by Hylton Smith
*
Meanwhile Renton, Forster, and Eva Roberts were trying desperately to focus on how the limo driver with the funny accent and tattoos could help them make more sense of the second note. Roberts asked a simple question.
“How do you think this person ties in with Banks? Or are we of the opinion that he is just a hit-man for the Colony. From Jackson’s description, he wasn’t even the leader of a two-man team. If the Colony is behind Banks’ death it would beg the question of why? I’m told that Peter Beresford may have had cause, but he took his own life, so who is running the show now?” Forster said that he would never believe Beresford committed suicide.
“Anyway, the two people holding the reins now according to my people in the Midwest are Seth Graham and Eddie Finley, with the former perceived as the strategist. There’s a strong feeling that they want to heal past differences with their London equivalents. I doubt that this intent would have been shared by Beresford. If the Colony is responsible for the Banks murder, why do you think they would order the killing of the other victims? The murder of Pitafi is more their style, with an overt agenda. If they wanted rid of Banks for what was in his briefcase, I don’t think they would have bothered with the elaborate plan to ship him back north. He would probably have ended up in the Thames or a motorway foundation. Dumping him at the Angel of the North doesn’t fit, but wait a minute - Jackson’s original orders were to bring a package back to the north, namely the briefcase. When it all went belly-up and they had Baumann, with either one or two briefcases, they apparently had it all, except the means to open them. If they threatened Banks in order to get him to reveal the code and he refused, they may have decided to show Baumann what would happen to him if he did not comply. It still doesn’t make sense to me though – sedative and insulin – not their trade mark, and I believe they would have sacrificed Baumann first to ensure Banks would cooperate.”
Renton played this through in his mind and remembered his first thoughts when seeing Banks draped on display at the front of the Angel.
“It was a message, and I agree with you about something being botched. If it had gone according to plan, and the briefcase had been secured with the code, Jackson would have brought it up to Newcastle, and then what? His controller was Grimes, hardly an intellectual. Listen, we have missed a trick here. Beresford was vehemently opposed to Bio-Cure being filched away to the Fatherland, and he had obviously planned to make one of his rare landfalls shortly after the 5th November, to call in on his daughter. If he was after some information which could confront and compromise his son-in-law, this would make sense. Am I the only one who suspects that Banks was supposed to meet someone he knew well, and when the two thugs turned up things went badly wrong? The hospital was merely where they were to deliver the briefcase to Jackson. It would possibly explain why Baumann has never been found and someone from the Colony took his place on the flight to Cologne, to make sure his wife kept quiet – to avoid a manhunt, or at least move it to Germany.” Eva Roberts cut the speculation short by suggesting they go through every bit of Donoghue’s evidence again as planned.
*
Richard Doyle’s secretary made the first coffee of the morning and took it, together with the Monday morning mail, into his office. She dropped the cup and screamed incessantly until one of the junior solicitors rushed into the office. The disfigured corpse of Doyle was tied to his chair and staring directly at him. His scalp had been peeled backwards and a stake hammered into his brain. There was a ‘flag’ on the stake which proclaimed that ‘as he had no heart, the cleansing of the brain was necessary.’ The call interrupted the deliberations over Donoghue’s files and they rushed to the scene. It was as the note had promised; a change in purpose.
A traffic lane and the footpath at the front of Doyle’s office had to be closed to accommodate the various vehicles and officials. Greg Watson was already there, and so were most of Donoghue’s people. Renton had seen many horrific examples of what humans could inflict upon one another, but this was how he imagined ancient barbarian torture scenes would have been. The young man who had run to the assistance of the secretary was still throwing up what was left of his breakfast, and the secretary herself was in absolute shock, unable to speak coherently. Watson wandered over and addressed Renton.
“As you can see Jack, there isn’t a lot of blood. These acts of inhumanity were thankfully and almost certainly inflicted after death. The abrasions to the wrists are a different matter. He seems to have been restrained while he was still conscious. I think we may be expected to believe he was told what was going to happen to him. I must admit that I’d like to get out of here as soon as I can, so that I can conduct tests on the body without the mayhem within this confined space. I will let Donoghue get his markers down before taking away the body.”
“Ok Greg. We knew something was likely to happen from the note left on my car, but even in a thousand years I couldn’t have imagined this.” Renton recalled Doyle’s nervousness when discussing Banks’ merger plans, and even more so when the briefcase went missing. He could not help thinking back to the pressure the solicitor had mentioned from government and ‘other’ sources, regarding the merger plan, but surely that plan was now on hold with Vivienne’s intervention. Forster acknowledged the hard fact that there would be calls for the police themselves to be questioned over their sorry performance in prevention of these killings.
“Jack, you know how to contact me if needed, I think my time could be better spent running this limo driver to ground.” Renton agreed and turned to Eva Roberts, who seemed less troubled by the bizarre circumstances than anyone else.
“I’ll let you make your observations, as you may appreciate I am going to have to get most of the new twelve-hour shift personnel on to this immediately.” She uttered something unintelligible and began making notes. Shortly afterwards she declared to Renton and Forster that this murder must have local significance.
“I’m one hundred percent behind tracking down the limo driver in connection with Banks’ murder, and I’m hopeful that it will help with shedding light on the motive. However, this incident was conveyed to us in a note placed on D.C.I. Renton’s car by hand, and there was a warning about the need to punish the guilty as opposed to punish more people simply for their apathy. Doyle, as far as I am aware, has very few, if any, connections to either the Midwest or London, except through Banks. We need to re-examine the statements of Vivienne Banks, Julian Hepworth, Martin Parrish, Donald Price, and Vic Jackson.”
They couldn’t disagree but Forster asked, “What else do we expect to get from Jackson?”
Before Roberts could reply, Renton said, “We only have his testimony that Banks was dead when he arrived. If he is telling the truth, the only other witnesses who could verify this are the two thugs and Baumann.”
Forster endorsed this and argued, “So we do have to concentrate on the limo driver as a priority then. Look, I said earlier that I want to check in with certain contacts in the Midwest, so I’m leaving today to do exactly that, to hell with Bradstock’s incident room in Durham.” The others smiled and wished him good luck. Renton picked up on Roberts’ order of the names she had quoted.
“Do you want to speak to Vivienne first?”
“Yes.”
“Any reason why?”
“She’s been quite close to Doyle ever since her husband’s death, and just like the rest on the list, she may recall things which didn’t seem relevant at the time. Then I’d like to speak with the three friends, but this time it should be in isolation from one another.”
“Ok, but although I said Jackson had no corroboration of his arrival time and whether or not Banks was already dead, I’m confused as to how we can unsettle him if he’s lying.”
“Well, you said it was important to avoid him retracting his confession if he was charged with two murders. Is it really you that is worried about this or the Crown Prosecutor?”
“Both I guess, but mainly the prosecutor. I suppos
e if Forster is prepared to risk the wrath of his boss, then I can waive my objection to putting more pressure on Jackson. Let’s do it. I’ll ask Vivienne to come to the incident room.”
Chapter 30
Chen had good news for Lawrence Morton. “As I predicted, the process has accelerated. I’m optimistic that we could complete the recovery by the weekend, unless we hit any snags.” Morton was almost orgasmic with the prospect of astounding the Cabinet.
“Fantastic Wah, do you think we will ever be able to detect who the saboteur was?”
“I seriously doubt it, but you never know. I can look into that when we have all fragments back together. I would then suggest that I ring-fence the restored data from a repeat of such invasion, because I still believe it is an inside job.” Morton was not going to push his luck and readily agreed.
*
Patrick Carlyle’s volte-face on the government retaining the Genetic Profile Directory had placated the general unrest from the public more than he had expected, including Enigma. Another unexpected response was that of Halliwell-Jones.
“This controlled unrest is a convenient distraction from my operation. I hope the Colony doesn’t back off altogether. I only mention this because it is our experience that idle minds often correlates to busy hands with these extremists. It is always helpful if they have something to rebel against while we monitor them.”
“Is there any other purpose to this call? I ask because I find it extremely distasteful.”
“I don’t need to defend this view P.M. because the possible alternative is a whole lot worse, if we are detected in their midst. I congratulate you on dousing the bush fire, but please don’t extinguish it by conceding even more just yet. It would actually help if there was a little revived public concern about the extradition proposal.”
“So there was another purpose.”
“Well it is your policy.”
“Timing Simon, that is what life, including politics, is all about.”
“Then we are both on the same page.”
*
Sam Gibson had been beavering away trying to tie up loose ends or what he called anomalies. With all of the other activity going on and the new shift system, he was able to pursue such enquiries in his own time. It had bothered Sam more than anyone else that the victims in London did not really fit, even though everyone else accepted that there was a possible connection through their employment. He had kept in touch with the London police without interfering, and at last something came up which allowed him to exercise his bulldog-like teeth. Younis Khan, the second victim, who had worked in a London hospital, which had a reputable department for managing mental health problems, had an interesting history. He had been struck off after nursing staff had claimed a group of elderly female patients had become almost impossible to handle. The investigation uncovered his flagrant abuse of recommended dosage with several medications, which had only provisional approval. As the investigation proceeded and the patients were taken off these drugs, which were classified as ‘proving trial status,’ they progressively calmed down. Eventually, a link between the pharmaceutical company and the deviation from practice was established, and yet he protested that perseverance would have vindicated him.
He was sixty-two when he was killed, and had been a British citizen for thirty of those years. He had arrived with medical qualifications from Karachi, and finished his studies in Leicester, where he proudly became Dr Younis Khan. Then the connection emerged. After practicing at various hospital trusts in the Midwest, he decided to further specialise in research and treatment of mental health conditions. He completed the necessary step up the ladder to becoming a Consultant in Newcastle. On searching through the records at the hospital in which he worked in the region for only two years, he had been highly regarded, and in fact there was a note to the effect that they tried hard to keep him. Gibson relished the chance to ferret out why. It also piqued his interest in finding a similar connection of the third victim, Nisha Servil, to the northeast.
*
Renton had some difficulty in convincing Vivienne Banks to drive to Durham. “I am extremely busy finalising the acquisition of Bio-Synth, and we are at a critical stage with the legal people. You can come here, and I can squeeze you in for thirty minutes while they have a break, otherwise it will have to wait until tomorrow.”
“So you are not using Doyle this time.”
“That is quite an insensitive statement Inspector.”
“You know what I mean. His body was only discovered this morning, and you must have begun your legal stuff before you heard it on the news. I therefore assumed you must have employed a different law firm.”
“Yes, I see.”
“Any reason for that?”
“Look Inspector, just tell me, are you coming to my office today or do I have to come to Durham tomorrow?”
“We will be there very shortly.” He mentioned this to Eva Roberts. “I thought Doyle was a bit of a fixture with the Banks family, preparing the previous merger documentation, with some ‘iffy’ clauses in it, and the change in Alistair’s will so recently. I guess we’ll know why she felt a change was necessary in a few minutes.”
*
Bradstock was not handling the steadily increasing pressure any better. He was not used to working to floating deadlines, such as those which he had inherited from Halliwell-Jones. Despite his many years in the force, he only really thrived on objectives in which he had at least a modicum of control, and a definitive deadline. Halliwell-Jones had handed him neither, and unfortunately there was no one else he could discuss it with. Consequently the lack of response from his gambits about the briefcase was the most urgent. He was advised that these things operated through a ‘parallel world’ and badly worded lures could cause the quarry to take flight. Taking advice was not his strong suit and he dismissed it. A stroke of luck intervened in the shape of Forster, who had driven non-stop from Newcastle to throw down the gauntlet. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“It would be better if we discuss this in private Sir.” When they had ascended to Bradstock’s office Forster sat down and began his overture.
“We hit on an important connection when we interviewed the killer of Pitafi again.” He then said the credit for this should go to Eva Roberts, which was intended to convey indirect credit to him for recruiting her.
“Under further cross-examination he revealed a description of one of the thugs at Banks’ and the Doctor’s murder scene, in the old hospital. It matched perfectly with the one of the limo driver who took Banks’ party to the football match. As we had narrowed the time of death for Alistair Banks down considerably, it was felt that this guy had to be with him, at or just after this window of opportunity. This makes it imperative to find him, and Jackson’s recollections also included a statement that the two candidates had a Midwest and East European accent. When you left to hunt for Baumann, I suddenly realised that the thugs, the briefcase, and Baumann are all likely to be in the Midwest. I then thought that we could both be seeking the same information and that it would be unwise to have two routes, especially as we’re pretty sure we are dealing with the Colony on this one. I have a lot of experience in this sort of sequestering of a few crumbs out of them, and it could be a task I can assist you with. Even if that’s not the way you’d like to proceed, I really do advise that you carefully consider my request Sir, to avoid confusing them with two discretely different approaches.” It was a gift horse and Bradstock did not need to look it in the mouth.
“Good thinking, I will leave this to you as I have other equally important stuff to arrange. However, I want updates as soon as anything comes in. I can’t stress this enough, I must be in the loop, understood?” Forster was surprised he had put up no resistance whatsoever, and wondered what else was going on.
“Absolutely Sir, and to this end, I’ll need to see any feelers you have already put out, so that I can follow up with consistency.” Forster could hardly maintain a straight
face when Bradstock proudly presented his Semaphore message. “Great, I will get on to this right away.”
*
The legal people shuffled out of Vivienne Banks’ office and they were asked to sit. Renton introduced Eva Roberts and said that her expertise was in profiling murderers, including serial killers.
“Well, let’s hope you fare better than Sherlock Holmes here and his pipe-smoking medical examiner Doctor Watson.” She was surprised that the floor was handed to Roberts.
“Firstly, I would like to offer belated sympathy for your loss, that of you husband, your father, and now Richard Doyle.”
“Yes, thank you. Inspector Renton asked me why I changed my legal presence. We may as well get that out of the way first. It’s not complicated. Alistair kept me up to date with everything in terms of principles with regard to the original merger. He didn’t tell me of his intent to fly to Cologne that night, although I knew he would do so at some time. He also confided in me about the pressure and threats he had been subjected to, all with the purpose of calling off the deal. Doyle may have told you that he did not know Alistair was booked on that flight, just as he told me, but he did. That was why I met with him at the country hotel that evening. Alistair’s behaviour had been troubling to me. He was forgetting things which he never had before, like the arrangement we had that Saturday night with friends. Even after he died, and I challenged Doyle about this, he denied any knowledge of the planned departure of both Alistair and Harry Bowman. I lost it with him, and called him a liar at the Jesmond bistro when you rang me that evening Inspector. I reminded him of the will, and that I would inherit everything, to which he replied that the new version would only amount to debt and not assets. He was very nervous about the deal not going through, and when I told him that I would do anything I could to make sure it did not, he laughed at me. He had never thought about the possibility of me taking on Bio-Cure, but when he realised the briefcase had gone missing and was not found by the police, he made an error. He got angry and asked why the stupid plods weren’t looking in London. As you will appreciate, when I thought about the body being discovered at the Angel, I wondered what the hell he was talking about. Suddenly, it dawned on me that Doyle knew Alistair was not coming back to Newcastle that Saturday night. At the time we were talking in Jesmond I didn’t know the briefcase had gone missing in London. The police, and his three pals, knew Alistair had it on the outward flight. The police knew from the pilot. However they did not interview his friends for a couple of days. Doyle should have thought, as I did, that someone had taken it where the body was discovered. I called him a downright liar, and said if the case wasn’t found, that I wanted him to get the bank to stop the bond being cashed, and informed him that he had no agreement with me that he was to be handsomely remunerated. He said it was contractual matter and that I did not know what I was talking about, so I threatened to expose him to the police about his knowledge and he finally confessed that it was Alistair’s wish that nobody else should know of the intent to leave the country, because of the threats. The football match was a diversion. Doyle pleaded with me to understand his need to respect my husband’s wishes. I countered that by saying that I could, while Alistair was alive, but as the family solicitor he should have recognised his loyalty was to me, after his death. He obviously still wanted the deal to go through, for his own benefit. His loyalty goes to the highest bidder. I couldn’t work with him again.”
