CODE TO MURDER, page 30
“You are talking a lot, Chief Inspector, but not saying much, which means you are fishing again,” said Pettigrew.
“Oh, I’m not fishing, Mr Pettigrew, I have plenty of evidence. So let me talk you through it all. James Anderson came up with this clever AI module that used a client’s data and third party information to predict the best trades in both physical commodities and futures. By all accounts, it was extremely clever and would have had clients clamouring for the software, and Trade–IT would have made a lot of money. But that wasn’t enough for you.”
“You’ve always got to push for more, that’s how I have driven this company forward. Yes, James was a clever software architect, but without me the company would not be anywhere near where it is today in terms of revenues and profitability,” said Pettigrew.
“Now, I suspect James, or yourself, saw how good the software was and made a tongue-in-cheek comment about how it might be used for your own benefit; by cashing in on your clients’ predicted trades before they happened. Or maybe it was your idea, seeing the big opportunity,” said Ben.
“I am admitting nothing as that would be illegal, but I was the one who saw all the big opportunities and had all the big ideas, Chief Inspector,” said Pettigrew.
It was as though he couldn’t stop himself from saying it.
“So, I imagine you downloaded the data from all your beta clients and voila! It predicted you could make a fortune in the test-runs. But my guess is that James didn’t want to do it. He seemed, by all accounts, happy with his life, his lovely family and a job he enjoyed. Over a few months, his demeanor seemed to have changed. Diane said he seemed to be under more pressure than she had ever seen before, even when he’d had software deadlines. And that pressure could only have been coming from you, Mr Pettigrew. The big boss.”
Pettigrew smirked, taking satisfaction from it.
“You both had equal shares in the business, so I knew you must have had another hold over James. When we started investigating the hiking accident it became clear. Are you sure you don’t want to tell us what happened? You know you want to,” said Ben.
“You carry on with your bedtime stories, Chief Inspector, it is getting late after all,” said Pettigrew.
“As you wish. I think James did something that caused Colin Smith to fall – maybe not deliberately, but it could have been misconstrued as such and James would have been in serious trouble. So, you forced him to cover it up, but held it over James until you needed it . . . and you needed it to make James do what you wanted with the AI software. A successful, profitable business was not enough, you always wanted more and the money you could make from a combination of the clever AI software and the data from all your clients would make for mouthwatering sums. So, you forced James to do it and have already made in excess of six million dollars.”
Pettigrew laughed, implying it was much more than that.
“But then it all went wrong. James said he wasn’t doing it anymore, and you found the software on your laptop that allowed you to do it had stopped working as James had put in a time lock. Our financial investigators confirmed that just before I came in here. You would undoubtedly have argued about it and put more and more pressure on James. You even threatened him. It came to a head in the hotel room that Monday. James refused to take the lock off the software, and he also told you he had accepted a job in the US, or you overheard it from the room next door, and he and his family were moving over there. Your AI golden goose was fleeing the nest and there was nothing you could do about it. He got the call telling him it was all confirmed during the time you were upstairs. He may well have waved the card from the executive recruitment company in your face, and you knocked it out of his hands, and that’s how it lodged on top of the radiator. You grabbed him, and in your rage you banged his head against the desk several times, killing him. You followed up with a half-baked job of trying to make it look like an accident, which didn’t fool anyone.”
Pettigrew started clapping his hands, slowly.
“Impressive, Chief Inspector, what a great story. Bit lacking in evidence though, is it not?” said Pettigrew.
“Oh, we have the evidence, Mr Pettigrew. We have had forensics teams crawling all over your laptop and James Anderson’s,” said Ben.
Pettigrew raised his eyebrows.
“Yes, we found it, it was in James’s house – unlucky you didn’t find it when you broke in, huh?” said Ben. “It was clever the way the AI module never resided on client servers, but both laptops left a footprint on different beta-test client sites, so you obviously shared the work between you as the data from client sites was on both laptops. You are both guilty, therefore, of data theft and of insider trading. We have seen money from trades going through your bitcoin account and out to your bank account. Nice of you to leave your bitcoin private key in the safe for us. I am sure the courts will grant us authority to use your fraudulently obtained funds for good use. You had the motive, means and opportunity, and when you factor in what you did to Mike Williams to cover your tracks, I have no doubt you will be convicted of the murder of James Anderson too,” said Ben.
“I’m guessing Williams was close to figuring out that the AI code was doing something dodgy – would that be right, Mr Pettigrew?” added Julie.
Pettigrew said nothing, neither confirming or denying it.
“We thought so,” said Ben smiling. “Maybe Mr Williams was as bright as he thought he was.”
Ben had his phone on silent, but suddenly noticed missed calls and a text message.
“Let’s suspend this interview, Julie. There’s something I need to go and do.”
Ben left the interview room and ran upstairs to his office and shut the door. Julie was left wondering what was going on.
She could see Ben on his phone and at the same time looking at something on his laptop. She thought it was best not to interrupt him as it must be something important. Emma and Kevin both asked Julie what was going on, but there was nothing she could tell them.
Forty-five minutes later, Ben came back out of his office, carrying his laptop.
“Right, Julie, let’s go back down,” said Ben.
“What’s going on, sir? What’s happened?” asked Julie.
“Don’t worry, Julie, it’s alright. Another witness has turned up,” said Ben, smiling, as they headed downstairs.
They entered the interview room again and restarted the recording.
“Sorry about the interruption, gentlemen, but another witness has come forward. One you will know, Mr Pettigrew,” said Ben.
Pettigrew and his solicitor looked at each other.
“What are you talking about, Chief Inspector?” asked the solicitor.
Ben opened up his laptop, set the video to full screen, turned it around to face Pettigrew, and hit ‘play’.
“Hello, Richard. Bet you didn’t think you would be seeing me again, huh?” the person on the screen said.
Pettigrew sat bolt upright in his seat, moving as far away from the screen as he could, in shock. Julie leaned forward to get a better look at the screen.
It was James Anderson!
“No days to go, the truth belongs to me! Did you enjoy my fourteen days of poems? I hope they made you feel at least some of the pressure you were putting on me. I generated the verses using AI. Nice touch, eh? And The Clash – was that appropriate or what? Bet that summed up exactly how you were feeling.”
“It was you?” said Pettigrew under his breath, not quite able to believe it.
“It could all have been so different, Richard. We had a good company that was going from strength to strength, and a good lifestyle. But it was never enough for you. I told you it was wrong to use AI in the way that we did, but you wouldn’t leave it, so I had no option but to stop you using it by locking the software, which has led to my untimely death at your hands. I have provided all of the information to the authorities about what we did and what happened to poor Colin and how you used it to blackmail me. You will go to jail for a long time, but that is nothing compared to what you did to me and my family. You always believed you were smarter than the rest of us, Richard, but clearly not. It is me getting the last word this time,” said Anderson, laughing loudly, as the video ended.
Pettigrew, his solicitor and Julie looked stunned.
Pettigrew eventually said hopefully, but really already knowing the answer, “Another deepfake, Chief Inspector? Nice try?”
“No, that’s the real thing, Mr Pettigrew. The video was recorded in the offices of Mr Anderson’s solicitor, who were also left a sealed envelope with a signed testament by James Anderson of everything you have done, including downloads of WhatsApp messages in which you threaten him and give him a deadline of that Monday to reinstate the AI software, and I quote ‘if you want to see Tuesday’,” said Ben.
“Looks like you weren’t as smart as you thought you were, Mr Pettigrew,” said Julie.
“Charge him with the murders of James Anderson and Mike Williams, please Julie, as well as with data theft and insider trading,” said Ben.
CHAPTER 86
Next morning, the team were back in the office. There was a sense of satisfaction, but it was low-key as they were all well aware of the impact of Pettigrew’s actions on the Anderson family and indeed the Williams family. Ben was also keen to follow up a few loose ends before they closed the case and passed everything to the Procurator Fiscal team for them to do their job.
“Morning, folks. That was great work yesterday and indeed throughout this case. However, there is still some more work to be done. I want all reports to be written up today, all Is dotted and Ts crossed. I want no gaps, no slip-ups that Pettigrew’s solicitor can take advantage of. I also want to trace the financial aspect of all of this and see what the investigators have come up with in terms of the bitcoin accounts, based on what we know and the information we recovered from Pettigrew’s flat.”
Ben was still convinced there must be a connection between Pettigrew and SCL. He couldn’t believe Hogarth would send a warning like he did just because his name was mentioned in passing by someone he had tried to buy a company from previously. He noticed as well that Pettigrew had said there was no issue when they knocked back the offer from SCL, yet Millar said it was a bit hostile. It was as though Pettigrew wanted to give them the bare minimum on SCL. He would need to get hold of Steve Lyons and also Joe Wilson at the Organised Crime Team to see if they had come up with anything.
Mid-morning, Emma came to see Ben. She had received a call from the financial investigation team.
“Sir, the team have been into Pettigrew’s bitcoin account. They’re telling me it’s empty – there’s nothing in it! They can see a history of all the funds going into it, but only three transactions of anything going out: one to pay the hacking company, one for the conversion to cash into his bank account to pay for the car—”
“And the third one?” interrupted Ben, getting concerned.
“And the third one clearing the balance to another bitcoin account, which we don’t have enough details on to track down.”
“Tell me you are kidding, Emma,” said Ben anxiously.
“Afraid not, sir.”
“Do we know the value of the total funds going out in the first place?” asked Ben.
“The equivalent of about eight million dollars, apparently.”
“Wow! Our finance guys need to track it down. In the meantime, I think another conversation with Pettigrew is needed,” said Ben. “We’ll do that after I phone Steve Lyons.”
Ben phoned Steve Lyons to see if they had come up with anything else.
“Hi, Steve, we’ve charged Pettigrew, but there is something puzzling me: I would have thought you would need a good bit of capital in the first place to make any serious money from commodity trading, and I’m thinking Pettigrew must have had a source of funding we are not aware of.”
“Good timing, Ben. I mentioned before that the trades seemed to go through a company registered in Holland. We found more details of the company on Pettigrew’s laptop. Pettigrew had a small shareholding, but the majority of it was held by an investment company, which, after following the trail through different shell companies, seems to have come from the UK, registered in the name of SCL. We checked the financials of the Dutch company and it seems that the capital is being used to fund trading, and dividends from profits are being paid out to shareholders, including into Pettigrew’s bitcoin account,” said Steve.
“I couldn’t have hoped for a better answer, Steve. That gives us what we need. I’ll catch up with you later and explain all. Bye for now,” said Ben.
Next, Ben got on the phone to Joe Wilson at the Organised Crime Team.
“Hi, Joe, I think I’m about to make your day,” said Ben.
“Oh yes?” said Joe.
“Have you come across anything in your analysis that links SCL to a Dutch company?”
“Well, yes, but it was a convoluted trail.”
“That company is the one being used by Pettigrew for the insider trading. The funding came from SCL and Pettigrew had a small shareholding. They use the funds to do the trades and profits go out through dividends to Pettigrew and no doubt back through different companies to the SCL group, laundered along the way. My reckoning is you will be able to charge Hogarth and others for data theft and insider trading. I’m going to talk to Pettigrew again and will try to get him to tell us more about SCL,” said Ben.
“That’s great, Ben. The phone records and messages from the encrypted messaging app look like they will allow us to put Hogarth and other senior crime figures away for many years for a variety of different crimes. Thanks for getting us in there,” said Joe.
The time was now right to go and interview Pettigrew again.
CHAPTER 87
After some time waiting on Pettigrew’s solicitor to arrive, Ben and Julie were sat in the interview room with Pettigrew for what would be the last time.
“I hope you have had some time to reflect on what you have done, Mr Pettigrew, in particular to Diane and Kayleigh,” said Ben.
Pettigrew didn’t say anything, but Ben noticed he seemed tired and not his usual self, the enormity of what was going to happen to him having started to sink in.
“We’ve gone into your bitcoin account and noticed you transferred out all of the funds the weekend before you went to the offsite.”
“No, you must be mistaken, Chief inspector. I haven’t been near the account since I bought my car and paid the ethical hacking company. I had to pay them in advance. It was organised a couple of weeks before the offsite. James and I agreed security of our systems was imperative. I just gave them a different remit after James’s death.”
“So who has cleared the account, Mr Pettigrew?”
“Nobody could have. Any payments out require two authorisations: mine and James’s. I didn’t make any transfers,” said Pettigrew.
“Two authorisations?” asked Ben.
“Yes, James set up an account, multi-signature as they say, and he showed me it working. It needed us both to authorise before funds could be transferred, so nobody could do a runner. I saw it working and it needed two signatures when I bought my car.”
“Did James ever withdraw any monies from the bitcoin account?”
“No, he never took anything from what we made.”
“Well, I can assure you there are no funds in the bitcoin account. Have you any other accounts?” asked Ben.
Pettigrew had gone from being calm, thinking Ben and Julie didn’t know much about bitcoin, to being alarmed as it started to dawn on him what had happened.
“I don’t have any other bitcoin accounts. It is James Anderson, he has stuffed me. I don’t know how, but he has, I know he has!” said Pettigrew angrily.
Ben and Julie looked at each other. Was Pettigrew lying again or was it genuine anger?
“So much for Mr Nice-Guy Anderson,” Pettigrew went on.
“Is there anything else you’d like to tell us, Mr Pettigrew?” said Ben, sensing Pettigrew might be in the mood to elaborate on a few things.
“Don’t say anything, Richard,” said his solicitor.
“What difference does it make anyway?” said Pettigrew.
“I’m always seen as the bad guy, but it wasn’t me that caused Colin to fall, was it?”
“I understand, Mr Pettigrew, it must have been hard for you to see Colin fall like that. What did James do to him?” asked Ben, gently trying to get Pettigrew to open up.
“James and Colin had an argument, a bit of banter that got out of hand. Colin said something a bit personal – I’m sure he didn’t mean it – but James lost his rag and pushed Colin and turned to walk away. Colin fell over. After he stood back up, he went to go after James, but in his hurry he slipped on some loose stones and fell down the ravine, just as James turned back around. I couldn’t believe it – it was horrible to see it happen,” said Pettigrew.
“And did James know Colin stood back up after he’d pushed him down, and thus fell of his own accord after that?”
“No, he didn’t, he only saw him falling and assumed Colin had rolled down after he had pushed him.”
“And you didn’t put him straight?” asked Ben.
“No. Why should I? If he hadn’t pushed Colin, it would never have happened. I held things together and got James sorted and saved him from going to jail.”
“And left him with years of guilt, giving you a hold over him,” said Julie.
“Well, he has got his own back now, hasn’t he?” said Pettigrew.
“Are you serious? Really, Mr Pettigrew? You killed the man! Have you no remorse whatsoever? What kind of a man are you?” said Ben.
Pettigrew bowed his head. The first sign of any real recognition of what he had actually done.
