by Paul Gitsham
‘Unfortunately, DNA doesn’t lie. You know that, Karen. You’re the one with a master’s degree in biology.’ Sutton apologized for his harsh tone as soon as the words left his mouth. Hardwick waved away the apology; they were both frustrated.
‘Don’t be so hard on yourselves,’ counselled Warren. ‘Even if Tyler isn’t the rapist, he was almost certainly present at the burglary, alongside his brother and a third person. If I can persuade Aaron that we’re not interested in his brother, perhaps we can get him to name their accomplice.’
* * *
‘Aaron, we really need your help.’
Despite the late hour, Warren had decided to have one more go at persuading Aaron Wallace to be a little more cooperative; sometimes a few hours with nothing to do but stare at graffiti-covered walls gave a person a new sense of perspective.
Aaron Wallace was scowling at the table top.
‘We know that your brother was with you the night you burgled the house on Abbey View Terrace. The tread on the trainers in your spare room match footprints at the crime scene exactly. We also know that your brother sometimes stays with you, and witnesses place him at your flat around the time of the burglary.’
‘No comment.’
‘My client has already admitted that he committed the burglary, I fail to see what you will accomplish by going over this again and again.’ Wallace’s solicitor was starting to look irritated. She hadn’t been best pleased when Warren had decided to call Wallace back in for questioning, no doubt ruining her own plans for a quiet evening. It was one of the disadvantages of being the on-call duty solicitor.
Warren ignored her.
‘Aaron, we’re not interested in whether your brother took part in the burglary. And we understand that you want to protect him. What we need to know is if there was somebody else working with you, in addition to your brother, or perhaps instead of him? Perhaps they were wearing the trainers, not Tyler?’
‘No comment.’
‘Aaron, you can help your brother here. If he is the owner of those trainers, tell me now and we can move on. I’ll recommend that he isn’t charged as an accessory.’
Wallace licked his lips and looked over at his solicitor, who maintained a professionally blank face.
Almost a minute passed.
Warren tried not to let his frustration show. He couldn’t help feeling that there was something more happening here than Wallace simply refusing to cooperate with the police. Who was the brothers’ accomplice? Wallace claimed that he usually worked alone, but was that really the case? According to PC McGinty, Wallace was at the bottom of the food chain, and largely harmless. Was he now working with someone more serious? Could he be afraid of the repercussions if he gave up his partner? For that matter, could Wallace be afraid of his own brother?
Finally, Wallace shook his head.
Warren sighed. ‘Interview suspended.’
* * *
The initial twenty-four-hour arrest period for Aaron Wallace had plenty of time to run on it, so Warren decided to let him sweat overnight. He understood, and even sympathized with, Wallace’s reluctance to incriminate his brother, or snitch on his partner, but he really needed Wallace’s cooperation at this stage. The DNA profile found at both crime scenes was useless without a name attached. Unless they could find that name, the unsolved rape of a vulnerable young woman all those years ago was no nearer to being closed than it had been in 1992. For that reason, it had been decided not to tell the victim of this latest development just yet; it would be beyond cruelty to reopen those old wounds with a promise that ultimately could not be fulfilled.
Unfortunately, as far as Wallace was concerned, this was nothing more than a routine burglary. His arrest was an inconvenience, some might even say an occupational hazard of his chosen profession. There was no way he could know the true reason why Warren was so interested in what happened that night. Would Wallace behave differently if he understood the stakes? Would he be so repulsed at the actions of the person he was shielding, all those years ago, that he would give them up? Or would he instead do all that he could to protect his accomplice?
Disappointingly, a quick check with the custody sergeant the following morning revealed that Wallace had apparently enjoyed an uninterrupted night of blissful sleep and had not awoken with a nagging conscience that demanded repentance.
‘I believe that there were at least three people involved in the burglary at Abbey View Terrace,’ Warren started the morning briefing. ‘Aaron Wallace confessed to the burglary but is not a match to the blood spot that belongs to our historic rapist. We believe that his half-brother Tyler, who has been excluded as the rapist on the basis that the offender is not genetically related to Aaron Wallace, was also present, based on the identification of footprints at the scene which match a pair of trainers we think belong to him. Then there is a third, unknown person who left the blood spot that was linked to the campus rape.’
Immediately, DS Hutchinson’s hand went up. ‘Couldn’t the trainers belong to someone other than his brother?’
‘It’s possible and the shoes are undergoing DNA testing to investigate that possibility. However, despite promises that Tyler won’t be charged, Aaron Wallace is still protecting his brother, refusing to confirm or deny if the trainers belong to him. I don’t know if he doesn’t believe my assurances, or he’s just being uncooperative. He also refuses to acknowledge the presence of a third person – again, it isn’t clear why. Therefore, we’ll need to track down his accomplice the old-fashioned way: shoe leather and social media. In the meantime, we’ll see if we can locate Tyler Wallace ourselves. He might be more helpful than Aaron.’
* * *
‘We’ve got a list of all Aaron Wallace’s contacts from his phone’s address book and his social media accounts. It’s always possible that he has a second phone, but we didn’t find one when we searched his flat,’ said Karen Hardwick.
‘Anything interesting yet?’ asked Warren.
‘No number listed as “Tyler” or “Bro” or similar, and none of the other numbers we’ve identified are likely to be his brother. Besides, most of the upstanding citizens he has regular contact with are already in the database, along with their DNA profiles, so they can’t be the rapist. There are a half-dozen unregistered pay-as-you-go phones in his contacts, although he hasn’t actually called any of them recently. Two aren’t even registered to a network at the moment.’
‘Burners?’
‘I imagine so.’
‘Anything else? Who did he contact around the date of the burglary?’
‘In the week either side of the burglary, he called four numbers. Two of them are already known to us, I’m going to pay them a visit to see if we can persuade them to tell us anything.’
‘Good luck with that,’ interjected Sutton.
‘Another number is his probation officer.’
‘Who has yet to get back to us,’ said Warren.
‘The remaining number is the switchboard at a local adult care facility. He makes and receives calls to that number quite often.’
‘Interesting. Could a member of staff there be working with him?’
‘Possibly. I’m going to ask for a list of their staff. They should all have passed DBS checks to work with vulnerable adults so it’s a bit concerning if a possible sex offender is working there.’
‘I agree. Make it a priority.’
* * *
‘Tyler Wallace is a hard man to find,’ said Gary Hastings. ‘I’ve looked at the electoral register, council tax records, HMRC, the DVLA and even the Home Office. There are no Tyler Wallaces between the ages of thirty and fifty matching his description paying tax or holding a driving licence or passport. The man’s a ghost.’
‘Then who the hell is the person identified by Aaron Wallace’s neighbour and PC McGinty as his brother? Who is in those photos with him?’ asked Warren.
* * *
‘Nothing from the two people he phoned in the days either side of the burg
lary,’ said Hardwick, ‘they know their rights and refused to even speak to me. Unfortunately, there’s nothing current on either of them, so I didn’t have any leverage.’
The temperature in the CID office was warm enough for staff to be comfortable in shirtsleeves; however, Hardwick was wearing a thick jumper and her outdoor coat. Her hands were wrapped tightly around her coffee cup. A packet of paracetamol sat on her desk, next to a box of tissues.
‘What about the adult care facility?’
‘They sent through a list of everyone who has worked there in the past three years. There are eight male members of staff: four are far too young to have been hanging around the UME campus in 1992. Two of them are from overseas and didn’t have work visas for the UK back then. One of them is already on the DNA database as it seems a conviction for drink-driving isn’t an impediment to working there.’
‘Which leaves one more.’
Hardwick smiled. ‘Nothing wrong with your maths, sir.’
‘A possible, I take it?’
‘Nigel Fleetwood, forty-three years old. He’d have been twenty-two at the time of the rape. He’s worked at the centre since at least the early Noughties, when the centre was bought from the council.’
‘Good work. Turn this Mr Fleetwood’s life upside down, I want to know where he was in 1992. I also want to know what he was doing on the night of the burglary. If we can place him there, we have legitimate reason to demand a DNA sample.’
‘And if we can’t place him at the scene of the burglary?’
‘Then we’ll just have to ask him nicely.’
* * *
‘Back to the start, people. Let’s see what we have and what we need, and go from there,’ said Warren.
It was 8 a.m. on the third day since the cold case had been reopened and the energy levels in the main briefing room were low; added to the lack of progress in the case, Tony Sutton’s cold was now doing the rounds. Karen Hardwick’s nose was red, her voice rough and her boyfriend Gary Hastings had been blowing his nose repeatedly since the meeting had started. Warren himself had awoken that morning with a headache and a stinging behind his eyes. His wife Susan had opted to sleep in the spare room, in an attempt to avoid the infection – something of a turnaround, given that it was usually her that brought home whatever cold and flu viruses were circulating in the school where she taught. Thus far, paracetamol, caffeine and vitamin C seemed to be working their magic, but it would be good if the case could be wrapped up before the core team working on it all called in sick.
‘We need to identify the third person at the burglary, the one who left that blood spot. DNA analysis rules out Aaron and Tyler Wallace, although both of them are already linked to the scene by other forensics, such as footprints. Unfortunately, Aaron Wallace is still refusing to even confirm that his brother was present, let alone a third person.’
‘Any chance that we could offer Aaron a deal in exchange for a name?’ asked Hastings.
‘It’s possible he could turn Queen’s evidence, but we’d need to be certain that whatever name he gives us is definitely linked to that blood spot. Either way, that decision is above the pay grade of anyone in this room.’
‘So where does that leave us?’ asked Sutton.
‘I contacted Middlesbury Adult Care Services about Fleetwood’s work history,’ said Hastings. ‘Unfortunately, they have only run the facility for the past twelve years after the council privatized it; we’ll have to contact the council or HMRC to see if Fleetwood was working in or around Middlesbury at the time of the rape. However, he was listed as an experienced employee at the time of the takeover, so he may have been.’
‘Can we link the timing of those phone calls to Fleetwood’s shift patterns?’ asked Sutton.
‘Good suggestion, get on it. Anything else, Gary?’
‘I have a record of all mobile phone activity in the vicinity of Abbey View Terrace for the period of time surrounding the burglary. Annoyingly, Aaron Wallace can’t remember which night he actually committed the break-in.’
‘What does it tell us?’
‘Well, first of all, Aaron Wallace’s mobile was triangulated to within twenty metres of the house on Abbey View Terrace on two consecutive nights, both of them after dark. The first night it was there for less than three minutes, the second closer to seven minutes. If I had to guess, I’d say the first time was when he set the alarm off. The second was when he returned to see if the alarm had been disabled and committed the burglary.’
‘So that confirms what we suspected and what Wallace has admitted. What about accomplices?’
‘This is where it gets a bit circumstantial. There were no other phones nearby during the burglary – other than those registered to the neighbours either side. But, twenty-four minutes before Aaron Wallace’s phone arrived at the house, another phone – this one unregistered – appeared four streets over, coming from the opposite direction to Wallace’s phone.’ Hastings smiled. ‘It was switched off eighteen minutes before the burglary was likely to have been committed and wasn’t turned on again within the period we have data for.’
‘Were any calls made to it?’
‘No, not in that time period.’
‘So let’s say the accomplice turns up in the vicinity of the burglary. He probably knows where he’s going as he doesn’t need to confirm his whereabouts by calling Wallace and it sounds as though he had the common sense to use an unregistered phone and turn it off before the break-in.’
‘Is it one of the numbers listed in Wallace’s call log?’ asked Sutton
‘No, which suggests that Wallace might have a burner that we haven’t found.’
‘Yet Wallace forgot to turn off his personal phone before the job – I’m wondering if our unknown suspect is the actual brains of the outfit?’ mused Warren.
‘Quite possibly. I’ve requested the complete records for the handset.’
‘Right, get on it everyone – let’s try and solve this cold case before it becomes a flu case.’
Warren’s attempt at humour received the response it deserved.
* * *
‘Fleetwood’s shift patterns at the care facility overlap with the timing of phone calls from Wallace’s phone, but it’s pretty circumstantial, given that Fleetwood works six late shifts a fortnight and Aaron usually called in the evening. However, there’s more.’ Hastings’ voice was nasal and he kept on sniffing.
‘Don’t keep me hanging,’ said Warren, stifling a cough.
‘The burner phone that popped up in the vicinity of the burglary? Over the four and a half months that it’s been active, it’s reported for duty to the cell towers immediately adjacent to the care facility at least half of the times that it’s been switched on.’
‘That’s good, but it’s still pretty tenuous. Anything else from the phone records to link Fleetwood and the burglary?’
‘I’m glad you asked. The phone was moving very quickly when it was tracked, so I figured it might be in a car. There’s an ANPR camera at the junction of Abbey View Terrace and Park Street. Care to guess whose licence plate was photographed approximately ninety seconds before the phone was switched off?’
‘Nice work, Gary. So how does this sound? Aaron Wallace and Nigel Fleetwood are partners in crime. Wallace knows which evenings Fleetwood is on shift and so calls him at work, presumably the calls aren’t monitored. He then arranges to meet up with Fleetwood to do the Abbey View Terrace job. They could even arrange a time for their burner phones to both be switched on so Fleetwood doesn’t have to discuss those plans openly on the office phone.’
Warren waited. He could see numerous flaws in the theory; he wanted to see if his team spotted any more or could come up with a plausible explanation for them.
Hastings pulled at his lip for a few moments, before shaking his head.
‘Why would Nigel Fleetwood, who it would seem has a good job that’s reliant on a clean criminal record, be hanging around with the likes of Aaron Wallace, burgling houses?�
��
‘Why does anybody need extra money?’ asked Sutton. ‘An expensive habit that needs a little extra funding? General money problems? Care workers are woefully underpaid. Maybe he’s setting up a nest egg to do a runner with his mistress?’
‘All right, so let’s accept he needs the money,’ countered Hastings, ‘but how would he know Wallace? They are completely different ages, so they can’t be old school friends. According to Fleetwood’s employment records and Wallace’s police record, they’ve not lived anywhere near each other in the past decade or so, so how did they hook up?’
‘Mutual friends?’ responded Sutton.
Hastings made a face.
‘A shared hobby? Perhaps they’re on the same pub quiz team? Maybe just chance?’
Sutton’s strangled voice made it difficult to tell if he was playing devil’s advocate or was being grumpy – he really should go home. To prevent any unpleasantness, Warren decided to intervene.
‘Obviously there are a lot of holes in the theory, but this Fleetwood character is our best bet yet, aside from making Aaron Wallace talk or tracking down his missing brother.’
Hastings nodded his acceptance of Warren’s decision. ‘If the scenario or something similar is true, the Abbey View Terrace burglary might not be a one-off. This phone is definitely a burner, it’s turned off for most of the week and then only turned on for a few minutes at a time. When it is turned on, it receives or sends calls to only one number. That number is also unregistered. This has been going on for months.’
‘What are the odds that if we track that unknown phone’s location it’ll correspond with the location of Aaron Wallace? Just because we didn’t find a phone when we searched his house doesn’t mean he doesn’t have one hidden away somewhere,’ asked Warren.
‘And what are the odds that the movements of both phones can be correlated with local burglaries?’ said Hastings.
‘I’m not a gambling man,’ said Warren, ‘but I say we test those odds. Go speak to Mags Richardson about pursuing those leads. In the meantime, I think we have enough to interview Nigel Fleetwood.’
