth caught her eye with a steely gaze. ‘Set it up.’

  ‘Right, everyone, thanks for coming back so quickly. Kerry, anything to report?’ asked Bernie.

  Kerry shook her head. ‘Not really. We spoke to a few of the guys on the list. They all said they left before the final race. I think it’s clear no one is going to admit to racing our man. They all know what happened to Ria.’

  ‘I think you’re probably right. So we need to try another tactic.’ Bernie looked around the briefing room. All the detectives from the team were there plus uniformed officers from Traffic and two specialist motorcyclists. Worth stood at the back of the room. He gave her a nod.

  ‘The DCI and I have been talking and we think it’s time to flush out Luke Davidson. Tom has been doing a brilliant job but it’s clear this guy knows his tech. So, the plan is to hold a press conference at twelve thirty. We’ll mention that we have a possible ID for our murder victim plus the fact we now have evidence linking her death with our missing girl, Laura Moffatt. We’ll show the CCTV footage we have of the motorbike. We’ll be asking for the press to release this information immediately. Once the public are notified, we’ll message Luke using Chloe’s account. We’re going to try and entice him to meet Chloe, except we’ll be there instead. So, Matt, I want you to start thinking about what you’re going to write. We’ll need to allow a bit of time to get everyone in place so the meet time will have to be after school. The downside is that the traffic will be getting busier. Kerry and Alice, I’d like you to look at the area around Laura and Chloe’s school. See if there any quiet side roads that might work well for us.’

  DC Mick Parris raised his hand.

  ‘Yes, Mick.’

  ‘Two questions, ma’am. Is it wise to show the CCTV footage? If he knows we’re looking out for a motorbike, then he may come by car. And what about this Manetti guy – have you ruled him out?’

  Bernie had to stop herself from sighing. A car. Damn. Why didn’t I think of that?

  ‘That’s a good point, Mick. You’re right about the car. As for Manetti, we don’t know enough about him yet.’ Anderson raised his hand. Bernie nodded at him.

  ‘I think,’ said Anderson, ‘that we just go with “we have new evidence linking the two cases”. The important thing is to consider this from Chloe’s perspective. If she thinks that Luke is responsible, then she won’t agree to meet him. The fact that we’re Chloe is irrelevant.’

  ‘I agree,’ said Matt, putting his pen down. ‘I’ve just scribbled this. “Hi Luke. Have you seen the news? The police now think Laura’s been abducted by a murderer! I’m so scared for her. If she didn’t meet with you, who did she meet? I want to go and search for her. Do you want to come too?” Something along those lines. What do you think?’

  Bernie nodded her head slowly. ‘Yes, that might work. Much better than Luke thinking that Chloe is about to go to the police. We’ll go with that.’ Bernie glanced at her watch. ‘It’s eleven forty-five hours. Press conference is in forty-five minutes. That will hopefully be enough time to get the local lunchtime bulletins for both TV and radio. Plus it will go out on the local papers’ websites.’

  ‘Ma’am?’

  ‘Yes, Matt.’

  ‘Do you want this on social media too? If we’re going to think like Chloe, she’s much more likely to see it on Instagram or Twitter.’

  Bernie gave Matt a broad smile. ‘Yes. Mick, could you look at that, please? I know it’s Matt’s forte but I need him to focus on contacting Luke.’

  Bernie was aware of someone else looking at her, someone who hadn’t be given a job yet. Someone who had just saved her butt.

  ‘Anderson, I would like you to start planning how we’re going to arrest this man. Work in conjunction with Traffic, particularly focusing on pursuit strategies.’

  Worth, at the back of the room, coughed.

  ‘Yes, sir?’ Bernie asked.

  ‘I’ve spoken to the deputy chief constable and we have permission to use the helicopter for a pursuit,’ said Worth. ‘You know the rules. If there’s a danger to the suspect or members of the pub
lic, then pull back and let the helicopter take over. We have one shot at this. Let’s not balls it up.’

  Worth glared at Bernie. That last statement was aimed at her.

  56

  ‘So,’ said Clive Bishop, ‘you’re now telling us that the same man is responsible for the murder of the young woman and the abduction of Laura Moffatt? When I asked DI Noel about that the other day, she denied it. What have you got to say about that?’

  DCI Worth shifted uncomfortably in his chair as a mutter passed around the room.

  ‘Well, at the time, we didn’t have enough evidence to link the two cases. Now we do,’ he said.

  ‘What is this evidence?’ asked another reporter.

  ‘I’m not able to disclose that at the moment. We’re also close to identifying our murder victim and will hopefully have some news on that soon,’ said Worth. ‘That’s all I have to say at the moment but we would like this news to go out ASAP. When we have further information we’ll let you know.’

  Worth got up and left a bewildered-looking bunch of journalists behind him. Bernie was about to leave too when Clive Bishop called her over.

  He lowered his voice. ‘What’s really going on?’ he asked.

  Bernie gave him an innocent look. ‘I don’t know what you mean. We’ve given you some info and we’d like you to report it.’

  ‘I know when we’re being played,’ said Clive. ‘You want this out there for a reason.’

  Bernie rested her hand lightly on his arm. ‘We simply want the public to be vigilant and to stay safe. As the DCI said, we’ll let you know when we have more to say.’

  She walked away, aware of Clive’s suspicious gaze on her. She hoped he would leave it at that. This was the one time she didn’t need him snooping around.

  MCIT was bustling. Mick had timed the social media release for just after the press conference.