“First things first. Who are the suspects?”
McKenzie then told them about the last chapter of the book, and the possible existence of a child, Blake’s child.
“If he exists, he’s the number one suspect. But I don’t think he does.”
“I checked all that already. She had no relatives!” Wishart spoke out.
“Please check again. We have to rule this option out. Did she give him up for adoption? Daniel Gray said he saw her later that year, probably about five months later, but he never commented about her appearing to be pregnant. At least, she wasn’t obviously showing. Check with her doctor and also her university. It’s very important.”
In the corner of the room, PC Jordon noted down the action.
“Apart from a possible son, the next and only other real suspect we have is a young man who we now believe was also fostered by the Banner’s. I’ll let DI Brown explain,” and McKenzie handed over to Brown. She went through her findings and told the team everything she had told McKenzie the night before.
McKenzie wrote his name on the board, with a big number two beside it.
“Hamish Hamilton.”
He stood back for a second, then took a step closer and ringed it with a red pen.
“We have two suspects. For now we have to pursue both. The moment we confirm that she wasn’t pregnant and there’s only one suspect on the list, we focus on Hamish.” He tapped the board.
“Okay, I made a decision this morning, when thinking about what we all need to do. And next steps. I’ve read my way through ‘Remember Me?’, looking at the copy I got from Mark McRae’s house, and then the one from Daniel Gray’s cottage. There’s nothing of significance on the first few pages, no author name, no dates, nothing. Just the title. The book’s tough going. I read the whole book, but I worry that there are maybe clues in there that I missed. Perhaps notes written on the pages by McRae, Blake or Weir that could maybe give us some clues about who the killer is? Where to look? Something. Anything. So I’m going to hand out copies of the book, and ask volunteers who can read fast, to read the book cover to cover and see if I’ve missed anything. Hands up if you can read fast?”
There were four volunteers. McLeish, Wishart, Dean, and Anderson.
McKenzie tossed the books over to them, one at a time.
“Okay, and Lynch, I’m going to send you an email just now… ” McKenzie pulled out his phone, tapped away on his keyboard for a moment, and then looked back up… “Done. I’ve just sent you the information that the Director sent me from Amazon. Can you read it all, go through it, check it? Anything you can find, let me know.”
Lynch nodded, then started to play with his mobile. He opened up the email and started scanning the contents.
“Next up, it’s official. My car’s been bugged. The boys down at Fettes found a microphone and a tracker device on my car. I told them to put them back. I’ll be picking up my car later on today, with the bugs and microphone still working. The killer doesn’t know we found them. At least, hopefully not. Which means that we at last have something, a tool, that we can perhaps leverage to our advantage later on. I don’t know how. But you never know. Let’s just keep that in our back pocket for now. But we shouldn’t underestimate it. We know he’s listening. At first I was puzzled how the killer knew where my wife was. I’d agreed with her that it might be best if she went to stay with her sister. Which she did. In a caravan in the middle of nowhere in Callander in the Trossachs. Then I realised that the killer would have been listening when I was in the car and I was talking to Fiona and she told me exactly where she was. And also, I told Grant where to meet me on Coll and why I was going there. That’s how the killer knew where Daniel Gray was on Coll, and where Fiona was… ” his voice cracked a bit again, and he took another sip of water. “It’s also how he knew where I was at all times, and how he was able to follow me… ”
“GUV!” Lynch shouted excitedly. “I think I’ve got something. Something important… ” He was already on his feet, moving towards the front, pointing to his phone.
“What?” McKenzie asked.
“You just sent me this from the Amazon guy. He mentioned in his email that he’d sent the original word document of ‘Remember Me?’ uploaded by Maggie Sutherland to the Createspace system, before she’d begun to edit it. I just clicked it open, and started to scan the first few pages… and look, on the very first page… there’s a dedication in the book. You just said that on the printed copies there’s nothing. But here, look in the original draft of the book sent to the Createspace system. It says, ‘To Hammy.’” Lynch offered the phone to McKenzie, and pointed to the screen.
“To Hammy.” McKenzie said again, aloud.
“Hamilton. To Hamish HAMILTON. Hammie. It’s probably his nickname!” Brown stood up, and almost shouted.
McKenzie’s face lit up.
“Bingo!”
Everyone in the room smiled. Several laughed.
In that instant the mood in the room changed.
“Okay, everyone, settle down. This changes everything. Everything. I want you to continue and recheck the possible existence of a son, but I’m almost certain you’ll find he doesn’t exist. This is it folks. This is our man. Hamish Hamilton. Maggie Sutherland dedicated her book to him. He’s the only person we know that knew all about the tunnels. We know he was in the army. He’ll be very capable and mission focussed. According to what we learned earlier, he’s tall and powerful.”
McKenzie took a deep breath.
“Okay, for me the four big questions are now, what’s the connection between Maggie Sutherland and Hamish Hamilton? They must know each other. How? Were they lovers? Friends? Acquaintances?”
“And secondly, where is Hamish now? If he’s the killer he has to be in Scotland. Thirdly, what’s his name now? Is Brown right and he’s changed his name?”
“Then last, but not least, why would Hamish be prepared to kill for Maggie, especially since Maggie’s dead? This motive is important, but maybe it’s something that we can figure out later. For now we have to find out where he is.”
“Everyone. We find Hamish Hamilton, and we find Fiona.”
Chapter 47
Wednesday
Incident Room
Operation Blue Building
08.45
There was a tangible air of excitement in the room. Everyone sensed that a corner had been turned.
Thanks to the original book file sent to Amazon and forwarded to them, they now had a tangible connection that linked the prime suspect to Maggie Sutherland.
“Okay, I’m just about to ask Brown to get up and brief us on Hamish Hamilton. But before she does, I just want us to all say to ourselves continuously, ‘One mistake. He only has to make one mistake!’ That’s going to be our mantra from now on. I promise, he’ll make one. And you and I will find it!”
McKenzie paused.
“Also,” he continued, “this case is dynamic. We have to be prepared to swivel on a dime, if you’ll forgive a terrible American expression. It means we change course as soon as we know we should. Which means now we have a lead suspect, it’s more important that we find him than have four of you spending the next couple of hours reading copies of the book. I’m cancelling that pervious instruction. For now, I only want Wishart reading a copy of Remember Me?, then scanning the other copies for notes made on the pages. The rest of you are focussing on tracking down any leads you can think of to help find Hamish Hamilton. Agreed?”
Nodding heads.
“Good. Now, over to you Brown.”
Brown took the floor.
“About forty minutes ago, I received Hamish Hamilton’s file from the army. I’ve emailed you all a copy of it. It makes interesting reading. First and foremost, though I’ve included digital copies of his photographs. We’re going to make great use of them in the coming hours… ”
“A quick summary. He served two tours. Was decorated twice for courage and showing great leadership under fire. He’s
calm and collected under pressure. Tall. Physically very strong. And good looking. I say that because apparently he used his charm to succeed. It was an attribute he knew he had, and he used it well. However, he was treated several times for depression, and his mental health was not perfect. The file says he suffered in his childhood, and was running away from his past. He found it difficult to form relationships, but when he did, he was fiercely loyal. After only serving a few months on his first tour of duty, one of his colleagues was wounded in Afghanistan and left behind. When Hamish found out, he went back to get him. He was wounded in the process, but rescued his friend, and apparently killed eight people in the process. He was then invalided out of the service. He’s described as being clever. He has a knowledge of explosives, weapons and he worked in communications. Which explains the electronic bugs he placed in the car and his ability to track and listen to us. Lastly, he’s very tenacious. He doesn’t give up.”
She then went on to explain in more detail about him going to Australia, possibly changing his identify and then going off the grid.
“No one knows where he is now. He just went off the grid. Why, we don’t know. However, thanks to Lynch we now know there was some sort of relationship with Maggie Sutherland, and that can probably only really have happened because he met her during his time living at the school and when she was a pupil, or afterwards, when he left the army before he went to Australia, or since he may have returned to the UK after Australia. Or any combination of the three, I suppose.”
She then outlined she was expecting to receive more information from the Home Office about a possible change of name, but that they didn’t know if he had formally done this, or how, or even if the UK Government was aware of it.
“For now, we therefore have to try to find out via independent means, what his new name is. Or at least, what identify he may have assumed. If we can find his name, maybe we can find out where he is.” She concluded.
“Or vice-versa,” Dean spoke out.
“Explain?” McKenzie passed the floor to him.
“We have the photographs of him. Several. From different angles. We know his age at the time when they were taken and how old he would be now, so we can get experts in the cyber unit in Fettes to artificially age him and give us the equivalent photographs of how he would be expected to look now. We can then feed those photographs into Zeus, which is what the cyber team have nicknamed the Facial Recognition system in Scotland. If we tell Zeus to look at all the images we can get from live CCTV feeds, or even historical stored records, then we may be able to locate someplace where he was, or is. And if we can do that, the cyber team can do their stuff and possibly find a mobile number for him. And if we get his mobile number we can maybe get his identity, and an address. It’s not that simple, - actually it’s very complex - but I’ve seen it done lots of times before. And there’s a new cyber unit called ACT – the Advanced Cyber Team been set up in London. They have connections to the National Security Agencies, as well as having other tricks up their sleeves. If we need to, we can ask them to help us. They can work magic. Trust me.”
McKenzie smiled.
“They certainly can. They helped me on my last case. They basically saved my life. In fact,” he said, flicking through the contacts list in his phone, “I have the telephone number right here of the top man in ACT. And an open invitation to call him anytime I need his help. But before I do, let’s take a moment to brainstorm any places where we think Hamish Hamilton might have been. Can anyone suggest a location where we know the killer was at a certain time, so that we can kick-start Zeus and the CCTV analysis? Let’s list them on the whiteboard!”
The first suggestion caught McKenzie by surprise.
“The Ferry to Coll.” McLeish shouted out excitedly.
To McKenzie it was like a little light bulb had gone on inside his head.
“Genius! Thanks.” McKenzie looked at his phone. “Brown? Can you takeover just now, I want to make a quick call. Also, Anderson, I know Brown assigned you to walk round the building with Gary Bruce to check the explosives. Could you do that now, if possible? Go and chase Bruce and find out where he’s at. And please let us know as soon as you have the answer about any missing TNT.”
The Sergeant nodded and immediately left the room. McKenzie followed him out, and stood just outside the door at the top of the stairs connecting the portacabins. He dialled PC Grant.
“DCI McKenzie? How is everything?” she asked as soon as she picked up.
McKenzie told her about Fiona. Grant couldn’t believe it. She was shocked.
McKenzie then immediately explained to her the news about Hammish Hamilton, his career in the army and that they were now looking for him. He was the number one focus of their activities just now. They had to find him. Immediately.
“How can I help?” she asked.
“You’re still on Coll, right?”
“Yes. I won’t leave until tomorrow at this rate. I think I have to stay and liaise with the locals, and work with the Forensics team, as you requested.”
“Exactly. Although there’s been a slight change of plan. I need you to get down to the port as soon as possible and find out which ferry, I mean exactly which boat, would have visited Coll on Monday. We’re all pretty sure that Hamish Hamilton is the killer. At least he’s one of the killers. As soon as I finish this call, I’ll send you a couple of digital photos of him. I need to you to get on the boat which Hamilton would have used to first visit the island and then leave it. Talk to Forensics about when they think the time of death was, but I’m pretty sure he died on Monday, sometime. Then get on the boat that would have visited the island on Monday, and check everywhere on the boat for CCTV. Get copies of everything. And if you’re stuck on the boat between ports, please start going through it all. Hamilton must have been on one of the boats, and with any luck he’ll have been captured on CCTV. Did he buy anything on board? Use a credit card? What car was he driving? What’s the number plate? What name was he travelling under? At the moment we only have his photo and the fact that he must have been on Coll to kill Daniel Gray. He could have got someone else to do it, but I don’t think that’s the case. I’m beginning to think we have one guy, operating alone. Can you do that, please?”
“Yes, Guv.” She replied. “Hang on a minute please… just let me check the time of the next ferry.” A moment’s pause. “Okay, Guv. The ferry should still be in port. It leaves at ten past ten. If I hurry, I should make it.”
“Go for it. And let us know anything you find. Every second counts. There’s a possibility that the killer will kill my… ”
“Guv, that’s not going to happen. We’re going to get him first.” Grant interrupted. Reassuring him.
“Call me. The moment you have anything. ANYTHING.”
McKenzie hung up.
Next, he called the number he had for the leader of ACT – the Advanced Cyber Team operating out of London. The man in charge was a guy called Ray Luck. On one of McKenzie’s last cases, when the Scottish crimelord, Tommy McNunn, had killed one of McKenzie’s officers, and then framed McKenzie for her murder, it was Ray Luck who had called McKenzie out of the blue and offered him the evidence needed to prove McKenzie’s innocence. The ACT team had been monitoring the telephone conversations of the Scottish crimelord from abroad, and had telephone recordings capturing him making plans and issuing instructions to have McKenzie’s assistant killed and the murder blamed on McKenzie. Thanks to Ray’s team, McKenzie had been able to prove his innocence and Tommy McNunn was found guilty of the murder.
Ray ran a team of cyber experts. They were based in the UK, but also partly based in India.
McKenzie knew that it was the type of operation where you didn’t ask too many questions. It wasn’t above the law, but it used the latest technology to help support the rule of law. In cases where UK National Law may have frowned upon what they did, they conducted covert cyber operations out of an office in India.
From his conversations with
Ray Luck, McKenzie knew that Ray had recruited the best of the best. If the boys in Fettes were brilliant, which they were, then ACT was out of this world.
And at this point in time, Ray needed all the help he could get.
“Hello, is that Ray? Ray Luck?” McKenzie asked as soon as the call was answered. “This is DCI Campbell McKenzie from Police Scotland… ”
“Redirecting. One moment please… ” A man’s voice interrupted him. There were a few electronic beeps then two seconds later, a familiar voice.
“DCI McKenzie. how good to hear from you! How are you?”
“My wife’s been kidnapped and has only hours to live. I need your help.”
“Not good. What do we have?”
“Nothing but a photograph of the suspect, and his old name.”
McKenzie quickly shared all the salient information.
“… and if you give me a few moment’s I can text you or email you a list of locations where we think the killer may have been, along with some approximate times.”
“That’s all you’ve got?”
“It’s more than we had an hour ago.”
“Send me the information to the email address that will appear on your phone in a few seconds. We’ll take it from there. We’ll call you as soon as we have something. And DCI Campbell, don’t worry. We’re going to do our best to help you find your wife.”
“Thanks Ray.”
“One question, are you also getting the boys in Fettes Row to help on this?”
“Yes… They’re our first operational port of call, but you’re the one we’re counting on.”
“No pressure then. But don’t worry, the cyber team in Fettes indirectly report to me. I’ll coordinate with them directly. We’ll have everyone working on this. From now on, you can talk to me. But in a few minutes, I’ll also give you the name of someone in Fettes you can send someone from your team to sit with, if you want. That person will be able to answer any questions and ask any questions of your team that we need to know.” Ray paused. “DCI McKenzie, it’s 9.20 a.m. now. Most of my team are just finishing another project of national importance. I promise you that as soon as they’re finished, I’ll make this a priority for them. Is there anything else?”
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