“That’s right,” said Parish, “it was more visible at the sides than at the centre.”
Hepworth then said, “I didn’t think much of it at the time, but he had very glossy black shoes, and when he came back to the bistro it looked as if he had stepped in mud and wiped them to restore their immaculate appearance.” Price agreed, but said it could have easily been from stepping in a puddle as it was ‘pissing down’ when they left the bistro for the match. Parrish hadn’t noticed.
Eva Roberts asked Renton to ask what presents they had actually bought, as they knew that Parrish had already declared his was a book. This broke the cosy atmosphere, as they suddenly felt they were being treated like suspects. Renton was quick to dismiss this.
“You must appreciate that as detectives we have to eliminate people as well as identify suspects. You may be surprised to hear that eliminating people who have seen the victim in the few hours preceding the death is crucial to flushing out real suspects. Don’t answer the question if you feel it is too personal, but we already know that Martin bought a book.”
The other two relaxed and Hepworth admitted he bought an item of lingerie, which his wife had already said she would never wear. Price said he had bought his daughter an all singing, all dancing computer tablet, because his wife had told him not to waste money on more trinkets. Renton thanked them and said it had been very helpful.
Clive Donoghue told them he was leaving the building to go home and said, “I may as well pass this on to you. It is the final forensics report which nails Jackson to the knitting needle responsible for Pitafi’s death, and to the blood on Banks’ hands. It should make the Crown Prosecutor happy.”
Eva Roberts interjected. “Why aren’t you pressing for accessory to Banks’ murder?”
Renton said that they wanted him hit with the murder he had confessed to first.
“There’s nothing to stop us facing him with any new evidence we gather on Banks. He admitted to moving the body, but we can’t yet eliminate him, or charge him as the killer.” She agreed but asked if she could question him.
“Ok, but don’t push him into retracting anything he has confessed so far.”
They were all about to leave when Stephanie arrived. Renton laughed and remarked,
“Everyone seems to want to get started with Bradstock’s blanket staffing of the case before he fires the starting pistol. The new incident room is in Durham Steph, have you lost your way?”
“No Sir, I just had a silly idea, and wanted to check it out before it migrated for the winter. I remembered that I had scribbled some notes concerning Greg Watson’s very first post-mortem report on Alistair Banks. It is probably nothing, but until I check it out again I won’t be able to move on.”
“Well good luck.” She fiddled with some papers in her trash tray, and found the notepad.
“Here it is, now I remember.” They all halted just before the elevator arrived and turned.
“Well?” said Renton, “we’re all in suspense, are you going to enlighten us?”
“Yes, of course. It didn’t seem relevant at the time, but since we have gradually narrowed the possible time of death with Greg’s new method, it has new significance.”
“Give me strength Steph, what the hell is it you’re talking about?”
“The sedative Sir.”
“And?” Forster commented before she replied.
“I see what she means. If the window is at most 90 minutes, how long did it take for the sedative to take effect?”
“Yes Sir, I think we should ask Greg Watson, because his approximation moved from 2.00 am. Sunday morning to 7.00 pm. Saturday evening, but when I asked him about it in more detail he said he was pretty sure it was not later than 7.00 pm. He did not say it couldn’t have been sooner, so if it was a little earlier, then maybe the time taken to incapacitate Banks is critical. Narrowing down the time of the lethal insulin injection also narrows down an already tight schedule to get him from the Emirates stadium to the abandoned hospital, where Jackson claims he was dead at 6.30 pm. If Jackson’s testimony was more accurate than Watson’s approximation, we are talking an hour and not 90 minutes. It also begs the question that Jackson said that when he arrived, there were two thugs and Baumann standing over the sack containing Banks’ body. There is something wrong here. If Banks and Baumann left the stadium together and did not split up, but went to a meeting as we were told, surely it wouldn’t have been in that old hospital. Does that mean he was dead before he was taken there? Remember this was the rendezvous given to Jackson, so it’s reasonable to assume the thugs took him there. The journey by car from the Emirates stadium to that site in the Saturday evening traffic is at least 45 minutes, and there is no underground station nearby. Jackson said he was twenty minutes late for the meeting and the thugs were angry about this. So, if he had been on time, would he have witnessed the killing? That’s when they expected him, but he claims he didn’t expect a body, he was supposed to collect a package. It was only when he stopped on his way back to ring Grimes that he was told there was a change of plan. I don’t see how anyone other than the thugs or Baumann himself could have killed Banks unless Jackson is lying again. I’d like to ask Greg if he can determine from his tests how much sedative there was in his body, and how long it would have taken to knock him out, because you would expect that he and Baumann would have resisted travelling to this derelict building, when they intended to fly to Cologne. He may have had to be sedated to get him there. You think I am obsessing don’t you?”
“Not at all,” said Eva Roberts, “I have just been saying we should talk to Jackson again.”
Renton replayed her thought process once more.
“There’s another possibility Steph - I mean to get him to go to the abandoned hospital. He had said to his pals departing for Newcastle that he had to retrieve his briefcase for the meeting. They’re all certain that he did not have it when the driver of the limo dropped them at the stadium. If the same driver picked them up after the match and still had the case, he would have leverage to persuade Banks and Baumann to go with him. That could have been the package Jackson was supposed to collect. Anyway I don’t think you are obsessing at all, we should question Jackson again, and get Greg on the phone. You speak to Greg Steph, and we’ll bring Jackson in.”
Chapter 28
Bradstock received an ‘anonymous’ call. He recognised the voice, it was Halliwell-Jones.
“We are entering the stage of finessing the arrangements. Our source reports that there is a meeting of the entire Mosque hierarchy planned to discuss their emergency escape details if anything was to go wrong. This meeting involves eighteen subjects, the other one hundred and nine will be scattered so they should ideally be taken just before dawn. This is tricky because the meeting is being scheduled for 8.30 am. This gap worries me because the street grapevine could scupper the whole thing. Our source is trying to make a case for a mass meeting at the Mosque, but this does not appeal to Abu Mensah. If we have to choose, we will go for the eighteen in the hierarchy as they will be responsible for executing the water pollution. It is not ideal but the airports, ports and Eurostar will be alerted. Your people need to be ready to apprehend those at home when we reach lockdown status at the Mosque.”
“I see, but you have not told me the date.”
“That is because I don’t have it. These people are very careful about such events. They arrange the attendees, the agenda, location, and only fix the date when they feel any short notice response would be difficult to organise.”
“I have other pressing matters which are on-going, and you know that. I must have proper warning of such a big operation.”
“And I can’t give that to you right now. That is the reason for the call, to give you forewarning that it is near. I do appreciate your difficulty, but I am afraid this is how it is.”
“I just hope I can get something about Baumann from the Colony before you need my people in place, and that in itself will be a del
icate exercise, because we agreed to leave it as close to the deadline as possible.”
“I fully understand, and as you know I am also interested in Baumann. I would be grateful for any progress you make in that respect. I will give you the maximum lead time possible.”
Bradstock decided that he had to let the Newcastle incident room progress under the command of Cousins, and called him to that effect. He asked the Midwest web to provide more regular updates on any nibbles from the Colony.
*
Vic Jackson was, as expected, quite philosophical when the forensics results sealed his incarceration until the trial. He was however, disturbed about being quizzed again by no fewer than three people. Eva Roberts decided to attend this time. Renton wanted Stephanie present and Forster observed. Roberts made him aware of the fact that she was not a police officer. This exacerbated his disorientation. What followed only served to compound his uneasiness. Roberts began with the scene at the abandoned hospital.
“In your previous statement you indicated that you would never forget the expression of fear on the face of the man you identified as holding the briefcase. Can I ask you about the other two men?”
“Why are we talking about the Banks case again? I’m only being charged in connection with the Pitafi case.”
“Absolutely, but I’m sure you realise that if anything emerges from the Banks case that you could have helped us with and did not, it would seriously hinder any appeal you may have for early release. This interview is just to check if there is anything you have forgotten or did not think important. That’s why there are three of us here. We want to make absolutely certain that we have not overlooked an important detail, as it could be your last chance before you go to trial.”
“Ok, but I can’t think of anything off the top of my head.”
“That’s why we want to jerk any memory you may have unconsciously buried. Now you did say previously that you didn’t know the other two men, but they were the kind of people who ‘did not do uncompleted contracts.’ That sounds to me like threatened violence for stepping out of line, rather than a meeting with businessmen.”
“Oh yes, these guys didn’t bark out their orders twice. They spoke and you jumped, they had weapons, I could see that, but they weren’t needed, I just did as they asked.”
“So, if you had to guess at their chosen career, what would you say?”
“I’m not going there, I’ve said enough and you know exactly what I mean.”
“Well if I was to guess, I would hazard that they were from a similar background to that fellow who contracted you in the first place, and then informed you of a change of plan, Mr Grimes. We can’t ask him because he’s still at large. These two men would seem to be in a similar, if not the same organisation, as they were to give you the original package.”
“I guess you could say that.”
“And what did they look like? Remember this could help in any appeal you make. I know the last thing on your mind at present is to be exposed to this Colony or whatever it is called, but things will be different in fifteen or twenty years. Most of them will be dead or inside, but by then it will be too late for you to help; your record will show that you were not very cooperative.”
“One of them was shouting most of the time at me and the guy holding the briefcase. He was quite short, and had really bad teeth. He had a Midwest accent. The other was taller and didn’t speak much, only when he was spoken to really. He wasn’t English, his accent was similar to some of the Russians you hear on TV, you know, in these spy thrillers.”
“Did either of them have any tattoos or other distinguishable features?”
“Er, I think the taller one did. Yes, I remember when he helped me stuff the body into the car; I saw one on his wrist, like a scorpion.”
“Not one on the back of his neck then.”
“Oh yes, hold on, it was only partly visible. It could have even been a larger version of the one on his wrist, as I could only see the edges of it when he bent down to pick up the car keys which he’d dropped.”
Renton jumped in. “His car keys or yours?”
“His.”
“You have never mentioned their car before.”
“Well you people are the bloody detectives, how do you think they got to that shithole? On bikes?”
“What did you notice about the car?”
“Not much other than it was black, a limo. It had a sign on the side but I can’t remember what it said.”
“Maybe we can help with that. Did it say ‘Manor Limousines?’
“Could be, yeah, yeah, that does sound familiar.”
Stephanie then asked, “Are you sure about the time you arrived? Was it exactly 6.30 pm?”
“Yes I’m absolutely sure, my arse was on the line and I didn’t like the reception I got. Actually I said it was just before 6.30. I must have looked at my watch a hundred times while I was trying to find the damned place.”
“Did you know that Mr Banks was wearing a watch?”
“Yes I did. At first I thought I might take it after I was a safe distance from London, but when I stopped at the services to call Grimes, I found it was broken.”
“Did you see the time at which it had stopped?”
“No, but it must have happened in the car, because it was still going when he was stuffed into the boot. Shame, it looked pretty expensive.”
The interview was terminated and they had a quick recap of this testimony, before deciding to analyse it further the next day. As they prepared to leave, Forster waited until the women walked toward the elevator and then motioned Renton to hold back. They returned to his office. Forster referred to part of Jackson’s testimony.
“When he was pressed, he reluctantly acknowledged that the two thugs were probably on the Colony’s payroll, as he was himself. He also said the one who was nominally in charge, had a Midwest accent. If we are going to pursue this I would urge caution. Bradstock seems totally preoccupied with finding Baumann and if, as we are currently led to believe, he is now in the hands of the Colony, that’s where he will be looking. We can’t risk him thinking we are second guessing him.”
“You’re right, so what do you suggest?”
“I’m much better connected to these conduits than he is, and to be blunt about it he’s a liability in such foraging for information. I think you should leave this to me. If he finds out I’m in his midst, there is a reasonable explanation – that being that I have been contacted through various ‘informers.’ You could not use this as an excuse, whereas I can quote names, and say that they sought me out.”
“That’s a relief. I was wondering just how he would have reacted to us asking his permission.”
A long day had come to an end and Renton headed back to see Jane and Daniel via the hospital, where Adams was continuing to improve.
Chapter 29
Monday November 19th 2018
Stephanie’s hopes were confirmed by Greg Watson. He hadn’t needed long to think about her question.
“It was a well-known drug, pretty much identical to Rohypnol, called Flunitrazepam. A dose of only one milligram can render the subject hypnotised or unconscious. However it usually takes up to 30 minutes for this to occur. But as you may well know Stephanie, it is often referred to as a date rape drug because it makes the subject compliant with things they would normally object to. What I found in Banks’ body was not excessive, certainly not what I would describe as an overdose, otherwise I would have reported it as such.”
“So when does the compliant stage begin?”
“Why don’t you tell me what you want to confirm and I will let you know if it fits what I found?”
“We think Banks was transported from somewhere to the abandoned hospital and I am trying to get a feeling for how long it would take for his resistance to being taken there to fade. We don’t believe he would agree as he had a flight to catch.”
“I see, well I would estimate if it was ingested with water it would take aro
und twenty minutes with the dosage I found, whereas if he consumed it unknowingly in alcohol it could be five, perhaps eight minutes quicker. Does that help?”
“Yes it does. One further question if you don’t mind. How much earlier than 7.00 pm do you think he could have died?”
“I think I knew that was coming. Although the new method is supposed to be pretty accurate, it is new, and I don’t want to become over-reliant on it until we have a really good statistical correlation with the normal method. My team all pressed me to designate it earlier, but prudence prevailed and I considered it wise to state it as not later than 7.00pm. If I was less cautious in nature I would have said perhaps up to fifteen minutes earlier.”
“Thank you for your help.” This to her, meant that the time of death could even have been as early as 6.45pm, but this was just after the time Jackson arrived at the hospital. In other words, if the thugs had met Banks and Baumann somewhere very shortly after splitting with the others, say 5.35pm, they would have just 55 minutes to get him subdued, and the cowering Baumann to the hospital to coincide with Jackson’s arrival. The fly in the ointment was that Jackson said he was 20 minutes late, and they were angry, so they must have aimed to be there in 35 minutes and not 55 minutes, and that did not seem possible. Something was still wrong. She would think about it more before informing Renton.
*
Graham and Finley were in surveillance mode, watching the various extremist candidates and their routines before making a final choice. They weren’t working to a specific date. The surveillance was temporarily interrupted by information filtering upward concerning the briefcase and the potential means of opening it safely. They needed to think about this very carefully. They were suspicious, not so much at the claim, but more about the direct up-front offer. These things normally required a ‘mating ritual’ of at least a couple of denials, before terms were aired. They put out an instruction to ignore the proposition for now, in order to see what developed. In the meantime they checked on the case and Baumann. They decided to see what he made on the claim that it could be opened successfully. He reacted by passing out, so they concluded the claim could be valid.