Breaker

'After.'

'So he knew what you and Steve had done?'

She pressed her hands to her face. 'I don't see how he could have done ... he wasn't around for the whole week, but he's been-well, odd-ever since...'

'When did this happen?'

'Last half-term.'

Carpenter consulted his diary. 'Between twenty-four and thirty-one May?'

'It was a bank holiday, I know that.'

'Fine.' He smiled encouragingly. 'Only one or two more questions, Bibi, and then we're done. Do you remember an occasion when Tony was driving you somewhere in Steve's car and Kate Sumner had smeared the passenger door handle with her daughter's feces?'

She pulled an expression of disgust. 'It was horrible. I got it all over my hand.'

'Can you remember when that was?'

She thought about it. 'I think it was the beginning of June. Tony said he'd take me to the flicks in Southampton, but I had to wash my hands so much to get all the filth off that in the end we never went.'

'After you'd slept with Steve then?'

'Yes.'

'Thank you. Last question. Where did Tony stay while he was away?'

'Miles away,' she said with emphasis. 'His parents have a caravan at Lulworth Cove, and Tony always goes there on his own when he needs to recharge his batteries. I keep telling him he should give up teaching because he really hates children. He says if he has a nervous breakdown it'll be their fault, even though everyone else will say it was because he smoked too much cannabis.'

Steven Harding's interview was tougher. He was informed that Marie Freemantle had given the police a statement about her relationship with him and that, because of her age, he could well face charges. Nevertheless, he declined the services of a solicitor, saying he had nothing to hide. He seemed to assume that Marie had been questioned as a result of his off-the-record conversation wth Nick Ingram the previous evening, and neither Carpenter nor Galbraith disabused him of the fact.

'You are currently in a relationship with a fifteen-year-old by the name of Marie Freemantle?' said Carpenter.

'Yes.'

'Whom you knew to be underage when you first had sexual intercourse with her?'

'Yes.'

'Where does Marie live?'

'Fifty-four Dancer Road, Lymington.'

'Why did your agent tell us you have a girlfriend called Marie living in London?'

'Because that's where he thinks she lives. He got her some work, and as she didn't want her parents to know about it, we gave the address of a shop in London that acts is a postal drop.'

'What sort of work?'

'Nude work.'

'Pornography?'

Harding looked uncomfortable. 'Only soft porn.'

'Video or stills?'

'Stills.'

'Were you in the shots with her?'

'Some,' he admitted.

'Where are those photographs now?'

'I dropped them over the side of my boat.'

'Because they showed you performing indecent acts with an underage girl?'

'She doesn't look underage.'

'Answer the question, Steve. Did you put them over the side because they showed you performing indecent acts with an underage girl?'

Harding nodded.

'For the purposes of the tape, Steven Harding nodded agreement. Did Tony Bridges know you were sleeping with Marie Freemantle?'

'What's Tony got to do with it?'

'Answer the question, Steve.'

'I don't think so. I never told him.'

'Did he see the photographs of her?'