by A L Fraine
“Yeah…?”
“Well, he’s here.”
“Here? As in, in this building?”
Sheridan nodded. “He’s out there in the office, right now,” she said, pointing out into the main SIU office. “The assistant chief constable is showing him around.”
“What?” Jon replied astounded. “What on earth? How? Why?”
“I dunno,” Sheridan said, putting her hands up in the air. “Don’t shoot the messenger.”
Jon went to answer, but couldn’t find the words and just spluttered as he stood up and moved to the door. “I’ll see what’s going on,” he said.
“I’ll come with you,” Kate said.
“I’m not missing this,” Rachel added, and the rest followed her out.
Sure enough, at the far end of the main room, the assistant chief constable of the Surrey Police was standing in his black uniform beside Chief Superintendent Collins, Russell, Blake, and Sydney, showing off the office, like a proud father might his child.
Jon stopped in his tracks and found himself rooted to the spot at the sheer audacity of the pair of them.
“Shut your mouth, Jon, you’ll start catching flies,” Kate said in low tones.
“Wha… Oh. What the hell are they doing here? He’s a bloody suspect, and this is an active case. Is the ACC insane?”
“He probably has no idea,” Kate replied.
“Jesus fucking Christ, this is bollocksed up,” Jon said spitting the words out.
“No shit,” Kate replied.
“What’s his name, the ACC?”
“Miles Ward,” Rachel offered.
“That’s right,” Jon replied, remembering. “Nathan was talking about him.”
“He doesn’t like the man,” Kate confirmed.
“Can’t say I’m feeling charitable towards him right now either,” Jon agreed.
“DCI Pilgrim,” the chief called out, and waved him over. “Jon, come and join us.”
“Oh, God.” Jon gulped. “Here we go.”
“Go get ’em, tiger,” Kate stated.
“Grrr…” Jon muttered, and strode off across the office, taking a moment to affix as convincing a smile as he could to his face.
“Jon. This is Assistant Chief Constable Ward, he’s just showing Mr Hodges here around. Hodges is a keen supporter of the police and has donated much to the force over the years. He was interested in this new unit, so as a friend of the Police, ACC Ward offered him a tour.”
“Oh, did he now?” Jon replied, his tone flat. He could see that the chief was also not too happy about the situation, as his smile was anything but genuine and his voice sounded strained. ACC Ward didn’t seem to notice though and nodded happily.
“Russell is a long-time friend of mine and the Surrey Police. He’s a pillar of this community,” Ward said, sounding proud to be stood beside Russell.
“I see,” Jon answered, becoming keenly aware of how much this might complicate things for them going forward. His overwhelming feeling was that he desperately wanted a chasm to open up beneath him right now and swallow him whole. This was all kinds of fucked up.
“Have you met Russell’s lovely partner, Sydney Willow?” Ward asked.
“I…um. I’m not sure I have.”
Sydney offered her hand and smiled mischievously at him. “Charmed, I’m sure.”
He shook it briefly. “Yeah, likewise,” he replied, deadpan.
“So we took on DCI Pilgrim only recently,” the chief said. “He came down from the Nottingham Police force after being recommended to us by Inspector Verner of the National Crime Agency.”
“And he leads your team of officers as they take on these serious crimes?”
“That’s correct,” the chief replied and looked up at Jon, his eyes bugging for a second when no one was looking.
“So, SIU,” Sydney asked, “what does that stand for?”
“The team's full acronym is SOS-SIU, which stands for Serious, Organised and Serial, Special Investigations Unit.”
“That’s a bit of a mouthful,” she replied.
“We just go by SIU, most of the time,” Jon replied. “Less of a mouthful.”
“So, can we…?” Russell started, making to walk deeper into the room.
“I’m sorry, no. We have some delicate ongoing cases,” Jon replied quickly, holding his arms up to block the way. “Authorised personnel only, I’m sure you understand.”
The ACC looked immediately annoyed.
“Oh, of course,” Russell answered. “I didn’t mean to intrude.”
Of course you didn’t, Jon thought sarcastically and noticed that the ACC frowned at him briefly, and then looked between him and the chief.
“Do you not have a superintendent?” the ACC asked.
“No,” the chief replied. “But we do okay as we are.”
“Hmm, well, we can’t have that,” the ACC answered. “You need a full and proper chain of command in place. It’s only right. In fact, I know just the person for you. I’ll get one installed for you as soon as possible. Leave it with me.”
“I think we’ll need to run that by the NCA, as this is as much their unit as it is the Surrey Police’s.”
“I’m sure that will be no trouble,” the ACC replied. “I’ll talk to them. But that’s even more reason to have everything present and correct. Your jurisdiction is quite sweeping, so we need to be sure we’re doing things by the book.”
Jon glanced at the chief and could see him bristling at this, possibly even more than Jon was. He could already guess the kind of person the ACC would bring in, and it did not bode well.
“Everything okay?” Kate said as she stepped up to the group. “Hi, I’m DS O’Connell.”
“Kate is another of our valued officers,” the chief added.
“Kate,” Russell said in greeting. “It’s such a pleasure to meet you. So you’re on this SIU team then?”
Looking over, Jon caught a glance from her. He gave her a look back and hoped that she’d play along with this farce, and not give away that they’d actually just met yesterday. The ACC seemed unaware of this little fact, and would likely not enjoy being made to look like an idiot.
Which of course, he was, Jon thought. A great bloody idiot.
“Kate,” Russell continued. “Why don’t you come with us and help show us around. Give us a detective’s point of view on things?”
“A great idea,” the ACC agreed, apparently thrilled by Russell’s suggestion.
“Off you go then,” the chief said, and Jon could see the look of a deer trapped in headlights on her face as the ACC and Russell set off, guiding Kate to join them.
As they walked out of the SIU office. Kate glanced back, looking utterly terrified.
Jon could only shrug as Kate’s eyes rolled before she accepted her fate, and went with it.
“Jesus,” the chief cursed once they were out the doors.
“What the hell are they doing here?” Jon snapped. “We were interviewing them yesterday, as suspects in this bloody case.”
“I know. They just turned up. The first thing I knew about it they were walking in the fucking door.”
“This is messed up.”
“Well done on keeping them from looking around the office,” the chief said.
“Huh, yeah, looks like it’ll cost us though. Ward didn’t seem too happy about that.”
“You insulted his stinking rich friend, I’m not surprised.”
“This just gets better and better.” Jon sighed. “Right, I’ve got someone I need to find.”
“Oh?”
“Nathan’s gone rogue on me.”
“Oh, he does that. I think I heard he was in the basement, in the records room.”
“Records room, great, thanks.”
19
Jon made his way downstairs, rubbing his face at the display of hubris he’d just seen upstairs. He really didn’t understand what was going through the ACC’s head, thinking that it was a good idea to bring a ci
vilian in here with no warning whatsoever.
He could see why Nathan wasn’t a fan of his. He had his nose so far up Russell’s arse that he’d lost all sense of proper police etiquette. But then, he guessed that was what money did to some people.
Jon made his way down to the basement level, which he’d visited before for the changing rooms that were down here. He’d never really fully explored it though, and hadn’t been aware there was a records room until the chief mentioned it.
It wasn’t too difficult to find, however, located at the end of the main basement corridor. Jon thanked his lucky stars that he hadn’t bumped into the millionaire tour that was going on and pushed the door open into the records room beyond.
The room's size was quite surprising, taking up most of the station's footprint. It was filled with rows of metal shelving, stacked high with filing boxes that spread out from the shelves onto the floor and piled up along the walls. Jon noticed dehumidifiers mounted to the walls that hummed away in the background as he walked along one of the aisles, to an open area a short way in. Nathan stood beside a table, leaning over a file he was leafing through. Around him, boxes were open, and files lay discarded here and there. There was a laptop open on the table too, logged into the Police database.
“Morning, Nathan,” Jon said as he stuffed his hands in his pockets and surveyed the scene.
“Is it?” Nathan replied without looking up.
“Losing track of time?”
“I’ve been busy.”
“I can see that,” Jon replied. “You’re making a mess, too.”
“I’ll clean it up.”
Jon nodded. “I had no idea all this was down here. I thought the station was a fairly recent build?”
“It is, but its modern facilities and space meant that some older storage rooms in stations around the county were cleared out, their files moved here so they could be better looked after.”
“I’m getting some serious Indiana Jones vibes, looking at these stacks. Maybe the Holy Grail’s in here, somewhere?”
“One can only hope.” Nathan smirked, closed the file he was looking at, and dropped it to one side on the table.
“Nothing in that one?”
“Nope.” He sighed. “Nothing I’m looking for.”
“And, what are you looking for, Fox?”
Nathan sighed and slumped into a chair. “I… I might be chasing a ghost, I don’t know, but I was sure that I heard of a case a while back that was linked to Russell.”
“What kind of case?”
Nathan looked over, raising his eyebrows. “A missing girl.”
“Oh, another one? So, this isn’t the first of this kind of case?”
“Heh, well, I don’t want to jump to any conclusions, and my memory isn’t what it once was, but I was sure I’d heard of a case a year ago or so, that was similar to this one.”
“Well, if you can find it, I’d love to see it, and it would certainly make the Russell angle more compelling if this has happened before.”
“I know, that was my thought too. It just came to me when I heard Russell’s name come up. It triggered a memory of something. I’ve done some hunting through the system, but Russell’s name isn’t linked to anything like that on there. I don’t know, maybe I’m barking up the wrong tree here, but I needed to look into it.”
“Isn’t that a little odd, details not being on the system?”
“I guess. I’ve seen it happen before, though. Maybe not everything got logged by the officers on the case. Some of the older guys used to prefer working on paper and got others to enter the details.”
“Hmm, or maybe there was pressure from above to keep the name off the system?”
Nathan pulled a face. “An interesting idea. What makes you think that?
“Russell’s is in the building being shown around.”
“What? How the hell?”
“Assistant Chief Constable Ward is here giving him a guided tour.”
“Well, that’s just wonderful, that is. Why don’t we just invite all the criminals in and show them our case files? The bloody idiot, what does he think he’s doing?”
“I don’t think he was aware of our investigation into Russell.”
“I’d hope not because if he was, then that’s a thousand times worse.”
“I know,” Jon replied. “Maybe he’d also order us to back off, and maybe that’s what happened before?”
“That’s a hell of an accusation, Jon.”
“I know. Let’s play this close to our chest for now. I don’t want the brass knowing about the Russell link.”
“Will do. I’ll keep looking. If there’s a scribbled note in here with Russell’s name on it, I’ll find it.”
Wandering around the table, Jon looked over the files and some of the photos that had spilt out of them. Images of people long dead, their lives snuffed out, ended before their prime. It wasn’t a pleasant scene. “Tell me more about Russell. Kate filled me in about the Debby Steed case.”
“I figured she might, given that he was involved.”
“You suspected him, right?”
Nathan sighed. “The case around Alan Peck was flimsy, to be honest, and had Russell backed him up, he probably would be a free man right now, but Alan’s defence seemed to revolve around Russell supporting his alibi. But he didn’t. Instead, he denied that Alan had been with him.”
“But you suspected something else, right?”
“You know where my interests lie, Jon. I suspected something. Russell was always dodgy to me. He’s a well-connected man with friends in high and low places.”
“You thought he was a part of a group? A fraternity?”
“Something like that.”
“A cult?” Jon pressed, well aware of where Nathan’s thoughts usually took him.
“I don’t know. I suspected ties to a criminal enterprise at least, but my superiors at the time didn’t agree. They wanted me to leave Russell well alone, but I wasn’t going to sit by and do nothing. So I snuck into Russell’s garden and… I saw something. A gathering of some kind, and I thought I saw someone get hurt. Killed maybe. I called it in, but that’s when Russell’s security found me.”
“And how did that pan out?”
“We found nothing in the house. No sign of anyone getting hurt, but back then, I wouldn’t hear of it. I became obsessed. Within weeks, I was investigated and demoted, and Alan Peck went to jail for Steed’s murder. He claims false imprisonment to this day.”
“To this day?”
“I went to see Alan yesterday.”
“Why?”
“I was looking back through the files about that case, about what had happened. I was sure that Russell was dodgy, that he was involved in… something. Something more than just a legitimate business. I was also sure that Alan knew a lot more about Russell than he was letting on, but he wouldn’t tell us anything back then. I went to see if he wanted to tell us anything new, anything more.
“And did he?”
“No.”
“So why did you think he would?”
“Because I was also sure that Alan had been a part of whatever group Russell was a part of, but had been basically kicked out.”
“So, what did this group want? Was it like one of these business breakfast groups that meet up for a fried breakfast once a week? Some of those have some pretty silly rules and practices
Nathan smiled incredulously. “Power was their objective, and if I’m right, they’d go so far as killing people to get it.”
Jon nodded. “Some people will do anything for a top-drawer fry-up. Their black pudding must have really been something.”
“Yeah, I bet it was killer.”
“So, did Alan tell you anything?”
“Not much, no. He just suggested that Russell had some questionable friends.”
“Questionable friends? Did you get anything else?”
“No, that’s all, but I’m convinced he knows more.”
Jon
nodded. He had a feeling that Russell was involved in something, but he wasn’t sure what. “I need a little bit more to go on than a hunch.”
“I know, I know,” Nathan admitted. “But Alan isn’t much of a fan of us, or the police. I did what I could, but he wouldn’t say any more than that.”
“Isn’t there any way to get more out of him?”
“Maybe, but I just don’t have that kind of leverage. He thinks we can’t do anything against Russell. He thinks we’re powerless against someone with that kind of money, so why help us? Plus, he’d be helping the very people who put him in prison. I don’t think there’s any way he’ll help the police, but maybe he doesn’t need to. I think we can infer enough from what he did say and keep digging.”
“For now.”
“I just want some more proof. I need to find the case files about the other missing girls.”
“Well, keep going. Look for anything dodgy about Russell. Harassment reports, fraud, dodgy business deals, connections to organised crimes, anything, and let me know if and when you find something, okay?”
“Will do, guv.”
20
Leaving him to it, Jon walked towards the exit, glad to see that Nathan had found another angle on the case and was working it to see what he could find.
The Alan side of things was less condemning, but if he could find one or more similar cases of girls going missing related to Russell in some way, that could be the key to bringing this thing home. It could also eliminate Jacob from the case.
That troubled him though. Jacob was clearly an arsehole, who had no respect for women or the law, and the sooner they found and arrested him, the better. Even if he had nothing to do with Olivia’s disappearance.
Same with Vassili. He and Jacob were two peas in a pod it seemed, and he’d dearly love to throw them behind bars sooner rather than later.
Stepping out into the main basement corridor, Jon looked up to see Sydney standing a short distance away. She looked a little lost and very out of place in her fitted knee-length black dress and shiny red heels.
“Oh, hello. Fancy seeing you here.”
“Excuse me, but what are you doing down here?” Jon asked. Was there no security in this place at all? he thought.
