‘Just out of interest,’ Banks asked, ‘does Corrigan have any connections with Estonia?’
‘Estonia? Not that I know of,’ said Gwillam.
‘Maybe through the migrant labour scam? Through Flinders?’
‘I suppose it’s possible, but I’ve never seen or heard anything.’
‘I was just thinking about the Rachel Hewitt case. Bill Quinn worked on that. He even went to Tallinn in the early stages.’
‘You think there’s a connection?’
‘I don’t know. Right now, we’re just looking more closely at the Hewitt case for various reasons, but as far as I know she was simply an innocent English girl who disappeared abroad. No body has ever been found. But that was six years ago. Where was Corrigan then?’
‘No idea, but I don’t think he was on anyone’s radar that long ago. Maybe mugging old ladies and robbing sweet shops.’
‘It might be worth checking.’
‘Bit of a long shot.’
‘I know.’ Banks sighed. ‘That’s the way everything seems in this case. I’m just hoping one of them will hit the mark. Even if Corrigan wasn’t involved, he might be doing business with people who were. Did Bill ever talk about Rachel?’
‘Not much. It was long before my time, and way out of my areas of interest. It came up once or twice in conversation, but you soon got the sense that it wasn’t a good idea to mention it. Bill didn’t like to talk about it. He’d get all broody.’
‘Why do you think that was?’
‘He felt he’d failed the girl.’
‘But he never really got a chance to succeed.’
‘Doesn’t matter. He was just that kind of copper. Took it personal, like.’
‘But why?’ Banks paused to collect his thoughts. ‘This is something that puzzles me. Everybody I talk to tells me Bill Quinn was haunted by the Rachel Hewitt case, that he felt he failed, but in reality he didn’t have very much to do with it. Why did Bill Quinn care so much? He spent a few days in Tallinn, that’s all, surely more of a public relations exercise than anything else, by the sound of it, and when he comes back it’s as if his life has been blighted by the whole thing. Why?’ He wasn’t going to tell Gwillam about the added complication of the mystery girl and the photos, clearly taken in Tallinn, too, which might go some way towards explaining Quinn’s obsession.
‘Like I said, he was that kind of copper,’ said Gwillam, through tight lips. He pushed his cup aside. ‘And I’ve worked with all types. Bill took everything seriously. And he happens to have a daughter about the same age as Rachel. He doted on Jessica. Now, if you don’t mind...’
‘Work to do?’
‘Something like that.’
Gwillam got up and walked down Lands Lane, turning left on Bond Street, out of sight among the crowds of shoppers. Banks swirled the remains of his tea and mulled over what he had just heard. He’d been searching for connections and finding too many, each of which seemed to cancel out or contradict the other. He remembered Annie telling him what she had heard at St Peter’s about Quinn’s overriding sense of guilt. He had been out on surveillance when his wife died, and that kind of thing could eat away at you. Every copper had missed something important in his family life because of the job — an anniversary party, kid’s graduation, a birth, a wedding, even a funeral. Most learned to live with it, but it dragged some of the best men and women down.
Banks glanced at his watch. Time to head back to Eastvale so he could check on developments there before the end of the day.
Chapter 6
On Tuesday morning, Banks was in his office early again, and this time the first to knock on his door was an excited Gerry Masterson brandishing a sheaf of papers, her wavy red hair cascading over her shoulders in all its pre-Raphaelite glory.
‘It’s not that there haven’t been a few crimes involving the use of crossbows,’ she began before even sitting down, ‘but nearly all of them are domestic, or they involve some nutter going on a spree and either getting caught or killed.’
‘And the ones that aren’t?’
‘That’s what’s interesting. I looked for a pattern.’
‘And did you find one?’
‘I found three unsolved murders overseas involving the use of a crossbow — same make of bolt used as in the Quinn killing, too, by the way — all in one way or another connected with the world of people-trafficking and illegal immigration.’
‘Now that’s interesting,’ said Banks, taking another sip of coffee. Masterson had brought her own mug with her.
‘I thought so. There was one in Vilnius, that’s in Lithuania, one in Amsterdam, and one in Marseilles.’
‘How hard is it to get a crossbow across European borders?’
‘Not very,’ said Masterson. ‘You probably wouldn’t want to carry one on a plane, but you could take it apart and put it in with your checked luggage. Or why not just buy a new one in each country, if you’re paranoid about getting searched? It’s not as if you need a permit or anything. However you look at it, it’s a lot less trouble than a gun.’
‘True enough,’ said Banks. ‘The victims?’
‘Not known to us, sir, but with definite Interpol profiles. In all cases the conclusion was that the victims were either skimming the profits or about to blow the whistle on a lucrative people-trafficking route, usually connected with Eastern Europe.’
‘I don’t suppose any suspects’ names cropped up, did they?’
‘Afraid not, sir.’
‘Pity. You said overseas. What about in this country?’
‘I was just getting to that, sir. We’ve had two over the past three years: a gangmaster in South Shields, and a hoodie on a housing estate in Stockton-on-Tees. Both unsolved. The gangmaster was connected with illegals, and local intelligence suggests that the hoodie was attempting to break into the loan-sharking business on his own.’
‘Interesting,’ said Banks. ‘So we’ve got some sort of enforcer for the people-trafficking and loan-sharking business?’
‘It seems that way, sir.’
‘Any links to Corrigan?’
‘No, sir.’
‘OK. Do we have any idea who this bowman works for?’
‘No, sir. I suppose it could be just one person, some sort of crime kingpin who employs him when he’s needed. Or he might be for hire. A freelance.’
‘Hmm. Anything more on the car?’
‘I checked with the local rental agencies. There was a Ford Focus with similar cross-hatching on the front left tyre, the same shade of green paint as the scraping we found, rented from Hertz in Leeds last Wednesday and returned on Friday.’
‘Details?’
‘Arnold Briggs, address in South London. UK driving licence. But it’s all fake, sir. I checked. There’s no such address.’
‘I suppose if these people can forge passports and work visas, they can forge driving licences, too. So whoever Arnold Briggs is, he’s long gone?’
‘Afraid so, sir.’ Her expression brightened. ‘But the car hasn’t been rented out again. It’s been cleaned, of course, but forensics might still find something, mightn’t they?’
‘Indeed they might,’ said Banks. ‘It’s worth a try, at any rate. Get on to them and—’
‘I’ve already talked to DS Nowak, sir.’ DC Masterson flushed slightly as she spoke Nowak’s name. ‘I took the liberty. I hope you don’t mind. He says he’s on it. This does get us forward a little bit, doesn’t it?’
Banks admired her enthusiasm, and he didn’t want to dampen it. ‘Yes, it certainly does,’ he said. ‘That’s good work, Gerry. You showed initiative. Let’s go through what we know, or suspect, point by point.’ He counted off on his fingers. ‘One: the same car was at both crime scenes. The methods of killing were different, so maybe there are two killers. Two: Quinn and the victim at the farm had spoken twice on the telephone shortly before their murders. Three: we think the victim at the farm was also a victim of some sort of migrant labour scam. Four: Quinn had in his possession a number of photographs of himself in a compromising position with a young woman, most likely taken six years ago in Tallinn. Five: Quinn was briefly involved in investigating the disappearance of Rachel Hewitt, also in Tallinn, at that time. Six: Warren Corrigan, on the surface a petty loan shark, is connected with Roderick Flinders, owner of Rod’s Staff Ltd, a front for migrant and illegal labour scams. Seven: Bill Quinn was involved in the investigation of said Corrigan. Have I missed anything? I’m running out of fingers. Yes. Eight: There were rumours of a bent copper, possibly Quinn, and possibly through blackmail. It’s all giving me a headache.’