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  Juliet Connor was watching her child and she had picked up on the atmosphere in the room. ‘What’s going on?’

  Annie Carr looked at her and said honestly, ‘Look, Mrs Connor, I need to talk to Andrea because we have found out something that could be a serious line of enquiry. I understand why Andrea might have been loath to mention this when we talked before, but Miss Betterway has had to bring this out into the open. She wanted to keep this quiet – as I am sure you will – but that is not an option given the circumstances, I am afraid.’ She picked up the bracelets and laid them on the desk in front of Andrea, saying softly, ‘I need you to tell me, Andrea, whose idea this was, and who you, Kylie and Destiny were involved with. I also need you to tell me the names of everyone who took part and what you know about them.’

  Juliet Connor looked at her daughter. When she saw her silent tears, she immediately put her arm around her daughter’s shoulders, saying quietly, ‘Come on, darling, be brave.’

  Andrea swept the bracelets off the desk, angrily shouting at Annie, ‘You fucking bitch! You rotten fucking bitch!’

  Then all hell broke loose.

  Chapter Sixty-six

  DC Karim was sitting beside Annie Carr in the interview room, and they were both drinking tea and wondering what else this investigation was going to throw at them. They were waiting patiently for Andrea Connor and her mother to compose themselves enough to carry on the interview. Annie had made sure that DC Karim didn’t come into the room until the girl’s mother had understood exactly what the score was. As much as Annie felt sorry for them both, she was also losing patience with them.

  ‘Are you telling me this is true?’ Juliet Connor was obviously unable to believe what she had heard about her young daughter, and Annie could only sympathise with her. But she knew that she had to let this woman see what had actually gone on with her daughter and the other girls. Two of whom were dead.

  Andrea Connor, now that it was all out in the open, was suddenly incensed that her secrets had been revealed. Far from being cowed by it, she was acting like she was the victim. It was a sight to see, because it showed Annie what she was really dealing with, and she was not impressed.

  ‘Oh, do you know what, Mum? You make me sick! Well, I can tell you this. It was just a bit of fun.’

  She was sitting there with her arms across her chest and her heavily made-up face was screwed up in anger and, Annie Carr knew, shame. Andrea had been caught out and she wasn’t going down without a fight. She was determined to justify her behaviour, and that was the worst thing.

  Juliet Connor, her own make-up streaming now with her tears, was looking at her daughter as if she had never seen her before in her life. ‘A bit of fun? You did all these things with those boys and it was just a bit of fun?’

  Andrea ran her hands through her thick hair and laughed. ‘Really? Like yes, Mum!’

  Annie Carr stood up, forcing Andrea to sit back into her chair to look up at her. ‘I understand you all went on YouTube to see how a blow job is done? “Best blow job” sites, if I understand properly. You also were graded by the boys you were involved with? I understand you and Kylie and Destiny in particular were deemed quite popular.’ Annie hated what she was doing, but she knew that she had to get to this girl while she was angry enough to talk honestly.

  Andrea laughed nastily. ‘Oh, why don’t you just fuck off! It was private, nothing to do with anyone else!’

  Annie sat back down and sipped her tea, then she looked at Andrea Connor and she bellowed, ‘Can you hear yourself? You are just fourteen years old and you are performing sex acts on a daily basis for boys who couldn’t give a shit about you. You have lost two friends, brutally murdered, and you don’t even have the savvy to think that your behaviour might have had a bearing on all that. You are talking to me, a police officer, and your mother as if we are pieces of shit beneath your shoes. Well, do you know what, lady? I think it’s time you really grew up, and started to act like the adult you obviously think you are.’

  Juliet Connor sagged in her chair beside her daughter; she looked like a woman defeated and Annie guessed that she had been.

  Andrea answered sarcastically, ‘Oh, like I want to be like you! I liked it, we were just having fun. I don’t know what the big fucking drama is.’

  Juliet Connor stood up and, swinging her arm back, she slapped her daughter across the face with all her might, knocking her off her chair. As Andrea sprawled across the floor, her mother said brokenly, ‘Your father will be distraught when he hears about this. Do you have any idea at all what you have done, Andrea? Do you even understand the seriousness of your actions, you stupid fucking girl?’

  Annie helped the girl up from the floor, and she sat her back in her seat gently. Like DC Karim she wasn’t going to mention the fact that Juliet Connor had assaulted her daughter. If truth be told, Annie Carr wished it had happened long before all this. If ever a girl needed a firm hand, it was Andrea Connor, along with her cohorts.

  Andrea was sobbing now and, when she turned to her mother, Annie wasn’t surprised when Juliet Connor physically pushed her daughter away from her. ‘You, lady, had better spill the beans and tell the police what they need to know. Kylie and Destiny are dead. This is the least that you can do.’

  Andrea Connor looked at her mother beseechingly. Deep down she had known for a while that it had all gone too far, and now she had been found out. There would be no going back from here. If only she had listened to Maria Walters; she had warned Andrea and she had tried to help her. But she hadn’t listened, because she had been so desperate to be one of the popular girls. She had loved being important and admired. Maria Walters had refused to take part and they had all treated her like she had the plague. Andrea had loved that, if she was honest, because Maria Walters was the prettiest and the cleverest of their year.

  Maria had been pushed out of their circle and she had been treated like a leper by everyone. The most annoying thing was that Maria Walters had not given a shit – she had laughed about it. Told them all that they would regret everything, and she had been right. Andrea Connor saw her whole world crashing down around her ears and she remembered her dad talking to her about hindsight, explaining to her about respecting yourself and how important that was in this day and age. She was more terrified of her father knowing what she had done than anything else. He held her in such high esteem, and she adored him. Once he knew about this, he would never look at her in the same way.

  Juliet Connor had stopped crying. She was looking at her baby girl, her daughter, with disgust. ‘Whatever you know, Andrea, you had better start talking.’

  Andrea Connor had no choice: she had to tell everyone what she knew, even though she was convinced that it couldn’t have anything to do with what had happened to Kylie and Destiny. How could it?

  Annie Carr turned on the tape and let Andrea Connor tell them everything.

  Chapter Sixty-seven

  Janet Cross was small for her age and she dreamt of the days when she would finally catch up with her peers. She loved clothes, music and make-up, in that order. As she walked through Grantley town centre she was smiling happily. She had been babysitting for her mum’s workmate for weeks and she was finally in a position to buy herself some decent clothes and shoes. Even better was that her mum’s friend Sue let her order stuff online that she could pay off to her on the weekly, which meant she could really go to town! So of course she had. She liked Sue Border – she understood what it was like to be young and desperate to fit in. Janet liked the kids too – they were really good, and she had become fond of them. All in all, she was pleased with how her life was going.

  She was determined that, by the time she went back to school after the summer holidays, she would be a new person. Better dressed and much more interesting; she was hoping that she might find herself one of the popular girls. It was terrible what had happened to Kylie Barlow and Destiny Wallace, but they could be such bitches; it was hard to forget the nasty things they had said to h
er and the other girls at times. She remembered how they had humiliated her on more than one occasion, bullying her on a daily basis and, even though it was really awful what had happened to them, she couldn’t help but feel a certain satisfaction knowing she would never have to face them again. They had been grade-A bitches, and they had made her life a misery and laughed about it to her face.

  She lived in the council flats, and they never let her forget that. They had tormented her, and she had been unable to fight back. Not just because she was so small for her age but also because she didn’t have the words needed to answer them. It was only much later that she would find a suitable retort but, by then, it was too late. Sue was good in that way, because she was teaching her how to stick up for herself, and that alone had given her a confidence that she had never experienced before. She was coming out of her shell and becoming a different person, and it was all thanks to Sue and her advice. Because she didn’t have the latest phone or the latest clothes, she had been open to the ridicule of girls like Kylie and Destiny and that bitch Andrea! But now she was gradually making sure that she was going to get these things. And, if she kept on working, she would have everything that was necessary to be accepted. That was Janet’s dream anyway.

  Miss Betterway had been so good to her, and she was doing very well at school. She was reading everything that Miss Betterway told her to. And in her spare time she was also going online and teaching herself how to apply make-up from the tutorials on YouTube, and that had been an education in itself. Who knew how many tricks there were to change the way you looked? She was pleased with her new outfit, and she now understood what Sue meant when she said that clothes were important; she had explained how clothes had to be what suited you and your body shape, not just what was fashionable. Thanks to Sue she felt like a million dollars. On top of all that, she had also gone up a cup size so she actually had breasts that were noticeable – finally! Sue had explained that some girls were late bloomers, and that wasn’t a bad thing. Oh, she loved Sue. She had been so good to her, and she had helped her in so many ways.

  Janet was so lost in her own thoughts she forgot that she was meant to avoid her usual shortcut to Sue’s through the woods and go the long way round. It was a beautiful summer evening and she had blow-dried her hair and carefully applied her make-up. Sue was absolutely right. She said that if you felt good about yourself then everyone else would follow suit and she knew that she looked lovely. She had seen that people from school, especially the boys, had begun to notice her, take an interest in her. It was heady stuff, because it was what she had wanted more than anything else. Sue had explained that anyone could change if they really wanted to, and she had done just that! With Sue’s help she had reinvented herself!

  She was smiling happily to herself when she felt the blow to the back of her head. As she dropped to her knees instinct told her that she had to try to get back up on her feet, to keep her wits about her. She tried to pull herself up off the ground. She didn’t want her new clothes getting dirty. She had worked so hard for them.

  The second blow caught her off guard, and she collapsed on to the ground. Her head was bleeding profusely and she could feel the warmth of her blood as it trickled down her neck.

  Chapter Sixty-eight

  Elaine Cross was watching the ten o’clock news when she took the call from her workmate Sue Border, asking her what had happened to Janet and if she was on her way.

  Elaine told her that Janet had left over two hours earlier, and she should have been there ages ago. She looked out of her front-room window and saw that the night was starting to draw in, and she felt a sudden fear as she realised that her daughter was not where she was supposed to be.

  She put the phone down and immediately rang her daughter’s new phone, the phone she was so proud of. But it went straight to voicemail.

  She rang Sue back and, as the panic rose inside her, she started to cry.

  It was Sue Border who phoned the police because, as she said, poor Elaine was in no fit state.

  Chapter Sixty-nine

  Sue Border was feeling guiltier by the hour. She had not known that Janet was coming to her earlier than arranged, but she should have guessed, because the girl treasured their time together. She loved asking her about make-up and boys and life in general, and Sue had relished acting the big sister instead of the mum. Janet had been fabulous with the kids, and they had cherished her being with them. And it had been a bit of company for Sue too. Janet had been interested in what she had to say and had looked up to her, and she had really enjoyed that as much as she enjoyed Janet’s company. Because she was good company, bless her little heart.

  She had really liked Janet, and now it seemed she was missing. And given what had been happening recently, that did not augur well.

  Elaine Cross was terrified at what might have befallen her only child, and she chain-smoked and said little unless spoken to directly. She had aged ten years in a few hours, and that fact wasn’t lost on the police or Sue Border.

  As Annie Carr walked into the tiny front room of Elaine Cross’s council flat she was already convinced that this was abduction. The knowledge depressed her, because there was nothing she could have done to prevent it. The girl had been taken in broad daylight, and that was a daring act. Whoever was responsible had a lot of front, and wasn’t afraid of being seen, which told her that she was dealing with somebody who believed they were beyond capture. That in itself was a frightening thought. She knew they were clever, as there had been literally no evidence left on the two girls’ bodies. The clean-up operation was really first class, as the pathologist had so succinctly put it. Whoever this was had planned everything, down to the last detail, and Annie couldn’t help wondering if he had some kind of agenda, if these girls were being taken in some kind of significant order.

  The spanner in the works was that this young girl, Janet Cross, was not a part of the other girls’ social circle. In fact, she was completely different to the two previous victims. She was small for her age and, from the pictures spattered about the room, she actually looked like what she was: a young thirteen-year-old girl. Somehow this just didn’t fit the profile, as the other girls were a particular type. Even though Annie didn’t like to think that, she knew that it was true.

  Miss Betterway had given her a list of the girls involved in the ‘sex circle’, as she insisted on calling it, and Janet’s name was nowhere to be seen. Annie was aware that she might have to rethink her earlier thoughts about the girls and the bracelets. The other alternative was, of course, that this girl’s disappearance had nothing to do with Kylie or Destiny – which would mean that there was not one but two fucking nutbags out there.

  She hoped she was wrong and that Janet Cross was just being a typical teenager, and gone on the trot for the night with some friends and would turn up later on, shamefaced and frightened of the scare she had given everybody, especially her mum. But it was seeming less and less likely, and they all knew it.

  Elaine Cross looked like she was going to collapse at any second, and Annie wished she could tell the woman something she wanted to hear, but there were no words. Instead she sat down with her and sensitively tried to find out what she could about Janet, her friends and her life, all the time waiting and praying that someone somewhere was going to find her alive and well.

  She didn’t hold out much hope.

  Chapter Seventy

  Bella O’Loughlin was watching her husband closely. She could tell that he had something on his mind, and she had a feeling she knew what that something was. She could feel the anger rising up inside her and she swallowed it down. When he got up and poured out two glasses of red wine she took hers with a half-smile, determined that she would not give him any cause to doubt her devotion. She had to tread warily, because knowing he’d been to see his paramour tonight was very hard for her. She could feel him slipping further and further away from her with each passing day.

  She had always believed that his children would
keep him by her side, but now she wasn’t so sure. Divorce was commonplace nowadays and, even though she had never believed her husband would have contemplated it, she was beginning to doubt whether she could hold on to him. This Christine was a fucking home-wrecking bitch, and it seemed to Bella that her husband had been mesmerised by her and sex. Oh, she knew that this was all about sex – it was all it could be. She honestly wondered what all the fuss was about, as she had never really understood the attraction. She had found the whole thing distasteful, but she had never let on about that. Well, not at first anyway. But they had two children and a wonderful life, so why the hell should she have to endure the nightly assaults on her body? It wasn’t something that she could ever find enjoyable. And surely, after so long, she shouldn’t be expected to do something she hated? And hate it she did, every sweaty messy second of it. She shuddered inwardly at the thought. And, as always, she blamed Joseph for wanting what she felt was something that should be put away like last year’s clothes.

  It was everywhere she looked – in the papers, on the television, on the internet! It was like everyone was suddenly obsessed with the sex act, and she despaired of how humanity was evolving. Young girls walking about like trollops, their whole body on show for everyone to see. Like the girls in Grantley who had been murdered. If they weren’t asking for it, she didn’t know who was! Suddenly she realised that her husband was talking to her, and she looked at him in confusion.

  ‘Are you OK, Bella? I’ve been talking to you for five minutes and you were miles away.’

  She could hear the consternation in his voice, and she took deep breaths to calm herself down. This was happening more and more lately; she lost time, immersed in her own head, and it was something that she had to hide from everyone around her. She knew that young Joey had already started to worry about her, and that should have sounded her warning bells. The last thing that had set her off had been that creature Kate asking her why Joseph Junior could be called Joey and yet Amanda had to be called Amanda. Oh, she had not forgotten or forgiven that! Sneaky two-faced fucking bitch that she was. Now she was swearing in her head again, and she knew that her husband was trying to talk to her and she had to concentrate.