Shallow Water

by Hunter J Walker

Chapter 5

  Tuesday

  After the morning briefing Nicola stopped Douglas in the corridor. ‘Where are we with the missing student, Dougie?’

  ‘There’s a law student at the University by the name of Annabel Candace Sutherland. They have an address for her in their records, but the man at the address had never heard of her. It could be the University records are out of date. I also talked to her tutor and he thinks she didn’t attend lectures yesterday. He will check today and if she doesn’t attend lectures today he will talk to the other students in her year and see if he can get any contact details for her.’

  Nicola wrote on the back of her briefing agenda before looking up at him again. ‘What now?’

  ‘The university have no parental address for her and no next of kin. I’ll look for her birth certificate, which should be easy with her name and get the parents from that.’

  ‘You checked the address yourself?’

  Douglas nodded. ‘The man who answered the door was a fourth year medical student. He had never heard of her and did not have a forwarding address for any of the previous tenants.’

  ‘Is she from overseas?’

  ‘Her tutor didn’t say and, according to him, she is socially upmarket, which doesn’t quite square with her keeping a low profile.’

  ‘OK.’

  ‘What about Wee Tam and James Smythe are they two different jobs or one?’

  ‘The fifth floor will make their decision after the post-mortem, but for now we carry on as if they are linked.’

  ‘Is there anything else for today?’

  ‘There’s a conference at eleven in Superintendent Willis’ office on the undercover job I mentioned, and Wee Tam’s post-mortem is at two this afternoon. Have you been to a PM before?’

  ‘No,’ Douglas grimaced.

  Nicola grinned at him. ‘It’s something that should have been on your training schedule, Dougie, an essential new experience to add to your CV. And it’s Professor Gatward wielding the knife, which is another experience again. Now, off you go, I’ve got work to do.’

  *****

  Douglas left her office with the impression that the Inspector was preoccupied and if he hadn’t prompted her, the briefing on the undercover job would have been forgotten. The conference was in just under two hours and he completed the trip back to his desk via the drinks machine. He placed the plastic cup with it contents out of reach of his elbows and settled at his desk. Switching on his computer he sipped the coffee until the machine was running at normal speed, then he logged on and entered Annabel Candace Sutherland into the Birth, Marriage and Death database.

  ‘You should bring your own mug in.’

  Douglas looked up over his shoulder to see Julie standing behind him. ‘Hi.’

  ‘I find coffee tastes better out of a mug,’ she added

  ‘Yes, but how do you stop someone nicking it in this den of thieves.’

  ‘Get one with your name on it, then at least you know who nicked it…and they wouldn’t know whether the horrible brown stuff in the bottom is coffee or something worse.’

  ‘Ugh, I’ll stick with the disposable plastic cups, thank you.’

  Julie glanced over his shoulder at the computer screen. ‘Annabel Candace Sutherland – who in God’s name is that?’

  ‘Missing person, Collins dropped it on me yesterday.’

  ‘It wasn’t mentioned in this morning’s briefing?’

  ‘No idea about that – anyway it’s nothing definite, just a rumour.’

  ‘The MIU is chasing up rumours?’

  ‘Don’t ask me, I’m just following orders…anyway there’s McCray, you’d better show willing, or he’ll have you doing surveillance in the rain on some windy corner.’

  ‘See you at lunchtime,’ she whispered and walked back to her desk.

  Douglas focussed his attention back on the screen. He had an exact match for Annabel Candace Sutherland – Father: Samuel Arthur Sutherland. Mother: Miranda Florence Sutherland. He entered the father’s name into the search engine and a huge number of hits appeared. Top of the list was the Scotia Investment Bank with Samuel Sutherland listed as the CEO. He turned to the Companies House website and searched for the directors of the Scotia Investment Bank. Again he found him listed as CEO and his address in Edinburgh matched the address on Annabel Sutherland’s birth certificate.

  Next he entered Miranda Florence Sutherland into the search engine – a few hits appeared mostly in conjunction with her husband. One photograph showed her standing next to her husband at the opening of the Bank’s new headquarters in Edinburgh.

  Next he checked Annabel Candace Sutherland on the Register of Voters and came up blank. He didn’t have enough cause to check with Revenue and Customs and the Border Agency, so went for the simpler options of Twitter, Facebook and any other social media service that came into his head. All turned up blank – Annabel clearly liked to keep her private life hidden.

  ‘Douglas, you’ll be late for the meeting.’

  The deep female voice had just the hint of a foreign accent. Douglas turned to look at her. Tall and broad shouldered she towered over him. As he stood up to put on his jacket he took the opportunity to assess his new partner: she wore flat shoes and still looked him in the eye, with heels she would be inches taller.

  She smiled at him. ‘I’m Tanya; DI Collins was keen for you to be on time.’

  ‘You seem to know my name already,’ Douglas said and carried on his appraisal. She wore the usual CID uniform of grey jacket and matching trousers with a white shirt. She turned to go with a smile still on her lips. He followed her, watching her as she moved. He wondered what she did before she joined the police, as there was an unusual amount of muscle rippling under her clothing as she moved. He followed her up the stairs to the third floor, where she knocked on Superintendent Willis’ office door and entered. He followed her in. Willis looked up from the open file on the desk in front of him. ‘Good, that’s everyone, let’s get the show on the road.’

  Willis barely waited until they were seated beside McCray and Nicola before starting. ‘The operation is to secure usable evidence against a crew of illegal moneylenders. According to the intelligence we have it is a front for prostitution. They are coercing borrowers, of both sexes, into prostitution when they get behind with their payments. The scenario we are creating is that DCs Ashburner and Vidak are a couple in arrears and as the amount of the debt increases we record the targets reaction, with the aim of securing enough evidence for arrests. The operation should last six week to eight weeks. It’s a part-time operation and with attention to security you can both report for duty as normal during the day and return to character in the evening. Some weekends you can go away and spend these at home. A furnished house has been leased for six months in the name of Neil Ellis and a BMW has been purchased at auction in the same name. The house is furnished and the telephone, Internet, gas and electricity are connected and working, but you need to stock up with food. Video and audio monitors have been fitted in all rooms, apart from the master bedroom and the en-suite to the master bedroom. So if either of you want a bath you will be on candid camera, so be warned,’ Willis said, looking at Tanya and then at Douglas.

  Willis put an envelope on the desk and pushed it across the desk towards Douglas. ‘Here are the keys for the house and car, plus a credit card in the name of Neil Ellis. The loans have already been taken out in the name of Ellis.’ He took two envelopes out of his desk drawer and dropped them on the desk. ‘These are the histories for Neil Ellis and his wife Jane Ellis – learn them by heart. They will be kept in DI Collins’ safe and do not make any copies. All the necessary records for the couple exist in case anyone checks into them.’

  Willis stopped and looked at everyone in turn. ‘Any comments anyone?’

  ‘No. Right, Ashburner and Vidak, start on reading through these profiles until you are word perfect. The operation will commence later this week.’

  As everyone filed out of the offi
ce Willis motioned to Nicola to stay behind and close the door. Once they were alone he said: ‘What about his business with the missing student.’

  ‘She’s not your average student. Her father is the head of the Scotia Investment Bank, but nobody has reported her missing, a PNC check drew a blank, she doesn’t have a car and or a UK driving licence. She has a very low profile and we haven’t found her address yet. Can we put a trace on her credit card, assuming she has one?’

  ‘OK, I’ll authorise that and keep me informed of any progress.’

  ‘Can we also access the Passport Office, Border Agency, Tax and National Insurance databases?’

  ‘Not yet, give it until tomorrow and I’ll review the situation again.’

  *****

  In the corridor outside Willis’ office Tanya handed Douglas a folded sheet of paper. ‘Don’t be late, Douglas, I will be in the BMW just by the entrance of the Asda supermarket. I’m sure you can recognise me even if I’m not in uniform.’ She grinned at him. ‘See you at six this evening.’

  ‘Have you been to this house?’ he called after her.

  ‘It is called Google Earth, Douglas, try it some time,’ she said over her shoulder as she walked away down the corridor.

  Douglas opened the sheet of paper and looked at the instructions written in neat precise writing: Entrance of Asda car park, M80 junction 2, Bishopbriggs exit, B765. Going north, take first left at the roundabout and then right at the next roundabout. 18:00 and don’t be late. LOK, Tanya.

  He wondered what the LOK stood for.

  Douglas put the note in his pocket and waked down stairs to the MIU offices. Back at his desk picked up the phone and rang Heather for a progress report.

  ‘Hello, it’s Douglas Ashburner, any news on Annabel Sutherland?’

  ‘Hello, Douglas, no sight of her I’m afraid.’

  ‘Did Dr Coult manage to talk to any of her friends?’

  ‘Yes, but none of them knew her address. Although, one did say she dropped Annabel off by a block of flats near Glasgow Green – the ones in the old factory right on the Green. It was pouring with rain and the girl is fairly sure she ran straight towards the flats.’

  ‘Well, it seems she hid her address from her friends as well as everybody else. Thanks for that, I’ll follow it up.’

  Douglas put the phone down and looked round the office; there were a couple of heads bowed over their keyboards and Julie standing by the drinks machine. He walked over to her and while he fiddled in his pockets for change. ‘What does LOK stand for at the end of a message,’ he asked.

  She waited until the machine stopped pouring the dull brown liquid into the plastic cup and gingerly extracted it from the machine, trying not to spill any of the hot liquid on her hand, before she replied. ‘Douglas, of all the people in this place I would have thought you would have known that.’

  ‘It’s not something Susanne uses.’

  ‘Lots of Kisses.’

  ‘Oh.’

  ‘Who was sending you Lots of Kisses?’

  ‘Tanya.’

  Julie looked at him in surprise. ‘Douglas, be afraid, be very afraid, if Superwoman wants to get those thighs of steel round you,’ she whispered.

  ‘Mm…why Superwoman?’

  ‘Haven’t you heard? Dave the Grope Knox tried to fondle her backside and she had him on the floor in a really vicious arm-lock before he could say oops. It was really quite funny hearing him beg for mercy while she almost tore his arm off. He won’t be trying that move for a while.’

  ‘I’ll bear that in mind,’ Douglas said as he turned towards his desk.

  ‘I’m sure you will and now you’re odds on favourite in the shag-her-first stakes. Dave has dropped from favourite to a hundred-to-one. But don’t worry, Douglas, you’ll be begging for mercy for an entirely different reason. I bet she goes like a steam train all night without stopping…we could call her the Midnight Express instead.’

  Julie followed him back to his desk making stream train noises. ‘Choo, choo, choo…cho, cho, cho, all night long.’

  *****

  Douglas tried to park his car as near to the mortuary as possible, but the High Court was busy and he had to park some way off. Douglas walked to the building incongruously situated next to the high court – inside the participants were assembled apart from the representative of the Fiscals’ office.

  Dr McRitchie turned his rotund face towards Nicola. ‘An emergency at court perhaps – the jury delivered the wrong verdict?’

  ‘Not that I am aware of, Doctor, they’re probably stuck in traffic.’

  ‘Such a mundane view of life, Inspector.’

  ‘I would have thought you’d get enough of real life passing across that table over there without making things up.’

  ‘Fiction writing is a hobby of mine.’

  At this juncture the door opened and Susanne Glendinning entered. ‘Good afternoon, Professor,’ she said, ignoring everyone else in the room.

  The Professor nodded gravely. ‘Now we have all the necessary representatives, can we get on? I have an appointment with a golf course at six and I don’t intend to be late – unlike this profession the green fees are still due even if the appointment is missed.’

  A young female technician in a white coat appeared by Douglas’s side. ‘You’d be better off with the pole dancer than that one, she’s as frosty as a night in the Arctic,’ she whispered.

  ‘Miss Ackerson, have you quite finished gossiping with our guests?’ the professor said loudly without looking over his shoulder.

  Professor Gatward held up his hands as if to ward off Nicola’s verbal attack. ‘There is no evidence that the injuries directly caused the heart attack. With the enlarged liver and the state of his lungs I’d say he was on the verge of a heart attack just walking down the street. A lifetime of drinking like a fish and smoking like a chimney, to use the old clichés, does that to a man; he could have dropped dead any time, Inspector.’

  Nicola was not going to let it go that easily. ‘But what about the bruises?’

  The Professor took a deep breath. ‘We will re-examine the body in two days and supply the Fiscal’s office with a complete report on the bruising, but those are all superficial injuries and did not, in themselves, cause his death. Indeed it is possible they are due to someone attempting CPR to resuscitate him. We will submit our report and beyond that it’s down to the Fiscal and his crowd to get a judgement on the death.’

  Nicola was about to continue the argument but she was interrupted.

  ‘Thank you Professor, we can let you get off to your pressing appointment with the golf course now and I await your report, which, undoubtedly, will be delivered promptly.’ Finished with the Professor, Susanne turned towards Douglas and snapped: ‘A word in private, now.’

  He followed her into the corridor and she waited until the door had swung stud before she said: ‘What I want to know, Douglas, is how that tart knew your name?’

  He took a deep breath before replying. If he let on that it was an elementary mistake by his Inspector, a text would be on Judge Glendinning’s mobile phone within minutes and it would rebound onto her from the fifth floor within the day. ‘It was a joke by one of my colleagues. He told her my name and paid her to put on a performance.’

  ‘You’re not out of trouble yet, Douglas, I will pick you up at eight this evening…and don’t forget we are expected at my parents on Saturday and no excuses will be accepted…and you need to make a good impression.’ After pecking him on the cheek Susanne turned on her heel and marched off down the corridor, her high heels clicking on the tiled floor

  A thought struck him as he watched her walk away: She doesn’t wear heels that high. He didn’t have time to expand on this thought before he was interrupted by the female technician’s elfin face grinning up at him. ‘I’ve done a pole dancing course, Douglas and I’m free on Saturday night,’ she whispered.

  Douglas didn’t know how to react to this offer and was glad when the Professo
r intervened.

  ‘Miss Ackerson, please take these samples to the lab.’

  She curved the ends of her mouth down to make a sad expression and then she dutifully picked up the samples and departed. Glancing around he saw he was alone with the Professor and Wee Tam’s corpse, now covered by a white plastic sheet.

  He said a farewell to the professor and walked out of the mortuary and into the sunlight. In the street he found Nicola standing by her car.

  ‘Dougie, I don’t know how you do it? Another one! I expect there’ll be a bulletin about your love life on the six o’clock news. I’ve heard that Julie Bryce has the hots for you and that big girl in the canteen – can’t mind her name at the moment but you can’t miss her…and I’m sure the list will be longer by this evening.’

  Douglas thought it better to divert her attention. ‘Annabel Sutherland missed this morning’s lectures as well, but I now have a sort of address for her.’

  ‘Sort of address?’

  ‘It comes down to a block of flats. A friend dropped her off in front of a block of flats during a downpour and I would hazard a guess that she’s lives in one of the flats.’

  ‘Tried the databases?’

  ‘Land Registry, Electoral Register, Council tax and so on but none have her name listed. Hopefully, I don’t have to knock on too many doors.’

  ‘Try the Postie; if he’s been doing that round for a while he might remember her name.’

  *****

  James sat staring out of the window at the people in the street, three floors up they looked small as they walked along the street below.

  ‘You OK, do you need any more pills?’ Joanna asked as she joined him by the window.

  He shook his head. ‘I think I should go back to work tomorrow. I’m just sitting here,’ he said and turned to look at her. She had spent last night, and the night before, in the spare room, but his life had lurched into a different groove and he reached out and ran his hand down her back and onto her waist – something he would never have done before. She stood still for a while before putting her hand over his, pressing it against her body. For a while they remained in this position looking down at the street until she moved her other arm to rest on his shoulder and then she bent her head down to kiss him on the forehead, and then his nose. She moved her head back and smiled at him. ‘This is going to be awkward if we can’t kiss properly.’