CHAPTER 50
I rang Deb as Blake drove, and she was on form.

“They been buried yet?”

“Not yet, Deb. But we’ve issued the shovels”

There was quite a pause,

“Will my girls be safe?”

I thought for long enough to be sure.

“Yes. I do think so. The bastard was surprised enough, well, almost to say ‘which girl?’, but he’s not quite that stupid”

“Which particular bastard?”

“Charlie’s. Tiff’s all but shat himself”

“Oh good. You coming over?”

“Yes, if that’s not a problem”

“Never for you, girl. Just that we have our regular liaison night with PC Welby this evening, so you might have to watch what you say”

“No worries, Deb. Kettle on? We’re about ten minutes away now”

“Just you and the big man?”

“Just me and Blake, yes. I would like to talk to you, as well, if I can”

“What about?”

“Girls first, if you don’t mind”

“Intrigued now. Tea or cocoa?”

I turned to my driver. “Tea, coffee or chocolate, love?”

“Has Gemma been baking?”

Deb heard that, and confirmed that they would have a selection ready. Blake grinned and opted for tea.

“My waistline will end up knackered otherwise!”

We parked up, Deb waiting by the back door, and once again we were taken straight through to the big room, where what must have been the whole sort-of-family was waiting, with the exception of Gemma, who Deb explained was still on her way from work.

“Paul will be along in an hour, Di, so anything private, please het it done as soon as, OK?”

One of the girls brought us our drinks as a sea of faces shone eagerly and impatiently at us, and the connecting door banged shut on Gemma’s arrival with three cardboard boxes. We were ready.

“Grab a seat, woman, and we will tell you as much as we can about today’s work. Tiff, Charlie? Important question: are you both happy that we share this with everyone here?”

There was a ripple in the group as hands reached out to the two, and Charlie answered for both.

“We talked it over, me and Tiff, and yeah. If they go for a trial, we need to stand up and tell our stories, make sure they go down hard, so go on. Tell us how it went”

Blake settled back in his chair, doing his best to look as non-threatening as he could manage.

“You will all understand Di here has to take a back seat, what with being a victim. We had so much paperwork, though, we needed some extra hands to carry it. Oh dear. How sad--- sod it, you’ve got me saying that now, you so and so! Anyway, we worked through all five for a mix of charges including assault occasioning actual or grievous bodily harm, indecent assault and rape, and we deliberately kept Pritchard till last.

“We’ve got our dear, sweet Candice to read the charges, Office Blonde, aye? And another one of ours not saying anything, just giving each of them the hairy eyeball, while my lover here is smiling sweetly, all innocence and venom at the same time. And we finish up the last of the charges for the attacks on young men, and Candice lets Dai Pritchard turn away, lets him move towards the holding room again, and she says, ‘Oh silly me, how blonde I am, one more thing, Mr Pritchard’, and he stops dead”

I slapped his arm. “She didn’t say all of that! It was just the ‘one more thing’ bit”

The girls were laughing now, all except Charlie and Tiff, who were staring silently at Blake. He kept the cheery style going, though.

“And then Candice reads the charges for all of the rapes Tiff told us about, and he’s gobsmacked. Then this one, bloody hell! She gives him such a false smile, and it’s all about how the past catches up with you, and how great a virtue patience is, and how she’ll see him at the plea and direction hearing and I tell you what, ladies, I think he might even have shat himself”

Tiff had collapsed in tears, several friends supporting her, but Charlie was still in focus.

“No charges for what those two fuckers did at the hospital?”

Blake reached out for one of Gemma’s treats.

“Still with the legal people. We have three other people on remand for conspiracy, the ones we believe gave Bob and Dai the heads-up each time. They will probably give us the go-ahead tomorrow, and we’ll do another visit. This is lovely, Gemma. Didn’t get much of the last lot, our team being such gannets”

I sniffed, deliberately mirroring Charlie. “I took the last of the lemon drizzle back to ours!”

There was another ripple in our audience as that sank in, and he grinned at them all.

“Yeah, we are, and she’s got me looking in estate agents already. It’s all your fault, you sods, clearing people’s minds. Terrible! Anyway, that’s almost everything. Just one left”

“Cunt!”

“Can’t disagree with that one, Charlie. Di? Your turn?”

I swallowed the bite of apricot pastry and looked hard at the girl, who showed me her teeth.

“You know, girls, it was funny, at the trial. When he raped me, no false courage here, it was a huge thing in my life. I went so long feeling his eyes on me, his hands, personal stuff I don’t want to get into, but some of you know exactly what I mean. And there I am, in the witness box, and his expression isn’t an ‘oh shit’ but more of a ‘which one is this, then?’, so I am thinking there are other victims out there waiting to be found. You were just the first, Charlie, and I don’t mean that ‘just’ as a slight, yeah?”

“I get what you mean, Di. What happened?”

“He was brought out, and I didn’t want him to feel we were being oppressive—Blake! Got a tissue, anyone? Ta, Gemma! Anyway, we wanted him to feel he was being properly cared for, so I said how nice it was to see him again, or something like that, and asked him if he needed to use the toilet, perhaps to ease his bladder”

Pause, another bite.

“This is really good indeed, Gemma. I’ll pop round for some to take home”

Deb laughed. “This is worse than bloody ‘Millionaire’, Di! Get to the point!”

“Oh, yes. Where was I? So, Blake reads the charge out, and I am sorry, Charlie, sorry to you as well, Tiff, but we had to use your legal names. And he says, ’who the fuck is that?’, and that told me, really told me, there are others to come. Then, he laid into me, telling me how he DOES remember me, how I enjoyed it, we all know the words, so enough”

My smile had gone.

“Then Candice rips him a new arsehole, as his brief keeps telling him to shut up, and she tells him about a very brave little girl, and how he will probably recover his memory when he is in court again. So off he goes, and she calls after him, all sweetly false and reminds him how our enquiries are still going on, and she is spot on. I see two very brave women in front of me, and I tip my hat to them”

I stood, and started to clap, Blake joining me, and then the whole room, before Charlie started waving for silence.

“Not true, though. We hid, and we didn’t do anything till someone else did the hard stuff, Di, the really brave stuff! We wouldn’t do anything till we knew those bastards were properly banged away, and that is all down to you, DC Owens”

She turned to look at Blake.

“Yeah, you as well, you and your team, but you’d have had nothing without this woman, so, let’s give credit where it’s due, OK? What happens now?”

He shrugged. “As Di said, P and DH, plea and direction hearing, where they tell us how they intend to play it. I suspect we’ll have a whole raft of guilty pleas, and one contested trial. Joe Evans is in the nuthouse, so he has to be assessed—yes, Charlie, he is a wonky-eyed cunt, but he’s going nowhere, and that is looking to be permanently. If the CPS get their finger out, we’ll have extra charges for Bob and Dai, and if it’s a job lot at the hearing they’ll probably plead for all of them. That just leaves us the chief pig. I think he’ll fight. Sorry, Charlie”

She shrugged, and gave me a soft smile. “With examples like Di here, and your mate Chris, well, what else can I do? I’ve got friends here, now. Not on my own against him any more, am I?”

I went around the table for a hug, then turned to Deb.

“How long before your copper mate arrives?”

She checked the clock. “Twenty minutes or so”

“You got time for a private chat?”

I got that old look of suspicion from her, the one she had given me on our first meeting.

“Yeah. The airlock do?”

I realised she meant the buffer room in the other house.

“Be fine, yeah”

“Come on, then”

She led the two of us next door, and rounded on me as soon as we were sat down again.

“What are you up to now? Which can of worms now?”

“Mersey View, Deb?”

It was the first time I ever saw her lose her composure, but she snatched it back.

“You have been digging, haven’t you?”

“Yeah. Sorry. I found two possibilities, that one and a place in Carlisle, called Castle Keep”

“Shit. You have no idea what went on at that place!”

“Um, yes. Yes, I do. I wanted to throw up reading that file, but it did one thing for me, and that was to show me how many people get scarred by that sort of thing. You told me all of the offenders were dead, but I would like to see what we can find. It’s also a duty I feel I have, and that is to give that requital you talk about to any other victims. Was anything done while your rapists were alive?”

I had chosen that word deliberately, and it struck home.

“Not a fucking thing, Di”

“Well, it is your call, Deb. I have to get permission to carry on with any investigation, as it is out of area, but I will only ask for it if I have your consent”

She sat for a while, mulling it over, as Blake quietly set about making us all some more tea.

“Do you think there is anything you can get from it, Di?”

“Don’t know, Deb, but that is what we do now, my team. Old cases, old files, things that should have been properly sorted and weren’t. Things like Ashley Evans”

She barked out a laugh. “Properly sorted now, eh? Or he bloody well will be shortly. What choice do I have, though?”

“It’s entirely your choice, Deb”

“Not really, Di, not with those two showing me what courage is, and you as well. Fuck it; if you get the nod, I will talk to you. Chapter and verse, and it’s a long bloody book. Now, Paul is due. Come and say hello?”

I looked at Blake, and he nodded, so we followed her once more through the connecting door, where a middle=aged constable was getting outside of one of Gemma’s works of art. On seeing that, I started to laugh.

“Blake, all those Yank films were right, isn’t it? Just not doughnuts here!”

Gemma called out “I will NOT lower myself to frying those horrible things!”, and the ice was broken. I held out a hand.

“PC Welby?”

He took it, after a quick wipe of the crumbs from his own.

“Aye. Paul, please. You be the DCs, then? Owens and Sutton?”

“Di and Blake, yes. Just been updating the house on our investigations”

He nodded. “Part of what I wanted to talk to them about tonight, isn’t it? Gemma, love, the missus will love some of these. Could I order ten for Tuesday? I’ll call by”

“Course, Paul. I’ll let Judy know”

“Ta. Now, Di? People about here are really chuffed you have nailed Councillor so-bloody-important Evans, and in my role as Community Officer said community has some people looking for the right people to talk to”

“What about, Paul?”

“Oh, building work, mostly. Work not done to suitable standard, overpayments, pressure to pay cash, subcontractors not getting paid at all, all that sort of thing. Not happy, is it?”

Blake nodded to me. “I’ll have a word with Sean. Paul, he’s being done for fraud and money-laundering at the moment, so we have a team from Revenue and Customs on him. I’ll pass your details to them, if you like”

“It’ll do for starters! Got more, though”

“Go on”

“Spent ages talking to these girls, and others as well. Been telling Tiff and Charlie in particular they need to sort the great man out right tidy, and I get nowhere till you get things rolling. They haven’t been the only ones. The BBC’s had the news out on the extra charges for all of them, radio, telly, internet, isn’t it? I’ve had three calls already this evening”

I felt my pulse rate going up. Police, Di. Professional.

“What about, Paul?”

“Women who want to talk to someone about Ashley Evans and his problem keeping his flies zipped”