He is thrumming with excitement, almost squirming in his seat. His first time on the helicopter. His first time meeting one of his online playmates in real life.
He’s arranged to meet her at the Travelodge, book in, then go to a café overlooking the sand at Towans beach. She said she wanted to see the sea. Rhianna she calls herself, RhiRhiSweetSixteen.
That’s not her real name.
It’s not her real age either. She told him she was fifteen. Almost. Didn’t matter much either way to him.
Fourteen-year-old Rhi-Rhi. What fun he’ll have with her.
It is an effort not to bounce up and down in the seat of the taxi, but the driver is taciturn and doesn’t seem to notice his eagerness. Hayle in November, hardly a riveting proposition.
He will put on his Marilyn Manson T-shirt and his eyeliner as soon as he gets there. The bitch had better turn up, otherwise 383all the screenshots he has of her will be off the Cloud and up online. He thinks of those images again. He can hardly wait. His online pal BDE666 has given him plenty of ideas and Van Damme is always grateful for the images.
Standing at reception someone is waiting for Thor. The one who sent the last few messages, RhiRhiSweetSixteen. Not her name. Not her age. A much older woman, with short blonde hair. She spritzes it up into a quiff on a night out, but today it’s combed flat for work. There is tension in her jaw, tiredness around eyes that have seen too many things she’d rather not see. All part of the job; a job that has left her loving her two rescue Staffies more than most people.
Rhi-Rhi – otherwise known as DCI Maggie (Margaret) Banks, part of a special team investigating internet grooming as part of the National Crime Agency’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection unit. Not a mother herself – doesn’t need to be to feel absolutely fucking furious at what goes on. And while in no way excited like Thor, she is antsy. She picks a rough bit of nail, gnaws at it.
A gift, the girl, the real Rhi-Rhi, breaking down and telling her parents and the parents immediately getting in touch. Rarely happens. Shame, the great inhibitor.
Maggie very much wants to meet Thor, aka twenty-five-year-old Alec O’Donnell. Some pathetic, socially inept incel. Bullying bastard. She can hardly wait.
Then they will trawl through his computer and find who else he’s been chatting to. They’ve already got a location for another person of interest who calls himself Van Damme – from 384the island of Bryher. He’s a consumer rather than producing the disgusting content. Still scum.