Dead at First Sight, page 39
‘Is that so? You’ve never given me that impression.’
‘Roy, let’s put our cards on the table. I don’t want to lose you. I may not like you, and I know you don’t like me, but I recognize that you are a bloody good police officer.’
Grace stared him back, levelly. ‘What you actually mean, Cassian – sorry – sir – is that I make you look good.’
Grace stood up and walked out of the room, slamming the door behind him. Slamming it on a chapter of his life.
129
Saturday, October 13th
‘I can’t believe it!’ Cleo said, snuggling up beside him on the sofa in front of the television. Noah toddled across his play mat, stumbled and giggled, then began pressing buttons on a toy, each of which was in the shape of an animal. He stabbed an elephant, which trumpeted. Then a cat, which miaowed, followed by a sheep, which baaed. He giggled again.
‘Believe what?’
‘That you are actually here, at home on a Saturday afternoon, watching rugby – instead of working. And looking like the cat that got the cream!’
‘Maybe I did get it.’
She looked at him, quizzically. ‘You’ve not had any second thoughts since last night? You really think fighting knife crime in London is going to be an easier gig than your current job?’
‘Anything that doesn’t have Cassian Pewe involved is going to be an easier gig.’
‘Really? Commuting to London daily – that’s going to be easier?’
‘It’s only a six-month posting.’
‘What if they want to extend it and keep you on a year, two years? Permanently?’
Grace watched, hope rising as an England player sprinted with the ball towards the touchline, then he grimaced as the player was felled by a tackle.
‘Darling, my heart’s here in Brighton,’ he said. ‘I wouldn’t ever want a permanent posting away. But I’d be very happy to have a six-month break from Cassian Pewe.’
‘Well, if it’s going to make you less stressed than what you’re currently doing, I guess that’s a good thing.’
‘Less stressed and a higher pay scale. What’s not to like? It’ll help towards the cost of Bruno’s bathroom!’
She smiled, fleetingly, then looked him in the eye. ‘It’ll help towards another cost, too.’
‘Oh yes?’
She patted her midriff, looking both happy and sheepish at the same time. ‘I think I’m pregnant!’
‘You are?’ He put his arms around her and kissed her. ‘Oh my God, fantastic! Are you sure?’
‘I’ve got an appointment with the doctor on Monday, but I did a second test this morning and it’s positive!’
‘Brilliant, I can’t believe it!’ He sat for some moments, holding her tightly. ‘Just amazing news.’
‘Let’s celebrate properly after it’s confirmed on Monday – and don’t let’s tell anyone yet, in case—’ She shrugged, and the unspoken words hung in the air.
‘Sure, of course.’
Cleo glanced at her watch. ‘I’ll have to go and pick Bruno up in a few minutes, from his party bus. He was so excited when I dropped him off. I really hope he’s had a good time with his school friends. Maybe this will be the breakthrough.’
‘Let’s hope so. I can go if you want – a pregnant lady should have plenty of rest!’
‘You’re the one who needs it this weekend,’ she replied.
‘I wish! I have to go in tomorrow morning for a team debrief.’
‘Will you be there all day?’
‘Most of it, I’m afraid.’
‘So tell me more about yesterday – what’s going to happen to that poor army guy who got conned out of every penny he has in the world?’
‘Fordwater?’
‘Will he go to prison?’
‘We’re putting a file together for the Coroner, and I’ve spoken to the CPS. He will be charged with illegal possession of a firearm, and I can’t do anything about that. He’s being interviewed under caution this morning, with his solicitor. I feel sorry for him, but I’m not sure what he had in mind going to that house – whether he was just planning to frighten Jules de Copeland or actually shoot him. He says he was acting in self-defence, protecting himself, and – ironically – de Copeland. Ultimately it will be for the CPS to decide what to charge him with.’
‘The poor guy,’ she said, ‘I feel sorry for him. His life’s destroyed.’
‘I’m afraid he’s a member of a very big club. Men and women looking for love on the internet in this country have been scammed out of an estimated £300 million in the past twelve months. Most of them are in their sixties, seventies, eighties and even nineties. Many of them, like Fordwater, have lost their homes and every penny they have in the world. And with no chance of ever recovering any of it. It’s tragic.’
‘So Major Fordwater should get a medal, not a prison sentence.’
‘If there was any justice in the world.’
130
Saturday 13 October
At half past five, Roy Grace was on the phone to Glenn Branson, who was updating him on the interviews with Fordwater and with Lynda Merrill, when he heard the sound of Cleo’s car pulling up outside the cottage.
Humphrey ran to the front door, barking, waking Noah, who for the past hour had been sound asleep on the floor.
‘Go to your room!’ he heard Cleo bellow, sounding uncharacteristically furious.
Moments later she stormed into the living room, her face a thundercloud.
‘Call you back in a few minutes,’ Grace said, and put the phone down as Cleo stood in front of him, shaking her head.
He looked up at her. ‘What? What’s happened?’
‘Our – sorry – your – darling son. That’s what’s happened.’
He stood up. ‘Tell me?’ She was close to tears and he put his arms around her.
‘I need a stiff drink.’
‘Is that wise?’
‘No, it’s not wise, and I know I can’t have any. But my mother drank all through her pregnancy with me and I survived.’
He poured two glasses of sparkling water and they sat down. ‘So, what’s happened?’
She burst into tears. Noah began bawling.
Glancing down, as if torn between him and her husband, she said, ‘I’ve never been so embarrassed in my life. God.’ She sniffed, composing herself a little. ‘I arrived at this very posh house in Hove, which had a large bus parked in the driveway. The parents of the boy who’d invited Bruno looked at me like I was something the cat brought in. Other parents, too, were looking at me like I’m some kind of monster.’
‘Why, what had he done?’
‘Bruno had completely ruined the party, for fourteen children.’
‘What happened? What on earth happened?’
‘They’d hired the gaming bus, right – for all the children. At some point, Bruno locked himself inside the bus and wouldn’t let any of the other children in. That’s what happened.’
‘You’re not serious?’
‘He – just like – barricaded himself inside, halfway through the party. He locked the doors so that none of the kids, nor the driver who’d gone to stretch his legs, could get in. And he spent the rest of the time in there by himself, ignoring everyone hammering on the doors and the windows.’
Grace felt his heart plummeting. ‘What – I mean – how – why? What was going through his mind?’
‘He told me why in the car. He said, Because they were too slow. They were at a completely different level to me, slowing me down.’
Grace stared at her in numb silence. ‘He did that?’
‘The whole party was ruined. By Bruno. He’s got no concept at all of socialization. He alienated himself from every boy and girl there. He’s a bully, Roy, he’s a bloody bully. We can’t have him behaving like that.’
‘I’ll go up and speak to him.’
She shook her head. ‘No, not now. I’ve tried telling him on the way home that what he’s done is just not acceptable. He knows how angry I am. Leave him tonight and let’s both speak to him tomorrow. I don’t think there’s anything you’re going to get from him tonight.’
They sat in silence.
‘I’m sorry,’ Roy Grace said, finally. ‘This is all my fault. Maybe I shouldn’t have brought Bruno here to live with us.’
‘Of course you should – he’s your son. He drives me mad, too, but I honestly think there’s a decent person inside his – his persona or whatever. From what you’ve said about his mother, he’s had a pretty strange upbringing to say the least. The son of a heroin addict can’t be expected to immediately adopt other values.’
‘You really think that?’
‘Yes.’
‘Remember what we talked about not all that long ago, about when we first met?’
‘Yep, over the corpse in the mortuary. And you were turned on by my scrubs, right?’
He gave her a teasing look. ‘Well, apart from those, what also turned me on was something you said as you looked down at the body. It was a twenty-two-year-old male who’d been stabbed eleven times. He was known to Sussex Police as a local drugs dealer who’d been in and out of prison since his teens. You said that someone, once, must have loved him and perhaps still did. And that he’d started life as an innocent baby. And you wondered what had happened in those years in between to change him. That’s the first thing I fell in love with. Your humanity. The way you could always see the good in people, unlike in my job, where we mostly only ever see the bad.’
‘So it wasn’t my legs or my boobs?’
‘They helped.’ He grinned.
She grinned back and held his gaze. There was such deep trust and intense love in her eyes that it made Roy, momentarily, feel shallow. He knew he could never be as good and compassionate a person as Cleo truly was. There were times, too, when he worried that she thought he was a better person than he really was. Perhaps it was too many years as a copper, only ever seeing the worst of people, that had done that to him.
‘We will change Bruno,’ she said. ‘Whatever it takes. Yes?’
‘Yes!’
‘So tell me,’ she said, changing the subject. ‘Do you know much about Tooth’s background?’
‘Not really – not beyond his criminal past, anyway.’
‘Are you sorry?’ she asked, suddenly.
‘Sorry? About what?’
‘That he’s dead?’
‘I’m sorry in the sense that I’d like to have had the chance to talk to him, to see what made him tick. I heard from the NYPD that at the last count he’d been responsible for over thirty-six contract killings.’
‘What do you think shaped his life to get him to the point where he could kill like that?’
‘Drill down into the background of almost any criminal I’ve ever dealt with and you’ll find the same blueprint.’ He shrugged.
‘I suppose a lot more would have come out if he’d gone to trial. Does it make you feel a bit cheated?’
Grace shook his head. ‘No.’ Then he said, with a smile, ‘I have a feeling that Tooth didn’t do trials.’
GLOSSARY
ANPR – Automatic Number Plate Recognition. Roadside or mobile cameras that automatically capture the registration number of all cars that pass. It can be used to historically track which cars went past a certain camera, and can also create a signal for cars which are stolen, have no insurance or have an alert attached to them.
CAD – Computer Aided Dispatch. The system where all calls from the public are logged and, if they require police attendance, the live time record of who is attending, how it is developing and what the outcome is.
CID – Criminal Investigation Department. Usually refers to the divisional detectives rather than the specialist squads.
CIM – Critical Incident Manager. A Chief Inspector who has responsibility for the response to and management of all critical incidents within the force area during their tour of duty.
CSI – Was SOCO. Crime Scene Investigators (Scenes of Crime Officers). They are the people who attend crime scenes to search for fingerprints, DNA samples etc.
DIGITAL FORENSICS – The unit which examines and investigates computers and other digital devices. Part of SCC.
FLUM – Flash Unsolicited Message. A direct short message sent between computer screens, mainly in the control room, to alert other controllers or supervisors to either a significant incident or an important update on an ongoing incident. It flashes up, alerting the recipient to its content immediately.
HOLMES – Home Office Large Major Enquiry System. The national computer database used on all murders. It provides a repository of all messages, actions, decisions and statements, allowing the analysis of intelligence and the tracking and auditing of the whole enquiry. Can enable enquiries to be linked across force areas where necessary.
IC1 – White – North European.
IC3 – Black.
IFA – Independent Financial Advisor.
IMEI code – A fifteen-digit number used by a mobile network to identify valid devices and therefore can be used for stopping a stolen phone from accessing that network or to trace phones used with any SIM card.
LST – Local Support Team. The standing unit of officers who provide public order, search and low-level surveillance tactics on a division.
MO – Modus Operandi (method of operation). The manner by which the offender has committed the offence. Often this can reveal unique features which allow crimes to be linked or suspects to be identified.
NaCTSO – National Counter Terrorism Security Office. A national police unit that leads the fight against terrorism.
NPAS 15 – The call sign for the helicopter that provides air support to Sussex Police.
NPT – Neighbourhood Policing Team. A team of officers and Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) who are dedicated to a particular geographical area, primarily to reduce crime and improve people’s feelings of safety.
OSCAR-1 – The call sign of the Force Control Duty Inspector, who has oversight and command of all critical incidents in the initial stages.
PM – Postmortem.
Priest – A tool or implement for killing game or fish.
QR Code – A form of barcode which, when scanned, diverts the reading device being used to a website.
RPU – Roads Policing Unit. The name for the Traffic Division.
RTC – Road Traffic Collision (commonly known as an ‘accident’ by the public, but this term is not used as it implies no one is at fault when usually someone is).
RV Point – Rendezvous Point. The designated location where emergency services meet prior to deploying to the scene of a crime or major incident. Used when it would be too dangerous or unwieldy for everyone to arrive at the scene at the same time in an uncoordinated way.
SECAMB – South East Coast Ambulance Service.
Section 17 PACE Powers – A power of entry under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 which allows officers to enter premises without a warrant to make an arrest, to save life or limb, or to prevent serious damage to property.
SIO – Senior Investigating Officer. Usually a Detective Chief Inspector who is in overall charge of the investigation of a major crime such as murder, kidnap or rape.
SLANG AND PHRASES
All-ports alert – A nationwide alert for all air and seaports to be on the lookout for a particular person, vehicle etc.
Bosher – The heavy metal handheld ram used to force open doors and allow officers to enter a locked premises or room swiftly and with the advantage of surprise.
Burner phone – Slang for a pay-as-you-go mobile phone, which is used once then disposed of to avoid the user being traced.
Golden hour – The first hour after a crime has been committed or reported, when the best chances of seizing evidence and/or identifying witnesses exist.
Q word/Q day – Short for ‘quiet’. Emergency services personnel never say the word ‘quiet’, as it invariably is a bad omen, causing chaos to reign!
CHART OF POLICE RANKS
Police ranks are consistent across all disciplines and the addition of prefixes such as ‘detective’ (e.g. detective constable) does not affect seniority relative to others of the same rank (e.g. police constable).
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
For me, every book has a trigger, a starting point that fires my imagination. In this case it was an article in the Sunday Times, featuring handsome Brighton motivational speaker, Steve Bustin. From a phone call out of the blue, Steve discovered that his identity was being used to scam women on eleven different dating sites. We had met some years before when Steve had interviewed me for a Brighton Chamber of Commerce event, and he readily agreed to meet up for a coffee. The information he so generously gave me, and the introduction to Constance Wood, who had first alerted him to what was happening, helped me to shape my story and I am immensely grateful to both of them.
Another I must single out among all those who gave me invaluable research help is PC Bernadette Lawrie BEM, who opened my eyes to the sheer scale of internet romance fraud across not just Sussex, but the whole of the UK and the entire Western world, with countless lives ruined every day. The majority of the victims are in the upper age brackets – often vulnerable people who have lost their life partner and are now seeking love and companionship for their final years. People who are about to find out that the person they’ve met online, have been communicating with, and have fallen in love with, does not exist. The double whammy facing victims is that not only have they lost what they thought was the love of their life, they are going to find out they’ve been rinsed of almost every penny they have in the world. All their savings for a comfortable retirement. And all too often their homes, which they’ve re-mortgaged in order to send money to the scammers.
I’ve also had quite exceptional help from Jack Roberts of Global Investigations and Dick Smith QPM of the Association of British Investigators, an organization of which I am proud to be Patron.
