Pray for the Dying

Sixty

‘It’s not a charity at all, sir,’ Paterson ventured. ‘If you ask me, it’s more of a doorway.’

‘Explain,’ Skinner said.

‘It’s the website, sir. It’s called www dot problemsolvers dot org. Dot org domains used to be just for charities, but these days that’s not necessarily so. To be sure I checked with the Charities Commission; they’ve never heard of it.

‘On top of that,’ the DC continued, ‘it’s weird in another way. It’s password protected. I only got in because Millbank was careless in one respect: he saved his passwords on his computer, thinking, I suppose, that nobody else would ever use it.’

‘When you did get in there, what did you find?’ the chief constable asked.

‘Nothing much; it’s very simple. I’m sure he set it up himself. There’s just the two pages. The home page has only six words: “Personnel problems? Discreet and permanent solutions.” Then there’s a message board. But there’s no history on the site at all. He’s wiped it all. However, there is one message still up on the board. It’s possible that he left it there because the reply will go automatically to the sender, without Millbank ever needing to know who he was.’

‘Not Millbank, Cohen,’ Skinner countered. ‘This is definitely Beram Cohen. You’ve found him. What did the message say?’

‘Confirm payment made as agreed, to sort code eighty-one forty twenty-two, account number zero six nine five two one five one.’

‘Have you followed it up?’

‘Not yet, sir.’

‘Then do so, tomorrow morning. Wherever the bank is it’ll have knocked off for the day by now. When you find it, trace the source of the payment and find out if any withdrawals have been made from it lately. Lottie, Banjo, that’s good work.’ He turned to Provan. ‘Now, Sergeant, you’re clearly bursting your braces to tell me something. It’s your turn, so out with it.’