Page 130 of The Scene of the Crime

‘You’ve lied to me for months, so it shouldn’t be a problem,’ she said harshly.

‘Where are you going?’

‘To clear up the fucking mess you’ve created.’

CHAPTER THIRTY

When Jessica arrived at the MSCAN office early Friday morning, Guy was working on his laptop, preparing phone charts and other data for her. ‘So, what have you discovered?’ she asked him.

‘With De Klerk’s phone, I’ve concentrated on calls and messages for the week before the break-in. Most of them are between him and his wife. There’s also voice and video calls on WhatsApp and FaceTime to South Africa. It will take me a while to confirm the registered owners of those numbers, but I cross-referenced them against his contacts, and the calls were to Duante, Mariette and Pieter. As I recall from that article, that’s his brother, sister and father.’ He handed Jessica a printed list of all the calls, data and cell site analyses he had prepared. ‘Last Friday morning, Johan called a UK mobile number, and the conversation lasted three minutes.’ He pointed to it on the list. ‘Cell site data suggests the call was made from his home to a phone registered to a Nathan Cole.’

‘Has his name come up in the investigation before?’ she asked.

‘I checked on HOLMES, and it hasn’t.’

‘Does Johan make regular contact with Cole?’

‘No. I’ve checked back six months, and the Friday call is the only one I can find.’ Guy handed her another document. ‘The phone is registered to Cole’s business address, a jewellery shopin Hatton Garden. I looked it up on the net, and the details and other stuff about him are on this document.’ He handed it to Jessica along with a printout of all the calls and messages between the two burner phones. ‘We know that Palmer is not involved, and one of the burner phones was planted at his address, most likely by Wheeler. We don’t yet know who has the other burner phone.’

‘You think Nathan Cole has it, don’t you?’

Guy nodded. ‘We know both burners went live in Holborn at six p.m. last Wednesday, and the cell tower was near Cole’s shop. On Friday afternoon, a message was sent to Wheeler’s burner phone stating, “He’s going away Saturday morning, back Monday.” Wheeler replied, “will do the job early hours Monday.” To which he received a thumbs-up emoji reply.’

‘Is there any way you can prove Cole used the burner to send that or any other messages?’

‘There’s evidence that strongly suggests he did. I checked the calls Cole made and the cell site locations. He used his business phone for a two-minute call on Friday at 4.06 p.m. Then, at 4.08 p.m., the “he’s going away” message was sent on the burner phone. The cell mast that picked up both phones was in Hackney Wick, near De Klerk’s house. I hope this all makes sense, and I’m not going too fast.’

‘It does, and I hate to be a devil’s advocate, but it doesn’t prove it was Cole using one of the burner phones.’

‘I agree it’s circumstantial. However, there are more messages and calls that link Cole to the burner phones.’

‘I’m all ears,’ she smiled.

‘On Monday, after the break-in, Wheeler’s burner received several repeated messages during the day saying, “Contact me now” and “Where the fuck are you”. Those messages were sent via the free Wi-Fi at the Bloc Hotel on Caroline Street, Birmingham. We also know that a cell mast in Caroline Streetpicked up the missing burner phone before it was switched off on Tuesday morning. I have also linked Cole’s business phone to the hotel Wi-Fi and the Caroline Street mast, which makes the evidence that Cole used the burner even more compelling.’

‘Brilliant, If Cole stayed at the hotel, he’d have a hard time denying it was him using one of the burner phones even if he’s got rid of it.’

‘He did stay there. I spoke to the hotel manager. She confirmed a Mr Nathan Cole was staying there at the relevant times.’

Jessica was elated. ‘Anderson will be over the moon!’

Guy frowned. ‘There’s something else I’ve found that’s a bit worrying. About two years ago, John Wheeler stood trial for GBH. He pleaded self-defence and was found not guilty. Thus, it’s not on his criminal record.’

‘What’s worrying about that? It still shows his propensity to violence.’

‘His defence council was Michelle Belsham KC.’

‘My God, so she knows Wheeler.’

‘It could just be a coincidence,’ Guy shrugged.

‘I don’t believe in coincidences. I’ll let Anderson know so he can read the case file.’

‘Do you think the De Klerks might be tied up with Cole in something criminal, and it’s all gone horribly wrong?’ Guy asked.

‘It’s certainly beginning to look that way. De Klerk could have told Cole he would be away from Saturday to Monday. I think Wheeler and Cole must have known the diamonds and cash were in the safe. Anything of interest on De Klerk’s laptop?’

‘Not so far, but I still need to look at a lot of stuff on the hard drive. There’s more work to be done on De Klerk’s phone, too, but I’ll concentrate on looking for calls and messages between him and Cole. I got a list of Cole’s calls and messages from hisservice provider. I’m working my way through it to identify the recipients.’