She’d read the story of a lesbian photographer who had gone undercover in one of these centres. She’d seen evidence of forced prayer, withholding food, force-feeding, emotional and physical abuse, beatings and corrective rape. Patients were only allowed to check out once they were believed to have been cured. In some South American countries, the network was vast and full of corruption. But that kind of thing couldn’t happen here, she’d assured herself. These facilities were regulated, inspected.
‘I can see the doubts on your face,’ Penn said. ‘But the source is credible and the boss is on her way back there now. Something about the third floor. She’s got a name for us to look up.’
He pushed a Post-it note towards her, but Stacey’s mind had gone into overdrive. ‘If there’s anything like that going on, people will have talked or tried to take action.’
Penn shook his head. ‘No scandal, nothing.’
‘Then you might be looking in the wrong place,’ Stacey said. ‘Go through their financials in more detail. If they’ve kept people quiet, it’s going to have cost them a lot of money.’
FIFTY-ONE
‘You’re making a mistake, guv,’ Bryant said as he headed back to Bridgnorth.
As honest as he was with her, he didn’t normally phrase his doubts so clearly.
‘You don’t believe her?’ she asked, wondering if he’d been in the same room. There was nothing in Stephanie’s story, tone or demeanour that had caused her to doubt a single word.
‘I absolutely do believe her, and that’s the problem,’ he said, pulling into a lay-by.
‘Bryant, keep driving.’
‘Just hear me out,’ he said, switching off the engine. ‘Did you even know the place existed?’
She shook her head. ‘No, but I’d still prefer to be having this conversation with the car moving.’
‘As police officers we had no knowledge of it.’
‘Not our jurisdiction,’ she defended.
‘It’s seventeen miles away from our station, a forty-minute drive. It’s not the other side of the country. We’ve not heard any reports or rumours of wrongdoing. Not one. Penn worked for West Mercia and hadn’t heard of it.’
‘You’re still sounding like you don’t believe Stephanie.’
‘Guv, work with me. I do believe her, which means we shouldn’t underestimate how clever they are. I know you want to storm in there and demand access to the third floor, but we both know that with that attitude, you’re not gonna get past Jessica’s reception desk. But more than that, you give them warning that we’re actually looking. It’s private property. They let you in once for the guided tour. As far as they’re concerned, we left happy. Why tip your hand and give them reason to hide anything?’
‘Aargh,’ she said, focussing all her frustration into that one cry. What she really wanted to do was go back there, punch someone in the face on behalf of Stephanie, Jamie, Sarah and anyone else that might have suffered at their hands. But another part of her knew when Bryant had a good point.
‘Do you have to be quite so sensible at the points of an investigation when I really don’t want you to be?’
‘You can thank me later,’ he said, starting the engine. ‘Once we’ve got that search warrant signed and sealed, and we can go back and have a proper look.’
‘Okay, head back to the—’ She stopped speaking as her phone rang.
‘Go ahead, Stace,’ Kim said, answering the call.
‘I’ve got a John Dermot, lives in a place called Stableford just six miles out of Bridgnorth.’
‘Sounds good,’ Kim said. ‘Got anything else?’
‘Not yet, but if you start heading towards, I’ll do a bit more digging. I’ve sent the address to Bryant.’
‘Good work, Stace,’ Kim said, ending the call.
‘Got it,’ Bryant said keying in the postcode from the text message.
‘Surely it’s the same—Bloody hell,’ she cursed as her phone rang again.
She was surprised. This caller didn’t ring her direct very often.