By All Means (Fiske and MacNee Mysteries Book 2)

by Alan Alexander

  David Horner, the former legal attaché, spoke for the first time. ‘It’s not unheard of for us to help in this way, but it’s not common practice. The difficulty here is that it would involve both federal and state authorities, so we would have to persuade our American friends, in the Justice Department and the FBI, to act on our behalf with the state authorities in Massachusetts and Delaware, possibly also in Rhode Island. That’s very complicated and would take some time, though not as long as going to court, I grant you.’

  ‘What if we limited our efforts to Hedelco? The Keller emails are in their ownership and any court action would be against them rather than their parent company. We have most of Jamieson’s emails, so we could put Ebright to one side for the purposes of this exercise and so limit the state level intervention to Massachusetts.’

  ‘Administratively, that would simplify matters, certainly,’ St Clair said, ‘But Sir Justin would still need to be convinced that your need was great enough to justify any action by us. David?’

  ‘Yes. If a request like this had come to me I would have been more hopeful if it had involved only one company and, in particular, only one state. In this case, too, the process might be assisted a little by the fact that the administrations in Washington and in Massachusetts are of the same party.’

  Vanessa thought that of the four men she was trying to persuade – in effect, only three, because Inchholm from the Advocate General’s office was carrying no more than a watching brief – Horner was the only one who was trying to be helpful.

  ‘So,’ Vanessa said, reaching for a glass of water and suppressing a belch, ‘Can we go after Hedelco?’

  St Clair signalled the end of the meeting by closing his folder. ‘I shall put it to Sir Justin and get back to you as soon as I can.’

  ‘Thank you, Mr St Clair. Now, I wonder if you could direct me to the nearest ladies’ room.’

  *

  'I think we may have a match.' Dongle Donaldson and Detective Sergeant Anil Jasthi of the Video Analysis Section had been watching as Anil's video recognition software compared the enhanced CCTV image with the file of photographs from the GRH HR database. There were more than eighty male employees in the 30-50 age range and it took an hour to do the comparison.

  'How sure are you, Anil?' Dongle asked. 'I need to be able to tell MacNee how confident we are that we can identify this guy.'

  'Pretty sure.'

  'How sure?'

  'Well over 90 per cent.'

  'I'll phone MacNee.'

  *

  Williamson and MacNee gave the picture of the employee matched with the CCTV image to the senior HR manager and went for a coffee in the hospital canteen. She would go through the files related to the employees whose photos had been compared until she identified the match. It wouldn't take long, and she agreed to text Williamson as soon as their suspect had been identified.

  'His name is Andrew MacIlwraith and he worked here for less than a year as a porter.'

  Maggie Melvin from HR had texted them less than an hour after they left her office. She now sat at her desk with three pictures spread in front of the detectives: the enhanced CCTV image; a jpg from the file that had been drawn from the HR database; and a print from MacIwraith's file.

  'You said, "worked". When did he leave?' Colin MacNee asked.

  'He was dismissed in July after a final warning for inappropriate behaviour towards patients. He lodged an appeal and then withdrew it just before the initial hearing.'

  'So what was he doing back in the hospital a fortnight ago?'

  'No idea. But you have to remember that we don't security check everybody who comes in. We would have known he was here only if one of his former workmates or, conceivably but not likely, a patient, had recognised him and reported it.'

  'Do you have an address for him? He's probably long gone, but somebody might know where he went.'

  The address was a sub-let council flat in the Mastrick area of Aberdeen. Nobody there remembered MacIlwraith, but one of the neighbours thought he might have gone to Glasgow.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Vanessa Fiske and Fiona Marchmont were back in Aberdeen by late afternoon. Vanessa had phoned Esslemont’s office from Heathrow to say that it was imperative that she see him before the end of the day.

  ‘Productive trip?’ Esslemont asked. No-one else was present.

  ‘Don’t know yet, sir. The people we met need to talk to the Permanent Secretary, and I think that he may have been got at. But before I go into detail, there’s a rather more urgent matter that we should discuss.’

  Esslemont leaned forward. ‘Oh?’

  ‘Somebody is leaking information on the murder investigations. Some of it is appearing in the press – did you see the G & T this morning? – and some of it is getting to people with an interest in what we’re doing but no right to have it.’

  ‘Go on.’

  ‘The first thing was the enquiry to Harry Conival asking him to confirm that Keller had been killed by lethal injection. I had deliberately kept that detail back. Then there was the fact that reporters, and Eisner from Burtonhall, clearly knew about the Chief’s call from the First Minister. At the press briefing, it was clear that the G & T reporter knew what drugs had been used to kill Keller. I had withheld that, too. And I suspect that Sir Justin Carey, the Permanent Secretary at the FO, had been lobbied by Burtonhall, almost certainly by Roskill, who’s on the Burtonhall board, about our meeting there this morning. If they knew about the meeting before the G & T story appeared, and I think they did, they didn’t get it from the lawyers or from the FO. It came from here.’

  ‘What makes you think that the Foreign Office had been lobbied?’

  ‘For one thing, the fact that Special Branch were represented at the meeting, ostensibly to observe on behalf of the Permanent Secretary and the Commissioner of the Met.’ Vanessa noticed a expression of real irritation cross Esslemont’s face, but she carried on. 'For another, the clear reluctance of the senior FO official who ran the meeting to reach any decision without consulting the Permanent Secretary.’

  ‘Did you form a view about the interest of the Met?’

  ‘I asked that, and Bancroft – from Special Branch – said that the Commissioner thinks that the ownership of the businesses where the murders happened is irrelevant and pursuing that line of enquiry would waste police time. I didn’t believe a word of it.’

  ‘No. And none of the Met’s business anyway. I’ll manage my resources as I see fit.’ Esslemont was more than irritated. He felt that his territory was being invaded, but he let it go and turned to the leak.

  ‘Let’s suppose you’re right. How do you propose to identify the source? All the facts you mention were known to a lot of people here, and you know how leaky this building can be. I can see that this might damage your investigation, but I don’t know what we can do about it, other than to warn people, once again, to be discreet’.

  ‘Strictly between you and me, sir, I have shrewd idea who we’re after, but I can’t work out why it’s happening.’

  ‘I have a feeling you’re not ready to give me a name. So what do you propose?’

  ‘I need to work out how to confirm my suspicions. I’ll come up with something, relevant to the investigations, but known only to you, me, possibly the Chief, and my “suspect”. Then if it appears where it shouldn’t, we’ll know. Once I have a plan, I’ll tell you who I think we’re after.’

  ‘When?’

  ‘Tomorrow, sir. I’m not having my investigation compromised for any longer than that.’

  *

  Colin MacNee was waiting for DCI Fiske as she left Esslemont’s office. She told him that there was no decision yet from the Foreign Office, but that she was hopeful that they might agree to help with the Hedelco emails. She asked what had been happening in her absence.

  ‘You should get the details on the grunt work on finding our suspects from Sara and Aisha, and from Duncan and Stewart on their ongoing relationship with Donovan at H
edelco. But you probably don’t know much about the two overnight attacks.’

  ‘I saw something about Last Cairngorm on a TV screen as Fiona and I were rushing through Terminal 5. Nothing to connect it with our enquiries, is there?’

  ‘Well…’ Colin tailed off, with an inflexion that Vanessa recognised. He had something on his mind.

  ‘Come on, Colin, I know that look. Let’s have it!’

  ‘Nothing direct, boss, but the bomb at Last wasn’t the only “attack” last night. There was a really serious cyber attack at Mercury Fulfilment in Cumbernauld at about the same time. Completely knocked out their IT systems, which puts them temporarily out of business.’

  ‘I’m not with you. If these are crimes, they’re not for us. They’re for specialist units: counter-terrorism, special branch, the high-tech boys.’

  “I’ve lost count of the number of times you’ve told me, and everyone else on your team, not to believe in coincidence. Or at least to look very sceptically at anything that looks like coincidence.’

  Colin knew Vanessa well enough to recognise when she got it. There was an almost visible light bulb glowing above her head.

  ‘Hedelco, Ebright, Last and Mercury. All American companies with major investments in Scotland. All involved in major crimes within a couple of weeks. You’re not going to tell me that Burtonhall owns Last and Mercury as well…?

  ‘Alas, no! But if our murders aren’t just murders, but crimes with a economic motive of some kind…’

  Vanessa held up a hand. ‘Slow down, Colin. You’re in danger of getting ahead of the evidence. But your off-the-wall questions have paid off before, so I’ll think about it and we can talk again in the morning, after the eight-thirty meeting.’

  As she headed for her desk to check her emails, Vanessa thought that Colin might, unwittingly, have given her a way of flushing out the ‘mole’.

  *

  In Edinburgh, on Tuesday morning, while Fiske and Marchmont were on their way to the FO, Paul MacIver was briefing the First Minister on the attacks on Last Cairngorm and Mercury Fulfilment, and bringing her up to date on the murder investigations in her constituency.

  ‘Counter-terrorism and Special Branch are involved in the Last Cairngorm investigation and the high-tech crime specialists from Strathclyde are at Mercury. There’s no doubt that the explosion and fire at Last were caused by a bomb. No-one killed or seriously hurt – the place was closed and very quiet when it happened – just minor injuries and shock to the security guard who spotted the package containing the bomb and was calling it in when it went off. Clear, too, that Mercury has been subject to a targeted and sophisticated attack on its systems. Their official position is that they’ll be up and running again quickly but some people I’ve spoken to say it’ll be weeks, not days.’

  The First Minister shook her head. ‘I never thought I’d have to ask this, Paul, but has anyone claimed responsibility?’

  ‘No. No warning, no calls to the Press Association, none of the stuff you remember about Northern Ireland.’

  ‘Do we know any more?’

  ‘No, we don’t, and what I’m about to say, I wouldn’t say outside this room – yet.’

  The FM nodded for him to go on.

  ‘Hedelco, Ebright, Last and Mercury. All American companies with major investments in Scotland. All involved in major crimes within a couple of weeks. And, before you ask, there’s no obvious link between Last and Mercury and Burtonhall. We don’t know the motive for these two attacks, we don’t have any idea who’s behind them, and we don’t yet know who killed Jamieson and Keller…’

  ‘I feel a “but” coming on.’

  MacIver shot her a sardonic grin. ‘But…we can speculate on the effects of all four crimes. They could adversely affect inward –and indeed continuing – investment in Scotland. And that means jobs, the feel-good factor, and the referendum. So we need to ensure that every effort is made to solve them quickly.’

  ‘So what do you advise?’

  ‘I don’t think you should get directly involved, especially since your call to the Chief Constable got into the public domain so quickly. I’ll talk to the Justice Secretary and he and I will maintain close liaison with the police, probably through ACPO. We’ll keep you well briefed. You’ll be expected to answer questions on the attacks in Parliament tomorrow. I think you should pre-empt that by making a statement. I’ll draft something bland but statesmanlike. I’ll limit it to Last and Mercury. You shouldn’t raise any possible connection with the two murders. If the opposition does, you can bat them off’.

  *

  At the 0830 team meeting on Wednesday morning, DCI Fiske needed to be brought up to date on the Glasgow end of the investigation and on any progress made in identifying and finding a suspect in the death of Peter Keller at GRH.

  'Probably better to hear from Duncan first, boss,' Colin MacNee said, 'because what he and Stewart discovered in their latest wrangle with Donovan may affect how we proceed in Glasgow.'

  Vanessa nodded.

  'Dongle' - DC Williamson nodded towards Donaldson, who, was sitting at the end of the conference room table staring intently at his laptop - 'came up with a way to compare the enhanced picture of the unidentified man in the CCTV footage with the employee photos held on the Hedelco HR database without accessing any confidential information. That kept Donovan happy. Our suspect is Andrew MacIlwraith, formerly employed as a porter at GRH, who was dismissed last July for inappropriate behaviour towards patients. No more details, except that he lodged an appeal and then withdrew it at the last minute. Nobody knows what he was doing at GRH at the material time and all we discovered at his previous address was that neighbours think he may have moved to Glasgow.'

  'Have we been on to Strathclyde about him?'

  'Not yet, boss. We only identified him late yesterday afternoon and we thought you might want to think about him in relation to what's come back from Strathclyde about Nuttall and Mathieson.'

  Vanessa turned to DS Sara Hamilton who indicated that the update on Nuttall-Mathieson should come from DC Gajani because she had been liaising with Strathclyde.

  'This is hardly definitive, boss', Aisha said, 'but the people at the mailbox shop recall only one person accessing the box rented by Mathieson but with Nuttall's name also listed against it. So they may be one and the same. Trouble is, we don't know which one to look for first.'

  'Well, logic points to looking for Mathieson, because we're pretty certain that Nuttall exists only as a result of identity theft. And the Nuttall birth certificate went to Mathieson. Trouble is, that doesn't prove that it was Mathieson who assumed Nuttall's identity, so we need to find out whether Nuttall had a separate existence in Glasgow. Not easy, and since we appear to have a confirmed sighting of Mathieson at the mailbox shop, we should start with him.'

  'The suspect in the Keller murder, Andrew MacIlwraith, is also thought to be in Glasgow.' DI Colin MacNee had decided to assert himself, gently, as SIO in the GRH murder. 'So it looks as though, on what the Chief calls "the purely criminal aspects" of these killings, the centre of gravity of the enquiry is moving to Glasgow. We can't continue to rely on Strathclyde making enquiries on our behalf.'

  Vanessa belched discreetly and took a sip from a glass of fizzy water. 'No, we can't. Sara, you and Aisha should go down to Glasgow and see if you can locate Mathieson, MacIlwraith and, if he has a separate existence, Nuttall. I'll talk to the DCS about backfilling by in bringing a couple of people from some of the other CID teams.'

  *

  'I think it's Richard Fleming, sir.'

  Esslemont looked shocked and sceptical. 'The Chief 's staff officer? I don't like the bugger, Vanessa, but I can't see why he would risk his career for a few quid slipped to him by a hack. What makes you think he might be the source?'

  'I've looked carefully at the details that have got into the press, into the public domain, and into the hands of interested parties without a legitimate reason, and I've cross referenced them to the people h
ere who knew about them. As you said yesterday, that's quite a number.'

  She passed him a handwritten A4 sheet. 'That shows the pieces of leaked information, each with a list of the people here who knew about it. The only names that appear against all of them are mine, yours, the Chief's, and Fleming's. It wasn't me, sir, and I assume it wasn't you.'

  Esslemont gave her a sarcastic smile. 'Thank you for the vote of confidence, Chief Inspector!'

  'And I think we would both want to give the Chief the benefit of any doubt, which leaves only Fleming.'