STRANGE BODIES (a gripping crime thriller) (27 page)

‘No, Nick, not me. Merlin. Remember the three of us are in synch.’

He smiled and dropped a kiss on her upturned face. ‘We sure are. But now, my darling, I really must go. I’ll call you later today. Try to rest.’

‘Rest! Ha, just wait. Thirty seconds after I release the security they’ll be here. Watch.’

As she predicted, seconds later they heard the back door open and Amy came in with her basket. She looked at them both and smiled.

Nicholas said goodbye and walked out through the sun-filled courtyard to collect his car. Sure enough, as he reached the garage he looked back and saw Adelaide and Lucy going in.

Then he pondered the information Merlin had found. He wasn’t entirely convinced Gray was involved but Verity seemed adamant. He would bring it up at the meeting this morning, couldn’t hurt. All those intrusions on Verity’s computer. And Mrs Halifax was concerned about blips, as she put it.

Yes, maybe there was something there.

Chapter 37

‘Good morning, Commander. How is Dr Burne? I hope she is recovering from that horrible attack, poor thing.’

‘She’s doing quite well, thank you, Mrs H. I’ve just left her, as a matter of fact, and Amy Lightfoot looking after her.’

She smiled at him and said, ‘That’s good news. Now I have a few messages for you.’

‘Heavens, Mrs Halifax, don’t you ever go home. It’s just after seven-thirty.’

‘I don’t live far away and my cat wakes me right on five every morning. So I’m usually here by seven-thirty.’

Nicholas was ashamed to realize he didn’t know where Mrs Halifax lived, or that she had a cat. All this time and he still knew next to nothing about her … her personal life, that is. He remembered something then.

‘I met your friend Mrs Tennant, Elise, the other day when I visited Marcus in his office. She looks a lot like you.’

She said, ‘Yes, Elise and I are half sisters and worked together for many years.’ She gave him one of her bland looks. ‘Like me, she had more or less decided to resign from government service when Sir Marcus offered her a position as his personal assistant. When he is away she stays here to keep things running smoothly for him. She doesn’t like to travel.’

‘Thank you, Mrs Halifax. I’m sorry I haven’t asked you any of this before but you always struck me as such a private person.’

‘Elise told me something odd last night. I wouldn’t break a confidence as a rule but it’s about Orlando Gray.’ She shivered slightly.

He said, ‘That’s strange, Verity has the same reaction to him. I just find him boring.’

‘There’s something about him that makes the hair on my arms stand up and Elise feels the same. He pretty much ignores her, when he’s not giving orders. He’s a computer genius, but he doesn’t know she trained in the same, aah, you know, area, as I did. She’s just as
au fait
with computer technology and security matters as I am; Sir Marcus wouldn’t have employed her otherwise. He always likes to keep people in separate boxes, as it were. Now where was I?’

‘You were about to tell me something about Gray, I presume.’

‘Oh, yes. A week or so ago she overheard him talking to that woman.’ She sniffed expressively. ‘They didn’t notice she was there, she said. She was urging him to do something … she couldn’t hear much just the words, “You promised”. Then he said something about a holiday and getting the ATV, time for the next ... then he glanced over at her, murmured something and they went into his office. I believe they’ve gone away together.’

‘You mean Lara Nash, I presume. And Mrs Tennant doesn’t approve of her?’

‘She doesn’t approve of either of them. Oh, not on moral grounds, she’s no prude, in fact ... no, that would be gossip.’ She flashed a rather cheeky smile, for a second looking like a young girl. ‘Enough chit chat. The Deputy Commissioner wants a word, nine-thirty was suggested … a message came through late last night. And the press conference is scheduled for eleven-thirty.’

‘Why on earth didn’t he contact me personally. I was … oh, damn!’ He looked embarrassed, ‘I turned off my phones and forgot to switch on again. Christ, they’re still off. No wonder it’s been so quiet.’ He pulled his work and personal phones out, switched them on then groaned at the list of messages. ‘The one time I switch off, the bloody boss wants me. Any idea what for?’

‘No, the message just said to call him.’

‘Fine, okay, right. Will you ring through and see if I can talk to him now instead.’ He slanted a look at her, but her bland expression was giving nothing away. Too bland? He wondered if the way he had spent some of the night … and the early morning … was obvious.
Not that it matters
, he thought.
We’re both adult and single
.

‘Now the press conference. Some of the smarter journos are starting to speculate, putting it together, now that we have three murders on our plate. We’d better put together something to keep the press satisfied; no doubt the Deputy Commissioner will have some input in that too.’

‘I’ll take care of that, sir, while you go through your messages. I took the liberty of preparing a few notes earlier … might be useful for the press conference. On your desk comp.’

He took the hint and retired to his office with a mug of coffee from the machine. There were at least ten messages, and two on his personal phone, the latest from Verity. He read that first, her message a simple one … a smile, as she blew him a kiss. He saved it to savour later then checked his other messages. Most of them were from the press and he sent them straight to the PR office. One from Marcus to say he was off to New Zealand but would be back the next day.

Then it hit him, the background … Verity was in her sealed room. What the hell was she up to now? She was supposed to be resting. He was tempted to call her but time was short.

He activated his desk comp and found that some additional reports from the ME’s office had come through as well as more from the forensics lab and Mrs Halifax’s press conference notes. Hell, it was a complete speech and there was very little he needed to add. Once again he blessed the day Mrs H came into his life.

Still nothing from the UK or
InterCat
. What the hell was going on there. He called through to the main squad room. ‘Fraser, can you see if Blanchard’s in yet?’

‘Yes, he’s in the kitchen, I think. A bunch of them came in early and headed for the coffee. What’s up?’

‘Later, later. I’ll go into it when were all together, it’s too complicated to go over twice. Better round up everyone and get this going. I have a feeling today’s the breakthrough day.’

By eight-fifteen they were all there. Adams gave them the news on Verity’s recovery since they’d all enquired. Then the screens were loaded with images and information about the three murders as were the boards and everyone’s personal comps.

‘DS Blanchard, er, Jet, bring us up to date on those files from Levinsky’s computer.’

‘Yessir, I’ve been through everything now. There’s a complete record of all the InterPharm dealings, balance sheets, bank accounts … numbered accounts in tax havens for all the members. Not just his, everyone’s.’ He looked puzzled. ‘Except for the chief accountant’s.’ He glanced at his notes. ‘Peter Ashton. Either he wasn’t in on it or his own account is too well hidden. There’s also a record of where they all went when they vamoosed, aliases, even the plastic surgeon in Italy some of them used.’ He looked around the table and said, ‘You won’t be surprised to know he’s dead, apparent burglary gone wrong. Yeah, right!’

‘All these files … have you sent them to everyone yet?’

‘No, sir, not yet. Wanted to check with you first. Hundreds of files, lotta stuff you probably don’t need. I figured where they went and the names they used would be the most important so I’ve printed that out.’ He handed round a pile of papers.

DI Gold said, ‘Look at that. Perez, Rossi and the Emersons—the notation next to their names.’

‘Perez, deceased, murdered, mutilated, possibly tortured, in Spain. Rossi, deceased, heart attack, some signs of torture, Italy. Must have died of shock. Hedley and Lydia Emerson, deceased, burnt to death in a car accident just outside Chicago two years ago. Went off the road in suspicious circumstances. Our boy’s been busy,’ said Fraser reading from the handout.

‘If it
is
the same person. How could he get to all those countries? And look at the dates? They’re all in the last three years. They must have felt safe after all these years.’

‘And it’s no wonder Levinsky kept his head down, tried to avoid looking directly at the TV cameras. He knew about these. The Richardsons, too. They didn’t socialise much, just work and home. They must have been in touch with each other.’

‘And not forgetting our Daintree victim, Laker, Lake, Niles Leonard. Fled to Australia, thinking he’d be safe here. Not safe enough obviously.’

‘There’s one missing … Ernest Yarrow, where’s he. Could he be our murderer?’

Adams stood up then. After hearing all this he was convinced Verity was right. ‘Forget Yarrow, he’s seventy-five years old. We may have a suspect, in fact, we may have two suspects.’

He flicked his
Tyle
open. While going through the messages in his office he’d remembered that it was synched to Merlin, and as Verity had said that information on Gray should have been sent to his
Tyle
too. And sure enough it was. And interesting reading it made too. No clear motive for murder yet but it would come. There was more but this was enough for now.

‘These are the people we’re going to look closely at.’ He sent the images of Orlando Gray and Lara Nash to a split wall screen then waited, still standing, for the hubbub to die down.

While they talked, he buzzed Mrs Halifax. ‘Can you track down Jacobsen for me, please. I think we may have found his murderer. Phone or in person. Thanks.’

The commander said, ‘I’m sending their backgrounds to you. Have a read and see if you agree. DS Blanchard, if you want to get back to your computer work?’

‘Sir, I’d like to stay a while, if that’s okay with you. I’ve pretty much finished that work.’

The commander considered him for a few seconds. ‘There is something you can do.’ He gestured him over to the side of the room and spoke in a low voice. ‘We still haven’t heard from InterCat or HOLMES. I want to find out about the trial and where the three they actually managed to keep hold of were sent. Whatever you can find on them. Possible?’

‘You mean … ?’ he raised both eyebrows.

‘Whatever you can get,’ said Adams firmly.

‘There’s one other thing, sir. Steiner kept a sort of diary, not every day, just highlights I guess, brief entries up till he did a runner. One of the last entries caught my eye. All it said was “Conrad’s gone too far this time, that wasn’t necessary.” I don’t know what that means but I’ll send it on to you. Now I’ll just get on with your little chore.’

He wasn’t in the habit of authorising illegal hacking, which it probably was, Adams thought. But this was a vicious bastard and if the information was correct, he had already tortured and murdered seven InterPharm people. He added the so-called terrorist who attacked Verity to the count too.

It was to be hoped that Ashton, Grantham and Hill were still safe in jail, though safe was a relative term in UK jails. Information on Ashton seemed to be strangely lacking, no aliases arranged, no bank accounts listed. Was he intended to be the fall-guy?

Mrs Halifax buzzed. ‘DI Jacobsen was already on his way here. Said he’d just been talking to Dr Burne and she suggested he should contact you.’

‘Good, thanks for that. Send him straight in to the boardroom when he gets here.’

‘It’s almost nine-thirty, sir. Do you want to take Deputy Underhill’s call in your office?’

‘Bugger it, sorry. Office, please. They can keep going without me.’

At nine-thirty he was in his office on the phone to the Deputy’s office, but to his surprise it was the Commissioner himself, Anthony Sherwood, who appeared on the wall screen with Underhill present in a three-way hook-up.

‘I want to keep this low key, Commander, that’s why I didn’t ask you to come to New Canberra. I’m sorry I haven’t been in touch lately ... politics, I’m afraid, goes with the job. Sometimes I wish I’d stayed in the field.’

Nicholas thought
This isn’t at all what I was expecting
. ‘Yes, sir,’ he said, ‘I missed it too so I’ve taken steps to get my hands dirty again, for a while at least. You’ve had my reports?’

‘Yes, of course. As I said, politics have been my main concern and there’s been a lot of fallout from the Mostyn affair. I’m afraid it’ll mean another one of those witch-hunts the …’, he stopped for a second then went on blandly, ‘that we have from time to time. I know everyone hates Internal Investigations but a necessary evil, I’m sure you’ll agree, Nicholas.’

Adams was surprised, the first time the Commissioner had addressed him by his first name. ‘Of course, sir. I understand Mostyn has dropped … er, implicated a number of other officers and civilians.’

‘Dropped them in the shit, quite right,’ said Underhill, almost cheerfully. ‘Got them all too, we think, though there may be a few more. We’re keeping alert.’

Sherwood said, ‘Commander, I’ve cancelled your press conference, hope you don’t mind.’ He smiled then at Adams’ grin. ‘We got wind of certain members of the gutter press planning to hijack or disrupt it with allegations of corruption and cover-ups at the highest level. I don’t want you facing that crap in the middle of these murder investigations.’

Underhill took over, said ruefully, ‘Your loss, my gain. The press conference is rescheduled for three o’clock. We’ll be taking only questions relating to the Mostyn affair, as they are calling it. However, I want you to prepare a press release regarding progress on these murders.’

‘I had one ready but we’ve just had a breakthrough.’

‘Don’t tell me you’ve got a suspect!’

‘Two, actually. Orlando Gray and Lara Nash.’

‘Orlando Gray, why do I know that name. Oh, my God, Sir Marcus Havington. He’s Sir Marcus’ Security chief!’

Adams corrected him. ‘Systems and Security chief, actually, a vital difference. He’s our murderer and I don’t care who he works for,’ he said savagely. ‘He’s an electronics expert and we think he’s been hacking into the police computers, as someone was always one step ahead of us and no one here has leaked. As you may recall the house we suspected as the murder site for the Richardsons was destroyed before we could get to it. And there’ve been a number of other incidents.’