Then, at two in the afternoon, when she was feeling so cramped and thirsty she was about to give up, she heard voices coming from the kitchen. The kitchen window was thrust open. 'Christ, it's hot in here,' came a female voice.
A deep man's voice said, 'Then take 'em off, darlin'.'
Toni extracted the camera and slowly rose until she could peer in the window. A burly man was unbuttoning a tall blonde woman's blouse while she fumbled at the belt of his jeans. 'Come on. Hurry up,' he said. They fell to the floor.
He began soon to emit loud grunts, covering the noise of the busy click of the camera shutter. Toni took out the recorder and recorded every obscenity that was pouring out of their mouths.
Feeling slightly sick, Toni quietly lifted her bike from the bushes and made her way silently round the side of the house. Her friends at school had watched pornography on their computers and she had seen some of it herself. But, she reflected, it was pretty disgusting being a witness to the real thing.
She pedalled away as fast as she could, stopping at last at a cafe where she ordered a sustaining meal of egg and chips and two Cokes.
Then she went back to the office.
Agatha was reading some correspondence. She looked up when Toni came in. 'Too hot?' she asked. 'I gave up myself.'
'No, I've got the photographs.'
'Good heavens! Print them off and let's have a look. There's a machine over there. I don't know how to work it. Do you?'
'Yes.' Toni printed off the photographs and handed them to Agatha. 'I have a tape recording as well.' She switched it on. Mrs Freedman put her hands over her ears.
'That's enough,' said Agatha sharply. 'Well done. But I didn't expect a young girl like you to be exposed to such filth. I'm sorry. How did you manage to get these?'
Toni told her.
When she had finished, Agatha said, 'I can't in all honestly pay you trainee wages for work like this. We'll negotiate a contract for you tomorrow. You may take the rest of the day off. Mrs Freedman, call Mr Constable.'
'What about Phil's camera?'
'Take it home and bring it back tomorrow.'
Chapter Three
Agatha returned home slightly jealous of young Toni's early success. The girl had luck on her side and Agatha knew that a lucky detective was often a lot more valuable than an experienced one.
Her cats came running to meet her. The house felt silent. 'Roy!' she called. She went into the kitchen. There was a note on the kitchen table propped up against a dirty coffee cup.
'Dear Aggie,' she read. 'Thanks to that brilliant article, I got the Meery baby products account, which is big big big! Sorry I had to dash off. Lots of love, Roy.'
Roy must have phoned his boss, thought Agatha, to crow over the article. She had a feeling that he would not be back for the weekend and she would be left on her own to cope with the case.
She fed her cats and let them out into the garden. Although the day had been unseasonably warm, there was now a slight chill in the air.
She fixed herself a gin and tonic and sat down at the kitchen table feeling lonely.
Her mobile phone rang. At first she couldn't make out who it was because of the gulps and sobs coming down the line. 'Take a deep breath, whoever you are,' snapped Agatha.
'It's T-Toni,' stammered the voice. 'He's pinched the camera.'
'Who has?'
'M-my b-brother, Terry. He says he's going to sell it in the morning. He's drunk.'
'Where are you?'
'I'm locked in my room. He beat me.'
'What's your address? I've left it at the office.'
Toni gave it to her, along with directions.
'Stay in your room,' ordered Agatha. 'I'm coming.'
'He'll kill you!' wailed Toni. 'He's drunk.'
'Just wait.'
Agatha got into her car and drove to the pub. She said to the barman, John Fletcher, 'I need some muscle. Someone's beaten up one of my assistants. Anyone want to make some money?'
'I'll see.' John lifted the flap of the bar and went over to where two men were eating lasagne and chips and bent over them. Then he came back to Agatha. 'How much?'
'A hundred pounds each,' said Agatha.
He went back and returned with the men. He introduced them as Dale and Sean. They were agricultural labourers.
As she drove them towards Mircester, Agatha outlined the problem. 'I don't want any broken bones,' she warned them. 'Just overpower him while I get that camera and get Toni out of there.'
'You didn't want to call the police?' asked Sean. Agatha realized that she could easily have called the police, but perhaps this Terry would lie and say he had only taken the camera as a joke. Toni would be asked if she wanted to press charges and probably wouldn't want to land her brother in prison.
'No, it's better this way,' she said.
A faded, drunken woman answered the door to them. 'Mrs Gilmour?' asked Agatha.
'Yesh, what is it?'
'We would like to speak to your son.'
'I dunno...'
'Let us past,' ordered Agatha.
She stood aside, hanging on to the edge of the door for support. Agatha heard the sounds of the television. 'In here,' she ordered.
Terry was slumped on the sofa with a can of beer.
'I want that camera and lens,' said Agatha.
'Dunno what yer talkin' about.'
Agatha nodded to Sean and Dale. The two powerful labourers jerked Terry to his feet and slammed him up against the wall.
Mrs Gilmour staggered into the room. 'Leave my baby alone!' she screamed. 'I'll call the perleece.'
'Do that,' said Agatha coldly, 'and I'll have your son charged with theft and actual bodily harm.'
Sean twisted Terry's arm up his back. 'It's in the bag on the floor,' he howled. 'You're hurting me.'
Agatha recognized the camera bag Phil had given Toni. She opened it up and saw the camera and lens were inside.
'Keep him there,' she ordered. Mrs Gilmour had collapsed, weeping, on to the sofa.
Agatha ran up the stairs, shouting, 'Toni!' Toni unlocked her bedroom door. She had a cut lip and what looked like the beginnings of a black eye.
'Pack a suitcase. You're getting out of here,' said Agatha.
Toni hauled a suitcase down from the top of a wardrobe and began to stuff clothes into it. Agatha looked round the room. Unlike the rest of the house that she had seen, Toni's room was neat and clean, reminding her bitterly of her own childhood where she had tried to create an island of calm amongst the drunken chaos wrought by her parents.
'He'll kill me if I try to leave,' whispered Toni, shutting her suitcase.
