New York Valentine (28 page)

Then, because he was still her little boy, no matter how endlessly long his arms, legs and feet seemed to grow, she’d presented him with Reese’s Pieces, Hershey’s Kisses, multi-flavoured jelly beans and a bag of personalized M&Ms.

‘Mum! I love you!’ he’d yelled, wrapping his gangly arms around her and immediately breaking into the jelly beans and offering them all around.

‘No, no the babies can’t have them!’ she’d told him off.

‘Maybe just a weeny corner of Reese’s?’ he’d suggested.

Good old Owen. Annie smiled at the passport photos. She remembered the day they went to get them done. He’d hated them because his hair was too flat, insisting on ruffling up his mop and going into the booth again, while Annie had slipped the rejected photos into her bag.

She’d liked the pictures because when his hair was flat like this, he looked just slightly younger and smaller. Funny how when your children were tiny, you so looked forward to each new stage and each new accomplishment – baby’s first word, baby’s first step, baby’s first shoes … But then round about age 10, they began to grow too fast, they began to look too big, seemed too independent and suddenly you wanted to halt time, put bricks on their heads, feed them shrinking powder and keep them small.

It seemed like suddenly time had sped up and rushed by. Look at Lana. She was now grown up enough to be staying in New York all on her own.

Annie went back to the wardrobe and pulled out the next piece waiting on the rail for her assessment: a lovely, classic trench coat by the British label, Aquascutum, as worn by Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart, Sophia Loren, even HM the Queen. This coat had accommodated her extra inches without the slightest protest. For that reason alone, she put it back on the rail.

There was still hours of sorting to be done in here. Once she’d packed away all the summer things, she would take her winter boxes out, draw up a list of Most Needed items and plan for the season ahead.

Plan for the season ahead
… Tucking up a little Marc Jacobs clutch into its soft cloth bag … Annie wondered what the season ahead would bring.

She had managed to talk to Tamsin earlier in the day to explain that she was back in London. Tamsin hadn’t sold the programme to Channel Five and was still annoyed that Annie hadn’t made it to the meeting.

‘What do you think about a celebrity fitness show?’ Annie had suggested. ‘I met this amazing trainer out in New York. He’s unbelievable. He’s got me working out. ME!’

Tamsin had taken down a few details, not sounding convinced.

But Annie had to get back into the TV game, or else where would she be? Back sorting out other people’s wardrobes, as well as her own, she thought gloomily.

Suddenly she felt far too tired to tackle the winter boxes. She decided to go back to bed. She would try and get some sleep, then set about sorting all kinds of things out in the morning.

Annie had only been asleep for a few minutes when she was woken by Dave’s fierce barks.

‘What’s up?’ she asked, feeling blurry and confused with tiredness. ‘Ed, what’s up?’ She nudged him in the back.

Now she could hear the doorbell ringing as Dave’s barking grew more and more frantic.

Several long rings were followed by a shout which had both Ed and Annie leaping from the bed.

‘POLICE!’

Owen by night:

Blue and white PJ bottoms (vintage M&S)
Red T-shirt (vintage Next)
Touch of spot cream (Clearasil)
Total est. cost: £15

‘The guys dropped it round.’

‘Lights! Turn on the lights!’ Annie leapt down the stairs, well ahead of Ed who was struggling with dressing gown, slippers and trying to shake off deep sleep.

‘I’m here, it’s OK, I’m opening the door,’ she called at the top of her voice and hit the light switch in the hallway. Heart racing, she threw back the locks and flung open the door to find herself face to face with four uniformed police officers.

The first one introduced himself as Inspector Williams and explained that he and his officers had a search warrant. Then they stepped into the house.

This could not be happening. How could this be happening?

Two officers had gone straight up the stairs and one was making for the sitting room before she could even get her first shocked words out.

‘There’s been a mistake. There must be some mistake,’ she blurted. ‘This is a family home … no one here’s ever broken the law.’

‘I’m very sorry, but we have a warrant to search this address. Now, please stay here,’ Inspector Williams told her in a firm-but-fair, polite-but-in-charge voice. ‘My officers will hold other members of the household in separate rooms. We don’t want any conferring.’

Hold. Separate rooms?

‘My kids are upstairs,’ Annie began. ‘My son’s asleep in his attic room and the babies …’ Before she could get the words out, she felt a sob push up between her shoulder blades.

The inspector looked at her with some concern. ‘I’ll escort you upstairs to the babies. You can wait with them in their room if you like.’

So Annie sat on the floor of Minnie and Micky’s room while she listened to police carry out a systematic search of her house.

‘What is this about?’ she heard Ed ask in confusion from the bedroom. ‘Surely you have to tell me?’

‘Yes, once we have everything we need, we’ll explain. Computers, sir? Where will we find all the computers in the house?’

As Ed began to list the locations, a horrible thought sprang up in Annie’s mind. Computers?! This must be to do with Ed’s suspension. The school had called in the police! And they’d not even warned Ed. Not given him a chance to plead his total innocence. Was this going to be in the newspapers? Would Ed have to go to court? Annie’s head sank into her hands. This was a nightmare:
Posh school’s music teacher’s porn shame
. She felt as if she was going to be sick. But this was Ed. This was the man she loved and trusted absolutely. He was completely innocent. She had to do everything she could for him – and that included not falling apart. Not even for one second.

She could hear the police officers in her little office next door, probably raking through the Spring/Summer treasures she’d so carefully put away earlier tonight.

‘Up here,’ came a call from the attic.

The attic?
Owen!!

Annie went to stand at the door. She’d been told not to leave the room where the babies were somehow managing to sleep through this, but she had to try to work out what was going on.

All the policemen now seemed to be upstairs. Dave was still barking like a mad thing downstairs. Ed looked out through the opened bedroom door and saw Annie standing there. There was blank dismay on both their faces.

‘What is this?’ she mouthed.

‘No idea,’ he mouthed back, shaking his head.

Ed looked as if he might cry. With everything else going on this was too much for him, the final straw. He kept pushing his hands through his wild hair and Annie wanted to run over and put her arms around him.

‘What’s going on?’ she anxiously asked the policeman who was standing by the stairs. ‘Why has everyone gone up to my son’s room? He’s only fourteen. I need to go up there. He doesn’t deserve to be woken up like this.’

‘Is your son Owen Valentine?’ the policeman asked.

‘Yes.’

‘And he’s only fourteen?’

‘Yes!’

‘Are you sure?’

‘Don’t be daft, of course I’m sure!’

‘Well, OK, I think you better go up.’

Annie raced up the little attic stairs. Owen was sitting up in bed. His hair was on end and his face one great ‘O’ of surprise.

‘Hey Owen,’ Annie said gently.

‘If you could just stay right where you are,’ came the sharp instruction.

Annie stood on the threshold.

The officers were moving very complex looking computer equipment around the room. They seemed to be unearthing it from various corners and collecting it in a heap at the door.

This stuff did not look as if it had anything to do with the old computer, bought at a school auction, which Owen used for his homework.

‘What is this?’ Annie asked her son in astonishment.

She saw the pile of jelly beans and chocolates carefully stacked at the side of his bed. This was her boy. Why on earth were police officers moving sophisticated computer equipment around his room?

‘I was supposed to look after it. The guys dropped it round a few weeks ago.’

‘Which guys?’ one of the officers asked sharply.

Owen shrank back against his headboard.

‘The ones I work with on the stall.’

‘And you are Owen Valentine?’ the inspector asked.

‘Yes …’ Owen sounded very scared.

Annie didn’t care what she’d just been told, she moved over to his bed to sit beside him and no one stopped her.

‘We’ve got a warrant to search your address because we’ve reason to believe that on your market stall at Elephant and Castle you’re selling pirated DVDs, CDs and X-rated DVDs which you are making here on this equipment.’

Owen’s mouth fell open.

‘Owen’s just fourteen,’ Annie interrupted. ‘Doesn’t he have some protection from … from all this?’

‘I just help to sell it …’ Owen protested, ‘I don’t make any of it.’

‘There’s a stall at Elephant and Castle registered in your name,’ the officer went on.

‘He’s fourteen!’ Annie repeated. ‘How can he have a stall registered in his name?’

The inspector seemed to soften a little.

‘Well, son … . where has all this stuff come from?’ He pointed to the equipment heaped in the middle of the room.

‘From the other guys on the stall. They run everything. I just help with the selling.’

‘Do you sell the X-rated stuff?’

‘Not usually …’ Owen said, turning his eyes down.

‘Have your market stall friends been working on their computers in your house?’ was the next question.

Annie saw a hideously guilty look steal over Owen’s face.

‘Well … they were moving flats and they brought this stuff here, to keep it safe … and they may have done a bit of work up here … just a couple of afternoons … It wasn’t much.’

Much as Annie felt flooded with fear, anger and terrible anxiety about her son, a growing ray of understanding was filtering through her mind.

Copying porn
… If someone had been in this house
copying porn
… if they’d used Owen and Ed’s computer … if they’d somehow got into the school system … this might explain everything.

‘Look, I know it’s early,’ the inspector began, ‘but we’ve got a lot of questions for you, Owen. So I think it would be best if you and one of your parents could come down to the station with us. If you’re lucky, we’ll buy you breakfast. The canteen isn’t half as bad as everyone makes out.’

This raised a small laugh from the two other officers in the room.

‘You want us to come to the police station
now?’
Annie asked, not sure she could quite believe what was happening.

‘Yes, my officers here are going to take the equipment,’ Inspector Williams explained, ‘then if Owen and you or his dad could come with us to help with inquiries, I hope that will be the quickest way of getting things sorted out. If Owen here’s been selling pirated goods, then I’m afraid he’s still in a lot of trouble.’

QC Harry in action:

Bespoke blue shirt (Curtis and Dyer)
Bespoke blue suit (Gieves & Hawkes)
Gold cufflinks (Svetlana)
Black Oxford shoes (Church’s)
Total est. cost: £4,300

‘Splendid to meet you.’

Annie travelled to the station in the back of a police car with her son, both of them wearing crazed, jumbled outfits made up of whatever they’d been able to find in a hurry.

Ed stayed behind with the twins. Annie decided not to tell him her porn suspicions yet, because she wanted to be certain. She didn’t want to give him the false hope that it would all be solved, until she knew much more.

‘Owen’s market stall’s been selling pirated DVDs, he has to go to the station to tell them everything he knows about it,’ Annie had explained as she’d been led down to the bedroom to change.

‘Pirated? I thought everything was second-hand! And anyway, did they really need to send round four policemen in the middle of the night?’ Ed had exclaimed.

In the back of the police car now, Annie was desperate to ask Owen all sorts of questions, but she felt the heavy presence of the officers in the car and thought it would be better if she didn’t say anything just yet.

She tried to be a comforting presence for him, rubbing his shoulder and saying reassuring things like: ‘It’s going to be OK’ and ‘Don’t worry.’ Meanwhile, she felt very worried.

But with a start, she remembered Svetlana’s Harry. That was who she needed to call immediately for advice. She took out her phone, checked it was OK with the officers then dared to dial Svetlana’s home phone number at 6.15 in the morning.

It rang for a long time. By the seventh ring, Annie had almost lost her nerve. She imagined an irate Svetlana on the other end of the line berating her about lost beauty sleep.

Instead a sleepy, heavily accented voice answered and Annie realized at once that it was Maria, Svetlana’s maid.

‘Hello Maria, this is Annie Valentine, Svetlana’s friend …’

Maria didn’t say anything.

‘I need to speak to Harry, if it’s possible.’

‘Miss Valentina, is very, very early,’ Maria pointed out.

‘I know, but it’s an emergency, my son is in trouble … with the police.’ As Annie said this, she heard the dangerous wobble in her voice.

‘The police? They have your son?’ Maria had grasped the important elements.

‘Yes!’ Annie confirmed, ‘please, if I could speak to Harry, just on the phone. I need to get some advice. I need to know what we should do.’

‘I go and knock on their door. I find out if he can come to the phone,’ Maria said.

There was a long wait. Annie gripped the phone to her ear, crossing her fingers. If she could just hear Harry’s reassuring voice on the other end of the line, she would feel much better.

‘Annie?’

There he was!

‘Harry, I’m so, so sorry to wake you up like this but I’m in a police car. They’re taking Owen to the station …’