Say You're Sorry Part 45

A shadow moved on my right. His hands closed around my waist and his fingers covered my mouth, pressing against my nose. I couldn't breathe and I couldn't tell him. I kicked and squirmed, but he held me tighter.

He carried me back to the leisure center. I thought I was going to suffocate. Instead, he put me down and tied my hands behind my back. I was sitting on the concrete outside the changing room.

I could hear music inside. They were laughing. Tash was begging them to let her go.

The man pulled my head up. He put a smooth stone in my mouth. "Don't you swallow this or you'll choke," he said, as he pulled a piece of fabric between my teeth, tying it behind my head. Then he pulled up my s.h.i.+rt until it covered my face. I was embarra.s.sed because he could see my bra.

"We're not going to hurt you," he said. "Your friend is being taught a lesson."

I couldn't see his face, but I smelled his sweat and the alcohol on his breath.

I heard voices inside. Music playing. Laughter.

"Swing those hips," someone said.

"Show us how you move."

"Lift your chin. I want to see your face."

38.

Toby Kroger sits with his legs splayed, fingers locked behind his head, endeavoring to look like a man who has never known a moment of doubt or hesitation. Internally, there is a dynamic at work. He's scared. Bewildered by the speed of his arrest. Wondering what moment of catastrophic inattention had led to this abrupt change in his fortunes.

I have read his file. Unemployed, uneducated, he's one of three children whose parents divorced when he was seven. His grandfather and father worked on the production line at the Morris Motor Company in Cowley until the downsizing of the eighties saw the workforce cut by 90 per cent.

Kroger was kicked out of school at fifteen and arrested twice before his seventeenth birthday. There were no factory jobs. The mines had closed and the manufacturers had moved offsh.o.r.e. The state paid him welfare and wondered why a kid like this would turn to crime, when the only "paid work" on offer was coming from the drug dealers and crime gangs on the estates. So they hired more police and built more prisons and hoped the undercla.s.s would shrink and die.

Drury is behind me in the observation room. "What's your take on this guy?"

"He'll stonewall you," I say. "He isn't fazed by police interviews because he's been here before."

"I'm a patient man."

"That won't be enough. You have to shake him up. Keep him off balance. I can help with that. Let me sit in."

The DCI doesn't dismiss the idea. "Make your case."

"Right now Kroger doesn't know why he's been arrested, but he must suspect this has something to do with the photographs. People get nervous around psychologists. They think I'm going to mess with their heads or read their thoughts. It might be enough to unsettle him."

Drury ponders this for a moment. Makes a decision. "Let's do this."

Kroger doesn't look up as we enter. I take my chair and move it around to his side of the table. He looks at me sideways and then to Drury.

"What's he doing here?"

"Professor O'Loughlin is a psychologist. He's here to observe you."

"Can he do that?"

"Relax, Toby."

"But why is he here?"

"It doesn't matter."

Kroger looks at me again. The clock ticks through half a minute.

"I want him to stop doing that," he moans.

"Doing what?"

"Make him stop staring at me."

Ignoring him, Drury opens a folder and shuffles pages. Kroger picks up his chair and moves it further away from mine, crossing his arms. Enclosed. Defensive.

Another minute pa.s.ses.

"What are you waiting for?" he asks.

"I'm giving you time to compose yourself," says Drury.

"Huh?"

"I'm giving you time to come up with a story. It helps to have a good story when you're going to be charged with s.e.xual a.s.sault."

"I didn't touch anyone. If she said I did, she's lying."

Drury pauses. "Who do you think we're talking about, Toby?"

Kroger hesitates. "I don't know. Some b.i.t.c.h."

"Natasha McBain. We found footage of her on your computer."

Kroger falters and takes a moment to recover. "That's not my laptop."

"We found it in your flat. It's linked to your email account."

"A guy sold it to me."

"When?"

"A few weeks back."

"Where?"

"In a pub."

"Which pub?"

"The Ox."

"The Ox has been closed since March."

"Must have been another pub. I can't remember."

Drury shakes his head. "I gave you extra time, Toby."

"It's true! A guy sold it to me. He was blond, fat, about forty. I think he was one of them problem gamblers you hear about, because he only wanted sixty quid."

"And all the p.o.r.n on the computer?"

Kroger grins, his gold tooth gleaming. "That's not illegal."

"The photographs you sold of Natasha McBain, who took them?"

"Don't know what you're talking about."

"We have CCTV footage of you collecting the money from a journalist, who has just identified you as being the source."

His grin fades. He glances nervously at me. "I found them on the computer. The guy didn't wipe his hard drive."

"You recognized Natasha McBain?"

"Yeah."

"Why didn't you call the police?"

"I saw an opportunity to make a few quid."

"She was being s.e.xually a.s.saulted."

"I didn't watch the whole thing."

"Maybe you think she deserved it."

"None of my business."

"Who took the footage?"

"I told you."

"Some fat guy you met in the pub?"

"Yeah."

"Last chance, Toby. I want the truth."

Drury signals to the mirror. Moments later there is a knock. Dave Casey enters holding a mobile phone.

"Is this your phone, Toby?"

Kroger hesitates.

"It's a pretty straightforward question," says Drury. "It's registered in your name. You took out the plan. What's the security code?"

"I don't have to tell you that."

"Don't worry-we've unlocked it already."

Kroger is staring at the phone like it might detonate. "That's my private property. You need a warrant or something for that."

"That's where you're wrong."

The DCI slides his finger across the screen.

"We've searched the memory. We found the footage."

He turns the screen longways. Footage begins playing. Natasha is dancing on the small screen. Kroger won't look.

"There was no fat man in the pub, Toby. You took the footage. You filmed what happened. She was fifteen years old. I counted six grown men. Seven counting you."

"I just filmed, I didn't touch her."

"You raped her."

"No, no, no." He shakes his head from side to side, pleading with Drury to understand. "We just frightened her. We flicked her with towels. We made her dance. n.o.body raped her."

"b.o.l.l.o.c.ks!"

"It's true. n.o.body raped her. I swear."

"Where was it taken?"

Again Kroger hesitates. Drury slaps his hand on the table.

"How long do you think it's going to take us to triangulate the signals and find out exactly where you were? And how long will it take before we trace the signals from other mobile phones at the same place at the same time? We're going to get the names of everyone on this video and we're going to charge them with s.e.xual a.s.sault and kidnapping and maybe even murder."

"What? No, no, we didn't murder anyone. We didn't kidnap her. It was just a bit of fun. Payback for what she done."

"What did she do?"