The Dark Web Murders

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Tuesday, 21st August. Afternoon. 

Sheehan tapped his pencil on his desk to hush the chattering team. "Okay. We'll get started. Sergeant Larkin has asked me to call you all together because he has significant news to impart. I can only hope it's something to do with the safe." He nodded to the bespectacled sergeant. "The floor's yours, Bill." 

Larkin got to his feet. "Thanks, Chief. And you're right. We got the safe opened." 

Some whistles and hoots greeted this announcement. "Way to go, Bill."This from Allen.

 "So, what was in it?" Sheehan said, sounding a lot more casual than he felt. 

"I don't have any of the actual contents with me," Larkin said. "They've been lodged in evidence, but I took some notes. You're not going to believe what I have here." 

"It's going to be hard to believe it if we don't know what it is," Sheehan said dryly. 

Larkin said, "Sorry, Chief. Well, to start with there was nearly a quarter of a million in cash." Larkin looked up from his notes and added, "Not big into paying his taxes, obviously." 

Nobody was amused. Larkin's tendency to lead up to a point from some distance back was almost intolerable at this juncture. 

"Big money, Sergeant," Miller said, "but scarcely cause for disbelief." 

"Well, try this," Larkin answered. "Our Brexiteers are not Brexiteers at all. They're all members of a top-secret and hugely expensive Sex Club that caters for the most depraved and perverted sexual tastes. No desire, no matter how warped or degenerate, cannot be catered for. I've seen the menu, excuse me, the Liste des Activités, and the prices. Geez! I thought I'd seen it all and that I was too long in the tooth to be shocked." He shook his head, almost in bewilderment. "But this stuff is sickening." 

"What can you tell us about it, Bill?" Allen asked, almost slack-jawed. 

"Well, it seems that the judge originally had a small side-line. People in certain circles would learn on a secret grapevine that Judge Neeson had the connections to put them in touch with people of similar tastes for gratification of all sorts of kinky needs. Apparently, the word drifted around certain discreet circles, and demand for his services grew to such an extent that he could no longer cope with it. This led to the creation of a new club called Fulfilment for the Enlightened. Membership costs the earth, but scores of high-fliers, and not only from Northern Ireland, have been lining up to join. That party at the judge's that night was a brief induction before introducing these new members to The Club's delights." 

"Any names?" Connors asked. 

"Shit loads. Uh, sorry, Chief. I mean, you have doctors, lawyers, judges,royalty, government officials, millionaire businessmen ... there's just no end to the list." 

McCullough spoke, sounding uncertain, "A hardcore secret society for very rich people with exotic sexual tastes. Is this something that the police need concern themselves with?" 

"Too right, Mac," Larkin replied. "This isn't just some jaded elite playing perverted party games. Maybe some of the things they do could just be on the side of legal, like fetish balls, maybe, but when it comes to paedophiles' abuse of very young children kidnapped from their own homes, youths and young girls and women kidnapped and imprisoned in dungeons below the place, to engage in horrid activities...." Larkin stopped to stare around the room, his eyes distressed. "Honest to God, it's unbelievable. Lots of what goes on isn't about sex at all. Sado-maschochism of the most extreme sort, torture, cruel games that sometimes go way over the limit and actually end in death, even creating their own snuff movies."