Need You Dead

39 Saturday 23 April

Guy Batchelor had an early-morning coffee and cigarette outside, then went in, out of the chilly wind, to his temporary SIO office on the ground floor, and sat down with his back to the window thinking hard about the day ahead on Operation Bantam. He read through the notes he had taken during yesterday evening’s briefing, and also what he had written in his Policy Book, so he could bring Roy Grace, who was due in shortly, up to speed. His phone rang, interrupting his thoughts.

No caller ID showed on the display.

‘Guy Batchelor,’ he answered.

It was Julian Raven from Digital Forensics. ‘Sir,’ he said. ‘Regarding Operation Bantam, we’ve come up with some information on the deceased Lorna Belling’s iPhone we were asked to look at. It was passcode protected, but we’ve managed to get into it.’

‘Bloody hell, how?’ He was mindful of recent press publicity where the FBI in the US had failed with court orders to get Apple to unlock seized phones.

‘It had fingerprint security activated. We have Surrey and Sussex Forensics to thank. They took it to the mortuary — they’ve developed some fancy new technology to use the finger of a deceased to work on the button.’

‘Brilliant!’

‘Yep, pretty impressive. So, in the week before Lorna died there were forty-seven calls from one number. And fifteen messages, many of them abusive.’

‘Really — what do the messages say?’ Batchelor said, his hopes rising again.

‘They appear to relate to an MX5 sports car advertised for sale on eBay by Lorna Belling. The bidder had offered £2,800 which she accepted. He made payment via PayPal, but she then appears to have denied receiving the money. He had been accusing her in his messages of stealing his money.’

‘Go on.’

‘He’s been threatening her with dire consequences if she doesn’t either give him the car or his money back. He’s particularly angry because he wanted this car for a surprise for his wife’s birthday — he’s explained that in his messages. We’ve done a triangulation survey and cell-site analysis with his mobile phone service provider, O2, which puts him in the vicinity of the deceased’s flat, Vallance Mansions, on several separate occasions. The most recent was last night.’

Batchelor felt a buzz of excitement. ‘What do we know?’

‘His name is Seymour Darling. He’s logged as having made a complaint to Sussex Police on Saturday, 16th April, about a fraud. The complaint is being investigated by DC Hilary Bennison from the Economic Crime Unit. I’ve spoken to her and it seems Darling might be the victim of an online scam that’s currently pretty widespread.’

‘What kind of scam, Julian?’

‘It’s one of a number, where people get sent an email with payment instructions. It looks like the sender’s address but there is a subtle change. The moment the money’s paid over, it’s gone.’

Batchelor thought hard. ‘Seymour Darling? Why’s that name ringing a bell?’

‘He’s got three previous convictions, the first in 1997 for shoplifting, for which he got a fine and community service order. The next was 2003 for demanding money with menace — for which he got two years suspended. The third was in 2005 for GBH, when he permanently blinded a woman in one eye in an assault in a pub — for which he got four years. I have his address; 29 Hangleton Rise.’

‘Well, he sounds quite the charmer. Let me have his number and any details you’ve got — and I’ll also get a full background check on him.’

As he ended the call, Roy Grace came into his office. Seeing the big grin on the Acting SIO’s face, the Detective Superintendent said, ‘What’s up?’

Batchelor told him.

Grace pulled up a chair at the empty desk opposite him and sat down, absorbing the information. ‘Interesting form,’ he said.

‘Very.’

Grace entered Seymour Darling’s name on the computer and studied the man’s criminal record for some moments. ‘Hmmm,’ he said. ‘Darling seems to be a man who likes getting into disputes. BHIMS have been involved with him twice — once sorting out a boundary dispute with a neighbour, and another time some issue with a dog.’

‘BHIMS?’ Batchelor queried.

‘It stands for Brighton and Hove Independent Mediation Service.’ Then switching subjects, he asked, ‘When are we expecting the semen DNA results from the lab, Guy?’

‘They only went off yesterday afternoon, so probably sometime tomorrow, with luck, boss.’

Grace nodded, thinking. Rape was often an escalation from minor crimes. And it was often more about anger and power over a woman than sexual gratification. A classic scenario for a rapist was a burglar foiled by the owner of a property he had entered, deciding that next time if it was a female he would incapacitate and rape her, almost to show her who was boss. Darling’s criminal history showed just such a scale of progressive escalation.

‘How was Germany? How did it go?’

‘Do you know that old Chinese curse? May you live in interesting times.’

‘It went badly?’

Grace shrugged. ‘You’ve got a daughter, right?’

‘Anna, yes, great kid.’

‘In part because she’s lucky enough to have great parents.’

The DI smiled. ‘I like to think that’s part of it. But it’s not everything.’

‘But we know, don’t we, Guy, the percentage of offenders who come from broken homes, single-parent families, alcoholic or drugusing families, abusers, you name it. It doesn’t always start that way, but nine times out of ten you can show me a man — or a woman — in a prison cell and I’ll show you the train crash of a family that brought them up.’

‘Is he screwed up, your kid — what’s his name again?’

‘Bruno. I don’t know. He’s complex, that’s for sure, but I think he’s OK. He’s a bright boy, with a lot of curiosity about things. Hell, you’d have to be a bit screwed up with all the shit his mother’s put him through. I think he’s fragile; he’s obviously spent a lot of time on his own, and seen his mother having to deal with a lot of issues, including drugs. On top of all that he’s now been taken away from his homeland and friends. We’ll try to give him all the love and attention we can, and we’re going to have a chat with an expert in the child psychology field to see what’s best. I’m sure he’ll be fine once he’s settled.’ He shrugged and peered again at the computer screen.

Batchelor leaned forward a little. ‘If you don’t mind my saying it, you look whacked. Do you want to take the weekend off? I can handle everything.’

‘Thanks, Guy, but I think it’s better for me to be here for a while. To give Cleo a little time this morning alone with Bruno to try to bond with him.’

‘So what’s he actually like?’

Grace shrugged. ‘What would any of us be like, being told our mother had committed suicide, and that our father, whom we had never met, was going to come and take us to a foreign country where we didn’t know a soul?’

‘Tough call.’

‘Yep. You’ve said it. Tough call. One of our priorities is to get him some friends. Jason Tingley’s kindly taking him to a Crystal Palace game this afternoon, with his son, Stan.’

‘Is that wise? Getting him to fraternize with the opposition on his first day?’

Grace grinned. Since Brighton and Hove Albion’s biggest rival was Crystal Palace, this had long been a friendly bone of contention between Grace and Tingley.

‘If it helps him make a friend here, then what the hell. Anyhow, enough about me, let’s focus. We need to talk to Seymour Darling, PDQ.’

‘Want to take a ride with me over to his house?’

Grace thought for a moment. His plan had been to spend a few hours catching up on all the emails that would have come in for him during the past day and a half that he had been away in Germany. But this development excited him. One thing that he had missed as he had risen through the ranks was what all officers who got promoted away from frontline duties and became increasingly deskbound missed. And that was the adrenaline rush of action.

‘Good suggestion,’ he said.