By All Means (Fiske and MacNee Mysteries Book 2)

by Alan Alexander

  'But why, Vanessa, why?

  'I really don't know, sir. I'm only going where the evidence takes me.'

  Esslemont sighed. 'Fleming's a bit too sure of himself, and he can be a supercilious sod, but I don't think he's corrupt. If it's him, there must be a reason other than personal gain. There must be an innocent explanation. We can't just confront him.'

  Vanessa took back the sheet of paper. 'No, we can't, but events the other night may give us a way of confirming my suspicions. Nobody has linked the bomb at Last Cairngorm with the cyber attack on Mercury Fulfilment and no-one has linked either with our murders. However, the fact that all four crimes involve American firms make it legitimate for us to talk to counter-terrorism to see if they have any intelligence that would make connections that might assist our investigation.'

  'So what do you suggest we should do?'

  'I think you should go to the Chief and get his support for an approach to counter-terrorism, emphasising the need for absolute secrecy. We can assume that Fleming will either sit in on your discussion with the Chief or be told by him what's happening.'

  Esslemont nodded.

  'Then we wait. And on previous form, we won't have to wait long.'

  *

  At Holyrood, the First Minister rose at 1230 hrs and read the statement prepared for her by Paul MacIver.

  Members will already be aware, from press and media reports, of the explosion at Last Cairngorm on Monday evening and of an apparent cyber attack the same evening on Mercury Fulfilment in Cumbernauld. The appropriate authorities are investigating, North East Constabulary and Scottish counter-terrorism unit in the case of Last and the Strathclyde Police computer crime specialists at Mercury. At this stage, we have no reason to link the two incidents.

  There was no warning before either incident and there has been no claim of responsibility.

  The Justice Secretary is keeping closely in touch with the investigation and I will, of course, keep parliament fully informed.

  The questions that followed were, in the main, straightforward requests for information that the FM didn't have. She responded by accepting the need to give frequent reports to parliament and by recognising the concerns of members in all parties. It was bland, emollient, and even, as Paul MacIver had intended, statesmanlike.

  She was about to resume her seat when the Presiding Officer called the name of a Labour member for Glasgow, a man known for his contacts in Strathclyde Police, and his visceral dislike of the First Minister.

  'These two companies are American owned, and one of them has been involved in a very unpopular development in one of the most beautiful parts of Scotland. There have also been two murders recently on premises owned or operated by other US companies, one of which is just as unpopular as the Last Corporation. Does the First Minister have any reason to believe that there is anything to link the events covered in her statement with the murders?'

  The FM got to her feet. 'No.'

  Her questioner rose again. 'In that case, can she explain why officers from the North East Constabulary murder investigation team are arriving in Glasgow today to continue their enquiries?'

  The best the FM could do was to say that this was clearly an operational matter and therefore the responsibility of the Chief Constable. But the question had unsettled her because her briefing had not anticipated it. And it had put into the public domain the possibility that Paul MacIver had not wanted to raise outside her office.

  *

  'Harry Conival's just had some calls asking us to confirm an MSP's claim at Holyrood that we're linking the murders with the Last and Mercury attacks. I've told him to say that we are simply following up in Glasgow leads from the normal course of our enquiries.'

  DCI Fiske wanted to reassure the DCS that the question to the FM was not the result of a leak and would not get in the way of their efforts to identify the source of the stories that had got out since the murder enquiry started.

  'Could have come from any number of sources, sir. And it doesn't in any way compromise the investigation. Strathclyde were already helping us. The most likely source is somebody in Strathclyde Police. The MSP in question is known to have good contacts there, and there's little doubt that it's the FM he's after, not us.'

  Esslemont grunted. 'Even so, it adds to the mix and it's a potential distraction. And the Chief may use it as a way of deflecting attention from his office if you're right about where the leaks have been coming from.'

  'But the defence is that this 'leak' is not in any way confidential. I would have announced it at the next press briefing. May even be helpful to our "strategy" by raising the possibility of a link to the Last and Mercury incidents.'

  'I'm not sure whether your just being devious, Vanessa, or looking on the bright side. In any case, I spoke in confidence to the Chief this morning and he agreed that we should approach counter-terrorism, as long as we do it discreetly. Our man was there taking notes.'

  Vanessa noticed that at no point in the conversation had Esslemont mentioned their "target" by name. He wasn't entirely comfortable about what they were doing. She was still a little surprised that he had gone along with it.

  *

  Sara Hamilton and Aisha Gajani got off the train in Glasgow early in the afternoon. They were met by a DC from Govan Police Station who drove them first to their hotel - one of a no-frills chain - and then to the station, where they were found a couple of desks and introduced to the people and systems they needed to know.

  On the train, they had discussed how they should approach the search for Mathieson and MacIlwraith. They decided to assume that Mathieson and Nuttall were one and the same. They knew that neither Mathieson nor MacIlwraith had a criminal record. That didn't mean that nothing was known about them. Police intelligence on individuals who had not yet been placed on the 'system' might help. If that turned up nothing, then they would be into a laborious trawl through other databases, some open to the public, some not - electoral register, council tax rolls, school and college records, national insurance files, even the phone book. From the CCTV pictures, they knew the approximate age of the suspects. That would help, but perhaps not much. Their only possible leads were that MacIlwraith's records at GRH had contained a previous address, from several years back, on the south side of Glasgow. The mailbox shop was in the same general area. That was why they had arranged to be based in Govan.

  Govan Police Station is the most secure in Scotland, where suspects arrested under terrorism and security legislation are held. The Major Crime and Terrorism Investigation Unit is based there and officers from the Unit had been called in immediately by NEC to lead the investigation at Last Cairngorm. DCI Fiske, and her superior officers, would come to regret that they had not considered, when Sara and Aisha arranged to be based there, the propensity of the press to add two and two and make five.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Esslemont had seen the Chief Constable late on Wednesday morning, soon after Vanessa Fiske had named the Chief’s staff officer as her suspect. Just after five o’clock, Harry Conival took a call from the chief crime reporter on the Gazette & Times.

  ‘Afternoon, Harry. I’ve just had a tip, from a usually reliable source, that your DCI Fiske is talking to the counter-terrorism boys about a possible link between her two murders and the explosion at Last Cairngorm. Anyone there care to comment before we put it up on the website?’

  ‘Give me half an hour, Jason, and I’ll get back to you. I’ll need to talk to Fiske.’

  ‘Twenty minutes would be better. We want this to go up before the evening news bulletins.’

  ‘I’ll do my best.’

  Harry caught Vanessa just as she was clearing her emails before going home.

  ‘Harry, issue a flat denial. We have not contacted counter-terrorism about either murder, and we have no present intention of doing so.’

  ‘You do know that that won’t stop him. It’ll go up in the next half-hour together with your denial, and unless you take out the word ‘presen
t’ they’ll use that as a justification for their story. It’s a weasel word, and Jason Sime will spot it a mile off.’

  ‘There are moments, Harry, when I know what we pay you for. Take it out. If anything changes on this, the last thing the reptiles will be concerned about is that I denied it today.’

  *

  While Harry was talking to Jason Sime, Jack Eisner’s burner alerted him to the arrival of a text.

  NEC tecs talking to counter-terrorism re poss link between murders and Last explosion.

  It was just after 12.20 hrs in Wilmington, Delaware, when Cy Packard read an encrypted email from Eisner passing on what his source had told him. Packard called his Chairman, who called Roskill, who called Sir Justin Carey at the Foreign Office, who called the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, who called the Chief Constable. Didn’t somebody once say, the Chief thought, that a lie can be half way round the world before the truth has got its boots on?

  The Chief took the call, on his personal mobile, at 17.49 hrs. The G & T put the story up on its website at 17.58 hrs.

  It was short, but its prominence on the website suggested that it would be a splash on the front page of the print edition next day. So it proved. Sime had worked hard to give credibility to a story that had been strongly denied. He had picked up on the MSP’s question to the First Minister and had got Strathclyde Police to confirm that two officers from the team investigating the hospital and oil rig murders were now located at Govan, the base of the Scottish Counter-Terrorism Squad and the major crimes unit. The story didn’t say that Hamilton and Gajani were there to pursue a terrorism link, but the implication was clear enough for other reporters to pick it up. The script for Vanessa Fiske’s next press briefing was being written.

  *

  As soon as he had reassured the Commissioner that there was no known link between the Jamieson and Keller murders and either the explosion at Last or the cyber attack at Mercury, the Chief asked his secretary (Fleming had left for the day) to summon DCS Esslemont and DCI Fiske to his office. When they arrived, he offered them a drink – accepted by Esslemont, declined by Vanessa – and sat down with them at the occasional table that he used for semi-formal meetings.

  ‘I had a call from the Commissioner of the Met to tell me that he had a report from the Foreign Office to the effect that we were linking the Jamieson and Keller murders to the explosion at Last and that we were talking to counter-terrorism. I told him it was rubbish and he seemed to accept that it was.’

  ‘When did you receive the call, sir?’ Vanessa asked.

  The Chief picked up his mobile. ‘17.49. Why?’

  ‘Because the story didn’t go up on the G & T website until 17.58. Which means that the story we planted wasn’t given to Sime exclusively. I doubt he has access to the Permanent Secretary at the Foreign Office.’

  ‘I suppose this means we have to confront Fleming.’ This was Esslemont. ‘And I need your authority, sir, to suspend him from duty pending further enquiries.’ The Chief nodded. ‘I think we should let him report for duty tomorrow morning and then ask him to come to see me and Vanessa. We won’t know how to proceed until we see how he reacts.’

  ‘You better run it past Chris Jenkinson as well. She has management responsibility for personnel matters, so she’ll have to know that a suspension is on the cards. What a bloody mess! I can’t begin to guess what made Richard do it.’

  ‘We’ll try to find out,’ Esslemont said. ‘But I rather think the “how” will be as important as the “why”.’

  *

  Despite feeling queasy, Vanessa was in her office very early on Thursday morning. Inspector Richard Fleming was usually at his desk in the anteroom to the Chief’s office by 0730 and she needed to be available as soon as the DCS arrived just before eight o’clock. Neil drove her to police HQ before going to work.

  When her phone rang at 0755, she expected to hear Esslemont’s voice, but it was Fiona Marchmont, calling from home as she got her kids ready for school.

  Between the shouted enquiries about the whereabouts of shoes, schoolbags and lunches, Fiona told Vanessa that Gavin Aikman in the Solicitor-General’s office had called the previous evening.

  ‘I know you need your sleep, so I decided to leave off phoning you until this morning. Nothing you could have done last night anyway. Gavin had a call from St. Clair to say that he had just been given the go-ahead by the Permanent Secretary to instruct the legal attaché in Washington to try to get the Hedelco emails released to you. As discussed, no action on Ebright or Burtonhall, though I think we can expect the latter to take an interest. You and I will need to get together to prepare the brief.’

  ‘Thanks, Fiona. Did Gavin say when St. Clair phoned him?’

  ‘I think it was about six o’clock last night. The decision seems to have taken St. Clair by surprise. He wasn’t expecting it before the end of this week or the beginning of next. Why?’

  ‘I’m constructing a timeline on a related matter.’

  ‘Very cryptic!’

  ‘Can’t say more now, but you’ll have a shrewd idea what’s going on before you leave today.’

  As Vanessa put the phone down, Esslemont came into her office.

  ‘Fleming’s on his way down. I think you should join us.’

  *

  The Association of Chief Police Officers (Scotland) terrorism lead was a Deputy Chief Constable from Lothian and Borders and he was reporting to the Justice Secretary and Paul MacIver at the First Minister’s office every morning at 0830 hrs. Their first meeting had been on Wednesday, before the FM's statement to Parliament. There had been little of substance to report. By Thursday, the investigation had moved on, but not very far.

  ‘We are now absolutely sure that the explosion at Last Cairngorm was not an accident.’ DCC Grant Ingram spoke as he placed his uniform cap on the coffee table that separated him from his political masters. ‘The device was unsophisticated but very effective and it had been placed to cause the maximum amount of structural damage. There are no immediate clues as to where it was assembled. Our experts, and the fire and rescue people, think that it was the kind of device that can be assembled from instructions available on the Internet.’

  The Justice Secretary looked at MacIver and then at Ingram. ‘Do we know how it got there, when it was planted?’

  ‘No we don’t, and because the complex isn’t yet fully operational – won’t be until next month – there is very little CCTV footage, and none of the building that was targeted.’

  MacIver was taking notes, but he looked up at this, and asked if that meant there were some pictures.

  ‘There are a couple of cameras at the entrance, but they’re panning cameras, which means they don’t provide a complete record of who comes and goes. Like the ones you see on Edinburgh buses.’

  ‘I assume you are examining the footage to see if it yields anything useful.’ The Justice Secretary was looking a little pained as he anticipated his meeting with the FM.

  ‘Of course. But please don’t get your hopes up. Nearly everybody who comes in is carrying some kind of backpack or bag, and we’d have to be very lucky to identify a suspect.’

  ‘Has anyone claimed responsibility?’

  ‘We’ve had the usual crank calls. We’re looking into all of them, but there’s nothing serious so far, so we have no idea what the motive was. We are checking with all UK jurisdictions and with Europol to see if there is any intelligence that might help, but there is really very little progress to report.’

  ‘What about Mercury Fulfilment?’ MacIver asked. ‘Are you any further forward there?’

  ‘Not much, I’m afraid. This was a very clever attack by people who knew exactly what they were doing and which systems they wanted to knock out. Mercury has a default system that kicks in if their main IT processes fail. They immobilised that as well.’

  ‘Do we know where the attack originated?’ The Justice Secretary asked. ‘As I understand it, attacks like this can be mounted from anywh
ere in the world.’

  ‘That’s right. First indications, and don’t ask me how the hi-tech people know this, are that it came from somewhere in the UK. Again, as with Last, there’s no obvious motive, nothing “commercial”, for example. That leaves us with other possibilities: cyber-vandalism, for instance, or a form of terrorism. The investigating officers from Strathclyde’s computer crime branch are meeting the counter-terrorism people today.’

  The Justice Secretary closed his file and stood up. He extended his hand to DCC Ingram and said he would see him tomorrow. ‘Let’s hope you have more to report then.’

  *

  'Sit down, Inspector Fleming.' Esslemont's tone was cool and formal. Fleming could have been in no doubt that this was a serious matter.