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Day Four
Degsy sidled up to him as he was signing in. “The new ACC Crime’s waiting for you in your office.”
Thurstan couldn’t stop a sigh escaping. “What kind of mood is he in?”
Degs was thoughtful for a moment. “Best described as supercilious and triumphant.”
“How long’s he been there?”
“Only about ten minutes but he’s been basket ratting your trays.”
“Wonderful!” He sauntered off and made himself a drink then casually wandered into his office with fake surprise. “Oh, hello, Sir. No one told me you were here. What can I do for you?”
The ACC, from Thurstan’s chair, waved him to a seat. The DCI declined. “I just thought I’d give you a personal visit, see how things are progressing and I think it’s just as well I did. You need to get on top of all this stuff in your trays. I can’t abide slackness and you, Chief Inspector, need to get a grip or I’ll be making some changes much sooner than I thought.” He stood up, emitted his now trademark slimy grin, and left without another word.
Thurstan gave him ‘the finger’ as he walked away. Degsy looked across and smiled.
Sat at the desk, he checked his paperwork, noting which files had been disturbed. A tap at the door.
“Stephen, come in. Take a seat.”
Gandalph recounted his discussion with Gary from the previous day.
Thurstan looked at him searchingly. “You think Nomad could be a woman?”
He nodded his head. “It’s a possibility. If it is, I haven’t a clue who.”
Thurstan leaned back twiddling a pen. “I think we’re more than happy we can connect Warren to the murder, sufficiently at least to warrant his arrest. Nickson believes Nomad was responsible. If Nomad is a woman then it means Nickson’s looking for two people, not one.”
He sucked the pen cap. “What if the person who arranged the murder of our two in the cottage isn’t the same as the one who compiles their target intel? Maybe Warren was told to sort things out by Nomad or perhaps Nomad had nothing to do with it at all.” They fell silent.
Thurstan suddenly waved a finger at him. “You know, you’ve managed to find all these things out without, basically, having to go out and about. It’s all been done through computers. What if their intelligence gatherer essentially does the same thing?”
Gandalph leant forward, his interest raised: “Well, Warren’s not exactly been the sharpest tool in the shed, Boss. Nickson told us the cottage job was unauthorised and let’s face it, there was a certain lack of finesse. I mean, two Lancashire bucks? Not exactly what we’ve been used to from this organisation. Smacks of amateur. Hence Warren. Personally, I don’t think he’s got the brains or the ability for the computer work necessary to provide high-quality profiles of their targets. I have, but him? No way.”
Thurstan bit his bottom lip pensively. “I think I should speak to the Lancs SIO again. We need to work together to arrest Warren as soon as possible. It’ll get him out of harm’s way as well.”
He stood up and pulled his jacket from the stand. “Have a word with your mate. See if he can do us an urgent audit on who accessed police information two years ago when Tony MacMahon and the bloke found near Calderstones Park were killed.”
Later that afternoon, the DCI waved Gandalph over as he wandered through the office after lunch. “I’ve been speaking to Lancs. They’ve given me an update on their enquiries.
“Warren’s not at home. The wife and his workplace say he’s gone to Brussels on business, but it seems his missus only knew that from speaking to his secretary. I’m wondering, has he done a runner?
“Anyway, I said we’d help with checking all the flights and ferries.” He handed over a slip of paper. “Speak to this chap in their control. He’s got some other info he wants a hand with. Sort it out between you.”
Gandalph had been hard at it for thirty minutes when Chuck sat down, coffee mug in hand. A glance at the shoddy cursive scrawled on the desk notepad and he casually asked, “What you up to?”
The DC kept tapping the keyboard, his attention on the screen. “Hello, Boss. Just a bit of assistance to the Lancs enquiry team. Apart from us and them, the only people who’ve asked after Ed Warren was this firm, FNU Tyres. Their boss wanted to set up a meeting. Hugh Snugh. Unfortunate name. They can’t trace it so I said I’d have a go.”
“You winning?”
“No, not yet, but I will.”
Chuck stood up, selected a pen from the caddy and began to draw on the notepad. First, he circled FNU then drew an arrow from it and circled Hugh, above which he wrote the word ‘who’. Finally, he circled the first three letters of the last name.
“Don’t think you will. F-N-U? First name unknown, backed up by ‘Hugh’ which sounds remarkably like ‘who’. S-N-U? The first three letters in his last name?” he said smiling. “Surname unknown.” He then connected the U-G-H. “Ugh! A reaction to a bad joke, perhaps. I think someone’s playing a game.”
Gandalph threw his pencil onto the desk. “Flaming ‘eck. I hadn’t realised. How did you know?”
The DI smiled again. “Just something I picked up when I was down the Met.”
****
Eleven o’clock that evening Thurstan trudged across the near-empty office for yet another coffee. Gandalph, at his terminal, called him over.
“I spoke to Gary, Boss. I also asked him if there was any way someone could bypass the system checks and get information on the quiet. It seems there is. Only two people can do it beside him; the Chief Super SB and the Chief Constable. They input some code and, in an ordinary audit, no one’s the wiser. He says he’ll do what he calls a ‘special’ and give me the result tomorrow.” He took a gulp from a can of energy drink. “As for the flight checks? I’m getting nothing at the moment. Only a few more to do. The bobby at Lancs County says it’s a negative on all the ferries.”
“Thanks, Stephen.” He managed to muster a tired smile and went to walk away but hesitated. “Oh! By the way. They’ve recovered some CCTV but the SIO hasn’t had a chance to view it yet, said she’ll let me know. When are you going home?”
“Another half-hour, Boss. What about you?”
“One more coffee to sustain me on the way, then I’m off. Don’t stay longer.”
Another swig of energy drink then Gandalph called after him: “Why did you go for it being someone with access to our intel, Boss?”
Thurstan turned, smiled knowingly and replied. “Just a hunch.”