One of Us Is Dead

87 Tuesday 18 October 2022

Roy Grace went to his office with Glenn Branson ready to take the call from the anonymous female. Moments later, his phone rang.

‘This is Detective Superintendent Grace,’ he answered calmly. ‘Who am I speaking to?’

‘I can’t give you my name,’ the woman said. She sounded young, he thought, in her twenties, nervous but punchy, her accent classless, Home Counties. ‘I know you are looking for Paul Anthony, and I know where he is.’

Grace frowned. On his strict instructions, his team had not made Paul Anthony’s name public, not at either of the two press conferences on Operation Meadow, nor in any other way. ‘Can you tell me why you think we might be looking for Mr Anthony?’ he asked, keeping his tone calm and polite, not wanting to risk spooking her.

‘Because I’m not an idiot,’ she retorted.

‘OK,’ he said, continuing to think hard. ‘Do you know Paul Anthony yourself?’

‘Maybe.’

‘OK, you maybe know him and you are not an idiot. What is your reason for wanting to tell us his whereabouts?’

‘Because someone needs to stop him.’

‘Stop him from doing what?’

‘From what he’s doing.’

‘And what are you aware of that he is doing?’

‘He’s a killer — a murderer — he’s totally psycho. He’s about to commit another murder; you might be able to stop him. But you may not have much time.’

Grace considered his reply very carefully, thoughts swirling through his head. She didn’t sound like a crackpot, so who was she? How did she know they were looking for Paul Anthony? How did she know what he was about to do?

Unless there had been a leak from within his team, which he strongly doubted, how did she know? ‘Do you want to save this person’s life? The person you say he is about to murder?’

‘I do, he’s a decent, innocent man.’

‘Can you tell me who he is and where he is?’

‘I can, yes, but before I do, I want immunity from prosecution. Can you give me that? In writing?’

‘What exactly are your concerns about being prosecuted?’ he asked, still keeping his tone gentle, caring.

‘I’ve been working for him, doing stuff for him. He lied to me about what he was really doing.’

‘What kind of stuff?’

‘On the dark web. Supplying criminals with stuff. I could just disappear right now and you’d have a hard time finding me, you might never find me. But I don’t want to, I want to stop this bastard. That’s why I called. Please.’

Grace waited a beat, then said, ‘Look, it’s not in my gift to grant anyone immunity from prosecution, that’s not how the system works. But—’

‘That’s not good enough,’ she said. ‘I’ll give you an hour to think about it, and then I’ll call you back.’

She terminated the call before Grace had a chance to reply.