Faraday 02 Network Virus (30 page)

Charlotte decided there were definitely some questions she needed to ask Marion, but now was probably not the correct time to ask them.

“
I’ll go and get the car,” she said. “I think Tracey needs to be taken for a check-up after her ordeal. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

She got back to the pub car park and had just put the car in gear to pull out when another car passed along the road leading towards the
Sarah Jane.
Charlotte followed and noticed the other car pull on to the top end of the slipway. Out of the car climbed Gary Bostock who started to walk down the concrete ramp. Charlotte pulled across the slipway to block his exit. She hurriedly got out, pocketed the car keys and followed him.

She was in time to hear him say, “What the bloody hell’s going on?”

Marion faced him, hugging her daughter to her. “Tracey tells me you’ve kept her tied up on that boat for six days and six nights. How dare you! Why on earth did you do that?”

“
Hasn’t your precious Freddie told you about that?”

Bostock advanced on them and Charlotte hurried to catch up with him.

“
No,” said Marion defiantly. “What have you arranged with him?”

“
I haven’t arranged anything with him. All I want is to get some cash off him. Now you’ve gone and loused it up.”

“
Haven’t you had enough from him already?”

“
Nowhere near enough,” he sneered. “The bugger’s swamped with cash but he doesn’t want to pay the people who do his dirty work for him.”

“
What dirty work is that?” asked Charlotte.

The man whirled round to confront her. It seemed he hadn’t been aware that she was there until she spoke. He realised his mistake immediately.

“
So - I might have guessed you’d be here,” he snarled.

“
That’s correct,” said Charlotte. “I’m here to arrest you for illegally abducting, confining and restraining a minor and for stealing a motor vessel without permission.”

“
Oh, yeah?” He shook his head as he moved towards her. “You’ve got to hold me first.”

“
It would be extremely foolish of you to resist arrest,” said Charlotte. “Your car is boxed in and you cannot get away, and you’d be in even deeper trouble than you are now.”

“
Yes. Don’t be silly, Gary,” Marion called out.

Nevertheless he continued to advance on the chief inspector. “You’d better hurry up and move your bloody car out of the way,” he threatened.

Charlotte was aware that her limited unarmed combat training hadn’t prepared her very well for restraining a big, strong, aggressive seaman. However she stood her ground and grasped her keys with a view to throwing them out into the muddy creek. She could see the dinghy, rowed by James, had left the
Sarah Jane
and was coming rapidly upriver. She hoped she could delay Bostock long enough for Stafford to come to her aid.

“
Are you gonna do what I say?” roared the man, now only ten feet away.

“
You ought to know, Gary, that police officers are trained to deal with great lumps like you.”

He paused. “What? A slip of a thing like you?”

“
Just try me.”

The dinghy was getting near the foot of the slipway but they wouldn’t be in time to help her tackle the man if he attacked her now. Then suddenly the tension was defused by the arrival of the police car from Dartmouth. It pulled up sharply and two burly uniformed policemen got out. Realising he was outnumbered, Bostock submitted.

Charlotte read him the charge and the statutory warning and one of the policemen handcuffed his arms behind his back. By this time Paulson was coming up the ramp.

“
Ahah,” he said. “Who have we got here?”

“
This is Gary Bostock,” Charlotte told him, “husband to Marion and nominal father to Tracey. I have just arrested him for kidnapping Marion’s daughter. I think we need to take him back to Torquay police station for questioning. He has a lot of explaining to do.”

“
OK. Now then.” Stafford Paulson turned to the policemen from Dartmouth. “In about half an hour the Harbour-master’s launch will be able to get up the creek to that motor cruiser, the
Sarah Jane.
” He pointed to the boat. “I want it taken in to custody for forensic examination. Ultimately I want it returned to Torquay marina.” He indicated the dinghy. “This is
Sarah Jane’s
tender which should be shipped into those davits on the stern of the upper deck. Can you arrange that for me while I return to Torquay with this prisoner for questioning?”

“
Yes sir,” replied the sergeant.

Charlotte went down the ramp to where James had joined Marion and Tracey. “Will you be all right taking your daughter home?”

“
Oh yes, Charlotte, we’re fine now we’re together again.”

“
She ought to have a medical check-up some time in the next twenty four hours. Can you arrange that with your doctor or do you want me to ask the police doctor to call round?”

“
She’s all right, Charlotte. She says Gary didn’t hit her. He just tied her up with that horrible tape.”

“
Nevertheless don’t risk anything having happened to her while she was thrashing around trying to escape.”

“
All right. I’ll ring Doctor Samuels as soon as we get back.”

“
You understand, Marion, that we’re taking your husband into custody. He’s committed a number of serious offences. We’ll be questioning him later this afternoon and he’ll be kept in cells at the police station overnight at the very least - maybe for longer. He’ll appear in court, perhaps tomorrow, but more likely on Friday and I can tell you then what is likely to happen to him. If you want to talk to him, we can arrange that, but I’m afraid a police officer, probably myself, will have to be present.”

Marion shuddered. “I don’t want any more to do with him and I don’t want him anywhere near Tracey. How could he do that to a child he’s pretended was his daughter for all those years. It’s obvious now that he only stayed with us because he was being paid to by her real father.”

“
I want to talk to you about that and some other things,” said Charlotte. “Will it be all right if I call round to see you on my way to the station tomorrow morning - say about eight o’clock?”

“
Of course you can. Will it be all right for Tracey to go back to school tomorrow?”

“
I have no objection, but you ought to take the doctor’s advice on that.”

Marion nodded.

“
Very well. I’ll see you in the morning.” She nodded to Marion’s ‘brother’. “Goodbye James, thank you for your help. Will you still be at your sister’s tomorrow morning?”

He looked questioningly at her.

“
Oh, yes,” added Marion quickly. “He doesn’t have to go back for several days.”

“
OK, I’ll see you all tomorrow.”

She returned up the slipway to where the others were waiting.

- 36 -

Bostock was put in interview room three and the formal interview was started soon after half past two.

“
All right, Gary,” Charlotte began, “there are a number of things we want to talk to you about. But, before we start can you please confirm for the recording machine that you do not wish a solicitor to be present to advise you?”

“
No, I don’t want one of those.” He almost appeared to be resigned.

“
Now, can we start at the beginning? You returned from overseas last Wednesday. What time did you land?”

“
I got in to Heathrow about seven o’clock in the morning. It had been an overnight flight.”

“
And yet you didn’t get back to the house in Torquay until eight in the evening. Why did it take you so long?”

“
Oh, there was someone I wanted to see in London.”

“
Who was that?” asked Paulson.

“
Doesn’t matter. It’s not important.”

“
That’s for us to decide. Who was it?”

Bostock faced him defiantly. “I’m not telling you.”

“
All right.” Charlotte laid a restraining hand on Stafford’s arm. “We’ll come back to that if we need to. So what time did you leave London?”

“
I caught the three-thirty train.”

Arriving in Torquay at what time?”

“
Just before seven.”

Paulson scowled. “So it took you over an hour to get from the station to the house.”

“
There were things I wanted to check. Private things I want to keep to myself.”

“
And when you got to the house you discovered Marion was out,” said Charlotte.

“
That’s right. I found she was working at that whorehouse on the Brixham Road. She’d been going there for two years and never told me about it.”

“
The ‘whorehouse’ as you call it is the Red Garter Night Club where Marion works behind the bar.”

“
Yeah - all tarted up in a dress with half her tits showing and virtually asking to be shagged by all and sundry. I don’t know how often she’s let blokes have it away with her.”

“
Did you ask her?”

“
Yeah, But of course she denies it.”

“
Don’t you believe her?” asked Paulson.

Bostock confronted him. “What would you think if you found your wife all done up like that?”

“
It’s probable,” interrupted Charlotte before the two came to blows, “that Inspector Paulson gives his wife enough money for her not to need to go out in the evenings to earn some extra cash.” She leaned forward. “Now can we please get back to your movements last Wednesday evening? When you got to the house at about eight o’clock, who was there?”

“
Oh, some neighbour - a Mrs Andrea King from up the road who was baby-sitting. I sent her off home after she’d told me what Marion was doing.”

“
And your daughter Tracey?”

He sneered. “You know she isn’t my daughter by now.”

“
I know you’re not her biological father,” agreed Charlotte. “But you were married to her mother. Have you never thought about formally adopting her?”

He shook his head. “Didn’t want to do that, did I? I wanted to be able to cut loose any time if it suited me.”

“
But she called you ‘dad’, didn’t she?”

“
Yeah, but she’s never really taken to me.”

“
So where was she when you arrived at the house?”

“
Up in her room. She’s always up there.”

“
Did you go up to see her?”

“
Not to start with. I just sat and smoked and felt bloody annoyed.”

“
With your wife?” asked Paulson.

“
Not just with her.” He shrugged. “Oh, you might as well know it all. When I was in London I went round to see Alfred de Billiere. He’s Tracey’s real dad.”

“
Why did you go to see him?”

“
I wanted more money. It was time for him to give me some more. He used to give me quite decent chunks from time to time. But he hadn’t given me anything lately.”

“
How big were these chunks?” asked Paulson.

“
Oh,” he shrugged, “perhaps ten, twenty grand.”

“
That’s a hell of a lot of money. What did you do for him to pay you that much?”

“
Oh,” Bostock swayed his head from side to side. “I always knew he was sweet on Marion. But his wife made a hell of a stink when she found out about her - reckoned she’d take him for a fortune. So, to keep her quiet, he arranged for me to marry her so that he could pretend he’d given her up. I didn’t mind. She was a good-looking bird when she was young and he reckoned she was a scorcher in bed, but I didn’t find that she was quick enough.” He pulled a face. “Anyway, when he set me up as her husband it was on condition that he could spend some time with her every now and again when he could get away from the missus. He said he’d pay me well and for the first few years it was OK. But he hadn’t paid me anything for a couple of years and things was getting tight, so I went to see him to find out what was happening.”

“
And what
was
happening?” asked Charlotte.

“
He said he stopped seeing her. After … - after his wife died he took up with another young raver who worked for him and she made sure he didn’t have the time or the energy for Marion no more. So he stopped going with her and that’s why he stopped paying me.”

“
And you still wanted the money,” said Paulson.

“
Course I did.”

“
What had happened to all the rest he’d paid you before?”

Bostock shrugged. “Well, it had gone, hadn’t it? When the ship calls in at Hong Kong every couple of months we have a right riot of a time - good food, lots of chinky birds, couple of days at the gee-gees. It soon goes.”

“
OK,” said Charlotte. “Let’s get back to last Wednesday. You were sitting alone in your living room, smoking and feeling annoyed. What did you do next?”

He leered at her. “I decided to get my own back, didn’t I? I knew he had a boat in the marina because he’d taken Marion out on it when he wanted to give her a treat when his wife was away visiting her mother, if you know what I mean. And I thought it would frighten Marion shitless if her beloved daughter disappeared. Also I could use it to get some more cash out of de Billiere. I thought he’d pay to get his daughter returned back to her mother. It would have worked too, if you bloody lot hadn’t come along.”

“
So how did you get Tracey to agree to this?”