Dark Order : A Harrison Lane Mystery (The Dr Harrison Lane Mysteries Book 3)

by Gwyn GB

  Harrison shook hands with John Steadman.

  ‘As I mentioned yesterday, Dr Harrison Lane is head of the Met’s Ritualistic and Behavioural Crime unit,’ he addressed the room, ‘and we are lucky that he has agreed to assist us on this case. He has full clearances and I expect you to give your full cooperation. Dr Lane–’

  ‘Harrison, please,’ he interjected.

  John nodded.

  ‘Harrison, we were just about to have a catch-up, so it’s good that you can have a listen in and then I’m sure the team will have some questions, as will you. Take a seat.’ He waved towards the empty chairs and Harrison walked round the table to where there was a spare place next door to a petite twenty-something redhead with freckles dotted across her face. She was a uniformed police constable and shifted in her seat as he sat down. Harrison wondered if he’d embarrassed or intimidated her. He hoped neither. David Urquhart was sitting opposite, and he winked at the young woman in a gesture of support. A moment later, he heard her let out the breath she’d been holding.

  ‘OK people,’ John began. ‘For the benefit of Dr… Harrison, I’ll do a full recap. The deceased, George Marshwood, was spotted floating down the Weir in a rowing boat, in the early hours of Tuesday morning. A lad standing on Elvet Bridge had seen the boat and alerted two PCs. When the boat was retrieved, George had been dead less than an hour. The post mortem showed he had been poisoned. George was dressed in a monk’s cloak and found clasping a single red rose. Investigations have centred on the family and the students who lived with George. There are five of them in the house, but there’s no obvious motive as to why they would poison him, and they all claim to not be involved and have given each other alibis. We have also been looking for the murder site. So far we have no motive, no clear suspects and no evidence other than George himself.’ DI Steadman let out a deep, involuntary sigh. ‘If it wasn’t for the chest carvings, I’d wonder if it was murder at all and instead suicide or an accident, but I’m assuming Harrison, that you would agree the marks point to intention to kill?’

  ‘Yes, definitely. I believe you already know that the Latin word on his chest means justice, and the symbol, that’s a Satanic justice symbol. Both point to this being a revenge killing.’

  John nodded and continued, ‘I also don’t see why a law student would boil up poisonous flowers to make a drink. There are easier ways of ending your life. The fact they used Monkshood is another link to the obvious theme that’s going on here. Revenge could point to somebody that the mother has either defended or sent down. She’s a lawyer, so I need someone to take a close look at that angle for us, especially if there are any cases relating to the church. Did she perhaps defend a member of the clergy accused of abuse? Been a fair few of those trials in the last few years.’

  ‘Sir, we found nothing at George’s student house to link with the creation of the poison.’ A young detective spoke up now.

  ‘No, but I still have my suspicions about that lot. They know more than they’re letting on. Harrison, you should look at their statements. The house mates’ stories are all too rehearsed, plus they came fully lawyered-up. All from wealthy families who have already started applying pressure on us to keep away from their boys. It’s beyond co-witness convergence. My money is their briefs have them all working from the same script.’

  ‘Or they might be scared and have created a story to protect themselves,’ added Harrison.

  ‘Scared of being caught?’

  ‘No. Scared of whoever killed George. This was a clear public statement. If the killer had just wanted him dead, he would have poisoned him and been done with it. There’s theatrics in the way he was found. They wanted to send a clear message to somebody.’

  ‘Any thoughts on the tattoo?’ The DI asked Harrison.

  He shook his head. ‘It could be anything at this stage. I’m guessing it’s the Greek letters Mm.’

  ‘A girlfriend’s initials, maybe?’ Steadman asked.

  ‘It would be strange to put a girlfriend’s initials into Greek. That’s usually reserved for secret societies. It’s quite common for them to have a two or three word motto or name.’

  ‘You saying George could have been part of some kind of Satanic cult?’

  ‘I’m saying there’s a possibility that George was part of some kind of secret society which, either believes he has betrayed them, or is under attack from someone else who is sending a message to the group.’

  ‘We need to see if any of his housemates have that tattoo,’ John said to the room.

  ‘What about the ghost?’ Harrison questioned.

  ‘Ah yes, the ghost. The bane of all our lives. Every news organisation under the sun seems to be obsessed with the ghost and he’s taking up an inordinate amount of our resources. Sightings started being reported on social media, but we put it down to students having a laugh. It escalated after the murder. Lucy, you’ve been collating all that.’ The DI addressed the petite redhead next to Harrison, who immediately turned the colour of the red rose George had been holding.

  ‘Yes. We’ve had just over a hundred reported sightings so far. Around half are around the Sadler Street and Castle Green area. They all involve seeing a monk in a black cloak, with no face and often he’s carrying a single red rose.’

  ‘We’re obviously linking this to our enquiry due to the monk and rose connection,’ DI Steadman explained, unnecessarily. ‘The so-called ghost was seen before the murder, although not reported until after it.’

  ‘And since?’ Questioned Harrison.

  ‘Yes. So it couldn’t have been George.’

  ‘Initially, most of the witnesses weren’t bothered by it. They thought it was a publicity stunt or a student in fancy dress. It’s only since George was killed that they’ve started calling him a ghost and coming to us. It’s a bit odd that they all say he has no face.’ Lucy said. She avoided eye contact with Harrison, but had slightly angled herself towards him. ‘We can’t find any evidence of him on CCTV, and he appears to disappear into thin air, which is fuelling the paranormal theory.’

  ‘Have you attached any significance to the rose yet?’ Harrison asked.

  They shook their heads.

  ‘Only thing we can think of is the War of the Roses back in the fifteenth century. Red was the House of Lancaster who were up against the Yorks. But that’s a tentative link which doesn’t seem to have anything to do with George’s family or their title.’

  Harrison nodded.

  ‘Any indications as to why a monk?’

  ‘Durham was founded by monks. The body of Saint Cuthbert is buried at the cathedral. He was a monk, and that’s where most of the sightings have been.’ Lucy said to Harrison.

  ‘One female student sustained a deep scratch to her face after trying to confront the ghost. Several others have since reported that the monk tried to attack them and a few say they are being haunted by him. You’re going to be better placed than us in interviewing them and getting to the bottom of their stories,’ John said to Harrison. ‘We are trying to track this ghost down. He could obviously be our killer.’

  He nodded.

  ‘What about any other unexplained crimes in the run up to the murder?’ Harrison asked.

  DI Steadman pulled his mouth down and his shoulders up.

  ‘Nothing that’s come to our attention. What kind of things are you thinking about?’

  ‘Difficult to say, but just things that are out of the ordinary, never solved. Perhaps missing or mutilated pets or strange graffiti?’

  ‘Anybody?’ Steadman asked the room.

  They all shook their heads and looked at Harrison.

  ‘We’re Major Crime so the small stuff’s not really on our radar. We can get you access to the full database and perhaps you might spot something significant?’

  ‘That will be fine.’ Harrison knew just the man for that job.

  ‘Any other questions?’ Steadman asked him.

  ‘Not a question, but you are all referring to the killer as
him. Poisoning is often a woman’s choice of murder weapon. The justice could be referring to a lover’s tiff. I’ll develop a profile as soon as I can, but you need to keep your mind open with regards gender.’

  ‘We figured more likely male, as they had to lift him into the boat,’ Steadman replied.

  ‘Maybe, maybe not. From what you say he might not have been dead and could have got himself into the boat. Maybe been tricked or thought he was getting away. At this stage I’d just remain open-minded.’

  ‘Fair enough. Good point, Dr Lane. Steve, can you double check George’s love life again for us?’ He addressed one of the detectives just down from Harrison, a young black officer, who nodded in response. Harrison looked around the table. The team looked like a cohesive and diverse bunch with a healthy respect for John. That was important. Harrison had worked with teams where the respect was begrudging or earned out of fear, or it was made up of trusted faces who were invariably a reflection of the person leading them. Those teams were never as effective as one chosen for their skills and with a good mix of diversity. Coming at a case with just one main viewpoint and experience was never going to let you see the whole picture. Plus, from what he’d seen of John so far, he was open to listening. There’d been many an SIO in the past few years who had closed his ears to Harrison’s opinions and suggestions, and regretted it.

  The meeting broke up with a scraping of chairs, but Harrison could tell morale was already dipping. They weren’t making progress, and that was never good this early in an investigation.

  The first thing Harrison did was set Ryan onto the case.

  ‘I need you to search all the crime reports for the area and also social media and the usual places for anything which is out of the ordinary in the last eighteen months. You know the kind of thing I’m talking about. Plus, do a thorough background search on George Marshwood and his family. Apart from the usual potential enemies, are there any links to secret societies in their past or present? I’m also looking for a society that has the initials of two M’s. Are there any secret societies active around Durham? I’ll send you over another list of names, the housemates. We need to do thorough checks on them too.’

  ‘OK boss,’ Ryan replied, ‘There’s a ton of stuff coming up on the student chat boards as well. Most of it is about the ghost, or just gossip. I suppose you need this all yesterday?’

  ‘As soon as you can, Ryan. I don’t want to see another body.’

  Harrison knew he’d work all hours to get him the information. He could rely on Ryan, but he’d given him a lot to do and it would take time. Around 64,000 crimes were reported to Durham Constabulary in a year, and while Ryan wouldn’t be trawling through each one individually, he had his own programmes and algorithms for spotting those that would interest them, that alone would inevitably take some time.

  Harrison’s priority was the ghost. While it was clear that DI Steadman and his team felt the ghost monk might be their killer, Harrison knew that the key to catching them was going to be working out their agenda and motivation. He needed to start by looking through the statements and report logs of all the sightings. He’d also need to speak to some of the witnesses himself, but first he had to sort out the chaff from the wheat. Who had seen the monk and where, and if there was any underlying pattern to their reports.

  Lucy helped him access the statements. He had a quick look at the list.

  ‘These are all from the last 48 hours, apart from the girl who got scratched,’ he said to her.

  ‘Yes, none of them reported the ghost to us until after George’s murder,’ she replied. ‘They were talking about it online and amongst themselves, but it wasn’t really a police matter apart from the assault and then the link to the murder.’

  ‘But the ghost was definitely seen before his death?’ Harrison queried.

  ‘Yes, but they didn’t think it was overly unusual until George was found. As soon as a couple of people came forward, it opened the floodgates.’

  Harrison thought for a few moments. He could feel Lucy watching him intently.

  ‘Is everything OK?’ she asked him, not used to his periods of quiet.

  ‘Yes fine. So what timeframes are we talking between the event and reporting it?’

  ‘Up to two weeks. You’re thinking their statements are going to be inaccurate aren’t you?’

  Harrison looked at the young woman in front of him.

  ‘We know that witnesses are unreliable at the best of times. No reflection on the individuals, it’s just fact. You add in the length of time between the initial incident, and then the various influences from social media, stories heard in bars and from friends, and those memories are going to be quite severely tainted. I would guess that most of the statements are very similar.’

  Lucy nodded and looked disappointed.

  ‘Did you take all the statements?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘What questions did you ask them?’

  ‘How we’ve been trained, I let them tell me what happened in their own words first, and then clarified points.’

  ‘And how did you refer to the individual they’d seen?’

  ‘I don’t know what you mean?’

  ‘During the interviews, was the monk referred to as a ghost or as a person?’

  ‘Well, at first we thought it was George. We had a body in a monk’s cloak and then people coming forward saying they’d seen someone wandering around dressed as a monk. We hoped it might give us some ideas what George had been doing before his murder. Then we got reports of people seeing him after George had been found and I suppose those witnesses tended to use the term ghost more often, and that’s when we questioned if it was the same person after all.’

  ‘OK, thank you for you help.’ Harrison said to Lucy and began to look through the reports on the screen in front of him.

  ‘I can show you the ones which came across to me as being the most interesting,’ Lucy suggested.

  ‘No, thank you. I’d like to read through them myself,’ Harrison replied. Lucy would have brought her own subjectivity to the interviews. He needed to look at them with a fresh eye and as much objectivity as he could. She looked a little upset at his words, but Harrison needed to focus. He was already zoning out the office noise around him and channeling his concentration. Eventually, she wandered off back to her own desk, but he was aware of her eyes on him from across the incident room.

  Half an hour later, she reappeared at his desk. ‘Can I get you a coffee?’ she asked, peering at the screen.

  ‘No, thank you.’ He smiled at her. He put it down to eagerness rather than being nosey.

  Lucy wandered off again and reappeared back at her own desk a little later with a cup of something hot.

  By lunch time, Harrison had read all the statements from the five housemates: Oscar, Joseph, James, Mark and David. They made for interesting reading, not because of anything they said, but more in the way they said it. John Steadman had intimated as much to him in the briefing, and Harrison agreed, at least in part. All five statements were indeed virtually identical. They recounted the same story of the day that George was killed. He too was sure their statements were rehearsed, but he didn’t agree that it was the lawyers who had set them up to do it. The language was wrong. There were a few identical comments which were distinctly amateurish, and there was a complete lack of legal-speak which he would have expected had they rehearsed the statements with lawyers.

  Without a doubt there was some kind of conspiracy, but the question was whether it was born out of fear, or because they were hiding a murder. He’d read statements like this before, where several people had colluded to ensure they told the same story in order to ensure they didn’t slip up after being threatened by a third party. Were George’s house mates in danger too, or were they hiding something?

  Shortly after lunch, DI Steadman came to find Harrison. The detective rubbed at the dark shadows under his eyes.

  ‘How’s it going Harrison?’ he asked.


  ‘Fine.’ By this point, Harrison was glad of the interruption. He’d been staring at the screen for hours, reading and cross-checking, and he needed a screen break.

  ‘We drew a blank on girlfriends for George. He didn’t seem to have any particular female friend that we can tell. Looked through his phone photos too and they seem to back that up.’

  ‘What about the friends in the house, any luck with seeing if they have the tattoo?’

  John humphed.

  ‘Nope, brick wall from the parents and lawyers. Invasion of privacy, no charges brought, they’re not suspects etc etc. It’s a no go right now unless we can get something more concrete on them.’

  Harrison wasn’t overly surprised.

  ‘David contacted George’s parents,’ John continued, ‘asked them if their son might have been part of a secret association. They kindly said they would arrange for him to be relieved of his house and all other earthly possessions if he considered damaging their son and family’s reputations in public. They’re lawyered to the hilt. We’re having to tread on eggshells with this one. The parents won’t allow a word said against their precious offspring.’

  ‘I’ll be careful, don’t worry,’ Harrison replied, and he had every intention of trying.

  11

  While he waited for Ryan to turn up some information, Harrison decided to start visiting some of the students who’d reported sightings of the ghostly monk. He was becoming convinced that the ‘ghost’ was the key to all this. He’d been seen prior to George being killed, as well as after. It was obviously linked somehow, and he needed to figure out how. He’d read through all the sighting reports, and there were some clear patterns forming. Two witnesses in particular seemed to give more detail and also were from before George’s murder, after which many of the reports became almost identical.