by Mary Birk
Gunderson raised his head and looked at Harry. “Yes.”
“You should have told us about him before when I showed you the photo.”
“I was afraid. Have you found him?”
“We have him in custody,” Harry lied. “Who else?”
“He’s the only one I dealt with, but he wasn’t acting alone. I don’t know any names.”
“Are you sure?” Harry tapped the photo again. “We’re talking to your friend here next. If he comes clean first, he’ll be our favorite.You’d be wise to tell us everything before he does.”
“He’s the only one I ever saw.”
Harry decided to press that point a little later if it looked like Gunderson knew more than he was saying. “Why don’t you start from the beginning?”
Gunderson leaned his head on his hand. “He showed up in my office one day before they called me about hiring Lizzie. He had videos of me and this girl I’d been having sex with.”
“Lily White.”
He grimaced. “Great name, isn’t it?”
“You knew she was underage?”
“He said she was bloody fourteen, but I swear she told me eighteen.”
“Did she look eighteen?”
“Of course not. She was advertising herself as legal, looking illegal. That’s what it said. She was dressed in this little school uniform, short skirt, blazer, no blouse, and had her hair done up in pigtails.” He shook his head. “They all do that, you know. Play the part you want.”
“You had to know she was younger than eighteen.”
“Aye, but I thought seventeen, or maybe sixteen. That was young enough for me. I’m not a pervert.”
Harry decided not to call Gunderson on that, not yet. He’d bring up the kiddie porn later.
“How did you find Lily in the first place?”
“She found me.”
“Where?”
“I was on the internet, looking at some sites, and she instant-messaged me.”
“Saying what?”
“She said I could call her.”
“For phone sex.”
“It’s not sex, it’s talk.”
“Sure.” Harry would have bet his life Gunderson brought himself off talking to her, which, in Harry’s book, qualified as sex.
“After I gave her my credit card, and we, uh, talked, she asked me if I’d want to visit her someday after school.” He made a wry face. “She was playing the school girl part, though I’m certain she doesn’t go to school.”
“You said yes?”
“Yes.”
“Then?”
“I went to her place, and we had sex.”
“What happened after that?”
“That’s when the man came to my office with the video. He told me she was really fourteen. He said if I didn’t do what they wanted, they’d give the film to my wife, to my employers, and to the police.”
“What did he say he wanted you to do?”
“He said I’d find out later. Meantime, I could keep visiting Lily and I’d get a discount.”
“Did you?”
“Yes. Sometimes I’d just call her. That was cheaper, and I still got my discount.”
“Who else was working with your contact?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why did you keep on, when you knew it gave them more to hold over your head?”
“I figured it didn’t make any difference.” Gunderson pulled out a handkerchief and wiped his nose. “They already had me.”
The phone on the conference table rang, and Allison picked it up, listened, then hung up. “Frank has Oscar on the line for you. At your desk.”
Harry stood up. “We’ll be right back, Mr. Gunderson.”
Allison followed him out.
Harry picked up the telephone at his desk, had a short exchange with Oscar before ringing off.
Allison looked at him. “What?”
“He’s found where the cameras were set up at Gunderson’s. They were well-hidden. Installed in the walls, only a small pinhole for the camera’s eye.”
“Inside the house? Don’t most security cameras focus on the outside of the house?”
“These weren’t for security.”
“You think he was trying to catch his wife cheating on him?”
“He wasn’t watching the wife. He was watching his daughters.”
“The cameras were in their rooms?”
Harry nodded. “And their bathrooms. Nothing in the son’s room or his bathroom, nothing in Lizzie’s room or bathroom, nothing in the master bedroom suite, either. Nothing by any of the entry doors.”
“That’s disgusting.”
“Aye.” Harry stood up, patted Allison on the shoulder. “Let’s go back in. Don’t mention any of this to him unless I do.”
“Like you have to tell me that?”
When they got back inside the conference room, Harry took Gunderson back through everything over and over until he could tell the man was exhausted. Finally, Harry decided to bring things to a close.
“Tell me about Lizzie’s disappearance.”
Gunderson sighed. “I got a call from the man telling me they were taking Lizzie the next day, when she had her day off. I was to get rid of her things, make it look like Lizzie had taken off on her own.”
“What did you do with them?”
“Dumped them in a bin at a construction site on my way to work.”
“I’ll need a more exact location.”
Gunderson described the location in detail. Harry nodded to Allison, who went to the other side of the room to make the call to get the lead checked out. Doubtless it would be too late for anything to still be in the bin, but it needed to be checked out.
“Did your wife know about your involvement in Lizzie’s abduction?”
“No, I convinced Britta that Lizzie had gone off on her own, and there was nothing to be gained by reporting it. I said as we hadn’t used an agency, hadn’t followed procedures, the best thing was just to move on, find another nanny.”
“You realize you’re an accessory to abduction, rape, and murder?”
“I had no choice. They were blackmailing me.”
“So, to save yourself, you let Lizzie be abducted, raped, and murdered.”
“No one said anything about murder.”
Allison spoke up. “But you knew, didn’t you, that she was sixteen, that she was being sold for sex, and that she was going to be forced to have sex with whoever she was sold to.”
“I was under duress.”
“You’re slime.” Allison’s voice was trembling.
Gunderson, displaying his failure to grasp the magnitude of his problems, asked, “Does my wife have to know?”
Harry touched Allison’s hand, indicating he’d take over. “I’m guessing she’ll find out one way or the other. We’ve found the cameras you had spying on your daughters, and your wife was there while we removed them. Between that, and family services dropping in, she’ll probably get the picture.”
“Oh, God.” Gunderson buried his face in his hands.
“That’s as low as it gets,” Harry said.
“It’s not what you think. The videos weren’t for me. The man said having Lizzie at my house wasn’t enough. He wanted money. A lot of money. When I said I didn’t have it, he said I’d have to pay it off with films of my daughters. I tried saying no, but they said they’d tell the police and my wife about Lily.”
“You sold your daughters to save your own miserable arse.”
“I had no choice. You can’t let anyone know what I’ve told you about the blackmail.” Gunderson wiped his nose with his sleeve.
“No promises, mate.”
“Please. He told me they’d find out if I went to the authorities. He said they have connections in the police.”
“What kind of connections?”
“I don’t know, but they can’t find out I came to you.”
“You didn’t come to us, we came to you. And don’t thin
k we’re not holding that against you. You’re under arrest for obstruction of justice, conspiracy and accessory to abduction, conspiracy to commit rape, and accessory to rape and murder, as well as for any and every crime we can come up with associated with what you’ve done taking and selling obscene films of your daughters. We’ll also visit Lily. If she was truly under sixteen when you played your happy games with her, we’ll add having sex with a minor to the mix.”
Harry opened the door to let the uniforms in. “Take this piece of human filth away.”
Chapter 40
REID WAS in his office when Frank buzzed him to let him know Peter MacTavish had arrived. This time the interview would be on official turf. Reid had advised his friend that he might want to bring a solicitor with him. He waited until Allison had time to get Peter set up in the conference room and prepare the recorder before joining them.
He didn’t even try to tamp down the fury he’d felt since Allison had called with the news that Peter had hired the car service sent to pick up Tabby Low, though he was determined not to let his anger affect the interview. “You’ve read him his rights, DC Muirhead?”
“Yes, sir, and I’ll put them on the recording once we start.”
“Turn it on.”
Allison read the caution into the recorder.
Reid said, “You’ve been advised you have the right to legal representation. You’re choosing to talk to us today without a solicitor?”
Peter’s face was ashen. “Yes.”
“We have some questions about the disappearance of Tabitha Low. She was employed as an au pair in your home?”
“Yes.”
“Besides watching your children, did she have any other duties?”
“No.”
“I talked with you earlier, and you told me you did not have a personal relationship with Ms. Low, other than that as your children’s nanny.”
“Yes.”
“That was a lie, wasn’t it?”
“Terrence . . .”
“Answer the question, please.”
“What’s happened? Have you found her?”
“What do you think?”
“I don’t know.”
“Your answer to my question? Did you lie earlier when you told me you did not have a personal relationship with Ms. Low?”’
Peter dropped his head into his hands, but Reid saw a small nod.
“A verbal answer, please.”
“Yes.”
“Did you have a sexual relationship with Tabby Low?”
“Yes.”
“For how long?”
“About six weeks.”
“We have a sworn statement from a car service to the effect that you hired them to go to your house Thursday night to pick up Tabby Low and bring her to the cottage where you were staying in Mitford. You hired them to do that, did you not?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“So we could be together.”
“You were in Majorca when you made the arrangements?”
“Yes.”
“You returned early from your scheduled vacation?”
“Yes. I told Claudia I had to go back to Scotland early, that a client meeting had come up suddenly, and that I had to go to Mitford.”
“But a client meeting hadn’t come up.”
“No. I’d missed Tabby while I was gone, so I came up with an idea that would give us a chance to be alone together for a few days. One of my clients had offered me the use of his cottage in Mitford, and I took him up on it. I called Tabby and told her about the arrangements. We agreed it would be better for us to go there separately, in case any neighbors would see us leaving together. So I went to the cottage, and sent a car to get her and bring her to Mitford.”
“But she didn’t arrive?”
“No. The car service said she wasn’t at the house when they got there. I told them to wait for a while, but she never came out. I told them to go to the door and ring the bell. The driver said there wasn’t any answer. I called her mobile over and over, but she didn’t pick up.”
“Go on.”
“The next day, I went back to the house. I parked a few streets over, and went through the alleys and in the back door. Tabby wasn’t there, and I couldn’t find any sign of what had happened to her.”
“Why didn’t you call the police and report Tabby missing?”
“I know I should have, but I wasn’t supposed to be there. I didn’t know how I’d explain my being there.”
Reid shook his head in disgust. “What did you think had happened to Tabby to make her not show up?”
“I had no idea. I didn’t know if Claudia had found out about us, or Tabby had second thoughts, or had met someone else.”
Reid took out the photo of Lizzie Frost’s abductor. “Do you know this man?”
Peter shook his head.
“You’ve never seen him before?”
“I don’t think so, except in the footage they had on the news. He’s the man who took Lizzie, isn’t he?”
“Yes. You’re sure you’ve never seen him before? I need you to tell me the truth.”
“I’m pretty sure. If I saw him, I don’t remember it.”
“Tell me about the security cameras at your house. You told me you disconnected them because they were malfunctioning. Was that true?”
“No.”
“When did you disconnect them?”
“When Tabby and I started sleeping together. I was afraid Claudia might see that I was coming home during the day to be with Tabby. If you know about me hiring the car service, you’ll know they didn’t pick her up. They told you that, didn’t they?”
Reid was tempted to bluff, but decided thirty years of friendship deserved a small concession. “We’ve not been able to reach the driver yet.”
“He’ll back up my story. She was already gone when he got there. Don’t you see? I had nothing to do with her disappearance. I’ve been frantic, worried sick for her.”
“Apparently not worried enough to have told us the truth in the first place. If we’d had this information earlier, we’d wouldn’t have wasted time chasing down other leads. Meanwhile, you need to get a solicitor. You’ll likely be facing charges for obstruction of justice and lying to a police officer.”
Peter nodded, folding his hands together.
To Allison, Reid said, “Keep trying to get hold of the driver, and let me know immediately what you find out.” He left the room without saying anything else to his former friend.
* * * * *
Harry glanced over to where Eddie Michaud stood by Allison’s desk, waiting for her to finish up the interview reports that she needed to get to Reid before she left for lunch. Michaud was, like Harry, in his early thirties. He’d made DS a couple of years after Harry. Allison could do better, but then, she could do worse as well. Assigned to Glasgow City Centre, Michaud had been with CID for almost ten years.
Michaud wasn’t a bad bloke. Harry supposed women might find him attractive, if they liked men with boringly regular features and neatly cut blond hair. Evidently Allison did. Harry put his hand up to smooth down his own wiry tangle, while he pretended to study his computer.
She’d dashed into the lav right before Michaud showed up, then she’d emerged wearing lipstick and smelling faintly of a citrusy perfume. What was it with her and lipstick all of a sudden? He could have counted on one hand the times he’d seen her wear lipstick in the past two years. At least it was a pale pink color that didn’t make her look too obvious. He wondered if she’d gotten an appointment at a clinic to take care of the birth control issue.
He should remind her. Not every man would be as restrained as he’d been; plenty would have gone ahead, using nothing, as she’d begged him to do. Those guys who said she was frigid had never seen her like he had. She’d been as hot as he’d ever seen a woman. He checked the department records for Michaud’s address. Walking distance from the High Street office. Bloody hell.
Allison printed
out her report, grabbed it from the printer, and took it to Reid’s office. Harry decided to take advantage of her absence and get more of a feel for whether this guy was a good match for her, especially after how their last date had gone. He sauntered over to Michaud, putting a challenge in his step.
“You two going to lunch?”
Michaud nodded, glanced toward the door through which Allison had disappeared. “We were supposed to go yesterday. She didn’t show. I waited an hour.”
“As one of our missing nannies was found dead yesterday, you could hardly have expected Allison to take time out for a lunch date.”
“I just wish she’d let me know. I couldn’t get hold of her till after ten last night.”
So it hadn’t been Michaud she was out with. Must have been Barlow. Harry wondered if Michaud knew about Barlow. He decided to let Michaud think she’d been working.
“Yeah, busy times around here.”
“You guys must be really racking up the overtime.”
“It’s nonstop.” Harry looked at his watch. “She only gets an hour for lunch. Where are you going?”
“India Star.”
Harry considered. “You can probably get in and out and still get her back in time, if you hurry. She can’t be late getting back. Not again or the Superintendent will have her head. One hour, not one second more.” Given enough time, Michaud might try to take Allison to his place for some midday action. That wasn’t happening until she got to a clinic if Harry had anything to say about it. “Last week, some guy kept her at lunch for two hours, and the guv was livid.”
“Last week? Who?”
“I forget the chap’s name. Someone from CID headquarters.” That should fix Michaud; he’d be careful to treat her well if he thought she had friends in high places. “Took her to some fancy Italian place. She’s got expensive tastes. If I were you, I’d order for her. Something cheap. And don’t let her have any booze. She’s okay with a little drop at night, but midday, it makes her obnoxious.”
Michaud glanced at Reid’s door, obviously praying for Allison to emerge soon.
Harry followed the other man’s glance. “Looks like the super is going to be keeping her through lunch. Maybe you’d better reschedule.”
