Spiking the Girl (26 page)

Gemma scribbled a note to check Andrew Bernhard again. ‘Who is this guy?’ she asked.

Claudia picked up the cigarette from where Gemma had placed it. ‘I guessed it was the man from the club. The one who used to let them in free.’

‘Which club was that?’ said Gemma, wondering if she knew the name already.

‘A place called Deliverance. They told me they’d started to put video streaming on a link to their website. But they wouldn’t tell me what it was showing. They’d changed the name too, so that I couldn’t find them straightaway even if I’d been looking. Around then, they started having money to splash around. New clothes, new make-up. They kept putting pressure on me to come in on it too.’

‘But you didn’t want to?’

‘I thought about it. I wanted money. I even went to an interview with the boss.’

‘And?’

‘That made up my mind for me. He was a total sleaze.’

‘Name?’

‘Vernon. Vernon something.’

‘Can you tell me what he looked like?’

Claudia shrugged. ‘Sort of old. Big fat thing. Purple face.’

‘Colouring?’ Gemma asked.

‘Not much hair left. Big eyebrows.’

Gemma noted these details down with the name while Claudia continued. ‘I tried to tell Ames and Taz to get out. But they wouldn’t.’ She inhaled on her cigarette and it caught in her throat, causing a fit of coughing. After the coughing subsided, she stubbed the cigarette out in the square marble ashtray. ‘They didn’t seem to mind that he was a sleazebag. I think by then they were smoking too much dope—maybe doing other drugs. And they loved having money. They spent heaps on clothes. Designer things. In the past, we used to get together to do our homework. All that stopped. They just weren’t interested in school anymore.’

Claudia pulled a gold chain out from under her light sleeveless top. At the end of it was a caged black pearl. ‘Ames bought me this. It’s Versace. She bought herself a Versace watch. Told her mother it was a Taiwanese clone.’ She fiddled with the pearl, rattling it softly in its filigree cage. ‘Guess how much this cost?

‘Didn’t anyone notice?’ Gemma asked. ‘Jewellery? All those new clothes?’

Claudia shrugged. ‘Amy’s mother was too busy fighting with the cowboy.’

‘Eric Stokes?’

Claudia nodded. ‘And Taz got away with it by telling her mum that her father gave her the money.’

All the lies necessary, thought Gemma, to protect the dangerous lifestyle the girls were starting to embrace. And still nobody really noticed.

‘You know nothing at all about this man who helped with the website?’

‘No.’ Claudia frowned. ‘Only that he used to work as a bodyguard to Vernon a long time ago.’

‘What about Vernon? Where did you meet him?’

‘In a café. At the Cross. That big one on the corner. He even tried to paw me then.’ Claudia made a face. ‘He was disgusting. Yuk.’ She shuddered. ‘He had this big gorilla of a bodyguard with him that day too.’

Gemma wrote down,
Vernon and Gorilla bodyguard
. ‘Did you get the bodyguard’s name?’

‘He called him Eddie.’

Gemma recalled that the Ratbag had offended an Eddie associated with Deliverance. Could it be one and the same person?

‘Go on,’ she said. ‘You were talking about the money the girls were making. And the website.’

‘Yes. I tracked down the website—even though they’d changed the name—and saw the Black Diamond hyperlink to the second site. It was credit card entry but they had a few seconds of video as a teaser. That’s all I needed to see to know what was going on.’

‘I’ve seen it too,’ said Gemma.

Claudia looked up. ‘So you know what it’s like.’ She paused. ‘We had a huge fight about it. I told them they were just being used by a bunch of pornographers. I reminded them that they were both under-age. And then she went missing.’ Claudia sniffed back tears. ‘She’d always said one day she’d just run away to Queensland and live with her father. I thought maybe that’s where she’d gone. Or gone off somewhere with this guy who had the hots for her. But when we didn’t hear anything from her, we started getting scared. Tasmin made me swear not to say anything about it. She was really scared of Amy’s stepfather too.’

Gemma thought of Eric Stokes and his dark self-righteousness. Fathers kill daughters in some cultures, she was thinking, if they break the rules.

‘What was she scared of?’

‘She knew he wanted to make trouble for Amy’s mother after they split up. And that he’d use her, Tasmin, too if he could. Taz was getting more unreliable and moody.’ Claudia looked away, as if seeing it all somewhere else, in a parallel world that only she knew about. ‘Plus she had stars in her eyes about some bloke. He was promising her the world. She wasn’t seeing straight. He was in his
forties
!’

‘God,’ said Gemma, trying to keep her face straight. ‘That’s practically geriatric.’

‘She was totally in love with him. Wanted to leave school. Said he’d said she could live with him and get heaps of modelling work.’ She paused, raising her beautiful eyes to Gemma. ‘It wasn’t modelling work he was thinking about.’

She pulled out another cigarette. ‘I couldn’t tell anyone. I would have been in too much trouble. I know it sounds selfish but I couldn’t afford to be expelled from school. Not coming up to the HSC year. I had to think of my mother and how she’d go ballistic. Then it all got worse and I got really scared. I thought the best thing to do would be to stay silent and send you the website details. Then I felt better about it. Like I’d taken action. Done the right thing.’

Gemma patted her knee. ‘It was the right thing, Claudia,’ she said.

‘Now I’m really, really scared. Amy’s dead. And Taz’s gone missing.’

‘But you weren’t involved in the website,’ said Gemma. ‘You weren’t involved in making those pornographic videos.’

‘I know. But I’m part of the group.’ Her eyes brimmed. ‘Whoever killed Amy might come after me.’

‘That’s not very realistic.’ Gemma tried to comfort the girl.

‘Taz said something that frightens me—that they wanted me. That I had the look they wanted.’

She certainly had the look, Gemma thought. An outstanding beauty, cool and classical. Debasing that, for them, would be twice the fun.

‘Taz gave me something to mind,’ Claudia went on. ‘And the guy she had a crush on, he knows she gave it to me.’

Gemma was about to ask what it was when Claudia’s mobile rang. This time, after a couple of whispered words, she hurried from the room. Gemma tried to overhear what was said but couldn’t make out the low murmur. Was it the good-looking youth with the flashing smile who Gemma had seen upside down on the screen of the mobile the first time she’d interviewed Claudia? Gemma waited. If it was him, he seemed to have a lot to say. She wanted Claudia to hurry back, tell her about whatever it was that Tasmin had given her. If the killer knew that Claudia had something that might incriminate him, the girl was definitely in grave danger.

Minutes passed and Gemma started to feel uneasy. She walked over to where the marble paddock ended and looked through the door into the room Claudia had walked through. Gently, she pushed the door further open.

There was no one there.

‘Claudia?’ Gemma called, her voice echoing through the mansion, bouncing off marble and glass. She hurried through the unfamiliar rooms, checking downstairs. Then she quickened her pace, almost running upstairs. She knocked and entered door after door. She retraced her footsteps and ran downstairs again. This time she noticed what she’d failed to see before. The front door stood wide open.

‘Shit!’

She ran outside onto the street. Nothing. She ran a little distance one way, then the other. There was no one around, just the occasional car passing. A man walking a large black dog turned the corner and she almost collided with him as she ran to check the next street. ‘Did you see anyone?’ she asked. ‘A young girl? Tall, dark-haired?’

‘No,’ he said, shaking his head, pulling the dog to heel.

Gemma thanked him and crossed to the other side of the street. But it was empty. She hurried back to the Page house, calling Angie on the way. ‘Claudia Page got a phone call while we were talking,’ she said to Angie as she searched through the house one more time, making sure Claudia wasn’t hiding away somewhere, flinging doors open again, rechecking bathrooms. ‘Then she left the house. Went from right under my nose. I didn’t even know she’d gone until too late.’

‘What do you mean, gone?’

‘One minute she was here talking to me, next minute she’d vanished. I checked out on the street. Only saw a man and his dog and he hadn’t seen anything.’

‘You think there was a connection between the phone call and her shooting through?’

‘It looks like it.’ Gemma passed on the information Claudia had given her. ‘She’s got a boyfriend, name unknown. I’ll ask around after him. And I’ve got a name for you—the man who interviewed her for modelling work. Vernon.’

‘Great. Is that the best you can do?’

‘He’s fat, old and disgusting, according to Claudia. Balding. And,’ she continued, ‘Amy Bernhard did write that love letter you found in Romero’s desk. Except it was a joke.’

‘Did Romero know that?’

‘How could he?’

‘I’ll check it out.’ Angie paused. ‘Any more on Vernon?’

‘He has a gorilla bodyguard, called Eddie.’

‘By the way, our techies are trying to trace the server of that Black Diamond website.’

‘It was pretty explicit,’ said Gemma.

‘Not the usual sort of activities on the syllabus at Netherleigh Park Ladies’ College,’ Angie agreed. ‘The techies are going overtime trying to get addresses from the girls’ own websites. Some of the email responses were pretty off. Oh,’ she added, ‘I’ve traced Sandra Samuels.’

For a second, Gemma was puzzled. Then she remembered the victim statement and the thief knot from the terrible gang rape.

‘Where is she?’

‘She works as receptionist-housemother at a church-run youth refuge in the Cross,’ said Angie. ‘I spoke to her on the phone and she said no way was she going to talk to any cops about her past.’

‘Maybe she’ll talk to me,’ said Gemma. ‘Give me the details.’ She noted them, but couldn’t keep her fear down. ‘Ange,’ she continued, ‘I’m scared for Claudia. She’s got something that Tasmin gave her. And it might be that the killer knows she’s got it.’

‘We’d better find that girl fast.’ Angie rang off.

Gemma made a thorough search through the streets near Claudia’s house, asking neighbours if they’d seen or heard anything. Finally, feeling guilty and anxious, she headed home.

The Ratbag still hadn’t shown up. He was missing too. She’d told Mrs Ratbag that her son could stay with her; she was in loco parentis and she was a failure. She’d been with Claudia and Claudia had simply sneaked out. I should have been more suspicious after that phone call, Gemma scolded herself.

A phone call to Tiffany established that Claudia did have a boyfriend.

‘Damien someone. I only met him once. He used to walk her home from her music lessons before her mother banned him.’

‘Claudia told me that Tasmin gave her something recently. Something that might be very dangerous for her to have. Do you know what that could be?’

Tiffany didn’t.

Gemma headed out again. A short time later she was knocking on Mrs Snellgrove’s door and in a few moments it was opened by her teacher, clutching a dressing gown over her clothes.

‘Gemma! This is a surprise! Is everything all right?’

‘I’m sorry about the lateness of the hour, Mrs Snellgrove. But I need to ask you about someone you might teach.’

‘Is everything all right with Mother?’

‘As far as we can see,’ said Gemma, ‘there’s nothing in your mother’s apartment that shouldn’t be there.’

‘She was complaining again last night,’ said Mrs Snellgrove, ushering her inside. ‘Said she felt it against her legs.’

Mrs Snellgrove closed the front door. ‘Now that you’re here, I’ve got some news for you,’ she said. ‘About that Kingston girl.’

Gemma followed her down the hall into the living room. Her stomach was suddenly in turmoil. The subject of her half-sister had been driven right out of her mind by recent events and now here it was, all coming up again.

Mrs Snellgrove went to an envelope on top of the piano. ‘I wrote the information down. My memory’s not what it used to be,’ she said, opening the envelope.

‘No,’ said Gemma, putting her hand out to stop Mrs Snellgrove. She wasn’t ready for this.

‘But,’ said Mrs Snellgrove, hand frozen halfway into the envelope, ‘I thought you wanted details about—’

‘I did. I do,’ Gemma said, gently taking the envelope from her teacher. ‘Thank you.’ She slipped it into her pocket. Now wasn’t the right time. ‘I’ll take it with me,’ she said and gave Mrs Snellgrove a reassuring smile.

‘Do you teach piano to a girl called Claudia Page?’ It was a long shot.

Mrs Snellgrove shook her head. ‘No, dear.’

She peered closer. ‘Is everything all right? You look very pale.’

Gemma realised the little diamond drop at the bottom of Mrs Snellgrove’s fan brooch was missing. She put her hand out. ‘You’ve lost a diamond,’ she said. ‘From the bottom of your fan.’

‘Never mind. There are plenty more. I’m sorry I can’t be more helpful.’

Gemma went straight home again, ringing the Page house on the way and getting Mrs Page who had just arrived back from dinner and was concerned not to find Claudia home. Gemma explained what had happened.

‘Might Claudia be with her boyfriend?’ she asked.

‘No,’ said Mrs Page. ‘I’ve just phoned. They’re both missing.’

‘His name?’ Gemma asked.

‘Damien. Damien Wilcox.’

Gemma thanked her, taking the boy’s phone number. When she rang Damien’s mother, the woman was surprised that her son had gone out at such a late hour. Usually, he told her what he was doing, she said. Maybe he’d decided to sleep over at a friend’s place and forgotten to call. Gemma got off the line before Mrs Wilcox could ask too many questions.

She was exhausted by the long day, but sleep was out of the question. Gemma couldn’t get Claudia out of her mind. How could the girl just vanish like that? If anything happens to her, Gemma thought, how will I ever forgive myself?