CODE TO MURDER, page 29
“Afraid not, sir,” said Julie. “Maybe he binned them once he discovered they were of no use to him?”
“Maybe, but it’s worth checking if he owns or rents any other properties, lock-ups, holiday homes or whatever, just to be sure,” replied Ben.
Julie nodded.
Ben went back to his office while the team got on pulling the evidence together. He wanted to think about how he would get Pettigrew to talk, given he was under instructions from his solicitor to say nothing. Ben knew Pettigrew was smart, but if he knew they already had enough evidence to convict him for the murder of Williams, he might actually open up. He also knew Pettigrew had a big ego – in his mind he was the real driver behind Trade-IT, and everyone else, even Anderson, played a smaller part. That could be the trigger to get him talking. He also liked to spend the money he was undoubtedly making: big house, smart suits, flash car.
The car must have been about £100k at least and bought recently, thought Ben.
Could there be a clue there somewhere that could help them? What was the connection to SCL – there had to be something.
As the day went on, the team started to get results back. First, Kevin popped his head in the door.
“Good news, sir: that ethical hacking company have now confirmed it was Pettigrew who hired them. They told the Met guys as soon as they turned up with the warrant; they didn’t need to do any search of the offices. They apologised, but said client confidentiality is a top priority for them, and they give assurances to all clients they will not breach this unless legally obliged to do so.”
“Did they say what he had asked them to do?”
“He wanted to test the company’s security by launching a cyberattack and trying to hack into the area where the AI software was. He told them this was the newest area of their software package and he wanted to see if they could retrieve any of it, and to make sure it was secure before the launch,” said Kevin.
It looked suspicious, but Ben felt Pettigrew could argue this away as him testing the security. But at least they knew it was him and not third-party cybercriminals.
“One other thing, sir. Digital forensics had a look at Pettigrew’s phone. I had thought Pettigrew and Anderson might have been communicating via WhatsApp and that might have given us some useful information. Even government ministers have been using WhatsApp, as we know from some public enquiries, because it’s encrypted,” said Kevin.
“And were they?” asked Ben, optimistically.
“The problem is that WhatsApp has recently been deleted from Pettigrew’s phone, so we can’t see what may have been there before,” replied Kevin.
“Well, that definitely sounds dodgy, but he’ll no doubt come up with a reason for that as well,” said Ben. “That’s so annoying!”
A little while later, Emma came in to see Ben.
“I do have some more news, sir: the location data on Pettigrew’s phone shows he was in Dollar Glen around the time when Mrs Anderson was told to drop off the laptop.”
“At last, something positive. Thanks, Emma.”
CHAPTER 84
Later that afternoon, Ben got a list of all the directories and files on Pettigrew’s laptop. As with Anderson’s, most of the space was taken up by the Trade-IT software. But did it have the AI software on it like Anderson’s? Ben arranged a call with Steve Lyons and his colleague John, whereby they would remotely log on and see what was included in the software.
Ben and Julie sat back and watched John take control of the laptop. They could see him go through different screens as he drilled into the area where the software was stored.
“Okay, that’s us into the commodity-trading package. Collectively, it’s taking up the same amount of space as on Anderson’s, so I’m guessing it will be the same . . . Right, yes, the AI software is there – and yes, both modules! Looks to be the same. We can do a complete comparison, slow time, but I guess that answers your question about whether Pettigrew was also involved in the insider trading,” said John.
“One more thing, John: is there bitcoin software on here as well?” asked Ben.
“Let’s have a look . . . Yep, there it is!” said John.
“Any signs of anything that would incriminate Pettigrew on Anderson’s laptop, Steve?” asked Ben.
“Nothing so far, I’m afraid, Ben, but we will do the same with Pettigrew’s laptop as we did with Anderson’s.”
“Okay, Steve, thanks. As soon as you get something, let me know,” said Ben and ended the call.
Emma also had some good news.
“We were trying to find if there were any additional properties owned by Richard Pettigrew. However, I came across another property owned by a William Pettigrew. The fact it was in Dollar made me look a bit closer. It’s owned by Richard’s father. It seems, according to neighbours, they use it as a holiday flat when they come up to Scotland. It might be that is why we didn’t see Pettigrew coming into Dollar that day in his car or by taxi when Mrs Anderson was asked to make the drop of the laptop – because he was already staying there. Kevin and some uniformed officers are over there now, and I’m waiting to hear from him.”
“Sounds promising,” said Ben.
Ben had another thought. “You checked the finances of Pettigrew, didn’t you, Emma? Did you see any kind of payment going through to that ethical hacking company in London?”
“No, sir, I would have remembered,” replied Emma.
“I suspect that is because it was paid by bitcoin, which would be right up their street. You or Kevin get back on to them. We still have that warrant in place so get as many details about the transaction as you can: numbers, accounts, whatever. Can you also get all the details – date, amount and so on – for the purchase of Pettigrew’s car? Go to whoever he bought it from. He may have changed bitcoin into cash. The exchanges are obliged to have ‘know your customer documentation’, and we should be able to trace the bitcoin transaction to Pettigrew. Once we have the public key to Pettigrew’s bitcoin account, get Steve Lyons and our financial investigation team on the case.”
Just then, Emma’s phone rang.
“It’s Kevin,” she said. “I’ll put it on speaker.”
“Hi, Kevin. You’re on speaker. I’ve got the Chief Inspector and Sarge here as well.”
“Good, because I think we’ve hit the jackpot. We’ve found a number of things at this flat. A hat, scarf, gloves and dark glasses sitting together on a chair, not to mention a jacket that seems to have lost a button and showing thread the same colour as that on the bridge barrier. And guess what? There is also what looks like it might be a whisky mark on the jacket. Maybe Williams spilled some on it? It doesn’t look like Pettigrew has had time to do his washing yet,” said Kevin.
“Fantastic,” said Julie.
“Let’s not count our chickens yet. Get everything over to forensics and fast-track them –tell them the urgency of this. I want everything back today, even if it runs in to overtime,” said Ben.
“The property also has a safe, which, given we have a warrant, I got a locksmith to open. Inside, we found a pay-as-you-go smartphone and a piece of paper with a long string of numbers on it. Means nothing to me,” said Kevin.
“You’re a star, Kevin. I think you might have found the private key to Pettigrew’s bitcoin account,” said Ben.
“Yes, I knew that really, sir,” said Kevin, his tone suggesting entirely that he didn’t.
They all laughed, relieved everything might be falling into place.
“Right, I’ll be in my office. I want to know as soon as we get anything from forensics. We are not going home tonight until we’ve got enough to charge Pettigrew for the murder of Williams and Anderson,” said Ben.
Ben went to his office. He had left his mobile phone on his desk and noticed there was a missed call. He phoned the number and it rang with a ringtone that sounded like it was from abroad.
The call connected, “Hello, this is DCI Fitzpatrick.”
“Hello, Chief Inspector, this is Keith Wesley of Wesley Executive Recruitment. I believe you have been trying to get hold of me.”
“I have indeed,” said Ben.
“Sorry I’ve been so hard to get hold of. I’ve been on a once-in-a-lifetime trip up the Amazon. Fantastic. But no phone signal and we were a bit longer than expected.”
Ben explained to him what had been happening and how he had found his business card. Wesley, clearly surprised and shocked at what had happened, went on to tell Ben about his dealings with James Anderson.
“Okay, thanks, Mr Wesley, you have been very helpful. Safe trip home.”
Ben sat back in his chair.
Hadn’t seen that coming, but it explains a lot, he thought.
A couple of hours later, Julie came rushing into Ben’s office, hardly able to contain her excitement. “We have the forensic results we need, sir,” and took Ben through them all.
“Excellent, Julie. I want to make one more call before we go back to see Pettigrew.”
When Julie left the office, Ben called Steve Lyons to see if they had come up with anything else from the two laptops and to discuss what they had found in terms of the bitcoin transactions.
Ben was now ready to speak to Pettigrew again, and this time he would be in control.
CHAPTER 85
Ben and Julie entered the interview room and switched on the recording.
“We understand your parents have a property in Dollar that they use when they come up to Scotland to stay?” said Ben.
“They do,” said Pettigrew, more hesitant than usual with his answer. “What has that do to with anything?”
“Do you have a key to the property?”
“Yes, of course. I look after the flat for them and occasionally rent it out.”
“Does anyone else have a key to the flat, other than you and your parents?”
Pettigrew knew he had nowhere to go with this so answered, “No.”
“In our search of the flat, we discovered a number of things of interest to our investigation. We found the hat, scarf, gloves and dark glasses you wore when you were driving Williams’s car. We also found a jacket, which has a button missing and threads matching the ones found snared on the barrier of the bridge where Williams went over. What’s more, we also found a stain on the jacket, which turned out to be a whisky mark, matching that in the bottle found in the back of Williams’s car at the bridge.”
Pettigrew stared straight at Ben, but said nothing.
“And for good measure, we found a phone with your fingerprints on it and a draft of the suicide note you said had been written by Mike Williams, as well as a contract for him to be CTO.”
“I think that’s more than enough evidence to prove in court that you murdered Mike Williams. Wouldn’t you agree, Mr Pettigrew?” asked Ben.
Not so smug now, are you? thought Julie.
“No comment,” said Pettigrew.
“You are going to prison for murdering Mike Williams anyway, so why not make it easier for yourself and tell us what happened with James,” said Ben.
“I am not admitting anything. James was a friend and a key part of Trade–IT, and I had nothing to do with his death.”
“So why did you need to try and frame Mike Williams with a fake suicide note?”
“I haven’t admitted anything, you need to prove it in court.”
Ben shook his head in disbelief, given all the evidence they had against Pettigrew.
“Oh, don’t worry, we will do. Let’s go back to the day James Anderson was murdered: you went up to see him in his room – why was that?” asked Ben.
“I told you already, I went to check he was okay. He said he hadn’t been well earlier in the day, and I also wanted to update him on the meeting.”
“Was the room cold when you went in to see James?” asked Ben.
“A bit, and as I said, he was unwell, so, I switched the heating up,” said Pettigrew.
“Oh, we know you did, we found your fingerprints on the radiator valve. But be honest, you were trying to keep the temperature up to make the time of death look a bit later than it was.”
“You don’t need to answer that question, he is fishing,” said Thomson.
Pettigrew glowered at his solicitor. “I followed your advice before and look where that got me. I have done nothing wrong and have nothing to hide, so I will say what I want.”
“We now know the time of death was much earlier than we originally thought. The time of death was when you were upstairs – his smartwatch told us that,” said Ben. “James Anderson died at the time you were upstairs, and you admit you went to see him, which would be hard to deny given your prints were in the room, even on the back of his jacket and on the strap of the laptop case. That would be because you grabbed him from the back and moved the bag to tangle it around his leg to make it look like he had fallen, then calmly hung the jacket around the chair afterwards.”
“No, Chief Inspector, that would be because I gave him a lift to the hotel in my car and when we arrived, I handed him his laptop case and jacket, which were in the boot of my car,” said Pettigrew, smiling. “And anyway, Williams went upstairs to see James during the break as well – I heard them arguing.”
“So, after Williams went away, was that when you went out and knocked on James’s door to see what was happening? I’m surprised he let you in – he could well have assumed it was Williams back for more.”
“Well, he did let me in, obviously.”
“Did he really?”
Pettigrew didn’t know what Ben meant.
“Isn’t it the case that you let yourself in with the key to the adjoining door? It did have your fingerprints on it, after all. And despite not originally booking a suite, I know you changed the booking and asked to get the key on the Monday, because I checked with reception.”
“Well, that’s what I meant,” said Pettigrew.
“Why did you have the key for the adjoining door?”
“Why not? James and I had a lot of work to get through and lots of things to discuss, so it made sense.”
“James would not have been happy with that, given the blazing row you had on the Friday before the offsite, and with all the pressure you were putting on him regarding the AI software. It tells me you needed access to James’s room for other reasons. Maybe you were planning to get hold of his laptop if he wasn’t in the room, or maybe you were planning to kill him all along and it was all premeditated,” said Ben.
“This is all pure fantasy, Chief Inspector, you have nothing on me. You should be looking at Williams. As I recall, I was already back in the meeting before he came back, and he was late. Like you say, maybe he went back for more,” said Pettigrew angrily.
“As always, you are pointing the finger elsewhere: first a disgruntled ex-employee, next an unhappy customer, followed by a gang of cybercriminals, and now Williams. It strikes me that hearing the argument between Williams and Anderson played right in to your hands and gave you someone else to blame for James Anderson’s murder.”
“Utter nonsense.”
“And speaking of cybercriminals, we have now had it confirmed by the company that carried out the cyberattack on Trade-IT, that you personally paid them to do so.”
Pettigrew shrugged his shoulders.
“Why did you lie to us, Mr Pettigrew, when we asked if it was you?”
“It is my company, I decide what is best to test the security, particularly around the new software. I needed to know James had everything secure and I couldn’t ask him, could I? In my experience, the fewer people you tell the more security you have – that’s not a criminal matter now is it, Chief Inspector?” said Pettigrew, again smiling.
Ben wasn’t letting Pettigrew get to him, but Julie was getting agitated.
“You told us you were at home when Mrs Anderson’s house was broken into and the same again when she received the threatening call about what would happen to Kayleigh if she didn’t hand the laptop over?” said Julie.
“I was,” said Pettigrew.
“So why do the location services on your phone show you as being in Dollar, near the place where Mrs Anderson was told to leave the laptop, on the day she received the call?” asked Julie.
“Oh sorry, I remember now, I had been working hard and needed a bit of time to clear my head, so I went for a walk up Dollar Glen. Why, was that where she was told to leave it? A coincidence, but nothing else. I would never do that to Diane.”
“When you went over to see Mrs Anderson, you went out into the garden and had a chat with young Kayleigh on your own, didn’t you?” asked Ben.
“Yes, I did. It was terrible what happened to James and I wanted to give her a bit of support and make her feel better. Diane said it seemed to help Kayleigh.”
“And was that when you recorded Kayleigh so you could use AI to make that deepfake recording that you played to her mum?”
“I would never do that.”
“Give it up, Mr Pettigrew. We found a recording of your little chat with Kayleigh in the garden on the phone in the safe at your parents’ flat. You were so nice to her, it would have been quite touching if we didn’t know what kind of a man you really are. We also have the revised deepfake recording and saw the app you used to disguise your voice. All very devious, Mr Pettigrew. How could you add to the pain Diane Anderson was already feeling? Even for the break-in. You knew she was going to the solicitors that day and the house would be empty, and you just happened to be working from home – or was it from the flat in Dollar?” asked Ben.
Pettigrew was silent.
“And what was it all for? Why would you kill your long-term friend and business partner and terrorise his wife? It was all about money and your greed, Mr Pettigrew, wasn’t it?” continued Ben.
“At first, we suspected the aggro between you and James was all about him being behind with the AI development and you getting frustrated about the delays in getting it out into the marketplace. Usual business challenges that arise in many software companies. However, it was about much more than that. It was a comment James made to his wife about the dangers of AI that set me wondering if there was more to this, and boy was there – much, much more. However, I couldn’t have imagined just what was involved. I knew this was always about technology and it would take technology to get to the bottom of it, and indeed it did.”
