by Mike Crowson
Chapter 4: Tuesday 14th August (am)
Tuesday morning might well have been a country and western music morning for the drive to work, but Millicent wasn't really in the mood for music of any kind. She had work uppermost in her mind. Her first job was to instruct DS Gibbs, who was back today, that he was to establish an incident room devoted to the case. Feeling sure that the three cases were related in some way she could see no point in delay.
Millicent parked her car in the walled car park and went straight to her office to see whether anything more had landed on the desk, before going to see Chief Inspector Cooke to get his approval for her decision. Waiting for her when she walked in her office was a preliminary report by the scene of crime team staff on the picnic area, Joe Davis's statement already signed and DC Goss's report, Mrs. Evans's statement (not yet actually signed) and DC Hammond's report.
She read Tommy's report with interest and agreed that Wayne Sansom had probably died in the fire. She had encountered Koswinski before. He was a young thug who was well known to be behind a lot of trouble - a knifing, a gang rape, several muggings and burglaries and some car thefts. The trouble was finding proof that would stick in court - so far he had just managed to stay uncharged, mainly by intimidating potential witnesses.
Millicent drummed her fingers absently on the desk. There was little point in going to Koswinski's house, or talking to him on his own territory. He clearly hadn't murdered Hunter, but if he was picked up on a pretended suspicion of murdering both Hunter and Musworth there was just the slimmest chance he could be shaken into talking and giving the details about what had really happened. Tommy was quite good at bluffing he knew more than he did, so he could see to picking him up for questioning later in the day. She had something else for him first.
There wasn't an autopsy report on the body from the fire yet, so that could wait, and Gary Goss could check up with the East Witchmoor Youth Centre and see if Koswinski, Musworth and Sansom had been there Saturday night. Hampshire had a feeling they must have been somewhere else between the Centre and the burned out building at Cartwright's Wharf, unless they'd been in the building for two or three hours before the fire started, and that seemed unlikely.
Millicent got up and went in search of Cooke. She found him in his office, as she hoped to do first thing.
"The fire, the bodies in the canal and the murder of Hunter all seem to be connected somehow," she said. "It looks like being a substantial investigation, so I'd like to use the Incident Suite."
Cooke nodded. "I glanced through a copy of the autopsy report on the main victim," he said, "Blows to the head, various injuries, an overdose of morphine, then thrown in the canal for good measure. You think its related to the fire?"
"The drowning victim was with a missing boy and Koswinski on Saturday evening, and we have a probable identification of Koswinski by the woman who reported the fire. It was probably him climbing out of the canal at half past midnight, dripping wet." Millicent said.
"It sounds involved and does look to be connected. I think you'd better go ahead." Cooke decided. "Who have you in mind for the team?"
"I thought DS Turner and DS Gibbs, DC Hammond, DC Goss and maybe DC Bright," Millicent suggested.
Cooke nodded again. "Don't take more uniform staff than absolutely essential," he ordered, "God knows we're short staffed as it is. Use the new girl, Gail Downing, on your reception the experience will be good for her - but take a civilian secretary and a civilian IT person."
"Okay," Millicent agreed, "Now, what about the press. They'll only just be onto it, of course."
"Hmm. But this murder victim will probably catch the attention of the nationals in the silly season. I can just see the headlines - poisoned, battered, drowned!"
Millicent took his point.
"Well," Cooke said, "The Witchmoor Argus carried the fire as a story last night, but it only mentioned the deaths in passing. By tonight they'll have the autopsy report, so the nationals will pick it up tomorrow. I'll stonewall them for a day or so, but we may need a press conference by Thursday."
"Okay," Millicent said. "We'll need some progress by then, so I'd better get on with it."
Cooke nodded again as she left.
On the way back to her office she went via the canteen to collect a coffee and then put her head round her secretary's door and reminded her about the figures for the Chief Inspector's report and told her to assemble her little team in the incident suite in a quarter of an hour. Then she went with her folders on the case and coffee to the suite and settled herself in the tiny office reserved for whoever was in charge. Her coffee was only half drunk when the team started arriving.
"Morning Lucy," she said, looking up as DS Turner walked in.
Lucy looked around. "This must be bigger than an elephant's ass if we've got a separate incident room," she remarked.
"It’s big," Millicent agreed. She was just going to add a quiet word about the cross examination of Shirley Hunter the day before, when Tommy Hammond and Gary Goss wandered in, so she left it.
When everybody had gathered, Hampshire filled the team in with the position as it stood. "Okay," she said, looking up from the folder she was reading. "The preliminary report from the scene of crime staff on the picnic area is in already. They found a jar of jam, a jar of pickles and two full yogurts amongst the undergrowth round the picnic site, all lending some support to the story, to judge from the locations in which they were found. They’re all being fingerprinted still, but the story looks as if it might be essentially true."
"The wide wheeled vehicle which left tyre imprints at the site is almost certainly the Porsche. It went much further into the picnic area than the other vehicles, but there's no evidence either way as to whether the accident took place as described. For now we'll very cautiously assume that it probably did."
"There was no sign of a tablecloth or any picnic gear, so they must have gone back into the Porsche assuming they were there as stated, but SOC confirm that the two other vehicles left before Simon Hunter's car."
"Any ideas from them about the other vehicles?" Tommy asked.
"They think one was a substantial, perhaps sporty, saloon and the other probably a light commercial vehicle. They confirm my own quick impressions but suggest no solution to the puzzle."
Inspector Hampshire closed the folder. "Tommy," she said, "This afternoon you can pick up Koswinski on suspicion of murdering Hunter and Musworth, and try and scare some further information out of him. You can come with me for the morning and do that later. DC Goss, you go to the Youth Centre now and try and find out what Koswinski, Musworth and Sansom were up to and anyone else associated with them. Follow up the question of what time they left and where they went, but report back after lunch. Look for anything that will help DC Hammond. This afternoon you can work with him in trying scare Koswinski."
"Lucy, I want you to look into the background of Ellen Barnes and the alibi. Take one of the uniformed women with you and go easy at first. The story may be entirely true, but I want it checked out. "
"Right-O. You'll have your answers."
"Sergeant Gibbs. Tony. I'd like you to spend an hour or so making sure everything's in place in the incident room. After that I want you to go and snoop around the hospital. See if you can find out how tightly they control access to morphine and anything you can about the personal affairs and background of Shirley Hunter, but be discreet. I want to avoid word getting back and putting her on her guard if I can. She may be an innocent victim or she may have been provoked into murder. Get me anything to will help me make up my mind. DC Bright, you familiarise yourself with the story so far, then keep DS Gibbs company this morning. This afternoon I want you to go door to door around the Hunter's house and see if any neighbours saw anything to support the story."
Gibbs and Bright just nodded.
"This morning, Tommy Hammond and I will visit Hunter's place of work and try to find out something more about him," Millicent added.
&nbs
p; As they walked out to the car park, Millicent said to Tommy, "According to Mrs. Hunter. Simon Hunter worked for an Investment company in which he's a partner. The senior partner is her brother, Bernard Knowles. I need somebody to bounce impressions off."
"Whereabouts?"
"Bradford. Just up from Foster Square Station. Why?"
"Nothing really, but we might be best off with a marked patrol car, since we might have trouble parking." Tommy grinned.
"Good idea," Millicent agreed.
Cowper Street was a dead end street which should have led off Cheapside, except that it had been closed off. Tommy drove into the bottom end of Westgate and turned left and left, to enter it from the other end.
KHS Investments occupied only one floor of number 16 Cowper Street - a five-story building - but they were pleasant enough offices and it was a good location with a prestigious sounding address.
Shirley's brother was senior partner, of course, and Millicent asked for him by name, but he was clearly expecting them. Millicent was not surprised: Shirley Hunter would naturally have phoned her brother the previous night to pass on the news.
The receptionist stood up from her desk and showed them into a roomy office and Bernard Knowles rose to greet them. He was older than his sister, slightly built and greying. He was in shirt sleeves and tie and the trousers from a dark suit, the jacket of which hung over the back of his chair.
"Sit down," he said. "I usually have a coffee mid morning, so I assumed you'd want a coffee yourselves and asked Mrs. Waite to bring three."
He sat down again. "I'm aware of what you've come about. On Monday, when Simon wasn't here, I rang Shirley and heard he was missing. She phoned last night to tell me he’d been found murdered."
"Then I'll come straight to the point. Who, apart from Shirley, might have wanted Simon Hunter dead?" Millicent asked.
Bernard Knowles sighed and put his hands together. "I should think there would be a long, long queue."
Millicent was interested and intrigued. "Go on," she said. "Explain!"
"Quite apart from his treatment of Shirley, the man was an obnoxious scoundrel who was involved in some schemes of doubtful morality A few things he did were, I suspect, outright illegal. He was a liar and a cheat and he wanted to take over this perfectly respectable little firm as a front for his fraudulent activities."
"You sound as if you'd be in the queue yourself," the inspector observed.
"Oh yes," Knowles said. "I didn't kill him, but I easily could have. He was leaving me no option to report him to the regulatory bodies and starting a process which might have brought this whole company down."
"Okay," Millicent said, "Let's have some specifics."
"We handle investments for trusts and individuals. He was borrowing money from client accounts and speculating on the futures markets. So far we were considerably in the black, but you will recall the whole banking crash and the various individuals who got their companies into trouble. I only found out last week, during a snap audit, so the murder couldn't have happened at a more opportune moment from my point of view, before we lost millions. As I said, I didn't do it, but I'm grateful to whoever did."
"You said Hunter was up to other immoral or illegal things," Millicent reminded him.
"He was, or at least had been, supplying something nasty, hard drugs I think, to a woman IT specialist at one of the investment banks, in exchange for insider information. I think he was having an affair with her but either taking drugs or passing information got her the sack a week or two back and he just dropped her, now that she was no use to him."
"Do you know her name?" Millicent asked, thinking that she might be hurt and angry enough to add to the list of potential murderers.
"Rosie something or other. I remember him remarking on the information he got from her smelling just as sweet by any other name. I don't think I ever heard her last name, but you could try Sheldon Shields, he may have heard it."
"Anything else about our nice friend?"
"I've hardly started yet," Knowles said. Tommy was watching in silence and making notes, and he didn't think Knowles was joking.
"On the basis of some insider information," Knowles continued, "Simon landed Shields and a friend of his in a multi thousand pound loss. I think it was deliberate because, in exchange for bailing him out, Hunter wanted some of his shares. Between his own shares, the ones he got from Shields and Shirley's, he owned half the shares in the company and was all set to start making the corruption institutionalised by blocking any internal investigation."
At this point the tirade was interrupted by the receptionist bringing in the coffee, and Millicent had a few seconds to organise her thoughts and decide what specific line to take. Clearly, the first thing was to check what Knowles had been doing on Saturday afternoon and evening.
By the time Mrs. Waite had left them and the coffee, milk and sugar had been passed round, Bernard Knowles had cooled down somewhat, though he didn't attempt to play down any of his earlier remarks.
"Can you account for your movements on Saturday?" Millicent asked.
"I'm not sure about the morning," Knowles replied thoughtfully. "I had some work to do at home, so my wife took the car to get the tank topped up. That would be around eleven thirty or twelve. After lunch, say two o’clock or so, we set off for Herefordshire and had an overnight stay at a hotel in Ludlow. You could ask them what time we checked in, because I'm not sure."
"What kind of a car do you drive?" Hampshire asked.
Knowles seemed surprised. "A Saab," he said. "Why?"
"There are three sets of tyre treads at the picnic site where Hunter's car disappeared," Millicent explained. "I just want forensic to check you car tyres for elimination purposes."
"Did you say Hunter's car is missing?" Knowles asked.
"At the moment," the inspector agreed. "The car seems to have disappeared more completely than the man did."
"Funny business, that," said Knowles. "Do you know how he got into the canal?"
Millicent was wary. She didn't want to give too much away to someone clearly on the list of suspects.
"He might have been intended for the fire," she said, "but how he got into the canal instead is an issue we're still working on. I think I probably know who was involved now, but I don't know why or how yet."
"Funny, that," Knowles said again and shrugged the problem aside. "The Saab is at home with Mrs. Knowles, as I said. I come into work on the Ilkley train from Guisley to Foster Square. You have our address?"
Tommy had been writing notes of the interview without comment. Now he nodded, thinking that Knowles might be less co-operative if he had anything to hide.
"You suggested Mr. Shields might know this IT woman's name," Inspector Hampshire said.
"Don't build up your hopes too much," Knowles told her. "I said it's possible because Simon Hunter talked him into a very bad deal on the basis of information he said came from her. Sheldon Shields is a Canadian and not naive, but Simon took him in and did the dirty on him."
"I think I'll speak with Shields in a few minutes," Millicent said. "First I'd like to check through Hunter's desk."
"He doesn't have a separate office," Knowles remarked. "Nor does Shields. There's a private Client Interview Room and you could speak to Shields there. I'll show you Hunter's desk and cabinet as soon as you've had your drinks, but finish your coffee first."
Hunter had a desk with locked drawers, a side table on which there was a computer and a filing cabinet. Millicent sent Tommy to ask about keys. He returned with a key ring of filing cabinet keys.
"These are copies of the keys to every filing cabinet in the place," he said. "Knowles has a full set of copies, but not of desk keys."
"Well, there probably won't be anything private in the cabinet then," Millicent said, taking the bunch of keys. "He wouldn't keep anything important where Knowles could see it any time."
While she was trying the various keys, Tommy was looking at the desk drawers.
"These are the type of locks where a catch just swivels up and hooks behind a pin on the wood just above the drawer itself." Millicent glanced up as he was taking out a penknife. "I think I may be able to push the lever back with the blade," he added.
As Millicent flipped aimlessly through the files, looking for she didn't quite know what, Tommy slipped the knife blade into the gap above the desk drawers and eased back the catches.
"Good job these are not meant to be top security," he said and started to flip through the contents of the drawers.
After a few seconds he stopped and stood back, looking puzzled. "I'd say somebody has been through this lot," he said.
Millicent turned. "What d'you mean?"
"There's absolutely nothing personal here at all."
"Diary?"
"No."
"Address book?"
"No. But he might have an agenda programme on the computer, with contact addresses on it, I suppose."
Millicent stood back and thought about it. "I think we'll leave it," she said at last. "He may not have kept anything personal at the office. We'd better check his work area at home. I think I'll ask the fraud squad to take an quick glance over things and see if they can see anything untoward."
"Shields next, then?" Tommy asked.
"I think so," Millicent answered.