‘I deal in shit like that,’ she said, trying to keep her voice level. ‘My job is to find these women – sometimes girls as young as eleven – before it’s too late. Before they end up on your desk either as missing persons or, at worst, murder victims. I’m here because I can help you find the men who did this to her. I help you and you help me by catching the perpetrators and making sure they never do this to another girl again.’
Claudia turned and stared at the team, clearly worried.
‘Because I guarantee, she isn’t the first. And unless you apprehend the group of men responsible, she won’t be the last.’
Brady shot her a questioning look.
‘Can you expand?’
‘My team, which I co-head with DCI Davidson, have spent the last few months trying to get information on an international, elitist group who call themselves “The Nietzschean Brotherhood”. We initially got intelligence from Scotland Yard about this group when we first set up the sex trafficking unit in Newcastle.’
‘I’ve never heard of them,’ Brady replied.
From the puzzled looks on the faces around the table, he wasn’t the only one who hadn’t heard of the Nietzschean Brotherhood. However, Brady
‘I wouldn’t expect you to have heard of them,’ Claudia began. ‘They are a covert organisation who are the most difficult group we’ve ever come across to infiltrate. SOCA set up a unit twelve months ago to break into this group without much success.
‘Firstly, they communicate through encrypted chat rooms and websites. Secondly, these men are wealthy. They can buy whatever they want, including a girl’s life. Our informant has said that a year’s membership costs ?100,000. Now that’s membership only. That doesn’t buy you the girl of your choice. What they do have is an exquisite catalogue of girls ranging from ten to twenty-five years old. Whatever creed or nationality you want, they deal in it. And from the evidence on the victim here,’ Claudia pointed to Melissa Ryecroft’s severed head, ‘I’d say the Nietzschean Brotherhood is spreading out from London.’
‘How do you know it’s not just some kind of copycat killing then?’ interrupted Harvey.
‘We don’t know for certain. But from the way she’s been sadistically raped and sodomised by a group of men, I’d say it’s in keeping with previous murders. Especially the use of the captive bolt pistol.’
She looked around the room. It was uncomfortably silent.
‘The Nietzschean Brothers have their own unique take on life. As I’m sure you can guess by their name, we presume they have been inspired by the philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, whose idea of the “superman” is what this brotherhood appears to be emulating. Nietzsche wanted to challenge the ingrained values of society, especially the Church’s indoctrination of ideas about good and evil, believing they hamper human potential. The rejection of God could give us “superman” – a man who would trust his own sense of good and evil and not some Christian doctrine. In 1900 Nietzsche declared the death of God, leading to outright nihilism …’ Claudia paused, realising that she had lost her audience.
Brady gave her a look which told her to move it along.
‘Nihilism is the belief that nothing has any inherent importance and that life lacks purpose. If God is dead, then nothing remains to which man can cling and orient himself by. He can effectively do what he wants as long as he doesn’t get caught.’
Brady noted that Claudia had lost Kenny and Daniels five minutes ago.
‘That’s all very interesting, I’m sure,’ interrupted Brady. ‘But what has a group of nihilistic blokes got to do with this investigation?’ he asked.
‘Everything,’ answered Claudia.
‘Go on,’ said Brady, intrigued by the conviction in her voice.
But he was already starting to do the maths himself.
The platinum signet rings that he’d seen the Eastern European men wearing had the letter ‘N’ as the emblem.
The note left in Brady’s car alongside the victim’s severed head had been signed with the ‘N’ emblem, matching the freeze-framed, digitally enhanced image of the ring’s emblem that Jed had sent him.
He then thought of the ‘N’ branded on Simone Henderson’s left breast.
Had Simone come across something to do with the Nietzschean Brotherhood? Is that what had brought up to the North East?
He wanted to run some of these ideas past Claudia to see what she thought. Also, given that Simone Henderson’s investigation was off-limits for him, he’d have to tread carefully.
‘Well …’ began Claudia. ‘Two things.’
She stood up and walked over to the whiteboard.
‘You don’t mind, do you?’ she asked Brady.
‘Be my guest,’ he replied, noting that she didn’t give him much choice.
Brady nodded at Harvey to step down.
Harvey shot a questioning look at Brady. As did Kodovesky.
Brady discreetly gestured for them to let Claudia talk.
Claudia looked at the whiteboard which was also a smart board.
Brady watched as she touched icons at the bottom left-hand corner of the screen, bringing up multiple images of the branding found on Melissa Ryecroft’s body.
‘As you can see here, the two letters “MD” positioned below the scorpion are roughly three inches in diameter. This branding exists in the livestock trade of course, but also in the sex slavery world. It’s about ownership, as I’m sure you have realised.’
She paused as she uploaded new photographs of other female victims onto the whiteboard.
‘These ten female sex victims you can see here have all been branded with the same mark as your murder victim,’ Claudia pointed out. ‘I’ve seen these letters “MD” and the scorpion marking on five victims from the South as well as ten allegedly trafficked girls brought to the North East and made to work in the sex trade. We carried out a raid on the Dock pub down by the quayside in Newcastle. The seedier end, not the refurbished part.’
Brady nodded. He knew exactly where it was – had been dragged down that way a couple of times by the lads. It wasn’t a savoury place. It was down the dark end by the Tyne Bridge where hookers stood about in doorways tabbing or injecting, depending on their habit. And once they’d had their fix, they would be ducking and peering as the cars slowly drove down. Money for their next fix their only concern.
Claudia continued. ‘The place was raided because we’d had reports that the lap dancing girls there were offering an extensive range of sexual services in a couple of the back rooms. That, and they were being held against their will. One of the punters had become concerned when one of the girls disappeared. His favourite girl. She told him her name was Edita Aginatas and that she was from a Lithuanian village. He couldn’t remember the name of the village, only that it began with “R”. He started asking too many questions about where she’d gone and ended up badly beaten on his way home from the pub one night. Reckoned it was one of the men in charge of the girls: had an Eastern European accent like them. Punter reported the attack, which is why we went in. But by the time we got there we found that the girls had been moved.’
She turned and looked at the room, her face expressionless.
‘We presume that when the punter kicked up a fuss about the missing girl, they got nervous and relocated the group. It happens.’
Brady noticed a hint of regret in her voice.
Regret that they hadn’t got there sooner.
‘That wasn’t that long ago. Last Saturday night to be precise,’ she said, shaking her head. ‘But the information we got from the punter is that all ten girls were branded with this identical mark. So I’d suggest that the victim you have here, Melissa Ryecroft, was either bought or lured by the men that ran the operation at the Dock pub and are presumably running it at some other premises.’
‘Where is she now? The girl who the punter reported missing. Did you find her?’ asked Brady, leaning forward.
‘No … we did run a check on the name. We found out that Edita Aginatas is in fact a seventeen year old from a Lithuanian village by the name of Raseiniai.’
