CODE TO MURDER, page 28
Given who his bosses were, Ben figured he would be too scared to say anything and would rather do time than incriminate anyone else.
“Okay, Kevin, as I expected. Let the Organised Crime Team know he is theirs if they want to do any follow-up. In the meantime, while they complete their analysis of what they found at the offices and Hogarth’s home, it’s time for us to focus on Millar and Pettigrew.”
CHAPTER 81
Millar sat in the interview room. He was bemused as to why he was there and alarmed at the prospect of what might happen next. However, he had waived his entitlement to have a solicitor present, saying he had nothing to hide.
Ben and Julie entered the room, did the formalities and began the interview.
“Do you know why you are in here this morning, Mr Millar?” asked Ben.
“Frankly, no, I don’t. I have answered everything you have ever asked me, and I have done nothing wrong, so I am not sure why you would need to pick me up at six a.m. from my house rather than coming to the office and asking me anything you wanted to.”
“We received new information last night that suggests you have not been straight with us, Mr Millar,” said Ben.
“What new information? Not straight about what?”
“Let me take you back to the last day Mike Williams was in the Trade-IT offices – the day before we found the suicide note on his desk. You had an argument with Mr Williams. What was it about?”
“He was constantly moaning that day, blaming James for this and that, all in an open office. I know he was under pressure to get his head around the code, but even so. The man was dead and his total lack of respect for that, for James, got to me and I told him so. Mike being Mike, he couldn’t just accept it and things escalated and I lost my rag. It doesn’t happen often.”
“So how did it end?”
“I told him what I thought in fairly blunt terms. Richard heard the shouting and came through and I simply walked away.”
Millar paused for a second then looking straight at Ben said, “So, your new information is that I had an argument with Mike, is that it? You’d better go and pick up half the development team, in that case. I’m not sure you’ll have enough interview rooms for everyone.”
“Did you see Mr Williams at all after the argument?”
“No, I didn’t.”
“And when did you leave the office that day?”
“Round about six p.m., I think. Check the sign-out sheets and you’ll find out for sure.”
“Where did you go after that?”
“I went home.”
“Can anyone corroborate that?
“Well, yes, my wife was already home when I arrived.”
“And you were both at home all evening?”
“No, she went out to see a friend and didn’t get back till about eleven.”
“And you returned to the office later on?”
“No, Chief Inspector, I didn’t return to the office later on, I was at home all night.”
“Well, you see, Mr Millar, the thing is, we have CCTV footage of you driving Mike Williams’s car from the office to the Clackmannanshire Bridge, where we believe he was pushed over into the Forth.”
“You can’t have. I was at home.”
“We do, Mr Millar, I assure you,” said Julie.
“No, you must be mistaken. Check it again.”
Ben was struck by how adamant Millar appeared to be, despite the anxiety showing in his face at being in this situation.
“Let me put something else to you, Mr Millar. I know Williams didn’t print out the suicide note that was found on his desk,” said Ben. “I had the printer logs in the Trade-IT offices checked and the note was printed from a login in your office.”
“That doesn’t mean it was me. I wasn’t even in the office that evening. We work in an office full of IT specialists, so you need to look elsewhere to see how it was done from my office.”
“How much do you know about the insider-trading fraud James Anderson was committing on your clients?” asked Ben.
“What? You are not serious. James? I don’t believe it.”
“I’m afraid it’s true, Mr Millar. We have evidence that it happened and for a substantial sum of money. You were the only one that seemed to know Anderson had a second laptop.”
“Which I told you about.”
“And what’s more, we believe he was collaborating with someone else at Trade-IT to perpetrate the scam. Commodity trading, financial fraud? You’re a bright guy – who would you look to first if you were in our shoes?”
“Oh yes, blame the bean counter! You need to look elsewhere, Chief Inspector. I am no expert in commodity trading, which is highly specialised. My expertise is in running businesses. If James was doing anything untoward, he sure wouldn’t need any help from me. His expertise in commodity trading was greater than anybody else’s in the business. Remember, both he and Richard worked in that field before starting Trade-IT.”
“You won’t mind if we search all of your electronic devices then?”
“Feel free!”
“You didn’t tell us you used to work as an accountant for a company in the same group that owns SCL, Mr Millar. Did it slip your mind?” asked Julie. “Are you still working for SCL?”
“I wasn’t aware that I did work for a company in that group! Which company?”
“Commercial Catering Concepts.”
“Well, I can’t say who owns them now, but I do know for a fact that, when I worked for them, they were owned by a husband-and-wife team, very much a family business, and there were no other shareholders.”
“One final question for now, Mr Millar: the evening of Mr Anderson’s death at The Heartlands Hotel, your room was in the annexe, was it not?” asked Ben.
“Yes.”
“You told my officers you didn’t see James Anderson after he went upstairs at lunchtime and you didn’t go upstairs at all?”
“I didn’t.”
“But you were away from the rest of the team at the afternoon coffee break?”
“Yes, to get some handouts for the afternoon presentation, which I had left in my room – in the annexe.”
“And you didn’t see James Anderson at any time that afternoon?”
“No, I have already told you, I did not see James at all that afternoon,” replied Millar, sharply, starting to get annoyed.
“Okay, Mr Millar, we’ll be back to see you once we have interrogated your laptop, phone and other devices.”
“Well, I have a question for you, Chief Inspector.” The accountant’s forensic mind drilling into what was fact and what wasn’t.
“It strikes me that out of everything you have said, the one real piece of evidence you think you have is the CCTV images of someone that looks like me, but I know isn’t me. Can I see those images?”
Ben paused, wondering what Millar could be getting at.
“Sure, we’ll bring them with us when we come back.”
* * *
“What did you make of that, Julie?” asked Ben.
“Well, he seems adamant he had nothing to do with anything. I can’t understand him arguing so strongly against the CCTV though. Does he think we wouldn’t recognise his face?”
“We’ll see. A few things to check,” said Ben.
He asked Julie to get the interrogation of his devices done as fast as possible and to confirm what Millar was saying about the SCL company. They had already checked all routes to James Anderson’s room on the afternoon of the murder, including all back and service entrances, so Ben couldn’t see how he could have killed Anderson, which made it all the more surprising to find it was he who took Williams to the bridge.
Early afternoon, Julie reported back to Ben. There was nothing incriminating on the laptop or phone and no commodity-trading software on there, or bitcoin software. He was also correct about the company he worked for not being in the SCL group at the time he worked there. His doorbell camera confirmed his car was in his drive from six-thirty on the evening of Williams’s murder and there was no movement on the drive until his wife got home around eleven. Millar then set off for work around eight the next morning. So how had he got back to the offices, and how was he seen driving Williams’s car?
“Okay, Julie, get the CCTV photos and let’s go down and see Millar again.”
* * *
Twenty minutes later, Ben and Julie came back upstairs.
“I can hardly believe that, sir. I’d never have guessed that could have happened,” said Julie.
Emma immediately came over and handed Ben a report with the phone co-location analysis he had asked for. Ben studied it.
“Thanks, Emma, I think this gives us the confirmation we needed. Let’s go down and speak to Pettigrew now, Julie.”
CHAPTER 82
Pettigrew sat in the interview room. He was not impressed at being there or being kept waiting for so long – it was not something he was used to. Kevin and Emma had arrested him at five-thirty a.m. that morning while he was heading to his car. He’d had a laptop with him, but also a suitcase and a passport. He sat alongside his solicitor, Mr Thomson, a partner in a top Glasgow law firm. Ben and Julie entered the room, switched on the recording and did the formalities.
“Good morning, Mr Pettigrew. I gather you were planning on leaving us this morning? Didn’t expect us so early, huh?”
“I was going to visit a few customers abroad, that’s all.”
“Yes, I bet. As you know, you have been arrested in connection with the murder of Mike Williams, so is there anything you would like to tell us about what happened?” asked Ben.
“You are unbelievable, Chief Inspector. James was murdered, I have been seriously assaulted and am still in serious pain, and you have me in here suggesting I had something to do with Mike’s death. Mike took his own life, I gave you the note, his car was found on the Clackmannanshire Bridge and his body was recovered from the Forth – what more do you want? I thought you were supposed to be a detective?” said Pettigrew in his usual forthright manner.
“Okay, Mr Pettigrew, we’ll do this the hard way. It shouldn’t take too long,” replied Ben. “You told us when you left work late on Tuesday night that Mike Williams was still in the office and he was the last one there.”
“He was, and I also told you he was on a real downer.”
“And where did you go after that?”
“I went home,” he replied.
“I don’t suppose anyone can confirm that?”
“Afraid not.”
“And how did you get home, Mr Pettigrew?”
“I took a taxi as my car had been giving me problems that morning.”
“Which taxi firm?” asked Julie.
“No idea, I walked to Causewayhead and saw a taxi dropping someone at a local pub and managed to get that one.”
“You know we’ll check,” said Julie.
“Check if you want.”
“Okay, Mr Pettigrew, I’ll tell you what actually happened,” said Ben.
“You and Williams were both in the office late, after everyone else was gone. I think he probably was on a downer. He certainly didn’t look too happy when we saw him in the office earlier that day. You knew we were getting close to finding out you killed James Anderson and why—”
“—Excuse me, Chief Inspector, but you have not produced any evidence that my client had anything to do with the death of James Anderson,” said Thomson.
“That’s okay, Mr Thomson, we’ll stick with the death of Mike Williams for now,” said Ben.
“You knew you had to do something, and although not ideal, because you needed Williams to help with the software development, you were running out of options. All the leads you had thrown in our direction had come to nothing – disgruntled ex-employees, upset customers, and so on. You knew Williams was already in the frame, and he might even have been close to finding out what you were up to, so you had to act. You also knew Williams had an argument with Alan Millar that day, and you saw the opportunity to divert attention to Millar, just in case we didn’t buy into the suicide.”
“Not true,” said Pettigrew.
“I suspect you came through to see Williams, gave him some words of support alongside a bottle of whisky, and encouraged him to drown his sorrows – excuse the pun – telling him everything would be alright. Once he’d had a good drink, you put the note in front of him, telling him it was something else, maybe a job offer making him CTO, and you needed a quick signature, at the same time covering most of the note with some other document, and Williams was so half-cut he duly obliged,” said Ben.
“You have no evidence for this whatsoever, this is pure make-believe,” said Thomson.
“Well, actually, I know Williams didn’t print out the note,” said Ben. “I had the printer logs in your offices checked and the note wasn’t printed out from Williams’s laptop, but from a login in Alan Millar’s office. Now, Alan wasn’t in the office after six – we have confirmed that. But you were, and I know the only other people who had a key to his office were you and James Anderson, and it certainly wasn’t him. I suspect when we do the forensics on your laptop we will recover the note there, even if you have deleted it. Anything you would like to tell us yet, Mr Pettigrew?”
“Don’t say anything else, Richard,” advised Mr Thomson.
Pettigrew continued staring at Ben, but didn’t say anything.
“Okay, let’s carry on. You signed yourself and Williams out of the office, making sure you signed your time a good bit before the real time you were both leaving. By then, Williams would think you were his best buddy. You had told him he was getting the CTO job, and there you were, his boss, who believed in him, unlike James, giving him whisky and offering to drive him home. You helped him into the backseat of his car and gave him the whisky bottle, and he lay there quite happily. You are a good bit taller than Williams, aren’t you, Mr Pettigrew?”
“Well, aren’t you a clever detective working that out, Chief Inspector,” said Pettigrew, sarcastically.
“Which explains why the driver’s seat in Williams’s car was so far back when we found it,” said Ben.
“Look, Chief Inspector, is this all pure speculation or have you got any actual evidence of this – CCTV or anything?” asked Thomson.
Pettigrew smirked.
“Oh, we have evidence,” said Ben.
“Show it to me then,” said Pettigrew confidently.
“Ah, Mr Pettigrew, you thought you were so clever. I was convinced it was you and then when I saw the images that seemed to show Alan Millar, well, I have to admit, I was gobsmacked. I even phoned our cybercrime team to see if there was any way CCTV cameras could be fooled by AI wizardry. I found out there are ways that even facial recognition cameras can be fooled by technology, but what you did was much simpler.
“Alan Millar told us he celebrated his fortieth birthday recently and, much to his surprise, when he came into the office that day there were half a dozen people walking about with his face on. As a joke, you had purchased 3D-generated face masks in Millar’s image for the management team to wear. Very funny at the time, I’m sure. But I don’t see you laughing now.”
Pettigrew listened, expressionless.
“If it was someone wearing a mask, you have no actual proof it was my client,” said Thomson.
“Well, actually, we do, Mr Thomson. We have a co-location on both Mr Pettigrew’s phone and that of Mr Williams’s, which shows that they travelled together in that car on the route from the Trade–IT offices to the bridge. Millar’s phone was not in the car. Do you still want me to go on, Mr Pettigrew?”
He didn’t answer.
“We also have threads on the barrier of the bridge, which I am sure we will be able to forensically match to some of your clothes. And we have a witness who saw someone running away from the car after the splash caused by Williams going in to the water. Another witness saw you park your car earlier in the day at Kennetpans, within walking distance of the bridge, and get into a taxi, which presumably took you to work that morning as your car was not there when we were in the office that day,” said Ben. “Anything you want to say now, Mr Pettigrew?”
“I did tell you my car was giving me problems, Chief Inspector. I had to take a taxi in to work,” said Pettigrew. “I had been at one of the farms on the back road getting some eggs, potatoes and so on.”
“I don’t believe you. We’ll be back when the rest of the forensics tests come though – it won’t be long, so you might want to speak to Mr Thomson here. After we charge you with Mr Williams’s murder, we will go on to discuss Mr Anderson, and boy is there a lot to discuss.”
CHAPTER 83
Upstairs, Ben reflected on where they were at. They were getting closer to wrapping things up but still had a few things to bottom out. They needed physical evidence placing Pettigrew on the bridge, and he felt sure they would find the draft of the fake suicide note on his laptop.
However, he also wanted to pull everything together regarding the murder of James Anderson. Pettigrew would go down for a long time for what he did to Williams, but Ben wanted him convicted for what he did to James Anderson too.
We owe it to Diane and young Kayleigh, he thought.
What they needed was a digital footprint that proved he was involved in the insider trading using his clients’ data. He just hoped Steve Lyons would be able to come up with that.
“Kevin, you previously suggested to me that Anderson and Pettigrew might have been communicating using some means we were not aware of, as there was not much by way of texts or emails. We have his phone now so check it out and get me an answer on who that ethical hacking crowd were hired by,” said Ben.
“Will do, sir. We have the warrant now and our colleagues from the Met are in there this afternoon. We’ll know by the end of the day,” replied Kevin.
“Given we also have Pettigrew’s phone, check the location data – I want evidence of him being in and around Dollar at the time someone was trying to get Diane Anderson to hand over the laptop,” said Ben. “Has James Anderson’s phone, laptop and watch been found at Pettigrew’s home or in the Trade-IT office or even in his car?”
