The Hawk Is Dead

82

Tuesday 28 November 2023

Roy Grace remained silent until they drove past the barrier at HQ. Then, suddenly animated, he turned to Branson.

‘OK! I have another possible hypothesis. So, Sir Peregrine Greaves, who has considerable internet skills from his background in Naval Intelligence, is the leader of a small group of Royal Household staff who are making a fortune, or planning to make a fortune, by stealing items from the Royal Collection that they think won’t be missed until all the renovations have been completed. Let’s say he’s had a falling-out with Geoffrey Bailey, who has a crush on him. Bailey, bitter at not receiving a medal from Sir Peregrine, knows what he is up to and is threatening to expose him, which would blow apart the entire scam — with dire consequences for his co-conspirators. With me so far?’

‘I am.’

‘For reasons as yet unknown, Sir Peregrine is suddenly murdered by a person or persons unknown. Geoffrey Bailey is now left without the person who could have got him his medal and his deserved status. There are others in senior positions in the Royal Household who could put him forward for that coveted medal, and maybe Bailey thinks by naming the conspirators and preventing the theft of millions of pounds’ worth of items, he will be awarded the medal. The conspirators as a group, worried about this loose cannon, decide the only way to guarantee his silence is to kill him.’

‘But why the medal down his throat?’ Branson asked.

‘To humiliate him?’ Grace posited. ‘Perhaps sending a message to anyone else he might have told who might try to blackmail them? And putting him in the digester — perhaps they hoped it would decompose most of his body — which it would have done in time. Or perhaps it was symbolic? That he was just a piece of compost?’

‘You might be overthinking it,’ Branson said as they drove uphill across the HQ campus towards the detectives’ parking area. ‘It might have just been a convenient place to dump his body.’

Grace smiled. ‘You could well be right. The simplest solution, and all that. I’ll leave this hypothesis off tomorrow’s press briefing.’

‘I think that would be smart, boss.’

As they pulled into a space a short distance behind his office, Grace asked, ‘So, what do you make of Shannon’s work so far?’

Branson nodded. ‘Yeah, she’s smart and she knows her way around the internet for sure. She’s worked for some pretty big internet players, including Elon Musk, as well as a company funded by MI6. Sure, she wants to please us, to justify what we’ve done to get her out of jail, but I feel she does really know what she’s doing. Evidenced by what Sir Tommy said a short while ago.’

Grace signalled he agreed, but his expression was uneasy.

83

Tuesday 28 November 2023

Moments later, Polly Sweeney rang. Grace switched to loudspeaker, and both of them listened.

‘Roy, I’m sitting with Lady Greaves, and I just put the question to her that you asked: whether Sir Peregrine had recently taken any refresher course in computer coding. Lady Greaves just told me that he did an intense course quite recently, which finished a few months ago. But he wouldn’t tell her why he was doing it.’

‘Did he give a reason he wouldn’t tell her?’ Grace and Branson frowned at each other.

‘Well — apparently, when she pressed him, all he would say was it was at the personal request of The King. That his boss was concerned about cyber-security and thought Sir Peregrine’s military intelligence background might be helpful in establishing a firewall layer for the Royal Household network... Hang on a sec, Roy, Lady Greaves is saying something.’

They waited for a moment then heard her voice again. ‘Lady Greaves has just told me that The King had asked him how up to speed with current internet technology he was, and when he told him that he didn’t feel he was that much up to speed, The King suggested a fairly elaborate course he should enrol in — which he duly did. He had obviously researched it.’

‘And that was a few months ago.’

‘Hold on a second, sir.’ There was another pause, then Polly Sweeney came back on the line. ‘Lady Greaves says he finished the course in July.’

‘Please thank her,’ Grace said. ‘This is very helpful.’

When the call ended, he turned to Branson and gave him a quizzical look.

‘Interesting,’ Branson said.

‘Very. I guess there’s one person who can verify whether Sir Peregrine was telling his wife the truth or not.’

‘Who’s that?’

Grace smiled.