Sorcerer (11 page)

‘Tony Chambers?’ asked Rebecca after his knock on the door had been answered.

‘Who wants to know?’

Jeff could’ve burst out laughing at the man’s affected big hard man routine. He must’ve watched too many episodes of the Sweeney. That’s DVD box sets for you. 

‘I’m DI Rebecca Stockton, Greater Manchester police’ she revealed as she held up her warrant card. ‘My colleague here is Detective Superintendent Jeff Barton’.

‘So what do you want with me?’

‘Oh just a little chat’ said Rebecca.

‘About when you were the duty manager of the care home for boys known as Pembroke House?’ Jeff added. ‘You’ve probably seen in the media that the remains of three people, including a baby and a child, have been found there during renovations. We understand you worked there from 1986 until it closed in 1993? Those human remains have been estimated to be about twenty years old which means you were working there when something may have happened’.

‘Keep your voices down’ said Tony as he took off his gardening gloves. ‘And come inside. I don’t want to have this conversation where all the gossips can hear us’.

‘Have you got something to tell us then, Tony?’ asked Rebecca.

Tony Chambers ignored Rebecca’s question as he led them into his house. ‘My wife is at work’ he said. ‘I took early retirement’.

‘Yes, we understand you moved on to the prison service after you left Pembroke?’ Rebecca went on.

‘And I retired from there last year, look, will you tell me what exactly it is you want?’

‘Well I’d have thought that was obvious’ said Jeff. ‘We need to ask you certain questions’.

‘Alright, alright’ snapped Chambers. ‘Go into the living room and sit down. I’ll just go and wash my hands and be there in a minute. I’ve been tending to the back garden’.

The floor of the living room was covered in darkly varnished wood that looked like it had been laid fairly recently. There was a large mirror above the fireplace which was framed in brass made to look like gold. A couple of tall yucca plants stood to one side between the fireplace and the flat screen TV that dominated the entire room. A large flower arrangement covered the space where the fire would’ve been raging and both Jeff and Rebecca sat down on one of the two large cream coloured sofas. Jeff quite liked the place. He’d sometimes thought that he and Lillie Mae would buy an older place when Toby and the other kids they’d planned to have had all grown up and flown the nest. Somewhere they could do a lot to and really make their own with plenty of space for just the two of them but also for when the grandchildren came to stay. Sadly those dreams had been destroyed. He’d be growing old without Lillie Mae by his side and there were moments when it hurt like Hell.

Tony Chambers came in and sat down on the other sofa. He folded his hands together and leaned forward. He looked nervous.

‘So what went on when you were at Pembroke House, Tony?’

Tony wrapped himself over and over again in all the ways he’d used down the years to forget what had dragged him out of his job at Pembroke. But none of it worked. The day of reckoning had come. He was minded to completely capitulate and bare his soul for the first time since he’d been put on the spot like this. There was nothing else he could do. The police would cut through the crap in the end. No point in prolonging the agony.

‘I haven’t spoken about any of this for twenty years’ said Tony.

‘Spoken about what, Tony?’ Jeff wanted to know.

‘I was never party to anything that … that went on in that dungeon. None of the staff were. There’s no point in you going after any of them. They’re guilty of nothing except turning a blind eye’.

‘Well you’d better tell us what you know’ said Rebecca.

‘It was a hell hole’.

‘So why didn’t you leave?’

‘He had something on all of us’ Tony revealed. ‘George Griffin I mean’.

‘So you’re saying he was blackmailing you?’

‘Yes, that’s exactly what he was doing’.

‘You’ll need to elaborate a bit more, Tony?’ said Jeff, trying to hide his impatience. Interviewing Tony Chambers was like trying to pull teeth.   

‘I presume you’ve looked at the employment records for Pembroke? That’s how you found me?’

‘Well we were hoping that professionals in the field of child care would’ve stepped up to the mark and come forward once they knew we were investigating events at Pembroke’ said Jeff. ‘I mean, I presume you do read the papers, Tony?’

‘There was no child care at Pembroke’ said Tony. ‘We fed them, we made sure they washed and got to school on time. But we didn’t care for them’.

‘Did you administer beatings using for instance the cane?’

‘Yes’ Chambers confirmed.

‘So you were guilty of physical abuse?’

‘We were expected to be more than just strict. The place ran on fear and that came directly from Griffin. Look, when you were looking at those employment records, didn’t you notice that staff turnover at Pembroke was very low? People tended to stay for a long time’

‘Yes, actually, we did’ Rebecca confirmed.

‘And that was because of Griffin’s blackmail. When I was recruited, before I actually started work, Mary Griffin visited me. You see, they looked very carefully into the background of anyone they employed to make sure they had something on them that they could use. Mary Griffin was the one who came and told me that they’d found out about my past and what she’d do if I talked or decided to leave’.

‘What was that past?’

‘You can probably tell from my accent that I’m not from Manchester. I’m from Bristol. I moved up here to get away from my first marriage. The trouble is I never got divorced’.

‘So you’re a bigamist?’

‘Yes and Mary Griffin said she’d use that against me. I don’t know how she found out but she did. One of the other lads was from Glasgow. He’d moved away because he owed money to all the wrong people in Glasgow’s gangland. Mary Griffin said she’d tell them where to find him if he talked. Another lad had done a bit of credit card fraud and another one was hiding from a wife who’d accused him of domestic violence. Another one had run off with his brother’s wife and the family were after him. We all had things we were hiding and they used us. Mary Griffin said we could sleep easy only if we did as we were told, kept our mouths shut and didn’t think about leaving until they said we could go’.

‘Why do you think they did that?’

‘They wanted, and this is going to sound pretty stupid in the circumstances, people they could trust and rely on not to rock their boat. They didn’t want to have to find others to blackmail. They wanted to get on with their evil deeds and not waste any time breaking new people in. Then when the home closed down and the Griffins moved to Spain we all just went our separate ways. None of us wanted to risk talking. They could still damage us’.

‘So what did they do that they wanted to keep so secret?’

‘In the dungeon … well the Griffins restrained them, tied them up, gagged them. Then George Griffin had sex with them. Mary Griffin filmed it all and they sold the films to a distributor in Amsterdam. They went all over the world from there and made the Griffins an absolute packet’.

‘So you did know what was happening?’

‘Like I told you we turned a blind eye’.

‘And you and all the others who worked there were happy for those boys to suffer the way they did just so that your dirty little secrets weren’t exposed?’

‘Oh you can judge me all you like but what choice did we have? I honestly don’t know how some of the boys survived it. They were raped over and over again and some of them were only eleven or twelve. Their faces when they were being led down to the dungeon … I’ll never forget the looks. And then when they were done with … well that was even worse’.

‘Were you the ones who took them down to the dungeon?’ Jeff wanted to know.

‘Yes’ Tony confirmed. ‘Look, we the staff were guilty of the physical abuse and of taking them down to the dungeon. But we weren’t the paedophiles’.

‘I’m sure that distinction is what helps you sleep at night’ said Rebecca.

‘We’d done other stuff but we weren’t like Griffin and his wife. That’s why it got to all of us in the end’.

‘But not enough to risk revealing your own pasts in order to save those young boys from what they were being forced to do?’ said Jeff.

Tony Chambers simply looked away and then said ‘I expect you think we were all cowards?’

‘You were complicit in the sexual abuse of young boys who should’ve been able to look to you for protection’ said Jeff with all the contempt he could muster. ‘You went beyond being just cowards’. 

‘And you’ll need to give us the details of that first wife you forgot to get divorced from’ said Rebecca. ‘You’ve admitted to a crime of bigamy. There’ll need to be an investigation’.

‘And in the meantime’ said Jeff. ‘We will need to place you under caution pending further enquiries into your admission of the physical abuse of young boys in your care. You also failed to report to police crimes of sexual abuse committed against the same young boys. This is only the beginning for the likes of you, Tony. You’re going to need a very good lawyer’.

By the time Owen got home from his shift at the hospital both he and Gabby were exhausted.

‘Do you mind if we get a takeaway for dinner?’ asked Owen. ‘I really don’t feel like cooking anything and I guess you don’t either’.

‘I was going to suggest the same thing’ said Gabby who was snuggled up to her fiancé on the sofa. ‘Do you fancy pizza?’

‘Pizza sounds great’ said Owen.

‘I’ll ring in a minute’ said Gabby. ‘I just want to stay here like this for a bit longer. How was your day?’

‘Busy busy mad busy’.

‘You’ve been fantastic with all my trials and tribulations, Owen’.

‘I only did what I thought was right’ said Owen. ‘We’re family, babe’.

‘How long do you think they’ll keep Dad in hospital?’

‘A few days’ said Owen. ‘They need to assess him and work out his long-term treatment. They also need to be sure he won’t do anything to himself’.

Gabby felt a shiver go down her spine. ‘Oh, Owen, don’t. I couldn’t bear to even think about it’.

‘And whilst he’s in there we can sort out all his issues to do with money. One of my aunties went through these kind of financial problems a few years back and me and my Mum got it all sorted out for her. The biggest mistake you can make is to ignore it which is what your Dad has been doing and what my Auntie did. But she’s okay now and so will your Dad be’.

‘How did you sort your Auntie out?’

‘We came up with a repayment plan that we worked out she could afford and put it to her creditors’ Owen explained.

‘And why did your Auntie get into difficulty?’

‘Even though they’re sisters my Aunt Jess and my Mum are very different people’ said Owen. ‘Aunt Jess has always been lousy with money. She’s never married, she has no kids. My Mum met my Dad, I met you. Not everybody has been as lucky, my Aunt Jess being one of them, and loneliness is a curse that leads to so many other kinds of unhappiness. Your Dad has probably tried to spend his way out of being haunted by his memories’.

‘He wouldn’t have any money worries if that bastard let him have his inheritance from my Gran. I can’t believe my mother is living with him’.

‘I know, babe, but you know, don’t be too hard on your Mum. Your Dad can’t have been easy to live with all these years. She might be suffering with her own emotions. I’d be surprised if she wasn’t to be honest’.

‘Owen, she’s left my Dad for that evil monster Griffin, let alone the fact that he’s her father-in-law’.

‘I know and I’d be furious too. But let the dust settle and then let her explain herself. That’s all I’m saying’.

‘Oh Owen. I didn’t mean for all this to fall on us. You must be wondering what kind of family you’re marrying into’.

‘No’ said Owen, firmly. ‘I’m marrying you, not your family. And I’m in love with you. If any problems come our way then we’ll sort them out. We’re not going to be defeated by anything. I do have to ask one thing though?’

‘What?’

‘Do you want to delay our wedding?’

‘No!’ said Gabby, adamantly. ‘Owen, our wedding is the only way we can maintain control over our lives. It’s the only thing we’ve got. We’re not going to delay it for anything’.

‘Just thought I’d ask’ said Owen who didn’t want to appear insensitive. He loved the bones of Gabby and wanted her to feel the greatest freedom as she walked down the aisle to marry him. He’d do anything for her. ‘I just want you to be happy’.

Gabby sat up and took Owens’ face in her hands. His short black hair, dark blue eyes, square jaw and dimple in his chin meant the world to her now, even more than before. She felt so lucky. It wasn’t just that he was gorgeous. It was his sensitivity, his kindness, his thoughtfulness. That’s why, she imagined, he made a good nurse. He just seemed to be able to hit the right button at the right time. Cameron the big, hunky Aussie was all very well, a good laugh and a good friend and a huge piece of eye candy for any girl. But Owen was her man and always will be.