Shafted (42 page)

‘What “other stuff”, Tania?’ Sam prompted gently when she fell silent.

‘He
did
know I was only fifteen,’ Tania said quietly. ‘And I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately, and I’ve realised I wasn’t the only one.’

‘Are you telling me you know of other young girls he’s slept with?’

‘No, but I know he’s into all that, ’cos he let me use his computer one time, so I could look something up for my homework, and that’s when I saw the . . .
stuff
.’

Raising an eyebrow, Sam waited.

Looking thoroughly embarrassed, Tania lowered her gaze and said, ‘Kids. I saw pictures of kids on his computer. Dirty pictures . . . with men . . .’

‘And did Larry know you’d seen it?’

‘Yeah. He freaked and turned the computer straight off. He reckoned they’d come through by accident and he’d just forgotten they were there. But you wouldn’t leave something like that on your machine, would you? Not if you thought it was disgusting – and it was, ’cos these were
little
kids.’

Muttering ‘Shit!’ Sam shook his head. Then he asked, ‘Is that everything, Tania?’

Nodding, she said, ‘Yeah, but I reckon that’s why he’s threatening me. I swore on my mum’s life I’d never tell, but he must have known how pissed off I’d get if he kept ignoring me. And I’m not a kid any more, so I don’t have to stick with stupid promises, do I?’

Sam was stunned. He’d been so sure that she was just lashing out, but this was heavy shit. And it would be easy to prove, because you couldn’t erase stuff like that from a computer’s internal memory, no matter how hard you tried. If it had ever been there, the police would find it.

‘Are you going to write it?’ Tania asked him quietly, sounding thoroughly drained – as she actually was. She’d done what the women had ordered her to do, so they wouldn’t kill her. But she’d practically killed herself in the process by destroying any last shred of a chance of ever getting Larry to even talk to her again. But oh, well . . . he obviously hadn’t had any intention of contacting her anyway, or why would he have sent that nasty solicitor’s letter?

‘I’ll write it,’ Sam muttered, switching the Dictaphone off and slotting it back into his pocket. ‘But I’ve got to do something first.’ Looking at Tania now, he said,‘You know that when this comes out you might have to go to court and say it all again if there’s proof that it’s true. Are you up to that? Because you’ll get questioned over and over, and they’ll try to rip you to pieces and make you out to be a liar.’

Inhaling deeply, a light of pure sadness in her eyes, Tania nodded.

Leaving her, Sam went straight home and made a copy of the recorded conversation with Tania for his own future use. Then he went to the police station and handed the original in. There was no way he was messing with this shit until it had been dealt with properly.

20

‘Wanna hear the good news?’ Gordon chirped, bursting into Larry’s dressing room that evening. ‘We’ve just had Robbie’s manager on the phone, and they’ve finally found a window in the tour schedule! He’s flying over for next Friday’s show, and he’s agreed to sing two tracks!’

‘Really?’ Larry laughed delightedly. ‘Wow! That’s brilliant.’

Saying, ‘Isn’t it, though!’ Gordon gave a guilty grin when he saw that Larry’s shirt was still unbuttoned, showing off his toned chest, and that he only had one leg in his suit trousers. ‘Sorry, mate . . . guess I should have knocked, eh?’

Shaking his head amusedly when Gordon backed out of the room with a hand over his eyes, calling back that the warm-up man was just getting started so he had fifteen at the most, Larry finished getting dressed with a lighter heart.

He’d had a shit week, waiting to hear if that stupid bitch Tania had any more tricks up her sleeve. After her last piece of bullshit, he’d had to play hide-and-seek with the paparazzi who’d camped outside his apartment to follow him from there to the studio and back each day – hoping to catch him with another under-age girl, no doubt. It had damn near killed his social life, because there was no way he was risking going to a club while the heat was on. And he’d had to tell Stephanie to stay away, so he hadn’t even had sex for a full week and his balls were getting bigger by the day.

Larry really hadn’t appreciated having to go with his solicitor Doug for a voluntary interview with the police that first day, either, during which he’d had to come clean and admit that Tania Baxter
had
been in his apartment that night, after all. Feeling like a criminal, even though he knew he’d done nothing wrong, he’d told them exactly what had happened in the morning, and admitted that he
had
asked her not to say anything. But he’d still strenuously denied that anything sexual had occurred between them.

Fortunately, because of Tania’s age on that particular occasion, plus the fact that there was no actual evidence to prove that Larry had been involved with her previously as she’d alleged, the police had told him that he was free to go. But not before they’d warned him that they would be interviewing Tania as a matter of course, and that he should expect that they might want to speak with him again at some point, depending what she said.

But the fear of waiting for something else to crop up as a result of that was nothing to the fear he brought on himself when he looked up some erotomania websites on the internet.

He’d never actually heard the word ‘erotomania’ before Georgie had mentioned it at his solicitor’s office that morning. She’d asked Doug if he thought that it might help Larry if they could prove that Tania Baxter was a sufferer, because then they could discredit everything she’d already said, or was likely to say in the future. Intrigued, Larry had gone home that night and looked it up on the internet, and had been shocked by how many people – particularly famous people, like himself – had almost had their lives destroyed by over-obsessive fans. And not just by common-or-garden stalkers but full-on whackos who – like Tania – seemed to think they had a special relationship with the object of their delusional affections and would do anything to get near them – often taking out anyone who got in the way.

Larry had had a couple of sleepless nights after that, listening out for the sounds of crazed female assassins shinning up the side of the building in the middle of the night. But both Georgie and Stephanie had told him to get a grip when he’d started checking his apartment whenever he got home, claiming that a cup had been moved, or a door left ajar when he could have sworn he’d closed it. And, knowing that they were probably right, that he was just freaking out over nothing, he gritted his teeth and struggled on, praying that Doug’s letter would do the trick and make Tania Baxter disappear.

And it seemed to have worked, because a full week down the line there hadn’t been another peep out of her. And Larry was beginning to feel good again. Not least because he now had definite confirmation that the elusive Mr Williams was coming onto the show at last.

Still on a high about that when he walked out onto the set to do his show fifteen minutes later, his smile was genuine as opposed to the forced grin he’d been wearing all week, as he thanked his packed audience for their continued support.

Blissfully unaware that his words were about to turn right back and bite him on the arse, he said, ‘I can’t go into detail, folks, but let’s just say I’ve got a good feeling that everything’s about to work itself out. And I’m touched to my
heart
that you guys had faith in me all along, so thank you all sincerely.’

Bowing his head modestly as loud cheering and whistling erupted around the studio, Larry held up his hands for silence, saying, ‘Hey, quit before you get me going. It took my make-up girl three hours to get me looking like I can survive without a drip, and she’ll kill me if I ruin it all by crying.’ Rolling his eyes now, as if embarrassed to have his vulnerability exposed, he said,‘Anyway, without further ado, let’s have a huge
Larry Logan Show
welcome for my first guest of the night . . . the outrageously talented . . . Miss . . . Reece . . .
Witherspoon
!’

Outside the studio just then, Ayshia was heading for reception with a worried look on her face. She’d been told that a vanload of police officers had just pulled up out front and, fearing that they’d come as the result of a hoax call, she wanted to make sure that they didn’t disrupt proceedings now that the show was on air. Live filming was so much more intense than pre-recorded, and there was only a tiny time-delay available if they had to pull it for any reason.

Approaching a plain-clothes officer who seemed to be in charge when they all trooped in, Ayshia asked if she could help him.

‘We’re looking for Larry Logan,’ he informed her brusquely. ‘Can you direct us to him, please?’

‘I’m sorry, but he’s on set,’ Ayshia said. ‘And we’re already on air, so I’m afraid you’ll have to wait.’

‘This can’t wait,’ the officer grunted, waving his men on towards the door she’d come through.

‘You can’t go in there,’ Ayshia protested, a note of panic in her voice now. ‘If you disturb them now, they’ll have to black-screen, and that will be disastrous.’

‘Not my problem,’ the plain-clothes man snapped, brushing past her as he followed his men.

Ayshia followed at a trot, feeling helpless. She couldn’t ask security to throw them out, and she couldn’t even call the police to deal with the intrusion, because they
were
the intruders.

Struck by how amazingly pretty Reece was in the flesh, Larry was just getting into his stride with the flirtatious banter when he heard the sound of raised voices coming from the rear of the auditorium. Sure that it was nothing to worry about, because security would make sure that no one made it all the way onto the floor, he was just about to make a joke about over-zealous fans when a man’s voice called out: ‘Larry Logan – I am arresting you for engaging in unlawful sexual acts with a minor, and the possession of indecent images of children . . .’

Feeling as though the sky was crashing down around his ears, Larry shook his head as several uniformed officers surrounded him and handcuffed him in full view of the cameras and the audience – who had gone into a mobile-phone frenzy, ringing everyone they could think of to relay this latest shocking news.

‘No, you’ve got this all wrong!’ he protested as the officer finished reading him his rights. ‘I never had sex with her. And I never took any pictures of her, so if you’ve found any she must have planted them on me. Everyone knows she’s a nutter. I’m in the process of
suing
her, for Christ’s sake! And you lot have already interviewed me, so you must know what’s going on.’

‘Oh, we know all about it,’ the officer told him, pushing him roughly out through the door as Gordon screamed at the cameramen back on set to quit fucking filming. ‘But she’s only part of this now that we’ve got all the other shit on you.’

‘What are you
talking
about?’ Larry gasped, just about managing to duck his head to save it being bashed as he was marched outside and shoved into the back of the police van. ‘I haven’t done anything wrong!’

‘How about all the dirty downloads we found on your computer?’ the officer asked, his cold tone and flinty eyes telling Larry exactly what he thought of him – and what he’d like to do to him. ‘Think they’re normal, do you?’

Frowning deeply and assuming that he was talking about the erotomania articles, Larry said, ‘That’s research for my case!’

‘You sick fuck!’ the officer snarled, looking at Larry with contempt now, as if he couldn’t believe that he’d actually come out and admitted it just like that. Lowering his voice so that none of the audience members who’d rushed out to take yet more pictures of Larry being arrested could witness it and call it police brutality, he hissed, ‘Tell you what, mate, I can’t
wait
to see what they do to you when you reach the nick. You’re not gonna last a fucking
minute
when they hear what you’ve been up to. And they
will
hear, ’cos it’s gonna be all over the papers again tomorrow. Then everyone’s gonna know all about you and your kiddie-porn collection.’

Staring at the door, open-mouthed with shock when the officer slammed it in his face, Larry sat in stunned silence all the way to the police station, only speaking when he got there to verify his name and ask for his solicitor.

He’d truly believed that the worst was over. But the real nightmare was only just beginning.

21

Sitting on the other side of the dividing window in the visiting room of the remand wing in Strangeways Prison, where Larry was being held until they had a court date, Georgie said, ‘You’ve lost weight. Please tell me you’re not doing anything silly, like going on hunger strike or something.’

Attempting to lighten the atmosphere, because he would break down if he didn’t, Larry snorted softly and said, ‘I’d defy even a gannet like
you
to eat the shit that passes for food in here. But
no
, I’m not starving myself. I need to keep my strength up to fight this – right?’

‘Right,’ Georgie murmured, smiling sadly because this was obviously killing him. ‘We’re all working really hard on our side to get you out,’ she told him now.‘I was talking to Doug just before I came in, and he doesn’t seem to think you’ll have too much to worry about with that stupid girl’s testimony, considering she’s changed her story so many times already.’

‘You reckon?’ Larry replied cynically. ‘Even though she’d described my birthmark to a T? I can’t tell you how much fun it was trying to explain how she knew about
that
when the flaming doctor examined me to verify it was there. And do you think they believed me when I told them she must have been messing about with me when I was unconscious? Did they hell!’

‘Mmm, well, it
does
look suspicious if you don’t know the whole story,’ Georgie conceded. ‘But Doug still thinks we might get lucky with that one. It’s the other stuff that’s going to be tricky.’