Carys took one of the reports from Gavin, and ran her gaze down the page before wrinkling her nose.
‘Garlic? He ran a business importing garlic?’
‘One of the easiest ways to get illegal entrants into the country by road,’ said Kay. ‘Before everything happened eighteen months ago with the evidence going missing, we’d had some success arresting some men working for that garlic import business. They used to drive to the Continent once a month and come back with their van loaded with garlic for the French farmers’ market in Lenham.’
She smiled at the look of confusion that swept across Carys and Gavin’s faces. ‘Garlic puts the sniffer dogs off the scent of people hiding in secret compartments built into the back of the vans. We only caught that lot because of a tip-off.’
‘Like Fox said before, a lot of what we do is reliant on public vigilance,’ said Sharp, returning to the front of the room and standing next to Harrison. ‘Someone out there must know something to help us.’
Kay raised her hand to get his attention. ‘Guv? If Demiri’s been making snuff films of his clients’ exploits, there might be another way we can find out where he might be. Those films had to be distributed for him to be making the sort of money we’re talking about.’
Sharp frowned. ‘Like what?’
‘Not what. Who. Bob Rogers.’
Chapter Twenty-Nine
‘Who the hell is Bob Rogers?’
Sharp closed his office door and gestured to the visitor chairs opposite his desk.
Kay sank into the least threadbare one, and bit back a smile as Harrison eased into the other, his lip curling at the lack of cushioning while he shuffled to try and find a comfortable seating position.
‘Rogers was responsible for making snuff films of young girls,’ said Sharp as he lifted a sheaf of paperwork off his chair and sat down, blatantly ignoring the sticky note marked “urgent” that had been placed on top of the documentation. He shoved the papers into a tray on the corner of his desk and loosened his tie. ‘Kay was the assistant SIO on the case and helped put Rogers and his accomplice, Eli Matthews, behind bars for a long time.’
‘What’s he got to do with Demiri?’
‘Rogers never told us who was distributing the snuff films for him,’ said Sharp. ‘Eli didn’t know – he was responsible for kidnapping the girls and arranging their deaths. Very elaborate in the case we were involved with. Rogers acted as middleman. Somewhere above him was the buyer and distributor.’
Harrison’s brow furrowed. ‘I remember hearing about that one now. Father and son, weren’t they?’
‘That’s right.’
‘My point is, for them to get away with it for so long without being caught meant Rogers had to be dealing with a highly sophisticated distribution network,’ said Kay.
‘One whose clientele would be willing to pay a lot of money to ensure anonymity,’ said Sharp. ‘And, like Kay said, Rogers wouldn’t talk. We were never able to find a toehold into that distribution group.’
‘Eli died in prison six months ago,’ added Kay. ‘He was attacked by two men and subsequently died of internal injuries four days later.’
‘What happened to his attackers?’
‘Charged with manslaughter and had their sentences extended,’ said Sharp.
‘Did they say why they attacked him?’
Sharp shrugged. ‘The prison houses a lot of sex offenders. Despite that, attacks on young girls are still viewed as the worst, even within those walls and amongst those people. At the trial, when evidence was brought forward about Rogers’ business history in Suffolk, it transpired that Eli’s youngest victim was eight years old.’
‘Where’s Bob Rogers now?’
‘Still here, in Maidstone Prison,’ said Sharp.
Harrison beamed. ‘Convenient.’
‘We should talk to him as soon as possible,’ said Kay, warming to her subject. ‘Perhaps if we find a historical link between Rogers and the nightclub, we can use that to our advantage. He might give us some information about Demiri at last.’
‘It’s a long shot, but I agree we should talk to him. Make some phone calls this morning and see how fast a meeting can be set up. Tell them it’s urgent. We need to talk to Rogers today,’ said Harrison, wincing as he rose from his chair and straightened his trousers. ‘It’ll give him less time to prepare. I’ll brief headquarters while you’re doing that.’
Sharp’s lips thinned, but he nodded.
Kay waited until the DCI had left the room, closing the door behind him with a soft click, and turned to Sharp.
‘I’ll make the call if you want.’
‘Please. Despite what Harrison thinks, I’ve got better things to be doing than act as his secretary.’ He gestured to the pile of paperwork waiting for him.
Kay grinned. ‘He’ll have you making cups of tea for him next.’
‘Very funny. Clear off.’
Chapter Thirty
The smile she wore as she left Sharp’s office left Kay’s face as she walked back into the incident room and saw Gavin hurrying towards her, his face stricken.
‘What’s wrong?’
‘Uniform have located another site.’
‘Another site?’
‘Three more women, dead. Asphyxiated.’
A chill swept across the back of her neck, a split second before she backtracked to Sharp’s office.
‘Guv? Gavin says uniform have found three more victims. Could be linked to Demiri?’
Sharp pushed his chair back. ‘Gather everyone. No sense in Gavin repeating himself.’
A quick phone call roused Barnes and Carys from the canteen, both out of breath by the time they appeared in the incident room, the older detective dabbing his mouth with a napkin as he took a seat.
‘Okay, Piper – bring us all up to speed, and then we’ll sort out priorities,’ said Sharp.
‘Right, guv.’ Gavin cleared his throat and then turned to his colleagues. ‘A uniform patrol was assigned a call this morning from an elderly woman over at Thurnham. Said that there was a bad smell coming from a
