Death and Deception (24 page)

Irina had shrugged off any guilt about her methods for paying off her debt years ago. No one had cared what her father had done to her when she was a small child. No one had stopped him parading her and finally selling her to his friends. There was no loving mother to spirit her away like she had spirited her own boy out of the country. So why should she care about squalid children in a foreign country? They were well paid. She checked her reflection in the mirror and removed a tiny piece of fluff from her black top.

Turning away, Irina parted the curtains and looked out onto the drive again. She had a nagging feeling that Grigor had not gone shopping at all, but had tried to find Filip in the hospital. Her heart thumped as she considered that he might try to rescue Filip and return him to the house. They could have the whole of the British Police force after them if he did something stupid. She should never have taken on two such close friends to assist her. She knew better than anyone that the ties that bind you to the past are the strongest. Until you break them, that is.

Irina pulled out her phone and tried to call him, but the phone went straight to voicemail.

‘Answer the phone, Grigor,’ she shouted. ‘Don’t you ignore me. Answer the fucking phone!’ Enraged, she threw the phone onto the bed. Nobody ignored her. She picked up a china figurine from the window ledge and hurled it to the floor. It bounced on the thick carpet. She screamed at the ornament for not breaking. Screamed at Grigor for caring more about Filip than he did about her. Screamed at her sick bastard of a father. Screamed at her mother for dying instead of saving her. Screamed for herself until the clamour faded to a hoarse whisper and she could lie on the bed, spent and whimpering. She slept for an hour.

Calm after her outburst, Irina rinsed her face and re-applied her make-up in the bathroom, helping herself to Abrams’ mother’s creams. She smoked a joint in the over-stuffed living room. It was all going to be fine. The last job. The last trip. It would be fine.

Grigor would return. He would be too frightened of the consequences to run away. She was not going to take Filip back with them whatever happened. He had to stay and pay the price for being caught, the fool.

Irina checked her watch. Three hours until they would start filming. She had drinks, drugs, and snacks to prepare. She wanted the new ones quiet and compliant.

Date: Wednesday 26
^th
April
Time:
13:09
Exeter Police Station

Grigor Pelakais found himself bundled into a police van, driven at speed to a police station, charged with assault on two police officers and locked into a cell before he was able to explain to anybody that he spoke English and that he needed to speak to the officer in charge about what had happened the night before in the studio. Once he had been allowed to speak, the duty sergeant asked no further questions. He got straight onto Detective Chief Superintendent Oliver and called her downstairs as soon as he could.

Julie Oliver took Sally Ellis into the cell with her to talk to the Latvian. She was experiencing a slight sense of panic that everything seemed to be happening at once. It looked likely that Jamie May might start to talk, and now she might get a real clue as to the killer of Ian Gould. It was odd that the guy had practically asked to be arrested, but stranger things had happened.

She had scanned the reports from Interpol. Nothing concrete. The woman, Irina Akis, was known to them and wanted in connection with prostitution, but all had been quiet for several years and she was not a top priority. The one in hospital had been a well-known boxer on the European circuit. Whatever this gang was up to, it was either happening within the confines of their little Baltic country, or they were very clever indeed to have escaped detection. Oliver tended towards the latter interpretation.

As she entered the room, Oliver thought Grigor Pelakais was the walking cliché for ‘tall, dark and handsome.’ He had removed the fake doctor’s coat he had been wearing and was sitting in a silk shirt, expensive looking trousers and rubber clogs. She introduced herself and Sally, and they stood near the door. Two officers stood just outside.

‘I believe you wish to speak to me about the murder of Detective Chief Inspector Gould, Mr Pelakais?’

Grigor was at a loss. He didn’t know how to address this woman, and he needed her to listen to him urgently. He rose, intending to show respect for her seniority. The officers responded with frightening speed. One shoved Pelakais back onto the concrete bed base and towered above him, baton raised. Both women were simultaneously yanked out of the cell and placed behind the other officer.

‘Please,’ Grigor said, hands up in the universal sign of submission, ‘I will not hurt you. I want to help. I have information to give if you will help me and my friend, Filip Sarkov.’

Oliver hated it when her officers over-reacted, but she guessed that they were all a bit jumpy at the moment. She rolled her eyes at Sally and resisted muttering ‘Boys,’ as she entered the room for the second time.

‘Just take your time, Mr Pelakais, and stay seated. What do you want to say?’

Grigor spilled the whole story, from his lowly beginnings in rural Latvia to the sordid mess that was now his life, and the ‘warning’ that had gone so badly wrong the previous night. Sally interrupted, ‘So, if we help Filip Sarkov in his trial for murder, you will tell us what Irina Akis is doing here in Exeter?’

‘Yes, and I wish to claim asylum for myself and my friend.’

‘We’ll see about that later,’ muttered Oliver. ‘For now, tell me what you are doing here in Exeter.’

Grigor thought hard. It was important to give the correct information and to make them see how important it was that they should listen to him. ‘We are making pornographic films for sale in Europe.’

Oliver glanced at Sally, a question wrinkling the skin between her eyebrows. Why come all the way to Exeter to make a porn movie?

‘I thought they were made in Eastern Europe and exported to England,’ said Sally, ‘not the other way round.’

‘These are special movies. They are made with children. Sometimes little children. Sometimes the children do not live.’ He felt tears come to his eyes and focussed his gaze on the concrete floor. Perhaps it was now time for him to grieve for the lives he had helped to ruin. ‘Irina, she cannot do this in Latvia anymore. She met Jed Abrams and they agreed to make the movies together. Filip and I, we are the muscles. We handle distribution and any problems. Abrams finds the children.’

‘How many?’ asked Oliver. ‘How many times have you been here? How many films have you made?’

‘We come every three months, for three years. Twelve films. Today will be the thirteenth.’

Oliver took a step forward. ‘What do you mean, today?’

‘We are filming this evening.’ His eyes skittered between the two women. ‘If you guarantee us safety and a fair trial, I will tell you where it is happening.’

Oliver turned to the Police officer standing outside the door. ‘Get this man a drink and some food, and tell the Sergeant to organise a solicitor for him.’ She turned back to face the prisoner. ‘I will call a meeting of the detectives involved in the case.’ She paused and glared at him. ‘You had better not lie to me, Mr Pelakais.’

‘No madam, I will not. My life and the life of my family and friend depend on it.’

Oliver found Dan with his nose pressed against the glass of the Interview Room, trying to lip-read what was happening inside.

‘Jamie said he would talk to his mother and Sergeant Larcombe if I wasn’t there,’ he said. ‘I didn’t like leaving them but it seems calm enough, and he is talking to the solicitor and his mother, although you could stuff a mattress with the number of tissues they’ve got through in the last half hour.’ He noticed the expression on Oliver’s face and stopped talking. ‘What?’

‘We’ve got Grigor Pelakais, the other male Latvian in custody. They’re involved in child porn with Abrams. That’s why they’re here, and it’s going down tonight. He’ll help us in exchange for a fair deal for him and the one you almost did for, who’s called Filip Sarkov. Put Sally in the Jamie May interview and get to my office in fifteen minutes. I’ve got an idea.’ With that, she turned and was gone.

Dan allowed himself a moment of panic. It was all happening very fast. He looked back in through the window. Jamie was listening and nodding. He was talking, too. It was the breakthrough they wanted. He wanted to get back inside and make the little git tell him what he knew. On the other hand, he needed to solve the murder of his colleague. He had known all along there was something bad about Jed Abrams, and it was no surprise that it was child pornography.

Sally was in the main office, taking a call from the front desk.

‘Boss, we’ve just been informed that Miles Westlake has escaped from hospital. In all the fuss over Grigor Pelakais, they didn’t notice he’d gone until the nurse went in to check on his drip.’ She listened again. ‘He could have been gone up to an hour.’ She put the phone down, ‘Do I put out a shout for him?’

Dan stared at her. Could this case get any worse?

‘Just what we bloody need. He’ll probably go home. People generally do. Adam Foster and the Forensic guy are there at the moment going over his car, aren’t they?’ Sally nodded. ‘Get in touch and ask them to keep an eye out, and bring him in if they see him. And put out a general shout to detain and bring him in. If he’s fit enough to leave the hospital, he’s fit enough to come here and be charged.’

‘I’m more worried about him trying another suicide attempt before we get a chance to interrogate him,’ Sally said.

‘Well, I can’t worry about him at the moment. Get in to the Jamie May interview and see how things are going. DCS Oliver wants me in a meeting in a few minutes. I think we may be going after Jed Abrams and the Latvian gang.’

Sally raised her eyebrows. ‘Action? Count me in, boss.’

‘Thrill-seeker. How’s Abrams been this morning?’

‘Complaining about everything. He’s just asked for a solicitor. Must have dawned on him that this might be serious. Ben’s with him now, listening to the complaints. We’ve got him until midnight tonight before we need to charge him, so I suggest we leave him to stew for a while and let his brief take the complaints.’

‘Fine. Try to find out what Jamie’s hiding, Sally. He finally seems to be talking, now that I’m not in the room. And interrupt my meeting if you have any news.’ He turned away then swung back. ‘Can you make sure Claire Quick gets home safely, too? I’ll be in Oliver’s office. Good luck.’ He smiled at her before striding towards the door.

He felt a flutter of excitement in his gut as he headed up the stairs to the top floor. They were getting somewhere.

A perk of Julie Oliver’s senior position was that she had room in her office for a conference table with ten seats. As the meeting began at 2.30 p.m., eight of them were occupied.

Present in the room were DCI Tom Garrett and DS Duncan Lake, members of the Special Operations Armed Response team, DS Alison Yelland and DC Geoff Short from the Child Protection team, DS Carl Manley from Vice, DI Dan Hellier and Oliver’s secretary,
Stella.

Under guard, Grigor Pelakais sat on a chair outside the office in handcuffs, outwardly calm and composed, but inwardly panicking. He had no idea what was happening, but he could see that the people going into the room were not ordinary English Bobbies. They were going take notice of what he said, and for that, he was grateful, and hopeful.

In the office, they all stood as John Pallister, Assistant Chief Constable in charge of Operational Resources, entered the room and took a seat. If there had been any doubt in Dan’s mind about the level of the meeting to which he had been called, he felt no doubt now. The big guns were out.

Oliver summarised the conversation she’d had with Pelakais earlier in the afternoon. Dan found himself subject to close questioning about the events of the night before and Ian’s death. ACC Pallister’s jowly glare pierced Dan. He could see that the Chief was angry for the loss of his officer, but mostly, he suspected, for the expense he was about to agree to if they went ahead with Oliver’s plan.

Grigor was called in to say what he knew. The films were made in the recording studio, but because of the Police interest, Irina had made him agree to do this one at Jed Abrams’ parents’ home on Church Hill, near Poltimore, on the outskirts of the city. The ‘actors’ would arrive early evening, and it would be over in time to get the children home before parents asked questions.

Dan interrupted, ‘From my records, it appears that Abrams has a flat in the city. Would his parents agree to letting their house be used like this?’

Pelakais raised his eyes to look at Dan. ‘The parents are away on holiday. They know nothing.’

The Sergeant from the Child Protection team, Annie Yelland, asked if the children knew what they were going to do when they got there. Grigor could feel the tears welling up again. He looked at the floor when he answered, ‘Not at first. Irina gives them Ecstasy and alcohol and sweets, sometimes heroin, so they relax. Just tiny amounts at first, she is very skilled.

‘Some of the older ones help to find the younger ones. They want the money, the attention from the pretty lady. She makes them feel special. That what they are doing is right. And, of course, she gets me to take pictures of their families, as she has of mine. If they tell, she says she will kill their mother, or their father. It is simple. They come back again until they are too old and not needed anymore. By then they are ruined, or dead.’

Grigor paused as he heard clothes rustling and felt the atmosphere in the room change. ‘By the time the filming starts, they are unable to put up a fight.’ He looked up and stared at Oliver. ‘It is very bad. I have been very bad to do this. It must be stopped. She must be stopped. Please.’

‘That’s what we’re here for, mate,’ put in the Vice Officer, Carl Manley, ‘and you are going to be stopped. Permanently, if I have anything to do with it.’

Julie Oliver intervened. ‘Yes, thank you, DS Manley. Mr Pelakais is co-operating fully, so there’s no need to threaten him. This is not a Vice case. You’re here out of courtesy.’ The officer held his tongue, but the atmosphere in the room changed as she stared him out until he dropped his eyes. Keeping hold of this lot was going to be a challenge, she thought.