The Hawk Is Dead

81

Tuesday 28 November 2023

Grace slipped his phone back in his pocket and filled Branson in on his conversation with Sir Tommy.

‘Boss, why did you hold back and not tell him what Shannon said, that this isn’t the first auction of items from the Royal Collection?’

‘Sir Tommy’s a nice guy, well-meaning and helpful. But at the moment we have to jump on whoever the thieves within the Royal Household are. Sir Tommy’s not a detective and if he starts digging around for us, we risk the people we’re after running for the hills.’

The DI nodded.

‘We’ve got Shannon joining the bidding. Let’s see what she comes up with. She’s already said something extremely interesting that has got me thinking about Sir Peregrine in a different light.’

Clipping in his seatbelt, Branson said, ‘Are you thinking what I’m thinking?’

‘Code?’

He nodded, grimly. ‘Shannon said that the skills required could come from someone with a Military Intelligence background. Sir Peregrine’s military background was in Naval Intelligence, right?’

‘That’s what Lady Greaves told us.’

A lightbulb had popped on somewhere deep inside Grace’s brain in their meeting with Shannon Kendall. Not a searingly bright one, but a glimmer, nonetheless. And steadily getting brighter. ‘Shit,’ he said, then fell silent, deep in thought.

Branson looked at him, waiting for him to say something further, but the Detective Superintendent remained silent, his eyes closed.

‘Shall I head on down to HQ, boss?’ he asked.

There was no response.

Branson waited for some moments, then started the engine and reversed out of the parking space. As he did so, Grace suddenly raised a pointed finger. ‘Could this shed new light on Sir Peregrine’s death?’

‘What’s your line of thinking — although I think I’ve guessed it?’

‘We already know Sir Peregrine was into ciphers — using his old military code in his diary. Let’s hypothesize he was up to speed with modern computer code. Had he rumbled the conspiracy and was doing his own investigations on the dark web into who the conspirators were? And was that why he was murdered, to silence him? Or...?’ He looked questioningly at his colleague.

‘Or was he one of them — one of the conspirators? Is that what you’re saying?’ Branson looked dubious.

‘Up until now, we thought we had a clear motive for Sir Peregrine being the shooter’s intended target, from his coded entry in his diary. Now we potentially have a second one.’

Branson drove in silence for some moments then he said, ‘Peregrine on the trail of the conspirators, or Peregrine not quite the loyal household servant Their Majesties believed?’

‘We’ve heard about his “proclivities”, thanks to the decoding of his diary. But what else can we glean from what he wrote?’ Grace glanced down at his phone, pulled up the decoded script and scanned through it, reading aloud various parts of significance to him.

He went on.

‘So who is this source? The Buckingham Palace Deep Throat?’ Branson said. ‘Or are we taking it all too much at face value?’

‘I’m thinking, is this all a very clever double-blind? The diary is in code, so why hasn’t he named either the source or this person high up in Royal Service? If he’s speculating he might be murdered for delving into the conspiracy, why would he have shied from naming this person high up in Royal Service, so they got their comeuppance? Could it possibly be that the “source” doesn’t exist and this person high up in Royal Service is actually himself?’

Branson frowned. ‘But he must have been worried about being watched — and killed, to have written that diary entry in code. I don’t get what he’d have to gain from that.’

‘All part of clever obfuscation? Protecting his reputation, or his family’s inheritance in the event of his death, or perhaps both?’

‘What do we know about his finances?’

‘Financial Investigator Emily Denyer’s looking into them. She’s not found anything so far that raises a flag.’

‘Does he have a Bitcoin or other cybercurrency account?’

‘Aiden Gilbert’s Digital Forensics team have his laptop and phone. If he’s got a hidden account of any kind, they’ll find it.’

As Branson drove on, Grace lapsed into brief silence again, deep in thought. Then he said, ‘This case is a proper onion router situation itself. Layers and layers to peel away.’

‘Exactly.’

‘And the first layer is the death of Geoffrey Bailey so soon after Peregrine’s. What we know so far is that the two of them were in some form of relationship that Peregrine felt was inappropriate, so he kept it hidden. We also know that Bailey desperately wanted a medal, which was in Sir Peregrine’s gift to recommend to The King. Killing Sir Peregrine wasn’t going to deliver him that medal, and from what we know of Bailey, he could never have planned the shooting. It was a proper military operation.’

‘Sir Jason, as well as Sir Tommy, and others in the Palace are all ex-military.’

Grace smiled. ‘Yes, it seems half the Household staff are.’ He was silent again for some moments. ‘I’m trying to think of what motive there could be for killing both Sir Peregrine and Geoffrey Bailey. We know there’s the clandestine connection between them, so blackmail may be involved. That would be a neat fit. But killing both of them? Who has done that and what’s the motive?’

‘Lady Greaves would have something to gain. She learns about their secret meetings and kills them both.’

‘Elegant theory but I don’t see her as a modern-day Lady Macbeth,’ Grace said with a wry smile. ‘But she may be able to tell us something.’ He called Polly Sweeney, who said she was at this moment on her way to have a cup of tea with Lady Greaves, her second visit in two days. He asked her if she could urgently, in her role as Family Liaison Officer, ask Sir Peregrine’s widow if her husband had ever taken any refresher course in computer coding.

Ending the call, he turned to his colleague. ‘Let’s look at possible motives.’

‘Jealousy, revenge, fear, anger and greed,’ Branson replied glibly. ‘Aren’t these what you always say are the main motives for murder?’

‘I don’t just always say them, mate. I know them by heart. Over twenty years working on homicides has taught me a lot about human nature. So which of the five you’ve just reeled off are you going to bet your stack of chips on right now?’

‘Greed,’ Branson replied almost immediately.

‘Greed is good,’ Grace replied.

‘Michael Douglas playing Gordon Gekko in the movie Wall Street. He said that. Famous line.’

‘Is there any movie you haven’t seen?’

‘Yeah, actually. I’ve got a few on my bucket list. I’ve never seen The Sound of Music. Nor Mary Poppins. Not really my thing, musicals.’

Grace smiled. ‘I actually wasn’t quoting a movie when I said, greed is good. I actually think greed is a good hypothesis. Given the values of items in the Royal Collection, which we’ve had reinforced just now, greed has to be significant. Let’s look at the death of Sir Peregrine first. Two potential hypotheses. First hypothesis, Sir Peregrine stumbled across the conspirators and needed to be silenced. Second hypothesis, Sir Peregrine was one of the conspirators — their ringleader? Let’s go with the second for the moment, OK?’

Branson nodded, a tad dubiously.

They were interrupted by Grace’s phone ringing. ‘Sir Tommy!’ he answered.

The Master sounded distraught. ‘Roy, I was so worried after our call I went straight from my office down to the vault. The miniature isn’t there. I checked with Rose Cadoret, the Deputy Director of the Royal Collection. She is one of the few people who could authorize any item being moved somewhere different.’

‘She doesn’t know where it is? Is there anyone else who would have access to the store — apart from Lorraine McKnight of course?’ Roy quizzed.

‘There’s Sir Jason Finch and also there’s the Surveyor of The King’s Pictures, Robert Randall — but they are both away on annual leave at the moment.’

‘Conveniently?’

‘Yes, could be these thieves have taken the opportunity of them being absent. I’ll see if I can contact Robert Randall, but I very much doubt he would have moved it without notifying Rose. This is terrible, Roy.’ The Master sounded near distraught. ‘And I’ll inform Sir Jason Finch right away even though I believe he’s in Amsterdam with his wife. He’s back next Monday, but I know he would want to be kept updated.’

‘The Keeper of the Privy Purse?’ Grace asked.

‘Exactly. He will need to notify the Palace insurers right away. And he won’t be at all happy about this.’

‘Let me know if you hear anything more.’

‘You’re on my speed-dial.’