Find Them Dead

35 Thursday 9 May

At 6 p.m., in the conference room of the Major Crime suite, Roy Grace addressed his small, hastily assembled team around the oval table. They included Jon Exton, Norman Potting, John Alldridge, Emma-Jane Boutwood, the Crime Scene Manager, Alex Call, as well as an indexer, a new HOLMES analyst, Luke Stanstead, and joining them for this investigation, a local community officer, Kerry Foy.

‘This is the first briefing of Operation Canoe, the investigation into the murder of Stuart — Stuie — Robert Starr, in the house owned by his brother, Michael Starr,’ Grace said. ‘DS Alexander is currently attending the postmortem on Stuie Starr at St Richard’s Hospital, Chichester, and we will have more information in the morning. As we know, Stuie’s brother is currently on remand in Lewes Prison, having pleaded guilty to a number of offences relating to the importation of six million pounds’ worth of cocaine through Newhaven Port on November 26th last year, together with other drugs offences.’

He pointed at a group of three whiteboards in front of the flat-screen, wall-mounted monitor. On one were several photographs taken by a crime scene photographer, showing Stuie Starr on the floor, and the blood around him. Two other photographs showed the trashed state of his bedroom. The second whiteboard showed a photograph of Mickey Starr along with a series of photographs of the Ferrari being dismantled in the Newhaven Customs shed. Pinned to the third was a family tree of the Starr family and, next to it, an association chart. Grace stood up and walked over to the whiteboards.

First, he talked his team through the visible injuries inflicted on Stuie, working from what he had witnessed himself at the crime scene, and from the preliminary thoughts of the pathologist. Next, he pointed at the photograph of Mickey Starr, making reference to his past history as a suspected drug dealer, arrested but then subsequently released on appeal due to a chain of evidence issue. Grace made it clear that although he had been acquitted by a clever brief, in the view of the police, back then, there was no doubting the man’s culpability. He then went on to the family tree and the association charts. Both were fairly threadbare.

‘The big question is why Stuie Starr was killed,’ he said. ‘It is possible that this was a random house burglary gone wrong. Whilst at the scene I noticed a jar that I believe may have contained a substantial sum in banknotes, and it appears a laptop is also missing. There were signs of a ransacking type search. But, despite these indications of a burglary, I think we need to look deeper. What reason would anyone have for harming a thirty-eight-year-old with Down’s Syndrome?’ Grace paused. ‘Pure sadistic pleasure — or some other, darker reason? I am looking at a connection to Glenn’s large drugs case. Particularly at Mickey Starr’s alleged co-conspirator, Terence Gready.

‘Let’s say Mickey Starr has enough evidence to completely kibosh Gready’s defence. Mickey Starr has already pleaded guilty to get a reduced sentence. If I was Terence Gready and — pure supposition — Mickey Starr was my wingman, I’d be worried about him making a deal with the prosecution.’

Potting frowned. ‘Good point.’

‘And... if I was Terence Gready on trial and facing incarceration for a good chunk of the rest of my life, I’d bust anyone’s balls to get off the charges. Whatever it took.’

Potting nodded. ‘If I’m reading you correctly, chief, you are suggesting that Stuie Starr might have been murdered on Terence Gready’s instructions?’

‘Exactly,’ Grace replied. ‘My primary hypothesis is this: could Terence Gready have become worried about his colleague, friend, right-hand man — Michael Starr — doing a plea bargain of some kind against him? Gready arranges to put the frighteners on Starr by having his brother roughed up a bit? And the thugs he hired went a bit too far? There is evidence of a burglary, but was that staged to throw us off the scent? I can’t see any other reason why a seemingly harmless man like Stuie should be so brutally attacked. Do you have any ideas?’

‘Except,’ EJ chipped in, ‘in our sick modern world, it could be someone or a group targeting Stuie because of who he is. There have been cases here where teens have targeted and attacked vulnerable people, usually with tragic consequences.’

‘What about a revenge attack?’ Jon Exton suggested. ‘And it was mistaken identity?’

Grace nodded. ‘It’s another possibility, Jon. But if it’s a revenge attack on Mickey for some past quarrel, I doubt from these photos anyone could mistake his brother, Stuie, for him, and besides, everyone would know Mickey is in prison.’ Thinking hard, he noted down Kids in his Policy Book. But he doubted that was the scenario here.

The dead man’s brother had pleaded guilty to very serious drugs importation charges on a scale rarely encountered in Sussex. His — as yet unproven — associate Terence Gready was currently on trial for his part in those offences of drug importation and distribution. The two men were suspected of running a major county lines distribution network. The masterminds of these networks were brutal people. They would stoop as low as it took, and they were operating in waters teeming with rivals. They could have any number of enemies, all after the same lucrative business. And any of these, knowing the two men were currently out of action, might be behind the break-in. Stuie could simply have been collateral damage. Getting in the way of their search of the house.

Could it be that whoever had done this had gone into the house to look for cash, or drugs, or maybe even Starr’s contacts list, and had been disturbed by Stuie? They’d had a fight with him and then, when they realized he was dead, they did a runner, in panic? He wrote that down too, as a third hypothesis.

‘Is there any CCTV in the area of this house?’ he asked the team.

‘The nearest was on a garage forecourt opposite, but we don’t know yet if it was actually working,’ EJ said. ‘We’ve been running an ANPR check on all vehicles picked up within twenty-four hours prior to the discovery of the body, but so far nothing. We can extend that time frame if necessary. We’ve also carried out a house-to-house, but so far nothing from any of the neighbours.’

‘I see.’ In his mind, Roy Grace intended to make his first priority to look for any evidence that might implicate Terence Gready orchestrating the attack on Stuie Starr. He would have known where to find him.

EJ continued. ‘Apparently the two brothers kept a very low profile. They have one neighbour, an elderly lady, who regularly kept an eye on Stuie whenever Mickey was away. She looked in on him yesterday morning around 9 a.m. before going out for the day. She may well have been the last person to see him alive.’

‘Away for the day, of course she was,’ Grace said, sounding more cynical than he had intended. But throughout his career in homicide investigation, it seemed that a gremlin was constantly at work, ensuring that the one key potential witness was always otherwise engaged at the crucial moment. He smiled, not wanting to give the impression to the team that he was a tired old cynic.

And hoping, privately, that he really wasn’t.

‘I plan to hold a press conference tomorrow and make a public appeal for any witnesses to come forward. I will make sure they understand the vulnerability of the victim and the truly horrendous nature of this crime.’

‘Playing the emotional card, are we, chief?’

‘Yes, Norman, the bastards who did this to poor Stuie didn’t hold anything back. Neither will I.’