Chapter 7

It was a very tired Inspector Ian Smythe who was lounging in the swivel chair behind the desk in Steve's lockup, leafing through the files with their documents, notes and masses of photographs. "Quite a cameraman, our Steve," he muttered.

"A budding Hugh Heffner... but what I want to know is where did he get the girls from? None of them look like professional models to me. In fact, most are outright amateurs," commented Sergeant Fiona Adoga.

"Seems that he sold some of his stuff to small scale, specialist magazines... even to private individuals over the Internet. Can't have been much money in it... especially after he gave the girls a decent share. What we need is to find out just who one of the girls is, then we could interview her... then we'd know a whole load more about what the fat bastard was up to. But how do we find who these women are?"

"Would this one do?" the sergeant asked flipping one of the photos over the desk towards her superior who's eyes flickered down to see who it was.

"Ah, yes," he said, "She'll do very nicely. Arrange to have her picked up." The Inspector levered himself to his feet and ambled over to what was clearly the 'stage' where most of the photographs had been taken. "Anything?" he asked the leader of the scene of crime team.

"Well... inconclusive just yet but... there are traces of dried human blood here on the floor and on this tripod. The type matches with the victim and the tripod could be the murder weapon. On the whole and just as a guess, I'd say she was killed here then taken to the building site and dumped. But by whom..." the officer's voice trailed off and he shrugged his shoulders, "That's up to you guys to figure out."

Carol was more than half expecting the early morning knock on the door but, when it arrived, she did her best to act the part of the innocent party woken from her slumber unexpectedly by the police. When they requested that she dress and to accompany them to the station, she asked if it there had been some developments with regard to her case. The female constable told her that she wouldn't know about that, so Carol simply let the matter drop and, accompanied by that officer while leaving her male companion in the lounge, she went off to the bedroom to change

Once the bedroom door was shut, the officer who, Carol estimated, was in her mid twenties and at least three stone overweight, took up a position by the exit. Turning her back, Carol shrugged off her dressing gown and tossed it onto the bed leaving herself naked. For a second she glanced at her reflection in the mirror and couldn't help mentally comparing herself with the other woman for while Carol was giving at least ten years away to the constable and was looking very tried and weary, she was basically in good shape with a thin waist, a flat belly and a good bum; okay, so her boobs were beginning to sag a little but she had suckered two kids... Suddenly Carol happened to look over her reflection's shoulder and, to her surprise, the constable, instead of discreetly looking away as Carol would have expected, was staring directly at her, her tongue briefly licking her lips. Realising that she'd been caught, the girl quickly looked away but it was too late and they both knew it. Carol turned slowly around to face the policewoman and, striking a pose asked, "Like what you see?"

The woman immediately coloured up and glanced down at her feet. Mischievously Carol moved towards her and, taking hold of the woman's hand, planted it over her pussy. The woman looked up and into Carol's eyes... but she didn't even try to remove her hand. For a second the pair stood as still as statues gazing into each other's eyes... and Carol suddenly realised that while she'd never been with a woman before in her life, having a contact inside the police at this point would be a damned good idea. Leaning forward, she planted her lips onto those of the policewoman as the hand slowly inserted a finger into her. Then, as quickly as it started, the woman pulled away from Carol shaking her head. "No... not now. We've got to get you in to see the Inspector..."

"Maybe later... ?"

"Yes... later..."

By eight thirty Carol was on her third cup of coffee in the interview room and still hadn't seen anyone. Sounding just a tad tetchy, she inquired of a different woman constable who was keeping an eye on her how much longer things were going to take, "I've got to be at work tonight - I need to get some more sleep."

Just as the words left her mouth, the door opened and in came the Inspector and his sergeant. "We could all do with some sleep, Ms Hargreaves... but we'll all have to wait just a little longer."

"Well, at least you're here now. Shall we get on? And, by the way, have you written that report about my kids yet?"

"No, I haven't, Ms Hargreaves... I've been a bit busy I'm afraid. As you might have heard, the missing person's case to do with your work mate has now escalated into a murder investigation."

"Yes," replied Carol, "I had heard that... and I'd just like to point out that I no longer work for Duncan Ellis Cleaning. I resigned a few days ago."

"Hmmmm," the Inspector mused, nodding his head. "Now, possibly you'd like to explain these?"

Carol picked up the three photographs that the Inspector tossed onto the table between then. She stared at them and did a very good gasp. "Where did you get these?" she asked, all indigent.

"It seems that your... former Assistant Manager at the cleaning company had a side line. We found them in his... studio," Sergeant Adoga interjected.

"Former... ?" queried Carol.

"As in you've now left the company, Ms Hargreaves," the Inspector slipped in smoothly.

"Ahh..." Carol thought fast. "Yes... well, what can I say? The bastard was blackmailing me."

"With the photos?"

"Yes... no... sort of. First of all he blackmailed me into posing for those with the threat of getting my kids taken away from me. Then he used the photos to blackmail me into... doing other things for him. I... er... hope you can lock him up for a long, long time."

"And this Steve was the one who had you tied up to the lamppost?"

"Yeah... and he took photos of that to."

"We know," said the sergeant. tossing a second bundle of photos onto the table.

More pictures arrived on the polished wooden surface, this time not of Carol but of other women, all in degrading situations. "And these?" asked the Inspector.

Carol quickly flipped through them. "Most of the girls here work, or used to work, at the cleaning company. Steve once told me that he used to force them to pose for him just like he did me. He did say that there were a few who did it either for the kicks or the money... but mostly he had to force them."

Sergeant Adoga cut in again. "And where were you between say, three and six this morning."

"Up to four o'clock I was at work. Four to about four-thirty in a taxi going home. After that in bed asleep... until your people woke me up."

"We'll need the address of where you work, Ms Hargreaves... and were you sleeping alone?"

Carol confirmed the address of her new place of employment and the fact that she had been alone in her bed that night. She then asked the Inspector why they wanted to know all this.

"Because," he replied, leaning forwards, "at some point in the early hours of this morning, someone killed your blackmailing friend Steve... or, it has to be said, there's a faint chance that he committed suicide... though that's a highly unlikely scenario."

Carol tried her best to look shocked. "Forgive me if I don't say I'm sorry. He deserved all he got. I'm just pleased that he's out of my life."

"And who do you think might have killed him?"

Carol threw back her head and chuckled long and hard. After calming down a little, she swept her hand over the pile of photographs scattered before her. "Take your pick. Maybe one of us just had enough. Check out all the boyfriends, husbands, fathers, brothers... maybe one of them found out what was going on. Or check his list of customers... maybe he cheated one of them... or maybe they just didn't want to risk him telling the world abut their perversions. Maybe he decided to add blackmailing his client list to hiss other profit making enterprises. Perm any number from that lot."