by Alan Fisher
“Found something” he asked hopefully.
“Nope, not a thing. At least nothing that’s of any use. Just about every vehicle that’s on these tapes could have turned into the back street and there are enough that were able to carry something the size of the rolled up rug. Not unusually, most of them were white vans. But from a side-on view we can’t get any registration plates. So we’ve got nothing to follow other that it’s highly likely that the body was taken to Shields Road in the back of an unidentified white van”.
“So pretty much as we expected then. You got through it all quicker than I would have done” said Oliver, taking a seat.
“Yeah well, I did speed it up a little bit. I hope taking that off you has given you the chance to look at those texts. Please tell me you’ve got some inkling on them?”
“As it happens, I do. And if I’m right, we might not need to worry about where the rug came from”.
“You have. We don’t. What do you mean? Tell me, what does it mean?” she said excitedly.
“Let’s get a coffee and I’ll show you, it’s not that difficult really”.
“Yeah, for you maybe”.
“No, honestly. Sometimes people can look either for the too obvious or look for the too difficult. The answer is usually somewhere in between. Come on, coffee, my treat”.
Chapter 18
“Morning Gordon, what have we got?” asked Jack as he approached Gordon Crosby who was kneeling over the body of a man laid out on a sheet of plastic covering a deep blue patterned rug.
“Not dissimilar to the body found on Monday morning out in Byker. Victim died from a single stab wound to the abdomen. The original attack was elsewhere, and the body wrapped up in a sheet of plastic and then rolled up in this rug before being dumped in that bin over there by the wall and left to die”.
“Identical to the murder of Andrew McMillan then”.
“Almost exactly. Stab wound was a little higher but apart from that, the same. And before you ask, there was a playing card left in his mouth. The Jack of Hearts this time, it’s in the evidence bag by my case if you want to examine it”.
Jack moved slowly across to his left and picked up the plastic bag to look at the rolled up card inside.
“Got a name for me?” he asked as he replaced the plastic bag next to Gordon’s equipment bag and looked at the face of the victim.
“I’m really surprised you don’t know this face either Jack, you must have come across him before surely” said Gordon.
Jack took a step closer to the head of the victim, but still did not recognise the face of the elderly man lying at his feet.
“Nope, never seen him before. Who is he?”
“Justice Robertson”, said Gordon as he got to his feet.
“A judge?”
“Retired a few years ago as far as I remember” said Gordon, “I’m surprised he hasn’t tried one of your cases before”.
“No, he was never involved in any of my cases. At least none that I can remember anyway. Any signs of a robbery?”
“No. Wallet, watch and jewellery all still here, no mobile phone though”.
“Maybe he didn’t carry a phone. Not everyone does, especially some of our more senior citizens”.
“Normally I’d agree with you Jack, but it’s hard to imagine a retired judge not carrying a phone”.
“We’ll check it out. McMillan didn’t have a phone on him either, coincidence?”
“Not my position to say really” said Gordon peeling off his gloves.
“Sorry Gordon, I wasn’t asking you, just talking out loud”.
“Sounds like it’s one of the many pieces of the jigsaw not fitting together just yet. How’s Colin?”
“Ok as far as I know. He’s managing to get around the house on crutches and he’s desperate to get back to work. I’ve asked the Superintendent if any rules can be bent to let him come back at bit early, maybe just to manage the office whilst we do all the running around. I’m sure Eleanor would be glad to see the back of him”.
“No doubt; right then, unless there are any other questions, I’ll get him back to the lab, reports will follow later today”.
“Time of death?”
“Ah, of course. Between 8pm and midnight last night as far as the evidence shows, I’ll know more later”.
“And the murder weapon?”
“Looks like the same or very similar as that used on McMillan. Wound looks identical so, as before, probably a common kitchen knife. I know that doesn’t help much”.
“No, but I think it’ll be the reason why these people were murdered rather than the how they were murdered that’ll help us to catch the killer”.
“I see. A politician and a retired judge. Perhaps you’re right. Anyway, I’ll get on and leave you and Glover to your thoughts”.
Jack turned to find Jason, having almost forgotten that he was there. He hadn’t offered anything during the talk with Gordon Crosby, in fact he hadn’t offered very much at all since he’d arrived to fill in for Colin. He sighed and hoped that Superintendent Fox was giving his request some serious consideration.
“Right Jason, I’m sure you got all that. Have a couple of officers go through the bin over there, if Justice Robertson had a mobile phone, it’s missing. At least it’s not on the body. Could be at the original crime scene of course, or even still at his home. It’s odd that both victims are missing their phone, don’t you think?”
“Yes sir, it is odd”.
“Any thoughts on why” he asked, feeling like he was trying to draw blood from a stone.
“Perhaps there are messages on the phones that would connect to the killer sir. So the killer is getting rid of the phones to tie up any loose ends”.
“Mmm, could be. I’m not sure, doesn’t feel right somehow. What I am sure of though is that if it’s the same killer, and everything points to that, there will be a connection between the two victims. If we can find that, perhaps we’ll be a little closer. But what I don’t understand is why the bodies are moved from the original crime scene, and then dumped in bins of all places. If only we had the original crime scenes, we might be able to make some progress and find out why that is”.
“Well sir, we might just have been given a break on that”.
“How’s that?”
“Text from DC Swan sir. She thinks that she may have deciphered the text messages on McMillan’s phone. They appear to show arrangements to meet someone and she thinks she may know the last place they met and has asked to speak with us asap. Seems like that idea I had to ask Swan to find the original crime scene has paid off” said Jason smugly.
“Ok then, sounds like positive news. Would you mind making arrangements to have the bin searched and I’ll have a quick word with Swan to see exactly what she’s on about”.
But Jack was smiling inwardly, he knew exactly what the text message from DC Debbie Swan meant.
He would speak with Debbie Swan, and the first question he intended to ash was “Why is this all coming from you when we both know that this has got Oliver’s stamp all over it?”
Chapter 19
Oliver carried the two cups of coffee through to the incident board whilst Debbie pulled up a couple of chairs to sit by the board. He put the cups down on the nearest desk and took one of the seats.
“Ok” said Debbie, sitting down next to him with a pen and notepad in her hands. “Start at the beginning and don’t leave anything out. I need to follow this”.
“Right. I might be totally wrong on this, but I’ll try and show you the path I followed and see if you agree with it. But if you disagree with anything, shout up. We don’t want to advise DS Glover of anything until we’re sure, or at least sure that we both agree, ok?”
“Got it, what’s first?”
“What’s the first thing you notice when you look at the three text messages?”
Debbie looked at the list of text messages which had pride of place in the middle of the incident board;
&nb
sp; RBH1538
DMH1727
LCH1198
“Erm, three letters and four numbers in each message?” she said after a couple of minutes staring. “A bit like old car number plates perhaps?”
“That’s what you see Debbie. That’s what everyone will see. I said what’s the first thing you notice. Broaden your horizons, think bigger picture”.
Debbie picked up her cup of coffee and took a couple of sips as she looked hard at the sheet containing the three messages. After a few minutes she admitted defeat”.
“I’m sorry Oliver, I just don’t see whatever it is that you see. You’ll have to help me, step by step please”.
“Ok, step by step. Who is the message to?”
“Oh, that’s easy. Andrew McMillan”.
“Who is the message from?”
“I’ve no idea. Can you tell, just from the message?”
“No, of course not. Let’s put that to one side for the moment, perhaps it’s a bit too soon for that step”.
For probably the first time, Oliver was beginning to realise that the way he thought was different to other people. When he’d explained his thinking on previous cases to both Jack and Colin, they’d simply listened until he got to the end. He hadn’t had to walk then through every step until they could see the path. Doing so with Debbie was much more difficult than he thought, but he ploughed on.
“Can everyone read and understand the message?”
“No. I can’t, so I assume that most people couldn’t”
“And what does that fact tell you?”
“That it’s written so that only McMillan could understand it?” she offered.
“True, and?”
“And, erm, that someone else might read it but the sender had to make sure that if anyone did they couldn’t understand it?”
“Yes, and?”
“Erm, I don’t know what else” she said after a minute.
“Probably that the message contains something perhaps suspicious, or illicit, or secretive at least. If it was anything else, there wouldn’t be a need to put it in code”.
“Yes I see, I get that. “What next?” she said, finishing her coffee.
“So we have some sort of secret coded message sent between two people to ensure no-one else can read it. Now, anything else about the three messages as a whole?”
She thought hard, trying desperately to see things through Oliver’s eyes.
“You’ve lost me” she said finally.
“This phone only had messages of this type on it. There were no ordinary messages such as can we meet later this week, or how are doing at the moment or anything else that could be deemed normal. I think that it suggests that this phone was bought exclusively for the purpose of sending messages between McMillan and our unknown sender. Now to look for the unknown sender, you need to filter into the thinking, other information gathered so far. If you’ve read through the notes from DS Glover and DCI Collier you’ll have noticed that the password for the phone came from McMillan’s political adviser. How he knew it, I don’t know but perhaps that’s why the messages were written in code. Would you say the code is particularly complicated?”
“I would. But you’re going to say it’s dead simple aren’t you”.
“Yes and no” he smiled. “It’s hard enough so that you wouldn’t waste a lot of time on it unless you really wanted to break it. But easy enough to break if you do. If you believe that, what might the message contain?”
“Erm, something not illegal or dangerous. So a simple code would be sufficient, perhaps something you just want to keep between the two of you?”
“That was my thinking. Now, looking at McMillan’s character and the thoughts of his PA. What do you see?”
She stood up and looked at the notes on the board more closely. She turned to face him with a knowing smile on her face.
“Tim Southern suspected that McMillan might be having an affair. If he was right, it would explain the exclusivity of the phone, the briefness of the messages and the fact that only McMillan would understand them. But even realising that, I doubt anyone would be able to work out what they mean, except you of course”.
“Perhaps Tim Southern did work it out”.
“You mean….?”
“No, hang on. The message first. Assuming then that the message is from someone McMillan was having an affair with, what do you think the message might contain when it’s as short as what it is?”
“Somewhere to meet?”
“My thoughts exactly. Now, look at the message again and put some spaces in to break it down. If you want to meet someone, what do you need to let them know?”
“Date, time and place I would think” she said confidently.
“I would agree, but assume the date is the same day as the text, the sender would only need to convey where and when wouldn’t they”.
“Ok, let me see then, RBH1538” she said, scribbling on her notepad. “RBH is clearly the place, although where that is, I don’t know. Perhaps an abbreviation for Richard Burton House or something. The numbers must be the time, 15.38. Bit specific isn’t it?”
“It would be if that’s what it meant, but don’t forget McMillan left the office late that evening, not in the middle of the afternoon. So that wouldn’t work. No, I think the numbers contain two pieces of information which may become clear once you work out the where. Look at the letters again. Think affairs and the most common places people might agree to meet. Focus on the last letter which, if you look again, is the same in all three texts”.
She looked again at the letters seeing that the last letter in each was the letter H, and imagining affair situations she may have seen in films and on TV. After a few seconds it finally came to her.
“Oh, I see. Hotel, of course. And that probably means that the numbers are the time and the room number so that he could go straight to the room without being seen by anyone in reception”.
“That’s what I see. I think the last number is the time because it’s either 7 or 8 in the three texts. That would fit with the so called late meetings McMillan was supposed to be attending. It wouldn’t be the first time someone has used late meetings as a cover for having an affair. So the text on the day he was murdered is to meet him at somewhere called the R B Hotel, room153, 8 o’clock”.
“And you worked all that out from a few notes on the board in, how long?”
“About half an hour” he lied, thinking it sounded less arrogant than the truth, which was in fact less than fifteen minutes.
“I could have looked at that for days if not weeks and it would still be as clear as mud” she declared with absolute honesty rather than disappointment.
“No it wouldn’t, you just needed a hand getting started. Once you knew where to begin, you’ve just done exactly what I did in a little over half an hour. Now you know how to look, you’d find it easier next time”.
“I doubt it, unless I get a prod. Hang on, you said Tim Southern might have worked this out. Maybe he followed McMillan and murdered him” she said excitedly.
“I think Tim Southern may have some questions to answer, but think it through. What would his motive be. The affair wouldn’t affect Southern directly, even though he might not approve. And what would he do with the person McMillan was meeting, kill him or her too? Or do you think they were in it together. In which case, why would he need to break the code, he’d have known the meeting place anyway”.
“So you don’t think it was Tim Southern?” she asked uncertainly.
“I don’t know. I just know that there are some questions that need answering. Could be him, or not. Anyway we’ve been asked to find the original crime scene and there’s a good chance that it will be at this hotel. We need to identify exactly which one it is and let DS Glover know. After that, we’ll head off to see Tom Campbell and complete the next part of our assignment”.
Debbie was on the move as Oliver was finishing his sentence. Quickly she switched on her computer and typed in w
hat she needed.
“Radisson Blu Hotel, Frankland Lane, Durham. It’s the only hotel that fits the letters and it’s within walking distance of his office, which explains why he left his car in the car park”.
“Great, confirmation of something that fits the theory is always useful. Especially if you need to convince someone that you know what you’re talking about. Best send a text to DS Glover and let him know what you’ve found”.
“Hang on, what I’ve found? You worked it out, I can’t say I’ve found the original crime scene. You should get the credit for that”.
“It was a team effort and anyway, we aren’t saying we’ve found the original crime scene, we don’t know that for certain. All we can tell Glover is we’ve worked out the message and it looks like McMillan was heading to the hotel for a secretive meeting at 8 o’clock. Given that he was murdered around that time, we think the hotel could be the crime scene, that’s all. And I think that, in the circumstances, it’ll come better from you. I don’t want to create any waves with Glover. Anyway you know me Debbie, I don’t really do credit do I”.
“No you don’t. It’s another thing that sets you apart from just about anyone else. Ok, I’ll send the text, but we both know that DCI Collier will know exactly where this came from” she replied with exasperation.
“Not necessarily, but that doesn’t matter. As long as we make progress and catch the killer before anyone else is murdered, that’s what’s important. Better send the text, they’ll want to know”.
Chapter 20
For the second time in as many days, Jack was driving down the A1 motorway to visit the cathedral city of Durham. The telephone conversation he’d had with Debbie Swan had been brief but informative and Jack was in no doubt that he was about to discover the place where Andrew McMillan had met his death. He was so convinced of Oliver and Debbie’s conclusions that he’d already put the forensics team on stand-by to get to the hotel as soon as he’d officially confirmed the accuracy of the information.
