Find Them Dead

82 Wednesday 22 May

At 6 p.m., Roy Grace sat at the head of the conference room table in the Major Crime suite, with his full team assembled. He had in front of him, as always, his briefing notes and his Policy Book, with the whiteboards behind him.

‘OK,’ he said. ‘This is the update briefing on Operation Canoe, the investigation into the murder of Stuie Starr. Firstly, I have no new information from the public to report, to date, following our press appeal and the widespread press and media publicity that followed. There were a few calls in the days immediately following and all the leads were pursued, but they didn’t take us any further forward. In the past few days it has been quiet, with only a handful of calls, most of which were cranks.’ He glanced at his notes.

‘One of our lines of enquiry is that his murder was a burglary that went wrong. Two suspects were arrested in Hampshire a few days ago — serial burglars, in a stolen vehicle — after attempting to break into a house in Havant, and Hampshire police found property in the vehicle that was subsequently identified as having been taken from a house near Chichester that same day. Norman and John will now give us an update.’ He nodded at the two detectives, who were sitting next to each other. Alldridge’s massive six-foot-four-inch frame dwarfed Potting, reminding Grace of the Two Ronnies.

‘The Hampshire detectives we met with were extremely helpful,’ Norman Potting said. ‘They gave us a list of the property recovered in the stolen vehicle, a BMW X5, which included silverware, a number of expensive watches and other jewellery, around £10k cash, laptops, iPads and phones. They were able to confirm all of these items were stolen from a house near Chichester approximately three hours before their arrest, following a pursuit, in Emsworth, Hampshire.’

All of the team looked up, expectantly, sensing a possible breakthrough.

‘But I’m afraid,’ Potting said, dashing their hopes, ‘there is bad news. Although these scrotes looked initially like good suspects for Stuie’s murder, they’d only been released from prison the day before they committed this car theft and burglary. They were both in prison, in HMP Winchester, at the time of Stuie’s murder. John and I have double-checked with the Governor there to make sure.’

Roy Grace thanked the two detectives for their diligence, then continued. ‘We are still waiting on forensic updates, but so far we have nothing from the labs to give us any further leads. Something which may well be of significance — and which I believe most of you are aware — is that Stuie Starr’s brother, Michael, has surprised the Terence Gready trial by giving evidence for the prosecution. It is possible his motivation for doing this might be Stuie’s death.’

‘Meaning what, exactly, sir?’ EJ Boutwood asked.

Grace chose his words carefully. ‘Meaning it is possible that Michael Starr believed that Terence Gready was behind his brother’s death.’

‘Why would Gready want that, boss?’ Alldridge asked. ‘That doesn’t seem to make any sense. Are you suggesting it was to silence his brother? But would he have made a credible witness?’

‘I’m with you, John,’ Grace replied. ‘At the moment it makes no sense. But when you hear the sound of hooves, think horses, not zebras. We have a man on trial for his freedom for pretty much the rest of his life, and Starr’s brother, on whom he doted and with whom he lived, murdered. There is, surely, a high chance the two are connected.’

‘But how?’ EJ asked.

‘I don’t know, EJ, but I have a feeling there is a connection. If we find it, we’ll solve the case.’ He shrugged. ‘Are there any updates from any of you following other lines of enquiry?’

Potting raised a hand. ‘Chief, DC Alldridge and I went to Goodwood Aero Club and spoke to the secretary and a number of pilots, to see on the off-chance if any of them had been up in the air around the time of Stuie’s murder. I left some Op Canoe leaflets with them. Then I did the same with a local gliding club. But nothing positive to report — so far.’

‘Good work, guys,’ Grace said. ‘As I see it, we have two current significant lines of enquiry. The first is Terence Gready and the drugs world. The second is still the possibility this was a burglary gone badly wrong. Keep going. Dissi u surici a nuci, dammi tempo ca ti perciu.’

His team looked at him blankly. He looked at Potting. ‘So Italian didn’t feature in your studies, Norman, alongside geography?’

Potting shook his head.

‘I’ll translate,’ Grace said. ‘A mouse tells a walnut, Just wait, I’ll crack you eventually.’