And it wasn’t going to get any better. Even his shocked family didn’t want to know, according to his solicitor.
Lying there, examining his future dispassionately, he came to a decision. Grimacing with pain, Stevie rolled off the bunk and took off his shirt, wincing at the stab of pain from his ribs. With his teeth and nails, painstakingly he unpicked the seams that held the denim together. On the sharp end of a bed spring, he ripped the edges of the material so he could tear it into thin strips, which he plaited together for extra strength. He tied one end of the makeshift ligature round his neck in a tight noose, then climbed on to the top bunk. He fastened the other end of his short rope to the bottom rail of the upper berth.
Then, at seventeen minutes past nine on a sunny Sunday morning, he threw himself head first over the edge.
Like an ailing company which has won a life-saving tender against all odds, Scargill Street was buzzing with excited activity. At the heart of it all was the HOLMES room, where officers stared into screens, manipulating the new information, evaluating the new correspondences the system was throwing out.
In his office, Brandon held a council of war with his four inspectors and Tony, all of them clutching a photocopy of Brandon’s notes on his interview with Terry Harding. The ACC had only had five hours’ sleep, but the prospect of movement on the enquiry had given him a new energy, betrayed only by the heavy shadows around his deep-set eyes. ‘To recap, then,’ Brandon said. ‘At about quarter past seven the night Damien Connolly was killed, a man drove out of his garage in some kind of big four-wheel drive jeep, dark in colour. He got out of the jeep to close the garage door, and that’s when our witness got his best look at him. The description we’ve got is white, five ten to six feet, aged between twenty and forty-five, possibly with his hair tied back in a ponytail. Wearing white trainers, jeans and a long waxed coat. Overnight, the HOLMES team have been going through the vehicles clocked in Temple Fields that fit the description. Most of these drivers have already been interviewed, but they’re all going to be followed up and questioned more thoroughly now we’ve got Terry Harding’s evidence. Bob, I want you to take charge of that, and I want alibis checking too.’
‘Right, boss,’ Stansfield said, flicking the ash off his cigarette with a determined motion.
‘Oh, and Bob? Can you get someone to check that Harding really has been in Japan all week on a business trip? I want to make sure we cover all the bases on this one.’ Stansfield nodded.
‘I’m sending a car round for Harding at eleven o’clock,’ Brandon went on, checking the list he’d made in the kitchen at seven. ‘Carol, I want you to do the interview. Check what taxi firm Harding used to take him to the airport; let’s see if we can get that time narrowed down a bit more. Tony, I’d like you to sit in on it. Maybe you can help us with strategies to improve his recollection, see if we can get any firm description of what this character looks like.’
‘I’ll do my best,’ he said. ‘At least I can probably distinguish between what he really remembers and what he thinks he remembers.’
Brandon gave him an odd look, but carried on regardless. ‘Kevin, I want you to organize a team to hit the car showrooms, get as many brochures and posters as you can of four-wheel drive jeeps, so we can show them to Mr Harding and see if he can give us a positive ID.’
‘Will do, sir. Do you want us to go back to the neighbours in the earlier cases, see if anyone noticed the same vehicle there?’ Kevin asked eagerly.
Brandon considered for a moment. ‘Let’s see how we go on today,’ he said after a few moments. ‘It’ll take a lot of bodies and time to go over the old ground again, and we might not need it. It’s probably worth having a word with the rest of the neighbours in Connolly’s street, though. Now we’ve got something positive to hit them with. Good idea, Kevin. Now, Dave. What can you do for us?’
Woolcott outlined the actions the HOLMES team were already carrying out. ‘With it being Sunday, I’m holding back on contacting Swansea until we’ve tried to get the vehicle narrowed down. The more information we can give them, the fewer possibilities we’ll have to deal with. If this Harding bloke can give us make, model and year, or at least eliminate some models, we can ask DVLC to let us have a list of all the matches throughout the UK. Then we can start interviewing registered keepers, starting with Bradfield and moving out from there. It’s a helluva big job, but we should get there in the end.’
Brandon nodded his acknowledgement. ‘Anybody got anything else?’
Tony lifted a hand. ‘If you’re questioning neighbours anyway, it might be worth extending the enquiries slightly.’ All eyes were on him, but he was only aware of Carol’s. What had happened between them had sharpened his desire to be instrumental in capturing Handy Andy. ‘This guy is a stalker, I don’t think anyone would dispute that now. I think he’d been watching Damien Connolly for a while. Given that we’re in the middle of winter and it’s not the ideal weather for standing around in the open, chances are he did the bulk of his spying from his car. He probably didn’t park up in the close itself, since he’d be too noticeable in such a short street. I’d guess he parked on the street that runs along the bottom, somewhere that he had the house in his line of sight. Maybe someone there noticed an unfamiliar vehicle parked outside for long stretches.’
‘Good thinking,’ Brandon said. ‘Kevin, can you cover that?’
‘Will do, sir. I’ll get the lads on to it.’
‘And the lasses,’ Carol said sweetly. ‘And maybe we should ask them not to concentrate on the four-wheel drive motor. If this guy’s as careful as we think he is, he might only use the jeep for the actual snatches and go for something different when he’s doing the stalking, just in case a nosy neighbour has clocked him.’
‘What do you think, Tony?’ Brandon asked.
‘It wouldn’t surprise me,’ he said. ‘It’s important we don’t forget how competent this killer is. He might even be using hired cars.’
Dave Woolcott groaned. ‘Oh God, don’t do this to me.’
Bob Stansfield looked up from the pad where he’d been scribbling the names of his team. ‘I take it that the other lines of enquiry that Dr Hill suggested are on the back burner for now?’
Brandon pursed his lips grimly. The euphoria had died somewhere during the briefing. The weight of the work ahead seemed unbearable, the idea of finding the killer almost as distant as it had before Terry Harding walked into the station. ‘That’s right. No disrespect, Tony, but your suggestions are hypotheses, and what we’ve got now is our first solid set of facts.’
‘No problem,’ Tony said. ‘Hard evidence always comes first.’
‘And Carol’s idea about the computer stuff? Should we still pursue that?’ Dave asked.
‘Same thing applies,’ Brandon said. ‘It’s a hunch, not a fact, so yes, it goes on the back burner.’
‘With respect, sir,’ Carol chipped in, determined not to be sidelined. ‘Even if Terry Harding gives us a positive ID on the make and model of the vehicle, we might be no further forward. We need other elimination factors before we can narrow things down. If I’m right about the computer, we’d be looking at such a small segment of the population that it would be significant if we did get a cross-match.’
Brandon considered for a moment. Then he said, ‘Point taken, Carol. OK, we can pursue it, Dave, but not as a priority. Only as and when we have bodies freed up from the main enquiry. Right, are we all clear what we’ve got to do?’ He looked around expectantly, registering the series of nods. ‘OK, team,’ Brandon said, his voice stern. ‘Let’s go for it.’
‘And may the force be with you,’ Kevin said under his breath to Carol as they emerged from the office.
‘I’d rather have the force than the gutter press,’ she said drily, turning her back on him. ‘Tony, can we find a quiet corner and plan our strategy for this interview?’
‘The only way you’re going to get more out of him is by hypnosis,’ Tony told Carol as they talked in the corridor after an hour with Terry Harding.
‘Can you do that?’ Carol asked.
‘I’ve got the basic technique. Judging by his eye movements and body language, he was telling the truth about what he saw, not making anything up or exaggerating, so he might come across with more detail under hypnosis, particularly if we have pictures to show him.’
Ten minutes later, Carol was back with a sheaf of car brochures that Kevin’s team had scavenged from city dealerships. ‘This what we need?’
Tony nodded. ‘Perfect. You sure you want me to give this a go?’
‘It’s got to be worth a try,’ Carol said.
They walked back into the interview room, where Terry Harding was finishing a mug of coffee. ‘Can I go now?’ he said plaintively. ‘Only I’m due to fly out to Brussels tomorrow and I haven’t even unpacked my bag.’
‘Not much longer, sir,’ Carol said, sitting down to one side of the table. ‘Dr Hill would like to try something
