‘But what about all the others? He refuses to talk to anyone but me about it, so maybe we need to stop looking at it as him controlling us all and consider it more as obtaining closure for all those still suffering as a consequence of his actions.’
Nancy rubbed her fingers over her eyes, her face grey. Sensing he was winning his argument Gus continued. ‘It’s been done before, Nancy. You could get permission from further up the chain. You know you can. But, I have to face him. You know that and I know that. There are so many lives at stake, so many people who need closure, so many people who have been wronged by him. I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t at least try. Besides you can be there too.’
The group of people sitting around his table nodded. They were his team and although he could tell by the look in each person’s eyes that they hated that he had to do this. Taffy, Alice, Compo, Carlton – each of them had been affected by the investigation and they wanted to put it to bed. However, their support for him shone through strong and empowering. That gave him the strength he needed.
****
The door opened and Ben Cameron was escorted into the dankest interview room they had. Cuffed, both hands and feet, he shuffled over to the table and sat down opposite Gus, Nancy and Professor Carlton.
Black stubble was beginning to grow on his bald head and the bruising on his face was pronounced. Dressed in the over baggy prison overalls he looked diminished and unthreatening. It was that that sent a chill through Gus because he knew that the man opposite was anything but unthreatening.
‘Nice to see you again, cuz.’ Cameron sneered across the worn table and winked.
Gus wasn’t here to play power games, so he folded his arms, ignoring the stab of pain as his ribs protested and said nothing.
‘Oh, silent treatment is it? Never mind. I’ve got plenty to say.’ Again with the stupid wink. ‘You look like you should be in hospital instead of sitting opposite me. Think I won that battle, didn’t I?’
Again, Gus remained silent. He, Nancy and Carlton had agreed that this strategy would frustrate Cameron into talking – bigging himself up. Nancy had agreed to take Carlton’s lead and everything was being recorded. They couldn’t afford to mess this up. Cameron had declined his right to a lawyer and, now that Gus was in the room, seemed happy to talk.
Carlton looked at his watch. ‘I’ve got an hour, but that’s all. I met with your dad and I think he’s talking, to be technical, crap.’ Carlton winked at Cameron and Gus struggled not to smile. The psychologist was damn good at this. ‘No way could you have pulled off all the stuff he’s saying. The old idiot is just trying to get himself off the hook. No serial killer is that good – look at you. Pretty minor in the serial killer league aren’t’ you. A couple of weeks. God, that’s small fry compared to Sutcliffe and the Wests – they were at it for years. I’m afraid, Ben, your name is going to die a death the minute you’re sentenced for your rather short killing spree.’
And that was all it took. Ben leant forward, his face red, his fists clenched, but unlike his father who wanted only to punish himself, Ben wanted to smash his fists into Carlton’s smug face.
‘Sutcliffe and the Wests … amateurs compared to me. Get your recorder on and listen to this…’
Chapter 79
Bradford
The interview with Ben Cameron had lasted four hours and by the end of it Gus was sickened as well as exhausted. Maintaining his surly silence had used up every shred of his self-control, but Carlton’s carefully detailed strategy had worked. Gus had been thinking about his future and now that he’d fulfilled his obligation to get information from Ben Cameron, he was happy to leave any subsequent interviews in the capable hands of Professor Carlton. But before he made his announcement, he gathered his team together to outline the information they’d gained.
Nodding at Compo, Gus waited while he pressed a key to make a list of names appear, in chronological order, on the white board. ‘As you can see, to date, Ben Cameron has admitted to all of these deaths. The first one being, as his father said, Ben’s mother when he was barely twelve years old. By the time he was sixteen, he was frequenting the docks and when the opportunity arose strangling sex workers. He has names for some of his victims and remembers many others whom he had no names for. To date he has admitted to fifteen such murders over a twelve-year period from the age of sixteen.’ Gus shuddered. It had taken a major effort not to react to Cameron’s gleeful reconstruction of each one of these strangulations. ‘We’ve passed this onto Police Scotland who will investigate. Some of the men convicted of these murders will be released in due course. Unfortunately, two wrongly convicted men died in prison.’
Compo scrolled down the list until a familiar name appeared. ‘He admits to killing Helen Robertson – Rory’s wife as a warning to his father to keep out of his business.’ Gus closed his eyes. Watching the enjoyment play across Ben Cameron’s face as he described his satisfaction at not only killing Rory’s wife but at all the subsequent torture poor Rory suffered. He delighted in telling how he stole the sketches from Rory and tortured him every time he visited by asking him how his wife was. If Gus had been able, he would have put his own hands around Ben Cameron’s neck and extinguished him there and then.
‘The next victim was his sister-in-law, Tracie – again to thwart his dad. He enjoyed that
