Steven Dunne - Deity

‘It doesn’t mean they’re intent on suicide,’ said Brook.

‘All part of messing with our heads,’ Charlton said heavily. ‘Let’s hope. Any prints?’

‘Her father’s, obviously. And another set that match all the other prints taken from Adele’s bedroom. Without her here for a match, we’re assuming they’re hers. We’re also ESDA testing the surface below the missing pages. See if we can read what was on them from the indentations.’

‘What about this website?’ said Charlton, pointing at the screen. ‘Can we close it down?’

‘The host server’s in this country, so yes, we can start the ball rolling,’ said Cooper.

‘The question is, do we want to?’ said Brook. ‘Like it or not, this site is our direct line to Adele Watson and the other students. It’s their mouthpiece. Ordinarily I would want to cut off their supply of publicity and maybe drive them into the open. However, she — they — have been very clever unloading the broadcasts to YouTube. .’

‘So they can continue reaching their audience even if we close their site,’ Charlton finished. ‘You’re right, keep it open. What was this boyfriend’s reaction to the site?’

‘Rifkind? He didn’t even know it existed until we told him,’ said Cooper.

‘And do we believe him?’

‘I think so,’ said Brook. ‘He can’t be so stupid as to set up a website with his own credit card knowing it was going to be used like this. He’s getting nothing out of this except our scrutiny of his dubious sexual behaviour. Adele Watson played it beautifully. She gave him to us on a plate.’

‘You seem very sure this girl’s the ringleader, Inspector,’ said Charlton.

‘That’s because she’s the smartest, sir. She’s thoughtful and reflective, she’s a writer and a poet so she’s used to making things up. But she had two things wrong with her life — a boyfriend who used then dumped her, and a father, if you believe her diary, who lusted after her. And what happens after she vanishes? Her father’s been cautioned for obstruction and Rifkind is a suspect in her disappearance. He’s paid for the Deity website with a credit card to which she probably had access, and endorsed passport applications for two of the missing students.’

‘So as a suspect, he’s a bit obvious,’ Charlton commented.

‘I’m sure Adele knows that,’ said Brook. ‘She just wants to embarrass him.’

‘But the website was created months before they broke up,’ Cooper objected.

Brook smiled at him. ‘That tells us how long this has been planned and that actually Adele was using Rifkind, not the other way round.’

‘Couldn’t somebody else have borrowed his credit card and set this up?’ muttered Charlton.

Brook shrugged. ‘Who?’

‘Is Rifkind married?’

‘He is,’ said Noble. ‘His wife is Carly, a twenty-three-year-old former student — of Rifkind’s, I mean. She’s seven months’ pregnant with their first child.’

‘He likes ’em young,’ chipped in Cooper.

‘Sounds unlikely she’d be up for wrecking her husband’s life,’ said Charlton. ‘Unless she found out about the affair. Hell hath no fury and all that. Somebody should speak to her.’

‘Can’t hurt,’ said Brook unenthusiastically.

‘Did Rifkind deny endorsing the passport photographs?’ continued Morton.

‘No, why would he?’ said Noble. ‘He didn’t do anything wrong.’

‘Tell me we got something useful from the college today,’ said Charlton. ‘That was a lot of expensive manpower.’

Noble smiled weakly at DS Morton who flicked open his notebook. ‘Fern Stretton, Becky Blake’s best friend, got a text from her before she disappeared. The next time you hear my name you’re going to be soooooooooo jealous .’ Morton grinned. ‘That’s ten Os, incidentally.’

‘Jealous of what?’ asked Charlton. ‘Becky’s sudden fame? Is that what this is about?’

Brook smiled his agreement. ‘We can’t discount it.’

‘To kids now, in a world of instant celebrity, fame is everything,’ said Noble. ‘You’ve only got to watch some of the drooling vegetables auditioning for X Factor .’

‘And even the completely talentless can be king for a day if they get slagged off badly enough and it goes viral,’ agreed Cooper.

Brook bowed to superior knowledge, if not vocabulary. He was lost when it came to young people and their tastes.

‘For the record, Fern texted back but got no reply,’ said Morton. ‘That was the day of the party. Fern says she hasn’t heard from her since and insists to anybody who’ll listen that she’s abroad somewhere. According to Becky’s mobile phone records, that was the last text or phone call she ever made. Kyle Kennedy also used his mobile for the last time on the night of the party. He made a call to Jake McKenzie the night before and sent a text to his mum in Chester on Friday to say he was fine. Then nothing.

‘Interestingly, Adele and Russell were even more extreme,’ continued Morton. ‘There was no record of any activity on their phones the day before the party — or since, obviously.’

‘They shut up shop on the Thursday?’ said Brook.

‘Right. We’re also checking all recent texts and calls for the four of them, against the list of known contacts — but so far we’ve seen nothing untoward.’

‘No common number texting or phoning all four?’ asked Cooper.

‘No.’

‘Strict radio silence,’ said Brook. ‘Clever. Maybe Russell Thomson’s her second-in-command. It would make sense. He had the DVD and he’s the one with the camcorder.’

‘And he arrived in Derby just before the website was set up,’ added Noble.

‘Good point. So what next?’ asked Charlton.

‘We’ve done all the heavy lifting for now,’ said Noble. ‘A blank on bins and grates around the house. We’ve interviewed most of the students and college staff. We can take a longer look at the parents and maybe re-interview.’

‘What about the fields?’ said Brook.

‘Fields?’ echoed Charlton.

‘If these kids left on foot, which looks likely, they would have taken the path at the back of the house.’ He indicated the large map on the wall. ‘There’s a large area to cover but they could have walked along the path round the back of the college.’

‘Or even gone across the fields through the woods,’ said Morton, pointing. ‘The A38 runs past. They could have been picked up from there.’

Charlton nodded reluctantly. ‘That’s a lot of manpower. Check the A38 cameras first.’

‘Maybe they’re hiding in the woods,’ suggested Cooper. ‘Or even dead.’

‘Unlikely, Dave,’ said Noble. ‘Kids mess about in there. They would’ve been found by now.’

‘Maybe.’

‘Okay,’ said Charlton testily. ‘Get uniform on it.’

‘Fingertip?’ asked Noble.

Charlton glanced at Brook for help in protecting the budget.

‘Not without evidence of foul play,’ said Brook. ‘They’re not going to be there, dead or alive, but we need to have looked.’

Charlton tried to hide his relief. ‘Anything else?’

‘What about Jake McKenzie and Wilson Woodrow?’ asked Brook.

‘Remind me,’ said Charlton.

‘McKenzie was one of the lads in the happy-slapping film,’ replied Noble. ‘He wasn’t in college today. Neither was Wilson Woodrow. We showed the first film to Rifkind. Woodrow was the boy who laid out Kyle Kennedy in the assault. Rifkind confirmed there was some kind of bust-up between all three of them in his lesson the day before the party. Woodrow made some homophobic comments and went for Kennedy, and Jake stepped in. We’ve got addresses.’

‘Okay,’ said Charlton. ‘I think we’ve got all we need for the press briefing.’ He eyed Brook’s bandaged head. ‘How are you feeling, Inspector?’