Safe No Longer

by Gayle Curtis

  CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

  THE LESTER BARCLAY SHOW

  FIVE YEARS LATER

  There was an awkward silence as Rita looked across at Lester briefly, as they waited for the recording to begin again. She had been nervous following the incident with Gloria, but in the studio she was relieved to feel a calm confidence that now cloaked her. Rita hadn’t slept well the previous night. Her mind felt scattered and plugged with cotton wool, one thought jumping to another with no connection. Her night had been filled with vivid dreams of the awful times she’d had at Adrian Player’s, as if her childhood were flashing before her. She was certain it had been triggered by Gloria’s ranting. Although Rita was tired, it made her more determined to convince people who he really was.

  ‘What was so different about this case in comparison to all the others you’ve dealt with?’

  Rita took a deep breath. ‘Two children, I suppose. That always hurts more.’

  ‘Would you say it was handled differently because you knew the Hammonds?’

  ‘If you mean, did we do more because I knew Kristen, then no. We were focused because we needed to find Cara. The public became obsessed with Raymond, they wanted every detail, and yet there was this little girl who was missing.’

  ‘The public’s response surprised you?’

  Rita paused to consider Lester. He was almost the archetype of a television presenter; he’d most definitely risen to fill his ego. She remembered when he’d first started his career as a journalist. He’d always been controversial but fair; there was something about him she had liked ever since she’d first met him many years ago. ‘Every time. It probably shocks me more than anything else.’

  ‘Why?’

  Rita paused, feeling a light touch move across her hand. She looked down to see a ladybird walking across her skin. It was such a weirdly apropos occurrence, even slightly creepy. It stopped, as if feeling her gaze, and she remembered the ladybirds that had crawled across Raymond’s face, unaware of the macabre quality of their presence. It had been a stiflingly hot, airless summer, and hundreds of ladybirds had flown in from the surrounding fields. Rita had a vision of Kristen in the middle of the green, her son cradled in her arms, a tourniquet around his neck. It was like nothing she’d seen before or would ever see again. Some things just got to you more than others. It was mainly down to the atmosphere. You could turn up to a job, offer some empathy, but rein it in and get on with what needed to be done. That hadn’t been one of those occasions.

  ‘People are so detached, I think,’ she said. ‘The atmosphere is like a noxious gas; if I could bottle that, everyone would understand.’

  ‘Why do you need everyone to understand?’

  ‘It answers your previous question about why I’m so baffled by people’s reactions.’

  ‘Let’s talk about Jason Brunswick.’

  ‘Let’s not.’ Rita gave Lester a sarcastic smile. ‘Next question.’

  ‘Come on, Rita, the public want all the nitty-gritty, not just some of it. Tell us about the photo that appeared in the papers of you and him leaving an apartment block together.’

  Rita had a good idea it was Jody who had taken the picture and then sold it to the tabloids; she’d been following Jason everywhere. She’d been questioned about Rita’s parents but released. There wasn’t enough evidence to charge her at the time, but the detective who’d interviewed her strongly believed she’d had something to do with their deaths, and possibly what had happened to the two children as well. They had been biding their time. They didn’t have to wait long.

  What came out of Rita’s mouth next surprised even her, because she’d never spoken about it, but being retired from the police there really was no one stopping her from saying what she wanted.

  ‘Jason Brunswick was an undercover police officer, specifically recruited to infiltrate a suspected paedophile ring.’

  Lester looked momentarily shocked. She knew he’d been expecting her to give him a diplomatic answer that would leave them with no more information than they had before. This was the first time anyone had spoken up about it.

  ‘Jason Brunswick was accused of grooming children,’ Lester said. ‘He was sacked from his job as a police officer.’

  ‘No, he wasn’t. We simply fed the press a story and they were silly enough to print it. Jason wanted to transfer to another force after he separated from his wife; he wanted a fresh start somewhere else, a new challenge. Perfectly understandable. But someone from above approached him in relation to a high-profile paedophile ring – Operation Ladybird – and asked him if he would work on this with us as one last job, and then we would find him a posting in another part of the country.’

  ‘I don’t understand. How was he undercover in the local area when he was brought up and lived there? Everyone knew him.’

  ‘That was the clever thing about it. We needed a local man, someone who knew the area and the people. More importantly, someone whom Adrian Player would trust. We needed it to look like he’d been sacked from the police for an offence involving children – that gave him a plausible reason to hate the police and therefore likeable to Adrian. He’d already been coaching in his gyms at the weekends. He was the perfect candidate. We simply needed to convince everyone concerned in the case that he was a nonce – it was the only way he could get close to Player. Unfortunately, his daughter became caught up in it all.’

  ‘I’m stunned. I had no idea. And where is he now?’

  ‘Not in this country. I believe he took a posting abroad.’ Rita knew exactly where he was, but she wasn’t going to tell anyone that. After she’d visited Jason at the apartment all those years ago, they’d agreed never to meet or speak again. They’d both crossed the line during the investigation – hidden information, massaged evidence where they thought it would be helpful to the case – and if they were ever caught, Adrian Player would be a free man. Neither of them was prepared to let that happen.

  She had already jeopardised the case when she failed to tell anyone about her appearance in some of the video footage that was found in Player’s secret room. Even when she’d been asked about it following the discovery of her connection to Adrian, she’d denied it. No one could find out that Jason had been in some of those films as well. His desire for vengeance against Adrian was greater even than hers. They’d all been abused as children, but Jason, having been a young boy, had suffered much more frequently, as there was more of a call for male children at Adrian’s infamous parties. The footage was grainy and, as they had still been children back then, they were almost unrecognisable in it. If it hadn’t been for the police discovering evidence of Rita’s involvement with Adrian Player among her parents’ things after they were murdered, no one would have asked her about her time as a gymnast and Adrian wouldn’t have been granted an appeal. The thought of her mother and the affair she’d had with Player still made Rita angry – even five years on, it felt like such a betrayal. She couldn’t believe her mother could have fallen for someone like him, becoming brainwashed and in the process pushing Rita towards him, exactly as Rachel had Cara. Like Jason, she wanted revenge if it was the last thing she did.

  She had to protect the rest of their lies now. If anyone ever discovered the truth about how Raymond’s rucksack had appeared in the old changing rooms of the football ground that Adrian owned, her already precarious reputation would be in ruins. Amos Browne, without realising it, had enforced this evidence by mentioning the rucksack when he was questioned. The crucial bag that was there when he found Raymond but had vanished when Forensics searched for it. No one had noticed Rita collecting it from the scene and hooking it over her shoulder as she helped a shaken Kristen into the house; there had only been one other police officer there at the time, busy on his phone, calling the rest of the team in. It was their plant, their opportunity to screw Player.

  ‘This puts a whole new spin on your parents’ case, doesn’t it?’

  ‘In what way?’ Rita said, not falling in with Lester’s think
ing, her mind having briefly drifted elsewhere. She was thinking about the children Jason used to take from Adrian’s to his own flat. Children that had attended the awful parties Player arranged. It had knotted Jason’s insides during the investigation that they couldn’t just swoop in and save them all; instead they’d had to bide their time and gather evidence, regardless of what they knew was happening. A lot of the kids chosen for the private gymnastics club came from the local children’s homes, so Jason would take them to his for a few hours, to play computer games or watch films, see if he could get any incriminating information out of them.

  Lester frowned. ‘It’s a shame Jody wasn’t aware her father was an undercover police officer. Didn’t she believe that your mother was about to give some information regarding her father being on the green that night? Wasn’t that part of the evidence that led to Jody’s conviction?’

  ‘What are you insinuating, Lester? I don’t want to talk about my parents.’

  ‘Not insinuating anything, just repeating the facts.’

  ‘No, what you were about to say was, if Jody had known her father was undercover, she wouldn’t have been so intent on protecting him because she was worried he was guilty of something.’

  ‘Isn’t that the truth?’

  ‘Jody Brunswick was a very disturbed young girl. You don’t just step into the realms of murdering people because they upset you. Otherwise we’d all be doing it.’ Rita looked at Lester pointedly. ‘There has to be something wrong in the first place.’

  Lester laughed at Rita and she could feel her temper rising to the surface. ‘But you can’t ignore the facts,’ he said. ‘It’s ridiculous. You’ve just told us that Jason Brunswick was an undercover cop, his family didn’t know, and his daughter wanted to protect him from going to prison. If she’d been told her father was working undercover, your parents wouldn’t have been her target.’

  ‘I’m not doing this.’ Rita stood up and tried to remove her microphone. ‘Can someone take this off me, please?’

  ‘Come on, Rita! You don’t like the insinuation, let’s agree to disagree and move on.’

  ‘Fuck you, Lester, and fuck your TV show.’

  CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

  It was half an hour before Gloria could bring herself to get out of the car, and even then she only got as far as opening the door. She could see herself going into the police station, speaking to someone and leaving, but she just couldn’t put it into practice. The consequences of what she was thinking of doing had sloshed around in her head like a never-ending washing-machine cycle ever since she’d been to Raymond Hammond’s funeral, and she could no longer view it with any sense or objectivity. Gloria would be the cause of Adrian’s re-arrest, and that was sure to spark a wave of media attention. The gagging orders he had in place had felt like a gloved hand covering her mouth, and she was frightened to speak out about anything. Everything Gloria did and said had to be carefully considered, and some time over the twenty-five years she’d been married – and been told how to think, act and behave – Gloria had become a nobody. Adrian was a national treasure, and it would take a brave person to stand up to him.

  Gloria’s mother had often said that Adrian was like one of the large brooches she was so fond of wearing: a big prick protected by an enamel shield. Her mother had said it to him once and they’d all laughed, but Gloria had noticed the mirth hadn’t reached Adrian’s eyes. But he would never have said anything to his mother-in-law. Gloria often wished she had her mother’s resolve and strength. She could do with her advice now; it had been two years since she’d passed away and Gloria was lost without her. She had been her only support, and her death had left Gloria more isolated than ever before. The only company she had was when they invited family or superficial friends for dinner, or they attended charity events.

  Gloria had never told anyone about the parties, not another soul, but she knew what went on, knew the high-profile figures that attended and what they came for. And she knew he’d abused Emma when she was a child, though it was the first time she’d allowed herself to admit it. Now that she was facing up to things, she also knew Adrian and the adult Emma had been having some weird little affair; Emma’s outburst the night of his birthday dinner had been only the most lurid proof of that. That’s what Adrian did to people: he repulsed and yet charmed them, all at the same time, drawing them in so they became infatuated with him. Stepping into the police station now would end everything, and there was a certain amount of joyous relief when she thought about that. It was within her grasp. But then there was the dread that she would be accused of being involved, of being complicit by keeping quiet about it all.

  Gloria gripped the steering wheel, remembering the time she’d inadvertently mentioned an MP during an evening out with Adrian and some friends. The man had visited the house on several occasions and had a whiff of scandal about him. She’d thought nothing of her comment and had continued drinking and enjoying the evening. It wasn’t until they’d arrived home that Gloria realised her mistake. Having waited for her to get into bed and fall asleep, Adrian grabbed her by her hair, dragged her down the stairs and shoved her head in the dirty kitchen bin, telling her if she ever said anything ever again, he’d cut her tongue out. Moments later, his best friend arrived. Adrian had called him, asked him to come over, and had watched while Gloria gave him a blowjob.

  The passenger door of Gloria’s car swung open, startling her back to the present. ‘We’ve been looking for you, Mrs Player.’ DCI Rita Cannan got in next to her and slammed the door shut. ‘Coming in to talk to us about something?’

  CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

  The moment Rita sat in the car, Gloria had lost her nerve and was desperately trying to think of a reason why she might be sitting in the police car park.

  ‘What did you want me for?’ Gloria said, giving her nervous hands something to do by peeling them from the steering wheel she’d been gripping and reaching for her handbag in the footwell.

  ‘Gloria, listen, I know you know what we all know about Adrian. That’s a lot of “knows”, know what I mean?’ Rita smiled at her and reached out to squeeze her arm. ‘You’re our biggest lead. A child has been murdered, one is missing, and you have the answers we need to convict the right person.’

  ‘No, no, I can’t. You’re mistaken.’ Gloria was beginning to panic again, shaking her head.

  ‘Gloria’ – Rita grabbed her hand, a little too firmly – ‘you know what happened to me in your house, what Adrian did. I don’t want anyone to find out about that – so look, we can do a deal. I promise to protect you, make it clear you had nothing to do with any of it, in return for everything you know about Adrian.’

  ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. You were training at his club,’ Gloria said, fixing her gaze on the centre of the steering wheel.

  ‘Don’t take the piss, Gloria. You didn’t seriously think I went upstairs with Adrian to look at gymnastics footage?’

  Gloria was about to protest but stopped herself. She couldn’t spend forever pretending she was ignorant of everything that had gone on. Even if she couldn’t bring herself to go into the police station and tell them everything she knew, she owed it to herself to be honest.

  ‘No, I suppose you weren’t. But there were lots of children in and out of the house in those days. There was so much going on.’

  ‘Oh, I suppose that makes it okay,’ Rita snapped, making Gloria flinch. ‘Silly me, abusing lots of children is better than just one or two.’

  ‘That wasn’t what I meant. All I’m saying is, the house was always bustling, full of people, anything could have been going on. How was I supposed to know?’

  ‘No one’s blaming you, Gloria, but just have the decency to admit that something was going on. Stop playing the naive housewife. From what I remember, you weren’t entirely innocent in it all.’

  ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

  Rita stared out of the passenger window and Gloria noticed, as if for the first time, h
ow much older she had become. Gloria now recalled the gangly teenager with the long brown hair. A well-groomed redhead, these days.

  ‘Don’t you remember that time you came into Adrian’s office and I was on the floor?’ Rita turned to look at Gloria, but all the older woman could do was shake her head, not wanting to hear what she was about to say. ‘I was on my knees, Gloria. You didn’t seriously believe I was looking for a pen that Adrian had dropped?’

  Gloria still didn’t answer, and instead zipped up her bag and pushed it behind her seat. ‘You need to go, Rita. I have things to do.’

  ‘The thing is, Gloria, all this is going to come out, and you can be sure that Adrian will take you down with him.’