Hunted on the Fens

by Joy Ellis

  Yvonne said that she would, and returned to the story of William French. Why, when they had a real bad guy like Stephen Cox, and a dangerous weirdo like Windsor Morton haunting them, was she worrying about a dead young saint?

  She rubbed her hands together thoughtfully. Neither she nor Cat had found anything to indicate that any of William’s friends or relatives should be suspected of being Snipe, but still there was that awful itch that couldn’t be scratched. That uneasiness, that occasional flare of a distress signal in a dark sky, the one that made you squint as you tried to understand where it came from and what it meant.

  * * *

  ‘You look pretty pensive,’ Nikki observed.

  ‘That or he’s wishing he could have another shot at the one that got away,’ Vinnie added. ‘Shame on you, Joseph. There was a time . . .’

  Joseph threw his friend a warning glance. He loved Vinnie to pieces, but he was in no mood for jokes about Stephen Cox. There was nothing remotely funny about that slimeball. ‘I’m thinking about something Yvonne just said, and what we all thought ages ago. Snipe is all about technology.’

  Vinnie lowered his large frame into a chair. ‘But we know that Rent-a-Crook has a vast array of specialists in every field. And they might be criminals but they are running a smart, progressive organisation. They will use technology for absolutely everything. It’s just the way things are now.’

  ‘I’m wondering if we should run yet another check on everyone who has advanced computer knowledge and has an immediate connection to us.’

  ‘Jim Hunter’s team were thorough, Joseph, but if you think we should, then go ahead. Get Dave and Yvonne to tie up with Jim and initiate a complete background check on all personnel here who might be capable of destroying a computer.’

  ‘I hate to tell you this, but give a high-school kid a couple of Red Bulls and he could do that from the privacy of his bedroom.’

  ‘This is no kid, Vinnie. This is someone who has learnt how to hate over the years. Finally his time has come. And, believe me, he is dedicated to destroying us.’ He glanced up as a tall, rangy young man wearing a sweatshirt with a logo on the breast and cargo pants with pockets in every seam walked past Nikki’s office. ‘Look, see that guy? He has a security pass around his neck and I vaguely recognise him, but I don’t know his name or what he does.’

  Vinnie stuck his head out of the door and called the man over.

  With surprise on his face he nervously stepped into the office.

  ‘Sorry, but can you tell us exactly what you do here?’ Vinnie asked.

  ‘I’m a sparky, sir.’ He pointed to a box that was held under his arm and labelled Halogen. ‘Got some lamps out in the conference room.’

  ‘What’s your name?’ Joseph tried to sound friendly.

  ‘Paul. Paul Saunders. Why? Have I done something wrong?’

  Nikki took over. ‘No, Paul. We were just talking about the civilian workforce based here, that’s all. You’ve worked here for a while, haven’t you?’

  ‘Almost three years, Inspector.’

  ‘Same company?’

  ‘Yes, T J Littlewood, electrical contractors.’

  ‘And do you enjoy working here?’ asked Joseph, for want of justifying the conversation.

  ‘Can’t say that spurring wall sockets and changing lamps was my dream job, but it is a job and I’m grateful for that.’

  Nikki thanked him and after he had hurried out, she looked at Joseph. ‘I see what you mean. Three years he’s been wandering around the police station. Once you begin to recognise a face, they just blend in and you don’t question their right to be here.’

  ‘And you didn’t even know his name,’ Vinnie added. ‘How many dozens of others are there — and a lot of them will be tech-minded.’ He shrugged. ‘And something else you should consider. Don’t just look at those immediately involved in IT or security. There are a lot of people who are au fait with computers, even if they don’t work with them. Think broad spectrum is all I’m saying.’

  Nikki nodded. ‘I get what you’re saying, but we have to start somewhere, so we’ll kick off with the pros. As we know there is a connection with the death of Magda Hellekamp, we’ll also run a check on the company that are in charge of the Waterside Quay Apartments. I don’t know if Mr Alan Brady and his crew of techies were checked first time around?’ She looked at Joseph.

  ‘Not sure. I’ll get Dave and Yvonne onto it immediately.’

  Joseph hurried out to the CID room and put the wheels in motion, before returning and closing the door. ‘Any news on Windsor Morton?’

  ‘Nothing. He seems to have evaporated after that last sighting near Hull.’ Nikki shook her head. ‘And even though I know that the Leonard clan are out in force hunting down Cox, he too has done a disappearing act.’

  Vinnie leaned his big frame against the wall, then looked up and asked, ‘Do you still have access to that CCTV footage of your station car park? The part where your IT lad discovered the glitch with the cameras?’

  Joseph nodded. ‘Of course. Want to cast an eye over it? I got Travis to send that section to my computer.’ He looked across to his office and hesitated. ‘I’ve not booted it up yet, for fear of Snipe’s virus.’

  Vinnie shook his head. ‘I wouldn’t worry. I’d be dead certain it was another of his “statements” to get your attention. He’s not out to bring down the whole system. Go load it up and show me that footage.’

  A few minutes later Vinnie let out a long breathy whistle and raised an eyebrow to Joseph. ‘Well, well. I think you should get your boss-lady to see this.’

  Nikki hurried in. ‘What is it?’

  ‘Your IT guy was perfectly right about everything he told you, but he missed something.’ He grinned. ‘Probably because techies think differently to soldiers and coppers.’ He pointed to the area where the CCTV cameras had been out of alignment. ‘As he rightly said, it usually focuses on the personnel gate close to the main building, but it should also show this.’ He stabbed his finger on a closed door in the side of the building. ‘Exhibit One: a fire door.’

  Joseph let out a low groan. ‘So although Snipe could have slipped undetected out of the personnel gate, as Travis surmised, if he’d previously unlocked it, he could just as easily have slipped back into the station.’

  Vinnie nodded and turned to Nikki. ‘I think you should go ahead with that staff record check, don’t you?’

  * * *

  ‘I need to give this to Jim Hunter. It’s going to be one mammoth task.’ She threw Joseph an anxious glance but before she could say any more, she heard desk phone ringing.

  They hurried back to her office and she lifted the receiver. ‘Sorry, it’s a bad line. I can’t hear you! Is that you, Travis?’

  Joseph watched her frown with concentration as she tried to make out the young man’s words. After a while she swore and hung up.

  ‘I think he’s driving. The signal is rubbish and he sounds really worked up about something.’

  ‘Ring him back. See if the line is clearer,’ Joseph urged.

  She did, but there was no connection. ‘I caught something about a computer and remote access, whatever that might be, then I’m sure he mentioned Cat.’

  ‘Remote access?’ Vinnie sat upright. ‘Travis said that he and Cat used that method to collate information. That was how they worked on putting the file together on that other guy, what’s his name, Jeremy Bow?’ He looked from Nikki to Joseph. ‘It’s simple. Travis uses software to gain access via passwords to Cat’s computer. Most big firms get their IT support and maintenance in the same manner. It saves man-hours and travelling time.’ Vinnie grinned. ‘Some geeky techie in Cardiff can fix a glitch in your office computer in Greenborough without getting off his bum. My company uses it all the time.’

  ‘So why is Travis telling me that? Why a specific call about something that’s old history?’

  The three of them sat in silence, trying to understand what the call had meant. Finally Nikki stiffe
ned. ‘What if he was trying to tell us that someone else is using that method to access Cat’s computer?’

  ‘Shit!’ Joseph stood up and pushed his chair roughly back. ‘What’s the betting our Cat has found something about Snipe in one of those underground sites she’s been accessing?’

  Nikki was also on her feet. ‘She could be in danger.’

  Vinnie chipped in. ‘And so could Travis, if he’s trying to be Superman and save the damsel in distress. From what I’ve seen of him, he’s going to be as much use as a wet lettuce!’

  ‘Well, he was certainly driving, so he could have been heading for the hospital. He wouldn’t have rung me if he was on his way here. And you’re right, Travis has no police training at all.’ Nikki’s face was gaunt with worry. ‘Joseph, ring the hospital. Check on Cat and make sure that the uniformed officer doesn’t leave her for one single second! And get hospital security to get up to her room, fast. If Snipe has intercepted something on her computer, he’s going to want to silence her.’

  Joseph was already listening to the phone ringing on Cat’s floor. ‘Come on! Come on!’

  After what seemed like an eternity a nurse answered. Joseph hurriedly explained and then heard the slap of her soles as she began running down the corridor. A moment or two later she was back on the line, breathing hard. ‘I’m sorry, Sergeant, but she’s not there! The patient has disappeared, and so has the policeman who was stationed outside her room. They’ve both gone.’

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  The next few minutes were a furore of telephone calls and shouted commands. Nikki informed the superintendent, then she collected a team of uniforms and taking Joseph, Dave and Niall, headed for the hospital. They also took one extra civilian. This time Vinnie Silver had managed to convince her that he could offer serious professional advice in what might be a very difficult situation.

  Yvonne was left in the office with the manager, Sheila Robins. Sheila’s task was to coordinate phone calls and pass on messages. Nikki had asked Yvonne to go over every single word of the information that Cat had sent to her via email. She was convinced that Cat had stumbled upon something, even though she probably wasn’t aware of it. There was something in those articles and blogs that had scared Snipe into action and it could be something that would give them a clue as to who or what they were dealing with.

  Even though she was shaken to the core with concern over Cat, Yvonne pitched in immediately. What she found could be vital. She’d already skimmed the ten pages of stuff about William French’s past life, but had not read them all in depth. In her job, she was used to knowing about the bad things that people got up to. Reading a long list of good works and exemplary behaviour did not resonate in the same way that spotting evil doings did. Now she began to read every word, study every date and take note of every other name mentioned. She gritted her teeth. Whatever Snipe had seen as he skulked around inside Cat’s computer, it was nothing obvious, or Cat would have homed in on it. Yvonne drew in a long determined breath. Well, for Cat’s sake, whatever it was, she’d damn well find it!

  * * *

  DI Jim Hunter and his team had gone immediately to the hospital’s security centre and were already checking through the CCTV. It only took a few minutes to find the footage of Cat’s floor and check all the cameras, then he hurried up to Cat’s room, where Nikki and her team were talking to the staff.

  Nikki looked up as she saw Jim approaching. ‘What have you got?’

  ‘CCTV showed a nurse or an assistant of some kind approach PC Geoff Barry. They talk for a few moments, then a male nurse arrives with a drink for him. Then, shortly after that, he hurried away from his post. He’s seen on the corridor leading to the nurse’s station, then we can’t find him again.’ Jim looked perplexed. ‘I’ve left my lads searching for him.’

  ‘Geoff is a good copper. He’d never leave his post. What’s the betting there was something in that drink he was given. And what about Cat?’ Nikki asked urgently.

  ‘Okay.’ Jim stared at his notebook. ‘One minute after PC Barry left, Travis Taylor arrived and entered her room. Two minutes after that, he left in a furtive manner. The cameras picked up Cat Cullen standing, almost out of sight, in the doorway to her room. She was looking up and down the corridor.’

  ‘She wasn’t held or restrained in any way?’

  ‘No. She looked as though she was keeping watch for him.’

  ‘What on earth for?’ asked Niall incredulously.

  ‘Taylor returned with a wheelchair. The camera showed him helping her into it, and — I have to make this clear, helping, not forcing her. Then, after keeping an eye on the nurse’s desk for a while, when the coast was clear, they left the room and he wheeled her down the corridor that leads to the service lifts.’

  ‘They are trying to get away from someone, aren’t they?’ Joseph stated.

  ‘It certainly looked that way, Sergeant,’ said Jim Hunter. ‘But we don’t know where he took her, because they did exactly what PC Barry did. Disappeared.’

  He looked apologetically at Nikki. ‘I’ve got every available man and woman either watching CCTV footage, or on the ground hunting for them. They can’t just disappear. This place is bristling with cameras since they adopted the zero tolerance to threatening behaviour policy.’

  Joseph shook his head. ‘Snipe and his henchmen from Rent-a-Crook could scramble those cameras in a nanosecond without even being here.’ He turned to Nikki. ‘Liam Feehily told me that the members of Rent-a-Crook’s criminal task force are very much like the sleepers that government agencies use. They all have bone fide jobs and respectable home lives. They are ghosts that steal away from their routines, commit or assist in whatever crime is required of them, then slip calmly back under their covers.’ He paused. ‘Any one of them could be a doctor, a nurse or a hospital professional. After all, it’s not just the poor that need money. Men and women much higher up the ladder can be “persuaded” if they have serious cash problems.’

  Nikki’s eyes narrowed. ‘The nurse that spoke to PC Barry?’ She looked at Jim Hunter. ‘Male or female?’

  ‘The first was a female. The second, the one with the drink, was male.’

  ‘Well, I know who the first one is,’ said Dave, ‘because I’ve just spoken to her. Linda, Marshall. She’s a distant relative of Geoff Barry’s. She’s admitted talking to him as soon as she arrived on duty, and she told me he asked her about one of the agency nurses.’

  ‘Why, did he fancy her?’ Niall asked.

  ‘No, it was a male nurse called Todd.’ Shall I go get her back to fill in the blanks?’

  Nikki nodded, then turned to Jim. ‘Can you get a still photo printed off of the person who gave PC Barry that drink?’

  Jim pulled out his phone and spoke hurriedly to one of his team. He flicked it shut and said, ‘On its way.’

  Nikki gave a little shiver. They should have kept a closer watch on Cat. If anything happened to her after all she’d been through, Nikki would never forgive herself. And searching Greenborough General would be a nightmare. It wasn’t one of those rambling old Victorian structures like Greenborough’s original hospital, the Gordon Peace Memorial, had been. The General had been built around thirty years back, forcing the closure of the Memorial, and it had been renovated, added, to and extended over the years until it was a disjointed rabbit warren of wards, departments, clinics, laboratories, ancillary and administrative buildings. ‘Where on earth do we start?’ she whispered almost to herself.

  ‘Here, I guess.’ Joseph pointed to Dave who was hurrying toward them with a youngish woman with light blonde hair and a plump face. She was wearing flat shoes and a ward aide’s uniform.

  ‘This is Linda Marshall, Inspector. She’ll tell you who PC Barry was asking about.’

  ‘He said that Cat Cullen felt uncomfortable about one of the male night nurses.’

  ‘In what way uncomfortable?’ asked Joseph.

  ‘Oh not like that!’ She looked down and added coyly, ‘Not sexual
ly, I mean. She just felt he was prying into things that shouldn’t have concerned him.’

  Nikki’s brow knit together. ‘Cat’s very astute. What is the man’s name?’

  ‘Todd Ramsey.’

  ‘Is he here now?’

  The aide shook her head. ‘His shift ended a while ago.’

  Nikki turned to Dave. ‘Get his details from HR, then find him. We need to talk to that man.’ She swung back to Jim Hunter. ‘Would you think that the cameras have been tampered with, Jim?’

  ‘Almost certainly, although they’ve not been knocked out or vandalised. According to the security guys here, they just don’t seem to be covering the directions that they usually do. They reckon they could have been realigned electronically.’

  Vinnie nodded thoughtfully. ‘That’s possible.’ He looked at Nikki. ‘Then if I might suggest, we really need your IT boys on the case, and as Travis is playing Robin Hood to your Maid Marion, why not pull in the other guy? What’s he called — Stuart?’

  Joseph pulled out his phone and rang base. ‘Sheila, could you put Stuart on the line please?’

  Nikki watched as his expression changed.

  ‘Well, has he phoned in?’ Joseph asked. There was a pause and he added. ‘Yes, please, Sheila. And give him my number and tell him to ring me immediately.’ He closed his mobile and stared at it for a moment. ‘He’s not turned up for work.’

  A small shudder passed across Nikki’s shoulders, but she said nothing. She was thinking about technology, about those close to them, about people in their trust and about something Joseph had mentioned to her. About an odd look that Stuart had given Travis when his friend blew apart Snipe’s secret method of getting to her car. Was Snipe even closer than she ever dared suspect?

  Joseph’s phone rang and he snatched it open. ‘Yes?’ This time he pressed the loudspeaker button. ‘Sergeant Easter?’ It was Sheila. ‘I’ve just rung Stuart’s home, and his flatmate told me he went out very early, around five o’clock.’

  ‘Did he say anything else? Did he know why he went out?’