“In each of the cells was a pile of rags, which on closer inspection turned out to be remnants of children’s clothes covering human bones. I’ll hand you back to John on the bones in a moment, but for now I’ll cover the forensic side. We have prints from every cell, some adult and some from children. We’re working our way through them slowly and Davy’s helping with that. We’ve also removed all the torture implements and we’re dealing very carefully with any skin and hair we find on those. It’s a treasure trove of information and we don’t want to miss anything. Forensics will be the only way to I.D. the victims.”
Jake leaned in to ask a question. “Did you find any other signs of life, Dr Marsham?”
Des shook his head sadly. “Sorry, no. The only things living were the boy and the cockroaches. He’s a lucky little lad.”
Craig wondered if the boy would think so when he grew up. The saddest thing about abuse was that the trauma lingered for years. Des continued.
“We moved to the grounds and we’ve been ultra-sounding there now for two days. Sad to say we’ve found a number of shallow graves.”
Craig broke in. “All children?” He already knew the answer would be no.
Des shook his head. “There’s one adult. A female. I can’t be certain until we get John’s full opinion, but I think she was young. Her skull was fractured. That may have been the cause of death.”
Craig was pretty sure it would turn out to be Tian Liu, the girl’s mother. He turned to John. He’d recovered enough to eat a biscuit. “John?”
“Des, have you finished on the house?”
Des nodded, glad of the chance to grab a Rich Tea before Liam had eaten them all. There’d been a whole packet at the beginning of the meeting and there were only four left.
John restarted. “The bones in the house are from children aged between four years old and sixteen. Both sexes. We can’t be sure of numbers yet. I’ve had a quick look at the woman’s body and I can’t say anything other than her skull was shattered by a heavy blow and I’m sure that was the cause of death. She was young, I can tell you that. In her twenties somewhere.” He paused, trying not to think about the implications of his next words. “She’d also given birth in the previous few months.”
It fitted. Tian Liu had had a daughter with Ian Carragher and been killed soon after, probably by his new wife. Craig bet that it wasn’t before she’d been tortured. He took back the briefing for a moment.
“If the body is Tian Liu and she’d given birth soon before, it reinforces our theory that Ian Carragher had a daughter who was half-Chinese. The aged-up boy in Aidan’s video was Jonathan Carragher. The girl he was being forced to whip was his half-sister, but I’m betting neither that of them know that even now. I’m pretty sure the voice off-screen belonged to Gerry Warner.”
Des turned to Aidan. “I can match the voice patterns if you get me a sample of Warner’s voice.”
Hughes nodded then spoke. “Your killers are in an incestuous relationship, Marc.”
“If they’re having a romance, yes. But, as I said, I doubt they know.”
John thought out loud. “Imagine if they did. After all they’d been through it could be the final straw. You find some sort of love with the boy who was forced to beat you, only to find out that he’s your brother.”
“It gets worse, John, but I’ll come back to that in a moment. Anything on the hotel, Des?”
Des reached for the last biscuit just a Liam was eyeing it up. He grinned triumphantly at Liam then turned to Craig.
“Yes. Plenty on the hotel. We started in the boiler room and worked our way up from there. It’s not good news. There are bodies buried in the floors and walls of the basement, children again. We’re scanning the annexes and grounds now, but it’s slow going. There are three acres of grass, trees and lake at the hotel. The divers are starting tomorrow.”
Liam exhaled slowly. The case had started with one death and it was turning into dozens. Craig ran quickly around the room getting everyone to fill in their gaps, then finally he turned to Aidan.
“House party, Aidan.”
Aidan paused for a moment, taken aback by what he’d heard, then he launched into the story of the party and the arrests they’d made. Eventually he got to that afternoon’s interview with Edgar Tate. When he revealed that Ryan Carragher was involved in an international paedophile ring, their guests nearly fell off their chairs.
Des interrupted. “Let me get this right. Father and Step-mother are into BDSM?”
Craig nodded. “Yep. She was a dominatrix so he was probably the passive one.”
Des continued. “Carragher had two sons with his first wife; Ryan and Jonathan, and an illegitimate daughter with the au pair. And he allowed Jonathan to be tortured, and be used to torture his daughter?”
Craig nodded again. “Ian Carragher married Eileen Burns and they started their abuse of children at the school, including Carragher’s son and daughter. Then they carried it on at their house in Newcastle.”
John interjected. “They may have started the abuse before they married. It would have made sense to be sure of each other before they tied the knot.”
Des shook his head. “Hell of a courtship. Meanwhile the elder boy Ryan had left home, then he joins Mummy and Daddy and starts a paedophilic side business of his own. Now Jonathan and his half-sister are taking revenge by killing them all. Yes?”
“Yes.”
Des shook his head ruefully. “And I thought my family was bad. The best of this bunch are the girl and her brother.”
Craig smiled. “I don’t think you’ll get much argument on that.” He glanced at the clock. “OK, I’ve got to go in ten minutes so I want to update you on what else we’ve found.” He gestured at Davy. “Thanks to Davy’s skill and efforts we’ve found the I.D.s of the two children. The girl’s mother is flying in from France tomorrow. The boy is from the Lebanon and Davy’s liaising on that. I spoke to Interpol an hour ago and they say they’ve been aware of a child smuggling ring running out of Beirut for some time. The children are stolen all over Europe and the middle-east and shipped to wherever the paedophiles want them sent. They have a man undercover in Lebanon and I’m speaking directly to him tomorrow. Ryan Carragher is already known to them and they’ve said the perps communicate in a chat-room on the Dark Web. Davy can explain what that is when I’ve gone.”
Davy nodded eagerly.
Craig summed up. “I’ve a meeting with the Chief Constable now, but before I go I want to suggest a few things. First, considering that Eileen Carragher’s body was only discovered last Monday, we’ve come an enormous distance. This is a joint Vice and Murder case now and I want us to see it through together. There are two strands to it. The first is pursuing Ryan Carragher’s paedophile ring, which is undoubtedly involved with the bodies in the Newcastle house. I think the ones at the hotel were probably down to Eileen and Ian Carragher and Warner alone.”
Annette signalled to interrupt. “Sir, where does Alan Rooney come in? He wasn’t much older than Jonathan Carragher so he can’t have been involved until recently.”
“It’s a good point, Annette. My instinct says that he was an abuse victim; we know he was Eileen Carragher’s lover from the age of sixteen, but I doubt if that was his first dance. If he was abused when he was underage, then he may well have taken part in one of Warner’s basement sessions with the girl, or Jonathan Carragher. That might have been motive enough for them to kill him, or he may have been involved more recently with the Newcastle scenario. Although we don’t know if Jonathan and the girl know about the Newcastle set-up yet. Des might find us something to help on that.”
Des nodded and Craig continued.
“The fact is, if there wasn’t a market in Northern Ireland for abusing children then Ryan Carragher wouldn’t be shipping them in. D.C.I. Hughes will lead on the paedophile ring, with our support. When we have Ryan Carragher we can make the murder cases against him for any children’s bodies we find. The second strand of the operation is the recent murders. We have four victims and two killers out there running free. Whether people have sympathy with their motives or not, vigilante justice is illegal and they’ve killed four people, so we continue to work the Carraghers’ killers like we would any other case. Obviously the Murder Squad leads on that. ”
Craig turned back to Des. “Des, we need the forensics at the Warner scene, stat. Also, can you narrow down the battery acid and engine oil any way you can. Davy will help with that. John, keep going with anything you can find on the P.M.s. By the sounds of it you have your hands full.” He scanned the faces of his team. “I’m not going to breathe down your necks about how many hours you spending on each side of this, as long as we get results. So, is anyone interested in following through the trafficking ring with Aidan?”
Liam nodded.
“OK, Liam’s working with D.C.I. Hughes on that. The rest, on the murders please and support Liam as and when.”
Craig stood up, signalling that the meeting was at an end. “Right. Jake, can I have a quick word? Everyone else go home. That’s enough for tonight. And remember, no-one mentions anywhere that we suspect Ryan Carragher. We need him to believe that we’re looking elsewhere. I want to see what he does next. Davy, first thing tomorrow look at the Dark Web and see what you can find on paedophile rings. I’ll link you up with Interpol. John, I’ll give you a call later.”
“Please do. Natalie’s on call so I’m free to misbehave.”
Craig shook his head. “No more whiskey for at least a week.”
“That’ll be two shandies tonight then, Doc.”
Liam guffawed loudly and Des and Aidan joined in. Nicky rolled her eyes and just thanked God they didn’t all work in the same office.
***
The Chief Constable’s Office. 6 p.m.
Chief Constable Sean Flanagan rose from his chair and wandered across his office to the window. He lifted a steel ball in the Newton’s cradle sitting on the sill and let it swing downwards in an arc; then he watched the rhythmic motion it initiated, without saying a word. Finally it slowed and stopped and he turned towards Craig with darkened eyes, his normally cheerful voice subdued.
“I thought I’d heard pretty much everything in my time, Marc, but the situation you’ve uncovered is…Well, I don’t know what it is. There isn’t a word bad enough for it.”
Flanagan sat down heavily on the edge of his desk, clasping his hands so tightly that his aging knuckles turned white. “I suppose the question is, what help can I give you?”
Craig had been hoping that he’d ask and he was ready with his reply. “I want to set up a sting to catch Ryan Carragher, sir.”
Flanagan raised his eyebrows in surprise. Stings and murder didn’t usually go hand in hand, but he waved Craig on.
“As you know, we’ve been working closely with D.C.I. Hughes in Vice on this case. The murders of the Carraghers, Rooney and Warner are inextricably linked with child abuse they committed throughout the years. Abuse that will continue if we don’t catch Ryan Carragher.” Craig paused hopefully.
“Go on.”
“There are two things. The historic abuse committed at Marcheson’s School, now the Down Hartley Hotel. And then, there’s what’s been happening recently at the Newcastle house. We believe that our killers were victims of past abuse at Marcheson’s, while the Carraghers worked there, and that they’ve been killing to get revenge for that. But the two children that we found at the BDSM party and the Newcastle house are very much current victims. There are countless cases of murder still to answer at both locations, and with the help of forensics we’ll solve those, but what I’m most concerned about at the moment is preventing any more abuse.”
Craig paused and sipped at his now cold coffee. Flanagan glanced at the wall clock; it was after six o’clock, time for a real drink. He crossed to a cupboard in one corner and pulled out a bottle of Bushmills Whiskey, pouring them both a shot. Craig forgot his earlier vow of abstinence and took the glass, warming to his theme.
“Ryan Carragher will play the grieving son long enough to inherit the money from the Newcastle estate, then he’ll start his activities again somewhere else. Unless we stop him in his tracks.”
“All right. How?”
“I’ve spoken to Interpol and they already have a man undercover in the child trafficking ring. He’s based in Beirut, where the main focus seems to be. Interpol are closing in at their end, but they know that the ring extends to the UK, including here. They’d like us to put Ryan Carragher under surveillance and build a case against him. They feel that if he’s facing life in prison he’ll make whatever deal he can and lead us to other paedophiles, here and overseas. The Met is doing the same with paedophiles in London, and they’ve forces in the Midlands, Scotland and Wales lined up as well.”
Flanagan raised a hand to halt him. “D.C.I. Hughes is onside with this?”
“Raring to go, sir.” Craig took another sip of his drink and let it slide down before restarting. “You know we have an excellent analyst in the Murder Squad?”
“Ah, yes. Isn’t it that young Goth lad, Davy?”
Davy was an Emo not a Goth, but Craig thought correcting the C.C. when he was trying to show his street cred probably wasn’t the best idea.
“Yes. He’s excellent and he’s linking up with Interpol on the internet communications the ring are using. Apparently it’s on the Dark Web, where a lot of illegal activity is hiding.”
Flanagan gave him a puzzled look. “Dark Web? It sounds like something out of a horror movie.”
“That describes it pretty well, sir. It’s basically a shadow internet with sites accessible by those in the know. Some deal in illegal substances. One of the sites, The Silk Road, hit the news recently; you probably heard it on the News. Anyway, Davy’s digging into all that with Interpol and The Met, so he’ll be tracking Ryan Carragher’s movements online.”
Flanagan halted him again. “OK. So Interpol are undercover in Beirut and the other UK forces are on side. Carragher is under surveillance electronically, and presumably you’ve got him under observation?”
“Yes, I’ve just tasked Jake McLean, our new sergeant, to supervise that, but…”
“But that’s not the sting, is it?”
Craig shook his head. “No. Aidan and I would like to run an operation where we put a man undercover, to infiltrate Carragher’s paedophile circle here.”