He paused to gather his thoughts.
‘He’s also coughed the kidnap and robbery at Ponteland with Frame and Pike and why Pike had to die… same reason.’
‘Then there’s the recovered money on the trawler as well as the balaclavas and overalls described by Beedham and Cooper. Plus there were plans of the casino job in the recovered Mondeo’
‘Debbie Pike’s notes and her evidence are brilliant. We’ve got Billy admitting the killing of Ryan Harrod, as well as odds and sods about the other crimes they’ve done, then Billy’s disappearance and finally Frame and Keegan setting off to meet a third man she still insists is called Grantmore. We need to find this third man… who Keegan says called himself Steve Long. Why the hell didn’t he take the money?’
‘Like he said at the time, he’s a mate of Billy’s after revenge… not a crook. Another army lad for sure, he was well handy… Frame will be using crutches for months. We need to find him… he deserves a reward,’ I chuckled.
‘According to Keegan, he’s already helped himself to one… by nicking about thirty grand off the trawler.’
When questioned about the money found hidden on The Blaydon Races, Keegan had been adamant the sum we said we’d found was short and had at first claimed the searching officers must have nicked it. Further into the interview, when asked about the mysterious, double-crossing Steve Long, he went ballistic, claiming he must have taken it. As far as he was concerned, Long and Grantmore must have been in it together.
‘Then why not nick the cash at the casino? He made a point of showing the witnesses he didn’t want it. And we had the trawler under surveillance and according to Keegan, they never let Long… or whoever he is… out of their sight.’
‘He reckons Billy must have told him about the cash and he’s nicked it before they even met him. He’s a right mystery, as Keegan is still insisting Grantmore provided him and they picked him up at Ferrybridge.’
‘Guess we’ll have to ask him when we find him.’ I wanted to change the subject.
Ridey ploughed on. ‘Anyway, we’ve charged both of them jointly with the murders of Emmerson and Pike, the assaults, kidnaps and robbery in Beverley, robbery and kidnap in Ponteland and the casino robbery. It seems the bloke Bent was only in on the casino job. What about the murder of Ryan Harrod, boss? Billy pulled the trigger but do you reckon there’s enough for a murder charge for Frame and Keegan?’
I’d been thinking about young Ryan and was keen to discuss with CPS this possibility.
‘Pike pulled the trigger and they weren’t even there but each knew that gun was loaded and they were committing a violent crime. They shot Emmerson, murdered Pike… it all hangs together as a joint enterprise. I reckon it would stick.’
Then he was off again: ‘Lots more work to do to bolster the charges both in terms of witness interviews and forensics, but we’re looking good. Keegan has also admitted the Brid job and some other robberies… a couple in Lincolnshire and one in Derbyshire. Plenty of work still to do on them. I think we need a full morning’s briefing on Monday to reshape the inquiry. Shall I work tomorrow, boss, to start planning?’
Overtime signs were flashing in his eyes.
‘No, we’ve all had a draining few days. They’re charged and going nowhere. Rest day tomorrow.’
‘What’s your thoughts on Debbie Pike, boss?’
‘Tom and I have discussed it and are confident we can treat her as a witness. Okay, she could have told us earlier but she was shit-scared of her husband and Frame. She’s done nothing wrong.’
‘Just Grantmore to find and fettle then. Keegan has fully implicated him in setting up the Beverley job through the chief exec… and as I say, he’s adamant he supplied the driver Steve Long… just as he did Emmerson.’
‘All the independent evidence points to it being Billy’s mate. We’ll concentrate there. But you’re right, we need Grantmore. And Morley has to be a priority… I’ve got a bad feeling that’s why Grantmore’s run.’
Tony Ride took a swig of his pint. I could tell he had finished for the moment. Satisfied his MIR would be ready for the next phase. I finished my drink then made my way outside to the car park and tried Holland’s number again. Nothing.
Three men adrift. Each with secrets. Secrets I needed to keep.
Thirty-Six
Three Days Later
Monday, 15th February 1999
The following Monday’s briefing had been used to do in detail what Detective Sergeant Ride had done in the pub on the Friday night. The status of the inquiry was dissected and its future direction determined. All of the team up in Newcastle and the bulk of those in Driffield were tasked with those actions that cemented the charges against Frame and Keegan.
We now seemed to have most parts of the jigsaw – and the picture almost made sense. Keegan’s admissions, Debbie’s account and what the witnesses at the casino had seen all added to what we already knew and provided ninety per cent of the picture. But what about Steve Long? Keegan had stuck to his version of events of picking up the driver provided by Grantmore at Ferrybridge. He insisted Long and Grantmore must have arranged the double-cross. That made sense until you looked at the fact Long left the cash and other booty. He similarly couldn’t have got the money off the trawler that Keegan stated was missing. What the witnesses stated he had said at the scene, about revenge for Billy Pike after he attacked Frame and Keegan, made sense of him leaving the spoils.
I let the discussions and theories play out, eventually calling a halt and telling them that Grantmore would clarify matters when we found him – while hoping to God he didn’t. Perhaps more hopefully, I expounded the view that it is rare in any large serious crime inquiry for there not to be some unanswered questions. Anomalies are common. There are always pieces of the puzzle missing. It is often the unexplained features of a case that defence tactics tend to crystallise around. I refocussed the team on what we did know; encouraging them to make the case we did have as watertight as possible. I knew that no one but me could possibly know the full and true picture. But I also knew that Grantmore and Peter Granger could work out most of it, and that continued to nag at my confidence.
By now, half of my team were up in Northumbria, working closely with Corrigan’s, while we tidied up our outstanding enquiries that focussed on our murder and robbery. I also established a small team in Humberside tasked with finding Grantmore and Morley.
DC Jo Young had been allocated an action she viewed as a complete waste of time, but yet extremely sensitive and difficult – and she’d told Tony Ride as much. The usually easygoing DS rapidly got pissed off and I couldn’t help but chuckle as he instructed her to get on with it, making a sarcastic comment about even the boss’s “pet” having to do as she was told.
*
As Jo Young drove out to the large house adjacent to Brough Golf Club, her temper did not improve, and now sitting at the breakfast bar in Mrs Marjorie Priestley’s somewhat old-fashioned kitchen, as she made her a cup of tea, it was only getting worse.
Marjorie clattered about in the cupboards, hardly concealing her distaste at having yet another police officer in her house.
‘How long will I have to wait until I can bury him? He’s been dead a week,’ she demanded.
Jo kept quiet and continued taking the statement paper out of her briefcase. Her task was to determine if Noel Priestley’s wife knew anything about what the girls at the massage parlour had reported about his frequent visits and his association with Grantmore. As far as Jo was concerned, the two women at his parlour had already well and truly stitched Priestley into Grantmore’s web and thus identified the inside man who had set up the robbery. For Christ’s sake, he’d as good as admitted it in his suicide note. When they found Grantmore, he’d be the source of any corroboration. Why further distress his grieving widow, who surely had no inkling that her husband had been using what were essentially prostit
utes? But it was now down to Jo to break it to her. The woman’s snotty off-hand manner was at least making her task less upsetting.
‘I’ve got rid of all of his clothes already to the charity shop,’ said Marjorie proudly.
Jo’s curiosity was roused.
‘I’ve got his car up for sale. I want a smaller one… in white, I think. And as for this tatty old kitchen…’
Jo tested the water. ‘How long were you married, Mrs Priestley? It must be so hard for you.’
‘Too bloody long.’
With that, the widow turned away from the cupboards to face the somewhat incredulous detective. ‘Am I shocking you, love? Sorry… but I couldn’t stand the man.’
The two women shared a pot of tea and an open and frank discussion. An hour later, Jo Young headed straight back to the incident room, now in an excellent mood.
*
While Jo Young was busy striking gold, the team tasked with finding Morley were still in the incident room, planning their approach. The consensus at the briefing was that Morley had in some way fallen foul of Grantmore. The optimists favoured the scenario of him being spooked and now lying low. The realists, led by an adamant Pete Granger, thought that Grantmore had killed him. Several of the older more experienced hands were now more than a little pissed off at the young copper’s successes – and Darnley’s praise – and didn’t want to listen to his opinions. They rationalised that he could hardly be right again.
DI Baldwin, who was in charge of this line of inquiry, had decided to start with a detailed examination of the large amount of material seized from the searches of Grantmore’s home and businesses the previous week, to see if anything shed any light on Morley’s disappearance. Although all the items had been entered in the exhibit store and statements submitted describing where they were found, there had not been time for any detailed assessment as to their worth. They knew about the shirt and the towel with the staining on them and they were clearly priorities. Was it blood? And if so, whose? They were surprised at the amount and variety of stuff that had been seized and knew it would take some time to go through. Baldwin and his team of four detectives now had the property laid out on a desk in the main briefing room. They were just about to start their assessment when Inspector Maggie White, the force Press Relations Officer, entered the room with Richard Wilde.
The charges against Frame and Keegan had come too late for Friday’s news, and weekends are never the best days for squeezing the most out of a high-profile local story. But now Darnley wanted maximum coverage and Inspector White was keen to help. All the local and national news outlets were keen to hear more about the sensational developments, arrests and charges. Maggie had been somewhat bemused when Darnley had asked her to invite Richard Wilde, the Hull Mail’s fledgling crime reporter, to accompany her. But it was no skin off her nose and he’d jumped at the chance. She’d first popped into Darnley’s office with Wilde and told him the interviews were arranged and would start in about half an hour, using the incident room as a backdrop. She was surprised not only to hear Darnley offer Wilde a one on one interview and insight into the workings of the MIR, after the others had left, but also of how self-assured the young reporter was in the presence of the senior officer.
DI Baldwin nodded to the PRO and then recognised Wilde as Maggie looked around the MIR for the best spot for Darnley to play host. He realised that a media circus was about to be unleashed.
‘You’re not bringing the bloody press in here, are you?’
‘Afraid so… guess you’re going to have to clear this little lot out the way… sorry.’
While this exchange was taking place, Wilde’s attention had been drawn to the bagged exhibits on the desk, and a couple of the detectives were growing uncomfortable with his obvious interest, a mistrust of the press being a healthy and intrinsic state in seasoned officers. One of them rose from his seat and with outspread arms, tried to both shield the items from view and usher him away. However, his journalistic instincts had been aroused and he pointed to a camera, clearly visible in its evidence bag, lying amongst the other exhibits.
‘Is that Graham Morley’s camera?’
All eyes turned to look at the Canon camera with an attached telephoto lens.
‘Oh shit,’ muttered Granger.
Mally Baldwin asked Wilde, ‘What makes you say that?’
Richard Wilde, being very careful about what he said, gave a brief account of his contact with Morley just over a week before and how he had initially coveted his camera while in the café on Spring Bank. Pete Granger told the group that he too could confirm that Morley did indeed use a Canon camera – kicking himself that within the next few minutes he would have spotted the link, if it weren’t for the cocky young journalist sticking his nose in.
However, Wilde was able to go further and told the DI the camera model number and make of telephoto lens, which he had seen Morley using. Baldwin examined the exhibit label, and the details matched.
There were excited discussions at the obvious implications.
Maggie White thanked the journalist for his help then led him away for the media briefing, but not before the team had arranged to take a statement from him, after he’d finished the media briefings. He was now a witness in a potential murder inquiry, entirely due to his own investigative journalistic endeavours. He couldn’t wait to get back to the office to further impress his bosses – and secure his future.
DI Baldwin rang the photo lab based at Beverley Police Station and arranged for the rapid processing of the film. Getting the stained check shirt and towel found in the same drawer as the camera to the forensic science laboratory was prioritised.
*
It was not until I had finished with the media that Wilde got the chance to quickly tell me about the camera and how he had told DI Baldwin the scant facts of his meeting with Morley in the café, and then near Nicole’s. It looked like Pete Granger had been right all along. I was about to discuss with him exactly what he should, and definitely should not, reveal in his witness statement, when Mally interrupted us, keen to brief me about the camera and the action he had taken to get the film in it developed. Not knowing the team had arranged to record his account before he left the MIR, I told Wilde I’d be in touch, and then sat with Mally and Tony Ride to discuss the full ramifications of the discovery and raise a whole new set of actions.
That task completed, I was about to ring Wilde when to my horror I found he was still in the building and in the middle of giving his statement. I was trying to dream up a plausible excuse for interrupting the process, when Jo Young burst into the MIR and insisted on updating me immediately, and in private, with her news.
What a morning. We really were on a roll – but what the hell was Wilde saying? By the time I could get to him, whatever version of his encounter with Morley he had recounted would already bear his signature. I also knew if he’d said too much I’d soon be hearing all about it from DI Baldwin. But I knew Wilde was no idiot and was pretty sure he’d back me up, so I had no choice but to keep my fingers crossed and plough on.
It was obvious we needed another briefing to bring everyone up to speed before they went home. I rang the photo lab and asked how quickly they could develop the film and to contact me as soon as someone from the inquiry could look at the negatives. I then arranged a second briefing for 4pm.
Since Granger was the link to Morley and his photographs, I sent him to view the negatives, as soon as the lab rang me back. When he returned and described their contents to me, he was triumphant; his continual pushing for action to trace Morley vindicated – but his worst fears confirmed. He was also visibly distressed and it was clear that he blamed himself in some way for what had befallen the sad young man.
My guilt was to kick in much later, and I confess I was just elated to have some useable evidence to help us resolve this final element of the case. Here was another chance to boost th
e momentum of the inquiry – push it to a conclusion – and I needed to choreograph the briefing. Maximum impact.
I decided to go with the contents of the camera first and let Granger describe the series of photographs of Grantmore getting out of a taxi outside Nicole’s, and then approaching whoever was taking the photographs – presumably Morley – in an aggressive manner, before attacking them. The photographs clearly showed the location. As I listened with bated breath, DI Baldwin then referred to Wilde’s completed statement and read out how Wilde described seeing Morley in that same alley, with the same camera just over a week before. Actions were raised to locate and forensically examine the scene of the attack. We now had a potential crime scene – a murder scene? How could we prove Morley was the actual photographer and Grantmore had stolen the camera directly from him? The same argument from the morning followed – had Morley fled after the attack, or was he dead? The majority now favoured the latter.
Granger looked grim but self-satisfied.
Before we moved on, I asked for Wilde’s statement, saying I was keen to read the detail – which I bloody was! How I resisted a quick scan I don’t know – but we had to move on.
‘Okay, Mally, your team now need to locate Graham Morley… alive or dead. I hate to admit it but my gut feeling is he’s dead. So we desperately need Grantmore. He’s already looking at serious charges but there’s not enough for the murder of Emmerson. He wasn’t present and had no way of knowing murder would result from the robbery he facilitated. But if he’s killed Morley, we’re going to prove it.’
I turned towards Jo Young.
‘So, DC Young… tell us where to find him.’
Everyone was gobsmacked when she read out an actual address – a house number and street name in a Spanish village – the whole bloody address. She went no further. We’d agreed to choreograph the event. Investigative velocity.
A Duty of Revenge Page 31
