Bones Under The Beach Hut (33 page)

    'Something
which the police might now regard as something of an oversight.'

    It
took a moment for the implication of her words to sink in. 'Are you saying that
I'm likely to be questioned about that?'

    'I
would think it's a very strong possibility.'

    He
looked appalled at the idea. Sweat was now prickling on his pale brow as he
repeated, 'But I'm not on any Sex Offenders Register or anything. I've never
touched a child in that way.'

    'We
have only your word for that,' said Carole, rather enjoying the police 'we'.

    'But
if I'm questioned there'll be lots of publicity. I might lose my job at Fether
District Council.'

    'Mr
Southwest, eight years ago a very serious crime was committed. By pure chance
you weren't questioned about it at the time. But given the facts: A) that you
have admitted to me that you have paedophile tendencies, and B) that the
remains of Robin Cutter were found under a beach hut for which you have
responsibility, I think the very least that will happen is that you'll be asked
to prove that you had nothing to do with the boy's abduction.'

    'I
didn't. You have to take my word for it.'

    'You'd
say that whether you were innocent or guilty, wouldn't you?' Shiftily he
avoided her gaze. 'Were you doing your current job eight years ago?'

    'Yes.'

    'So
you could easily have been here at Smalting the day Robin Cutter disappeared?'

    'I
could have been, but I wasn't.'

    'Could
you prove that?'

    'I
don't know. We're talking about eight years ago, for God's sake. I could have
been here. All right, maybe I was, but if I was I didn't see any small boy here
and I certainly didn't abduct one. I'd already found a way of controlling my
urges.'

    'You've
mentioned that more than once, Mr Southwest. Would you explain to me what you
mean by "controlling your urges"?'

    'Yes,
all right.' He was reluctant and the words came out slowly. 'The fact is,
Carole, that I've always felt like I do and there was a time when perhaps I did
represent a danger to children, when perhaps my urges would have got the better
of me. It was something I was always afraid of. I tried to avoid being in
situations where I might be left alone with children, and yet at the same time
I
wanted
to be in situations where I was left alone with children. I was
afraid that I might touch one of them, and then I might not be able to stop
myself and . . .' The sweat was by now pouring profusely down his brow and
temples. 'Then I found that I could stop myself from thinking about actually
doing things to children, actually touching them, by seeing images of other
people . . .' His words petered out.

    'Of
other people doing things to children?'

    'Yes.'

    'You
mean by watching pornography?' asked Carole in disgust.

    'Yes,
but don't be so dismissive of it. For me child pornography is a harmless
release for—'

    'But
it's not harmless! The children who feature in that kind of material are being
harmed. At the time they're filmed they're being abused by—'

    'Listen,
Carole. If the existence of that pornography is stopping one person - me - from
abusing a child, then surely that's a good thing?'

    'Well,
it's—'

    'All
I can say is that it works for me. It controls my urges, it provides a release
for me - and it stops me from actually harming a real child!'

    There
was a silence. Carole recognized that she was never going to see eye to eye
with Kelvin Southwest on the subject. But, more importantly, she found she was
beginning to believe his protestations that he had had nothing to do with the
abduction of Robin Cutter. Her certainties of earlier in the day were melting
away. But then again, she told herself, paedophiles were notoriously devious
and plausible. As she had pointed out to him, a guilty Kelvin Southwest would
say just the same things as an innocent one. She needed to find out more.

    'So where
do you get this pornography from?' she asked with a shudder. 'Do you download
it from the internet? Are you part of some paedophile ring? Or do you have
another source?'

    'I
have another very good source,' he replied almost smugly. 'A very good source
indeed.'

    'Where
do you get it from?'

    There
was a note of pride in his voice as he said, 'You should know this, Carole,
given your background in the Home Office.'

    'Oh?'
she asked, puzzled.

    'Where
does child porn go when it's confiscated?'

    'Well,
obviously it goes to the police.'

    'Exactly.
So if someone like me had a contact in the police, a contact let us say who
owed one a favour . . . that person might be persuaded to access ... to copy
that kind of material for one, mightn't they?'

    'And
are you saying you have that kind of a contact?'

    'I
do.'

    Carole
didn't need to ask him for the name. Suddenly the whole shabby set-up was
crystal clear to her. 'Curt Holderness,' she said.

    Kelvin
Southwest nodded, pleased with his own cleverness. 'Yes, and even though he's
left the force, he still has a friend there who keeps up the supply.'

    'And
does Curt Holderness enjoy that kind of material too?'

    He
chuckled. 'Why do you think he left the force early? Under something of a
cloud? He could have been charged with stealing and disseminating the stuff,
but the local police bigwigs didn't want the adverse publicity. He was shuffled
out unceremoniously but discreetly. And since he was doing a favour for me . .
.'

    'You
organized for him to get the job as security officer for the Smalting Beach Hut
Association?'

    Kelvin
Southwest gave another self-satisfied nod.

    Carole
Seddon's mind was reeling. Everything she had thought about the case was
suddenly turned on its head. Earlier in the day she had contemplated ending her
interview with the Fether District Council official by revealing that she
wasn't really a police officer, but now no thought could have been further from
her mind.

    She
also felt fairly convinced that Kelvin Southwest had had nothing to do with the
abduction and murder of Robin Cutter, but she wasn't about to tell the man
that. Let him suffer a bit longer.

    And
in the meantime she would get back in touch with Curt Holderness.

    Unlike
Kelvin Southwest, Curt Holderness wasn't under the illusion that Carole Seddon
was attached in any way to the police force. Nor, given his career background,
did she reckon he'd be fooled for a moment if she claimed she was. But she
still didn't reckon he'd argue when she said she'd like to meet and talk.

    He
didn't. She rang him as soon as a very chastened and nervous Kelvin Southwest
had left . . . with many pleas that she would not tell anyone else about what
they had discussed. But she wasn't about to let that particular little worm off
the hook by giving him any such undertaking.

    When
she passed on to Curt Holderness what she'd heard from the Fether District
Council official, the security officer agreed instantly to a meeting. He asked
where she was and said he'd come straight to Smalting.
Fowey
that
morning was becoming a kind of 'Incident Room' and in Carole's view the beach
hut served the purpose pretty well. Though there was no one near enough to
overhear any conversations conducted there, it was in full public view and
therefore safe.

    As
she had the thought, she remembered that it was in full public view, in a
situation that anyone might have thought to be safe, that Robin Cutter had been
abducted on that very beach. A little shudder ran through her.

    But
no feeling of fear could overpower the sense of excitement welling up inside
her. She was finally making real progress on the case. And on her own. Jude
might live to regret wasting her time at a Past Life Regression Workshop in
Brighton.

    'Funny,
Carole. I hadn't got you down as a blackmailer.'

    She looked
up to see the stocky figure of Curt Holderness standing between her and the
sun. She was sure he had chosen to approach from that angle to emphasize his
menace. And he'd succeeded. In spite of the June heat, he was once again
wearing his black motorcycle leathers, though he stripped off the blouson as,
uninvited, he sat in the chair opposite her. Underneath he had on a Metallica
tour T-shirt.

    'I'm
not a blackmailer,' said Carole, with a calm that she didn't feel.

    'Then
what is all this about?'

    'I am
interested in the disappearance of Robin Cutter.'

    'You're
not alone in that. Everyone on the South Coast has theories on the subject.'

    'Yes,
but I'm interested in your involvement in it, Curt.'

    He
shrugged, remarkably insouciant, given the implied accusation in Carole's
words. 'All right. I was still on the force then. I worked on the case briefly.
Went through some of the foot-slogging, house-to-house inquiry stuff. Didn't
come up with anything useful. If you're hoping to get new information out of
me, forget it. I don't have any.'

    'That
wasn't what I meant. Robin Cutter was assumed to have been abducted by a
paedophile . . .'

    'That
was the general view, yes. After another high-profile local case, people were
seeing paedophiles everywhere. God, the number of paranoid calls we got at the
station round that time.'

    'Are
you suggesting you think there was another explanation for Robin Cutter's
disappearance?'

    He
shrugged again. 'Not particularly, no.' His answers sounded laid-back, but
Carole could sense the tension in him. He was on the alert, waiting to see
which direction their interview was taking.

    'I
said on the phone what Kelvin Southwest had told me . . .'

    'Uh-huh.'

    '. .
. about you supplying him with child pornography.'

    'Okay,
I'm not denying it. The little creep wanted the stuff, I had access to it, we
made a deal. It was a business arrangement.'

    'A
business arrangement that led to your early retirement from the police force?'

    'Yes,
all right. I don't deny that either. And if you're planning to blackmail me
over it, I don't think you'll find the top brass in the force any keener to
bring that out into the open now than they were at the time.'

    'No,
but the fact that you dealt in child pornography has other ramifications,
doesn't it, Curt?'

    'Like
what? I had access to the stuff. I had the technology to copy it. I saw a way
of making a quick buck. Salaries in the police force aren't that generous, you
know.'

    'I do
know. I used to work for the Home Office.' If she had hoped that Curt
Holderness might be impressed by that, she was disappointed, so she went on,
'It's a well-known fact that paedophiles exchange pornography with each other,
that they form rings.'

    'So?'

    'I'm
just suggesting that when you and Kelvin Southwest exchanged pornography you
might have discussed going a step further, to move from using images of the
stuff to realizing your fantasies with an actual child.'

    It
took him a second to take in the full implication of her words. And when he
did, he was furious. 'Are you saying that I'm one of them? That I'd be in a
ring with a little perve like Kel? God, they repel me, people like that! Scum!
Filth! So far as I'm concerned you could string up the lot of them today
without a trial!'

    'Given
that's your view, you seem surprisingly friendly with Kelvin Southwest.'

    'That's
a business arrangement, nothing more. We've both done favours for each other in
the past and they're the kind of favours that we don't want to become public
knowledge.'

    'Your
continuing to supply him with pornography, him having organized the security
officer job for you?'