The Property

by Catriona King

  Liam smirked knowingly. “Then whatever he and Tanner buried in that basement wasn’t bones. Those two were up to something else and they were covering their tracks that night with cement.”

  Andy frowned. “So, what? You’re saying someone else just happened to notice the wet cement that night and decided to use it to bury the women?”

  It did seem a little coincidental, but Craig was done thinking about it for now.

  “One step at a time. We’ll see if we’re right about Tanner and Kelly tomorrow, but for now let’s hope for something at the briefing that will move us further along.”

  ****

  The C.C.U. 6.20 p.m.

  “OK, so that’s all of Davy’s ruled-out points covered and I’ll come back to those in a while, but it means that so far we’ve found nothing useful on CCTV and no-one missing who matches our victim…” He’d decided not to mention the second victim just yet, a glance at John asking him to go along with the delay. “…but our scientists’ examinations tell us that she was of small build and around five feet in height, with a slight scoliosis of the spine and indications that she was sporty. More specifically, playing a racquet sport of some kind.” He turned to the pathologist. “Over to you, John.”

  Winter pushed his black-wire glasses up his nose and cleared his throat before he spoke.

  “Right, well, I sent over what I’d found earlier, so that Davy could start some new searches. Without boring you with the science, I believe the victim was raised on the west coast of the USA or Canada for the first part of her life and then moved to Ireland before puberty, so there should be passport and immigration records, but I know without a name or photograph searching those will prove a challenge. When we have her facial reconstruction that should help-”

  Ash signalled to cut in, knowing that he would be the one searching the immigration and passport databases because Davy had already passed him the buck hours before.

  “Can I ask when you think we’ll have that, Doctor Winter?”

  “Sylvia Norton, the forensic artist, is putting a rush on it, so we’re hoping tomorrow sometime.”

  Satisfied, the junior analyst sat back and began picking at his black varnished nails, one of his first small acts of rebellion after he and Ruby had split up. It wasn’t that he actually liked painting his nails, it was messy to do and a nuisance to remove, but men back in the Roaring Twenties definitely hadn’t painted theirs so it was the cosmetic equivalent of him putting two fingers up to her control. As he destroyed the jet-black decoration, Annette, who was seated beside him, hadn’t the heart to tell him that far from it looking cool, the varnish made it look like he was suffering from gangrene.

  John picked up his report.

  “The victim had had some dental work that our expert confirmed just an hour ago was done in The United Arab Emirates, so it looks as if she was well travelled. That might be useful in your customs searches as well.”

  Aidan signalled to ask a question. “There was some mention of long black hair, so couldn’t that help the search too? Once you get the face right.”

  The pathologist glanced quickly at Craig and was met with a shrug that said, “The game’s up” and a nod that told John to spill the beans.

  “We’re not actually sure that the hair belonged to our victim.”

  The ex-Vice cop looked puzzled. “So it was just an incidental finding found in the floor rubble?”

  “We’re not certain of that either.”

  Liam gave an impatient sigh at the drawn-out exposition and then filled in the gap. “He means they think there could be two Vics, a mother and child.”

  Annette gasped first. “She had a baby?”

  Liam stared at her, taken aback. “What? No! Where’d you get a baby from? And how many babies have long dark hair?”

  Craig cut in before his deputy dug himself an even bigger hole.

  “What Liam and Doctor Winter mean is that we believe our victim was the adult daughter of a second woman, also murdered, but so far only one of this second victim’s bones has been found. Doctor Marsham began working with Commander Sheridan from the ASU today, excavating The HTH site, and we believe that they’ll soon find more.”

  He turned to his most artistic D.C.I. “Surely you must have known why they were digging, Andy? You were there for hours.”

  Andy nodded. “Des told me this afternoon, but he said it wasn’t common knowledge so I didn’t tell anyone else.”

  Craig nodded.

  “OK, well, you all know now. John, tell us anything more you can about either victim.”

  While the pathologist got into more detail on the sportiness and scoliosis of their first victim and Davy pondered which searches to run to use his newfound knowledge of the second to get them some names, Craig went to Nicky’s coffee percolator for a top-up and couldn’t help but notice that his PA had the definite hump. There was nothing new in that; Nicky took moods about the smallest thing, something that he’d noticed had become increasingly frequent in the past month, although having been a grumpy sod himself he hadn’t felt entitled to throw stones.

  To be honest he’d been so wrapped up in his own troubles that he hadn’t given her moods much consideration, putting them down, when he’d bothered to think about them, to workload and her squabbling with Mary, who he noticed was now sitting cosily beside their new recruit.

  But now he was starting to wonder whether Nicky’s irritableness was something more. Making up his mind to address it soon, he retook his seat just as John was wrapping up.

  “OK, thanks for that, John. Liam, could you update everyone on Dean Kelly and the cellar, please.”

  It was an excuse to sip his coffee and relax back in his chair. He was exhausted from hardly sleeping for weeks, tossing and turning every night from a mixture of worry about his relationship with Katy and his terror at becoming a dad. He could face gunmen, terrorists and psychopaths with ease, but he’d messed up every relationship he’d ever been in with a woman, so what were the odds that he wouldn’t mess up a kid? The truth was that the thought of having responsibility for a life scared the hell out of him, mainly because at the first sign of anyone hurting his offspring he might turn into a killer himself and he knew how to get away with it. He held no illusions that he didn’t possess a sufficiently dark side to do it; not when it had bubbled so close to the surface in the past.

  Liam had just begun to detail their interview with Jessica Chambers when Craig heard another voice interject.

  “We were planning to do her interview tomorrow!”

  At the sound of Kyle being proprietary about the lead that he and Andy had discovered, Craig roused himself to retort.

  “Good for you for finding Ms Chambers, but we couldn’t wait.”

  The Intelligence Officer wasn’t appeased, but instead of objecting again he smiled ominously at Andy.

  “We’ve still got that other thing to follow up.”

  The D.C.I.’s glare in response shouted louder than any “Shut up”, but luckily Craig wasn’t in the mood to be curious. He did give the pair a warning though.

  “I’m presuming that dig refers to some other lead you found in the archives, and if it pans out I need to know immediately. Understand?”

  Andy nodded vigorously, and shot Kyle another look that said, “Not another word”. Craig moved on briskly, but not without a glance at his deputy that said, “Keep an eye on those two”.

  “We’ll come back to Chambers in a moment, Liam. Update us on what you’ve been doing, Aidan.”

  The gym-going D.C.I. straightened up from his extremely un-gym-like slumped posture and removed a small notepad from his breast pocket.

  “OK, well, I’ve been down at the emergency call centre, listening to their archives from June through to September two-thousand-and-seven, the period around the DoE’s sale and handover.” His face lit up suddenly. “It’s amazing down there. Did you know that they keep every call that they receive in a digital file?”

  Craig spotted
a gleam in the analysts’ eyes that said a techie discussion was about to kick off, so he intervened quickly.

  “Anything relevant to the case?”

  The D.C.I. shook his blond head. “A few random calls on verbals and assaults in the period we’re interested in. The only really useful one was the call you already know about from Jessica Chambers. She called reporting noise and lights at the building site, and said there was a car parked in the street.”

  Liam nodded. “It was Brian Tanner’s. He was the DoE security-guard.”

  Aidan frowned. “Wasn’t he just the day-time guard?”

  “Exactly. He shouldn’t have been there at night, but we think he and Kelly were up to something, likely filling in the DoE’s cellar.”

  Several pairs of eyes widened in surprise and Annette said what everyone was thinking.

  “So, they buried the woman? Women?”

  Craig took back the floor. “Unlikely, but we’ll be interviewing them both tomorrow. We know that someone faxed The Barr Group’s surveyor to say that the DoE’s cellar, not the whole basement floor, the car-parking area was fine apparently, had flooded and needed to be filled in. The fax allegedly came from the DoE’s surveyors and it was on their headed notepaper, but we now know that it didn’t originate with them and had in fact been sent from someone inside the DoE building itself, which had been vacant for months. Davy’s just discovered all of this in the past few hours, so I can’t say much more, but it means that there are a lot more interviews ahead.”

  He turned back to Aidan. “In fact, Aidan, I’d like you and Annette to re-interview Jackson Hardy on all that. He was the DoE civil servant responsible for the sale and Liam and I saw him today at Stormont House. If he tries any deflection make it at High Street, please.” He shifted his gaze to Andy. “Andy, you and Kyle will be interviewing Kamran Barr tomorrow morning, also at Jack’s. Liam and I got sod all from him today, so let’s see what you can do.”

  As they’d only got sod all from Kamran Barr because they hadn’t bothered interviewing him properly, Liam knew that Craig giving the businessman’s first real interview to Kyle and Andy was a tactic; Barr would undoubtedly have an expensive brief there and intend to say “no comment” all the way through, but not being confronted by the boss and himself again so soon might just make him relax and slip.

  If not, then by the time of Barr’s second interview, which they would take and be far more adversarial, they would hopefully have gathered enough evidence to nail him and the magnate would have had time to consider his possible fate.

  John puffed out his cheeks, impressed. “High Street’s going to be a hive of activity tomorrow morning.”

  Liam nodded. “Aye, we’d better stock up on supplies, boss. Jack won’t be impressed if we all eat him out of house and home.”

  It brought a rare chuckle from Craig. “Organise that and give me the bill. Right. Davy, anything else?”

  Aidan leaned forward. “I hadn’t finished.”

  “Oh, sorry, Aidan. You first, then Davy.”

  “OK, it’s quick. There was another strange phone-call around that time. It originated from a hotel in Howard Street, right opposite the DoE, and to be honest I don’t know quite what to make of it.”

  Kyle’s ears pricked up.

  “What was it about?”

  The D.C.I.’s expression said that he wasn’t certain.

  “It was a nine-nine-nine call in the early hours of the first of July oh-seven, from The Pierrot Hotel. It was a luxury boutique place that’s closed down now.”

  Annette nodded. “I remember it. It closed in twenty-twelve. They used to do afternoon fashion teas.”

  Liam looked at her quizzically. “There’s a fashion in teas?”

  The D.I. rolled her eyes. “Don’t be dim, Liam. How could there be a fashion in teas?”

  “Well, there’s a fashion in everything else nowadays!”

  Craig motioned Annette to move it along.

  “It means having afternoon cream tea while watching a fashion show. I took my mum to one there once.”

  Craig sighed. “And I’m sure it was wonderful, but could we get back to the point, please? Aidan?”

  The D.C.I. picked it up hastily. “Well, it’s just that the call happened in the same week as Chambers saw the lights, and in the next street along. Her apartment was in Wellington Street and The Pierrot was on Howard, the opposite side to the DoE.”

  Craig nodded at its proximity to their crime-scene.

  “It was a young woman calling the police to say that some man was taking naked photos of her.”

  Liam was scathing. “And that could be linked with our case, how?”

  Craig waved him down. “Aidan’s right, Liam. It needs to be checked out in case the caller was our victim.”

  “My thoughts exactly, Guv. What if she was attacked at The Pierrot that night, and a few nights later she got buried in cement at the DoE? Anyway, when I went to the archives to pull the two files that matched the call from Jessica Chambers and this one, the archivist said that they were both already out.”

  Craig nodded. “Andy had the Chambers one.” He turned to the arty D.C.I. expectantly. “Did you find anything linked to Aidan’s other call, Andy?”

  The D.C.I. looked immediately sheepish and Kyle suddenly found something on his desk fascinating. When Andy eventually replied it was with a delaying question.

  “What was the date again, Aidan?”

  Aidan glanced at his notebook. “The first of July oh-seven. The call came in at two-ten a.m.”

  As Andy tossed up, one, whether or not to tell Craig the truth about the sealed file, and two, whether it should be done in an open forum, Liam noticed Kyle sliding a page beneath his desk and swooped down to seize it, much to the spook’s indignation.

  “Leave that alone!”

  “I don’t think so.” Liam held the paper up for everyone to see. “Well now, what’s this? A note about a sealed file alongside the date Aidan’s just read out.”

  It was in Craig’s hand before Kyle could grab for it. He glanced back and forth between Andy and Kyle, finally settling on Andy with a glare.

  “You and D.I. Spence were together at the archives, D.C.I. Angel, and he was obviously intent on withholding this, so I’ll ask you again, did you find anything there that could relate to Aidan’s second call?”

  In response a flustered Andy rose to his feet, gesturing towards Craig’s office. “Could I have a word, chief? Aidan and Liam as well?”

  The heat from the burn that Kyle had just been given could have been felt downstairs in the canteen and Craig was disinclined to cool it down by inviting him in, but for the sake of future working relations he thought that he better had, although he made sure that everyone knew it was being done grudgingly.

  As all three D.C.I.s rose, Craig nodded a sullen Kyle to join them in his office. It suited the remaining team members perfectly; more time to have coffee and speculate.

  Craig took a seat behind his desk and nodded Liam to shut the door, tapping the page now resting in front of him.

  “OK, Andy, shoot. And make it quick.”

  As the D.C.I. relayed the saga of the sultry Dolores and the sealed file, Liam jumped straight to the end.

  “This is a copper, boss.”

  “Not necessarily. Andy’s right, it could be a politician.”

  The still flustered D.C.I. ran a hand through his spiked-up hair. “To be fair, both those conclusions came from Kyle. He spotted the potential of the sealed file and wanted to investigate it.”

  Craig moved his gaze slowly to the D.I.’s sullen face. “And if Aidan hadn’t discovered that nine-nine-nine call your interest would have been purely recreational, Inspector Spence, so let’s not try to elevate it to something else. All you were doing was looking for gossip on someone senior enough to warrant a sealed file.”

  Kyle leaned back against the wall and folded his arms defiantly. “I think the word for my interest is prurient, and yep, that’s what
it was. But you could also say it was in the interest of fairness. After all, if this was some civilian or a mere constable they’d have been thrown to the wolves, so why should this creep be protected just because of his high status?”

  To his annoyance Craig found himself agreeing with the D.I.; the idea of a two-tier justice system really stuck in his craw. But that wasn’t the whole point here.

  He returned to the facts, glancing from the spook to Andy as he did so.

  “So… we have a sealed file, most probably of a police officer or politician, who was accused of a sexual offence by his alleged victim but never convicted. Normally their name would still have been released into the public domain, so why wasn’t it this time? Was someone protecting their identity or their victim’s, which might somehow by association have been revealed?”

  It wasn’t as far-fetched as it sounded; perpetrators’ names were sometimes withheld to prevent their victims’ identities being uncovered by the curious, especially in sex offences.

  He turned to Aidan. “Now we have the nine-nine-nine call that exactly matches the timing of that sexual offence, and we find that it came from a woman in a location and in a time period that might be relevant to two murders.”

  He drummed his fingers on the desk for a moment, thinking, and when he lifted his eyes again it was to look at his deputy.

  “Any thoughts on this, Liam?”

  “Only one, boss. We need to unseal it and find out who the female caller was, to make sure she’s not that pile of bones at the lab. This could be our dead woman, and this perv could have been her killer.”

  To his surprise Craig shook his head, changing his mind as his deputy had spoken.

  “She couldn’t be our victim unless her decomposition to bone had been accelerated to happen in days.”

  “Which the Doc said it could have been with chemicals.”

  Craig fell silent for another moment and then conceded Liam’s point with a nod. He didn’t believe that the female caller was their victim, but Liam was right, until they identified her and established that she was still alive they couldn’t be one hundred percent sure.