Up Close and Personal

by Alan Fisher

  Chapter 25

  As the assignments had begun to be given out during Glover’s briefing, Oliver had started to ponder exactly what he was going to be left with. It was clear from early in the briefing that Debbie would be on other matters and their brief, but productive, partnership was at an end, at least for the moment. Although his mind had slightly wondered off from the briefing in search of possibilities, joining Glover in Jack’s office had not entered his radar.

  For a brief few seconds he remained sat in his seat whilst Jason followed Jack back into his office. It was only a rather loud whisper from Debbie that brought him back to the matter in hand.

  “Oliver” she shout-whispered. “You’re with Glover, go”.

  He got out of his seat and went to Jack’s office. Nervously he knocked gently on the open door.

  “Come in Oliver, close the door behind you and pull up a chair will you” said Jack.

  Oliver did as he was asked and sat down to hear what it was that Jack wanted him to do. Jason hovered behind Jack’s desk standing to his left, but making no comment

  “This envelope you and Debbie managed to prise out of Campbell yesterday has opened up some interesting possibilities. There are a number of documents and photographs in there which suggest that McMillan wasn’t exactly the squeaky clean individual that those who knew him might have believed. There are, as yet unproven, allegations that McMillan might have been involved in some fraudulent activity back in the 90’s when he was a Councillor on Durham City Council. Jason has some experience in fraud investigations and he’s going to look into these allegations over the next day or two to see if there’s anything in it. If it’s true, it opens up a whole new avenue of possible motives, particularly if there’s any evidence that Justice Robertson was involved as well. But there is also evidence in the envelope that, as we suspected, McMillan was having an affair. Perhaps one of many, we don’t know. But the photographs are recent and pretty clear, although we don’t have a name for the young lady. Given what we do have, finding her must be our priority. It seems to me more than likely that she invited McMillan to that hotel and murdered him, although motive is still unclear. I know she had help to dispose of the body, but we’ll find him when we locate her. Have a look at these photos will you, your task will be to find her” said Jack as he handed over the photos.

  Oliver took the pile of photos from Jack and slowly looked through them. There were pictures of a tall smart young woman with black hair, in different locations ranging from inside hotels to walking along a street. One photo showed her entering a hotel with McMillan, and another showed the pair actually entering a hotel room together. He recognised her instantly of course, but it wasn’t Jack’s thoughts on the possibility of her being at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Durham that occupied his thinking. His mind had already raced past that point and in a different direction completely. At last he began to see part of the picture he’d been searching for in the documented evidence. It wasn’t the whole picture, but it was a start. These photos told him at least the how, if not the who or the why. He re-focused as Jack was talking again.

  “I know this is a big ask and it’ll be like looking for a needle in a haystack, but we believe you’re the man to find her”.

  Oliver shuffled uncomfortably on his chair and handed the photographs back to Jack.

  “You may well be right on that sir. There’ll be no need for me to look for her though, I know who she is already and where to find her”.

  Jack sat back in his chair both surprised, and yet not, at the same time.

  “Go on” said Jack.

  “It’s Tanya Golding sir, and she lives in Gosforth”.

  “Who is Tanya Golding, and how do you know her?” he asked a little impatiently. “Has she appeared somewhere in the investigation already? How come I don’t know anything about this?” he asked, turning to look at Jason.

  Jason was caught slightly on the hop and was trying to think back through the evidence but before he could speak, Oliver answered Jack’s question.

  “Tanya Golding was the victim of a mugging last Sunday afternoon sir. It was the first case given to me on Monday morning when DS Glover was giving out the assignments. She was attacked on the way back to her car from a restaurant in Jesmond by two people on a motorcycle and her bag stolen, I did a full report for DS Glover”.

  “So not directly connected to the murder case then”.

  “Not directly, no sir. When I interviewed her I didn’t even know it was a murder, not to mention who the victim was”.

  “She mention McMillan when you interviewed her?”

  “No sir. I doubt she saw any relationship she was in as relevant to the mugging. Besides, given that I interviewed her just a couple of hours after McMillan’s body was found, she probably didn’t even know he had been murdered. As I said, I certainly didn’t”.

  “So she couldn’t have known” Jack mused. “Unless, of course, she had something to do with it”.

  “Perhaps, although she seemed pretty relaxed when I spoke to her”.

  “As you would expect from someone with the level of planning that went into this” offered Jason.

  Jack sat forward in his chair and leaned on his desk.

  “Seems like one hell of a coincidence if you ask me. Tanya Golding is supposedly mugged on Sunday afternoon, and her boyfriend McMillan is murdered a few hours later, by a woman and a male accomplice. Both of you know that I don’t believe in coincidences. What do you think Jason?”

  “I think we should bring her in and ask her some questions sir. Cole only interviewed her concerning the mugging, but with this connection, we have to talk to her again surely”.

  “I agree. Pick her up will you and bring her in, not under arrest mind, just to help us with our enquiries. We’ll see what she’s got to say for herself”.

  “Yes sir” said Jason.

  “Now then, before we get on. I want to ask you both about the fact that the media seems to be getting hold of more detailed information than I’d like. Any thoughts?”

  “Has to be a leak sir, either from here or from the pathology team” said Jason.

  “I’d prefer not to think that way. I can’t believe any of my team would do that, nor Gordon’s. We’ve never had any problems before, and God knows there’s been ample opportunity over the last year or two”.

  “Has to be someone inside sir” said Jason stubbornly, “who else would have that sort of detail”.

  “Oliver? Any thoughts”.

  “Yes sir, I was thinking about it this morning when the news was on”.

  “And?” said Jack impatiently.

  Oliver took out his notebook from his pocket and turned over a few pages.

  “Well if you look at the timeline, it’s curious sir”.

  “In what way?” asked Jack.

  “Well, McMillan was murdered on Sunday night, the body discovered Monday morning, the team briefed Monday afternoon and the press were here with full details by Wednesday morning. Standard procedure and plenty of time for the media to get hold of information from a number of possible sources. Justice Robertson was murdered on Tuesday night, body discovered Wednesday morning, and the news about it was on this morning, Thursday”.

  “So what, sounds about right, but I don’t see how that helps” said Jason.

  “Because the procedure was different sir, the team here weren’t briefed until this morning sir, none of us had any details before we heard the news on the TV”.

  “So it couldn’t have been anyone here then, that’s a relief” said Jack.

  “Apart from yourself and DS Glover of course sir, who both attended the crime scene, not that I would suggest that either of you would leak to the media”.

  “I should bloody well think not” said Jack sternly, but Oliver noticed he was smiling at the same time.

  “There’s another point sir” said Oliver, “the TV reporter didn’t seem to know the name of the victim this morning. Justice Robertson’s name was
never mentioned, although the rest of the details appear to have been accurate. Curious, don’t you think?”

  “It is” said Jack rubbing his chin. “Maybe they forgot, or maybe they wanted to be a bit careful what with it being a judge. Right, we’ll think on that later. Jason, bring in Tanya Golding and hold her here for a while until I get back. I’ll only be a couple of hours but depending on how quickly you locate her I might not be back in time. Once you’ve got her here, get started on those fraud allegations will you”.

  “Yes sir” said Jason.

  Oliver waited for any instruction as Jason moved towards the door, but none came. He decided to speak out”.

  “Does that mean I’m free sir? As I’ve already found the lady in the photographs I mean”.

  “Why?” asked Jack. “you got somewhere you want to be?”

  “No sir. I’ve just a couple of things that I need to clear up in my head. I thought I might study the new evidence and have a look through the whole CCTV footage from the hotel in Durham if that’s ok”.

  Jack looked at Oliver and saw something in his face, something that he’d been missing for the last week when he’d been talking with Jason Glover. Something in Oliver’s face told him there was more here, and he needed to know what that was.

  “OK. Jason, go and find this Tanya Golding. Ask her if she’d like to help us with our enquiries. I expect you’ll find a different Tanya to the one Oliver interviewed. If she didn’t know then that McMillan was dead, she certainly will now”.

  “Yes sir” said Jason, as he left the room closing the door behind him.

  “Right Oliver, you’re with me. I know you want to look at the CCTV footage, but I’ve yet to visit the home of Justice Robertson out in Corbridge and we mustn’t forget that we have two murder cases on our hands”.

  “You think they’re connected then sir”.

  “Of course I do, and so do you” said Jack grabbing his coat and cloth cap from his coat stand. “Now go and grab your coat, I want to hear what these things are that you need to clear up, and whatever else is on your mind. It’s time we had a chat”.

  Chapter 26

  When Oliver emerged from Jack’s office to grab his coat, Debbie was already busy trying to shoehorn an extra couple of desks into the increasingly overcrowded main office area for the two additional officers due to arrive. Oliver had to squeeze rather too close to her in order to get back to his own desk.

  “Sorry” said Debbie as Oliver raised his hands in the air as he squeezed past her to ensure that nothing came into contact where it shouldn’t.

  “Sorry” said Oliver awkwardly.

  “Ever the gentleman” she said as she realised what he was doing.

  “I just need to grab my coat” said Oliver, reaching over his desk to his chair”.

  “Off anywhere nice?” she smiled. “I assume you’re with the DCI then?”

  “Yeah, Corbridge, Justice Robertson’s house”.

  “Not before time if you ask me. Have you heard? It’s Alan who’s one of the officers joining us, Alan Cuthbert”.

  “I thought he’d transferred down to Durham, easier for travelling wasn’t it?”

  “It was, but when he heard the DCI was looking for a bit of extra help, he volunteered to help out. Thought his knowledge of Durham might come in useful”.

  “It might, anyway I’d better catch the DCI up, don’t want to keep him waiting”.

  “See you later” said Debbie, as she pushed an old worn out chair on wheels to behind one of the temporary desks.

  Five minutes later, Jack was driving out of the car park and past the waiting masses of the media camped outside the main gates. Oliver sat quietly waiting for the questions that he felt were sure to come on the forty minute drive out to the village of Corbridge.

  But it wasn’t until Jack had turned onto the lead road to the A1 that he spoke.

  “I realise that you might have felt a bit on the edge of this so far Oliver, but there are good reasons for it. Reasons which I can’t go into now but which I will explain later. So, can I take it that you’ve been keeping up to date with everything and thinking about what may have happened to McMillan and Robertson?”

  “Yes sir” said Oliver, feeling he would wait to be asked rather than offer anything.

  Jack glanced briefly sideways at the short but tense response and decided to press on.

  “Look Oliver. All will become clear in a day or two. Just trust me in what I’m doing, I need your input on this”.

  Oliver thought about it for a few seconds and realised he should take Jack at his word. He’d always been straight with him after all.

  “Of course sir, sorry. What do you want to talk about?”

  “Well the way I see it is that there were some things that started to look clear but there are far too many questions unanswered and too many things that don’t add up. In essence, I’m grasping around in the dark here and not finding anything that seems to connect. When we were talking in the office you looked at your book and raised some concerns about the media coverage when I wondered if there’d been an internal leak, does that mean you’ve drawn up one of your usual lists of things that bother you?”

  Oliver glanced at Jack and smiled.

  “You need to ask sir?”

  “Thought so. Well the way I’ve been thinking is that McMillan was drawn to that hotel in Durham by the text message. He must have known who it was, otherwise, he wouldn’t have gone there. But when he got there he seemed to hesitate at the door before going into the room”.

  “Did he” interrupted Oliver, “I didn’t know that sir” said Oliver curiously.

  “Of course, you wouldn’t. You’ve only seen the stills and not the footage. Hang on, you said you wanted to see the footage, did you know he would hesitate?”

  “Not exactly sir, but I thought it might be a possibility. And there was something else I wanted to check out”.

  “God I’ve missed your input lad; you see things others don’t. What else were you looking for on the footage from the hotel?”

  “In a minute sir, finish off your thoughts. It’s good for me to hear too, you might have details I haven’t seen yet”.