The room was crowded, with some of the officers standing at the back. Everybody was jubilant, and everybody was grim-faced.
‘This has been one of the biggest ops in our history,’ the DCS said, ‘and this ring is one of the worst we have ever cracked. We’re not dealing with dirty old men downloading a bit of smut, we’re dealing with men who have abducted children, kept them, abused them and filmed that abuse, and who have murdered them and filmed those murders. I have been sickened to my stomach watching the stuff on those hard drives and DVDs we took. So have you. I understand totally how each one of you feels. Counselling is ready and available for any of you, and if you feel at all concerned about yourself, if you are finding it difficult to cope, if you cannot get these images out of your head, if you are having difficulty focusing on anything else – anything – then I urge you to take advantage of this counselling. I thought I was tough and not easily affected until I saw these images. We work in this unit, day in, day out and we are never hardened but we do find ways to cleanse ourselves mentally at the end of the day. This time it will be very, very difficult – it may not be possible. There’s no shame in getting counselling and no pride in playing the iron man – or woman.
‘I’d like to thank you all for the work you’ve done on Operation Sparrowhawk, the hours you’ve put in, the days off and nights with your families you’ve given up. I’m proud of you – I can’t say how proud.
‘You all know that an officer attached to these investigations, Detective Chief Superintendent Simon Serrailler, is fighting for his life at the Royal London Hospital and we’re all of us praying to God he pulls through. We owe it to him, as well as to all the children who have suffered at the hands of these evil men, to bring this op successfully to a close and to see justice done.
‘This is a big mop-up, but the arrests are pretty much confined to two areas – in the south and the east. This has been a paedophile ring among people who either know one another, or live in the same parts of the country. Very controlled, highly professional. If DCS Serrailler had not gone undercover, we might not have broken this ring for years, if ever.
‘This time tomorrow, we should have eighty-seven men in custody. There may be more – we need to do further work on some hard drives, and we also need to break down a few people during questioning. I am convinced that is not the full total of members of this ring, nowhere near. I’ll be issuing a press release, and as you would imagine, there will be considerable media interest – this is a huge story. It clears up several unsolved cases involving the disappearance of children and the locating of some of those children in terrible circumstances. You can feel proud of yourselves, every last one of you.’
The names on the list of those arrested and charged with sexual assault and making, possessing and distributing indecent images of children included those of one public-school headmaster and three senior masters, one consultant forensic psychiatrist, two Anglican clergymen, one Nonconformist clergyman, one Deputy Lord Lieutenant, one senior HMRC chief tax inspector, one GP, four solicitors, eight company directors. A number of those arrested bore titles, including those of Viscount, Baronet, and Knight Commander. It also included seven barristers, two of them QCs. Among those arrested and charged were:
Andrew Morson, QC
James Linkhurst-Brown, QC
The Hon. Christopher Lomax
His Honour Judge Gerald Hanbury
Sir Alan Drummond-Peach, MB, FRCS
The Rt Revd Jasper Murray, Archdeacon of Bevham
Gordon Barkmore, Deputy Headmaster, Cathedral School,
Lafferton
The Hon. Rupert Barr
The Hon. William Fernley
Fernley had been picked up by local police three hours after his escape. He was back at Wandsworth.
Cat was reading out the roll call from the front page of the Bevham Gazette. Rachel was sitting on the kitchen sofa, Wookie on her lap, Mephisto beside her with one paw on her knee to stake his claim.
‘Dear God,’ she said. There was silence. She looked across at Cat. ‘It’s a ring within a ring. It’s like a vein of poison spread all around us. It’s unbelievable.’
Cat stared at the newspaper.
‘Cat?’
Rachel saw her expression.
‘“The Honourable Rupert Barr”,’ Cat read.
After a few moments, Rachel began to say, almost in a whisper, ‘I don’t believe it. I don’t believe it,’ over and over again. Her life had fractured and gaped open like a fault line.
Cat dropped the paper and got up. Simon. Her father. Now this.
She went to the cupboard. Poured them both a gin and tonic. Put in the ice. Set Rachel’s beside her. She wondered how long it would be before the next news broke and her father’s name took over the front page of the paper. Did Judith know? Had the police even arrested him yet, given Simon’s state?
She now knew what Simon had been doing, though not in detail. Kieron Bright had rung and told her briefly.
It was a warm early evening, and they both wandered out into the garden to the deckchairs under the beech tree, and sat, still in silence, for what was there to say?