Up Close and Personal

by Alan Fisher

  “If you’d like to wait downstairs in reception, I’ll get my secretary to draw up that list for you” said Campbell, sitting back down.

  “Thanks” said Debbie and Oliver in unison as they left his office.

  Half an hour later, Debbie and Oliver emerged from the building and walked towards their cars.

  “How did you know?” asked Debbie.

  “Know what?” said Oliver

  “That Campbell would have something on McMillan”.

  “Because that’s how politics works. If you find a weakness, use it”.

  “You’re a cynic” laughed Debbie.

  “I’m a realist” argued Oliver.

  “Well, shall we open it and see what exactly Campbell has?”

  “No I don’t think so. I think this should go to either Glover or the DCI to open. We’ve done our job and maybe given them something to think about. I would suggest that you take this home with you and give it to either of them first thing tomorrow morning. They’ll want to see what’s inside before any briefing I would think”

  “Ok,” said Debbie without question, “I’m off, see you tomorrow”.

  “Ok, thanks. Have a good night”.

  Chapter 22

  Jack had much to think about as he left room 153 at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Durham to make his way downstairs to find Jason Glover. His interview with the room cleaner had been short but of some interest. She had confirmed that when she entered the room on Monday morning, the morning after McMillan had supposedly visited the previous Sunday night, the room had been, at first sight, untouched.

  Everything had been in its usual place but for two exceptions of note. Firstly the rug that would normally have been in place in front of the sofa had been removed. And secondly, nothing else in the room had been touched, including the unoccupied bed, suggesting that no-one had actually stayed the night.

  Keith Dodd, the hotel manager, had later confirmed that the theft of the rug had been reported to him and that he’d arranged for a replacement in addition to informing the local police.

  Jack had also interviewed the receptionist, a young blonde-haired girl of Scandinavian extraction Jack thought, who had both taken the booking and signed in Donna Yates on the Sunday evening. He was grateful that it wasn’t the same schoolboy that he’d encountered on the desk earlier.

  The receptionist had confirmed that the initial booking had been made by telephone and that Donna Yates had arrived at the hotel shortly after 7pm on Sunday night. She’d paid her account on signing in, with cash, insisting that she had an early start the following morning. The receptionist had admitted that she hadn’t paid a lot of attention to Donna Yates but described her as possibly in her middle thirties, medium height, dark hair, and was wearing some sort of fleece jacket and a baseball cap with maybe jeans and dark footwear. She carried a rucksack on her shoulder.

  It all helped to add to the picture of what may have happened on Sunday night, but the receptionist was unable to confirm that McMillan was in the hotel at any time.

  He was thinking on that very point as he entered the lobby when Jason appeared from behind the reception desk at the far right of the lobby.

  “I think you’ll want to see this sir” he said enthusiastically.

  “What’s that?” asked Jack.

  “CCTV footage from the corridor on the first floor on Sunday night”.

  Jack went behind the reception desk and followed Jason into a small office where Keith Dodd was sat at a computer screen waiting for them.

  “Roll the tape Mr Dodd please. Start at 7pm and move slowly until we see the first shot of anyone entering room 153 and then freeze it”.

  Keith Dodd did as he was requested whilst Jack watched over his shoulder, Jason resumed his seat alongside Dodd. After a few minutes of speeded up running and views of various customers entering and leaving rooms, the figure of what looked like a young woman, wearing a dark fleece jacket, jeans and a baseball cap, entered the corridor. Dodd slowed down the running of the tape and froze the screen as Donna Yates opened the door to room 153.

  “So that’s our mysterious Donna Yates” said Jack. “Can you take it back slowly please, see if we can get a better look at her face?”

  Dodd did as requested, rolling the picture backwards and forwards a couple of times until he eventually stopped the tape as Yates reached the door.

  “She knew the camera was there” sighed Jack, “Notice how her head is bowed all the way along the corridor so we can only see the top of her cap. No doubt it was worn for exactly that purpose”.

  “There’s more” said Jason. “Roll it on Mr Dodd”.

  The tape moved on another twenty minutes or so until the clock showed 7.37pm. A second figure came into view walking along the corridor. Much taller that Donna Yates, but wearing an identical baseball cap as well as jeans and dark shoes. Jack noted that the figure also carried a rucksack.

  “An accomplice? Looks like a man anyway. Unless it’s McMillan, hard to say with his face covered”.

  “Looks like a man to me as well sir” said Jason, “but it’s not McMillan. Roll the tape on further Mr Dodd please”.

  The tape rolled on until the screen showed 8.02pm and Jack recognised the figure coming along the corridor as he drew nearer to room 153. Jack watched closely as the figure knocked on the door and then seemed to hesitate slightly before entering the room.

  “Well clearly that’s McMillan but he seemed to hesitate before he entered the room, and see how his hands have moved upwards almost in an involuntary hands-up motion as if he’s facing a threat”.

  “That’s what I thought sir” said Jason, “but there is a little bit more. Speed it up until the last sighting please Mr Dodd”.

  The tape sped forward until 9.43pm and Jack could hardly believe what he saw.

  Two figures emerged from the room wearing dark blue overalls and the same baseball caps that had been seen on Donna Yates and the 2nd person entering the room earlier. They were carrying a rolled up rug on their shoulders, and it didn’t appear lightweight from the way they struggled through the doorway. Carefully, they made their way down the corridor and out through a fire exit door.

  “Bloody hell” said Jack, “I want a copy of the tape Jason, and when you get back to headquarters I want still prints of the best shots we can get from all of these sightings. I assume that there’s nothing more worth looking at?”

  “No sir, that’s it, and Mr Dodd has already provided me with a full copy”.

  “Excellent. Right then Mr Dodd, thanks for your help. We’ll be in touch if we need to speak again. With me Jason” said Jack as he moved towards the door.

  The snow had stopped when Jack and Jason emerged from the hotel and made their way down the steps to Jack’s car. Jack climbed in and started the engine to warm the car up.

  “So we’re looking for two killers then” said Jason as he closed the door.

  “Possibly. Two people certainly, could be one killer plus an accomplice. So we have a man and a woman. The woman books the room and registers, probably with false ID, then opens the room for the man to join her. They sit and wait for McMillan to arrive, draw him into the room, and stab him. Then they wrap him up in a plastic sheet, which was obviously in one of the rucksacks, and then the rug. Then they change into overalls, clearly also in the rucksacks, so they could pass off as maintenance crew should they be disturbed. And then they quietly carry the body of McMillan out of the hotel in a rolled up rug. Who would question a couple of maintenance crew carrying a rolled up rug?”

  “No-one I would think sir”.

  “Exactly. You have to say this was well planned. They’ve thought of everything, even the possibility of bumping into another guest in the corridor. We’re dealing with someone pretty sharp here. But who invited McMillan to the hotel? And why did he seem to hesitate? Was he surprised by who answered the door, or what they had in their hand? And how is McMillan connected to Justice Robertson? We’ve still got a lot of questions th
at need answering”.

  “Yes sir, we do” said Jason rubbing his hands together to warm them up.

  Jack looked across at Jason, disappointed but not surprised, at Jason’s lack of response to what Jack thought was an open invitation for him to speculate on possible answers to any of the questions he’d raised.

  He put the car into gear to begin the long journey back to Ponteland.

  Chapter 23

  Thursday morning saw Oliver wake at his usual time of 7am. His comfortable central heating system masked the cold outside as he watched the heavy rain making large puddles around his car on the street beneath his bedroom window when he opened the curtains to welcome in the morning gloom.

  His mind quickly switched on to the nature of recent events and he wondered what assignment would await him today. What would be inside that envelope Debbie was about to hand to DCI Collier? Would he be still looking at the McMillan case, or would he switch to the murder of Justice Robertson? Or would he be sent off on some minor event and kept away from the murders cases altogether? Time would tell, he thought, as he headed for the kitchen to find something for breakfast.

  Knowing the press were still gathered outside Police Headquarters and that a 2nd murder was now under investigation, he switched on the TV whilst his kettle was boiling, and he looked in the freezer to see if any bread was left to make some toast.

  It came as no surprise that, after ten minutes of news on what was happening in Westminster, the studio handed over to their reporter outside the gates to Ponteland Police Headquarters. It also came as no surprise that the reporter seemed to possess almost full details of what had happened to Justice Robertson, even though he and the rest of the team hadn’t been fully briefed yet.

  Almost full details, except for one curious omission. The reporter did not name the 2nd victim as Justice Robertson, simply referring to the fact that a second, as yet unidentified, body had been found.

  The body had only been found the previous day, Wednesday morning, and Jack had gone straight back to Durham after meeting with Dr Crosby and the forensics team. How on earth was the media getting hold of such sensitive information before either Jack or DS Glover had the opportunity to brief the rest of the team. And why every detail except his name? It certainly brought into question anyone from Headquarters being responsible for any leak to the media.

  Oliver pondered over his toast whether or not the media having such accurate information was pertinent to the case. Unsure, he made a note in his book, adding it to the list of relevant topics that required further thought.

  He was in no hurry to get to work that morning, preferring to give Debbie time to brief either Jack or Jason Glover on their discussions with Tom Campbell and hand over the envelope they’d obtained.

  He made a second cup of coffee and looked at his growing list of topics of interest in the two cases;

  McMillan

  2 mobile phones, 1 for exclusive use of coded texts, the other missing

  Jack of Diamonds in mouth of dead body

  Moved from original place of stabbing

  Wrapped in plastic AND rug ***

  Dumped IN a bin ***

  No financial issues

  Ring on finger

  Late clandestine meetings not unusual

  Who invited him to meet – lover?

  Campbell sensitive info on him?

  Media has sensitive info before team briefings

  McMillan killed Sunday night, found Monday morning. Media report Wednesday morning.

  Robertson killed Tuesday night, found Wednesday morning, media report Thursday morning everything except his identity?

  Justice Robertson

  Wrapped in plastic AND rug ***

  Dumped IN a bin ***

  He knew there would be further information to come on the Justice Robertson murder, but even with limited information he was able to put Asterix’s beside a couple of lines where the information was identical in both cases.

  “Why are the bodies double wrapped? Surely if the killer wanted to move the body, one would be sufficient. And then why dump the body in a bin? Why not on a waste site, or in a wood, or somewhere so remote no-one would ever find it, they had transport. Or why not bury it? If they had to use a bin, why take the trouble to lift it up and wedge it inside? They could have just dumped it by the bin and drove off”. And now a second body, dealt with in exactly the same way. It can’t be a coincidence. There has to be a reason, it has to mean something, but what?”

  The questions came quickly to him as he looked down the list of salient points he’d made. It was not unusual for him to have so many questions and so few answers, but he knew the answers would come at some point. Even though he had little experience as of yet, he’d been involved in enough multiple murder cases to know, with absolute certainty, that as he gathered more information, a picture would emerge.

  He finished his coffee and put his book back in his jacket pocket before gathering his things together and heading off for work.

  Chapter 24

  “Where’ve you been?” asked Debbie when Oliver finally arrived in the main office just before 9am.

  “Good morning to you too” said Oliver, a little more sarcastically than he’d intended. “I didn’t rush in this morning because I reckoned that the DCI and Glover would need some time to go through the contents of that envelope. I don’t imagine we’ll be having a briefing or allocation of assignments until they have. What’s in there could change everything. Have I missed something already?”.

  “No, and sorry, I didn’t mean to snap. I was just concerned because you’re normally here really early. I was here just after 8 and the DCI was already in. I went straight to see him and gave him a quick briefing on what we found yesterday and handed him the envelope”.

  “How did he react?”

  “He was pleased, commended us for getting what we did. He also asked about breaking that code on McMillan’s phone”.

  “I hope you remembered everything” smiled Oliver.

  “I did, but I didn’t need to. He knew it was you, how could he not? When I’d finished he just leaned back in his chair and asked if I’d enjoyed working through the puzzle with you”.

  “And what did you say?”

  “I told him the truth. That we’d been working on the CCTV tapes from Shields Road and making enquiries with Customs and Excise. Then I’d taken over looking at the tapes leaving you free to look at the text messages. I also told him that you’d worked it out in about half an hour and walked me through your thinking process so that I could understand what it all meant”.

  “And what did he say about that?”

  “It was funny. He said I must have felt like I had joined your class of students of a few months ago. And, you know, he had a point. Maybe that series of lectures you did with those graduates has helped you in explaining what it is that you do. Anyway, then he turned in his chair and I didn’t quite get the last bit. It was something like if only Sergeant Glover could see what you saw”.

  “You sure? What does that mean? What did you see?”

  “I’ve no idea. I got the impression he was thinking out loud and that maybe I wasn’t supposed to hear it. Anyway, he’s been in there ever since. Glover joined him as soon as I came out and we’re all still waiting to find out what happens next”.

  Before Oliver could reply, Jason Glover came out of Jack’s office heading for the incident board. Oliver felt suddenly conscious of the fact that he hadn’t even reached his desk and took off his coat yet.

  “Briefing in ten minutes everyone, things are moving at pace now and there is a lot to update you on. We’re stretched pretty thin now with two murder investigations to deal with, but assignments will be given during the briefing. If you need a drink, I suggest you grab one quickly”.

  Paul Moore headed straight out of the office whilst Jason pulled out a second incident board and started pinning photos relating to the Robertson murder up on the board. Oliver also noticed that some
new material was being added to the McMillan board and although itching to take a look, he decided to remain seated until after the briefing took place.

  As Paul Moore returned to the office, Oliver noticed Jack appear in the doorway to his office just before Jason turned from the incident boards to address the team.

  “Ok, listen up, there’s a fair bit to get through because we obtained a lot of fresh information yesterday. First, the McMillan case. Thanks to some excellent work by Swan and Cole we now know the original crime scene for the murder. Swan broke the code and I’m sure she’ll be happy to give you details on the how and why later. For the time being all you need to know is that the crime scene was in room 153 of the Radisson Blu Hotel in Durham. The message on McMillan’s phone, RBH1538 was an invitation for him to meet someone in that room of the hotel at 8pm. DCI Collier and I visited the hotel yesterday afternoon and we can confirm that McMillan was there and that he went to that room just after 8pm and never left, at least not alive anyway. The room was booked by telephone and paid for in cash on registration. The person who booked the room was this person here” said Jason handing out copies of a still from the CCTV footage. “I know it’s not the best picture in the world, but it’s the best we could get from the CCTV footage of the corridor. As you can see, the woman has kept her face down and worn a baseball cap to hide her face. Seems likely that she knew the cameras were there. She registered in the name of Donna Yates from Sheffield. We think that will turn out to be false, but we need to check it out anyway, Swan that’ll be your first task today. Shortly after this woman entered the room, a second person was seen entering the room. This time it looks like a man although the baseball cap is again obscuring any clear vision of his face. Here’s the best picture we can get, and I want you all to keep both these photos close to hand as we move forward, it’s important that we identify who they are because McMillan enters the room at just after 8 and isn’t seen coming out again. What is seen is Donna Yates and her accomplice leaving the room over an hour later carrying a rug on their shoulders, the same rug that McMillan’s body was found in. These two people were dressed in overalls, giving the appearance of maintenance workers. The whole episode points to clarity of thought and careful planning, and that means we’re probably dealing with someone of reasonable intelligence. Now, other new information. Swan and Cole also paid a visit to Tom Campbell’s office yesterday and managed to obtain an envelope with what could only be described as sensitive material inside. We’re not going to share that with everyone at this moment in time, but we will be investigating some of it further, you will be briefed individually if we need you to look into some of that. Phone records and financials have drawn dead ends so we’re still lacking any sort of motive, but it’s possible that McMillan might have been involved with this woman either professionally or even personally. The key will lie with her identity. She must have been known to McMillan, otherwise how could she send him a text inviting him to a meeting in a hotel room, and why would he accept that invitation. The receptionist at the hotel reckoned that this Donna Yates was in her thirties, which rules out McMillan’s wife. But she didn’t see the man in the picture, which means that Tim Southern isn’t ruled out, nor is anyone from his political opponents team. We’ve got a list of the Labour Party workers and their so-called whereabouts on Sunday night, Moore, your first assignment is to check out all their alibis. Now on to the second victim found yesterday morning in a bin on Benton Industrial Estate. The body has been identified as that of Justice Archibald Robertson aged 78 from Corbridge and, as the title suggests, was a retired Judge. The methodology applied to this murder is almost identical to that of McMillan in the sense that Justice Robertson’s body was rolled up in a plastic sheet, then a rug, and then dumped in a bin. He was stabbed elsewhere and dumped in the bin and left to die. A playing card, the Jack of Hearts this time, was left rolled up in his mouth. We’ve no idea where the original crime scene might be on this one but given the details in the McMillan case, perhaps it’s not a bad shout that we could be looking for another hotel. Wainwright, I’d like you to see if you can find that hotel. We don’t know at this stage if Robertson might have had a mobile phone, one wasn’t found at the scene, and we haven’t been out to Corbridge yet to visit his home. I know it’s possible but it’s hard to imagine the judge having any personal involvement with this Donna Yates, so we have to assume some professional connection. Perhaps someone he sent down or a relative of someone inside. The possibilities are endless here, but we might be able to narrow them down if we can find any connection between McMillan and Robertson. I want you all to keep that in mind whatever you’re investigating. Now I know that the workload is building up and we could do with some extra pairs of hands. The DCI has had a chat with B division and managed to get us an extra couple of DC’s for a week or two, they should be arriving within the hour. Swan you’ll be responsible for getting them settled in and making sure they have workstations. Get them started on the background work for Justice Robertson, financial, phone records etc as soon as you can. I think you’ll find one face will be familiar to you, I know he was keen to volunteer to come back. Finally you’ll all have noticed that the main similarity between the cases is the killer left a playing card in the victim’s mouth. With McMillan it was the Jack of Diamonds. With Robertson, the Jack of Hearts. It is this that, above all else, suggests the same killer for both men. I want you all to think about what the killer is trying to say or achieve by leaving different playing cards in the victim’s mouths. If you’ve any ideas, no matter how strange or off the wall, let me know. Right, that’s about it for now so let’s crack on. Cole, I haven’t forgotten you. You’re with me and the DCI in his office please”.