They broke for ten minutes. More coffee came in. Serrailler returned a couple of calls. Then back.
Linda Warren was working from written notes, not a laptop, but she did no more than glance at them occasionally.
‘The Honourable Will Fernley was charged with and convicted of possessing pornographic material relating to children, and to being party to actual child abuse. It was clear that the inner cellar room had been used to film children being abused by adult males and Fernley’s fingerprints proved that he had been present. But he had a clever defence and there was no evidence to prove absolutely that he had been involved in the abuse itself. But the case was kept open because there had to be others involved, and because of the other two cases we had on file – that of the small girl found wandering and of Glory Dorfner, the child who did the drawings. There were no immediate links – but three cases of that kind in one area and within a few months of one another would always arouse the concern that they could be linked.’
‘But still no proof?’
Lochie Craig shook his head. ‘Not really. But Glory Dorfner was six, whereas the naked child had been younger, around four. The difference in age is crucial. Glory remembered things and over time, and with very patient counselling, she volunteered some snippets of information. She remembered being taken from home one night in a car, and being led down some steps to a dark room – maybe this cellar room in Plimmer Road. She remembered a camera. She remembered three or perhaps four men, apart from her stepfather. She remembered …’ He cleared his throat. It was the first very slight sign he had given that even he was disturbed by some of the things he had to deal with in the course of his work. ‘She remembered being sodomised, she remembered penetrative sex, she remembered having to have oral sexual contact with two men, as she had been forced to do with her stepfather. It took weeks to get all this from her. It’s a sensitive business, as you know, we have to be extremely careful not to make matters worse for the child, or to cause her any more distress, and perhaps most importantly, not to lead her to tell us about things that did not actually happen. In the last resort, we can never be a hundred per cent sure but the officers who got to know Glory and talked to her over a long period were certain that she was telling the truth and describing actual events. When they suggested one or two invented scenarios which were different from those she had described she always rejected them – she said, “No, I didn’t have to do that. No, he didn’t.” She was as trustworthy as a child of six can be. It was an appalling case. Though there was no evidence, it did seem possible to link our one conviction – of Will Fernley – to another offence. Then the case of the child found wandering naked – well, there will always be a question mark over it and we won’t get anything more directly from the girl. There was never much chance of that. But she was examined and semen was found on her externally and internally.’
‘DNA?’
Craig shook his head. ‘Yes, we got it, but it was no match either for Fernley or for anyone else on the databases.’
‘Presumably it’s stored so a match might still come up.’
‘That’s what we always hope.’
‘How long did he go down for?’
‘Eight years, of which he has served five.’
He leaned back and folded his arms. Met Serrailler’s look and held it. Linda sat very still. The third officer had taken notes on his laptop during the whole session, and hardly spoken a word.
‘Simon, I’d like you to take a moment to think again, because it is absolutely crucial. Are you certain that you have never met Will Fernley or any member of his family?’
‘Well, I meet a lot of people in the course of the working year, I’ve taken the Chief’s place occasionally at public functions and so on. But that has always been within the county and I am as certain as humanly possible that I have never met any of the Fernley family.’
‘Good. So we can proceed.’