Chapter 4

I put the rods and chairs away while Amber went to the loo, then we drove out to Amber’s house.

“Mmm, odd, the door’s locked,”

“Isn’t it normally locked?”

“Never during the day if there’s anyone in, maybe mum’s run out of wine, can you lift me up so I can get the spare.”

Amber stood on my cupped hands as I boosted her up, she ran her hand across the top of the window frame above the door and a key landed on the doorstep with a soft tinkle.

“I put that up there about five years ago, so glad nobody moved it.”

“That’s some impressive forward planning,” I laughed.

“Well, there’s no open windows I can fit through, the one in the loft doesn’t lock, but I’d need to climb on the roof at the back, I don’t fancy doing that.”

Amber unlocked the door, “Mum! Dad!” she shouted as we entered.

No answer.

“Oh well, can you help me grab my stuff, there’s a suitcase on top of mum’s wardrobe, can you fetch it while I empty my wardrobe.”

I pushed the door opposite Amber’s room, the wardrobes were across the room, no suitcase.

“There’s no suitcase on top of the wardrobe,” I told her.

“Oh well, who needs a case, I’ll wash everything when we get home anyway, grab a handful of t-shirts, I’ll get the pants and shoes.”

We were on the second trip to the car when the neighbour shouted Amber over.

“Oh, have you only just got back, dear?”

“Yes Mrs McCready, I’ve been camping.”

“You won’t have heard then.”

“Heard what?”

“There’s been quite a commotion, Derek was arrested on Thursday night.”

“Oh my god! Where’s mum?”

“She got in a taxi yesterday afternoon, she didn’t say where she was going.”

“Thanks Mrs McCready, I’ll go and see the police. Can you hang on here a second while we get the last of my stuff, you can have the spare key in case the police come back.”

We piled the last of Amber’s clothes and books into the back of the Land Rover, then, after she’d locked up, Amber gave Mrs McCready a hug and the door key.

“Thanks for always being nice to me.”

“Will you be OK,” Mrs McCready asked.

“I’ll be fine thanks, Matt is looking after me now.”

“Where’s the police station?” I asked as we waited at the junction at the end of the High Street.

“It’s in town, turn right, I’ll direct you once we’re near.”

A few minutes later we rolled into town, “what the fuck has he done?” Amber asked, her first words since the start of the drive.

“I guess we’ll find out soon.”

“Whatever it is, it can’t be good if mum has done a runner, ahh, turn left here, then second right.”

A minute later I parked around the back of a small police station, Amber had a tight grip on my hand as we walked into the reception.

“Hi, I’ve just found out my dad’s been arrested.”

“OK miss,” the officer at the desk replied, “could I have his name please.”

“Derek Watts.”

“Mmm, do you have his date of birth?”

“Hang on a sec,” she replied as she started counting on her fingers, “26th of July 1980, or a year either side, definitely 26th of July though.”

“OK, could I have your name please?”

“Amber Watts, 15^th of September 2006.”

The officer tapped a few more keys on his computer before he looked up, “if you’d like to take a seat, someone will be with you soon.”

“What’s he done?”

“I’m afraid I don’t have access to that information, someone will be here soon.”

“Can I see him?”

“DS Parsons will be able to answer all your questions when she arrives, she’s on her way.”

Five minutes later and DS Parsons was still nowhere to be seen, “how long will she be?” Amber asked.

The officer tapped a few keys, “it says 18 minutes here.”

“How big is this building if she’s 18 minutes away.”

“Ahh, she’s not here, sorry I should have said that, she’s driving here to see you.”

“Oh,” Amber replied, “she’s coming here to see me, why?”

“Because you’re his daughter. We tried to talk to your mum but she’s disappeared, you don’t know where she is, do you?”

“Sorry, not a clue. I’ve been camping in the forest, my friend took me home to get fresh clothes and the lady next door told me dad had been arrested and mum got a taxi somewhere yesterday.”

He tapped all this into his computer, presumably adding notes to the arrest log.

Amber held out her hand to me, “have you got 50p so I can get a coffee, please.”

“Ahh, I wouldn’t recommend using the drinks machine. Pop next door and get a drink from Costa, I’ll send Alice round when she arrives.”

“Alice?” I asked.

“DS Parsons.”

“Ahh, do you want us to bring you anything?” Amber asked.

“That’s OK thanks,” he replied, looking genuinely touched that she’d offered.

We were sitting at a table by the window when DS Parsons arrived half an hour later, the desk sergeant must have described us, as she walked right over to our table.

“I’m so sorry, traffic out of Kendal was terrible. Would you like fresh drinks?”

“Err, yes please,” Amber replied, smiling at DS Parsons.

She took our order and walked over to the counter.

“She’s pretty, I expected someone much older when he said DS, that’s Detective Sergeant isn’t it?”

“I think so, I’ve not had much dealings with the police, well, not since I was arrested for public urination when I was at Uni.”

“Weeing in public, you can be arrested for that?”

“Oh yes,” DS Parsons replied as she placed a tray on the table, Amber’s eyes lit up when she saw three pieces of millionaires shortbread, “we take crimes like that very seriously. Although we have to be very careful when handcuffing the perp, we don’t want to get splashed.”

Amber laughed when she realised DS Parsons was joking.

“Thanks for coming to the station, we were hoping to speak to your mum, but she’s nowhere to be found.”

“She’s not at home?” Amber asked.

“No, I went round there yesterday and there was no answer.”

“Not the house up here, we really live in Withington. Although, to be fair, she’d be a fool to go there if she’s running away from the cops.”

DS Parsons wrote down the address Amber gave her.

“I’ll get someone round there straight away,” she told us as she pulled out her phone and called the address in.

“So, DS Parsons...”

“Alice, DS Parsons is such a mouthful.”

“Thanks, so, Alice, what’s my dad done?”

“You don’t know?”

“Nope, I’ve been camping for a few days, behind Matt’s house, oh sorry, you’ve not been introduced, this is my friend, Matt. He kindly gave me a lift.”

“Matt Peters,” I added, shaking Alice’s hand.

“There’s no phone signal or anything round there, so the first thing I knew is when I called home earlier for fresh clothes. Mrs McCready next door told me he’d be arrested and mum had got in a taxi with a suitcase.”

Alice looked around, no-one was sitting close enough to hear, “we’ve arrested your dad on suspicion of sexual assault on a minor.”

“Oh fuck!” Amber gasped, before apologising.

“That’s OK, it’s always my reaction to stuff like this.”

“How young?”

“Under 10, I can’t tell you any more than that.”

“You said you went to the house to look for mum, did you go in the house?”

“Not yet, we’re awaiting a warrant.”

“The neighbour, Mrs McCready, has the key. When you go in, the second door on the right is Dad’s office, watch the big box of empty wine bottles on the way. Check his laptop, and on the floor next to his desk is a big box of porn mags,” she looked across at me as she spoke, “we think the girls in the magazines are underage.”

“How do you know this?”

“I showed one to Matt the other day and he said the girl looked to be my age, and I’m under 18.”

“OK, thanks Amber.”

“Do you want to see your dad? I can take you there.”

“No thanks, he can rot in hell as far as I’m concerned.”

“Do you have anywhere to stay?” Alice asked.

“I’ve not slept under that roof for a month, I’ve a secret camp in the woods. Anyway, Matt’s looking after me now.”

“Where do you live Matt?”

I gave Alice the address, and how to get there, “there’s no phone line or mobile signal out there, I’m living out here to destress after a tough few years, the lack of access to the outside world was an attraction at the time, today it’s become annoying.”

“Not to worry, if we need to speak to you Amber, I’ll send someone out to the cabin.”

“There’s a gate, it’s normally locked, I’ll make sure it’s open for a few days, if it’s locked it’s not too high to climb over.”

“No worries, I’ll send the best high jumper,” Alice replied with a grin, “anyway Amber, do you want me to tell your dad we’ve seen you, or do I just tell him he can rot in hell?”

“I’m guessing you’d get into trouble if you told him that.”

“Probably, but I’m sure it would be worth it to tell a creep that one day.”

“That definitely applies to him,” Amber replied, then she went quiet again, I recognised her thinking face as it cycled through emotions, finally she whispered to me, “should I tell her about, you know, what he tried?”

“That’s up to you, you might have to go to court,” I replied.

“Did he do something to you?” Alice asked.

“Mmm, is that important?”

“Well, yes, it kind of is. If we’ve got a case of him acting the same way in the past, it can help us persuade the CPS to bring a prosecution.”

“What should I do?”

“Why don’t you tell me now, I’m not recording anything, i won’t write it down, if it sounds similar to what he’s just done, you can come next door with me and we can record it, and add it into evidence.”

“Would I need to go to court?”

“Probably not, we could film your testimony and use that.”

“I don’t want to go to court, I don’t want strange people asking me stuff.”

“OK what did your dad do, we’ll start there.”

“He stuck his fingers inside me when I was 11, then he tried to rape me but I punched him in the throat and ran away.”

“That’s certainly serious enough, do you feel like talking to me on camera, then we can get everything done in one go.”

“I won’t get into trouble for not coming forward sooner?”

“Absolutely not, we know that it’s very difficult to talk about stuff like this, especially when it’s a parent involved.”

“Can Matt sit in with me?”

“You can have a lawyer sit in if you like.”

“I don’t have a lawyer, do I need one?”

“No you don’t, I’ll see if there’s anyone from Children’s services about.”

“No!” Amber cried loud enough for the people two tables away to look at us, “err, sorry. It’s just if you phone Children’s Services they’ll send some busybody round as soon as they realise one of my parents is in jail and the other one has scarpered. They’ll take me into care because I don’t have any other relatives. I like living with Matt, he respects me and lets me cook and live my own life.”

“OK Amber, I’ll record your testimony and Matt can act as your guardian.”

Alice led us next door, we were allowed to take our mugs with us, which is fun, stealing Costa mugs in the presence of a police officer.

Alice led us behind the counter in the reception, and through to an interview room.

“We have no cells here, well, we have one, but it’s only for emergencies as it’s not got a bed, so we can’t keep people in it overnight,” she told us as she set up a camera and audio recorder.

“Do you still use cassettes to record interviews?” I asked.

“Yes we do, I know it sounds mad, but it’s easier to secure cassettes than digital recordings at the moment. The cassette is locked away securely, nobody can get in and alter anything, you can’t say the same for a digital file unless the actual file is taken offline, which removes the major advantage of having your files held digitally.”

Alice finished setting up the camera and took a seat at the desk so she was on camera with Amber and myself.

“Are you OK to tell me what happened?”

“I think so.”

“Just stick to the facts, Amber, don’t tell it the way you told me. Start at the beginning and finish at the end, don’t ask questions about whether something was right or wrong.”

Amber squeezed my hand quickly, “thanks Matt, I know what to do now.”

“Tell me when you’re ready and I’ll start the recording.”

Amber took a deep breath, “I’m ready.”

DS Parsons pressed a button on the audio recorder and the camera then gave the date and time along with our names.

“OK, Amber, in your own words, why don’t you tell me what happened between you and Derek Watts.”

“I don’t know the date, I was 11 and had just started senior school, so it would be some time in September 2018. It was a hot night, so I was lying on my bed wearing a crop top and panties reading a Tracy Beaker book. I didn’t have boobs then, I didn’t look sexy, I wasn’t being provocative or anything, I was just too hot with clothes on.

“Dad came into my room for something, I don’t even know what, and he sees me and starts blasting me for acting like a slut. He slapped me a couple of times then ripped my panties down and rammed a couple of fingers in my pussy, sorry, vagina. I wasn’t ready for it at all and it really hurt.”

Alice winced, I think she’s experienced that treatment.

“He, err, fingered me for a bit, then he climbed on the bed and started to unzip his pants. I knew I really wasn’t going to enjoy what was coming, so I punched him in the throat really hard, kicked him in the balls and ran away.”

“Where did you learn how to do that, had you had some self defence training at school?” Alice asked.

“Oh no, dad taught me. He was in the army. I think he wanted a son, so because I’ve always been a tomboy I was a fair substitute. He taught me how to play football, he taught me how to fight, and he told me what to do if someone tried to rape me.”

“Well, that lesson spectacularly backfired on him. So, what did you do next?”

“I ran to my friend’s house?”

“Matt’s house?”

“Oh no, I only met Matt recently. We were in Withington when this happened and I ran to my friend Jerod’s house, he lives a few streets away. I ran there in just my crop top, no shoes or socks, or pants.”

“What did he say when he saw you like this?”

“He was surprised, I told him someone had done a bad thing to me, I couldn’t tell him what. His parents were out at the pub, so he was home alone. He poured me some milk while I cried in the corner.

“My mum arrived before I could tell him more and took me home, she didn’t talk about what happened, just told me off for hurting dad. We never spoke about it again. I never told anyone until I told Matt.”

“And did your dad try anything again?”

“Well, he was wary, because I hurt him bad, he had a massive bruise on his neck for weeks and his voice took ages to recover. It didn’t stop him planning something though, he was always asking if I wanted to go camping with him. What kind of an idiot did he think I was, like I’d willingly share a tent in the middle of nowhere with someone who tried to rape me.”

“I can’t begin to understand how you must have felt sharing a house with a father who tried that, and a mother who ignored it.”

“That’s why I barely ever slept at home afterwards. When we were in Withington I either locked my door or camped in Jerod’s garden. Up here I have a secret campsite in the forest.”

Alice reached for the off buttons on the camera and tape recorder, “interview ended 17:45.”

“OK, we don’t need to record this bit. I’m puzzled by the two houses. I could understand if you had a holiday cottage up here, but it sounds like you live up here.”

“We started coming up here a few times a year, during the school holidays, but recently dad has spent more and more time in the village, so mum decided to come up every time he came up. Maybe 8 or 9 times a year, perhaps 6 months in total.”

“Do you attend school up here, Amber.”

“Nahhh, I don’t really go at home, there’s no point, I can learn anything they want to teach me in the library.”

Alice was about to speak when someone knocked sharply on the door.

“Enter!”

“Excuse me ma’am, I’ve just had a call from DC Marsh out of West Didsbury station, they’ve visited the property and it’s empty.”

Amber cupped her hand around her mouth and whispered something in Alice’s ear.

“Apparently there’s a key under the flowerpot on the left side of the back door, the alarm code is ... are you sure, Amber?” she nodded vigorously, “the alarm code is 123456.”

“Dad’s office is in the garage, you can get in there via the utility room through the kitchen,” Amber added, “there’s some boxes under the workbench, they contain more of what you’ll find in the house up here.”

“Phone DCI Bell, see if he can get a warrant for both properties, tell him I’ll take any flack if it goes wrong.”

“OK ma’am.”

“Did you get anywhere with the background check?”

“Not yet, Derek Watts hasn’t paid tax since he left the army 25 years ago, he’s not signed on at all. We have some medical records, he had a serious neck injury 4 years ago...”

“Hang on, do you have a date for that?”

The constable checked his notes, “12th September 2018, he had severe bruising to the neck, claimed he’d been punched in the pub, but the hospital notes show no alcohol in his blood. The ER nurse also noted he had difficulty walking, she thinks he had a groin injury.”

“Well done Amber!” Alice cheered, the constable looked confused. “That was Amber’s work, Paul, after he tried to rape her.”

“Ahh, I see.”

“Do you have any idea where Derek works?” Alice asked.

“I’m sorry, I don’t really know. He did some work for this guy who owns some clubs, but I don’t know what kind of work. It must have been important work, because while we’re not rich, mum goes through tons of wine and he smokes a lot of cigarettes, so there must be money coming from somewhere.”

“Do you know the man’s name?”

Amber’s face creased with concentration, I watched her eyes move as her thoughts crossed her mind.

“Max! Yes, Max Cooper, that’s him. He has a club off Dale Street in the Northern Quarter,” she concentrated again, “Encounters, that’s the place, he also has a place called Cupid and another called Vixen.”

“I don’t know about you Amber, but those don’t sound like regular nightclubs. Look them up, Paul, immediately.”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Ahh, before you go, can you take these mugs back and get us refills,” Alice asked.

Paul picked up the mugs, I slipped him a £10, “get yourself one this time.”

Ten minutes later our coffees arrived, “Encounters is a swingers club,” Paul told us as he placed three takeout cups on the table, he pulled a sheet of printer paper from his pocket, “there’s all kinds of rumours about what goes on upstairs, but despite a number of raids they’re still in business. Cupids was closed last year, there’s no official link to Max Cooper, but there are tangential links to bank accounts controlled by Max Cooper and his finance director, one Derek Watts.”

“Oh wow, finance director, I didn’t even know he could add up,” Amber whispered to me.

“Vixen is a private members club, I spoke to a DS Barratt, she’s been trying to get a warrant to raid the club but it’s never been approved.”

“Mmm, that sounds like someone in charge is a member...” Alice mused.

“My thoughts exactly, ma’am...”

“Can you stop with the ma’am rubbish, please. It’s either Alice or DS Parsons, but I’d prefer Alice when there’s nobody important about.”

“Thank you ma’am, Alice. DS Barratt tried to send someone to join the club, but the membership price is way above her expenses approval.”

“Oh wow, that is interesting, why would a club run by a company linked to sex clubs charge so much for membership.”

“How much do you think it costs?” Amber asked.

“I imagine a DS in Greater Manchester as the same approval level I do, I can authorise up to £1,000 expenses for an operation, I’d need to go to my boss to spend more.”

“So membership costs more than £1,000, that’s insane,” Paul replied.

“You’re dealing with people with very specialist tastes in that price bracket,” Alice told us, “the magazines you mentioned, Amber, you said the girls might have been underage.”

“Some were definitely underage,” I replied, “one I saw was probably 13 years old.”

“Could you show me that magazine?”

“I’m afraid not, we burnt it.”

“That’s unfortunate.”

“I’m sorry, we took a few because Amber wanted to show me one of the girls in the magazines she thought was very pretty. Some of the content was gross, so we tore them up and burnt them.”

“Can you give me clues about the content?”

“Sadism, animals, that kind of thing.”

“You never told me there were animals in the magazines.”

“Because I turned the page too quickly for you to see it.”

“Thank you.”

“OK, I think we’re done here,” Alice told us as Paul left to answer the phone at reception, “you’ve been a great help Amber, really great. I’m sure if the CPS had any doubts about a prosecution, your story will change their mind. And we now know where your dad gets his money, I’m sure his laptop will help us with more information about the clubs.”

“If you need any more information, you know where to find me,” I told Alice as we reached the reception.

“It might be nice having a drive through the forest one day,” Alice replied, smiling warmly.

“The track is a bit rough, use a 4-wheel drive if you’ve got one available.”

“I’ll make a note of that, thanks Matt, and thank you Amber, it was brave of you to tell me your story.”

“We won’t get into trouble for burning the books.”

“Not at all, they should all be burnt.”

“She likes you,” Amber told me as we drove home.

“How do you know?”

“She made a lot of eye contact. I saw her touch your hand as well, that’s always a giveaway. And, she said she’d like to come out to the forest.”

“She’s blonde, I joked, more your type than mine.”

“Ahh, but you’re clearly her type,” Amber replied, subject closed.

After we’d eaten Amber took her book outside and read for a while under the porch light. She read in silence for a long time, flipping her book every once in a while to switch between the two character’s stories.

“What will happen to him?” She asked, breaking the silence as she finished her book.

“I don’t know, it depends on what he actually did. If he managed to rape the poor girl his punishment will be very severe, 10 years in prison at least.”

“What if he only did to her what he did to me?”

“Don’t say only, it makes it sound like it’s not bad. Any kind of assault on a child under 13 is treated seriously by the courts. All the books and stuff on his computer will be counted against him as well.”

“Oh, we’ve not looked at the stuff off his laptop. I’m not sure I want to now. Can you keep that memory stick safe until I feel like watching it?”

“It’s already hidden away,” I assured her.

“Thanks Matt. I’ve turned your world upside down, you didn’t need me crashing your rest, but you’re so nice to me. I really need to cry, can we go upstairs for a cuddle.”

I reached for Amber’s hand, she took it and we went back into the cabin and upstairs to bed, where Amber cried herself to sleep in my arms.

A few days later Amber was at the table listening to Billie Eilish while she typed up my manual when we heard a car labouring up the trail towards the cabin.

She ran to the window, “it’s the police, ohh, it’s DS Alice.”

I unlocked the front door as Alice was climbing out of a 4-wheel drive Toyota Hi-lux, “that’s a bit of a beast,” I laughed.

“You told me to come in a 4x4, so I borrowed one from the incident response unit. Look at that snorkel for the engine, I bet I could drive this bad boy across the lake if I wanted to.”

“I’m happy to watch you try,” I replied as we stepped into the cabin.

“Hey Amber,” Alice called out as she entered, “oh, it’s nice in here, this full height lounge is fantastic. Do you mind me asking how much a place like this costs?”

“Sorry, not a clue. My business partner bought it 10 years ago when he came out of rehab.”

“What do you do Matt?”

“Right now, nothing, Jed won’t let me work.”

“OK, but what do you do normally?”

“I’m the co-owner and operations director for a company that makes high tech equipment to filter liquids.”

“You mean like the water filter I keep in the fridge?”

“No, more like the ones they use in hospitals to filter blood.”

“Ahh, OK, that’s special,” she replied.

“We also make a tiny high pressure filter that’s used in some Formula One car engines, that’s pretty new, we only just launched it this year.”

“Wow, now that is impressive, but quite a small market.”

“Yeah, there’s only 20 cars on an F1 grid, but each of those little filter machines costs about £50k.”

“Shit! Really, that’s insane!”

“Anyway, I’m sure you’ve not come all this way to have a chat about filters. Would you like a drink?”

“Oh yes, a coffee would be great.”

I moved into the kitchen to make coffee as Alice took a seat at the table with Amber, “what are you working on?” she asked

“I’m correcting all Matt’s mistakes in an instruction manual.”

“Are there lots of mistakes?”

“Way too many, I’m shocked he wasn’t sacked,” Amber laughed.

“They can’t sack me, I was in charge of HR, so hiring and firing was my job,” I told them.

“Isn’t Nikki doing that part of the job now,” Amber asked.

“Yep, that’s one of my roles she’s covering.”

“So she could fire you.”

“True,” I mused, “she could, but I don’t think she’s that cruel. Anyway, I own half the company, I’m not sure they can sack me.”

Alice accepted her coffee, “mmm, nice, thank you,” she replied after tasting it.

“So, to what do we owe the honour of your company?” I asked as I took the seat beside Amber.

“Well, to be honest I’m just giving you an update, I could have sent Paul or one of the other constables, but I wanted to see where you live. And I enjoyed our chat the other day, so as the commanding officer on this case, I decided to drive out here.”

“Update?” Amber asked, “has he confessed?”

“He doesn’t need to confess, he was caught red handed, so to speak. We searched your houses and found exactly what you said we’d find. His fingerprints are on the laptop, and the magazines. Almost all the magazines contained material that’s illegal to possess in most countries, and the laptop has thousands of images that are class 9 and 10...”

“What do class 9 and 10 mean?” Amber asked.

“We have a 10 level scale for classing child pornography, Class one is images of fully clothed children in normal situations, family snaps basically, but some people still get off on those kind of images. The scale goes through candid photos of naked children, through deliberately posed children in erotic situations up to full sex between adults and children, that’s class 9.”

“What’s class 10?”

“You really don’t want to know.”

“Oh, and he has some of those images?”

“Hundreds of them, both on the computer and in the magazines. And on the subject of the magazines, he has multiple copies, so he’s being charged with distribution, which carries a much longer sentence than possession.”

“What about his links to the clubs?” I asked.

“That’s a tricky area, he’s on the board of a shell company, I’m sure you know what that means.”

“That’s a company with no actual assets that owns and controls other companies,” I told Amber.

“Exactly, which means he can legitimately claim to have no links to any illegal activity at the companies the shell company owns. He processes hundreds of invoices and bills a week, along with the payroll for multiple companies, but he’s far enough removed that we can’t charge him with anything.”

“That’s annoying,” I replied.

“It’s not all bad news on that front, we have found files that show just what’s going on at Encounters and Vixen.”

Amber perked at this news, “so you can get him?”

“I’m afraid not, he’s sheltered by the shell company, incidentally the shell company is registered in one of the few countries that has no laws against child pornography. Don’t worry, that’s not going to stop us prosecuting him for possession and distribution,” she added when Amber’s face fell. “Anyway, Encounters is seedy but legit. It’s a sex club for swingers, lots of orgies and stuff, but nothing illegal. Vixen though is another matter altogether and,” she checked her watch, “about to be raided by three different agencies in about 5 minutes.”

“Oh my god! What’s going on there?” Amber asked.

“Greater Manchester Police will break the doors down, then officers from CEOP, that’s the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command, part of the National Crime Agency, kind of our FBI, will go in, along with the Home Office Border Force.”