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FORTY-SIX

The key members of the team had been gathered quickly enough, but it had taken a while for the CCTV footage to arrive from HMP Frankland in County Durham, so it was just shy of lunchtime when Brigstocke finally kicked things off in the incident room.

By then, a two-page briefing document containing the few known facts had been handed out, DCI Jeremy Walker and two of his team from Wood Green had shown up and Craig Knowles had been transferred to an ICU unit at University College Hospital.

‘As SIO, the buck stops with me anyway,’ Brigstocke said. ‘But I’m going to hold my hand up to this one.’

‘You don’t have to do that, Russell,’ Tanner said.

‘I do, because it’s my cock-up. After Stuart Needham was killed and we talked about who our suspect might be going after next, I put together what I thought was an exhaustive list of anyone else who might be a target.’

‘Looked like a pretty solid list to me,’ Thorne said.

‘Yeah, because it was,’ Holland said.

Thorne looked around as other members of the team mumbled their agreement. He noticed DI James Greaves sitting with his notebook at the back of the room.

I’m trying to do my job, too .

Ignoring the show of support, Brigstocke stared across his team’s heads at the large whiteboard on the far wall, on which the investigation had been mapped out in a series of photographs and scribbled names.

‘All the officers involved in any capacity whatsoever with the Peter Brightwell case, the officers of the court where he was tried and every member of both the prosecution and defence teams. I made sure word was put out to all the prison officers at Whitehill, but it never crossed my mind that someone who’d already been convicted and put away would be in any immediate danger.

That just didn’t occur to me . . . and it should have.

’ He looked back to his team and nodded, serious. ‘So, this is on me.’

The voice that eventually broke the silence was a predictable one. ‘Well, I don’t think anyone’s too broken up about it, guv. Some people get what they deserve in the end, right?’

It was probably not the most appropriate sentiment for DC Stephen Pallister to have voiced in front of his colleagues, not when a man was fighting for his life and no matter how many of the people in that room might have been thinking the same thing.

All the same, though heads had certainly turned, only one person was ready to argue with him.

‘Whatever you think of Craig Knowles,’ Brigstocke said, ‘he’s got two teenage kids.

So, if you don’t want to get what you deserve, DC Pallister, you’ll keep opinions like that to yourself.

’ He waited until he had the attention of everyone in the room.

‘Right, let’s have a look at what they sent us. ’

Each member of the team moved to a computer or opened a laptop, a few sharing monitors. A link to footage from a camera in the visits room at HMP Frankland had been posted to all those present.

‘A visit request for a prisoner named Andre Campbell was made online a week ago under the name Richard Silcox, giving an address in Maidenhead, which will almost certainly turn out to be fake, or at least irrelevant. The visitor, who we now know to have been Alex Brightwell, entered the prison yesterday afternoon with ID bearing that name. The visit itself lasted less than fifteen minutes and Knowles was attacked by Campbell first thing this morning.’

‘Bloody hell, he didn’t waste much time,’ Dipak Chall said.

‘See what you make of the footage,’ Brigstocke said. ‘But I’m guessing that Andre Campbell wasn’t given a great deal of choice.’

Thorne watched, sharing his screen with Nicola Tanner.

Brightwell entered the room along with the rest of that day’s visitors and was allotted a table by one of the prison officers.

He was now bearded, with light, close-cropped hair and heavy glasses.

It was obvious to Thorne and Tanner and presumably everyone else on the team that it was Brightwell, though he was no longer clearly identifiable as the man whose photo had been widely distributed to press and public.

He sat and waited until the prisoners were ushered in, looked up and smiled when Andre Campbell took the seat opposite.

To respect the privacy of visitors and prisoners alike, no sound had been recorded, but it appeared as if it was Brightwell doing most of the talking, while Campbell did not look very happy about what was being said.

It was Campbell who left first, signalling to one of the prison officers to let them know he was done before standing up and walking out.

Brightwell stood and watched him leave.

‘What do we think?’ Brigstocke asked.

‘Threatened his family most likely,’ Tanner said.

‘A threat if Campbell didn’t do what he wanted by taking care of Craig Knowles,’ Holland said. ‘Maybe a promise to look after them if he did.’

‘Maybe both,’ Brigstocke said.

‘What I think is that this is getting bloody ridiculous.’ Jeremy Walker stood up, and like well-trained dogs, the two officers he’d brought with him did the same.

‘That’s now six dead and another one who’s heading that way and still you haven’t seen fit to ask for our help.

Let’s not forget that this investigation began when the individual we’ve just been watching murdered four officers from my station. ’

‘Because one of them was a rapist,’ Thorne said.

Walker turned. ‘I must have missed the meeting where you presented the proof of that.’

‘It’s coming.’

‘It needs to be,’ Walker said.

‘Brightwell began all this because Christopher Tully raped Siobhan Brady. We now know that at least one other individual was an accessory to that rape and we’ve good reason to believe they doctored evidence so that someone else would go down for it, leaving your boy Tully free to rape someone else. Which I’m willing to bet he did.’

Walker looked to his colleagues, said, ‘We’re aware of your theory,’ then turned back to Brigstocke. ‘I’ve already spoken to the Chief Superintendent and you’re getting my team’s help now, whether you want it or not.’

If Russell Brigstocke was annoyed by the development, he hid it very well. ‘Fine with me,’ he said. ‘Whatever it takes.’

‘Good, so where are we?’ Walker didn’t wait for a response.

‘Let’s start with what we know about Alex Brightwell.

Fine, we have a working theory as to why he’s committing these offences.

’ He threw a look in Thorne’s direction, that icy smile again.

‘But what do we actually know ?’ Now he looked to Brigstocke, but he wasn’t quite finished. ‘Pretty close to sweet FA, I’d say.’

‘Not true,’ Brigstocke said.

‘So, correct me.’

‘We know he has an online presence, which has been verified and which we’re continuing to monitor via the DFU in case his activities on the Dark Web start up again.’ He nodded to Tanner. ‘Hobbs, right?’

‘Nothing gets past him,’ Tanner said.

‘We know he uses at least one alias and has the documentation to go with it. We have images of him taken from CCTV pictures at Archway station which together with the footage we’ve just reviewed tell us that he’s taking steps to change his appearance.

Thanks to that footage, we now know what he looks like as of yesterday and this latest description, as with the previous photos we had, will be circulated widely through every media outlet at our disposal. ’

Walker nodded, like he was impressed, and his colleagues nodded along. ‘Oh, don’t forget those boot prints from Hendon Park.’

‘What?’

‘You also know what size feet he’s got.’

Now, Brigstocke looked annoyed. ‘Are you trying to suggest that we’ve been sitting around on our arses?’

‘You’re putting words in my mouth, Russell.’

Thorne clenched his fists under the table, thinking that he very much fancied putting one of them in Jeremy Walker’s mouth and wondering if Brigstocke had met with his opposite number privately to share what else he knew.

The leak of key information that had enabled Brightwell to evade capture and cost a number of lives already.

‘This team has been working flat out,’ Brigstocke said. ‘Eyes on the ball from start to finish, no corners cut and every lead and fragment of intel chased up.’ Now it was the men and women on his own team nodding. ‘If there’s anything else you think we should have done, I’m dying to hear it.’

‘So, why haven’t you caught him yet?’

Thorne guessed that Walker had not been told about the leak.

‘We will.’ Brigstocke took a few seconds, visibly calming.

‘And with your lot helping out, it’s going to be sooner rather than later.

’ He turned to his team. ‘This investigation remains our number one priority, and anything else . . . anything not directly connected to the apprehension of Alex Brightwell, goes on the back burner.’

‘Absolutely,’ Walker said. ‘Bang on.’

Thorne did not think it was accidental that Brigstocke looked at him a little longer than anyone else. ‘Is that understood?’