by Alan Fisher
“So what will she do, the killer? How will she be able to ensure that the next victim meets with her? If she mentions the Lamplight club, she risks the next victim connecting the previous deaths and not turning up”
“Well, given the level of planning that’s gone into all of this, my guess is she will have found something that connects Van der Klerk and the next victim. I think she’ll use a similar tactic like, someone’s been looking into our money laundering set up, or drugs deals, or whatever illicit goings on they shared together. Whatever it is will be serious enough to make them want to meet with Van der Klerk”.
“You assume that Van der Klerk had some illicit dealings with the next victim. That’s a big assumption” said Colin.
“I suppose so” said Oliver. But looking at this logically, the killer has done a lot of research and planning. We know this from the mugging of Tanya Golding, the selection of the hotels, and three successful murders so far. So I would imagine that the order in which the six men would be murdered would be equally well planned. The killer will have worked out the sequence from the information she gained. For example, she must have decided that the way to get to McMillan was through Tanya, the way to Robertson was through McMillan, the way to Van der Klerk was through Robertson etc. Do you see sir?”
“Yeah, I get it” said Colin.
“So how do we square the circle?” asked Jack.
“We find all four potential victims and advise them that a known conman has stolen a phone from Van der Klerk with all of his contacts on it. We tell them we understand that, because they may have had some business dealings with Van der Klerk in the past, there is a slim possibility that they may be sent a text message from someone pretending to be Van der Klerk. The message will be something to do with some fabricated tale of illicit goings on and the sender will invite him to meet at a hotel. We also re-assure them that we already know that the whole business is a complete con and that we are anxious to arrest the conman as soon as we can to protect possible future victims. We ask them to advise us as soon as the message is received, and we will arrange to meet the conman in his place. They can leave us to deal with matters after that”.
“Don’t you ever think about turning to crime Oliver” said Colin. I doubt you’d ever get caught”.
“It’ll work though Colin, it’s plausible enough to convince anyone that we have no idea about the Lamplight club”.
“Unless the killer doesn’t do what Oliver thinks and actually follows the same pattern and mentions the club. What happens then” asked Colin.
Jack looked at Oliver, hoping for a response.
“If that’s the case sir we’ll be like turkeys at Christmas, stuffed! Perhaps we should think about notifying ports and airports of the names of these four men, just in case”.
Chapter 57
Oliver emerged from Jack’s office with a small sheet of paper, with the two names on it that Jack had given him, safely tucked in his pocket.
The room was a hive of activity and he immediately felt a pang of sympathy for the rest of the team. Admittedly, his task would not be a simple one, but the task facing the others was likely to be far more difficult and potentially far more time consuming.
The names of the two men in his list were not known to him, but given their previous probable high profile it was reasonable to assume that they wouldn’t be too difficult to find. The difficult part of his task would be to sell the lie that he had just concocted so that they could trap the killer in a controlled situation.
The rest of the team faced much more daunting work, trying to find six girls who were resident in a care home that closed back in the 90’s and could have gone anywhere and changed their names at least once in the following twenty plus years.
He switched on his computer and took out the small sheet of paper with the names on it;
James Prendergast
Conrad Akindoye
Glancing at the names he gave a whisper of thanks for the fact that neither of the two names could be considered common, and the fact that google would once again be of enormous assistance. He had no doubt that any searches would almost certainly bring up a number of options and he would need to employ some cross referencing techniques to make sure he had the right man. It would not be a great idea to visit someone who had absolutely nothing to do with these horrendous events, but who had been unfortunately labelled with the same name as someone who did.
Within the hour his search was complete, and he had identified the two men and obtained their address’s. It was fortunate too, that both men still lived in the area, if one considered the outskirts of Northumberland to the North and to the West to be “in the area”.
He went across to where Colin had managed to position himself at his desk despite being unable to bend his right leg.
“Hey Oliver”
“Sir, good to get your feet back under the table?” he asked.
“It is, well one of them anyway. What’s up?”
“Nothing sir, just wanted to let you know I’ve traced the two names on my sheet and I’m going to head off in a few minutes to try to talk to them. I may be out a while though, one of them lives out by Haltwhistle and the other is in Rothbury”.
“Understood, it would have been too much to hope for that they would be on the doorstep. I’m sure you know this is not going to be easy, talking to these men as if there’s nothing to worry about and yet knowing what they did, so I won’t pretend otherwise. You ok with this story of yours, think they’ll buy into it?”
“I don’t know to be honest, but I think the more I play it down the more believable it’ll be. And coming from a junior officer already suggests it’s not a big issue”.
Colin lifted his troublesome leg and rubbed the hip area, clearly suffering.
“Bloody hip, it doesn’t like me sitting in the same position for too long. Give Jack a knock will you, somethings just struck me”.
Oliver did as he was asked, and Jack came out of his office to Colin’s desk.
“What’s up Colin, leg giving you a bit of jip? You don’t have to stay you know” said Jack sympathetically.
“Leg’s fine Jack, just wanted a quick word about something that might prove a problem; Oliver’s idea”.
Jack looked at Oliver, who was looking mystified.
“I never said anything sir, just that I’ve got the addresses for my two and will be off shortly”.
“Not that” said Colin, wincing. “I asked Oliver if he was confident of selling the story to these two toe-rags and he said he would play it down as much as possible and the fact that it was coming from a junior officer would probably make it more believable. All of which makes sense, but….”
“How would it sound coming from a DCI” said Jack, finishing Collin’s sentence. “You’re right, I hadn’t seen it from that angle. Good thinking Colin. Ok change of plan, when I find my two addresses I’ll text them to Oliver so he can talk to them as well, assuming they’re local. Ok with you Oliver? I know it will be hard enough seeing two of these men never mind all four”
“Yes sir, of course”.
“He’s already got to get out to Haltwhistle and Rothbury, Jack. He could be out well into the evening” said Colin.
“Then he’d better get his skates on, as should I, seeing as how I haven’t found either of my two yet”.
Jack turned and went straight back into his office and Oliver grabbed his coat and went straight out the door, trying to decide on whether to head North or West first.
Oliver had barely been out of office for five minutes when Debbie tracked down the first girl on her list. She’d been extremely fortunate that the girl had stayed in the Durham area and had not yet married. Her name was therefore on the current electoral role and an examination of census data going back to 1990 confirmed that she was the right girl, or woman, to be current.
But it was the only early success that any of the team had in the first couple of hours. Robbie enlisted the help of Colin Davis b
ecause he wasn’t able to find any trace of his two girls at all.
Paul had been struggling too, but found Jack sitting beside him an hour after Oliver had left; Jack having finally traced his two names and addresses before texting them to Oliver. Although Paul was uncomfortable with Jack suggesting ideas in his ear, he knew that they all wished to achieve the same goal and put up with the discomfort in the interests of unity.
By 7pm they’d found the whereabouts of all of the girls. Four were still resident in the North East, one had emigrated to Australia, (Paul had been grateful for the idea from Jack to check emigration records), and one regrettably had been detained under the mental health act in a secure mental institution.
The latter of these girls, Katelyn Reid, had been institutionalised in 2006 and was found through an inspired guess from Colin and their own police database.
A few minutes after 7pm, when the final address had been added to the sheet, Jack called the team together.
“Great work today everyone. We’ve got all the current names and addresses and that’s one hell of an achievement in just one day”.
“Will you visit them all tomorrow sir?” asked a tired looking Robbie.
“No, that’s not the plan. We’re convinced that one of these girls is our murderer” started Jack.
“Not the one in Australia or the one in an institution though sir, surely” said Paul.
“First rule of policing Paul, never assume anything. Julie Barrow here could have returned from Australia, perhaps under an assumed name, we can’t be sure. And we need to check if Katelyn Reid is still where she is supposed to be. But I won’t visit any of these girls just yet, I don’t know which one is the killer and any knowledge that we’re this close will undoubtedly make her disappear. We’re running a different plan which Oliver is putting into place. If that comes to fruition, we’ll be able to arrest whoever it is in a controlled environment. Then I’ll talk to the girls to try and get the evidence to put the surviving toe-rags, as Colin has christened them, behind bars. Now, you’ve all earned a rest. Get yourselves away home and a good night’s sleep, and we’ll see what tomorrow brings. I’ll see everyone in the morning, but be prepared for another late night, if we get lucky”.
“Thank you sir” came the collective response as the team started to grab their coats and bags.
Jack took out his phone from his pocket. It had been silent all day and he wondered if all was well with Oliver. He didn’t dare ring him in case he was talking to one of the four, but the silence was causing concern.
He stared at the blank screen as the team filed past him on the way out.
“Ring ya bogger” he whispered to himself as the last officer left the room.
Chapter 58
It was close to 7.30 in the evening when Oliver pulled onto the drive of a large detached Georgian house set in a few acres of woodland on the outskirts of Stocksfield in Northumberland.
The visits to the other three names on the list of men involved in the Lamplight club horrors had gone as well as could have been expected given the circumstances.
Without doubt he’d found the first visit to the home of Conrad Akindoye a lot more difficult than he could ever have imagined. Even though he knew he was acting professionally, the unknown faces of the six young girls being paraded in front of these men for their gratification wouldn’t leave his head. He’d had to fight to control the sick feeling in his stomach as he tried to remain light and matter of fact about the whole situation, advising Akindoye that he was just a mark in the conman’s objective. That the police didn’t really expect that he would be contacted but on the remote chance that he was, he should contact the police and leave the rest to them.
He’d been lucky in deciding to travel to Rothbury first though, because when Jack texted through the addresses for the other men, they were closer to the West than the North. A small saving of grace in a day filled with bile and loathing.
The second visit was to James Prendergast in Haltwhistle, and had been equally challenging; his feeling of acute nausea not helped by the appearance of Prendergast’s two granddaughters when Oliver was chatting to him in his luxurious dining room.
Oliver had pushed the natural questions on his lips to somewhere in his head where they couldn’t be found and accepted Prendergast’s promise of co-operation; and smiled reluctantly when Prendergast laughed at the thought that someone had stolen Van der Klerk’s phone; “stupid old goat” he’d laughed, “hope he gets screwed for a mint”.
By the time he’d visited Jack’s first name, Patrick Kendall, in a large farmhouse on the outskirts of Haydon Bridge, he’d almost become immune to the feelings that usually greeted him when he knocked on the door. The unknown faces had retreated into the background and he was able to focus on the task in hand.
The experience still stuck in his throat, but he was in control of his feelings and pleased that the task was almost done. Justice would come for these men he kept telling himself, and he decided he wouldn’t mind at all if he was asked to be involved when they were arrested.
By ten to eight he was done, the last name on the list, Darren Pryce, had been seen and warned about the possibility of receiving a message from someone pretending to be Van der Klerk.
He was so used to lying now that he was almost starting to believe his own story, although the nausea still held firm. But as he climbed back into his car, the nausea started to leave him. And he seriously hoped that he would never have to endure such a day again.
He drove away from Pryce’s home and stopped a mile down the road to check in with Jack. He knew that he would be waiting for his call and wanted to re-assure him that all had gone well. He took his phone out of his pocket and pressed the speed dial button.
“Oliver, you all right? I thought you were never going to ring in” said Jack, not hiding his anxiety.
“I’m ok sir. It’s been a tough day though; I hope I never have to do anything like that again. Looking these men in the eye, knowing what they are and what they did to those girls; and then asking for their co-operation…”.
“I know” interrupted Jack, “it can’t have been easy, but you can be proud of yourself both for the idea and what you’ve had to do today. I’m not sure there are many others that could have done it. Do you think that any of them will have believed your story?”
“I think so sir, I certainly didn’t pick up anything that would suggest otherwise. I suppose we’ll know later”.
“Well you’ve done all you can for the time being. You’ve put the bait out there; all we can do now is wait to see if we get a bite. Get yourself home, I recommend a good hot bath to wash away the feeling of dirt, followed by something to eat and a couple of glasses of something strong, topped off with a good night’s sleep”.
“Yes sir, will do. See you in the morning”.
But Oliver didn’t sleep well that night, his dreams were haunted by the unknown faces of six girls parading by a table stacked with hundreds of packs of cards. Seven men were lying on a plastic sheet on the ground with the girls looked over them, each girl holding a knife, each knife dripping with blood.
Chapter 59
Friday morning brought a sharp frost back to the North East, with a bitterly cold wind blowing in from Scandinavia. Oliver watched the TV with a hot coffee in his hands as a rather attractive young lady on the local news was explaining how the temperatures were going to say below freezing until mid-morning with the prospect that it may climb as high as 1 degree by lunchtime.
He switched the TV off when she’d finished talking and was handing back to the main studio in London. It all sounded depressing but, looking for something positive in the forecast, he decided that he should be grateful that at least it wasn’t snowing. He finished his coffee and picked up his things for work before reluctantly leaving his warm apartment and headed downstairs into the freezing cold outside and his second task of the day, scraping the ice from his old Fiesta before setting off for Ponteland.
T
he frost and ice brought chaos to many of the roads around the North East, particularly those in the countryside surrounding Ponteland. People arrived at various times during the morning and it wasn’t until 9.45 that most of them were gathered together.
Jack had been in since before 8am and had spent the time since then with Superintendent Fox, so no-one had actually spoken with him since his arrival. Colin had arrived at just before 9, or rather his wife Eleanor had dropped him off in the car park at 9. It took him another half an hour to negotiate the slippery car park and the journey up the stairs on his crutches.
Shortly after 10, Jack came back into the office.
“Briefing in five minutes everyone; get yourself a drink if you need one, we’ve a lot to discuss”.
The room emptied within seconds, except for Colin who’d already been told by Debbie that she’d have anything he needed brought through for him. When Robbie, the last to get back from the canteen, finally took his seat, Jack was already standing by the incident board.
“All right, settle yourselves down. We’re getting close to the endgame now and I’ve a few final developments to bring to your attention and fill everyone in on what we were doing yesterday. If all goes well, we will need to have plans made to react quickly. So that’s what we’re going to do now, and I want everyone to be part of this, it’s important. First of all, new developments. The hotel where Van der Klerk was murdered has been identified as The Ramside Hall hotel. The information was picked up almost by chance when a PC in Durham was visiting the hotel and overheard a member of staff complaining about some thefts at the hotel; I think the expression “even a bloody rug was nicked” is what made the PC’s ears prick up. A mate of mine down in Durham gave me a heads up and because we’re a bit short handed, I asked him to look into it. Normally I wouldn’t have done that myself but because the CCTV from Robertson’s murder revealed nothing new, I didn’t expect anything different on this one either. And that turned out to be the case, but it was useful to have it checked out nevertheless and I’ll explain why in a few minutes”.
