Chapter 27
‘Luckily for you, my client has more interest in her daughter’s well-being than getting back at the people who exploited her,’ Poe said.
‘My instructions are to find all digital copies of the films and delete them. That’s why Tilly is here.
She knows how to delete files so they can’t be recovered.
If I meet resistance, I am to report it to the Complex Investigation Team.
They’ll take it from there.’ He paused. ‘Even if you haven’t filmed her daughter, I don’t imagine you want those guys turning your life upside down.
They investigate paedophiles, Mr Knight.
Worse than that, everyone around here knows they investigate paedophiles. ’
Bradshaw opened her laptop. ‘I’ve been through everything on your cloud account, Mr Knight,’ she said. ‘There is nothing on there we are interested in. What I want—’
‘How did you access my cloud account?’
‘Please do not interrupt me again. If you do, I’ll infect your electronic devices with a virus so powerful it will be like you’re back in the Stone Age.’
‘I wouldn’t test her on this,’ Poe said. ‘She’s been dying to try out that virus, and right now, I can’t think of anyone more deserving.’
Knight said nothing.
‘I want the computer on which you store the films and photographs you haven’t yet uploaded,’ Bradshaw said. ‘I assume you film everything on SD cards then upload them directly to an air-gapped computer?’
‘I do.’
‘I want access to that computer.’
‘Right now,’ Poe added. ‘I don’t want you getting clever and trying to delete something. Tilly will find it anyway. All you’ll do is put me in a bad mood.’
‘You’re not already in a bad mood?’
‘I’m happier than a tornado in a trailer park at the minute, but that probably won’t last.’
‘I’ll get my computer.’
Bradshaw connected her laptop to Toby Knight’s air-gapped one. She pressed a few buttons, then hummed while she waited for everything to download. It wasn’t long before the entire contents of his computer had been transferred to hers.
‘What else do you have?’ Poe said.
‘Like?’
‘Do you use your phone to shoot things? Your tablet? Where’s your camera?’
‘My camera’s next door, but it’s empty. Everything is on that computer. Now, can you tell me if I have inadvertently filmed your client’s daughter?’
‘No.’
‘No? What do you mean, “no”?’
‘It’s a common word, Mr Knight. Used as a generally negative response.’
‘But how will I know if I’m in the clear?’
‘You won’t.’
‘But …’
‘But what?’
‘But I can’t have this hanging over my head. I have to know.’
‘That sounds like a “you” problem,’ Poe said.