89
Friday 29 April
The ACC sat behind his desk, studiously sharpening a yellow pencil with a tiny silver sharpener, in his elegant office just along the corridor from the Chief Constable. His fair hair was coiffed in neat waves, not a single strand out of place, his shirt was pressed to crisp perfection, the epaulettes bearing his ACC crescent looking, as ever, freshly minted, and his uniform looked like it had been pressed five minutes ago. Mr Immaculate. So perfect in every way, Grace thought, irreverently, that Cassian Pewe’s turds probably came out in the shape of smileys.
‘Take a seat, Roy,’ he said without looking up from his task.
Grace selected one of the two leather chairs in front of the desk.
‘I understand DS Exton is being kept in hospital overnight for observation. He has two broken ribs, concussion and a bruised spleen. The doctors, concerned about internal bleeding, will make a decision in the morning about when he could be discharged. Am I correct?’
‘Yes, sir.’
Pewe held the pencil up, peered at the tip, then tested it with his finger, before placing it among an assortment in a black pen-holder on his desk. ‘Unlike our friend, Mr Tooth, whose condition has not changed, I think there is value to keeping a round-the-clock guard on Exton. Do you have that in hand?’
‘I do, sir. I’m arranging for DIs Glenn Branson and Kevin Hall to formally arrest Exton as soon as he is in a fit state, and at that time he will be suspended.’
Pewe stared hard at him. ‘All right, can you see your way clear to doing that?’ he said, sarcastically.
Holding his anger in, just, Grace replied through clenched teeth, ‘Yes, sir.’
‘To avoid any embarrassment with his colleagues, and ensure neutral treatment, he needs to be interviewed in a police station outside of Sussex. I’ve spoken to the former Deputy Chief Constable of Sussex, Olivia Pinkney, who as you know is now Chief Constable of Hampshire, and she has kindly offered us Portsmouth police station.’
‘I think that is very sensible,’ Grace said. ‘And in fact I’ve already been in touch with Hampshire police. In the interim, before Exton is discharged from hospital, I’m having his fingerprints on the database compared with the lifts taken at the crime scene.’
‘And a media strategy?’ Pewe asked.
‘I’ve got Comms working on that.’
‘Excellent.’ He raised his hands in the air. ‘You may go. Unless you have anything else for me?’
Grace contemplated pressing him further about his conversations with Bruno in German, yesterday. But decided to hold that for another day.
‘Yes, sir,’ he said. ‘Actually, I do. There is some CCTV footage that has been obtained from a GoPro camera in a car opposite the side entrance to Vallance Mansions. It apparently shows a man, his face partially obscured by a baseball cap, acting suspiciously in the vicinity around the time we believe Lorna Belling died. Maria O’Brien’s team are currently enhancing it and I’m intending asking the Super Recognizer team at Scotland Yard to take a look at it.’
‘For what reason, Roy?’
Patiently, he explained. ‘My hope is a Super Recognizer will be able to positively identify the offender from the facial features visible.’
‘And your expectation is that will be DS Exton?’
‘If it turns out to be DS Exton, it will strengthen our case against him.’
‘Good, you’ll keep me posted?’
‘Yes, sir.’
Posted, yes. I’d like to stuff you, screaming in pain, through a narrow letterbox, Roy Grace thought.
Momentarily relishing the image, he left the room.
90
Friday 29 April
As he headed back to his office, his phone rang. It was Kevin Hall.
‘Boss,’ he said, ‘this may be nothing, but I thought you should know. I’ve just spoken with a Keith Wadey, who’s the Assistant Port Engineer of Shoreham Port. He carries out a fortnightly side-scan sonar check of the harbour, looking for obstacles — in particular submerged vehicles — that might damage the propellers or hulls of ships in the harbour. Earlier today he recovered an Apple MacBook Pro laptop from Arlington Basin. It’s a recent model, fifteen-inch optical screen, and from its condition he thinks it has only recently been deposited. He reported it, thinking it might be suspicious — perhaps stolen. An alert detective at John Street was aware that we are looking for a laptop and phone that could be missing from Lorna Belling’s flat in Vallance Mansions and phoned the Incident Room, and was put through to me.’
‘How recently does Wadey think it was dumped, Kevin?’
‘Within the past two weeks, he’s pretty sure — since his last scan.’
Grace felt a beat of excitement. ‘You need to speak to Digital Forensics, Kevin, and see if they can restore any of the data.’
‘I’m on it, boss. Ray Packham has collected the laptop from Shoreham. He’s going to pack it in rice and believes he’ll be able to recover all the data from it as soon as it has dried out — he reckons twenty-four hours will do it. I’ve also asked Ray for the serial number — I should be able to trace it to the supplier and purchaser from that.’
‘Nice work, Kevin,’ Grace said. ‘Let me know as soon as you have anything.’
‘Yes, boss!’
Grace entered his office and sat at his desk, thinking about this. Then he googled MacBook Pro 15-inch screen models. Prices started at around £1,500 for the most basic model. Then he went to eBay and did a search there. Second-hand values were high, from £1,500 upwards.
So, he thought, anyone who had stolen one of these would surely try to sell it — even on a criminal black market it would be worth several hundred pounds, minimum. What possible reason could anyone have for throwing one into the harbour?
Other than to get rid of it. Because?
There was evidence on it?
Possibly. More than possibly?
Could this one be connected to Lorna Belling? He had a feeling that it just might.
Hopefully, he’d find out soon enough.
He opened his address book and looked for the contact details for Jonathan Jackson on the Super Recognizer Team that Ray Packham had sent him yesterday.
It had been a good decade, if not longer, since the detective had left Sussex Police to join the Metropolitan Police — at a time when the Met were recruiting from the provinces, tempting officers with substantially larger pay packets and fewer unsociable work hours.
Grace had been sorry to lose Jackson, who had been a dependable member of his team. He found the number and dialled it. Jackson answered on the second ring.
‘Good to hear from you, guv! To what do I owe the pleasure of this call?’
‘I’m told you’re involved with the Super Recognizer team — is that right?’
‘Yes, very much so.’
‘If I needed their help, how quickly could that happen?’
‘Just as fast as you want, guv. I can put you through to MetCU and they’ll allocate a duty Super Recognizer to you.’
‘What do they need to work from, Jonathan?’
‘Still photographs or video — obviously the better the quality, the more chance we have of making an accurate identification.’
‘Would we send it up to you, or do you have someone who could come down and look at it in situ?’
‘They’d send someone down to you, preferably.’
‘Great. When are you on-call until, Jonathan?’
‘Like you, guv. 24/7. Call me anytime you need me.’