Lying Ways, page 18
‘So, the signet ring and the trauma implied by this level of depravity both lead me to a military inquiry. A profile might take the shape of an ex-soldier, suffering with PTSD after an operational tour, where he saw unimaginable horror, acting out. The model fits our suspect with what we know so far. It would seem that the victims were selected, or given on order. The killer must have known the movements of both victims, so the question is, why didn’t he kill them both in Seascale if they’d gone to meet there?’
‘Maybe the meeting wasn’t something the killer knew about,’ Dan said.
‘Agreed. The killer stuck to specific instructions. After the men were in his control, he had the time and the inclination to torture them.’ She waited for people to finish taking notes. ‘It’s a theory. I’m phoning the MOD today to request a list of Light Infantry soldiers who served in Iraq in the Second Gulf War, from 2003, who were also reported as suffering with PTSD-like symptoms. Emma, can you take charge of this?’
‘Yes, guv.’
‘Dan, give her a hand, I’m expecting plenty of them. The PTSD rates from Iraq were through the roof. Look for people with links to Cumbria. Their recruiting ground was typically the north-east, but that doesn’t mean an ex-soldier couldn’t have retired up here. The mountains have the power to pull broken souls together.’
She briefly thought of Tom Gorman. And Johnny.
‘Right, the reports from the two flats are in, and they’ve flagged up some interesting questions.’
She acknowledged the raised eyebrows.
‘At this stage, that’s all we seem to have: questions. We’re doing sterling work. At some point soon, some of the dots will begin to join up.’ She turned to the board, which was blank once more, and brought up the files on the two flats. ‘Most interesting is this,’ she said.
The reports appeared side by side, and she used a pointer to share her thoughts. She started with Jack Bell’s flat. It appeared sparse and barely lived in, which was no surprise given that he’d only been out of prison for two days. His few belongings had been neatly packed in drawers and cupboards and there was little food or refreshment in the tiny kitchen. The bed was made and there was no contraband found at the scene, i.e. nothing illegal or obviously out of place.
‘There was one thing that stood out, though,’ she said.
She brought up a photo of a brown envelope. It contained a mobile phone and £2,000 in cash.
‘I doubt Jack Bell came across this legitimately, and he certainly didn’t withdraw it from a bank account. He hasn’t got one. The phone is unregistered and was used once, for an incoming call. The IMEI number shows it was bought at a Tesco store in Workington the day of his release. The incoming call was traced to a tower near Seascale the day he was supposed to meet Dean Kirby, on Friday the fifteenth of October. It puts Jack about as close to Dean as we can get him and corroborates the ice cream seller’s story. It’s clear that after the use of the phone near Seascale, Jack went back to his flat and put it in this envelope, with the cash. It looks like we have an exchange here. Now, the ice cream seller said that Jack gave up waiting, but it would appear that he met someone – maybe just not Dean.’
She brought up another photo of a similar brown envelope, but it was against a different background.
‘This is from the flat of Dean’s girlfriend. It also contains a mobile phone, and around four thousand pounds in cash. Forensic analysis of the phone puts it at three locations before Friday the fifteenth of October, two in Barrow and one in Seascale, so he’d been up there before. This phone was bought from Tesco, Barrow, three weeks before, just after Dean Kirby’s release. Unfortunately no calls were made on either phone, they only received them, but we do know that Highton prison uses the same tower as the Seascale calls. So, it’s possible that the calls came from Highton.’
Kelly shuffled paper and checked the report on her iPad. It was complex data and she wanted to make the best sense of it. New technology enabled them to trace phones to within three miles, and evidence from this had put countless criminals away in recent years. But the exciting new development had been that they could trace actual phones, rather than just SIM cards. This was groundbreaking. Which is why she wanted a search of the wings at the prison, to see if communication had occurred between these phones and someone inside the prison on their crucial dates.
‘The governor of Highton is understandably reluctant to order a full-scale search of cells. These mobile phones go for around a thousand pounds a pop, and that’s big trade. He could have a full-blown riot on his hands should we discover extensive contraband to this effect. I get it, but with the evidence we have now, I’m coming to the conclusion that it’s our only option. I want to manage it, and of course it would be the tornado team for Highton who would carry out the search, not us. But however much I push, I don’t think I’ll get the governor to agree to the search on my terms. The inmates see their cells as their home, and any invasion is rejected with every power they can muster. The prevalent trade in spice inside the prison enables the big guys to recruit foot soldiers to do their dirty work, and this is what Brian Taylor is worried about. Should the wings get prior warning about a raid by the tornado team, they’d simply go to ground and get rid of the contraband. We need the element of surprise, but Brian Taylor has warned us that some wings are at breaking point. Putting eighty men in solitary is not feasible, and if the tornado team feel threatened they’ll simply withdraw, leaving the physical integrity of the prison in jeopardy.’
She let this sink in. Many prisons had a tornado team, deployed during emergencies, for example if a fight kicked off, threatening the stability of a whole wing. In extreme circumstances, such as a full-blown riot, national teams could be deployed. The last thing Kelly wanted to do was threaten the security of the whole prison; however, she needed answers, and she wanted to either rule in or out phone calls coming from the prison to either Jack Bell or Dean Kirby.
‘I’m discussing this with Chief Constable Harris this morning,’ Kelly added.
She noticed Kate shift in her seat.
‘Both envelopes have been tested with ninhydrin solution and revealed some usable prints. We’ve had a match on both Jack Bell’s and Dean Kirby’s prints, but there are other not yet identified prints on them as well, so this could be an important lead. Kate, will you take this one?’
‘Yes, guv.’
‘Right, everybody, let’s keep updating HOLMES. As always, any pertinent developments then I want to know ASAP. I’m going to hopefully be able to organise a search at Highton early next week. Of course, I expect any mobile phones linked to the murders to have been destroyed by then, but if there is generic communication with the outside, and it matches one of our leads, then we have a potential suspect. Any other business?’ Kelly asked.
‘Guv, the strapping found around both bodies,’ Dan said.
‘Fire away,’ Kelly said.
‘We’ve traced it to a company that supplies nursing homes with winching kit for bath hoists. It’s common and widespread, and we found one hundred and forty-one care homes in Cumbria. We’ve had a fantastic response. Over a hundred have come back to us and thirty-seven use this brand. We’re checking employee lists.’
‘Well done, Dan. Good work. I’m thinking latex gloves, too. Shop-bought plastic gloves have a much lower percentage of latex, because it’s expensive, but NHS and industry supplies are hardcore, containing enough latex required to trigger an anaphylactic shock. It makes sense.’
Kelly finished up and Dan set about modifying the case study diagram to include the hypothesis that their suspect could work in a care home.
They were making progress.
Chapter 31
‘Sir, I know it’s sensitive and I appreciate the risk, but we need to search those cells. Section four of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act specifically states that public authorities have the right to intercept communications, if it’s in accordance with prison rules.’
Kelly stood in front of Chief Constable Harris. He rubbed his chin. He sat at his desk and swung to the left and back to the right on his chair. She’d come to brief him on the case, which was highly sensitive because of the nature of the deaths. Minimal detail had been released to the public, but those in the know wanted this bastard caught quickly. Chief Constable Harris had been more than generous in finding extra boots for her enquiries and he’d personally managed the mutual aid request to other constabularies, most notably Lancashire and Yorkshire. She let him think.
‘And what type of governor are we dealing with?’ he asked finally.
‘Tight,’ she said. ‘He’s wary. The prison is overcrowded and they had trouble last week. There’s some nasty criminals in there, sir. He’s scared of it kicking off, and technically we have no jurisdiction inside those walls without a section nineteen.’
‘Correct. We need to go easy. The governor knows his prisoners better than anyone. By all accounts, and I have this on good faith, Highton is a tinder keg waiting to explode. It wouldn’t take much to tip it over in to a full-blown reactive situation,’ he said.
‘I know, sir. Which is why I have an alternative plan.’ She didn’t add that Brian Taylor’s intimate knowledge of his inmates perhaps wasn’t as healthy as Andrew Harris might imagine.
The chief constable stopped twirling and looked at Kelly. ‘I’m all ears,’ he said.
‘The main guy on the wing we want to search is called Rickie Burton. He’s served twenty-nine years of a thirty-year sentence and he’s up for parole in a year. He doesn’t want to leave – he’s got everything he could possibly want inside. I’ve got officers working on his bank accounts and family ties. There’s only one reason why a man like him would be happy in prison, and that’s because he has a thriving business on the outside. After all, inside, he’s safe from rivals. Unlike Jack Bell. I think Rickie Burton was threatened by Jack Bell and Dean Kirby leaving prison.’
‘So he had them killed?’
‘It’s a theory. I need to get inside those cells, so I have to come up with a workable solution for the governor. Anything that upsets Burton’s racket is going to rile him, sir,’ Kelly said. ‘Apparently mobile phones like this go for a thousand pounds apiece these days,’ she added.
Harris whistled. She showed him a photograph of a Zanco Tiny T1 handset. It was about two inches tall and an inch wide: perfectly sized to hide inside a rectum.
‘Imagine he’s got fifteen in his cell, or somewhere else on the wing, wherever his stash is – that’s fifteen grand. That’s a lot of money and a lot of favours. It’s also a lot of goods from the outside. Add to that the potential that he controls the drug addicts by dealing in spice, and you have a very lucrative trade going on. I heard that the main guys always stay sober. I tell you what, chief, this guy’s skin is as clear as a baby’s proverbial – he doesn’t do drugs and he doesn’t drink hooch. There’s only one reason why a seasoned con would look so good, and that’s because he’s wealthy and knows better. He wields power because he’s organised. He can even order murder.’
‘Do you have evidence of this?’ he asked.
‘Not yet,’ she said. She saw his disappointment and acknowledged that it didn’t look that convincing. Rob had yet to give her any solid evidence of transactions between Rickie Burton and people on the outside in the form of cash deals.
‘Sir, cons run wings for a reason. It’s to keep the status quo, and the screws are thankful for that. That way, everybody gets to sleep at night. Upset the apple cart and you get punished. Now, if we were to somehow let Rickie Burton know that a grass had handed information over to police, he’d feel unsafe and move any contraband, thinking a search was coming. So, if the search is an accidental result of someone’s big mouth rather than the authorities imposing their force, then Burton would deal with it in-house, avoiding a revolt against the system. He’s not stupid, I’ve met him. He’s as steady as a rock, and shrewd. He’d know that all he needed to do was bide his time and wait it out, then move his contraband back when it was safe,’ she said.
‘I’m not following. How does that enable us to go in and conduct a search? Have you spoken to the governor about this?’
‘We feed information from outside that a general search is about to happen, then we conduct a cell-by-cell search, staggered over time, keeping all prisoners inside their cells until it’s done. That way, there’s no opportunity for barricades, or for Burton to find out what’s really behind the search.’
‘Is that feasible?’
‘I spoke to the prison liaison officer and he said it’s unusual, but if we get the governor onside it might provide an opportunity to search cells in a measured and controlled manner. It would take a lot of uniforms, though, sir.’
‘But you said that would cause a riot.’
‘Not if we tested the phones in real time and replaced what we found,’ she said.
He rubbed his chin. ‘Have you run this past legal?’
‘Like I said, compliance with RIPA is in accordance with prison rules, if we get the governor onside.’
Kelly watched him as he considered her suggestions. She’d caught Kate in the ladies at Eden House and they’d gossiped for ten minutes as they touched up their make-up. She had her date with Andrew Harris tonight. Kelly looked at him and swore he’d had a haircut. She’d smelled fresh cologne as she’d walked into his office too. She tried hard to keep her smile to herself. Christ, Kate deserved it. It meant that she wouldn’t be available for drinks with the team to toast Emma’s fantastic achievement on the October Scree Challenge, but it would only be quick anyway, they had work to do. Kelly would suggest that they nip out for a quick drink at around five thirty, and those who wanted to return to work were free to do so. She didn’t encourage weekend work when they had a big case like this, although most of her team made an appearance at some point, and took their Toughpads home with them. Kelly did it, they all did. Trying to find justice was a vocation, not a job.
The chief looked at his watch and Kelly wondered if he was thinking about what Kate might wear, what they might talk about and if he still had it in him to charm a lady. Part of Kelly felt a kind of maternal protection towards her second in command. She hoped that Kate didn’t get hurt. So far his potential relationship with a much more junior colleague hadn’t come up in their conversation, but they’d have to cover it eventually because Kelly was Kate’s line manager. It was just that she hadn’t quite worked out how to raise it yet.
‘I can see it working,’ the chief said. ‘I want it in writing, so I can sign it off, happy that we’re not stepping on anyone’s toes or getting in Governor Taylor’s way. These governors are territorial, and rightly so. I wouldn’t wish the job on anyone, and he gives his life to that place.’
Kelly doubted that Brian Taylor was as altruistic as the chief was making out, but she had what she wanted and so nodded politely.
‘Can you manage that by first thing Monday?’ he asked.
‘Of course, sir. I’ll try and talk him round today.’
‘Wouldn’t anything of significance have been destroyed by the prisoners by now?’ he asked as she prepared to leave.
‘Yes, sir, but evidence of phone use cannot be erased. The use of the signal will still leave a trace.’
‘Good. Brief me Monday morning,’ he said.
‘Yes, sir. By then we should have a warrant for the tower records too.’ She lingered a second more than was natural.
‘Sir, changing the subject to a delicate topic.’
He looked at her and nodded. She thought his cheeks flushed. ‘It’s just a technicality, sir. I just wanted to say that I have read through protocol and wanted to let you know that I’m aware of the situation as per force recommendations for a senior officer such as yourself,’ she said. Her words were chosen carefully.
‘Thank you, Kelly. I appreciate it. I’ve sorted my end too.’ He coughed. Kelly knew he was uncomfortable and she didn’t want to prolong his anxiety.
‘Have a nice weekend, sir,’ she said, going to the door.
He smiled broadly. ‘I will, Kelly, and you too,’ he said. Kelly smiled as she turned away, dying to tell Kate that he was eager to get rid of her out of his office so he could prepare for his date. Kelly knew that he was taking Kate to a swanky restaurant in Ambleside, by the lake.
Something positive to cut through the shit was always welcome.
Chapter 32
The drive back to Eden House finally gave Kelly an opportunity to call Tom Gorman. He answered straight away.
‘Tom? Hi, It’s Kelly, we didn’t have a chance to be properly introduced yesterday,’ she said.
‘Hi Kelly, I thought I’d better answer an unknown number, I was expecting a call from HR here at Highton,’ he said. ‘Nice to hear from you. Yeah, yesterday was a bit rushed, it would be good to meet you properly. It was mad at work.’
It made sense that he was at work, the line sounded echoey. ‘And your first day? How did it go?’
‘Different,’ he said.
She laughed. ‘I can imagine. A baptism of fire, I should expect.’
‘It wasn’t what I thought it’d be, coming in knowing that two ex-convicts had been murdered. Thanks for the heads-up, by the way. I was on their old wings all day, it was surreal. But there we go, that’s what I should expect, I guess, these aren’t woke wallflowers, are they?’
‘No, that’s one way of putting it.’ She paused. ‘I know that your loyalty is with your employer now, so you don’t have to answer any of my questions, but can I ask what you thought of the relationship between the staff and prisoners?’ she asked.
‘I don’t think I’m speaking out of turn. My first impressions were, they care. They see the prison as the lads’ home, and I never thought of it that way before. It’s their patch, and the only way the relationship will work and the prison can function is through cooperation. At the end of the day, there’s probably three officers per eighty men. That simply won’t work without some form of combined effort. If civvies on the outside understood this then maybe the penal system would get more sympathy. Society isn’t willing to spend the money on proper rehab, so the alternative is keeping the status quo, and I think Governor Taylor, though a bit old-fashioned, hits the right notes,’ he said.
