Death on Account (The Lakeland Murders) (23 page)

‘Safe Security Specialist is it, something like that?’

‘That’s right.’ Dixon had been doing the job long enough to notice her tensing up. It was something in the shoulders, the posture. ‘Why do you ask?’

‘Just a co-incidence. I saw the name in some paperwork for something we’re working on. Metals theft. Something from down your way tied in with one of our cases. Probably nothing, but might be worth following up. I think the bloke who gave the statement was called Murphy.’

‘That’s right, he’s the boss.’

‘Like I say, it’s probably nothing. Anyway, I must get off. You have a good shift, all right?’

Dixon walked down the corridor, and buzzed himself out without looking back. But he had the feeling that she was still standing there, even as the door swung closed behind him.

Dixon was much later than usual, and he knew that dinner would be more than ready. His wife wouldn’t be pleased. So he walked quickly to his car, and drove home. When he’d parked in the drive he called in, and asked for the Duty Inspector.

‘John, when Specials sign up do we take their prints for the database?’

‘I think so, but I can check for you.’

‘Would you?’

‘Sure, is it urgent? We’ve had an RTA on the 590 and it’s all hands to the cones at the moment. So I’m just off myself, mate.’

Dixon hesitated for a moment.

‘No, that’s fine. Just text me when you can. I’m assuming we do it as well, in which case I’m worrying about nothing.’

It was hot-pot night, and Dixon could smell it as soon as he opened the car door because the kitchen window was open. He realised how hungry he was, and forgot about Alison Thornton and Safe Security Specialists.

Tuesday, 14th May

Alison Thornton woke up at six, got up immediately and jumped into the shower. By half past she was packing, and by seven she was out of the rented flat. She was frightened, but she was doing her best to stay calm, and thought she wasn’t doing a bad job so far. After Dixon had asked her about where she worked and about Pat Murphy she’d started the shift, done a couple of hours, then said she had a headache and went home. Then she’d phoned in to the station on the mobile that Murphy had given her, and asked for DC Dixon. She was told that he wasn’t there, and she relaxed a bit. She probably had a few hours yet, because if he was on to her surely he’d be at the station?

Then she phoned Murphy, and told him what had happened.

‘Get out of there. Get rid of the phone now, book a taxi in another name for the morning, and get him to pick you up well away from your house. Only take a bag of clothes. Use those two credit cards I gave you, and get some cash from a machine somewhere as you go.’

‘Where shall I go?’

‘Up to you, love. You wanted in, well now you’re in. It’s easy really though, just lay low for a couple of months, or better yet three months, then get in touch with me. We’ll sort you out. You done good Alison, the boss is really grateful. We’ll see you all right. Give us a couple of months and we’ll have a nice new identity for you, a new passport, everything.’

‘So I’m going to have to live like Williams did? And am I going to die like him too?’

‘Don’t talk daft. He was a grass, and you’ve done good for us. But don’t talk like that, all paranoid, because that’s what would make the boss lose confidence in you. And we don’t want that, do we? So stay strong, and keep quiet, even if they nab you. Believe me, doing a few years for conspiracy is much better than the alternative, you hear me now, Alison? You remember that. I’m on your side.’

‘I will. I’ll do what you say, and I’ll be in touch in a few months.’

‘Great. Get rid of this phone, and don’t worry about what you need to spend to stay safe. The boss is behind you, I promise you that.’

She walked from her flat to where she’d arranged to meet the taxi at ten past seven, and asked to be taken to Lancaster. She’d been careful not to look online for an address to give, or to look up any train times. A few shifts working with CID had taught her that her electronic trail would be the first thing they’d look to follow.

She hoped that the taxi driver would be the dour sort, and he was quiet for the first ten minutes of the journey. Then he started to get inquisitive. Where was she going? What was she doing? Why had she been in Kendal?

It was all pretty much what she’d expected, and rather than say she’d had a rough night and wanted to sleep on the drive she’d already decided to answer whatever questions he asked. It would be good practice. By the time they pulled off the M6 at Lancaster Alison was feeling better, and she asked the driver to stop by a hotel in the middle of town. She’d told him that she was due to meet a colleague there, and had stayed with an old friend in Kendal the night before. He’d seemed convinced.

Alison Thornton watched the driver pull away, then she crossed the road and made for a cafe. She had no intention of catching a train, and she needed to get away from CCTV as soon as she could. It would be so easy to pick her up on the cameras here. After breakfast she walked to a bank ATM and took £200 out in cash on one of the cards, then walked down towards the bus station.

She looked around for an old bus, one without CCTV, and saw one that looked likely. It was heading back the way she’d come, to Grange-over-Sands, but that would have to do for now. So she got on, paid her fare and walked to the back of the bus. She couldn’t see any CCTV cameras, so she sat down, and put her bag down beside her.

Already the strange feeling of excitement and of heightened awareness was starting to fade. The bus smelt of diesel fumes and yesterday’s chips, and Alison wondered if she’d made a mistake turning north again. They’d soon know she was on this bus, from the CCTV in the terminus, so should she get off soon, and change buses? The key thing would be to make sure that she spent time away from the CCTV cameras, because she’d already seen enough to know how she’d be tracked: they’d build a timeline, and if they lost her at a given point they’d scour CCTV at likely destinations, with a suitable delay built in. So screwing up their timeline would help a lot, because they’d end up having to look at more and more possible destinations, and an ever-extending timeline. In the end they’d only find her if they got lucky, and she wasn’t at all sure that DI Hall had a lucky face.

The bus rumbled slowly out of town, and she listened to the school kids’ chatter. But soon it was almost empty, and only the odd pensioner climbed slowly on and off. It felt like the bus was only averaging about 5MPH. Ray Dixon would be at work by now, and she wondered how long it would be before they’d know everything, and be right on her trail. She was pretty sure it would be before she reached the end of her bus ride.

In fact Ray Dixon didn’t know yet. He’d had a text the night before, saying that Specials weren’t routinely fingerprinted, but he was fast asleep by the time it arrived. When he got to work he mentioned what he’d discovered to Jane. He could tell from the look on her face that he’d made a major mistake.

‘Why didn’t you follow up straight away, Ray? If you’d called the boss he would have bought her in for sure. You’ve found a solid connection to Murphy, and that must be important.’

‘You think so? Shit. Where is he?’

‘How would I know, Ray?’ Jane deadpanned. ‘He’ll be here in five, he was taking one of the kids to school. She’s got an exam today.’

‘Shall I send someone round to Alison Thornton’s address?’

‘I would.’

‘So you think she’s our mole?’

‘Has to be. Co-incidences do happen, but nothing like as often as our suspects would have us believe, you know that. I thought Alison was a bright girl, so if she’s ahead of us then she might take some catching.’

‘Shit, and you had her signed up as a temporary PCSO, didn’t you?’

‘Yes, that’s right. Ironic, isn’t it?’

‘That’s not what I meant. She would have been fingerprinted, right?’

‘Yeah, that’s right. You want me to run them against the ones off the Williams file while you get someone round to Alison’s place?’

Andy Hall could feel his Blackberry buzzing as he said goodbye to his daughter. It was like having a large, angry bee in his pocket. But he resisted the urge to look until she he had watched her walk in through the doors. He wanted to be there if she looked back. He wanted to be there for her always. She didn’t turn round though, and he was glad.

As he walked back to the car he looked briefly at his messages, then called Jane’s direct number.

‘What did I miss?’

‘Ray’s found our mole. Alison Thornton, that Special who worked with Gill. She’s an accountant at the security firm that Murphy runs, and we’ve just run her print against the one on the file. It’s her all right.’

‘OK, well done, have we found her yet?’

‘Doesn’t seem to be at home.’

‘Right, is her car there?’

‘Yes, it is. Uniform have checked and confirmed.’

‘OK. Do me a favour, and find a key holder. I’ll get straight round there. What’s the address?’

‘Do you want me to tell the Super?’

‘No, I’ll do that now. He’s going to go mental, absolutely mental when he finds out. You know Alison was his protege, his little discovery?’

‘Wouldn’t it be good if he cut a few corners on the process? Might take the heat off Ray.’

‘Let’s not worry about that now. Tell Ray to hold the fort and get the incident room back up and running. Ask him to get tech support onto her mobile pronto too, please.’

‘She knows the ropes Andy. She knows how we work.’

‘I know, but let’s do it the right way. Get him to get her bank account details sorted too. Let’s see how clever she really is.’

Hall didn’t expect to find much at Alison Thornton’s house, and he wasn’t disappointed. She’d left in a hurry, and other than recovering her laptop and leaving SOCO to check for other prints there wasn’t much more to do.

‘First job is find out when she left here, and how’ he said to the uniformed Sergeant who’d come down from HQ to cover for Charlie Coward. Hall had to resist the urge to ask him how old he was. ‘Door to door the neighbours as fast as you can, and get your people to show the photo. The suspect probably had an overnight bag or something. May have been collected by a cab. And check if she had any callers, last night especially. Jane, let’s you and me call round the local cab companies right now, and try from that end. Have you got the numbers?’

When he first walked in to the open CID office he was surprised at the number of people there. Three or four from technical support, a uniformed Inspector from HQ and a couple of DCs from other stations. But then the penny dropped. Superintendent Robinson wanted to find Alison Thornton, and fast, so he’d called in a few favours. He walked round each group, checked how they were doing, and called Dixon in to his office.

‘I’m sorry, boss’ he said, as soon as the door was closed.

Hall held up his hand. ‘Stop there, Ray. Jane told me what you said to her, and that’s the last we’ll say about it. I don’t want the Super finding himself yet another whipping boy in my team. But in case anyone asks, you chatted to Alison last night, the subject of her employer came up, and it was this morning that you made the connection. It just came to you, in the shower or something. Is that clear?’

‘Yes, boss, but it’s not all that convincing, is it?’

‘In comparison with what? I have lots of my best ideas in the shower. That’s what happened, and when the team meeting starts in,’ Hall looked down at the old Omega that had belonged to his father, ‘nine minutes time I’m going to congratulate you on a brilliant and dedicated bit of Police work. And what are you going to say?’

‘Nothing. Just look modest.’

‘That’s right. You’ve done nothing wrong, and because of you we’ve got a breakthrough at last. Tony Sheridan will get Murphy in again, but it will do him sod all good. But if we can get hold of Alison Thornton before Cafferty’s crew do, then we could be on our way to nailing Murphy for conspiracy to murder.’

‘You think she’s in danger? Bugger, I hadn’t thought of that.’

‘It’s a possibility, Ray. Look, get back out there, and don’t be surprised if the Super takes a special interest in all this, if you follow my drift.’

‘So it’s true, he did get Alison signed up as a Special?’

‘Oh yes indeed. She wrote to him, as one God-botherer to another I wouldn’t doubt, and he fast tracked her in. Jane’s had a look, and she didn’t attend the assessment day at all.’

‘So his arse is on the line.’

‘Yes, DC Dixon, I’m very much afraid that it is.’

Dixon tried to look solemn as he left the office, but his mood was back on the up. Terry Walker had been given a thorough hiding, and now the Super was right in the shit. Perhaps he was right: maybe there was a God after all.