Need You Dead

112 Sunday 1 May

At midday the conference room at the CID HQ was alive with shock and gossip as Grace informed his team of the developments. No police officer liked to hear of a colleague who had gone rogue.

Neil Fisher from the Media team had joined the briefing, to discuss the media strategy, as well as newly promoted Inspector Fiona Ashcroft from Professional Standards.

‘If anyone has doubts,’ Grace said, ‘then I’m afraid what Ray Packham has to say will, unfortunately, allay them.’ He signalled to the Digital Forensics expert to tell them his latest findings.

Packham yawned, looking exhausted. ‘Apologies,’ he said. ‘I’ve not yet been to bed. The search team recovered a pay-as-you-go mobile phone and a personal laptop from Guy’s home in the early hours of this morning, and I’ve been going through them. I’ve only had time, you’ll understand, for a cursory look, but I’m afraid what I’ve discovered already shows some damning evidence.’ He paused and took a sip from a mug of coffee.

‘The first thing is that there are a number of emails, under a Hotmail account in the name of “Greg Wilson”, to Lorna Belling — which tally with those on her laptop recovered from Shoreham Harbour. These go back approximately eighteen months.’

‘Greg Wilson?’ Norman Potting queried.

‘A false name, Norman,’ Packham replied.

‘Greg was the name of her lover she confided to her close friend, Kate Harmond, who you interviewed, Norman,’ Grace interjected.

The Detective Sergeant nodded.

‘Secondly,’ Packham continued, ‘the weekend following Lorna Belling’s death, his website history shows he looked at a number of sex sites. I’ve not had the time yet to check on them all, but the ones I’ve done so far tally exactly with the calls made on DS Exton’s work phone to sex workers.’ He looked at the team, and shrugged. ‘In my opinion that is too much to be a coincidence.’

‘He sneakily got hold of DS Exton’s phone somehow, and made these calls?’ Donald Dull said.

‘That’s the way it looks,’ Grace said.

‘What a devious bastard,’ Dull retorted.

There was a long silence.

‘Is there any other explanation, boss?’ Kevin Hall asked.

‘I’m all ears if you have one, Kevin,’ Grace replied.

Hall shook his head.

‘There’s something else the search team recovered from Guy’s home,’ Grace added, his tone grim. ‘Lorna Belling’s appointments diary for her hairdressing clients. It was still in an evidence bag, concealed under a case of wine in his garage.’

‘Stupid sod.’ Potting shook his head. ‘What a stupid sod.’

There was a long silence, finally broken by Jack Alexander.

‘Where’s DS Exton now, sir?’ he asked.

‘I saw him an hour ago. I’m happy to say that Dawn picked him up from here and has taken him home. Hopefully that is at least one good outcome from this sodding, sad mess.’

‘What will happen to Batchelor?’ Arnie Crown asked.

‘Not much!’ Potting quipped and turned to Velvet Wilde for approval.

But neither she nor any of the team was in any mood for laughter. Grace glared at the old sweat. Fond though he was of Norman Potting, there were times when he thought this dinosaur should be in a museum, not on his major enquiry team. But equally, he knew, there were other times when the man could be invaluable. As he had proved on this operation. ‘In answer to your question, Arnie,’ Grace said, ‘he will be taken to a police station outside of Sussex and Surrey — probably Hampshire again, for further questioning under caution. Following that he’ll be remanded in custody pending trial.’

‘What a stupid, bloody idiot,’ Potting murmured again, shaking his head as if bewildered by Batchelor’s actions.

Grace then read out Dr Frazer Theobald’s findings, which the pathologist had now produced in a formal report. It gave the cause of death as firstly a head injury causing a brain haemorrhage, and secondly, electrocution. He told his team that the head injury was a fatal blow from which Lorna Belling would have died, but the hair-dryer dropping in the bath had actually caused her heart to stop. Batchelor had of course been responsible for both events and the Crown Prosecution Service were looking at a charge of manslaughter in regard to Lorna, and attempted murder in respect of the police officer, Tim Weatherley.

Forty minutes later, after delegating evidence and paperwork duties, Grace thanked his team and told them to take the rest of the day off. They would meet again the following evening, at 6 p.m.

Then he went home. Despite being desperately upset about Guy, he looked forward to some time at home. May Day. A fine, sunny afternoon.

And he was on a promise...