Acting on a hunch, she reaches into her bag and finds the key ring taken from Dave on his arrest, which she and her colleague used to gain entry to his apartment. One of the keys has the word ‘Yale’ on one side. She closes the compartment, puts the keys back into her bag, picks up the puffer and takes it through to Mrs Rex.
The two detectives wait a few minutes to make sure the old lady recovers and then leave, telling her they will be in touch when they have further news.
Once downstairs, DS Nason phones the DCI and tells him what she has discovered.
DCI Quinn phones the Chief Constable to decide on the best magistrate to approach and obtain a search warrant.
The DCI instructs them both to sit in their car and keep an eye on the nursing home until they can obtain the warrant.
Two hours later, they receive a call informing them a warrant is on the way.
Five minutes later, a marked police car drives into the visitor car park of the nursing home and DS Nason walks over and collects an envelope containing the warrant. The DS tells the two Officers to drive round to the back of the nursing home and wait as they might be needed.
Together with DS Underwood, they return to the entrance and make their way back towards the stairs. As they walk past the elevator, the doors open and Mrs Rex steps out holding a white carrier bag. She doesn’t look as frail as she did before.
“Hello again, Mrs Rex. We were just on our way back up to see you. We have a search warrant here.”
At that same moment, they hear the buzzer on the front entrance of reception. As DS Nason moves forward towards Mrs Rex, DS Underwood looks across and recognises Eddie Wellman, one of Dave’s known associates, waiting to enter. When he sees the detectives, he turns round and walks away. DS Underwood radios to tell the two PCs sitting at the rear of the nursing home to drive round and intercept him, search his vehicle and take him to the police station for them to question later.
The two detectives get into the elevator with Mrs Rex and go back up to her apartment.
Once back inside, DS Nason hands the search warrant over to Mrs Rex and DS Underwood asks her to hand over the carrier bag.
“We’re now going to do an extensive search. You can help yourself by telling us where to look and save the whole place from being turned upside down.”
“You can go and fuck yourself, pig,” comes the reply.
“Not such a frail old lady anymore, are we, Mrs Rex?”
Chapter Fifty-Two
MRS REX
DS Underwood radios to ask for one of the PCs to come up after the search of Eddie Wellman’s vehicle and keep an eye on Mrs Rex.
“I’ll make a start in the bedroom,” says DS Nason as she walks through. She doesn’t want Mrs Rex to know that she noticed the safe under the bed when she collected the puffer. She has been told not to mention it as there is a chance it could be used by the defence in court and any evidence found could be thrown out on a technicality. So she starts off by searching the wardrobes, then the clothes drawers and finally starts to examine the bed and pretends to see the safe for the first time.
“Well, what have we here, Mrs Rex? I’ve just seen a safe in the side of your bed. Do you have a key for it?”
“No, I fucking don’t.”
“We have your son’s set of keys. Let’s see if any of those fit.”
When she noticed the safe earlier, the DS had not been surprised. A few months ago she stayed at a Premier Inn hotel and found the king-size Hypnos bed so comfortable she decided to buy one. When she visited a local bed shop to see if they sold them, the salesman showed her one as well as the optional extras available. For £350 he told her she could have a built-in safe in the bed base.
“A lot of people use it for their laptops and things like their passports.” He told her.
She ended up buying the bed but without the optional extra.
DS Rachel Nason opens the safe under Mrs Rex’s bed and discovers it is empty. Moving back into the lounge, she tells the DI.
He looks at Mrs Rex. “Can you tell me what I will find in this carrier bag, Mrs Rex?”
“I don’t know. Just some things I found and was about to throw out. It’s only rubbish.”
The DS takes out the contents and lays them on the coffee table. As he does so, DS Nason logs the contents one by one and takes photos using her iPhone.
“A black notebook.”
“A passport in the name of Andrew Reynolds, with what looks like a photo of Dave Rex.”
“A bundle of £5,000 in cash made up of £50 notes.”
“A receipt for four coffees marked ‘Milton Motel coffee lounge’.”
“A pay-as-you-go mobile phone.”
The DS phones his boss, DCI Quinn, and puts him on speaker phone as they make their way through the items. As they methodically work their way through the paperwork they discover a notebook.
Upon closer examination, they notice what appear to be Dave’s calculations for working out how to inject the cash from his illegal activities into his front companies. Closer inspection should hopefully confirm this is used as a method to boost profits and make it seems that his lifestyle is supported by legitimate enterprises, when actually the real income stems from his illegal activities. They are surprised to find details of his involvement supplying the services
