by R L Stephens
Chapter 9
“Did you get the information I asked for?” DI Peters asked DS Illingworth when he saw him the following Monday morning, having asked him to run a check on Harry Wright as soon as he got in that morning.
“Yes, but you’re not going like it,” the more junior police officer said and then wiped the smile off his face when he saw the look on his superior’s face. “Well there's nothing on the PNC,” he said meaning the Police National Computer that held all the details of people’s criminal records and arrests, “which means he’s never been convicted of anything.”
“That’s a shame,” DI Peters said rather more disappointed than he should have been considering he had felt as though he had made at least some progress over the weekend and at least now had a name to go on. “It would’ve been nice if he’d had form for kidnapping and murder,” the DI then said with an uncharacteristically humorous smile. But then when he had asked Illingworth to do the check for him he had thought it was going to be bit of a long short but it would have been nice if they had been able to find something on him.
“But I did manage to get something from the DVLA in Swansea,” DS Illingworth said ignoring his bosses unusually jovial mood. “They had an address on file for him, no driving endorsements or bans though,” he then added before DI Peters could anything.
“Local?” DI Peters asked trying not to get his hopes up and knowing the way his luck was going on this case the address would turn out to be in the Outer Hebrides or somewhere else just as remote.
“Yes here in Northampton,” he said then read out the address.
“I think then we’ll go and pay him a visit,” DI Peters and was just about get up and leave when his desk phone rang.
“Yes sir,” he said as he answered it and recognized the voice on the other end being that if his boss Detective Chief Inspector Robert Mitchell, who was usually called Bob by most people.
“So you’ve got nothing to go on?” DCI Mitchel asked as DI Peters walked into his, or rather more growled and having read DI Peters’ recent report on the case he wasn’t too impressed. Especially with one of his officers, who really should have known better, conducting an unauthorized surveillance on what should have been his day off.
“Not that’s not true,” DI Peters said calmly as he did think that he had started to finally make some progress. While he still hadn't been able to locate or actually speak to Mrs. Emily Baxter he did have the feeling that there was something very odd going on at that house and would’ve dearly loved to have been to see that attic. He would’ve normally tried to push this Harry Wright further in order to pressure him into opening up the attic, but then if the man really didn’t have the key that would’ve been a waste of time. The next step he felt was to get a warrant to fully search the place, including the attic, and to have the flat for this Harry Wright searched too. While he was a little short on actual evidence he had managed to get a warrant on a lot less in the past.
“Hmm yes this Harry Wright does seem to be a bit odd as you say,” the DCI conceded, “but that’s not a crime.” Which was true and it could have been the case that Mrs. Baxter was indeed away travelling and had authorized this Harry to rent her house out or her.
“Yes I know, but we only have his word that Mrs. Baxter asked him to rent her house out,” DI Peters said trying not to sound like an errant schoolboy called into the headmaster’s office for misbehaving.
“Do you have anything that contradicts that?” DCI Mitchel asked. “Other than your gut instinct of course,” the DCI then added the stave off what he thought DI Peters was about to say.
“No,” DI Peters conceded as he sighed. “But I just know that there's something funny going on here and it's just so frustrating,” he then said truthfully.
“I know Mike,” DCI Mitchel said using DI Peters’ first name. “But you can’t just go round investigate people every time you think there's something odd going on,” he then added trying to sound more sympathetic than when the DI had first entered his office. DCI Mitchel could be a very hard man to work for as he demanded the very highest of standards from each and every member of his staff, but he would also try stand by every one of those people to the bitter end.
“You also said that this Harry was going to send you a letter or something from Mrs. Baxter,” DCI Mitchel said reading the line from DI Peters’ report.
“Yes that’s right, apparently she wrote to him a couple of months ago asking him to rent out her house,” DI Peters said confirming what he had written in his report.
“Well then, wait for that to come in and we’ll take it from there,” DCI Mitchel said showing his more reasonable side.
“What if it doesn’t?” DI Peters asked.
“Then I’ll make sure that you get your warrant for both Mrs. Baxter’s house and Harry Wright’s flat,” DCI Mitchel said. “But until then I want you to focus on other cases and drip this one. Now what about that spate of burglary’s you were talking about other day? ” DI Peters then started to update his boss on the various other active cases that he had on the go at the moment and tried to push this Emily Baxter thing out of his mind. Which wasn’t going to be easy as he just knew that there was something really odd going here.
