Breaker

She glanced at Gregory. 'They were going to run away together to France, but when that woman's body was found they had to abandon the plan because there were too many people watching. Steve has a boat apparently, which he'd left at Salterns Marina, and the idea was for Marie to vanish into thin air out of Chapman's Pool after saying she was going for a walk to Worth Matravers. They thought if she changed into some men's clothes that Steve had brought with him, and slogged it back across land to the ferry, they could be on their way to France by the evening and no one would ever know where she'd gone or who she was with.' She shook her head. 'Now she's threatening to kill herself if her father doesn't let her leave school and go and live with Steve in London.'

While the garage in Lymington, and its contents, were being taken apart systematically by scene-of-crime officers in search of evidence, Tony Bridges was being formally interviewed as a witness and under taped conditions by Detective Superintendent Carpenter and DI Galbraith.

He refused to repeat anything he had said to Galbraith about his or Harding's alleged smuggling activities, however, and, as that particular matter was being passed to Customs and Excise, Carpenter was less exercised by the refusal than he might otherwise have been. Instead, he chose to shock Bridges by showing him the videotape of Harding masturbating, then asked him if his friend made a habit of performing indecent acts in public.

Surprisingly, Bridges was shocked.

'Jesus!' he exclaimed, wiping his forehead with his sleeve. 'How would I know? We lead separate lives. He's never done anything like that around me.'

'It's not that bad,' murmured Galbraith, who was sitting beside Carpenter. 'Just a discreet wank. Why are you sweating over it, Tony?'

The young man eyed him nervously. 'I get the impression it's worse than that. You wouldn't be showing it to me otherwise.'

'You're a bright lad,' said Carpenter, freeze-framing the video at the point where Harding was cleaning himself up. 'That's a T-shirt he's using. You can just make out the Derby FC logo on the front. It belongs to a ten-year-old kid called Danny Spender. He thinks Steve stole it off him around midday on Sunday, and half an hour later we see him ejaculating all over it. You know the guy better than anyone. Would you say he has a yen for little boys?'

Bridges looked even more startled. 'No,' he muttered.

'We have a witness who says Steve couldn't keep his hands off the two lads who found Kate Sumner's body. One of the boys describes him using his mobile telephone to bring on an erection in front of them. We have a policeman who says he maintained the erection while the boys were around him.'

'Ah, shit!' Bridges ran his tongue around dry lips. 'Listen, I always thought he hated kids. He can't stand working with them, can't stand it when I talk about teaching.' He looked toward the frozen image on the television screen. 'This has to be wrong. Okay, he's got a thing about sex-talks about it too much-likes blue movies- boasts about three-in-a-bed romps, that kind of thing-but it's always with women. I'd have bet my last cent he was straight.'

Carpenter leaned forward to examine the other man closely, then shifted his gaze to look at the television screen. 'That really offends you, doesn't it? Why is that, Tony? Did you recognize anyone else in the sequence?'

'No. I just think it's obscene, that's all.'

'It can't be worse than the pornography shoots he does.'

'I wouldn't know. I've never seen them.'

'You must have seen some of his photographs. Describe them for us.'

Bridges shook his head.

'Do they include kids? We know he's done some gay poses. Does he pose with children as well?'

'I don't know anything about it. You'll have to talk to his agent.'

Carpenter made a note. 'Pedophile rings pay double what anyone else pays.'

'It's got nothing to do with me.'

'You're a teacher, Tony. You have more responsibility than most people toward children. Does your friend pose with children?'

He shook his head.

'For the purposes of the tape,' said Carpenter into the microphone, 'Anthony Bridges declined to answer.' He consulted a piece of paper in front of him. 'On Tuesday you told us Steve wasn't the kiss-and-tell type; now you're saying he boasts about three-in-a-bed sex. Which is true?'

'The boasting,' he said with more confidence, glancing at Galbraith. 'That's how I know about Kate. He was always telling me what they did together.'

Galbraith wiped a freckled hand around the back of his neck to massage muscles made sore by too much driving that day. 'Except it sounds like all talk and no action, Tony. Your friend goes in for solitary pursuits. On beaches. On his boat. In his flat. Did you ever wonder if he was lying about his relationships with women?'

'No. Why should I? He's a good-looking bloke. Women like him.'

'All right, let me put it another way. How many of these women have you actually met? How often does he bring them to your house?'

'He doesn't need to. He takes them to his boat.'

'Then why is there no evidence of that? There were a couple of articles of women's clothing and a pair of Hannah's shoes on board but nothing to suggest that a woman was ever in the bed with him.'

'You can't know that.'

'Oh, come on,' said Galbraith in exasperation, 'you're a chemist. His sheets have semen stains all over them but nothing that remotely suggests there was anyone else in the bed with him when he ejaculated.'

Bridges looked rather wildly toward the superintendent. 'All I can tell you is what Steve told me. It's hardly my fault if the stupid sod was lying.'