by Joy Kluver
‘Did he say anything?’
‘Only that he had a few things to take care of. I waited for a few minutes and then went to find him. He was in his office with the door shut but I could hear him on the phone. I might be wrong about this but I thought I heard him say “Rupert”. That’s got to be Fox, right? Why would he be calling Rupert Fox?’
‘Why, indeed?’ Bernie stood up and grabbed her bag. ‘I can’t wait here for Tom to ring me. I know it’s just coming up to midnight but do you fancy going back to Gardener’s house?’
Thursday – early hours
Tom was scrolling through emails as Bernie and Alice walked in. He glanced up at them.
‘Ma’am, I’m sorry I haven’t called you back. You have no idea how many emails this guy has sent and received. From what I can tell, Ben Gardener creates something akin to an online porn mag but with underage kids in the photos and some pretty graphic stuff. So he’s sending out links to paying customers all the time. He’s receiving and sharing videos as well. It’s hard to know what to look for so I did a search using “Rosa Conti” and found this email. I need to warn you both, it’s not pretty.’
Tom clicked and opened a window. He played the video that appeared. Bernie recognised the room on the screen.
‘That’s Rosa’s or Ria’s room at the Fox house. Isn’t this the video we’ve already seen?’
Tom shook his head. ‘No. I’ve already found that one. This video was made a few days later. In the other clip, Ria was more compliant. She’s not in this one.’
Bernie watched Ria on the screen, sitting on her bed, reading. Rupert Fox suddenly bursts into the room. Within two strides, he’s by her bed, pulling her by her hair, and slaps her hard across the face.
‘Bitch. Thought you’d blackmail me, did you? I’ll show you.’
Bernie half-closed her eyes as she saw Rupert Fox unzip his trousers.
‘Oh God,’ she said. ‘Please tell me he doesn’t.’
‘I’m afraid he does,’ said Tom, pausing the video.
‘And the date stamp?’
‘The day she left them.’
‘Shit. So she leaves this crappy house and goes to Ben, thinking he’ll protect her. Which email address was this sent to?’
Tom minimised the screen to show the outbox behind. ‘Rupert Fox’s work address. Now I’m guessing he tried to get rid of this email too but as he wasn’t very successful with his home email address, I’m hoping he wasn’t very thorough with this one.’
‘So we need to get a warrant for his arrest and to search his work computer.’ Bernie wanted to cheer but didn’t dare.
‘Er, ma’am,’ said Alice. ‘Can I have a quick word please?’
The two women stepped out onto the narrow landing.
‘Given what I told you earlier, how are you going to get the warrant?’ asked Alice.
‘Don’t you worry about that, leave it with me.’
Bernie sat in her car and was about to ring Anderson when she noticed she had unopened email. She clicked to find there was one from Alex. She opened it.
Hi Bernie.
I checked in our records and I’ve made a list of houses that Rupert Fox surveyed. I’ve written down what happened with each house. I’ve also been in touch with another of our branches. I’ve attached their list too. They’ve been suspicious of Fox for a while.
Hope it helps. We need to arrange a time when I can come and get the rest of my stuff. Let me know when’s good for you. I know that you’re busy. I hope we can still be friends.
Alex.
Bernie was still cross with him but he was trying to help her now. She opened his list first and scanned the houses and names. No one jumped out at her. She looked at the other list and saw a name she recognised.
‘Bingo,’ she said.
Bernie closed her email and wrote a quick text to Anderson.
We have what we need for warrant for Fox. You know what to do.
64
Bernie was tempted to drive over to Salisbury but knew it was too far, even in the middle of the night. She waited for DC Matt Taylor to call her at MCIT.
She’d left Alice at Gardener’s house with DC Mick Parris and Tom. She thought it safer for Alice. Once Worth knew what was going on, he’d be on the warpath. While she waited, she tried to make sense of her thoughts.
If Fox is capable of rape, does that mean he killed Maria? Was he the mystery motorbike rider who raced Gardener? Did someone mention he had a bike or did I imagine that? No, Worth said there wasn’t one at the house but he can’t be trusted now.
Her eyes started to droop. She was aware of a commotion outside in the corridor but it wasn’t until the door to MCIT slammed open against the wall that Bernie came to with a start.
‘What the bloody hell do you think you’re doing, woman?’
Bernie blinked quickly and tried to stand up.
‘Sir, I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
Worth stood in front of her. ‘You bloody well do. You’ve sent officers to Rupert Fox’s office.’
Bernie, more alert now, stood up to face the senior officer. ‘Evidence has come to light—’
‘What evidence? You’re supposed to be concentrating on Gardener, not pillars of the community like Rupert Fox.’
‘As I was saying, sir, evidence has come to light. There’s a video on Ben Gardener’s computer showing Rupert Fox assaulting and raping Ria. It was emailed to Fox at his work address. I think we have every right to question Mr Fox and to ask him again, where he was the night of Ria’s murder. Wouldn’t you agree?’
Worth’s face turned purple with rage. Bernie was concerned he was going to have a heart attack but then dismissed the thought. He’d consistently protected Rupert Fox. He didn’t deserve her sympathy. Bernie’s phone buzzed. She looked at the screen. It was Matt.
‘Excuse me one moment, sir.’
She grabbed the phone and answered.
‘Matt, what have you got for me?’
‘You were right, ma’am, he was at his office trying to delete files on his computer. Looks like he was tipped off. He couldn’t account for why he was at his office in the middle of the night. We’ve managed to stop him and have confiscated the computer. Shall we bring him to headquarters?’
‘Yes, please, thanks, Matt. See you soon.’
Bernie put the phone down.
‘Question for you, sir? How did you know I’d sent officers to Fox’s office? You’d expect him to be at home in the middle of the night, wouldn’t you?’
Worth’s hand immediately went to his mouth. ‘I… I heard about it from someone at Salisbury. They rang to check his address with me.’
‘Really? Well, that’s very odd because it was DC Taylor who led the team and found Fox at his office, not his home. Plus we didn’t ask anyone at Salisbury to arrange the warrant.’
Worth took a step back. ‘Um…’
‘So, sir, I’m going to ask you again, who told you police were at the office? Did Rupert Fox tell you himself? Maybe spotted them out of the window? Will we find a text from him on your mobile? And how did you know that Gardener had sent an email to Fox in the first place? Have you known all along about the blackmail? Possibly tampered with Fox’s home laptop? Have you deliberately attempted to scupper this investigation? What does Fox have on you that you were willing to risk this?’
Worth took another step back. ‘I don’t have to answer questions from a junior officer.’
‘No,’ said a voice from behind Worth, ‘but you will have to answer mine. So, final chance, how did you know police were at Rupert Fox’s office?’
Worth swung round to face Detective Chief Superintendent Wilson.
‘I would have liked to have said that you’ve done a good job in my absence but that clearly isn’t the case,’ said Wilson. ‘You have the option of either answering my question or you can answer to Anti-Corruption.’
Bernie moved round so she could see Worth’s face. He was opening and closing hi
s mouth like a fish, uttering no words.
‘You see,’ said Wilson, ‘I was the one who dealt with the warrants. I have to say I wasn’t best pleased when DS Anderson woke me up but it was clearly the right thing to do. I am relieving you of this investigation and you are immediately suspended. You will report to Anti-Corruption at eleven hundred hours, later this morning. You’re entitled to have representation with you. There are two officers in the corridor who will escort you home.’ Wilson folded his arms. ‘I trust I’ve made myself clear.’
Worth was speechless. He gave a small nod and headed towards the door.
After Worth had gone, the super turned to Bernie.
‘Well done, Bernie. You moved quickly on this,’ he said.
‘I’ve had suspicions for a while but it was only earlier that I realised exactly what was going on. Once Alice told me she thought DCI Worth was talking to Rupert Fox on the phone after listening to Gardener’s interview, I guessed Rupert would go to the office to start deleting files. I really didn’t want it to happen like this though.’
‘Oh, I don’t know,’ said Wilson. ‘Middle of the night, bit more discreet really. Right, you’d better bring me up to speed on all of this and then we can decide how to proceed.’
‘I think the wisest thing is to focus on Ria when Rupert Fox is questioned and I think Matt should do that as arresting officer after he’s got some sleep,’ said Bernie. ‘We’ll leave the rest to Fraud, assuming there’s still evidence on his computer. Honestly, you’d think that surveyors would be as straight as a die. It’s normally estate agents that get all the bad press. In this case, it’s the other way round. We’re fortunate the estate agents have kept the records of all the houses that Fox surveyed and found fault with.’
‘Not so fortunate for Worth,’ said Wilson. ‘Stupid man. Throwing his career away like that so that he could save fifty thousand pounds on his house. Wasn’t “worth” it, eh?’
Bernie shook her head. ‘Oh, sir.’
‘What? I thought it was quite good. Well, time is ticking. What are you going to do with Gardener?’
‘Oh, I’m not done with him yet. Fancy sitting in?’
‘The time is zero two forty hours and in attendance is Detective Chief Superintendent Wilson and myself, Detective Inspector Noel.
‘So, Ben, sorry to wake you up. You’ll get your eight hours’ break after this but I thought you’d like to know we found a video of Rosa, or Maria or Ria – what did you call her?’
Ben yawned loudly. ‘Maria.’
‘I see. Where did you meet?’
Ben stared at Bernie and for a moment she thought he was about to say ‘no comment’.
‘We met at a pub in Salisbury. If I’m there then I kip above the café. I took her back with me. Best shag I’ve had in a long time.’ He sniffed loudly.
Bernie resisted rolling her eyes. ‘So, something special then?’
Ben grinned. ‘You could say that. She was certainly adventurous. She was very happy to pose for me.’
‘You took photos of her and then shared them with your buddies?’
‘Yep, but she was over sixteen so it didn’t matter. Can’t do me for that.’
Bernie didn’t want him dwelling on Maria in that way.
‘Tell me about Rupert Fox,’ she said.
‘That scumbag? He’d been pestering her for sex ever since she arrived. The bastard. Then he wanted to film them together.’
‘Really? He told us it was her idea.’
Ben shook his head. ‘The dead can’t speak, can they? She gave in. It was that or lose the job. I came up with the idea of filming it and then blackmailing him.’
‘Were you the man that Harriet Fox found in her house?’
Ben looked puzzled.
‘Harriet Fox told me she dismissed Rosa, or rather Maria, because she caught her with a man in her room.’
Gardener took a deep breath in and slowly breathed out. ‘You didn’t watch the whole video, did you? I knew you’d wimp out.’ He shook his head. ‘It’s not nice, though, is it? Seeing a woman get raped. I watched it too. The camera’s connected to my computer. I saw it all happen. I jumped in my car and drove over there to pick her up and bring her back to stay with me. But I wasn’t the only one to see it. If you’d watched the whole thing then you’d see, right at the end, the door open and Harriet Fox walk in. That’s why she told Maria to go.’
No wonder Harriet didn’t want to describe the man she’d seen.
‘You’ve got a nerve saying how awful it is seeing a woman get raped, considering the videos and images on your computer,’ said Bernie.
Gardener looked down at the floor. ‘It’s different when it’s someone you care about.’
‘And those people in your images, no one cares about them? And I doubt you cared about Maria. You offered her as a “prize” in a race. You sold pictures of her.’
‘I shared the money with her.’
‘And then what? She wanted more of the money? Or maybe she didn’t want to do it any more? Is that why you killed her? Did you take Laura and Chloe because you planned to do the same with them?’ Bernie leaned forward.
Gardener slowly looked up, his eyes burning with fury. ‘I’ve told you already. I didn’t kill Maria. And I was planning on leaving tonight and letting the girls go. I didn’t hurt them.’
‘Oh really? What about the photo of Chloe you sent, gagged and bound?’
Ben shook his head. ‘Fake. When you took Chloe back to the station on Tuesday, I knew what would happen. It was fun stringing you along. I liked the idea of wasting your time, waiting for a suspect that wasn’t going to turn up but once I knew Chloe’s mum was going to be late, I seized my chance. I was teaching Computing so mocked up the photo while the class was occupied. Easy.’
‘We knew it was fake. It wasn’t Chloe but Laura. I recognised her necklace. Did you bind and gag her?’
Ben’s face hardened. ‘I told you – look at my emails. Stop pissing me about and go and check.’
Bernie stared at Ben. ‘I think you’re just playing for time.’
Ben leaned forward so that his face was level with Bernie’s. ‘I’m not fucking about here. Go and check the emails again. Because I didn’t just see my girl get raped, I saw her being murdered too. It’s all on film.’
65
‘Sorry, ma’am. He has so many emails with files attached,’ said Tom. ‘And I’m having to look at them all to find the right one. You have no idea what I’m seeing here.’
‘I’m sorry too,’ said Bernie into her mobile. ‘There will be specialist officers taking over in the morning. From what you’ve told me, he’s part of a huge paedophile ring.’
‘Definitely. OK, I’m going to change my search parameters… right, I’ve taken Rosa’s name out and I’m focusing on dates… hell, there’s still got to be over a hundred emails here sent to generic addresses… wait… there’s one here with a different subject heading – “I know what you did last night”. Email address is a string of numbers so don’t know who it’s to. I can work on that though. There’s a video attached. Do you want me to view it first?’
Bernie hesitated. Tom had seen too much already. ‘No. Forward it to me here. I’ll let you know if it’s the right one or not. Thanks, Tom.’
Bernie rubbed her eyes. They were sore with tiredness. Her stomach was churning at the thought of the video. She couldn’t watch it alone. Both Matt and Kerry had gone home to get some sleep before starting interviews in the morning. The search team were continuing at the house. She texted Anderson.
Think we have the right video now. Don’t want to watch it on my own.
Her phone pinged a few seconds later. With you in five.
Bernie paced the empty office as she waited. Half-drunk mugs of tea and coffee littered the desks along with case notes and photos. It wouldn’t be long before the cleaners would be in. She’d have to ask them not to clean this morning. She couldn’t risk them seeing things they shouldn’t.
&n
bsp; Anderson came through the door. His stubble was dark and his eyes were red.
‘I bailed Gardener’s mother and sister earlier, pending further enquiries. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see them both back at some point to tell us more,’ he said. ‘Are you ready to see this?’
Bernie shook her head. ‘I know I should be tougher than this but…’
Anderson pulled her in. ‘If we stop feeling the pain, then we can’t do our jobs any more. Why else do we relentlessly seek justice for the victims? If you’d rather I saw it…’
‘No,’ said Bernie raising her head from Anderson’s shoulder. ‘We’ll do this together.’
They sat down at Bernie’s desk and she opened up her email. It was there at the top, marked urgent by Tom. She clicked on the link he sent. A small window opened which she maximised. The screen was filled with a video in night vision. Anderson leaned forward and turned up the sound. Bernie recognised it as the woods by the track. From the angle it looked like the camera was balanced in a tree. There was a rustling noise and then the sound of someone running, breathing hard. A woman came into shot.
‘That must be Ria,’ said Bernie.
The woman stopped and looked behind her. Her eyes shone bright. She started to move again. There was another rustling sound and a man came in. His back was to the camera. He caught up with her and she fell.
‘Turn round,’ said Anderson. ‘Let’s get a look at your face. See if you’re Gardener or not.’
‘It’s not Gardener. This man is slimmer,’ said Bernie. Could it be Manetti after all?
The man helped Ria up and was then trying to kiss her, his hands moving all over her body. She was trying to push him away. Ria started to scream and the man shushed her. They struggled and fell down together, him on top. She carried on screaming but then the sound became muffled.