by Sally Rigby
‘It’s the afternoon show with Steve. I’m sure he won’t mind us going in to have a chat.’
She followed Becky downstairs to reception and through the back to where the studios were. They stopped outside a door which had the on air light illuminated.
Through the glass, Steve was talking into the microphone.
‘We’ll wait until he’s finished and has put on the next track,’ Becky said. ‘It shouldn’t be too long.’
‘Sure.’
Her phone rang and she it pulled from her pocket.
‘Sorry, I’ve got to get this,’ she said as she checked the screen and saw it was work.
She walked away and answered the call.
‘Walker,’ she said.
‘Hello, guv,’ Matt said. ‘We need you back here, PDQ. Amy Bond called in, without her mother. She wants to talk to you about Russell Atkins.’
Chapter Thirty
Whitney rushed into the station, stopping at the incident room to collect Matt so they could speak to Amy Bond together. What did she want to tell her? Would it help progress the case? This could be the break they were looking for.
‘Is Amy on her own?’ she asked Matt, finding him sitting at his desk.
‘She’s with a friend. I’ve put them in interview room one and said you’d be with them as soon as you returned.’
‘Did she elaborate at all?’
‘No. She was very cloak and dagger. All I could get out of her was she had something to tell you, and she wouldn’t speak to anyone else.’
‘Shouldn’t they be in school?’
‘School broke up at the end of last week for Easter,’ he said.
Of course. She should’ve known. Tiffany was off uni at the moment and working most days at the garden centre close to where they lived. Even straight after the kidnapping, her daughter had kept on with the job. Whitney had been glad because it gave her some normality during such a harrowing time.
‘Okay. Let’s see what she’s got. George believed she wasn’t telling us everything in her previous interview, but we didn’t push it because we didn’t want to cause difficulties with her mother.’
When they entered the interview room, Amy was sitting next to her friend, chatting. They both looked older than their fourteen years, as they were wearing make-up and trendy clothes. When Amy noticed her, she blushed.
‘Hello, Amy. I understand you want to talk to me,’ Whitney said. ‘You already know DS Price. He’s going to sit in with us. And you are?’ She looked directly at Amy’s friend.
‘I’m Sasha Newman.’
‘It’s good of you to be so supportive. Amy, would you like to talk to us alone, or would you prefer if Sasha stayed?’
‘Sasha knows everything, so if it’s okay, I’d like her to stay,’ Amy said.
‘Of course. Legally we can’t interview you without an adult present, but if you’re only here to give us some information, that’s different.’
‘I want to tell you about Billy, who you said was Russell Atkins, but I don’t want anyone to know, especially not my parents.’
‘I can’t promise anything. It really depends on what you tell me. I know it’s hard, but this is a criminal investigation, and we have to catch the murderer. If you tell us anything helpful, we’ll be extremely grateful. But there’s a chance your information might not stay within these walls. Do you understand?’
Amy nodded.
‘I’d like to record our conversation, if that’s okay with you?’
‘Do you have to?’ Panic shrouded the young girl’s face.
‘Not if you’d rather I didn’t. I’ll take notes.’ Whitney didn’t want to push it, so she opened her notebook and took a pen from her bag. ‘What do you want to talk about?’ she asked gently.
‘You asked if I’d ever met him before, and I said no. Because Mum was there. It wasn’t the truth. I did arrange to meet, thinking it was Billy, but he turned out to be an older man. We met in the park. I was sitting on a bench, and he came to sit next to me. He started talking, and I said I was waiting to meet someone. He told me it was him. I got up to leave, but he grabbed hold of my arm and made me sit back down. He…’ Her voice cracked, and tears filled her eyes.
Whitney passed her a tissue from the box on the table. ‘Take it steady. I know this is hard, but you’re doing the right thing by telling me.’
Amy wiped her eyes and sniffed. ‘After he made me sit down, he started being nice and talking about how well we got on. He said we were friends. He had hold of my hand so I couldn’t get away. I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t get to my phone, as it was in my bag. So I pretended to play along and talked to him, hoping he’d let go of me and I could run.’ She started to cry again.
‘Would you like a glass of water?’ Whitney asked.
Amy nodded.
‘Matt, could you get some water?’
They sat in silence when he left the room, while Amy drew in some breaths to gather herself. ‘Before I could make my getaway, he reminded me of some photos he had. For a laugh, we’d exchanged naked photos of ourselves.’ Her voice faded.
‘They weren’t among the photos you sent to me,’ Whitney said.
‘I deleted them.’
Matt came back into the room with two glasses of water, which he put down in front of the girls. Amy took a sip.
‘After he reminded you about the photos, what did he say?’ Whitney asked, sensing it was about to get even more painful for the young girl.
‘He told me again how much he liked me and didn’t want me to leave. He said he’d booked a special room for us to have lunch in private. I told him I had to go home, but he laughed and told me not to be stupid, because he knew I’d arranged to be out for the day so I could meet him. It was during the last half-term in February. He said if I didn’t go with him he’d make sure photos of me were put everywhere on the Internet, and he’d send them to my parents and all my friends.’
If Russell Atkins wasn’t already dead, Whitney could’ve murdered him herself. No one with even a shred of decency would do something like that. She tensed in anticipation of what was coming next.
‘You’re doing really well, Amy.’
‘He took me to a small hotel, where he’d rented a room. He ordered room service and we had lunch. All the time, he was saying how much he liked me and how this was going to be such an enjoyable time. I knew what he wanted, and I couldn’t get out of it. Even when he went to the bathroom and I thought about running away, I remembered the photos. I couldn’t do that to my family. Or myself.’ She went silent, and her eyes glazed over as she stared into space.
‘Did he force you to have sex with him?’ Whitney asked.
Amy nodded and leaned forward on the table, burying her head in her arms. Sasha put her arms around Amy’s shoulders. She looked at Whitney over the top of Amy, shaking her head. She was a good friend.
‘Amy, you’ve been really brave telling us what happened, and I’m sure we’re going to be able to keep this between us. We have a specialist team here who can help you with what’s happened. Would you like me to make an appointment for you? It’s all strictly confidential.’
Amy glanced at her friend, who nodded. ‘Yes, please.’
‘I’ll do it now.’ She picked up her phone from the table and went out of the room. She keyed in the number.
‘Maureen Ash speaking.’
‘It’s DCI Walker here. I’d like to make an appointment for an Amy Bond to speak to you. She was subject to a sexual assault some months ago, and I’ve suggested she meet with you. Can you see her now?’
‘Yes. I’m free at the moment.’
‘I’ll bring her up. She’s with her friend.’
Whitney ended the call and went back into the interview room.
‘Maureen Ash is available. I’ll take you up there in a moment.’
‘Okay.’
‘If you want to speak to me again, here’s my card. You can phone any time, day or night, if you want someone to
talk to.’
Amy gave Whitney a watery smile. ‘Thank you. It was horrible reliving it, but you have to know the truth so you can see what a monster he was. I’m glad he’s dead. And I don’t care if you never catch the person who did it.’
‘I understand how you feel, but it’s my job to find and punish criminals. We can’t leave it for people to take the law into their own hands.’ Her words sounded trite, especially considering what Amy had gone through. ‘Would you like me to arrange for someone to take you both home after you’ve spoken to Maureen?’
‘No, thanks. We’re going for coffee. I’m not expected back until after five.’
Whitney took them to Maureen’s office. Her body tensed as she watched the young girl go in. Would she ever trust anyone again? If she was Amy’s mum, she’d want to know what had happened, but only Amy could tell her.
Whitney returned to her desk. Something had to be done. This killer wasn’t going to rest at three victims. She pulled out her phone and keyed in George’s number.
‘Hello, Whitney.’
‘I’ve just talked to Amy Bond. She came in to see me. You were right about her lying. That lowlife arsewipe Atkins raped her, threatening to reveal the naked photos she’d sent him.’
George was quiet for a moment. ‘The bastard. I’m not surprised. What about the letter?’
‘Definitely from the murderer and, again, very articulate and political. I’ll show you when you come in. Right now, I’ve got a plan which I think is the only way we can catch our killer. We’re going to run our own sting. We already know quite a bit about the murderer, and we’ve seen the messages they’ve sent. It will work. Come in tomorrow morning and we’ll set it up. Because if we don’t, we know there’s going to be another murder.’
‘Good idea. I’ll be with you at eight, if that’s not too early?’ George said.
‘Eight’s fine. We need time to get it all sorted. I’ll see you in the morning.’
She ended the call and went to Jamieson’s office, as she needed him to sign off on the idea. She knocked on the door and waited for him to call her in.
‘Yes, Walker?’ he asked.
‘I’d like permission for us to run a sting on the SnapMate site. We need to catch the murderer, and this seems the best solution.’
‘Do you have any leads at all?’
‘The murderer sent another letter to the radio station. At the moment they’ve agreed not to release either of them, but I don’t know how long I can hold them off.’
‘Maybe they should release them. It might help us. Someone from the public could come forward with evidence.’
‘It could also incite further crimes against paedophiles. The way the letters are worded, I don’t want to risk it.’
‘Okay, your call.’
Whitney’s eyes widened. He never ceased to surprise her.
‘Thank you, sir. Now about this sting. We’d like to put the wheels in motion tomorrow. It involves creating a fake profile on the site and pretending to be an eighteen-year-old boy.’
‘Who are you going to use?’
‘Dr Cavendish. With her knowledge of the criminal mind, she’ll know what language is needed to carry out the sting.’
‘Wouldn’t a male officer be better?’
‘I don’t believe so.’
‘Do we have any other expertise on the force we can leverage?’
‘Not at such short notice, but I know of someone we could ask to assist us.’
‘Okay. You get on with it, and leave the paperwork to me.’
‘Yes, sir.’
She left his office and hurried back to hers. She was going to visit the homes the social worker had suggested for Rob and her mum, shortly. But before that, she had a call to make, and she suspected this person would be very surprised to hear from her.
Chapter Thirty-One
‘Listen up, everyone,’ Whitney said once they’d arrived in the office the next morning. ‘I have a plan to catch the murderer. We’re going to operate our own sting. We’ll set up a profile on SnapMate as an eighteen-year-old boy. But we want the murderer to think he’s an older man posing as a young boy. The perp will be acting like a thirteen or fourteen-year-old girl.’
‘It seems complicated. How are you going to do it?’ Frank asked.
‘George is going to be our decoy. Okay?’ Whitney asked, looking directly at her.
Whitney hadn’t mentioned her role when they’d talked last night. If she’d known in advance, she would’ve done more research into the specific language used by teenagers when they were online, especially the language boys used. She would’ve also liked to study the things the victims said in the chats, to see if she could pinpoint any errors which led the murderer to realise they were really older men. But she still had time. Although, if they wanted to be caught, she needed to make some mistakes. Not so many as it became obvious, though.
‘No problem. Do we need permission to do this?’ she asked.
‘Spoken like a true copper,’ Whitney quipped. ‘I’ve already been to see Jamieson and heard first thing this morning he’s had it approved by the powers that be. So, it’s good to go. I’ve also arranged for someone to come in to give us some advice.’
George stiffened. Why ask her to participate in the sting because of her expertise and then get someone else in to help? Was it another psychologist? That would be an insult.
The phone on Whitney’s desk rang, and she answered it.
‘Walker.’ She paused for a moment. ‘Ask someone to bring her up.’ She ended the call. ‘And it looks like she’s here already.’
A couple of minutes later, in walked Vera Smith.
George hadn’t seen that coming.
‘Hello, Vera,’ Whitney said. ‘It’s good of you to come in.’
‘What’s it about?’ Vera asked as she headed over to where Whitney and George were standing.
‘We’re planning a sting to trap the murderer and would like your help in setting it up.’
‘Why would I want to do that? We’ve now got three monsters off the street. If we stop this person, others are left to carry on grooming and abusing young girls.’
‘You’ve changed your tune,’ Whitney said. ‘When we last spoke, you said you’d rather they weren’t dead, but punished. You know we can’t let this carry on. We want to rid the online sites of paedophiles, the same as you do. But we can’t allow vigilantes to do it on our behalf. Especially when doing it consists of murder. It’s very different from threats, or exposing them on social media, or handing them over to the police. We can’t allow these murders to continue.’
‘You’re right. And I stand by what I’d originally said. It’s not in our interest for them to die,’ Vera replied, nodding.
‘Thank you. What we need from you is an idea of how we should be behaving, as you’ve extensive experience on these sites.’
‘We have people posing as young girls attracting these older men. What you’re asking is the other way round. It’s not something we’ve actually done in the past, obviously.’
‘Perhaps you can give us an indication of the protocols to follow when on this sort of site.’
‘One thing to consider is some of the men who are attracting young girls to groom often have very low key conversations on the actual site. They may comment on a girl’s posts, but there’s rarely anything suggestive or personal. If you look at someone’s profile, and the messages being left or the conversations, you wouldn’t be able to ascertain who was the groomer. They cleverly persuade the girl to take their conversations off site.’
‘And how do they do that?’ Whitney asked.
‘They send the girl a private message and ask if they could talk away from the site. They would use any app where they can be private. They wouldn’t use video, obviously, because they want the girl to believe they’re a teenager.’
‘Okay, we can do that once we’ve identified who the murderer is.’
‘And how are you going to do that?’ Vera
asked.
‘That’s where you can help us further. We want to appear like a groomer and need to know how the ‘young girl’ will act towards us,’ Whitney said.
‘There are two ways we work. Either we pursue them, or we encourage them to pursue us. When we operate stings, we get our people to use specific phrases and to act in defined ways to draw the predators in.’
‘Can you tell us what they are?’ Whitney asked.
‘It’s important for the girl to appear childlike and innocent. They will state their age early on to make sure the man’s aware they are underage. We get them to ask leading questions to incite a sexual response, even though they act as if they don’t know what they’ve said. Once we get to this stage, it’s usually done privately off the main page. But it doesn’t always happen. Some groomers will be more open online. Usually the less experienced ones.’
‘So the girls act differently depending on the type of predator,’ George said.
‘Yes. It’s difficult to be precise because every sting is different. Every groomer is different. They don’t all act in the same way. They have their own idiosyncrasies. Some keep everything totally private and off-line. Others will be openly flirty, for everyone to see. The main thing is, you have to be prepared to go with the flow and see where it takes you. Sorry, that’s all I can give you.’
Vera’s one-eighty was interesting. She’d suddenly become very helpful. Was it because of her preference for the men not to be killed and instead made to suffer throughout their lives? Or was there another reason?
‘Actually, you’ve helped a lot,’ George said. ‘It means we’re less likely to expose ourselves because there’s no set pattern we have to adhere to.’
‘Good point. I have an appointment in forty minutes. Is there anything else you need from me?’ Vera asked, looking back at Whitney.
‘No. We appreciate you coming in to help. Frank will show you out.’
Vera picked up her bag and was escorted out of the incident room.
‘Ellie, I want you to set George up with a profile on SnapMate.’
