‘I know I’m pestering but—’
‘I am in reception. I will be with you in five minutes. I have news of your image.’
Varga breezed in, sat again at Khosa’s desk and got down to it with no fuss. Anna liked that about her. A lot.
‘Europol is very efficient. Seized data is an excellent way to generate new leads in any type of internet-related crime. The image you found came from a Belgian investigation which led to forty arrests. The image was buried in a chat room posting. The date of the posting is May 2009. The twenty-fourth to be precise. That is nearly a year after Rosie Dawson went missing.’
No one spoke. Varga told a great story.
‘It looks as though the post was deleted, but another user had responded to the post and so the image was preserved on that user’s timeline.’
‘What did the user say?’
‘It is an irrelevance. All that is important is that this other user may have been not as careful as he should have in deleting his posts. The forum was on a site known to be a paedophile haunt. This one was called Littlefeet.’
‘Jesus.’ Woakes shook his head.
‘The bad news is,’ Varga continued, ‘that the site has long ago been taken down. The urls change all the time. But Littlefeet was not a deep level forum. None of the images from it were classed as severe. Some simple photographs of children. Clothed, taken in play areas or swimming baths with captions from the posters.’
‘What are you saying here, Szandra?’ Anna said.
‘I think that this image is nothing more than an advertisement. A sample to entice people into a deeper layer of the Dark Web. Those that could.’
‘Can you get in there?’
‘We don’t know where there is.’
‘What sort of sites are we talking about here?’
Varga held Anna’s gaze. ‘I am not an expert. I am a technician but my work inevitably brings me into contact. If you want real details you would need to talk to the CAIT in Weston.’
Anna knew about the Child Abuse Investigation Team. But she sensed that Varga was holding back.
‘We will, but tell us what you know.’
Varga sighed. ‘I work in digital forensics, but we are part of a multidisciplinary team. Operational support, digital investigations and ICAT, the Internet Child Abuse Team. I spend a lot of time with them as colleagues. We all have counselling about the images we see. We talk all the time, obviously. So, I know that even in the depraved world of child pornography there are some rules. Deliberate harm is generally frowned upon, although I realise that those two words are a matter of semantics. We know, though, that despite this, all tastes are catered for.’
Something opened up inside Anna. A dark hole into which her insides seemed to fall. The squad fell silent for several seconds as the impact of Varga’s words sank in.
‘OK,’ said Holder. ‘So how does that help us with Rosie Dawson?’
‘We can get Szandra to keep looking for photos of Rosie in these chat rooms,’ Khosa said. ‘There must be others besides Littlefeet.’
‘And add in the others from Hawley’s list maybe?’ Holder offered.
‘I can speak to someone in ICAT. But I know they are busy after last week’s seizures.’ Varga shrugged.
Holder said, ‘Yeah, I read about the raids. Ten addresses, wasn’t it?’
Varga nodded. ‘And a dozen computer hard discs to analyze. I will try but I think it will take some time.’
‘How much time?’ Anna said and heard the frustration in her own voice.
‘Here our local resources are…’ Varga’s hands fluttered ineffectually.
‘Stretched. Yeah, we’ve heard it all before.’ Woakes looked suitably miffed. ‘Christ, it’s a wonder we catch any of these bastards.’
Varga did not look offended. She had either chosen not to accept the challenge of Woakes’ cheap shot, or she hadn’t fully understood it. Anna didn’t care either way. Varga was good value.
‘There are several ways we do catch these… bastards,’ Varga said, looking directly at Woakes. ‘Seized data, as happened with the Belgian police raid. Following money, real money, credit card records and larger cryptocurrency transactions, we already discussed. Blockchain analysis does exist but only large organisations like the IRS can do this and they are only interested in money laundering. Large amounts. Small transactions remain completely under the radar. Your best option is source information, such as on discussion boards as I have demonstrated.’
Woakes frowned.
Varga said, ‘People leave digital breadcrumbs if they are not very, very careful.’ She pointed at Rosie’s image. ‘Like this preserved image in the chat room. And then there is mass surveillance, though intercepted information is not admissible in the UK. And then there are the covert operations. The traps. Pretending to be someone else online is much easier than going undercover. Covert operations are not usually run locally. Usually CEOP—’
‘Remind me,’ Khosa said.
‘The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command is part of the National Crime Agency. They might be able to help. But you need to remember that the Dark Web is vast and we have no idea what we are looking for.’
‘That’s not very encouraging, Szandra, but I could listen to you all day,’ Holder said.
Varga’s eyebrows went up but she looked pleased.
Anna nodded. ‘Szandra, this is extremely useful. I’ll get a formal action written up for you guys to look at Rosie’s image for us. And one of us needs to speak to CAIT.’
‘I look forward to it,’ Varga said and handed her report over to Anna.
* * *
‘Bloody geeks,’ Woakes said when she’d gone.
‘Bloody geeks often get us the answers we need,’ Anna replied. She waited for Woakes to come up with the suggestion she expected him to, but all he did was turn back to his screen.
What they had not investigated Hawley for was any evidence of cryptocurrency transactions. Anna felt sure Woakes would suggest this the instant Varga had said it. But clearly it sailed over his head. She filed it away for now and kept staring at the point in space where Woakes’ face had just been. The burrowing worm nudged against the inside of her skull. A different idea stimulating it. Their own Hi-Tech squad was stretched and all they had was one image. Searching for more links to Rosie was going to take time. But what about other areas where resources were being thrown at an all-guns-blazing investigation?
Anna went back to her office, an idea taking shape in her head. She got Trisha to put her through to someone on the investigating team in Edinburgh. Police Scotland had different ways of doing things, and Blair Smeaton’s abduction, still eminent in the press, would be coordinated by a POLSA, as with every other force in the country. But for what she wanted, Anna decided on the liaison at the National Child Abuse Investigation Unit who’d been drafted in to help the Edinburgh team. A sergeant by the name of Julie Danaher.
‘DS Danaher.’
‘Hi. This is DI Anna Gwynne with the MCRTF at Avon and Somerset. We’re in the middle of reviewing a cold case. The abduction and murder of Rosie Dawson nine years ago. Something’s come up which may be of interest to you.’
‘Fire away,’ said Danaher. It took Anna a moment to work out what was incongruous, but then realised that Danaher had a Northern Irish accent.
In the background, Anna heard Danaher issuing muted orders, her hand over the mouthpiece of her phone, not quite obscuring everything.
‘You’re busy,’ Anna said.
‘Mad.’
‘OK, I’ll be brief. I’m not sure if this is going to be of any help at all, but we’ve been looking at any links between abductions across the country. Specifically, girls aged between nine and twelve.’
‘So have we, ma’am. HOLMES has flagged them up.’
‘Then you’ll have Rosie included.’