The Kate Fletcher Series

by Heleyne Hammersley

  Sam clicked on ‘Matches’. There were three – none of them Max or Mike.

  ‘Damn,’ Sam muttered. She’d had visions of cracking the case with a few quick keystrokes, but then, when didn’t she?

  ‘What’s this?’ said a voice from behind her. O’Connor leaned over her shoulder to get a closer view of her screen and Sam tried not to shift her position. She didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of knowing that he made her feel uncomfortable.

  ‘Swapped sides, Sam? Looking for Mister Right?’

  She faked a laugh. ‘As if. I’m trying to find out who Chloe Welsh might have met on the night that she was killed. Her flatmate says it was somebody she met online.’

  O’Connor snorted. ‘And you think he used his real name? Who does that? I can guarantee you it was a fake name and a fake photo.’

  Sam looked again at the three matches. Were they all fake? The names seemed quite normal. Chris, Tom and Darren. She made a note of each one but the information available was very thin. Name, age, occupation, interests, what they are looking for in a woman. There were no contact details and the ‘location’ was quite vague. Two had put Doncaster and another was based in Wakefield. She was about to go back to Chloe’s profile to see what she’d put that might have attracted a killer when she noticed another tab. ‘Matched’. This led to another list of three men. Another Tom, a Jamie and an Anthony. Beneath this, in grey, was a further match but this one simply said ‘profile deleted’.

  ‘Shit,’ Sam said, turning to O’Connor. ‘This could be him but he’s deleted his profile. I wonder if there’s any way to restore it.’

  O’Connor looked sceptical. ‘You could contact the company but I doubt they’d be willing to give away that sort of personal information. If they even store it in the first place. If he’s deleted his profile it might be gone for good.’

  Sam picked up her desk phone. She didn’t accept that. In her experience, very little computer evidence was ever ‘gone for good’. It all depended on who could be persuaded to look for it. She sincerely hoped that me4U employed somebody who might be able to help. If not, she was sure that she knew somebody, who knew somebody who would love to have a go at finding the information.

  An hour later and a contact of a contact told her that he didn’t know anybody who might have access to the information that she wanted. Sites like me4U didn’t hold data on users who had unsubscribed. Dispirited, Sam sent another couple of emails and then considered her options. She might not be able to find out who the deleted profile belonged to, but she could try to hunt down Chloe’s other ‘matches’. She scanned Chloe’s profile page again and clicked on the ‘Chat’ tab. Again one thread was shown as deleted but there were three others, one for each match. She began to read.

  ‘What’ve you got, Sam?’ Kate asked. She could tell that the DC had found something from her barely supressed smile and the eager way she’d looked up as Kate had entered the office.

  ‘Probably not much but it’s worth checking out,’ Sam responded. ‘I’ve been digging into Chloe Welsh’s dating profile and I’ve got a bit of information on three men that she met up with.’

  Kate walked over to Sam’s desk and dragged up a chair.

  ‘Tell me.’

  ‘She was careful. Very careful,’ Sam began. ‘There are three matches on the site and she chatted with all of them for a while before agreeing to meet. One gave her his mobile number as confirmation of his ID. She didn’t like that very much so she didn’t meet up with him. The other two both sent links to their Facebook pages so that she could verify their identities. I’ve got full names and addresses for both. One’s Tom Garner – lives in Bessacar, works in Doncaster. The other’s Anthony Davies – lives near Town Fields, works at the hospital.’

  ‘Nice work,’ Kate said, her mind already trying to process the information. These men needed to be interviewed as soon as possible, especially Davies. She rang O’Connor and Barratt, gave them the details and sent them out in search of Davies and Garner.

  ‘I’ve got CCTV from Madrigal’s and X-Ray. Took a while but you know my powers of persuasion. There’s no guarantee that we’ll find Chloe on there but it’s worth a look. Dan’s chasing up the camera from the car park where she was found. Turns out it’s the local council and you know what they’re like.’

  Sam nodded as she held her hand out for the USB drive that Kate was holding.

  ‘It’s getting late, Sam,’ Kate said. ‘This can wait.’ She saw Sam check her watch but she knew that there was no point in telling the DC to go home. She often worked long past knocking-off time if there was an active murder case. God knows what her partner thought.

  Kate reluctantly handed Sam the drive and turned to leave. There wasn’t much else that she could do. O’Connor and Barratt would report in in the morning and Dan was probably reviewing any CCTV footage he’d found. She glanced towards Raymond’s office. The DCI was still there, sitting at his desk staring at the contents of an open folder. Kate considered knocking on the door and updating him but there really wasn’t much to tell him at this point. Instead she grabbed her coat and headed for the car park.

  Chapter 22

  There was a buzz in the incident room when Kate arrived the next morning. She was surprised to see that Barratt, Cooper and Hollis were already there and already drinking coffee. She’d asked to meet at eight and had made sure that she was fifteen minutes early but her team had obviously wanted to impress her with their findings.

  O’Connor arrived before she could address the gathering, poured himself a coffee and then surprised her by making her one as well.

  ‘Thought you might need this,’ he said with a grin. Kate felt herself blush. She knew that she looked tired and she really didn’t want to share the reason for her fatigue with the rest of the team. O’Connor had seen straight through her though – she almost expected a lewd wink and a nudge from him before he took a seat.

  ‘Right you lot. Either somebody’s been in the confiscated drugs stash or one of you has good news,’ Kate said, dragging out a chair at the head of the conference table and slumping into it. ‘I’m really hoping it’s the latter. Barratt, you’ve got a gormless grin this morning, why don’t you start?’

  Barratt took a sip of his coffee. ‘I interviewed Tom Garner last night,’ he said. ‘Nothing there really. He had one date with Chloe, public place, didn’t go well. He hasn’t seen her since. They met at Fabrio’s where Chloe’s well known. She used to work there. A waitress confirms the story. Garner left, Chloe ordered another glass of wine and had a chat with a couple of her ex-colleagues.’

  ‘Same with Davies,’ O’Connor chipped in. ‘Had one date but, as he put it, there was “no spark” so they went their separate ways. She paid for herself which he appreciated. Said she was “a nice lass” but not really his cup of tea. A bit serious.’

  Hardly conclusive, Kate thought, but nothing to suggest either man was their killer.

  ‘Come on then, Sam,’ she said, turning to Cooper. ‘It must be you with the big news.’

  Cooper blushed and tapped few keys on her keyboard.

  ‘I would’ve rung last night but it was late. I took the CCTV footage home with me – Abbie was on nights, don’t worry, she didn’t see it – and I started having a look. I wasn’t sure at first because I’ve not seen a photo but it sounded like Dan’s description of him.’

  ‘Him who?’ Kate asked, baffled.

  ‘Josh Harrington. Chloe’s ex. Dan had a quick look this morning and he’s ninety per cent sure.’

  So they’d been playing without her. Kate didn’t know whether she was annoyed or proud of the independence of her team but she was glad that they’d found something.

  ‘Let’s have a look.’ She turned on the projector and they all turned to the whiteboard behind her. The footage was grainy and black and white and at first Kate couldn’t work out where it was from. Then she recognised one of the buildings on the opposite side of the street from the camera and realise
d that it was from Madrigal’s wine bar. People were milling around in the street, some entering the establishment, some leaving. Kate checked the time stamp. The footage was from just after eight o’clock on the previous Friday night.

  ‘Here,’ Cooper said, stopping the footage. She pointed to a figure then started the video again. A young woman approached and stopped just in the top corner of the frame. She took her phone from her handbag and seemed to be using it as a mirror to check her appearance before walking towards the camera and disappearing from view.

  ‘That’s Chloe Welsh,’ Hollis said. ‘You can see the lotus tattoo when she holds the phone up.’

  Even if she hadn’t seen the tattoo, Kate would have recognised the woman. She looked confident but not arrogant as she approached the wine bar and there was no suggestion that she was anxious or nervous about her meeting with whoever was inside.

  Cooper pressed pause again. ‘I’m going to fast-forward about fifteen minutes then see if you can spot what I saw.’

  The people in the frame sped up, the effect almost comical, until Sam found the point where she wanted them to focus again.

  ‘There,’ she said, using the cursor to indicate a man approaching the door of the wine bar. He was wearing a dark t-shirt and skinny jeans and he swayed slightly as somebody passed him. His scruffy beard and messy hair were clearly visible. Kate could see that it was definitely Josh Harrington.

  ‘Pissed,’ O’Connor muttered.

  ‘He looks a bit unsteady,’ Sam said and Kate remembered the overflowing ashtray in his flat. The reason for his tottering gait might have been down to more than a just few pints of lager.

  ‘Have you got them leaving?’ Kate asked. Harrington being in the same bar as Chloe was hardly conclusive but if they left together, or if he seemed to be following her, that would be much more suspicious. Cooper fast-forwarded the recording again until the time showed 10.14pm. There were fewer people in the street and those that were outside had hoods or umbrellas up. The sky was much darker and the streetlights were on.

  ‘I don’t remember the body being wet,’ Kate said. ‘Can we find out if it rained for long?’

  ‘A couple of showers,’ Sam mumbled. ‘I got caught in one when I went out for a run. It had stopped by eleven or so.’

  ‘That might help with time of death,’ Barratt said. ‘Somebody should tell Kailisa.’

  Hollis laughed. ‘Do you think he doesn’t know what the weather and temperature were like on Friday night and Saturday morning? Just because we didn’t think about it doesn’t mean he overlooked it. Trust me – he’ll know everything there is to know about atmospheric conditions that night.’

  Dan was right. Kailisa was due to perform the PM on Chloe’s body later that day and she was certain that he’d have collated and probably colour-coded any relevant information.

  ‘Here’s Chloe,’ Sam said, drawing their attention back to the CCTV footage. They watched as the woman took a couple of paces into the street and then backed up out of view. A second later she was sprinting across the road with her handbag held over her head. A few more people followed, two with hoods up and one with an umbrella as well as three men in shirt sleeves laughing at their own bravado as they defied the elements.

  ‘And here’s Harrington.’

  He left the bar and crossed the road, seemingly oblivious to the weather. He looked even more unsteady on his feet and tripped slightly on the kerb as he crossed to the other side of the road and turned right, out of view. The same direction Chloe had taken less than two minutes earlier.

  ‘Where do you think she’s going?’ Barratt asked. ‘What’s in that direction?’

  ‘Taxi rank,’ O’Connor suggested. ‘Bus station.’

  ‘X-Ray,’ Sam said, tapping the keys of her laptop and changing the image in the screen.

  The stage was different but the players were the same. Among the hoods and umbrellas Chloe could clearly be seen entering the night club, followed a few minutes later by Harrington.

  ‘Does he follow her when she leaves?’ Hollis asked. ‘And can we get footage from inside? Or from Madrigal’s?’

  ‘They don’t have CCTV inside either place,’ Kate said. ‘Not in the main bar or dance floor. There’s a camera outside the loos in the wine bar and one in the corridor leading to the toilets in X-Ray. Sam’s got footage from both.’

  ‘There’s nothing there,’ Cooper said. ‘The camera angle on the one from Madrigal’s is weird like it’s been knocked. It only shows a section of wall. The one from X-Ray is too dark. One of the lights was out in the corridor.’

  ‘Druggies probably,’ O’Connor interjected. ‘They do that a lot in pubs and clubs. If somebody claims that they were offered drugs in the toilets it’s impossible to see who went in and out. The management will realign the cameras but they’ll be tampered with again in a few days.’

  He was right. Kate knew that CCTV was hardly ever useful when it was from inside a drinking establishment. Too many people with too much to lose.

  ‘Back to the early hours of Saturday morning,’ Kate said. ‘Is Harrington following Chloe when she leaves the club?’

  ‘No,’ Sam said. ‘He leaves first. Look.’

  She’d moved the footage on to 1.02 am and Kate watched as Harrington left the night club and turned left. He could have been heading home.

  ‘What time did his flatmate say he got in?’ Kate asked Hollis.

  ‘Sometime after three.’

  ‘So what was he doing for two hours?’

  ‘Chloe leaves here,’ Cooper said. The time stamp said 1.17am. Chloe seemed a little unsteady on her feet as she strode away from the camera and turned in the opposite direction to the one that Harrington had chosen.

  ‘He didn’t follow her this time.’ Barratt observed.

  ‘No,’ Kate said. ‘But if she was going to get a taxi home he would have known which direction she was heading in. He might have ambushed her somewhere. Pretended that it was a coincidence and persuaded her to go with him to his flat or somewhere else.’

  ‘But he’s going the wrong way.’

  ‘Only when he leaves the club. What’s to say he didn’t change his mind and double back? Unless he passed directly in view of the camera we wouldn’t know.’

  Silence as they all thought about this possibility.

  ‘But three years after she dumped him?’ Barratt finally said. ‘Why wait so long? If he was angry with her why wait three years to do something about it?’

  ‘Festering,’ Sam suggested. ‘Or maybe he’s seen her out with other men and his jealousy finally got out of control. Speaking of which there’s nothing to suggest that Chloe was meeting somebody on Friday night. She goes into the bar and the club alone and leaves on her own as well.’

  ‘Unless she was meeting Harrington,’ Kate suggested. ‘We need to get round there and see what he has to say for himself.’ She checked her watch. Too early for Harrington to have left for work which was good. She didn’t want to confront him with other people around. She still wasn’t convinced that he’d murdered Chloe but he was lying about not having seen her recently. And if he was lying about that, what else hadn’t he told them? Did he have a connection to Melissa Buckley that they’d missed?

  Chloe wasn’t like Melissa. A single woman with a sad back story, Chloe was ideal. The first time we met she told me that she was finally ready to start dating again after her cancer treatment. There was something a little bit lost about her and I could see that she had struggled against her misfortunes with a certain amount of fortitude. I was prepared to overlook her as a possible candidate until she got talking about her hopes for the future. There it was again – that assumption, that feeling of entitlement. She told me that she’d been using dating websites as a bit of fun but I could sense that she was lying to herself. She was looking for something more serious. I didn’t even need to ask which websites she was using. She told me, casually, like it wasn’t important.

  After the response to Melissa I�
��d started to feel a bit desperate. The press didn’t get it and I was certain that the police were clueless, so I had to take action. I’d already contacted Chloe on the dating website and we’d chatted a few times so it seemed natural to suggest a meeting. She did everything just as I’d expected. Early meeting, public place but she had no idea that ‘Max’ wasn’t going to turn up. Instead I watched her every move and waited for my opportunity.

  The umbrella was fortuitous. I couldn’t have planned things more carefully, but I didn’t want to be spotted leaving the bar straight after Chloe. I’d noticed that it had started raining when I’d done a quick recce to the toilets just to see if the back door was feasible. What could have been a more perfect disguise than a huge umbrella?

  After that it was easy. Meet her again in the club and slip her the Rohypnol. I watched her leave ten minutes after she’d taken the drug and gave it another few minutes before I’d followed her. She was heading for the taxi rank – stupid cow had even told me how she was intending to get home – so I caught up with her quite quickly.

  She was so pleased to see me. Could I wait with her in the taxi rank? Could I take her home? She had no idea where I was leading her and when we’d crossed the bridge she’d even looked down and commented on the beautiful lights in the river.

  I’d been glad to be rid of her after that. She was as easy as Melissa in the end. The drugs must have made her sluggish and it took very little time to leave her behind the bins and walk off with her handbag.

  They must get it this time.

  Chapter 23

  Sam texted that Harrington’s record was clean but he had been issued with a cannabis warning two years ago and a further penalty notice for disorder six months later for which he paid an £80 fine. It wasn’t much but, as they turned into the street where he lived, Kate knew that they had enough to arrest him for possession if he had cannabis on him at the flat. The trick was to not allow him any time to hide his stash.