A dark web of monsters, p.7
A Dark Web of Monsters, page 7
“Hurtcore, man. I told you. And that ain’t nothing. In the comments, one guy said he’d pay nearly ten grand to see her fucking mutilated while being raped until she’s dead. But anyway, that’s beside the point; whadaya wanna do about it?”
Too stunned to think straight still, Daniel tried to consider their options. Self-preservation was the key here. There was no way they could go to the police, much as that was what he wanted to do right now, or they would want to know how he obtained the video. For the same reasons they couldn’t exactly tell Angela’s parents either. Right now he and Kyle were the only ones in the village that knew Angela was still alive and what she was being used for, and there was nothing they could do about it. But somehow he had to. Then he had an idea.
“Could you like, I dunno, send a copy anonymously to the police or something? I gotta let my aunt and uncle know she’s alive but how?”
“Dunno, it’s risky. They’re pretty fucking good at what they do. Not sure I wanna take the chance.”
This was a Catch 22 situation. Daniel desperately wanted to inform the police but there was no way he could risk betraying his friend as well. If caught and the police hacked into their computers, they were going to prison for years. And yet, by giving the police the information, they might be able to track the whereabouts of his cousin. She could be rescued and saved from this living hell. Then he had another idea.
“Lemme take a photo with my phone, I’ll print it out then send to the police. At least they’ll know she’s still alive. What a fucking arsehole, man. I wish I caught the fucker doing that to her myself. I’d cut his fucking balls off and make him eat ‘em.”
“Yeah, me too. Some of the stuff on these websites make snuff movies look tame. Look, take a photo, just make sure it’s only the screen. Print it out at home, wear gloves, of course, then send it anonymously to the police. Just don’t go leaving your fucking DNA on the envelope or anything stupid. We get caught, we’ll be the ones getting castrated in prison!”
“No worries, man. Thanks! I gotta let my aunt and uncle know she’s alive, at least.”
“Fucking right. Go for it.”
Daniel did so, and shortly afterwards he headed home, thanking Kyle for giving him the information. But after printing out the photo and looking at it, he was still worried. What if it was treated as a hoax? Some sick fucker who’d photoshopped Angela’s face onto the image? But if he didn’t send it, he could never forgive himself if Angela ended up dead somewhere. Wasn’t his cousin’s life worth more than a few years in prison for possessing child porn? And given what they had done to her, and what Kyle mentioned about even more sickening torture, he had to do something. These people weren’t paedophiles like he was; they were the scum of the earth. It wasn’t even porn half the time.
“Fuck it,” he muttered, and headed downstairs to find his father, sitting on the sofa while Emma was at her sister-in-law’s house.
“Hey, Daniel. What’s up? Do anything exciting today?”
“No, not really. I, umm, got something to show you. It’s bad.”
“Oh. Really? You get into trouble? Don’t tell me you got someone pregnant by mistake, because really that’s—”
“It’s Angela.”
Aaron’s eyes lit up. He sat up straight and stared at Daniel for a long time. “Angela? What about her?”
“Okay, so, I have this friend. He likes to hack stuff on computers. Corporations and stuff, just for fun, like. But he has a friend who was on the dark web. You know what that is, right?”
“Sort of, yeah. Go on.”
Daniel took a deep breath and produced the photo. Just in case, he’d made several photocopies. “This friend came across this. I think we’ve found her.”
Aaron practically snatched the photo from Daniel’s hand. He studied it for several seconds, saying nothing. Eventually, still gripping the photo, he said, “where did you get this?”
“I told you, a friend of a friend found it. He printed out a photo then deleted the video. We have to go to the police. Angela’s parents, tell her she’s at least alive.”
“Right. Of course. Fuck. I don’t believe it.”
He studied the photo some more, bringing it right up to his face. “Poor girl. Who could do such a thing? I’ll phone your uncle. Wait, no, maybe it’s better to phone the police first. I don’t think they should see the image. You sure you’re not into stuff that might get you arrested? The police are going to want to speak to you about it.”
“I’m not giving away my friend’s identity if that’s what you’re talking about, but the priority is trying to find Angela. They might be able to find, like, clues, or something on the image.”
“Fuck. Umm, yeah, do it. I have to go phone your mother a moment. You call the police. No, wait, better to go there. We don’t want the place swarming with detectives. They’ll think we’re involved or something.”
“Good idea. Gonna go there right now. This is good, right, Dad? We know she’s at least alive.”
“Yeah. Yeah, very good.”
Chapter 16
Deborah looked at the photo once more, this time using a magnifying glass to see clearer. Later, the forensics tech department would go over it much more carefully, enhancing the image to check for any indication of Angela’s whereabouts but for now, she wasn’t sure if she was relieved or not. As she had done before, she would have to go to Angela’s parents and tell them they had evidence she was indeed being used in a child porn ring. Except, if it was just a simple paedophile ring that was one thing; this was something far worse and the prospects of this ending well were not good at all.
The young man sitting opposite her fidgeted in his seat once again, unable to keep his hands still. A sure sign he was nervous and for good reason. Deborah didn’t believe his story at all.
“So let me get this straight; a friend of a friend happened to stumble on this video, took a photo with his phone, gave it to you, then deleted the video?”
“Yeah, that was what I was told. He gave it to my friend who gave it to me.”
“And you have no idea who this man is and you’re not prepared to give me the name of your friend so we can question him?”
“He had nothing to do with making the video. He just knows the guy who came across it, so I don’t see why or how he can help. This is all about finding my cousin. You should be analysing it for clues or something. Let my aunt and uncle know their daughter is alive.”
“Well, actually you’re very wrong, because I could arrest you right now for obstruction and withholding information. That video came from the dark web and very few people know how to access it. So this friend could be of enormous interest to the investigation. Secondly, I think you’re hiding something. A friend of a friend of a friend? How about I get a search warrant and search your premises? Would we find anything of interest on your computer perhaps?”
“Nope. I’m at work all week. I get home, watch movies then go to bed. Those videos are sick. I hope you do catch the bastard. She’s my cousin, remember, so if I thought there was the slightest chance my friend might be involved in some way, I’d tell you.”
This was the only thing stopping Deborah from arresting him and getting that warrant. There were some seriously messed-up people in the world, but she didn’t think for a second a man would kidnap and rape his own cousin, or be involved in any way, then bring evidence direct to the station. Some people were too cocky and smug for their own good, but not this kid. He genuinely seemed interested in them finding his cousin’s kidnapper. She considered the pro’s and cons of arresting him or not and decided it might be in their interest to let him go, seeing how he obviously wasn’t going to give up his friend’s name. Even so, this went way beyond her and she would have to speak to her superior about it. If it came to light that one of the country’s most wanted persons had been in the interrogation room and she’d let him go, it would be her blood they wanted too. She told him she’d be back shortly and left.
“No way,” said her boss, Chief Inspector Reynolds. “Arrest him, we’ll keep him here as long as possible and try and force him to give us the information. I’ll break him myself.”
“But I don’t think it is him that downloaded that video and much less recorded it. He won’t give up his friend’s name, he’s made it quite clear for fear of retaliation and he honestly looked genuinely shocked when his cousin went missing. We spoke to him twice. Besides, he was at work at the time Angela went missing—I checked.
“I think we have more chance of him leading us to this person that gave him the photo if we carry out surveillance. From the moment he gets home from work until he goes to bed. Whoever gave him the photo must be a close friend of his, maybe he has other material that might be of interest. If we try and force it out of him, we’ll never find out.”
CI Reynolds looked at her for a while, expressionless while contemplating his decision. Just when Deborah feared he was going to go against her, he spoke, “Okay, let him go. But I want a team following his every move. If this comes out in the press that we had someone with evidence and let him go, they’ll be hell to pay. Especially if it turns out he knows more than he’s saying.”
Deborah breathed a sigh of relief and returned to Daniel. “Okay, I’m not going to arrest you right now, but make sure you don’t go leaving town. I guess the thing to do is go and inform your aunt and uncle before the press find out. I’d like you to speak to your friend again and if finding Angela really is your top priority, you’ll find out how and where he accessed the video.”
And meanwhile, we’ll be following your every move, he thought to himself.
“So I can go?”
“Yes. For now.”
Visibly relieved, Daniel hastily left the premises before the detective could change her mind. She hoped she didn’t end up regretting this. A little pressure put on him, left to wallow in his own self-pity for a few hours in a cell, he might have relented and given a name. The only thing stopping her was because he was family, and while he had been waiting, another colleague had done a quick background check on him. His record was pretty much clean except for having been caught smoking weed a few years ago.
Now for the hardest part. And there was no way she was showing the Radcliffe’s a photo of their daughter being sexually assaulted while her nipples were melting.
Deborah knocked on the Radcliffe’s door, feeling apprehensive, not knowing how they were going to take the news of their daughter’s whereabouts. Relief that she was still alive would be the typical response but once she explained that the chances of Angela ever being released were slim, their hopes would soon be dashed. From then on, it would be a race against time to locate the address she was at or the IP address of the person who had uploaded the video in the first place. For that, they were going to need Daniel to inadvertently direct them to the one who had given him the photo. Already, a surveillance team was following him.
The door opened and to her surprise it was Aaron standing there. Whether it was coincidence or not, she didn’t know but she had to assume Daniel had discussed the photo with him before heading to the station. She wasn’t wrong.
“Hi, Detective. I know about the photo. Daniel showed it to me. He wanted to tell my brother and sister-in-law about Angela’s situation but I suggested it might be better to see you first. I, umm, don’t think it would be a good idea to show them the photo itself, either. It will be terribly distressing for Kate.”
“I won’t. The photo is being analysed by our tech department right now. And you did the right thing, letting me give them the news. I’m sure they’ll have lots of questions I probably won’t be able to answer. As for your son, even though he came to us with the evidence, it doesn’t absolve him of further investigation. According to him, a friend of a friend gave him that information and he is a person of special interest to us. Our next job will be to try and locate the source of the video, so we’ll be speaking to Daniel again soon.”
“I understand. He wouldn’t tell me either who the friend is. I know Daniel isn’t involved in all that sick dark web stuff or whatever it is, but if he can find out what website the video came from, even better. He misses his cousin a lot and just wants to help. But anyway, come in. Her parents are in the living room. Just…don’t tell them it was my son that gave you the photo. Last thing we need now is journalists or neighbours thinking he’s involved someway.”
Their eyes widened when she walked in and they both sat up on the sofa. Daniel and Emma were also there, Daniel refusing to look her in the eyes. It had been a couple of days since she last spoke to the Radcliffes, only to tell them they had a couple of leads they were working on but still no official news. That she was here now at their home must mean she had fresh information to share.
“Detective, you finally had a breakthrough?” asked Kate. “Is she alive?”
“I do have news, yes. We received information from an anonymous source earlier today. The good news is that Angela is alive as far as we’re aware. The bad news is that the tip off we received pertains to a photo taken from a dark web site showing your daughter. As I discussed before with your husband, it would appear Angela has been kidnapped by a sex trafficking ring and is being used to make pornographic videos that are being sold on the website.”
Both James and Kate gasped loudly, hands clapping to their mouths.
“So…so she’s still alive right now? You can find her?” asked James.
“We’ll do everything in our power, but it’s not easy. These people are very clever at hiding their trails and it’s a lot of hard work trying to enter these websites without authorisation. It could take our tech experts a long time to gain access and we don’t know exactly when the photo was taken of your daughter.”
“Do you have the photo now, with you?”
“No, it’s being handled by the National Crime Agency who specialise in such matters. But it’s just a photo, not the actual video itself, so we have no way of locating the source of it.” She glanced at Daniel as she said it.
“Sick bastards. How could anyone do such a thing? She’s just a little girl. How do people get off on this shit? Even Northgate’s too good for these people. They should bring back the death penalty,” said James through gritted teeth.
Emma sat beside Kate and put an arm around her, Aaron, having said nothing during the entire conversation, patted his brother on the back.
“In that, I agree,” said Deborah. “We’ll do everything in our power to locate her and bring these people to justice, but know, it’s extremely difficult. Unless we can locate the website the video was uploaded to, it’s going to be hard. And for now, I would advise against telling the press should they come knocking. Let the Agency do what they can first, then we’ll see. But keep your hopes up. The Agency have managed to hack into accounts like these before; they may be able to do it again.”
“Thanks, Detective,” said Aaron. “That she’s alive gives us all the hope we need. I’m sure you’ll find these bastards and stop them.”
Deborah nodded and left them to it. There was something about all of this that just didn’t sit right, but she had no idea what that might be. But for now, with nothing to do until she heard back from the analysts, there wasn’t a lot more she could do. Hope Daniel led them to the guy with the copy of the video or, more than likely, Angela’s body turned up somewhere and a fresh victim was taken. A never-ending circle of horror, a world of monsters ever-increasing it seemed.
Chapter 17
Hello, Lucy,
It’s been a while since we last spoke. You may be delighted to know your last video was widely received by those fortunate enough to see it. They demanded more so know you’re very popular right now! And we wouldn’t want to upset our members, would we?
So this is what you’re going to do. I have copies of the previous video, of course, so if you refuse, I will happily distribute them to all your social media sites not to mention dropping one through your letter box for your parents to see. Maybe they’d even like it, who knows!
I’d like to take things up a notch. The last one you were very sexy and acted great, but this time, members want to see you with something other than a silly old butt plug or dildo inside you. They want to see the real thing. You have a younger sister, Emily. Tonight, when your parents are asleep…
Sobbing, Lucy threw her phone to the floor after reading the email for the second time. Bile rose to her throat which she spat out. If there had been any food in her stomach she would have thrown that up too, but she had barely eaten anything all week; her nerves and anxiety refused to allow for such luxuries. She barely slept either and now there was no denying something was wrong with her. Her clothes hardly fit her and her personal hygiene, personality, and appearance had caught the attention of everyone.
“I don’t know what has happened, Lucy, but we’re both extremely worried,” said her mother just a few days beforehand, sat all three together on the sofa, her father looking like he too had aged twenty years overnight.
“It’s nothing, honestly, just leave me alone!” she replied and made to rush off to her room before they could insist—her usual tactic.
“Uh-huh,” said her dad, grabbing her arm before she could do so.
“Oww, let go, you’re hurting me!”
“And you’re hurting us. What is it? Are you pregnant? Is that it and you don’t want to tell us? Because you can, you know. We can work it all out because refusing to eat or take care of yourself isn’t going to solve the problem. Talk to us, Lucy. You’re killing us here. You don’t eat, you cry in your sleep. You don’t take care of yourself anymore. Even the teachers have been on the phone to us at school.”
Lucy snickered. “I’m not pregnant! Why won’t you all just leave me alone! I’m fine. Just…worried about the upcoming exams, that’s all. And instead of phoning you the teachers should come and ask me. Christ, what is it with everyone?”
“Don’t go getting all defensive, Lucy. We’re not blind and we’re not stupid,” said her mother. “A couple of weeks ago you were all excited about this modelling agency, now you don’t even care about anything anymore. Much less your appearance. Is it this agency you emailed? Have they said something? Because if they did, you must tell us, so we can take action.”
