He Knows Your Secrets

by Charlie Gallagher

  ‘Do you like women’s mouths, Freddie?’

  ‘I like everything about women.’

  ‘Mr Rickman, don’t be drawn into a conversation,’ Harvey said. Remember what we talked about.’ He put his hand back on his client’s shoulder.

  Rickman sat back. ‘Yeah. No comment. Do I have to keep saying that? Only it’s gonna get a bit tedious if you’re going to keep asking me stupid questions.’

  ‘This is my interview. I can ask as many questions as I want.’

  ‘No comment then, yeah? No comment.’

  ‘I am going to keep asking questions and I want it recorded in here. Then, you see, when we’re all in a courtroom together, a jury will know that I gave you every opportunity to tell me straightaway how innocent you are, how it couldn’t be you that killed Marlie and why that’s the case. And the fact that you’re not telling me? Maybe they’ll look at that and think it odd. Why wouldn’t an innocent man explain to me at the first opportunity what he knows and give me his alibi? Unless he doesn’t have one, of course.’

  ‘Yes, thank you,’ said Harvey. ‘It’s called inference and I discussed this with my client prior to your coming in here. He is fully aware of this rather oppressive tactic where it is suggested that a man not answering questions is always lying when we know full well that a defendant has the right not to incriminate himself when he is confused about how he has even ended up here in the first place. Previous miscarriages of justice have proven this to be correct. Juries will be understanding of this, of course, that is assuming a courtroom is relevant. And from what you have revealed so far it is most certainly not.’

  ‘Are you going to keep answering for your client, Darren?’

  ‘I will continue to act as a buffer to oppressive tactics, yes. I am here to ensure the fair treatment of my client. We are both as concerned as you are that the correct person be brought to justice, DS Ives.’

  ‘When was the last time you saw Marlie, Freddie?’

  ‘No comment.’

  ‘No comment . . .’ Maddie repeated back. She could feel she was starting to lose control of that rage. She had known that Rickman wouldn’t answer any questions and had even told herself that this was the best outcome, but only if she could hold it together. She took a swig of her water to give herself a few more seconds, but the anger was still there, stuck in her throat. She was going to have to use it.

  ‘Are you alright, Detective Sergeant?’ Harvey looked amused as he spoke.

  ‘Not really, Darren. If I’m honest I’m fucking appalled at this whole charade. That your client comes in here, sits down with a grin on his face and offers not a word of explanation, not a single word of assistance.’

  ‘In all my time . . .’ Harvey’s reaction was dramatic, but Maddie wasn’t in the mood for faux-appalled. ‘You cannot sit a man down and lambast him with foul language simply because he is not giving you the full and frank admission for which you are so clearly desperate! Inspector Blaker, I suggest you take control of your officer, of this entire interview in fact, since it seems clear to me that DS Ives here it too emotionally involved to conduct herself properly. This is an innocent man until you have proven him to be—’

  ‘Except he isn’t.’ Maddie cut back in before Harry could. She could see that he had his palms raised as if about to appease the two men. That was the last thing she wanted. ‘You’re not innocent are you, Freddie? I know what happened.’

  ‘Just saying you know something is not evidence of anything!’ Harvey was laughing now, doing his best incredulous.

  Maddie pushed her book completely over to one side then lifted a bagged item onto the table. It was a yellow rucksack still in a sealed evidence bag.

  ‘Okay then. Seeing as you don’t seem too keen to answer any of my questions, allow me to tell you a story of an incredibly brave young woman. I suggest you concentrate. Her name is Holly Maguire. And just four days ago, she took her own life by forcing the taxi she was travelling in over a cliff. She took a driver with her. Both were killed. Two lives lost. She did this because she was so desperate that she believed there was no other way out, no other way for you to relinquish the grip you had on her and on her girlfriend.’

  Rickman bridled. ‘What the f—’

  ‘When she went over that cliff, she was clutching onto this bag.’ She pushed it towards Rickman who huffed and sat back. His face was now contorted into a half-smile. There seemed to be an increased intensity in his stare however, which still focused on her mouth. It had been awkward before, but now Maddie was delighted. She wanted him to see every word as well as hear it. That way he wouldn’t miss a single one.

  ‘In this bag she had a number of items that were meant for me to find, to prompt me to question them. They all seemed to point to one man. Specifically . . . Freddie Rickman. And it wasn’t just the bag and its contents. The taxi driver was chosen on purpose, another lead for me to follow right back to Freddie Rickman. I didn’t know why at the time. But now I do. This was a man who was forcing girls as young as sixteen to perform sex acts on live camera feeds against their will, who was arranging for these same girls to be systematically raped for the pleasure of subscribers all over the world and who ensured this remained a source of income through threats and demonstrations of appalling violence. Including the murder of Marlie Towers.’

  ‘Well, that is a wonderful—’

  ‘First there were these.’ Maddie cut Harvey off this time. ‘These are photographs of Truro House, a building where you own three properties. No need for you to confirm that — we have the open source evidence. The photos are of the front, then some interior shots that are designed to map out how to get to your flats. The focus is on numbers ten and twelve, but number twelve was the source of much of Holly’s misery, as was signified by this.’

  Maddie threw the metal door number 12 onto the desk. Even through its see-through bag, it clanged on the solid table. She waited for Rickman to look at it.

  ‘The caretaker has given a statement detailing regular access to these flats by both Holly and Kelly. He also names you personally and Benny, who I now know to be an associate of yours called Shane Porter, a man that I can have identified from my own brief meeting. Not that I need to identify him as all the girls suddenly seem willing to name him as your accomplice.’ Next she lifted out a plastic fob. ‘This is access to Truro House. I guess you gave this to Holly so she could come and go and you could continue with your general business model of staying away. You do this because you mistakenly think that distance makes you safe. That wasn’t your only mistake, but I’ll come onto the others.’ Maddie paused for a reaction. She didn’t get one. She lifted a small book out of the box, labelled Addresses. She put it on the table.

  ‘This is a list of all the properties you own. This was very useful. We sent police out to knock the doors of each of these addresses and while we didn’t find you, we found plenty more people claiming to be victims. I’ll come on to how we did find you in just a moment, Freddie — you’re going to like that. Any comment yet?’

  Rickman’s bored expression persisted. He had crossed his arms and was leaning back, his eyes lifted to the ceiling. Maddie continued.

  ‘Ugly mugs.’ Maddie lifted two sheets of paper. She pushed the one showing a list of initials in front of him. ‘A lot of brothels keep a list that they refer to as ugly mugs. Generally these are clients who can’t behave themselves, who beat on the women or who have demands that make the women feel uncomfortable. It’s unusual to have them as initials. Why not write the name out in full? This is a secret journal after all.’ Maddie leaned forward. ‘Now then, because initials made no sense I had to go to the brothel and ask for the list of full names. Holly wanted me to do that, she wanted me to go to that brothel, to work out that you owned the building and to make myself known to the girls that work from there. And the names? The girls have cleared up the mystery behind them for me now, just like they were supposed to. This is the list of people that you call on when you need something
done. This is like your crew isn’t it? Some of them you use for enforcement, some of them, like SP, here — Shane Porter — manage the girls giving camera shows. Some of the other men on this list we now know are taxi drivers. They drive for your firm but that’s not all they do, is it? They also identify vulnerable young women they can bring to you for the whole recruitment process to begin. If any of this is wrong in any way, feel free to tell me?’

  Rickman spoke to the ceiling. ‘No comment, love.’

  ‘I spoke to the man you bought the taxi firm from — very briefly this morning. I think I got him out of bed. But he will come down. Seems he’s only too keen to stick his boot in. It was a partnership to start with, but then you wanted to use the cars to drive girls around for sex. He challenged you about it and you fell out. Then you started employing the sort of people as drivers that he didn’t agree with. He challenged you again and from that moment you bullied him into selling his share of the business for a lot less than it was worth. You threatened him, told him you knew where he lived with his kids. Holly made sure I dug that up by leaving me this.’ Maddie dropped the ashtray onto the table to make the loudest thud yet. It drew all eyes to it and Darren Harvey tutted. ‘NH Cars. That’s what it was called when you bought into it, right? You told me you bought it outright when you came in before, but I reckon Neil Henner’s account is much more accurate. What do you think?

  ‘You couldn’t make it up!’ Rickman chuckled.

  ‘So he walked when you had taxi drivers starting to recruit girls to become prostitutes for you. But it’s changed recently, hasn’t it? It’s young girls now, underage and manipulated into sex acts on camera — usually when they’re drunk — and then you blackmail them into performing again, threatening to release the footage to their social media contacts. All of them get told that the footage is streamed abroad so no one here will ever know, as long as they do as you ask. And once you have them you can do whatever you want with them. Am I right?’

  ‘No comment.’ Rickman’s face was still a leer. If she was rattling his cage, he was doing a good job of hiding it.

  ‘Another name on this list is AM. This list tells me that is Andrew Miles. Last night Andrew Miles was stabbed in the gut by a desperate woman who was fighting for her life while you made off from the building via a window. Andrew Miles and another male were sent by you to rape and murder Kelly Dale. Andrew’s going to be just fine, by the way, and I’m looking forward to interviewing him very soon. What do you think he will say to me, Freddie? He’s in a lot of trouble, after all. Do you think he’ll take it on the chin and make no mention of the man who sent him there, even if it might reduce his own sentence?’

  ‘No . . .’ Rickman leaned further forward, leaving a pause just long enough that Maddie was about to follow up her question. ‘. . . comment!’ He grinned as if enjoying himself.

  Maddie grinned back. ‘You know what . . . I could do with a break from talking at you. How about we watch a short video?’ She flipped open the laptop. The login screen appeared almost immediately. She had left the media player ready to go. She clicked PLAY. The CCTV footage Harry had seized started immediately. Maddie would normally use CCTV as a basis for questions, pausing when someone appeared, asking if the person in the footage was the defendant, asking if they knew where this footage was from. This time she said nothing. Rickman flopped back against his seat, his arms still crossed, almost watching out of the corner of his eye. But he was watching.

  Harvey was more obvious. He leaned forward, his nose scrunched to stop his glasses sliding off. ‘You did not show me this footage in disclosure, officer.’

  ‘I don’t have to,’ Maddie snapped.

  ‘In the spirit of giving me the opportunity to best advise my client?’ Darren fixed on her over the top of his glasses.

  ‘And why would I want to do that?’ Maddie snapped again.

  Harvey’s gaze flicked to where Harry shuffled next to her. She waited for him to intervene. He didn’t. She knew she was pushing it. Harvey’s attention moved back to the grainy footage on the laptop. The quality was worse than when it had been on the big screen upstairs. She watched Rickman closely as it played, trying to pick out any reaction at all. There was none.

  ‘What was that?’ Rickman said when it finished.

  ‘You tell me.’

  ‘No idea! Oh, sorry . . .’ He grinned again. ‘No comment!’

  ‘Okay then, let me help. That was you in the van there, along with an associate who is unknown at this time — maybe even two associates. Marlie Towers was dumped in the bin you could see in that footage. The intention was to show Kelly Dale how Marlie had met her end. You were trying to terrify her, to get her compliance, but also the compliance of everyone else. I think you were pretty sure it had worked.’

  ‘Maddie . . .’ Harry’s growl did now cut through the tension in the room. ‘Maybe we should leave some details out, let Mr Rickman here have the opportunity to fill in the gaps.’

  Harvey’s instant delight was painfully obvious. To him, Maddie had just been shown up as an amateur. She knew the rules: you didn’t reveal what was in a bin, you asked. But she was building to something and there was still a lot of detail that Rickman was going to fill in. Just as soon as she could make him realise that it was in his interest.

  ‘Am I correct?’ Maddie said to Rickman.

  ‘No comment. And did you just get told off there?’

  Rickman’s solicitor beamed next to him.

  Maddie took a moment. She moved the laptop to one side to rest her hands on the table, her fingers meeting to make a bridge. She leaned forward until she could be sure she had Rickman’s attention.

  ‘And there it is. Another example of your biggest flaw . . . arrogance. It was always going to get you in the end, Freddie. I read the arresting officer’s statement from this morning. You came quietly. Your response to caution he recorded as here we go again! You’ve been here before, in one of these rooms, responding to questions. And every time you’ve walked. But I think that’s made you sloppy. You’ve convinced yourself that no one will ever talk to the police about Freddie Rickman — they wouldn’t dare! That arrogance was what led Holly Maguire to do what she did, that allowed her to get all the information she needed for us to look at you in the first place. That arrogance is the reason the van containing Marlie Towers’s body didn’t catch — so none of the forensic evidence was destroyed in the fire. That arrogance is what had you demonstrating what you had done, to Kelly Dale under a CCTV camera and moving a bin out of the way with no gloves on and that arrogance had you underestimating Kelly, had you thinking that she would never sit down and give us a statement that she would then follow to court. So, stick to your guns . . . show me your arrogance one more time. I want to fucking see it once more, Freddie Rickman — keep telling me no comment!’

  Freddie was still grinning. His solicitor gasped, then tutted. Harry was fidgeting again, too. Maddie had risen off her seat a little. She could feel the burn in her legs.

  ‘Well . . . that is quite a story, DS Ives,’ Harvey said. ‘And all conjecture! Every word of it. Still not a shred of actual evidence. You talk of forensics and lack of gloves etcetera, etcetera . . . Do you actually have any forensics? And a statement is just the word of one person against another unless you have some corroboration at least?’

  Maddie lowered herself back into her seat. She took a moment to get control of her breathing. She stared at Rickman, who still seemed fixated by her mouth, still not making eye contact. She didn’t think he could.

  ‘No comment then!’ He chuckled, his head shaking subtly.

  ‘You might be right.’ Maddie came back quieter, concentrating on her breathing and her words. ‘The DNA work is ongoing but I will be able to put you in that van, Freddie, you can be sure of that. I have a fingerprint hit on the discarded bin, too. Can you explain how your fingerprint got on that?’

  ‘No comment.’ Rickman now huffed like he was starting to get frustrated.

&nb
sp; ‘A moveable object in a communal bin area,’ Harvey said. ‘And you haven’t even told us where.’

  ‘I’m done telling you anything,’ Maddie sighed. ‘We still have a scene from last night at an accommodation block at Canterbury University. Have you ever been to Canterbury University before, Freddie?’

  ‘No comment.’

  ‘Why would you go there?’

  ‘No comment.’

  ‘If I find forensic evidence linking you to the Canterbury University campus, can you explain how that might have got there?’

  ‘No comment.’

  ‘No comment,’ Maddie repeated. She leaned back as she spoke, her words drifting out in a sigh. She moved back to the laptop. She brought the media player back up. ‘You remember I talked about your arrogance Freddie? You were so convinced that you had control over Kelly that when you took her phone off her to cut her off — to isolate her. You provided her with a replacement of course so you could still get in touch. We just saw that transaction take place in the CCTV footage. That phone, Freddie . . . it has a recording function.’ She paused.

  Rickman’s only reaction was to lick his lips.

  ‘You were in a room with her last night, weren’t you?’

  This time there was no answer.

  ‘I know that. Kelly’s told us, of course, but you also licked her face and bit her ear, didn’t you Freddie? We’ve swabbed that for analysis. How do you explain how your DNA is on her cheek and ear Freddie? Let me guess . . . no comment? But that wasn’t even your worst mistake, not by a long shot. This phone, with the recording facility . . . do you remember you let Kelly take her coat off — her mother’s coat, she told you?’ Maddie waited again, desperate for something. Freddie was back to looking up at the ceiling. ‘She took it off when you let her and she also found the time to point that phone out from under it and start it recording. She thought she might be able to get the audio at least, but you know what? She fluked it. She got more than we needed.’

  Maddie clicked play. She spun the laptop to a position where the whole room could see. Rickman uncrossed his arms and leaned in, his attention dragged to the screen, his face suddenly pale. Harry too shuffled in his seat to get a position to see. He made eye contact with Maddie very briefly, his gaze questioning; this was new to him, too.