Chapter 16

Neither Pembroke nor Sophie slept much. Both were as nervous as each other. Sophie awoke and read her first text message from Stanley. Stanley called and demanded she open a video call.

“I want you in your school uniform remember, just bring what you would bring for a school day, I don’t want anyone to find out about this. This will be between the two of us, we both have a lot to lose, if we lay this right we both come out winners.”

Sophie could not help but wonder how she could possibly “win.” She did wonder how much money he might give her, but more than anything she just wanted those photos and that awful video destroyed. Part of her just wanted to believe there was a way to end this misery, as the alternative seemed to be to have to live with it until her dying day. “Wear nice underwear” was as sleazy as the conversation had gone. Sophie wore her fullest panties, a boring dark blue color, and she swore she would throw them away afterwards. Stanley had insisted he would bring the condoms, and stressed there was no reason for Sophie to try and buy her own.

Sophie felt some reassurance from his calm educated voice and reasoned that he was so nervous because he was afraid like she was. He could go to prison and be known as a nonce.

Sophie’s mum had made her a cup of tea. “All right Sophie, I might be going out tonight, know what I mean haha. You got that party tomorrow, looking forward to it?”

Sophie nodded. She was indeed. Her mum seemed to have no problem with sex so maybe this would be OK for her. “All right mum, I’ll be OK”

Sophie received Stanley’s awaited text. “Make your way to Liverpool Street Station for 9.30am.” Sophie wrote out a handwritten message and put it under her keyboard. It simply said

‘Mum, I love you. If you read this, then you know that some thing has happened to me. I have been forced to meet a man, called Stanley, at Liverpool Street Station at 930am today 20th of June 2013. His number is (XXX) he has been using. I don’t know how to get out of this hell I am, if you read this, just know I counted on this helping me. Please don’t let this man get away with it. Yours, forever, love Sophie’

Sophie could not think of anything else to write, she hated how inarticulate she was. She looked at the time and realised she had to hurry.

She turned around and saw her mum, who felt guilty she was abandoning her daughter and not paying attention to her schoolwork. Having her eldest daughter emigrate made her realise she needed to treat Sophie a bit more carefully.

“Alright mum, love you, but I got to go now!” Sophie went to move past her, but her mum pointed to her laptop on the desk. “But Sophie, I thought you needed that laptop for your English class, remember? You are going through MacBeth?”

“Errr ... no mum, that’s on Tuesday” replied Sophie, flustered. “No, Sophie, it’s Fridays I know that!” Sophie’s mum grinned with pride, she had remembered something useful about her daughter. She promised herself she would do much better in the future as well.

Sophie paused and realised this was true, but she wasn’t going to her English class, or school, and really did not want to take her laptop around with her. “Come on, your bus will be coming soon!”

Sophie gathered up the laptop and charger and put it in her bag. She then saw the note, left open on the desk. Her mother was still hovering over her shoulder, at the bedroom door. Sophie gathered the note and put it in her blazer pocket.

“OK, bye mum, love you!” Sophie walked out, and wondered what to do with this note. On the spur of the moment, she put it into her mother’s coat pocket and then walked out, hoping it would not be necessary, and she reminded herself to take it out when she got back. After she had left, she cleared things up and got ready to leave for her care job.

Edward Pembroke was in another moderate disguise, of a business suit, and realistic wig with moustache, and was sitting at Liverpool Street Station. He had texted Sophie at 9.28 asking where she was. He knew, of course, as he was still able to track her phone. His stomach was in a knot as he watched the blue dot gradually move towards Liverpool Street Station. He was able to watch her before she even arrived into the station. He checked carefully, and directed her to go to an area near the locker room. She was alone from what he saw, although he could not be sure from his experience with Rosemary. He texted her again and told her to go to a certain locker, and he himself started walking through the ticket barriers onto a train bound for Rosevale-on-Sea. Sophie was texting him back and telling him it was locked. Pembroke was now outside his first class carriage and winced at the loud sound of the platform announcements and the people chattering.

He got on his seat, and was grateful to see his four seat table had only him on it, which was to be expected, given he had paid for all four of the seats. He quickly opened his laptop and portable modem, and began opening up the application.

Sophie received a phone call, and heard Stanley on the other end. Stanley sounded a little different and more formal, but she did not suspect it was because his voice was now generated by inputted text. “Sophie, I want you to use 1455 as the code and open up the locker. Then tell me when you have opened it.”

Sophie opened up the locker and was shocked to see a small but obvious camera, a phone, a small envelope, and a plastic bag.

“Sophie listen to me, I do not want you to get me arrested. I just want this over with. If you disobey me now, I will not give you a second chance, and I will send out all those photos and videos, understand?”

Sophie tried to argue back but was cut off by a repetitive sounding “Please do not interrupt.”

“Sophie, I want you to put your own phone in the locker and leave it there. The camera in the locker will show me you have done this. I want you to take everything else that is in the locker out. Take the phone to communicate with me, I will call you on it. Take the bag, and the envelope, and go change in the toilets. Do it now, do it quickly. I do not want to meet a girl in a school uniform, it is too suspicious.”

Sophie looked at the camera. She had no way to know it was fake. She knew the code, so she could go back in. She put her phone into the locker, and took everything out. She looked at the big, it contained a pair of black tracksuit bottoms and a black Tshirt. She also took the envelope. There were train tickets with a seat number to get to Malowby, a town she had vaguely heard of.

“You want me to go Mallowby?” She was incredulous.

“Yes, its only an hour away, and from what I can see online, the next train is in five minutes, so hurry and get into those clothes and take your uniform with you. And do not take your phone, put it into the locker!”

Pembroke was sweating, the first class compartment was fairly exclusive, and there were just a handful of other people. A Friday morning journey out of London was fairly quiet.

This was crazy, he thought, what if Sophie took her phone? He had the tracking ability on it, and had been able to see her arrive to Liverpool Street with it. If she took it with her, he would know. But if she did, surely he would have to abandon everything?

He looked at his screen. He called the burner phone.

“Hello” it was Sophie.

“Hello Sophie,” replied the calm robotic voice. “Sophie you have everything you need now, just leave your phone.”

Pembroke activated the video call on the burner phone. “Now Sophie, I want you to stay on video, say hello!”

Sophie was surprised, what kind of phone was this? “Sophie, hold the phone up to your face so I can see you!”

Sophie did so, and the voice continued. “Now can you see the headphones taped to the back? Take them off and plug them into your ears for some privacy.”

Sophie did so. People were walking past and this seemed to provide a false sense of security. A schoolgirl in school uniform on a mobile video call in a busy station did not seem unusual.

“Sophie, hurry, get changed, the toilets are just next to you. Come on!”

Sophie felt something take over her, like the voice was controlling her mind. She went into the toilets with her headphones still in her ear. “Let me see you in the cubicle! Quickly, change, and let me see!”

Sophie pulled her dress off, and her blazer. She put these in her schoolbag. Now in just her knickers and short sleeved white blouse, she quickly pulled on the tracksuit bottoms over her shoes and the baggy One Direction emblazoned T shirt. She no longer looked like a schoolgirl skipping school but a normal teenage girl in baggy dark clothes, off home to see her parents. Her black T shirt had One Direction emblazoned on the front, completing the generic look.

“Come on, the clock is ticking, get on that train now!”

Sophie walked out. She walked towards the platforms. She felt so flustered, she could stop and speak to someone, but the phone would hear it! The urgency of catching the train overrode all else, and she used the tickets and sprinted to get to her seat.

Her seat was on the opposite end of the train to Pembroke. It was a booked seat with her partner seat also booked out by Pembroke. Pembroke was watching her original phone, it was still in the locker area. Good girl!

Pembroke could hear everything from the new phone, even the voice of Sophie as she meekly asked someone if this was the train to Mallowby. Pembroke listened in and heard an elderly voice reassure her that it was.

“Now Sophie” Staney’s voice droned into her “don’t talk to anyone, hold the phone to your face, I want to see you while we talk.”

Pembroke looked at her, she looked nervous, stressed, and self conscious. Damn it, he thought, everyone will remember a red head.

“I have a nice place booked near Mallowby you see, and then after that you will go straight back to London. You will be home well before school ends so you can have some free time, and maybe you can do some shopping with the money I will give you.”

Sophie looked around at the train carriage. There was an elderly couple, a manual laborer reading a newspaper, a young girl with a large bag, and some cyclists with bicycles. It was hardly full but she did not know how she could speak openly without them hearing.

Sophie idly looked through the phone, other than the video chat app, and a maps app, there seemed nothing else there. Even if she wanted to, she could not contact anyone on the phone or use the internet to browse.

She had a note pad and pencil and thought to write some notes and leave them. “Sophie, please put both thumbs on the screen where I can see them and keep the camera at your face!” Sophie could not see the other end of the screen, just her own screen, and saw that she was unable to move her hands out of sight.

“Can we talk?” Sophie asked cautiously.

“If you have a naughty question to ask me, please just text me it, I don’t want people overhearing our plans haha”

Sophie texted as the train pulled away. She wanted to know where they were going, and when she would get away. Stanley texted back in turn, as Pembroke was glad for the excuse not to have to furiously type to keep up with the voice application. He assured her that she should be able to get the 1.30pm train back to London, and that he had a nice place near Mallowby. He continued texting about how he was afraid of ‘busybodies’ who would try and catch men meeting girls for sex and wanted to make sure Sophie and he could have a good time.

“I asked this before but how can I know you are going to delete my photos and the videos?” Sophie really wanted to know this. This whole thing was a little weird, she was out of London and did not know this place Mallowby other than it was full of rich people and had nice beaches. She could just go home, and go to the police. Unless she could be sure her material would disappear, this was an insane risk she was taking to see this guy.

“I swear, I do not do this to hurt girls, I just do it to meet them and have fun. I have done this before, and the girls have had my word that nothing will happen and I deleted everything. I promise”

Pembroke stared nervously at Sophie on the screen. If she gave up now, then he should be in the clear. The burner phone would be untraceable, there would be no record that Pembroke had booked all the tickets in his own name, or set up the locker. He was confident that his online activity would not be traced from Sophie’s computer or her phone.

One thing that could happen was Sophie suspecting he was on the train with her. He hoped the voice of Stanley was convincing enough to fool her, as it did not have the background noise of the train. But if she walked up and down the corridor she might recognize him, if not from following him, then from just being an obvious creep.

“How does five hundred pounds feel?” said the voice. “This is a hobby for me, I am very successful in finance, so the money is no object for me.”

Sophie started to think of the money. She could do a lot of things with it, it took her mind off the thing she was planning to do. She started to imagine Stanley as a suave investment banker who would shower her with money. Maybe he might not even have sex with her? He had not even been very dirty with her on the phone.

Stanley asked Sophie to talk about her favorite clothes, and what she would buy. The journey was taking a long time. There was a slight delay at the first stop, and Pembroke grappled with how to keep Sophie’s attention. He could not trust her to just let her disappear offline for the journey.

Eventually, he asked her to set the phone up so that it faced her, and for her to keep the headphones in. The conversation became silent.

Sophie looked at the suburbs of London, starting to disappear into the countryside. She then asked:

“Can I go to the toilet?”

Pembroke felt like rebuking her, but he had envisaged it. “Yes, but you must bring the phone with you into the toilet, and keep it at your face the whole time.”

Pembroke watched the screen as it went wonky as Sophie walked out of the seat and along the carriages. He activated a second screen, which showed what the phone was looking at, and saw several people sitting, minding their own business, some looking up at Sophie as she passed. He wondered when she would find a toilet. He started to fret she would come all the way to his carriage!

Eventually, she found a toilet and went in. He listened to her do her business. He started to speak “It is very luxurious where we are going, so don’t worry you can clean up there as well.”

Sophie went back to her seat. The voice told her to put herself back on screen and she did so. Sophie wondered; there was still time to get off. There were a lot of stops before Mallowby.

“Tickets please.” An inspector passed by and Sophie held out her tickets. “Off to the seaside young lady? School out for the summer?”

Pembroke cursed the man. As a loner on the spectrum, he could not understand small talk and had not factored it into his plans. The idle curiosity of strangers was something that irked him.

“Hi Sophie, I hear you talking to the ticket inspector, it’s all good I don’t mind you being friendly as I am pretty sure he is not going to beat me up!”

Sophie heard the voice in her ear, which interrupted her response to the inspector. “Yes, I am off, I’m just off to see my aunt for the weekend there.”

“Oh lovely” the ticket inspector then launched into a friendly chat about the summer and the weather and his own daughters. Pembroke tried to calm himself but felt himself starting to vomit. He could not stop it, he suddenly ran from his seat to the toilet and vomited into the sink. He tried to quickly clean himself up, and readjust his fake beard. After what seemed like minutes of cleaning and putting his beard back on haphazardly, he walked back out. One woman looked up at him in second hand embarrassment, though a toilet emergency happened to everyone.

Pembroke tried to move as quickly and calmly back to his laptop and the headphones.

Sophie was still chatting! Another voice had joined in, an old lady. The ticket inspector was audibly further away from Sophie but still looking at her, he was able to see from the camera on the phone.

Of course, the inspector was interested in Sophie, Pembroke thought, with disgust. He probably fancied her. All this hypocrisy, they all wanted to fuck Sophie, just he was the only one trying to put himself out there and do it.

“Hi Sophie, don’t worry about chatting with people go ahead! But I get a little nervous that you will tell people you’re meeting me for a bit of fun if you know what I mean.”

Sophie texted him back. “Well it is illegal, you can go to prison.”

“And you can be a porn star. I don’t want that, and I don’t think you want me in prison. Let’s just get this done. Maybe I will give you a little more than five hundred...”

Stanley then sent her more messages, about how this was how many women got their start in life, and she should see this as an education. The other girls in school right now were wasting their time, Sophie was the one being an adult and learning about the world.

Sophie tried to continue the small talk with the old couple but she was now feeling naughty as well as afraid. She thought of the videos and the pictures and what this nice old man and woman would say if they knew what she had done, what she was doing. Part of her was ashamed, the other part excited.

Meanwhile, at Sophie’s school, she had been noted as missing. One of her teachers had tried calling her mother but she had turned her phone off for her work shift. The teacher did not try again, it was nearly summer term, and this could wait until Monday anyway.

Sophie started to get nervous as they got close. She wondered why this man was so paranoid. Would anyone know where she was? There was CCTV and plenty of people had spoken to her on the train. She slyly dug into her pocket and brought out her note pad and pencil while looking at the screen to check if it was obvious what she was doing. Pembroke did not spot anything.

Sophie wrote out. “I am meeting Stanley, phone number (xxx) I am on the 9.30 train from Liverpool Street to Mallowby and am meeting him there. I am 14, I am Sophie Yildiz, my phone number is (xxx), please contact my mum Teresa on (xxxx) if I am missing.”

Sophie tried to write without looking. It was a lot harder than it seemed. She realized her note made no sense, if she did not end up missing, then someone would still read the note and contact her mum about her!