Getting up and heading for the centre of the room, Ruth took a moment to look up at the scene boards that would soon have to be cleared.
‘Evening, everyone. Some of you already know that the CPS have given us the go-ahead to charge Kathy and Gareth Wright with the abduction and murder of Rosie Wright. There are also the lesser charges of misconduct in a public office, supplying controlled drugs of class A and B into a prison and conveying a list-A prohibited article into a prison,’ Ruth explained as she moved over and leaned against a table. A phone buzzed to one side of the room and Sian answered it.
Looking out at her team, Ruth said, ‘I want to thank you for doing a brilliant job on this. I know that Luke’s death has thrown us, but you have all continued to be professional and dedicated to the job in hand. And I hope that when Kathy and Gareth Wright are convicted, we have helped get some kind of justice for Rosie.’
Sian put down the phone and glanced over at Ruth. ‘Boss, there’s a message from the North Wales Coastguard. They’ve found some clothing floating in the sea about fifty miles out, just south of the Isle of Man.’
‘Thank you, Sian,’ Ruth said. ‘Okay, so Kathy and Gareth Wright will be held overnight at their home. There will be armed officers, as well as the FLO. We have intel from the OCG that their lives would be in danger at any prison in Wales or the North West. So, tomorrow morning they will be transferred by armed guard to HMP Bullingdon, near Oxford, where they will be on remand in the VP wing. Sian, can you go down to Capelulo later and brief the AFOs and the FLO for me?’
Sian nodded but failed to make eye contact ‘Yes, boss. Do you want me to stay there overnight for the transfer?’
‘No. If you just have a check around and make sure that the place is relatively secure,’ Ruth said, before turning back to the other officers. ‘So, over the next few days I need you all to type up your notes, statements and evidence logs for the CPS to have before the end of the week. And given the spate of mistrials, you all need to be very careful that we are making full disclosure on everything that we have looked at. Double-check everything, please, as a matter of urgency. Evidence is evidence, and the CPS need to see everything now, not when the defence counsel brings it up at trial and we risk the case collapsing.’
Gathering up her files, Ruth calculated that she had time to go back to her office, drop off her stuff, go out for a ciggie and grab a coffee before going upstairs for a meeting with Jones.
Passing French’s desk, she noticed that he was watching a video of Rosie. She was jumping on someone and squealing in laughter.
‘What’s that, Dan?’ she asked.
‘Kara Haddon has her own YouTube channel. You know, make-up tips, boys, music,’ Dan explained.
‘And what’s this you’re watching?’ Ruth asked.
‘It’s a video of her fourteenth birthday party. It’s her and her friends out in the garden. And then this happens ...’
Pressing play, Ruth watched as Steven Haddon arrives in the garden with a tray of ciders, which he puts down on the table. There was a handful of teenage girls giggling, messing about and listening to music.
‘Bit young to be drinking,’ Ruth said under her breath.
As the video continued to play, Ruth watched as Rosie and Steven start to play around in the garden, hitting and chasing each other. Steven picks Rosie up and puts her over his shoulder. From the side, Rosie starts to hit Steven on his behind.
‘Oh, you’re going to spank me are you, missy?’ Steven laughs as he twirls Rosie around.
‘Yes, you have a problem with that?’ Rosie giggles as she kicks her legs.
‘Hey, two can play at that,’ Steven says as he begins to spank Rosie’s behind as she lays over his shoulder.
‘You can’t spank me! I’ll have you arrested!’ Rosie says, roaring with laughter.
‘Go ahead. I’ll get you the number,’ Steven replies before putting Rosie back down onto the grass.
As Steven turns and walks back to the house, the video stops.
French looked up and glanced at Ruth. ‘Is it me, boss, or is that a bit weird?’
‘I wouldn’t have been very comfortable if my neighbour had done that to my daughter when she was fifteen or sixteen,’ Ruth said.
‘What do you want me to do, boss?’ French asked.
‘We’ve got our suspects. And although it’s a bit overfamiliar and creepy, there’s not a lot we can do. Steven Haddon’s not been on our radar. Make a copy and put it on the case file on the central hard drive.’ Ruth said. ‘Can you chase Forensics and the DNA testing on that Converse eyelet that we found up at Gogarth?’
‘Yes, boss,’ Dan said as he nodded and went back to the folders and notes on his desk.
CHAPTER 30
Entering the busy ward, Nick scoured the whiteboard that had patients’ names written by each bed number. He was looking for Zofia Mazur, one of the girls he had rescued from the burning house in Bangor.
Ruth had asked Nick to tie up all the loose ends on the investigation into Christian Vasilescu and Hayley Collard before they handed it over. North Wales Police’s own dedicated Modern Day Slavery Unit, MDS, appeared to know Vasilescu quite well.
Stopping the ward sister, Nick showed her his warrant card. ‘DS Evans from Llancastell CID. I’m looking for a patient, Zofia Mazur?’
The ward sister pointed to a corner room. ‘She’s in there.’
‘Is she up to answering a few questions?’ Nick asked.
‘I’m sure that’s fine. There were some other detectives with her this morning, so don’t be too long, please,’ she said as she went on her way.
Assuming that officers from the MDS unit had been to talk to her, Nick went over to the door, knocked and went in.
‘Zofia?’ Nick asked.
The young girl nodded, looking a little nervous, and sat up in the bed. Then she frowned. ‘You’re the man that got me and Nadia out of the house yesterday, no?’
‘Yes, that’s right.’ He opened up his warrant card and said, ‘My name’s Nick. Okay if I sit down?’
She nodded as he went over and took a seat by her bed. Zofia was lying on top of the bedding with just a blanket over her feet. Her legs were skinny and bruised, and Nick wondered what kind of nightmare she had been through in recent months. Sex trafficking was an evil, brutal business with no regard for human life.
‘Where are you from in Poland, Zofia?’ he asked.
‘Szczecin,’ Zofia replied.
‘I’m sorry, I don’t know it,’ Nick shrugged, wishing now that he hadn’t asked.
‘It’s a small port. Close to border with Germany,’ she explained.
Nick nodded. ‘And that’s where you met Christian Vasilescu?’
Zofia nodded and started to look upset. ‘He said he could find me work in UK. Cleaning, maybe a nanny. But he lied to me.’
‘Did you come straight to Wales from Poland?’
‘No. Christian took me to London. He said he need to sort paperwork for me. But he locked me in room. There were other men there. I had to do whatever they ask. They shout, blaming me for everything. Sometimes they bit me, they beat me. They say to me, “You are just slave, you don’t say anything,” even though I am a child myself. I was scared all the time,’ Zofia said as tears came to her eyes. She wiped them from her face and sniffed. ‘I ... sorry.’
‘You don’t need to be sorry, Zofia. What Christian and those other men did to you was horrible,’ Nick said. ‘And then Christian took you to Wales?’
‘Yes. To Wales. Maybe two months ago,’ she said.
‘Were there others with you?’
‘Yes. Eight girls.’
‘All Polish?’
‘No. Four of us were Polish. Others were from Romania, I think.’
‘Did you all go to the house that we found you in?’ Nick asked.
‘No. Just me and Nadia. Then every day Christian brings the men. He says they can do things without a condom, he says they can beat me because they pay a lot of mo
ney for me. I can’t decide what I can do, I have no say. When he beat me and I lost the pregnancy, he said that I cannot be pregnant because I was prostitute.’ Zofia began to sob, her shoulders shook as she recounted the horror of what she had been forced to do. She then looked up at him, ‘I glad Christian is dead. We say, “Idź do diabła”. That he is going to hell.’
Getting out his phone, Nick couldn’t disagree with her. Vasilescu was vile and evil. Swiping through his photos, Nick got up a photo of Hayley Collard onto his screen and showed it to her. ‘Do you know this girl?’
‘Yes. Hayley,’ Zofia said with a sneer.
‘You saw her at the house?’ Nick asked.
‘Yes. She is Christian girlfriend, I think?’ Zofia said.
‘What about any other girls? In the last week? We’re looking for a Welsh girl?’ Nick said.
‘Welsh? No, I’m sorry I don’t think so. Maybe you should talk to Nadia. She was in that house longer than I was.’
Nick got a photo of Rosie Wright up next. ‘Did you ever see this girl?’
Zofia shook her head. ‘No, sorry. I never see her.’
MOVING HER FINGER DOWN the condensation on the glass of iced water, Sian sat at the kitchen table opposite Bennett, who was buried in her iPhone. There was just the sound of children playing in the distance and an aeroplane overhead. It was a comfortable silence after a very hot day.
In the nearby living room, Gareth and Kathy Wright were watching television. They had been monosyllabic since Sian arrived. Out of the window above the sink, Sian could see the two authorised firearms officers, AFOs, who Drake had assigned to watch the house, chatting in the sunny garden. They were there just as much to protect Kathy and Gareth as they were to prevent them from leaving.
Sian had briefed Bennett and the two AFOs about the ongoing house arrest and the transfer of Kathy and Gareth Wright to HMP Bullingdon sometime the next morning. There would be two armed response vehicles, ARVs, so that the two suspects were transported separately in case anything happened.
Looking at her watch, Sian decided she would wait for another half an hour before heading back to Llancastell. Typing up statements and notes was her idea of hell.
‘I’ll put the kettle on,’ Sian said, breaking the silence.
‘Good idea,’ Bennett replied, without looking up from the screen.
Knocking on the window, Sian signalled to the AFOs that she was making tea and asking if they wanted one. They both gave her the thumbs up. They could sort out their sugar and milk when it was made.
Clicking the kettle on, Sian looked up at the photos, drawings and magnets strewn randomly across the large fridge door. Menorca, Tenby, Disneyland Paris. A shot of a much younger Rosie and Gareth on a roller-coaster together. Two children with faces full of unabandoned joy. It was horrible to see their expressions, knowing how things would end for them both.
There was the deep rumble of an engine from outside, which Sian naturally assumed was a tractor. The rumble seemed to stop on the road in front of the house, and there was the slam of doors. Moving to the hallway, Sian peered from the curtains and beyond the hedge.
A BMW X5 with blue-and-yellow police markings had stopped on the road outside. Behind it, a Land Rover Discovery, also with police markings.
Bennett came out from the kitchen. ‘Everything all right?’
‘Two ARVs out the front?’ Sian said. She didn’t know what they were doing there.
‘I thought they weren’t coming until tomorrow,’ Bennett replied.
‘Neither did I,’ Sian said. Maybe she was being overcautious, but her stomach felt a little tense, as though something wasn’t quite right.
Opening the front door, Sian watched as two AFOs climbed out of the BMW and opened the garden gate. Dressed in their black helmets, Kevlar body armour, and the short Sig Sauer MCX assault rifles held at the customary forty-five-degree angle, Sian thought they looked as though they had walked out of a sci-fi film.
‘Afternoon,’ Sian said brightly but confused as she approached, wondering what was going on.
‘Afternoon,’ the AFO, black and muscular, said with a smile as he audibly let out a breath. It was hot. Too hot for helmets and body armour.
‘You guys must be frying in this heat?’ Sian said.
‘It’s all right, we’ve got the AC on. But what I’d give to be in shorts and T-shirt,’ he chortled.
‘We weren’t expecting you until tomorrow morning?’ Sian said. She was still feeling anxious about their arrival.
The AFO shrugged. ‘Sorry, love, CPS want the prisoners taken tonight now. You know what they’re like?’ he said as he rolled his eyes and showed her his warrant card. He turned a clipboard with paperwork around so she could see it. ‘These are the transfer papers that we got sent. Kathy and Gareth Wright, is that correct?’
‘Yes,’ Sian replied, wondering if she should be suspicious that the transfer was happening earlier than planned. But the paperwork looked in order.
‘Transfer to HMP Bullingdon tonight,’ the AFO said as he pointed to the transfer papers.
As far as Sian could see, everything was correct.
‘I just need your signature,’ the AFO said, twirling a pen in his hands. Sian nodded and signed it. Maybe it was her suspicious nature, but she also didn’t know why she hadn’t had a phone call from someone at Llancastell to tell her that the plans had changed.
‘How long does it take?’ Sian asked.
‘About four hours. So, eight-hour round trip,’ the AFO explained.
‘That doesn’t sound good.’
‘I don’t mind. Day off tomorrow and my son’s playing his first cricket game.’ The AFO smiled.
‘How old is he?’ Sian asked.
‘Nine. We’ve been practising his bowling, so I’ve got a feeling he’s going to nail it,’ the AFO said with a laugh.
Sian’s anxiety was starting to ebb. If there was going to be trouble, something would have happened by now. ‘Oh, well, good luck.’
Hearing movement from the door, Bennett appeared with one of the officers from the garden. Kathy and Gareth Wright were beside them, looking thoroughly miserable. Bennett had already put them in handcuffs.
‘One in the X5 and one in the Discovery, guys,’ the AFO said to them as he turned back down the path.
Sian followed them out onto the main road and watched as Kathy and Gareth Wright were put into their respective vehicles. They said nothing. What was there to say?
Once the doors to both ARVs were closed, Bennett and the AFOs turned, made their way back to the cottage and went inside. Their work there was done.
Still feeling unsettled that she hadn’t heard anything from Llancastell, Sian got out her phone and looked up. ‘I’m just going to ring my boss to tell her what’s going on,’ Sian said, gesturing to the phone.
‘You don’t need to do that,’ the AFO grumbled. ‘Come on, I need to get this lot on the road.’
‘Won’t take a minute,’ Sian said as she pushed the button to ring Ruth. It was still awkward, but she had to be professional. Getting a transfer to another police force seemed to be the sensible thing to do.
Looking at the top of her phone, she could see that the signal was flicking between 3G, 4G and no signal at all. She could see the AFO was starting to get impatient as he moved a step towards her.
The AFO put his hand on her shoulder. ‘Come on. You can do all that when we’re gone.’
Her phone flashed up Ruth’s name. ‘It’s all right, I’ve got a signal now so I can run it past my DI,’ she said.
Suddenly, the AFO snatched the phone from her hand and she felt something hard jab into the right side of her ribs.
What the bloody hell is he playing at?
At first, she thought it was the AFO’s fingers, but as she looked down, she could see that it was a Glock 9mm handgun.
‘You should have left it,’ the AFO said quietly. ‘If you make a sound, I will blow a hole in your side. Now get into the fucking car.’
With her heart now banging like a drum, Sian couldn’t quite believe what was happening. She took a breath to steady herself as she was marched at gunpoint to the back door of the BMW.
The AFO opened the door, pushed her roughly into the back seat of the car where Gareth Wright was sitting handcuffed and looking totally confused.
Jumping into the passenger seat, the AFO turned to the driver. ‘Right, let’s get the fuck out of here.’
The driver stamped on the accelerator and they sped away.
The AFO turned around and pointed the Glock at them both. ‘Either of you move, I’ll shoot you in the fucking head, got it?’
‘Where are we going?’ Sian asked. Her voice trembled.
These men work for Blake.
Sian felt her stomach tighten hard with anxiety.
Blake had used fake police uniforms and cars before. She should have trusted her gut when she felt uneasy earlier.
Sian felt the pounding of her heart against her chest. What were they planning on doing with her?
I’ve seen their faces. I can identify them all.
Sian felt a sweep of sickness as she tried to get her breath.
They are going to kill me too.
CHAPTER 31
Seven days
Nick had gone to the other side of the ward where Nadia Kowalski was in a private room, recovering from her ordeal. The nurse said that not only was she suffering from smoke inhalation, but she was exhausted and malnourished too. He needed to keep his time questioning her to a minimum.
Having run through the preliminary questions, as he had done with Zofia, Nick wanted to move onto what and who she had seen in the house.
‘Zofia tells me you were in that house for longer than her?’ Nick asked.
‘Yes. Three weeks,’ Nadia said.
‘I’m looking for a girl who might have been taken there. She was Welsh,’
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