‘Nothing for you to worry about,’ Gemma reassured her. ‘I just want to make sure I’ve got everything right. Just checking a few finer points. Okay?’
Tiffany still looked wary so Gemma hurried on. ‘Let me just read it to you.’ She pulled out the copy. ‘
My name is Tiffany Louise Brown and the last time I saw Amy Bernhard was the morning of December second when we were at the bus stop. The bus was quite crowded that morning. Amy is in the same class as me, but we do different level Maths. Someone told me she’d gone missing from the school grounds that morning. I can’t think of any reason why she might run away.
’
Tiffany nodded. ‘That’s right. That’s all true.’
Tiffany’s mother appeared, crossing the kitchen. ‘Everything all right?’ she asked brightly, after the initial greetings.
Gemma assured her it was and Tiffany nodded. They heard Mrs Brown’s footsteps fading as she carried a coffee upstairs.
‘Tell me a bit more about where Amy was that morning,’ said Gemma. ‘Who she was talking to at the bus stop?’
Tiffany made a face. ‘Who do you think? Tasmin Summers and Claudia Page, who else?’
‘And was there anything about her that caught your attention? Anything different from usual?’
Tiffany shook her head.
Gemma considered something else. ‘Have you any idea why Amy might have left the school grounds later?’
Tiffany shrugged. ‘Who knows? Amy did pretty well whatever she liked.’
‘And can you remember who it was who told you that Amy had left the school grounds that morning?’
Tiffany looked sheepish. ‘I left that bit out,’ she admitted. ‘I didn’t want to get her into trouble.’
‘Who?’
‘It won’t get back to the school, will it? If I tell you something I left out of that?’ She pointed to the copy of the witness statement.
‘No,’ said Gemma. ‘This is just between you and me. Who was it you didn’t want to get in trouble?’
‘Claudia. She was the one who told me. But if I’d put that in my statement, I thought it might get her into trouble—you know, because she didn’t dob to the teachers that Amy had shot through when it all got serious later.’
Claudia telling Tiffany that Amy had left the school grounds in the morning. Gemma’s suspicion was hardening .
.
.
‘Let me get this clear,’ Gemma said. ‘You’re saying that the person you call “someone” in your statement was actually Claudia Page?’
Tiffany nodded. ‘Is it all right? You said when you spoke at the school that anything we told you would be kept in confidence.’ Her young face contracted with anxiety. ‘You won’t say anything to the school?’
Gemma shook her head. ‘I promise I won’t say a word at the school.’
Tiffany relaxed a little.
‘And you saw Amy talking to Claudia and Tasmin at the bus stop?’ Gemma continued.
‘Yes.’
‘Did you see Amy get on the bus?’
Tiffany shook her head.
‘Did you see her get off the bus?’
‘No. But I was one of the first people off. She could have been behind me.’
‘And did you see Amy at school that morning?’
‘Uh-uh.’ Tiffany shook her head.
Gemma stood up. ‘Thanks, Tiffany.’
Tiffany uncurled herself, apparently disappointed that the interview was over. ‘Is that all?’
Not entirely, Gemma was thinking. In fact, it’s just beginning. She was starting to suspect Amy Bernhard never actually made it onto the school bus.
•
Gemma pulled up outside her place and switched her radio off. She climbed out of her car, looking around fast; partly habit, this quick catlike surveillance of her territory was now even more essential. Underneath everything else going on in her life right now, the memory of that pencilled warning lay like an open grave, cold and dark, at the bottom of her mind. Even here, in her safe street, with her secure apartment close at hand, the warning stirred. But when she saw Mike’s car parked on the street, her mood changed. She hurried down the steps to the front garden and went inside.
Mike turned on the swivel chair in front of his desk as she came into the operatives’ room. Gemma hesitated, waiting for him to start first in a silence filled with crowding regrets and shame.
‘Gemma,’ he said, standing up and coming over. ‘I was checking the current jobs. Looks like we’re way behind on some of them.’
‘We are. I’ve been caught up in the Netherleigh Park business. It’s a double murder investigation now. And Spinner’s off in the bush for a day or two.’
‘So what would you like me to do?’
The nicest words a man can say to a woman, Gemma thought. She was tempted to invite him into the murder investigation, but drew back from that. Best they stay on separate jobs for a while.
‘You could take over the Forever Diamonds investigation. I’ve neglected that brief. I really need someone to get into their factory. Report back on how they receipt and make sure the correct diamond goes to the right home. I know they’re desperate for a receptionist.’
She considered. There were several good women in the security business who could work undercover. But could she afford one of them right now? Maybe she could do a contra deal with another female PI?
Mike checked Annie Dunlop’s place on his laptop while Gemma filled him in on the details of Mr Dowling’s complaint. She leaned over his shoulder to see the images, aware of Mike’s pleasing male scents, determined to keep things businesslike between them.
‘I think she must be seeing things,’ said Mike as he checked Mrs Dunlop’s lounge room on the screen. ‘There’s nothing moving in there except the old girl herself.’ In the jerky time-lapse surveillance coverage, Gemma saw Annie Dunlop settling down into her big armchair, a cup of something on the table beside her.
Then they went through the outstanding insurance jobs and Mike selected several that Spinner needed to put to one side. Gemma left Mike organising his work on the new jobs and went into her own office, logging on to the website Angie had messaged her, the one found archived on Mannix Romero’s second laptop. A banner came up.
Cute students by day; horny sluts by night at the Black Diamond Room! They can’t get enough of the gang-bang squad. Cum see what they get up to!!
Gemma waited. The first image was an almost naked Amy Bernhard. Another hyperlink flashed under Amy’s body: a black diamond icon slowly turning on its axis. Gemma clicked on it and a scene from pornoland unfolded—a glittering black chandelier lighting black satin sheets and cushions, with a bed in the foreground, a girl on it wearing nothing except a diamond garter, and a group of men.
Gemma clicked on ‘foreplay’, a ten-second tease to encourage viewers to cough up the details of their credit cards. The action started, the old in-and-out at every orifice, tight male buttocks, straining cocks, splayed female legs, eyes closed shut and mouth open wide in simulated ecstasy. Or anguish, Gemma thought. It’s not possible to distinguish between those two emotional states from facial expressions. The jerky sound of the faulty streaming, the usual endearments—slut, bitch, cunt, whore .
.
. The footage fell short of any climax scene. Presumably the close-ups of the cum shots, the money shots, would have to be paid for. Gemma played it again. This time she knew there was no doubt as to who the girl in the video was. It was Amy Bernhard.
On the way back to her car, Gemma called Angie but got only her voice mail. She passed on to Julie Cooper the suspicion she was forming that Amy Bernhard had been at the bus stop the day she disappeared, but it seemed that she’d had other plans for that day and had probably never caught the bus at all.
Gemma rang off, wondering. Amy had her make-up bag with here. Where was she planning to go?
•
Gemma banged on Claudia Page’s door, stood back, waiting to hear footsteps. Finally the door opened. When Claudia saw who it was, her eyes flickered with anxiety.
‘I know about the secret, Claudia!’ said Gemma quietly as she barged in. ‘I know what Amy and Tasmin were up to. And you did too!’
She looked around ‘Your mother in?’
Claudia shook her head. ‘She should be home soon. She’s having dinner with friends.’
Gemma continued: ‘And I know why you didn’t sit with her that day on the bus, you and Tasmin.’
Claudia hunched against the wall. There was a silence and Gemma felt the triumph of knowing she was right.
‘Amy didn’t ever get on the bus! She told you at the bus stop that she wasn’t going to school and you spread rumours to cover her. You told Tiffany Brown that she’d left the school grounds. Why, Claudia? Why all these lies?’
Claudia’s eyes were huge. Fear dilated her pupils so that she looked like some hunted nocturnal creature. ‘I had to. I couldn’t tell on her. I pretended she’d come to school like any other day. But then, when she disappeared—’
‘She’d asked you to cover for her?’
Claudia nodded. ‘We write our own notes. We can all forge our mothers’ signatures. Amy was going to give me one, but in all the excitement that morning, she’d forgotten.’ She faltered. ‘And then, when it seemed that something bad had happened to her, it was too late. I was really scared that I’d be blamed. I know that sounds awful and selfish.’
‘At least it’s honest,’ said Gemma.
‘And Tasmin made me swear never to tell anyone about Amy. Because then it would spoil it for her. Just because Ames had run away. Or whatever.’
The two of them stood in silence. Gemma noticed a hall table where tall exotic lilies in a huge bronze urn spiked the air, filling the house with the smell of the tropics.
‘It’s the “whatever” that worries me, Claudia,’ said Gemma. ‘It was the “whatever” that killed her.’ She’d almost said ‘them’ but she wasn’t sure if Tasmin’s death had been made public yet. She hardened her voice. ‘You must tell me everything you know.’
Claudia seemed distracted. ‘I thought she’d run away at first. She said she was going away with someone. The man who’d helped them set up the website.’
‘Who is he?’
Claudia shook her head. ‘Some guy. Old enough to be her father. He had a crush on her, she said. Told me he was stalking her.’
A long pause while Gemma noted this down and considered it. A stalker. Despite the letter and his telescope, that didn’t sound like Mr Romero. He didn’t need to stalk. A teacher had the right to be present in a student’s life for hours a day.
‘A letter was found in Mr Romero’s possession,’ she said, ‘a sort of love letter signed by someone using the initials AB.’ As she spoke, she sensed the tension building in Claudia. ‘Do you know anything about that?’
Claudia looked down at her mauve-painted nails.
‘That was Amy,’ she said finally. ‘She thought Mr Romero had the hots for her. She thought it would be fun to tease him. Her idea was to invite him to a meeting at the beach and then hide and watch to see if he came.’
‘And if he did?’
Claudia shrugged. ‘I guess she would know she was right.’
Fatherless girls, Gemma thought. Without knowing what they’re doing, they put themselves in risky situations. She should know.
‘But once Amy was found dead! Surely you could have spoken up then—about what you knew? It was a murder investigation!’ Gemma wanted to shake her.
Claudia slumped against the wall. Her long hair hid her face like a curtain and when she pushed it back, Gemma saw the tears spilling from her lashes. Gemma collected herself. It was too easy, she thought, to dump it all on this frightened adolescent. Amy was not her responsibility. None of the adults in these girls’ lives had taken enough real notice of what the girls had been up to.
‘Let’s go and sit down,’ Gemma said. ‘I’m sorry I said that. It was out of order. It was you who sent me that anonymous email with the address of that website, wasn’t it?’
Claudia nodded.
‘You were trying to help. But you wanted to stay hidden at the same time,’ said Gemma softly.
Again the girl nodded, brushing the tears from her eyes. Poor kid, Gemma thought. In over her head with nowhere to turn and no one to talk to.
‘I’ll leave if you want me to,’ she said.
‘No,’ the girl whispered. ‘It’s okay. I want to talk to someone about it. I feel relieved that someone knows. I didn’t know what to do.’
They walked through to the huge conservatory area where the palms conspired to make odd shadows against the walls. Several mysteries had been resolved quite simply, Gemma thought. Romero had been telling the truth. Amy Bernhard hadn’t shown up for the meeting with him for the simple reason that she hadn’t been at school that day. Although she still had severe misgivings regarding Romero’s use of the telescope for ‘anatomical accuracy’, his story of being held up in traffic was quite possibly true.
‘When you feel okay,’ Gemma said, ‘tell me everything you know.’ She sat herself on a chair while Claudia slid down onto the rug-covered floor, leaning against an oversized sofa. Gemma took out her notebook. ‘It’s time for you to share the burden of everything you know about the secret.’
Claudia dragged a little sequined bag over towards her and pulled out a packet of cigarettes. She offered one to Gemma who shook her head, waiting while the girl lit it and inhaled deeply.
‘Everything was okay at the beginning,’ she said, as smoke curled around her beautiful face. ‘It was just fun. At first, I even considered joining them on the first website. Getting a webcam and linking up. I took some of the pictures that are on it. Then Amy and Tasmin really got into the webcam thing. They set up a fan club so that people who found the website when they were online could email their responses. Some of the responses were so freaky they decided to start a Dickhead of the Week thing. I didn’t want to be involved in that. I thought it was silly.’ Claudia looked away, miserable. ‘That’s when it started to go out of control.’ She put her head in her hands. ‘It’s all my fault.’
‘I don’t think so,’ said Gemma, gently taking the cigarette from between her fingers and putting it safely down on the ashtray.
‘The guy who’d given them the money for the website offered them modelling work,’ continued Claudia. ‘He claimed he was a friend of Amy’s father. Just a few photo shoots. Amy got very excited. And so did Tasmin.’