Chapter 14

The controller sat alone, a smug smile firmly in place. The tip-off to the police had achieved the desired results - Kenny had been arrested. Even if he knew the truth about what had been happening over the past eight years, there was no way he could share that with anyone else and hope to be believed. Even better than having Kenny out of the way, the police must have turned his computer on. The controller had been able to copy and then delete the database of all those Kenny had programmed and had also recovered details of the Church's offshore bank account. There was no need for Kenny MacGovern anymore. The teacher had to suffer though. It would be good to see him publicly humiliated, completely hung out to dry.

The controller reached out and picked up the telephone, dialling a number that was written down on a scrap of paper.

"Hello? Is that Sky 24-hour news? Yes, you might want to pick up on the fact that the police in Glasgow have arrested a headteacher for having sex with a whole host of his young pupils. He has also been running a porn web-site featuring underage girls and charging other perverts to watch.

"No, I don't want to give you my name. Just check it out with the police, you'll find out that it's all true."

The smug smile grew even larger as the phone was replaced into its cradle. Kenny MacGovern's world was about to collapse around him.

Kenny sat opposite DI Roger Black in the interview room. Another policeman, this one uniformed, stood with his back against the wall and to the side of the door. Kenny had already been reminded of his rights and advised that the interview would be recorded. He had decided to go ahead with the interrogation without the need for a solicitor - somehow he thought that would send a message to the police. He had nothing to fear!

"Ok. For the record my name is Detective Inspector Roger Black. It's 07:30 on the twenty ninth of August and I am about to interview Mr Kenneth MacGovern. Also present at this time is Police Constable Steven Hill.

Roger didn't waste any more time but simply launched into to his questions.

"Do you know a Glasgow journalist by the name of Mark MacGhee?"

Kenny considered the question carefully before answering. Clearly the police saw that part of his notes as the most damaging. He guessed that made sense - murder, or at least commissioning murder, was a greater crime than having sex with minors. He knew he couldn't deny knowing MacGhee as his name and the fact that Kenny had ordered the Hamiltons to kill the journalist was written down in the notebook.

"Vaguely," he replied.

Kenny had decided his strategy was going to be to keep his answers as short as possible. The less he said, the less risk there was that he would make a mistake and let something slip or trip himself up.

"Is this your notebook?" Roger asked, holding up a transparent plastic evidence bag in front of Kenny.

Kenny peered at the handwriting through the plastic and saw that it was indeed the notebook that he had used to record details of the e-mails as he read through them.

"It looks like my writing so I guess the answer is yes," he replied.

"Can you explain to me why you asked two Glasgow hard men to kill Mark MacGhee?"

"I didn't."

"Look MacGovern. You know and I know that the fact that you ordered the Hamiltons to kill the journalist is written down in this notebook in your own handwriting. You can't deny it!" Roger barked across the table.

Once again Kenny paused before replying.

"I'm not denying what's written in the notebook. I am denying however, that I ever ordered such a thing to really happen."

"How do you know the Hamiltons? How is it that a teacher is able to order around two of Glasgow's most senior villains?"

"I don't know them as such. I have read about them in the newspapers and I know their reputation but I've never met them. I'll repeat, I didn't order them to do anything, certainly not to kill Mr MacGhee."

Kenny knew he was taking a gamble by claiming he had never met the Hamiltons. It was a matter of record that he had been their teacher at one time. If the police knew that then he planned on simply claiming that it was impossible to remember all of the kids he had taught over the years. He wasn't surprised however, that the detective didn't pick him up on that point, he didn't think they would have made the connection.

"So, let me get this straight. You admit you know Mark MacGhee. You claim you know of the Hamiltons but you've never met them and didn't order them to kill the journalist?" Roger asked.

"That's correct officer."

"Then why is it written down in this book?" Roger demanded, shaking the evidence bag at Kenny once again.

"Surely you know the difference between fact and fiction officer?"

Kenny couldn't stop the merest hint of a smile from reaching his lips.

"What? Don't try and come the smartass with me you little shit!" screamed Black, tiny drops of spit spraying from his mouth.

"Are you suggesting that the notes in this book are all your imagination?"

"You know what they say officer - everybody has at least one book in them. This is mine. I want to make it as real as possible so I plan to use some real characters although I'll probably change the names for the final version. I'm hoping using real people will help me develop the characters much easier, you know, bring them to life."

This had been the only plausible explanation Kenny could think of to explain the notes in the book. He knew it was very thin, but he couldn't come up with anything else so he planned to stick to it.

"And I suppose that's why you've used the names of Leona and Kim as well?" Roger asked.

"That's right."

"And having sex with them and putting them on the Internet is all part of your story too is it?" Black demanded, the sarcasm dripping from his words.

"Yes," Kenny replied.

"Then how do you explain the fact that both of those girls appear on a website called sugar&spice?"

"Ah, I think I see your problem officer. You really think I have had sex with these girls and that I filmed them and put them on the Internet? The truth is that I saw them on the Internet and recognised them. That's what gave me the idea for the book in the first place - I could see that kind of plot having mass appeal. I can assure you that I have had nothing to do with filming the girls nor have I had any kind of sexual relationship with either of them," said Kenny.

Roger's face was steadily growing a deep shade of red as he listened to the arrogant and patronising tone of his suspect.

"How then do you explain the fact that the room these girls were filmed in is in your house, in fact just next door to the room your were arrested in? How do you explain that the clothes the girls are wearing in the film are in a wardrobe upstairs in the same house?"

"Very simple officer. I've only lived in the house less than a year. The cameras and clothing were there when I moved in. I found the name of the web-site on a scrap of paper in that room and looked it up on the Internet out of curiosity. That's when my idea for a book began. Anyway, it wouldn't be a crime to film the girls and put them on the Internet. Would it?"

Roger couldn't quite believe what he was hearing.

"As a teacher don't you think you have a responsibility for the welfare of these girls? Shouldn't your first duty have been to inform the authorities when you recognised the girls on the web-site rather than dream up some sick idea for a book?" Black challenged.

"But the web-site seemed pretty tame - more of a teen model kind of thing than anything else. I agree that some of the images I saw were in bad taste but there was no nudity of any kind so I don't see what I would be reporting to the authorities. I can assure you officer; the fashion sense of young girls nowadays doesn't leave much to the imagination. I should know, I see them every day in school."

"But this web-site has movies of both of these girls engaging in sexual acts!" said Black, his voice rising once more.

"I'm sorry officer, I didn't see any such images," Kenny replied firmly.

Roger realised that MacGovern was claiming not to have signed up to the web-site and therefore hadn't got beyond the soft images the home page showed. He tried to control his growing rage and switched his line of questioning.

"So, are you also claiming that you haven't been applying some kind of mind control to a large number of your pupils over the years?" Roger demanded.

"Did you really mean to say that out loud officer? Do you know how stupid that sounds? How could anybody possibly believe that I'm some kind of mind controller? That's pure fantasy," Kenny laughed.

Roger lost it.

"You little bastard!"

The uniformed officer leapt across the room to stop the detective from launching himself at Kenny. Kenny pushed himself back from the table, a look of fear in his eyes in response to the sheer violence emanating from the policeman. He realised he had pushed it a little too far with his last answer and mentally warned himself not to get too cocky.

Roger pushed himself out of his chair, letting it fall over with a crash. He shrugged the uniformed officer off and stepped away from the table.

"Get that little shit out of my sight," he barked.

The constable was only too happy to take Kenny back to his cell to avoid anything more serious happening in the interview room.

"It's been as quiet as the grave all night sir. No sign of anyone in the flat. We've taken a chance and spoken to some of the neighbours and they say they haven't seen Mr MacGovern for months. We've checked with the school too and he hasn't showed up for work this morning. No explanation given for that apparently."

Drew pondered the words of the PC who was one of the pair dispatched to carry out the surveillance of Kenny MacGovern. What he had thought was going to be a straightforward job seemed to be turning into something altogether more difficult.

"Are you telling me that no one knows where he is?" he asked eventually.

"That's right sir," came the reply.

"Well bloody find him!" barked Drew. "You're supposed to be a police officer."

Mark and Felicity had found a small guesthouse in Garlieston and booked in for several nights. Felicity wasn't very impressed and as soon as she could she logged on to the Internet using her laptop, looking for something a better. She looked up holiday cottages in the Galloway area and found a Hoseasons holiday site with pine cabins.

"What do you think of this?" she asked Mark.

Mark wandered over and looked at the laptop's screen over her shoulder. Felicity had clicked on one of the images on the web-site to display a view of one of the cabins. It looked lovely, framed by tall pine trees and set a good distance away from the next identical cabin. She clicked to move through three further images which showed the inside of the cabin and the various facilities it offered.

"That looks perfect," said Mark, "where is it and does it have Internet access?"

He knew they would need Internet access if they were going to continue their investigations into the Church of Cyberscience and the Bilderberg group.

Flick scrolled down, quickly reading the promotional text for the cabins.

"It's very near here - in fact we must have passed it on the way. It's in Newtown Stewart. The sites called The Conifers and it does have Internet connections. We might be in luck. It's the end of August so most families will have already had their holiday and the kids will be back at school. That should mean the site will have vacancies. There's a number here that I can ring. Will I give it a go?"