Into The Fire

3

3

Nathan paused outside the door to the interview room as a yawn, his biggest yet, overtook him. He nearly spilled the two coffees he was carrying because of it, thankfully Georgie chose that moment to appear and relieve him of the drinks.

Only when he had gotten the yawn out of his system did he reach out to take hold of the door handle.

“I’m sorry to have kept you waiting, Mr Larsson,” he apologised as he entered the room. “I had to take care of a few things.” He took a seat across the table from the studio owner while Georgie took the seat next to him, setting the drinks she held in front of the two men.

“Thanks.” Larsson lifted the mug of coffee to his lips. He wanted the warmth of the liquid after the chill of the late night/early morning air as much as he needed the coffee to help him stay awake. “Is this going to take long?” he asked after he had drained half the mug.

“I’ll try not to keep you any longer than necessary.” Nathan sipped at his coffee. “The vandalism that took place at your studio tonight appears to have been the work of someone with a grudge, both against the studio and yourself, based on the extensive graffiti. Can you think of anyone who might be responsible?”

“Nobody specific,” Larsson said. “A whole bunch of people thanks to the articles that have been in the Herald recently, but nobody I could name.”

Nathan wasn’t so foolish as to think things would be as simple as all that, but he had been hopeful. “Has there been any other trouble recently? Vandalism, threats, anything like that?”

“No vandalism, but there has been other trouble,” Larsson admitted.

“What sort of trouble?” Nathan asked, while Georgie scribbled notes in her pad.

“Phone calls, emails, posts on the websites and forums the studio runs.” Larsson drained the second half of his coffee as quickly as he had the first and pushed the mug away. “We’ve always got a few crank messages, it’s the nature of the business we’re in. You have to expect it and deal with it, and we have. Nearly all of them amount to nothing, they’re just people sounding off over the anonymity of the internet, and the few that seem more serious we pass on to our lawyer, he deals with them however he feels appropriate.

“Since the murder of Ellen Powers, though, and especially since Inspector Martins began her investigation and the Herald started writing its stories, there has been a large increase in the number of messages we receive. Some of them have been vile and upsetting. We’ve lost our secretary over this situation, and I’ve had to stop my wife and children handling any incoming communications regarding the studio. We’ve lost a number of our models as well, and if things don’t change soon, it’s likely that we’ll have to shut the studio before it goes bankrupt.” He exhaled a bitter sigh. “We’ve been cleared of any involvement with Ellen’s murder, and with the allegations the Herald fabricated. None of that seems to matter, though. The Herald is still printing its stories, and no-one seems to believe the outcome of the investigation.”

Nathan let the studio boss ramble on, getting it all off his chest. It was clear it was something he needed to do, and Nathan figured he wouldn’t get much useful information from Eric Larsson until he had vented his frustrations.

Larsson continued for almost five minutes before falling silent; he had revealed little that was likely to be of use to the barely begun investigation, but at least he was calmer and not so agitated.

“Can you recall,” Nathan said after sending Georgie to get them all fresh coffee – he hoped she had enough sense to go upstairs to his office and get it from the pot of decent coffee he had brewed on the fancy coffee machine installed in his office by Detective Sergeant Stephen Burke, his partner before Ariana Georgius was transferred to Branton. “If any of the messages you have received have threatened the action that was taken tonight?”

Larsson had to think about that for a while before shaking his head. “Not really. There have been plenty that said they were going to put me out of business, see me behind bars, or otherwise punished for my supposed crimes; some of them have even suggested they were going to do to me what I’ve done to the girls I’m supposed to have attacked, and that my family would suffer the same.” The distaste he felt at the threats to his family was obvious in the way he wrung his hands and grimaced.

“Why haven’t you informed the police before now if your life, and those of your family, has been threatened?” Nathan asked. “I would have thought that was the first thing you would do.” Unless there was a reason for it, and he had no idea what reason could be good enough, he couldn’t understand why the matter hadn’t been brought to the attention of the police.

“I have,” Larsson said quickly. “I told Inspector Martins about the threats when they started coming in, and I got advice from my lawyer. The inspector told me there was nothing she could do since there was nothing in any of the threats to identify who they came from. My lawyer thought she could have done more, she didn’t really seem interested in investigating the threats.”

There probably wasn’t enough of a potential reward to such an investigation, Nathan thought cynically. He knew just how annoyed his fellow detective inspector was with having failed to secure herself a headline-grabbing conviction with the investigation into the studio, one which would have boosted her chances of securing another promotion on her way to senior rank.

“Well you can rest assured I will investigate this thoroughly,” he told Larsson. “I will, however, need any copies you have of the threats you’ve received since the murder of Ellen Powers, as well as details of any incidents you can remember. It doesn’t matter how insignificant they might seem to you, there might be something in them. You might want to review whatever security arrangements you have in place as well.”

“You think something else might happen?”

“I hope not, but with someone as clearly obsessed as this person is, I wouldn’t want to guarantee anything.”