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TWENTY

On their way to Brigstocke’s office, Thorne and Tanner were waylaid by DC Steve Pallister.

‘I just wanted to say sorry again for that gaff at the briefing the other day. What I said about a good news story.’

‘Don’t worry about it.’ Thorne remembered thinking back then that as a relatively new member of the team, Pallister had simply been trying to make his presence felt.

That he’d actually been making a fair point, however clumsily he might have put it.

He was thinking now that when it came to horror stories about coppers ‘dropping the ball’, there might well be another one about to break.

‘I don’t think before I speak sometimes,’ the DC said. ‘Stupid . . . ’

Tanner nodded towards the file Pallister was carrying.

‘What’s that?’ It had been all hands to the pump since the poisonings, and the murder of Adam Callaghan had ramped things up still further.

In a crowded and frenetic incident room, it was easy to lose track of who was supposed to be doing what and Tanner was always keen to ensure that actions had been allocated efficiently.

Even if the likes of Tom Thorne believed that cases were rarely solved by spreadsheets, she knew that one stupid admin glitch could be the difference between a good result and a very bad one.

Left hand, right hand, all that.

‘Oh.’ Pallister held the file up. ‘I’m just assisting DI Holland with his suicide.’

‘There you go again,’ Thorne said. ‘Speaking without thinking.’

Five minutes later, having filled Brigstocke in on their meeting with Emily Mead at the safe house, they watched the DCI remove his glasses and pinch his nose as if he had a bad headache coming on.

He said, ‘I’m still not completely happy about this.’

‘We went through it all yesterday,’ Tanner said.

‘Yes, we did.’

‘I thought you were on board.’

‘I am, but I just want it noted that I have reservations.’ Brigstocke put his glasses back on. ‘We’re placing an awful lot of confidence in this woman.’

‘Because it’s the right thing to do.’

‘So you keep saying, and I keep saying that, however this goes, Emily Mead might still end up being charged. Conspiracy maybe, or even worse. Because she’s the one who made the call which got Callaghan to that park, under joint enterprise regs they might even want to push for murder.’

‘That’s ridiculous,’ Tanner said. ‘You know it is.’

‘I’m just laying out the possibilities.’

‘For God’s sake, she’s the victim.’

‘We only have her word for that,’ Brigstocke said. ‘For obvious reasons, Adam Callaghan won’t be standing trial and the fact is that, apart from a bunch of bootprints, we’ve no actual evidence there was ever a man in that park with her at all.’ He looked at Tanner and Thorne. ‘I mean, have we?’

Tanner looked to Thorne, who could see that she was struggling to stay calm, to stay in her seat.

He knew that part of Brigstocke’s job as the Senior Investigating Officer was playing devil’s advocate in situations such as this, and it was not something Thorne envied.

He kept his mouth shut, happy for Tanner to take the lead in pushing a course of action based solely on trusting Emily Mead because he sensed that her commitment would get them over the line.

He also thought that the voice of a female officer would carry more weight, as it should, considering the offences that were beginning to look like being central to the case.

On top of which, he did not want Brigstocke to feel he was being ganged up on.

‘I believe her,’ Tanner said. ‘That’s the beginning and end of it.’

Brigstocke nodded, finally conceding it was enough to be getting on with, and reached for the phone that had begun to ring on his desk. When he put it down again, having said no more than ‘Right’ and ‘Thank you’, it looked as though that headache was seriously beginning to kick in.

‘What?’ Thorne asked.

‘Jeremy Walker’s just arrived,’ Brigstocke said.

‘Lucky you.’

‘He wants an update, apparently.’

‘Can I tell him about Tully? You know, if you’re too busy.’ There were not very many occasions when Thorne would relish giving an operational update to a senior officer, especially one he was already at loggerheads with, but the opportunity for a little payback was irresistible.

‘Tell him what about Tully?’

‘Well, we know now why Walker’s officers were poisoned, don’t we?

We know that it was one officer in particular who was the target.

So, based on what LoveMyBro wrote on that message board and the strong possibility that Adam Callaghan was killed because he was a rapist, we can hazard a pretty good guess as to why Tully was the one being targeted. ’

‘Seriously, Tom?’ Brigstocke was fiddling with a stapler. ‘That’s what we’re doing now, is it? Guessing.’

‘Oh, come on, Russell.’

‘No, I get it. Evidence is so old school.’

Now Thorne was the one who was finding it hard to retain his composure. He stood up, waited for Tanner to follow suit and walked towards the door. ‘Give DCI Walker my best.’

He was immediately presented with the opportunity to do so himself, when, stepping out of Brigstocke’s office, he all but bumped into the DCI from Wood Green.

They stared at each other somewhat awkwardly, while Tanner took the opportunity to slide past them both into the incident room.

‘You here to see DCI Oldfield, then?’ Thorne clicked his fingers, as though he’d realised the mistake he’d deliberately made. ‘Sorry, I mean Brigstocke . . . DCI Brigstocke.’

Walker’s thin smile immediately made an appearance. ‘Yes, you’re right, DI Thorne; what I said to your DCI the other day was out of order.’ He adjusted his tie, which today, was a rather more muted colour. ‘Heat of the moment, or whatever. I’ve already apologised to Russell.’

‘Oh, right,’ Thorne said.

‘I think I owe you an apology too.’

Thorne stared past him and saw Tanner watching from across the room, clearly curious as to what was being said.

‘We definitely got off on the wrong foot,’ Walker said.

‘Yeah, just a bit.’

‘And that may well have been my fault. So, I’m sorry if anything I said to you was upsetting, or offensive.’

Thorne had no idea how to react, being every bit as bad at accepting apologies as he was at making them, even if neither happened particularly often.

Tanner was still staring, and he was aware that Brigstocke was now behind him, waiting in the doorway of his office.

As Thorne struggled for something to say, a man whose presence he hadn’t yet registered moved up to stand at Walker’s shoulder as though waiting to be introduced.

‘Oh . . . this is DI James Greaves,’ Walker said.

Thorne leaned forward to shake the dry hand that was swiftly proffered.

He leaned to peer at the DI’s lanyard, but the man spared him the trouble.

He was tall and broad with thinning sandy hair and there was an apologetic smile when he spoke, clearly well aware of what some people’s reaction might be.

‘Counter Corruption Unit,’ he said.

‘No need to panic,’ Walker said.

‘I’m not,’ Thorne said.

It was widely acknowledged that the establishment of the CCU as a specialist unit within the Directorate of Professional Standards had been directly inspired by the TV show Line of Duty , but what had initially been a relatively small department had, for obvious reasons, expanded its operations somewhat in recent years.

Restoring public confidence was now a major priority.

The officers tasked with investigating the activities of their colleagues were predictably unpopular with the rank and file, but to describe their efforts to weed out extreme criminality as ‘half-arsed’ would be over-generous.

Frustrated by a lack of cooperation, possibly; hamstrung by procedure almost certainly. Ineffectual, without question.

Thorne had certainly had his run-ins with the DPS, but while his wrist had been slapped a good few times for overstepping or wilfully ignoring regulations, he had never come under the rather more intensive spotlight of those investigating serious corruption and abuse.

He was wondering what Greaves was doing there when the name finally registered.

‘James Greaves? Jimmy . . . ?’

‘I’ve heard all the jokes,’ Greaves said.

Thorne didn’t care. ‘Best centre-forward Spurs ever had.’

‘Like I said—’

Thorne turned at the sound of Brigstocke clearing his throat and it was clear that the DCI did not want to be kept waiting any longer. He looked back to Walker and Greaves. ‘I’ll leave you to it, then,’ he said.

Standing next to the coffee machine in the corner of the incident room, Thorne stared at Tanner, who seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the skinny latte for which she’d paid a frankly ridiculous ￡1.75.

‘Well, I have to say I’m very surprised,’ he said.

Tanner looked at him.

‘No, I’m actually shocked . Shocked that you can even stomach that slop, I mean. From a machine. A connoisseur of the bean such as yourself.’

Tanner sighed, refusing to rise to it. ‘I don’t get it,’ she said. ‘How can Russell not believe her? Sometimes you just know when someone’s telling you the truth, right?’

‘I’m sure he does believe her,’ Thorne said.

‘He bloody well should, because I can’t remember a witness that was any more credible. He was watching that interview, wasn’t he?’

‘He’s just covering all the bases, Nic. Covering bases, covering arses, it’s more or less the same thing. It’s why I’ve never put in for a promotion.’

‘That, and the fact that you probably wouldn’t get it.’

‘Yeah, fair point. Seriously, though—’

‘I was being serious,’ Tanner said.

They looked up as Holland walked quickly across to join them. ‘So, this suicide . . . ’

‘Not been too successful by the look of it,’ Thorne said.

‘Pallister told us he was trying to help things along,’ Tanner said. ‘Did you lose your bottle, then?’

Holland looked confused, but chose to press on. ‘You remember the basics, right? This bloke Daniel Sadler going off the viaduct in the middle of the night.’

Thorne and Tanner told him they did.

‘Well, I did a bit of digging because, for whatever reason, it all felt a bit . . . off. Now, I’m pretty sure that his wife Karen doesn’t know about this because it happened before they were married, but twelve years ago Daniel Sadler was nicked for having indecent images of kids on his computer.’

‘There you go, then,’ Thorne said.

‘Right,’ Tanner said. ‘So, it’s not really “off” at all.’ She tossed her empty coffee cup into the bin. ‘Plenty of convicted paedophiles kill themselves sooner or later. They’re something like a hundred times more likely to do it than anyone else.’

Holland was already shaking his head. ‘That’s the thing, though. He wasn’t convicted. He wasn’t even charged in the end. Looks to me like there was plenty of evidence, it was all very straightforward, and then for some reason it just went away. He’s arrested and then . . . nothing.’

‘That doesn’t sound right,’ Thorne said.

‘Could just be some cock-up with the records,’ Tanner said.

‘Yeah, could be,’ Holland said. ‘I’ve talked to the guvnor and he says he’s going to have a look, see what he makes of it.

’ He turned when Thorne nodded, to see Brigstocke heading towards them.

‘Odd, though, on top of everything else. What the wife said about Sadler’s general disposition and the palaver in even getting to that viaduct.

Oh, and his phone still hasn’t turned up, by the way. ’

Thorne asked the question as soon as Brigstocke had joined them. ‘Who brought the CCU in, then?’

‘Well, it certainly wasn’t me,’ Brigstocke said. ‘Wasn’t Walker either, according to him.’

‘So how did they get wind of what we’re doing?’

‘No idea, but they do tend to keep their ears to the ground.’

‘There’s an anonymous tip line,’ Tanner said. ‘Or maybe they’re looking at the same websites we are.’

Not knowing precisely how the Counter Corruption Unit had become involved would nag at Thorne, he knew that. Right then, though, the fact of DI James Greaves being there was probably the only one that counted. ‘So, what was he after?’

‘Just getting the lie of the land, seemed like,’ Brigstocke said. ‘He took a lot of notes, put it that way. They’re clearly aware of certain accusations that have been made and they’re interested in the irregularities around Callaghan’s actions when he arrived in Hendon Park.’

‘Turning off his bodycam.’

‘Yeah. Fair to say that rang a few of their alarm bells.’

‘How did it go with Walker? It’s just struck me that you’ve only got to change one letter of his name . . . ’

Brigstocke’s smile was thin, there and gone. ‘It was about as much fun as I thought it would be,’ he said. ‘I brought him up to speed with the developments in the Callaghan case and our current lines of enquiry. I have to say DCI Walker shares some of the doubts about Emily Mead that I had.’

‘Did you talk about Tully?’ Thorne asked.

‘Yes, we talked about Tully. We talked about all the victims.’

‘I take it he’s still not willing to consider the possibility that Tully might have been a rapist.’

‘Nobody’s considering that, Tom, not until there’s any evidence.’

‘Well, something made this bloke want him dead,’ Thorne said. ‘Made him want it badly enough that he was willing to kill two other coppers to make sure.’

‘Make that three other coppers,’ Brigstocke said.

They all looked at him.

‘That was actually the main reason Walker was here.’ Brigstocke turned, preparing to address the rest of the team. ‘He came to inform us that Catherine Holloway died a couple of hours ago.’