True Crime Story(94)
ANDREW FLOWERS:
Detective James had called me the night before for a light bollocking about the video. He said I needed to meet him at Owens Park to discuss the potential fallout of my not mentioning when questioned, yada yada yada. What with work and Jai and one thing and another, I was late. When I got there, I couldn’t see the police, just a woman with a duffel coat drawn up so high about her head I could hardly make out her face. I’d know that scowl anywhere, though.
KIMBERLY NOLAN:
I said, “Andrew?” We laughed. I mean, just awkwardly, but still. And we hugged. I think we said hello in there somewhere, asked each other what we were doing. Andrew said he was meeting the police, but he was so late, he thought they’d probably left. I told him I’d been there for an hour and they’d never shown. I just remember the smile fading off his face when he said, “Why would they ask us both here?” Then my smile faded too.
I tried the number James had called from, but it just went to voicemail. Then we both tried the police, we got passed around a bit, and finally Andrew got put through.
ANDREW FLOWERS:
Except DI James sounded distinctly different from the man I’d spoken to the previous evening. What’s more, he had no memory of asking either one of us to meet him anywhere. He wasn’t even assigned to Zoe’s case anymore. I got off the phone and Kim said, “But why would someone set us up to be here?” when I spotted a man over the road taking pictures. A man who’d clearly been standing there the entire time. I walked straight through the traffic, threw his fucking camera into a tree and grabbed him by his fat throat.
KIMBERLY NOLAN:
Andrew was lifting him off the ground by his neck, demanding to know how he knew we’d both be there. The guy said his newspaper got an anonymous tip. They’d sent him out to take pictures, then he looked at me like I’d cool things down. I told Andrew to squeeze harder. The guy was shouting at us that it was assault, which was true, but I got in his face and explained to him that we were in a unique situation.
ANDREW FLOWERS:
I was too furious to see straight, much less speak, my piss was at boiling point. Kim said what I couldn’t. Neither one of us wanted to be pictured outside Owens Park on the seventh anniversary of Zoe’s disappearance, and especially not smiling, especially not three days after that ridiculous video leaked.
But what incensed us was the suggestion of an anonymous tip. We’d both fallen foul of that game over the years, and I think after this last run-in especially, we were both coming to the conclusion that someone was behind it. These weren’t isolated incidents. Each represented one part in a sustained campaign of hate. Kim explained all this to the newspaper man, but when Clark Kunt still couldn’t grasp things, she put them more bluntly.
KIMBERLY NOLAN:
I said I thought the video of me and Andrew had been leaked by the person responsible for taking my sister. I said we’d both been lured there by someone impersonating a police officer and that his newspaper had been notified of our meeting before we’d even known about it. I was stressing that whoever set this photo shoot up could well be Zoe’s stalker or kidnapper, her killer even.
MARCUS LEE:
Yeah, Lionel called, shitting it down the phone. These guys can take a choking, believe me, but from the sounds of it, Flowers still had him by the throat. He put it to me, what they’d said, and I thought it sounded interesting. Then Kim got on the line and made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.
KIMBERLY NOLAN:
I’d had requests for years to tell my side of the story, to do an interview or a photo shoot at the tower. I’d always said no—the idea repulsed me—but I thought, right there and then in that moment, let’s cash it all in. I told him if he killed the story of me and Andrew and if he had the number the tip came in from, I’d give him a full interview.
MARCUS LEE:
We were fresh off the reporting we’d done around her dad’s alleged abuses of power and still reeling from the leaked sex tape, so there’d be plenty for us to talk about before we even got on to Zoe. There was also the inevitable blowback an article like that might have. Bad news for Kim but good news for us—it could run and run.
KIMBERLY NOLAN:
Andrew and me were still standing in the street. I looked around and said I’d need somewhere to stay. Marcus suggested putting me in the Hilton, the skyscraper in Manchester. I was about to tell him he had a deal when Andrew took the phone out of my hand.
ANDREW FLOWERS:
I said, “Marcus, hi. Here’s how it’s gonna be. You get Kim, you get a photo shoot, you get her signature today, but the price is ten grand, no ifs and no buts. Her minibar had better stay stocked as well. Call me back when you want to say yes.” Then I hung up. Kim started to give me an angry look, but the phone was vibrating before she’d even fully frowned. Take it from me, if you’re selling your soul, don’t do it cheap.
MARCUS LEE:
I didn’t even blink before I called back and said yes—it was a steal. My one condition was that I wouldn’t give her the number this tip came in from until the article had run, I didn’t want her backing out. I took the train up there that day, checked in and spent December 17, 18 and 19 interviewing her and writing the piece. What we got—the story about her being kidnapped from outside Fifth Avenue—was a blinder. It ran on December 20, a tight turnaround but nice for the anniversary.