‘In which case, my client is willing to cooperate, up to a certain point.’
‘None of this is my idea,’ Savchuk said eagerly, finally raising her eyes from the hands fidgeting together in her lap. ‘Troy tell me one day what he want to do, his plans for running a different kind of website in the dark web. But although he say he will pay for things, it must look as if business is mine when it come to the money. He say he will be killed if Mr Drake find out what he is doing. So he pay and I run. He threaten me. If I not do as he ask, I will lose everything.’
Ansari nodded. ‘I see. So how did it work, Yeva? Explain the operation to us.’
‘You know this already, I think. Is my job to find girls for site, to use black card for to gain entry. My job to do everything. I was like… like slave. No better than if you had never rescued me from container.’
Ansari barely reacted to this obvious appeal for sympathy, while Bliss felt repulsed by it. The DC went on, ‘So you admit to running the Dark Desires website and business, and to setting up payments to the offshore accounts in your name?’
‘Yes. But I am forced to do this by Troy, you understand.’
‘So you keep insisting. But we have only your word for that, Yeva.’
‘Are you suggesting my client’s word is worth less than that of this Troy Parkinson character?’ Pru Harrington hissed.
Ansari calmly met her gaze. ‘Not at all. I’m suggesting it’s worth no more, Mrs Harrington. I already have a statement from Troy Parkinson; one that describes a different sequence of events, I have to say. I’m doing my due diligence by obtaining information from your client which will hopefully result in a signed statement. Once we have them both, they will be given equal consideration.’
‘And is he still in a holding cell, or has he been released on bail? Because that’s what I will be seeking for my client.’
‘Not that it’s any of your business where Troy Parkinson is at the moment,’ Bliss interjected, ‘but in fact he is being transported here as we speak – and he will be held here until such time as we determine the full extent of the charges against him. I’d remind you that having arrested your client, I fully expect us to be charging her with a number of offences. You can also bank on additional charges to follow if we decide the weight of evidence points more towards your client. And let me be clear with you both: while the actual owner of that awful website might not be directly responsible for the deaths of five young women, the killers’ initial access to those women came via that website. As such, I’ll be speaking to the CPS about related charges.’
‘That is utter nonsense,’ Harrington proclaimed. ‘Even if you prove my client owned and operated the website, she simply cannot be held responsible for the actions of these men.’
‘Your client provided the platform from which a man was able first to use these women for his own sexual gratification, then to abduct them and sell them by the hour to a number of other men, several of whom took their sickening desires too far. Dark desires is what your client promised these men, and dark desires was what they got.’
‘There’s no way you can prove any of that. You haven’t yet substantiated a single thing against my client, and she will be a sympathetic figure in that witness stand when she repeats her tale of being held in sexual slavery and forced to comply with Troy Parkinson’s nauseating demands.’
‘Are you quite finished grandstanding?’ Ansari asked, folding her arms as she leaned back in her chair. ‘Please save it for those who might actually be impressed. The media might lap that up when you feed it to them, but a judge and jury will see right through it. As for proof and evidence, we clearly have enough to charge your client. You know the CPS as well as we do. If they are confident, so are we. And in the time it takes to bring this to trial, we’ll have gathered more. It seems to me that you have only your client’s word going for you. Surely even you can see that won’t be nearly enough.’
After a moment of silence, Harrington said, ‘What are you looking for here? And what are you offering in return?’
Ansari glanced at Bliss, who nodded and sat back. She then fixed her eyes on Yeva Savchuk. ‘If your client stops lying and admits to the allegations, we won’t seek others. By that I mean we’ll rethink pursuing your client with the intention of linking her business to the murders. I am in no doubt that we will be able to do so. However, as we have one man charged with murder already in custody, and another helping us with our enquiries in the pursuit of other men who committed similar murders, we are confident this investigation will be concluded satisfactorily. If your client cooperates fully and openly, we can tie things together more quickly and completely; that will be enough, as far as we are concerned. However, if she continues to lie and prevents us from bringing matters to a speedy conclusion, we are prepared to go the whole way.’
Bliss nodded again, this time to himself. Gul Ansari had excelled in her time with the Major Crimes Unit, becoming an invaluable member of the team who delivered every single time. Having volunteered to take the training necessary to become a
