Dead Secret

by Noelle Holten

  Maggie stood in the doorway as Nathan entered DI Rutherford’s office. A printer lay battered on the floor, pieces of the machine scattered on the carpet, and DI Rutherford was pacing around the room, cursing in between the moments she stopped to kick the already broken machine.

  ‘Are you okay, guv?’ Nathan stood between the DI and the printer. Maggie wasn’t sure if he was more concerned about DI Rutherford causing herself injury or the DI causing further damage to the printer, making it irreparable and adding a further cost to their already depleted budget. She had overheard him telling someone that the department’s money was tight so they would have to watch every penny when it came to securing additional resources.

  ‘Obviously I’m not okay, Nathan. Christ, I’m attacking a printer.’ She leaned over to catch her breath. ‘Right. Get everyone together in the briefing room. I need a minute to calm down.’ Rutherford took a deep breath and stared at Maggie and Nathan. ‘I’m fine. Go … now.’

  Maggie didn’t need telling twice. Nathan shifted his head towards the door. ‘Gather the team. I’m just going to hang back and make sure she really is okay. See you in five.’ He returned to DI Rutherford’s office, and Maggie headed to the team’s open-plan space. She held her hands up when Kat and Bethany fired questions at her simultaneously.

  ‘DI Rutherford wants us all in the briefing room now. I don’t know why, but after seeing what she did to her printer, I think we need to be prepared.’ Maggie picked up the notepad off her desk and strode to the briefing room, grabbing a seat at the front.

  Kat plonked down beside her and leaned in. ‘Fucking hell – it’s all going off, isn’t it?’

  Before Maggie could respond, DI Rutherford stomped into the room, with Nathan trailing close behind. He took a seat across from Maggie. The look he gave her told her all she needed to know. She braced herself for what would follow.

  ‘We’ve got a situation here, people. I’ve just had the results back from the hammer that was found beside Tim’s body.’ DI Rutherford rubbed her forehead. ‘Partial prints were found on the handle and – they definitely belonged to DCI Hastings. But that’s not all, folks, the blood in his office – all Olivia Hastings.’ She rubbed her hands together. ‘If you recall the crime scene photos – that was a lot of blood.’

  The room rumbled with various expletives, gasps, and heads shaking.

  ‘I haven’t finished. Hair strands matching Hastings were also found on Tim’s clothing and, the final nail in the coffin … skin cells which were a direct DNA match to DCI Hastings, Sophia Hastings, and Olivia Hastings were found underneath Tim’s fingernails.’ DI Rutherford poured herself a glass of water from the jug in front of her and took a large gulp of water before continuing. ‘I know we were unsure about adding Hastings as a person of interest, as none of us really wanted to believe that was the case. However, we now have definitive evidence, and I can confirm that at this very moment, DCI Hastings is no longer being considered a victim of abduction. He’s now a direct POI in Tim’s murder, Sophia’s abduction, and the abduction of his daughter, Olivia. In terms of Sophia Hastings’s murder, we don’t have all the physical evidence to connect him to that – yet. So, we’ll keep an open mind but given the situation … there has to be a reasonable explanation for all this. I should add that Dr Blake advised the prints on the hammer were disturbed, so that means that Hastings wasn’t necessarily the last person to hold the hammer, or he wore gloves when he committed the assault. We’re still waiting for information on the blood and skin cells found under Sophia Hastings’s nails.’

  ‘Holy shitballs! This is huuuuuge. We’re going to have to tell the press all this now, right?’ Kat blurted out what everyone else appeared to be thinking.

  DI Rutherford looked at Nathan before responding. Her face drained of colour. ‘Nathan and I will be meeting with the Comms Department after this – but we’d like to go over everything again, so we’re not caught off guard.’

  ‘Something doesn’t feel right about any of this, ma’am. I had a bad feeling at Tim’s crime scene – I mean who steals a mobile phone but leaves the murder weapon that could identify them? How do we know that Hastings isn’t being set up? Or Tim killed Sophia and Olivia and Hastings was acting in self-defence?’ Maggie frowned, immediately wondering if the probation case – Craig Nolan – could actually be involved in turning the tables on the man he believed had set him up.

  ‘We don’t. We won’t know for sure until we locate and question him – but the evidence strongly supports his involvement. Who is to say that he was disturbed and then couldn’t go back for the hammer?’ She threw her hands up in the air. ‘There are too many ifs. Hastings has been acting strangely for the last few months and more noticeably in the last few weeks. I should have talked to him or told someone.’ DI Rutherford seemed to be talking more to herself than the room. ‘I just want to reiterate that if anyone feels uncomfortable working on this case with this new information, now is the time to let me know; otherwise, we need to forget thinking of DCI Hastings as our boss and treat him the same way we’d treat any other person of interest, okay?’ She sat down.

  ‘We couldn’t have known any of this would happen despite his recent behaviour. Like you said, until we speak to him, we won’t know anything for sure. Let’s look at what we do know.’ Nathan stood and looked around the room. Maggie was pleased to see how Nathan jumped in to take charge when he saw Rutherford was struggling with the possibility that DCI Hastings had been hiding a dark secret for so long.

  ‘Nothing from CCTV, but I’m waiting for the information from ANPR.’ Bethany looked through her notes. ‘I found some articles which were interesting. I passed them over to Maggie.’

  Maggie sank in her chair. She wished Bethany had left that last bit out of the conversation, as Nathan had given her instructions not to pursue it, so instead of focusing on it, Maggie shifted the conversation. ‘When we spoke to the college, we learned that Olivia Hastings was friendly with Tim Griffiths. So, there’s a link there, although whether Tim was known to the rest of the family is unknown. We’re assuming, based on confirmation from some of the staff and a student, the girl with her back to the camera in the picture is Olivia and this is why no one has come forward when we asked about information relating to Tim. The girl in the photo – Olivia – had already been taken.’

  ‘So, what does that tell us in terms of Hastings?’ Maggie could see that Nathan was trying to piece everything together.

  ‘Maybe Tim walked in on something. Threatened Hastings and then he felt that Tim had to be … erm … taken care of.’ Bethany didn’t sound too convinced despite it being her suggestion.

  ‘Hmmm. So why would Hastings want to obliterate his family – what’s the motive? Financial? To hide that he was abusing them? And how the hell did he think he would get away with it?’ Nathan turned to the evidence board.

  ‘You’ve already highlighted a few reasons – money is always a good motive but if the abuse was about to come to light, maybe Tim confronted him? I don’t know. I really can’t see him doing something like this, unless he had some sort of breakdown, lashed out, and then panicked? Or …’ Maggie stopped and wondered whether she should add another option to the floor.

  DI Rutherford stood. ‘Or what, Maggie?’

  She noticed Nathan’s eyes widen and he shook his head, but she had to say something. ‘Or someone else is setting him up.’

  ‘Why would someone do that?’ Maggie could see a glisten of hope in the DI’s eyes. Anything that might take the onus from their boss would be a welcome avenue to explore, so Maggie explained despite the look of anger on Nathan’s face. ‘There’s a licence case, managed by Sarah Hardy, who swore revenge on Hastings, as he believed that he was set up for murder.’

  There was a murmur in the room.

  ‘And why am I only hearing about this now?’ Rutherford looked at Nathan and then Maggie.

  ‘I only just found out and was in the process of arranging to speak to Probation – just
had to clear it with Nathan.’

  Rutherford looked at her watch. ‘Make it a priority for tomorrow then, okay?’

  Looks like it was time she paid Probation a visit.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Sarah tapped the pen against her lip as she read over last week’s supervision session with Craig Nolan. The conversation with Maggie had thrown her even though she had her own suspicions about Craig’s behaviour. Maggie had asked her to explore his offences further to see if she could garner any information about his current attitude towards DCI Hastings. Sarah didn’t like being used in this manner by the police. However, once Maggie had raised the concerns, Sarah just couldn’t get them out of her head. Probation was always being vilified in the newspapers when a serious further offence was committed, even though the right steps were taken. Sometimes the procedures they had to follow limited what they could do.

  Craig was due in for supervision shortly. He was on a life licence for a handful of robberies and murder, but until the last few years of his sentence, he had always protested his innocence. Sarah had been doubtful of his sudden change of tune and noted this in his parole report; however, the parole board saw fit to give him an opportunity and released him despite Sarah’s reservations. It was her job now to manage him in the community and he wasn’t always open to working with her. The desk on her phone rang. It was reception. Sarah glanced up at the clock on the wall. She answered the call. ‘He’s early. Can you ask him to take a seat and I’ll be there in five minutes?’

  Sarah gathered everything she needed before heading to reception. ‘Hi, Craig. Would you like to come through?’

  Sarah held the door open as he walked towards her. Once inside, she led him to the high-risk interview room. She’d be asking him about his offences and if he kicked off, she wanted to be sure she had followed protocol and could easily escape if things got heated.

  She swiped her card against the security panel and let him in the room. ‘Take a seat.’ She pointed across from her. Sarah sat nearest the door and gently brushed her fingers across the underside of the desk to check which side the panic alarm was on in case she needed it. ‘So how are you today?’

  ‘Same as always. What do you care?’ he growled.

  ‘Are we going to start like this? No need for the attitude.’ Starting him off in a bad mood wouldn’t get her the information she needed, so she changed tactic. ‘How about we just get stuck in then?’ After going through her initial check-in list, Sarah eased into the session with an outline of what they would be discussing. ‘Today we’re going to revisit your previous convictions and I’d like you to tell me how the old you differs from the new you sitting across from me now.’

  He scoffed. ‘Why do we have to go over the same shit time and again? And where the fuck do you get those sessions from – you do see how patronising that bullshit sounds right? All the information you need is in my records. You’ve been my officer long enough to know how I feel about this.’

  Sarah held up her hand. ‘And you’ve been sat across from me enough times to know that this is what we need to do. If you don’t like the wording, change the narrative – no need to get so defensive.’ Sometimes it was like going in circles with the offenders she supervised. Craig was a classic example. When he needed or wanted something he would work with Sarah; she thought his patronising comment was rich considering he did it all the time, as if she couldn’t see his manipulative behaviour. She also found it interesting that if she wanted to do any sort of offence-focused work with him, he did everything he could to waste time and avoid the topic. Sarah would persist though. She wouldn’t let him be in control of the session. She pushed him again with the same question.

  ‘Fine. Where do you want to start? My juvie record? Well, I could give you the sob story about my father being a prick, more interested in drugs and beating my mum or maybe we can start from when drugs took over my life and I started robbing banks? Got myself in with the wrong crowd. What’s your preference?’ He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms.

  ‘How about we start with your latest offence? It’s your heftiest sentence and I’d like to explore how you went from everything you just described to ending up in prison for murder.’

  He slammed his fists on the table, and Sarah jumped.

  ‘I fucking told you, I didn’t have anything to do with that murder. I held my hands up to the robbery, didn’t I? But the police stitched me up. Fucking pigs.’

  ‘I warned you before about your behaviour in sessions. Not acceptable. So, take a moment and calm down. Once you’ve done that, you can tell me more about why you feel you were stitched up by the police – but watch your temper.’ Sarah sat in silence and waited.

  Craig stared at her through slitted eyes. He started ranting about how the police had always wanted him off their patch, particularly Hastings, who was a DS at the time. ‘That fucker wanted to make a name for himself, didn’t he? Needed some big case to get himself up the ladder and he didn’t give a shit who he stepped on to get it. I heard he’s a goddamn DCI now. Bet he fucked over a few other people to get that gig, as he definitely didn’t have the brain cells.’

  ‘You keep spouting off about this Hastings guy stitching you up, but let’s look at it from another angle. What did he allegedly do? Why didn’t you lodge a formal complaint at the time?’

  ‘I’ll tell you exactly what he fucking well did. He took a knife from my flat, covered it in Jimmie’s blood, and planted it on the scene. Bish bash bosh – I get done for fucking murder. I mean, don’t get me wrong, Jimmie was a fucking dildo and would’ve ended up dead at someone’s doing, but it wasn’t me. Oh, and then the receipt I had which fucking proved I was somewhere else … miles away … at the time they say I stabbed that fucker, ends up disappearing – Poof! Gone just like that. Seems it never got logged into evidence they say. I mean, what a fucking shambles.’ He shook his head, and Sarah struggled to tell whether this was part of the act or whether he genuinely believed what he was saying.

  ‘You never answered my second question. Why didn’t you lodge a complaint or appeal your sentence?’

  ‘What would be the point in that? A bunch of paperwork that would be ignored by the police – or lost like that receipt. Pffft. Probably all in on it together. I did appeal – all turned down, so if I wanted any chance of getting out, I had to say I did it, didn’t I?’

  ‘How do you feel about DCI Hastings now?’ Sarah stopped taking notes to watch for any changes in his behaviour or body language with her full attention.

  ‘How do you think I feel?’ he replied through gritted teeth. ‘That arsehole took away over ten years of my life. The judge must have questioned something in the flimsy evidence the CPS presented, as he gave me a decent tariff – it could have been twenty-five years or more. Meanwhile, my girlfriend left me, my kids don’t speak to me, and I can’t get any sort of legit job to pay for a decent flat, so have to live in a shithole because no one wants to give a murderer a chance.’ He leaned forwards in his chair and almost whispered. ‘But karma’s a real nasty bitch and I’m sure he’ll get what he deserves.’

  Sarah could see by his mannerism that he meant every word he said. ‘You seem quite confident about that, Craig. What exactly do you think he deserves?’

  ‘Exactly what I said. Serve that fucker right if he ended up in prison for something he didn’t do, wouldn’t it?’

  That made Sarah sit up straight and listen. Could Maggie have been right? Was DCI Hastings being set up by the man who sat in front of her? ‘Do you want to expand on that further?’

  ‘Huh? What more’s there to say? He’ll get what’s coming to him for sure. I just hope I’m still around to see it happen.’

  That could be taken any number of ways and Sarah knew she’d have to share the information with Maggie, as it was obvious that Craig still felt persecuted and victimized. He hadn’t exactly threatened DCI Hastings directly, but the tone of his voice made it clear to Sarah that this was something he had b
een thinking about, was still thinking about. He would’ve had plenty of time in prison to put together a plan. Could he be involved in DCI Hastings’s and his family’s abduction? At this point, Sarah wasn’t prepared to rule it out. She needed to speak to her manager.

  ‘Okay, Craig. Is there anything you need to tell me or wish to discuss before we end this session?’

  ‘Nope.’ He looked around the room, avoiding eye contact.

  Sarah pulled out an appointment slip and noted down the details for his next appointment. ‘I’ll show you out then. Don’t forget your keyworker appointment later today.’ She tried to remain as calm as possible.

  ‘I won’t. See you next week.’ He snatched the piece of paper from her hand.

  Sarah stood by the door and watched him leave.

  Fuck. If Maggie was right, and he was involved, a whole shitstorm was going to come her way. She didn’t need this right now. She had enough problems of her own.

  Sarah shook her arms out to release the tension she was feeling. Time to speak to her manager.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Sarah ignored the looks from her colleagues as she stomped back to her desk and threw her notebook down. She sat down in her chair, ran all the options through her head. If she went to Andrew Bourne, her manager, he’d wonder why Sarah now believed Craig’s risk had escalated and would no doubt point out that the information she received from the police had somehow got under her skin and was in fact the reason for her concern, rather than any solid evidence.

  Has Craig threatened anyone directly? No.

  Has he committed a further offence? Not to her knowledge.

  Is there a real escalation of risk? No, but there’s potentially a risk of serious harm given his feelings of persecution.

  Can he safely be managed in the community at this time? Yes.