Need You Dead

61 Monday 25 April

As the DI closed the door behind him, Grace sat and called Cleo back, but her phone went to voicemail. He left a message then sat quietly, thinking, ignoring the steady ping of incoming emails.

Few things in this imperfect world could ever be made perfect, or be made wholly right. But he knew in his heart that he always tried his damnedest. It had destroyed his first marriage to Sandy, and he hoped desperately it would never do the same for his second, to Cleo. But he knew equally from this career he had chosen, that however much he loved his family, there were always going to be times when, hard as it was on his private life, his work had to take priority.

Only occasionally, during rare moments of downtime when he had the opportunity to reflect, would he wonder whether, if he had known when he had chosen to work in Major Crime just what it would mean to his home life, might he have chosen a different career altogether — or at least a different area of policing? And always he came to the same answer. No, never. There was nothing in the world he would prefer to be doing. This job had almost chosen him — perhaps, he wondered sometimes, he had the same certainty about it as priests who had a calling. It felt like his destiny, and the principal reason he existed.

And this despite the knowledge that whilst the scales of justice hung from the statue on the roof of the Old Bailey, the Central Criminal Court, the crime and the punishment rarely balanced — especially when it came to murder. Sooner or later most murderers would be freed on licence. Killers might walk out of jail; but murder victims would never walk out of their final resting place.

In those moments of doubt, he would recall what he had learned at police college all those years back, when he had been training to be a detective. The FBI moral code on murder investigation, written by its first director, J. Edgar Hoover: ‘No greater honour will ever be bestowed on an officer, nor a more profound duty imposed on him, than when he or she is entrusted with the investigation of the death of a fellow human being.’

There was something else, incredibly wise, that Hoover had also once said, that Roy Grace agreed with: ‘The cure for crime is not the electric chair but the high chair.’

It wasn’t only the impact on his family life that got to him at times, it was all the bureaucracy that the police were saddled with these days. Sure, public accountability was important — police officers were, after all, public servants. But the extent to which they had to justify every action could be wearing. The current Independent Police Complaints Commission investigation into the death of Corin Belling would take hours, if not days, of his time and quite possibly lead to a hearing which, if it went the wrong way, could result in him being disciplined — or worse.

But for now he put that aside, focusing back on Lorna Belling. He wanted Guy Batchelor to remain as deputy SIO, but at the end of the day the ultimate responsibility rested with him, and if there was a screw-up, Cassian Pewe would be giving him short shrift for delegating to an inexperienced officer.

Thinking hard, he opened his notebook and picked up a pen from his desk. Four suspects. Plus a potential suicide as an alternative explanation. Corin Belling was a plausible suspect. As well as Seymour Darling — Mr Angry? Possible but unlikely — although clearly an irrational man, he could not be ruled out. Kipp Brown? An old flame who wanted more? What would he have had to gain by killing her? Lorna’s silence perhaps? OK, for a man in his position in society that could indeed be a motive. There were plenty of social studies that showed being a psychopath was one good qualification for succeeding in business. Kipp Brown displayed signs of psychopathy, for sure.

Suicide after discovering the bitter truth about the man who had promised her a future? Possible, too.

And now the new suspect, Greg. Mr Mystery Man. He needed to be found urgently and eliminated. Or not.

When you have eliminated the impossible...

He leaned forward and tapped his keyboard, calling up the Murder Investigation Manual. Then waited and waited. God, the sodding computer system could be so slow at times. It was a common frustration he shared with every member of Sussex Police — and with every officer he had ever met from any other force around the country. Just how ridiculously slow at times the computers could be. Another example of police bureaucracy — by the time decisions were made on a new system — often taking years — it was already archaic. And by the time it was installed and everyone had got their heads round it, systems had moved on a decade. And, of course, there was no budget to upgrade.

The Manual finally appeared and he navigated the index, clicking on MURDER INVESTIGATION MODEL.

Despite all his experience, Roy Grace was always aware of the dangers of being complacent. There were times when he felt the need to check and tick every box in order. Both to ensure he did not miss anything, but also to cover his back with Pewe.

First up on the list was Identify Suspects. He checked his entries in his Investigators’ Notebook, reading down the list; the reasons for each potential suspect, and the possibility of suicide.

Next came Intelligence Opportunities, which included house-to-house, CCTV and ANPR.

He updated the entries relating to the beer cans and cigarette butts, as well as Lorna’s phone, her possibly missing laptop, and the circuit board found in the flat.

Postmortem Forensics. The interim report from Theobald gave the cause of death as being: 1A. Head trauma. 1B. Electrocution. He also made a note that he was awaiting DNA results.

Crime Scene Assessment. He refreshed the details, noting the apparent missing picture on the wall.

Witness Search. He wrote a summary of Seymour Darling’s interview, and the further deployment of an outside enquiry team to do a house-to-house.

Victim Enquiries. He wrote a summary of Norman Potting’s interviews with Lorna’s friends.

Possible Motives. That filled two pages.

Media. He wrote down the appeals for information in the press release that had been put out to the Argus newspaper, the local television station, Latest TV, as well as Radio Sussex, Juice and the weekly Brighton & Hove Independent.

The final item was Other Significant Critical Actions. He checked through the details of his attempt to interview and his pursuit of Corin Belling, the arrests and the interviews under caution of Seymour Darling and Kipp Brown, and the latest information about the new suspect, known only as Greg.

When he’d finished he called Batchelor. ‘Guy, I need you to speak to Seymour Darling, purely as a witness, with his solicitor present, and show him the recording of Kipp Brown. Ask him if this is the James Bond character he claims he saw outside Lorna Belling’s rented flat.’

‘Leave it with me, boss.’

‘Let me know right away.’

‘Absolutely.’

When he ended the call, Grace called the DI in Professional Standards for an update on the IPCC investigation, but he wasn’t overly worried. Only one thing would make a man like Belling run away from a police officer wanting to question him — and that was guilt.