by Alan Fisher
The office looked busier than usual and the extra couple of bodies with accompanying desks and chairs had made things very tight, but everyone seemed to be working comfortably. Jason was on the phone as he walked past his desk on the way to his own office and half stood up as he reached his doorway.
Jack dropped his coat on the end of his desk and threw his cap in the general direction of the coat stand where it promptly struck the wall behind the stand and fell to the floor. Before he could pick it up, Jason was knocking at his door.
“Got a minute sir?”
“Of course, come in Jason”.
“Anything from Tanya Golding sir?”
“Background, that’s all. Nothing of any significance, at least nothing relevant to McMillan’s murder anyway”.
“So she’s not a suspect then?”
“No. Oliver didn’t think so and I tend to agree with him. Hasn’t he finished looking at those CCTV tapes yet? I thought he’d be done by now and be busy studying those photographs from Robertson’s home”.
“Haven’t seen him since he came back in sir. He went off to the conference room where we set up the CCTV kit. As far as I know he’s still there. I saw him briefly before he went, and I took the photos off him to have a look at whilst I waited for you to finish your interview”.
“Really? Why would you do that?”
“Just trying to help sir”.
“I appreciate your enthusiasm Jason, but Oliver picked those out at Robertson’s house. He thought that there might be something of interest in them”.
“There isn’t sir. I’ve had a good look at them and I can’t see anything that could be of any interest”.
“That’s probably because you’ve got no idea what Oliver was looking for, or what he might have spotted that made him want to take a closer look at them”.
Jack stood up and went to the open doorway of his office.
“Go and find Cole will you Wainwright. Ask him to join me as soon as he’s done” he shouted down the office over the top of the din.
“Yes sir, will do” said Robbie getting up from his desk.
“Conference room” whispered Debbie as Robbie passed her desk.
“Right then” said Jack on returning to his seat, “what was it you wanted to see me about? Found something?”
“Yes sir, I think so. It’s the accusations in those documents from Tom Campbell”.
“Go on”.
“Well, who the author of the report might be is unclear, but it seems that he or she thought McMillan may have been involved in some underhand activities when he was a Councillor in his younger days in Durham. The report suggests that McMillan was either part of, or perhaps even the leader of, a consortium that made a fortune out of buying land back in the 90’s. It goes on to say that this consortium was buying up seemingly worthless land at basement prices because it was unlikely to get planning permission for either residential or commercial use. Miraculously, the land was then sold on months later for huge profits” said Jason, determined to keep back the key piece of information as long as he could to achieve maximum effect.
“And how did they manage that?”
“By achieving planning permission for the land sir, land with planning permission already attached to it commands quite a premium. It reduces the risk and saves a fortune in time and site costs for any prospective developer”.
“And someone thought that McMillan might have been abusing his position on the Council to make all this happen”.
“Yes sir, although it’s all accusations rather than providing any evidence. I guess from Tom Campbell’s political stance, an accusation is enough to cause damage”.
“Well that would certainly be true. McMillan could have denied it, but once the seeds of doubt are sown, it’s hard to stop them growing. Did this report mention who the other members of the consortium might be?”
“Not by name sir. Again, looking at the likely reasons for looking into it, only McMillan would be of interest”.
“Yeah, I can see that. pity though, it’s just the sort of thing that would be worth looking at. Perhaps some member of this consortium was ripped off and decided to take his or her revenge. Or maybe a member of their family found out what went on and decided to look for their own kind of justice”.
“There were no names mentioned sir” said Jason as Oliver appeared in the doorway. “But there was something else”.
“Yes?”
Jason hesitated for a couple of seconds thinking how kind the gods were to let Cole arrive just in time to witness his moment of triumph.
“The report says that there were five members of the consortium. McMillan, obviously, a local prominent businessman, a high ranking bank official, a senior police officer, and…,” he paused for dramatic effect, “a member of the judiciary” he finished with self-gratification.
“Does it now” exclaimed Jack. “a connection at last. Ok, I know there’s no names but it’s too much of a coincidence to ignore. McMillan and a member of the judiciary. We need to get to the bottom of this as soon as we can. If this is the link, then one of those other three people could be next on the killers list. Bloody hell, you said a senior police officer as well. Shit, could be anyone, either still on the force or even retired”.
“Or dead sir” said Jason, “This was nearly thirty years ago”.
“True, but we’ll have to tread carefully with this all the same. Christ, one of our own, it’s hard to believe. But we have to remember, none of it is substantiated, it could all be just rumour and speculation to cause maximum political damage. I’ll have to brief the super all the same, he’ll want to know about it, true or otherwise. Jason, you’re going to have to run with this and try to find out if there’s any truth in it and, if so, who the other members of this consortium were. See if you can find out from Campbell who the source is and start digging, tonight if possible”.
“Yes sir, no problem” said Jason, and he walked past Oliver with a huge smile on his face, and out of Jack’s office.
Chapter 31
“Shut the door Oliver and pull up a seat will you” said Jack.
He looked and sounded tired, maybe the strain of the case was having an impact Oliver thought.
But he did as he was asked and, after shutting the door and putting his file down on the end of Jack’s desk, brought his familiar uncomfortable hard-backed chair to the front of Jack’s desk and gingerly sat down.
“I expected you to be all finished when I got back upstairs from interviewing Tanya Golding, did you have any problems or find something disturbing?”
“No sir, all good. It just took a little longer than I expected” he lied.
“And that wouldn’t have anything to do with the fact that DS Glover took the photographs away from you to have a look at”.
“Not at all sir” he replied despite knowing that Jack had seen right through his feeble explanation.
“Look Oliver, I’m not daft, or blind. I know what’s going on”.
“So do I sir” he replied with absolute certainty. “We’re all just pulling together to solve these murders and catch the killer before he or she produces another victim” he lied.
Jack smiled.
“Well, at least half of that statement is true anyway. Did you find what you were looking for on the tapes?”
“I did” said Oliver getting up out of his seat and moving around Jack’s desk to stand beside him. “I’ve taken some stills from the tapes that confirm my thinking that Tanya Golding wasn’t at the hotel. Look at the prints”.
Jack took the prints in his hands. There were two of them, one of Andrew McMillan standing outside the door to the hotel room in Durham, and the second of Donna Yates standing earlier outside the same door.
“See what I mean sir?”
“Erm not exactly” said Jack, looking hard at the two prints.
“How tall was Andrew McMillan?”
Jack reached into the bottom drawer of the chest of drawers by the side o
f his desk and pulled out a thin red file. He opened it and quickly flicked through a couple of pages.
“Five foot eleven inches according to the autopsy report”.
“Now look at where his head is in relation to the top panel on the door and where Donna Yates head is in the next shot. Donna Yates is at least 6 inches shorter than McMillan and…..”
“Tanya Golding is 6 feet tall in her bare feet” interrupted Jack, “ok, I see that. it confirms she wasn’t involved”.
“It confirms she wasn’t involved directly sir, at least on this evidence. But I agree with you, I don’t think she had any involvement at all. I think the mugging for her phone was genuine. All part of a cleverly developed plan to casually summon McMillan to his death”.
“And it looks like we have a connection between McMillan and Robertson now. It may well be something to do with this suspected consortium fraud back in the 90’s. It wouldn’t be the first time that you and I have investigated murder that was driven by historical events”.
“No sir, I remember”.
“You don’t seem enthused. You have doubts about the connection?”
“I only came in at the tail end of your discussions with DS Glover sir, so I don’t really know what he found”.
“That envelope from Tom Campbell contained a report from an unknown source that alleged that McMillan was involved in some land fraud back in the 90’s when he was on Durham Council. A consortium was buying up worthless land and attaching planning permission to it so they could sell it on for vast profits. You heard the detail about the other members of the consortium and the fact that one of them was a member of the judiciary indicates a possible connection”.
“You don’t sound too enthused either sir”.
“It’s not that. it’s just that these are all allegations at the moment, it might all turn out to be political character assassination for all we know. I’ll get enthused when we have some facts, something substantiated”.
“Then what’s the issue sir?” Oliver asked tentatively.
“I have to go and advise Superintendent Fox that one of his serving or retired colleagues might have been involved in some shady land profiteering scam twenty five years ago. It’s not a conversation he’s going to want to have”.
“Rather you than me sir”.
“One day it will be you, so don’t look so relieved”.
“What do you want me to do sir, whilst we wait to see if this fraud accusation has any merit in it?”
“Follow your instincts, as you usually do. Jason says there’s nothing of interest in those photos you brought back from Robertson’s house. But if that was the case, you wouldn’t have brought them. Go and find what it is you’re looking for or what you think might be in them. They’ll probably still be on Jason’s desk”.
“You mean DS Davis’s desk sir”.
“Don’t start, just get on with it” said Jack, but he was smiling at the same time.
Chapter 32
Jason Glover put the phone down, annoyed with the result of the telephone conversation he’d just finished with Tom Campbell, the Labour MP for Tynemouth. Campbell had refused to give him the name of who it was that had compiled the report on McMillan, declaring that he’d done his civic duty in handing over the file. It would take a court order for him to release the name of the source.
Added to that, Cole was still in Jack’s office and Jason didn’t like being kept in the dark. Was there something that Cole had seen in those photographs that he hadn’t, or was he just trusting to luck that something might be there. He was lucky, there was no doubt about that. But his luck had run out this time because those photographs had nothing in them, nothing relevant to the case anyway.
Yet Jack had given Jason the job of chasing down the names of the consortium members in the fraud allegations. Maybe Jack was coming around to his way of thinking, finally.
But despite his excitement at being given the task that he felt sure would lead to the identification of the killer, he couldn’t get away from the fact that he still had two worries.
Firstly, what on earth were Jack and Cole discussing that could have anything to do with the case. And secondly, and arguably more importantly, how was he going to find out the names of the members of the consortium without knowing who had done all the initial digging that allowed a report of such allegations to be made in the first place.
He leaned back in his chair, thinking. He didn’t really want to go down the route of seeking a court order. The process was a legal minefield and, in any event, was likely to take far too long to secure. Whilst he waited for the court order, Cole might get lucky again and beat him to it. That just wouldn’t do.
He decided that there were two avenues he needed to explore, and he needed to do it quickly. He checked his watch; it was too late to pay a visit to either of the sources he had in mind. The next morning would have to do, but he could at least set the ball rolling by making an initial contact to arrange some access. And he would need someone to help him, someone not connected or invested in Cole.
He picked the phone up and rang Durham City Council offices and managed to speak directly to the Chief Planning Officer, making arrangements to visit the next day but also being careful not to disclose the reasons or his visit. Then he turned to the question of who to help him.
He looked across the room, the two temporary officers were both at their desks. Cuthbert, he thought. What better opportunity to enlist some help and find out at the same time what happened to make Cuthbert leave Northumbria. He decided it was a good choice.
“Cuthbert” he shouted across the room. Got a minute?”
Alan Cuthbert got out of his chair and crossed the room, aware that more than one pair of eyes were on him.
“Yes sir” he said as he approached Jason’s desk.
“How’s the financial arrangements of Justice Robertson looking?”
“Fine sir, nothing illegal that we can see anyway. His accounts have been relatively quiet for a number of years. Pension income of course, and the odd payment for lectures or legal advice, all above board. Outgoings seems in accordance with any general member of the public I would say. His housekeeper is on a pretty good deal mind”.
“How so?”
“Well I understand she lives in sir, so I think it’s fair to assume that she has full board and free accommodation”.
“And?”
“She has a salary of £40,000 a year sir. Quite generous don’t you think. For a housekeeper I mean”.
“Are you suggesting she was paid for something else?”
“No sir, just seems generous, that’s all”.
“Well I understand the judge was a generous man, I assume he could afford it”.
“Just a bit sir. He’s got over £12 million in the bank, and that doesn’t include any other assets we’ve yet to look into”.
“Jesus, I had no idea judges were that well paid”.
“I’m not sure they are sir; we’re still digging back to see if we can trace the source”.
“Keep me appraised when you find something will you. In the meantime, I need a hand with something tomorrow. I’m heading for Durham Council to look into potential irregularities over some land deals back in the 90’s. you’re from Durham aren’t you?”
Alan nodded.
“Your knowledge of the local area might come in useful and I could do with a hand. So, rather than coming in here tomorrow, can I pick you up somewhere on route or maybe meet at the Council offices?”.
“I can meet you there sir, I live less than fifteen minutes away”.
“Ok then, we’ll meet up at the Council offices at 9am sharp”.
“Yes sir, will do. Anything else?”
“No, but keep it to yourself for the moment Cuthbert, if anyone asks just say you’re helping me with some enquiries in Durham”.
“Of course sir, see you tomorrow” said Alan and he went back to his desk.
Jason glanced at Jack’s door, which was st
ill firmly shut. He decided to call it a day and head off home. It would be a long day tomorrow but one that hopefully would bring dividends.
Chapter 33
Oliver woke up on Friday morning to the sound of heavy rainfall peppering the window of his bedroom. He’d been late to bed the previous night, again, having taken home the three photographs he’d borrowed from the walls of Justice Robertson’s home and spent hours studying them in detail for something, anything, that would give him a clue as to who might be behind these murders.
He felt sure there was something in them, but he was buggered, to use one of Jack’s favourite phrases, if he could see anything.
After making his customary coffee and toast he switched on the TV set to see if there was any new reports or any further discovery of bodies. Previously he’d always felt confident that he would be one of the first to know, but that confidence had gone missing, just as DS Davis had done. The two issues weren’t entirely unconnected he thought.
Thankfully, and much to his relief, there was no new discovery of a body reported, in fact there was nothing new in the reports at all. Not even the release of Justice Robertson’s identity, which Oliver found increasingly curious.
He was in no hurry to get in to work, for a number of reasons, and made himself a second cup of coffee and took it to the sofa in his lounge where he’d left the three photographs.
He picked then up to look at them again feeling that he’d much prefer to have something to say to Jack when he got in to work. The prospect of a smiling Jason Glover when he reported that he’d found nothing was another reason for his delay in getting ready.
The first photograph showed a smiling Justice Robertson with his arm around the shoulder of someone, as yet unidentified, wearing a white shirt, bow tie, and bright red braces keeping up his trousers. Two other men were in the background, also in shirts with bow ties, but their faces were slightly obscured. The room, from what little Oliver could see, looked like the picture had been taken at some kind of function. There were a couple of tables in the background, both covered in white linen tablecloths, glasses, bottles of wine and various other function tools. It suggested some official gathering, perhaps with other professionals or legal colleagues.
