‘For how long?’ asked Sasha, disbelieving.
‘From what we can tell, about for six months. Unsurprisingly, the trail went cold for a while but it seems the police later got him into university. With a new identity, he studied medicine, graduated and disappeared.’
Puzzled, Sasha asked, ‘So why did the friend become Michael Fraser-Clark?’
‘Unfortunately, the real Michael was photographed at a drug party while he was an informant. His mate saw the photo and calculated that if he could do anything for Michael, it was to let the world think that the real Michael was still around in the UK, as we obviously thought. If he learnt that anyone was searching for a person of that name he could, as he so effectively did with Chalky and me, lead them a merry dance.’
‘Surely he’d have put his own life in danger?’
‘You know how these networks operate, Sash. A simple name change won’t deter a professional hit but retribution against Michael would require a professional to identify him – the photo of Michael would save the friend.’
Sasha’s interest had, by now, turned to exasperation. ‘So do we know his new name and where he is?’
‘I’m afraid not. All that hiding in shadows happened decades ago. It was quite a shock to the friend that we showed up.’ Mac shrugged. ‘Despite all that time passing, he still won’t say. Turns out Michael saved the man’s life more than once.’
Sasha rubbed her forehead. ‘And the police?’
‘Not when they’ve helped change someone’s identity. The secrecy stays with them, even beyond their informant’s death.’
‘I guess that would be asking too much.’ She scratched her head. ‘So, plans to go back and dig some more?’
Mac shook his head. ‘I don’t see the point. I’m sorry it’s not better news, Sash, but at least we know more than if I’d stayed here.’
Gary Wynn was loping to join Sasha and Mac, a hand above his head as if to announce he was on his way.
Mac whispered, ‘From the twinkle in that man’s eye, I’d say he still fancies you?’ ‘Christ, I hope that’s not public knowledge.’
‘Mr McClintock, Sasha. I’m about to head away to Addington. Justice Niven’s beaten me out there but I want to see Bee Cee run. She was last year’s cup winner. But I wanted to say thanks very much for the invitation to the after match. I feel privileged to have been asked.’
Sasha eyeballed Wynn. ‘Were you in on the conspiracy?’
‘I’m saying nothing without legal representation. Mr McClintock, what do you advise?’
‘Confess all,’ said Mac, winking at Sasha.
Wynn beamed. ‘I’ll admit it was great to see that look of surprise on your face and terrific that Justice Bowen mentioned your father. Oh, that reminds me, Sasha. There’s been a flurry of people looking for the old court file, you know, your dad’s last trial. I thought I’d put it aside for you if you were interested.’
‘Since news of the pardon was announced?’
‘There was someone before Christmas last year but otherwise they’ve all been since then. Anyway must go. Thanks again.’
Mac faced Sasha. ‘And what have you been up to while I’ve been globetrotting?’
Sasha looked down. Was this the time to tell?
‘‘Come on,’ said Mac. ‘I’ve known that look since you were five years old.’
****
At 11.00 PM Sasha emerged from her soundproof room to find lilies and a congratulatory card on her kitchen table, next to a bottle of bubbly. As expected, Ben had missed the celebrations. She was reading his card when he appeared on the terrace and pulled open her sliding door.
‘Let’s pour some of those bubbles,’ he said, grinning.
‘To be honest, I’m ready for bed. It’s been a big day.’ As he bent to kiss her, she pulled her head back to look into his eyes. ‘How did you get on? I hope missing out on my after match was worthwhile.’
‘We lead with an interesting story tomorrow.’
‘Good for you. C’mon, big boy. We need to go riding.’
‘I’ve never had a QC in the saddle before. Will you wear that new silk gown?’
Later, she lay awake listening to Ben’s even, light snoring.
Mac had been kind and very sympathetic after he’d got over the shock and the disappointment that she’d let him travel without confiding what happened. In the end they’d negotiated an agreement.
There would be no complaint to the police, the Law Society or anyone else. But in return, Sasha agreed that Mac could enlist a PI to dig into Niven’s life. Sasha wouldn’t have been his first or the last victim. But if there was a way to get him off the bench without her experience being exposed, then bring it on.
Chapter 29
Sasha was first out of bed. As usual, the old guy was at his kitchen window on the opposite side of the street and he offered his familiar wave as she went out to collect the paper. As usual Sasha returned the wave and smiled, imagining that behind his lecherous look was a little prayer that her dressing gown would open to reveal sumptuous and naked curves.
The front page screamed at Sasha: ‘PORN RING SMASHED: 3 DEAD, ONE ON REMAND’.
‘How does it look?’ asked Ben as he padded into the kitchen.
‘I’m surprised you spilt the beans on your former general manager.’
‘Not a lot of debate. Pete said we’d never have run with the way Apsley died if that’d been the only angle. But emails between Donaldson and Apsley made it clear they were tied in. It couldn’t have been any other business. Then we got tipped off that Thomas had purchased porn himself.’
‘How’d you get that stuff?’
‘An anonymous copy of the email and porn receipts came in a package of documents.’
Sasha frowned. ‘Be careful, Ben. Might be someone with an agenda.’
‘I know. We’ve been trying to authenticate. But as you can tell from the story, Thomas denied it, even though it was his credit card. It’s a public interest issue.’
When Sasha looked doubtful Ben continued. ‘Well, how would you like your money invested with gamblers who were also trading in child porn? If revealing that isn’t in the public interest, what is?’
‘Just be careful.’ She gave him a long stare before adding, ‘This could all get very awkward. I don’t think I’m going to be able to talk to you much about these events. You know yourself that police are taking their enquiries further?’
‘Yeah, what of it?’
‘They want to talk to me about the evidence they’ve assembled so far. And that’s off the record. I should know by the end of today.’
****
Her first time steering a murder prosecution. It had been difficult to shift her father’s last case from her mind. Sasha couldn’t fix that now but she could ensure that any conviction she helped to obtain would rebalance the scales of justice within the family. John Stace QC would be on her shoulder all the way.
The CIB conference was held in an internal meeting room where, under the harsh glare of fluorescent tubes, pictures and names of the key players were displayed on a large boards. Files and papers were spread around, with coffee, hot water, teabags, milk, sugar and plates of biscuits huddled in the centre of the main table.
Black introduced Fiona Tuck and other members of the team and explained their roles in the inquiry so far. Forensic experts Cadveron and Spiers were present. Tuck’s PA was there to take notes.
Sasha suspected some of the participants had started their work day a lot earlier than she had. Although it was only 10 00 AM, the room was redolent of men: stale farts and cheesy feet had infiltrated the pale blue carpet and cream walls. She was grateful to be sitting next to Ian Galbraith and his pine-scented deodorant.
After Black’s introductions, Tuck sat forward in her chair.’ Thank you for joining us, Sasha and Ian. As is usual in these circumstances I’d ask for strict confidentiality. Although we have a minute taker, this is to assist any audit of our in
quiry should that need arise. Is everyone agreed?’ Heads nodded around the room.
‘Good. Rod, over to you.’
Black stood and stared at a clean whiteboard, seemingly gathering this thoughts. His dark trousers sagged at the knees and the frayed collar on his shirt carried a smudged ink stain. ‘Some good news first. Despite a strong plea for bail, Thomas is now in custody on a charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice.’ Black’s team nodded, Hart’s smile was the broadest. ‘The purpose of this conference is to determine whether we have enough on him for the murder of Neil Apsley, Derek Donaldson or Jack Dench – or all three of them. I’d like us to cover off the medical evidence, then other forensics. Then we’ll have a look at other witnesses and their evidence. Pat, perhaps we can start with you.’
Cadveron took his audience through his detailed report indicating the properties of succinylcholine or sux and how it worked as a short-term paralytic. At the end, he said, ‘Apart from the injection marks under the rope line for all three deceased, the other commonality is that none of them showed self-defence bruising or injuries.’
Black passed the baton to Henry Spiers, the senior forensic scientist from Environmental Science and Research. Objective at all times, he nevertheless enjoyed the opportunity to play detective and the cut and thrust of intellectual sparring. Fingertips under his chin, Spiers said, ‘Another commonality was the rope – all the samples I was given are from the same batch.’
‘Unfortunately, it’s very common,’ interjected Joss Ward. The forty-three-year-old, fair-haired detective frowned as she tilted her head. ‘It’s a standard product. Donaghys, the company helping us, can give us a batch number and amounts sold, but their distribution of this stuff is vast. They sell to heavy industry, various distributors and individual farmers.’
Pushing back hair that was disturbingly like Hitler’s, Spiers confirmed that the substance taken from Thomas’s fridge was sux. ‘As Pat has indicated, it was of sufficient strength to completely disable someone.’
When Tuck expressed concern about the needle marks in relation to times of death, Black said that if the deaths were suicides or accidents, there’d be no needle marks at all. Cadveron backed him up, and noted that if any of the men had needed injections for medical reasons, they’d have received them in more traditional parts of the body.
Hart pointed out that no drug paraphernalia of any kind was found at any of the death scenes but syringes and needles had been found at the Thomas house.
Noticing that Tuck looked unconvinced, Black said, ‘Let’s look at the prints evidence.’ At the whiteboard he started drawing lines from the deceased’s names to Thomas, walking his audience through a maze. ‘Dench’s office has a security system. Thomas had never been there since their bust-up so he couldn’t have put his prints on that briefcase in Dench’s office. They had to be put there when he removed it from his apartment.’
When Sasha picked up on the fact that none of Thomas’s prints were found in the Apsley apartment, Black responded that the only prints on the phone in the bin behind the Thomas shed were those of Apsley. ‘I agree Thomas’s prints aren’t on that phone but he claimed it was his. That’s a bit curious, isn’t it?’ Black’s grin was sardonic. ‘Of course we can prove he lied about that, a hasty lie when he’d been caught out.’
Sasha asked about other prints, identified or otherwise, on any of the exhibits and was told some unidentified prints had been found on Dench’s table but weren’t considered relevant as they hadn’t appeared anywhere else. No prints were lifted off the ropes. ‘Who wants to talk about Thomas’s computer?’
Spiers jumped in and outlined the damage to the hard drive.
‘What are we saying here?’ asked Sasha.
‘From what we can work out through his PA,’ said Black, ‘he dealt to the computer between being arrested on the perverting justice charge and the execution of the search warrant – more or less twenty-four hours. So there’s an inference he was clearing the decks of incriminating evidence of porn trades.’
Tuck looked disapproving. Black fingered his deformed ear and detailed the eye witnesses they’d call who saw Thomas visiting Donaldson’s apartment.
‘That’s all very well,’ Tuck said with her arms folded. ‘But Thomas isn’t a medical man or a chemist, is he? I mean, a bloody financier isn’t going to know about this sux stuff?’
‘On the face of it, no,’ replied Black. ‘But are you saying that because we can’t prove how he may have acquired knowledge, we can’t prove he used it?’
‘No, not at all. Just doesn’t seem a sensible weapon of choice in his hands.’
‘We’re saying it was used to immobilise, Fiona, not kill. Pat says it doesn’t knock people out but makes them incapable of resistance. This helps the killer make it look like suicide.’
Sasha looked at the pathologist, who nodded his agreement, then asked Black, ‘So even if the materials belonged to his daughter, you say he had the shed under control?’
‘Absolutely.’ The policeman’s tone was almost jubilant. ‘But we can’t prove what technical knowledge, if any, transferred between them. So if that stuff was Christine’s to use, she had to involve her father putting anything in or taking anything out.’
Sasha frowned. ‘Hang on. Are you suggesting Christine helped him to make the drug? That might make her an accessory.’
Tuck jumped in. ‘How realistic is it, Henry, to make this sux in a garden shed?’
‘It’s possible, if they could replicate sterile conditions. But I’m not so sure. They had every ingredient except choline, although there’s nothing to say they didn’t have it earlier, of course.’
Unimpressed, Tuck said, ‘Thing is, we need to be clear whether we’re saying he made it or he acquired it. We know for a fact this isn’t something you can buy at a bloody pharmacy.’
Black flinched inwardly. Tuck had spotted a weakness he’d have to sort out. He made a note of the point on the board under the heading of ‘Problems’. ‘Let’s park that for the minute and look at the rest of the evidence.’
Hart covered off the staff member, a guy called Vickers, who’d eavesdropped on Thomas’s plotting.
‘Oh, come on,’ said Tuck. ‘A malicious witness, surely?’
‘Maybe,’ Black responded, ‘but certainly damaging if he holds up under cross-examination. So he’s in the mix.’ He looked around the room, confident he had everyone with him. ‘What do we think so far, team?’ Tuck looked very concerned. ‘There’s so many holes here, Fitzpatrick will perform like a circus ringmaster.’ She looked at Detective Woods. ‘All due respect, Woodsy, but you’ll come under fire regarding your evidence about Thomas’s admission, not least because you can’t say what he admitted to.’
The curly-haired detective rubbed his forehead. ‘He might not’ve fessed up to Michelle Thomas exactly what he was guilty of, boss, but he wanted an alibi. He didn’t need that for Donaldson or Apsley, did he? He went straight from talking to DS Black to his bedroom, having been told Dench was dead.’
Others nodded their heads.
As the room went quiet, Sasha felt all eyes were on her. ‘I think Detective Inspector Tuck’s concerns are quite valid and fair. But all in all, it’s a strong circumstantial case that’s strong enough to get through District Court committal proceedings. Given the bad relationships between Dench and Thomas, it would also be helpful to know why Dench would let Thomas into his apartment.’
‘We may never know that, Sasha,’ replied Black. ‘If Dench was expecting a caller he could have been caught off guard and let Thomas in.’
Sasha nodded and suggested that Fowler’s statement would be useful. ‘Because of the work he was doing for Dench, he knew Dench was expecting a new investor,’ ‘That’s it!’ said Hart, filled with excitement. He rushed for one of the files and flicked through job sheets. ‘Some bloke called Trembole spoke to our uniforms not long after we arrived. Said he had an appointment with Dench. That person must have be
en Thomas.’
Tuck threw her pen on the table. ‘Come on, Bazza. That could’ve been any bugger. We know some perps stick around to get involved because they can’t help themselves. But in this case?’ She shook her head. ‘These are carefully planned murders – avoiding detection is a high priority.’
The rest of the team weren’t listening. They looked ready to celebrate. It was stacking up. Black said that they’d go back to the uniforms for their description of the man and try to see what sort of match it was to Thomas. ‘So, we can carry on. If we decide to arrest Thomas for Dench’s murder we could still have more before the deps or trial.’ The competition between the two senior police personnel was undisguised, and silence hung heavily until Sasha steered them away from Dench and onto the other victims.
Black reminded the group of the power of betrayal as a motive, especially for someone like Thomas, while Tuck zeroed in on the need to show that Thomas saw the letter from Dench to Donaldson. ‘It doesn’t matter that all three men’s prints were on the envelope. Thomas’s prints aren’t on the note,’ she said, almost pleading.
By the time Black and Tuck finished their verbal ping pong both looked dismayed. The sweat stains under Black’s armpits were large half-moons and anxiety had carved deeper lines into Tuck’s face. Sasha shot a glance around the table. It seemed the police contingent in the assembly were feeling no better. Collectively, they’d concluded Tuck wasn’t just the devil’s advocate, something they expected at conferences like this, but the devil itself.
Sasha could feel her own jaw tightening. It wasn’t how she’d imagined her preparation for trial. If she was asked to prosecute Thomas, a united front from the police who put the case together would be important.
‘What say we all take a break,’ she suggested.
****
Tuck was looking out a grubby window onto Hereford Street when Sasha joined her and said quietly, ‘It’s obvious you’re not convinced about Thomas, Fiona.’
Tuck kept her gaze on the street below. ‘I think Rod’s got his team too gung ho. He’s ready to arrest before we’ve considered other angles. I think that makes for a weaker case. He pushes for closure too soon and too strong. Useful in providing focus for a team but…’