“Boyden’s been telling the girls a few porky pies about who he is,” Dillon continued. “He’s been claiming to be a police officer named Brian. In fact, he’s a civilian station officer at Whitechapel. It seems that Boyden’s done some voluntary work for the Sutton Mission over the last couple of months, and we believe he may have been using that as a screen to legitimise his contact with the working girls. Anyway, Dean’s done some flash research for us. What have you found out, Deano?”
“Well,” Dean began, “he’s no trace on the PNC, or on the CRIS, CRIMINT or CAD databases. I checked with Human Resources to see if there was anything interesting or relevant in his personnel file about his previous work experience. Get this – he served in the army medical corps.”
Paul Evans let out a low whistle. “So, he definitely has some rudimentary medical knowledge.” Boyden was starting to look like a good suspect.
“That’s right,” Dean confirmed. “Then I checked with the duties office to see what he was working on the nights our killer struck. Turns out he was off duty on both the night Tracey was murdered and the night of the double event. We know the fourth victim was killed over the weekend, probably on Friday evening. Boyden did an early shift on Friday, so he could easily have snatched her that evening. He worked late shifts over the weekend, but they finish at ten o’clock.”
“So even if she wasn’t killed until Saturday night, he could still have done it,” Dillon said.
“What’s he working today?” Jarvis asked, wondering if they were going to have to arrest him at work.
“He was supposed to be doing another late shift, but he phoned in sick this morning,” Dean said.”
“Where does he live, Deano?” Charlie White enquired.
“Boyden actually lives in the borough. He’s got a place in Vallance Road – not far from where the Kray twins grew up – lives there with his wife and two nippers, both of whom are primary school age. There are no dogs as far as I can tell.”
“What about vehicles?” Dillon asked.
“I did a VODS check on the home address and found one vehicle, a Ford Mondeo.” Dean read out the registration number.
“No Sherpa vans?” White asked hopefully.
“Afraid not,” Dean said. “But, if he is the killer, he’d hardly be stupid enough to register his death wagon with the DVLA, would he?”
“I suppose not,” White allowed. “It would have been nice though”.
“The only other thing you need to know about Boyden,” Dean said, “is that he’s on Chris Deakin’s list of people making withdrawals from the Nat West ATM. He withdrew fifty-pounds on Saturday 30th October.” When Jack had phoned in earlier, asking for fast time research to be carried out, the first thing Dean Fletcher had done was walk through to the MIR and run his eyes down the list that had been pinned up. “Fuck me,” he’d said to himself when he came across Boyden’s name. “We could be onto something with this Herbert.”
“Boyden is now a named suspect,” Dillon told them. “The intention today is to arrest him at his home address in Vallance Road, and to secure the premises as a crime scene. I want us in before his wife and kids get home; it’ll be less grief that way. The method will be for an arrest team led by Charlie White to attend the address straight after this briefing. I’ve arranged for some uniform to meet you there to assist with entry and to secure it when we’re finished. Once he’s arrested, I want him taken to a police station off the division – can’t exactly bang him up in the nick where he works, can we. We don’t think our killer’s working with anyone else so there’s no need to apply to keep him incommunicado. Let’s move onto roles: DCs Evans and Jarvis will arrest; as George Copeland is still tied up at the scene of the latest killing, DC Murray will be the exhibits officer; you two,” he nodded at Dean Fletcher and Colin Green, a stony-faced detective in his mid-thirties who had been seconded in from another team over the weekend, “will act as searching officers.”
Both men nodded their understanding.
Dillon then went through the more mundane aspects of the IIMARCH briefing – covering the risk assessment, methods of communication to be used, admin protocols and any Human Rights Act issues that might have a bearing on their actions.
“Anyone have any questions?” Dillon asked when he’d concluded the briefing, looking at each man in turn. There were none. “Good. In that case, go and arrest yourselves a serial killer.”
The arrest team filed out of the office, clearly excited by the prospect of catching the killer. They quickly organised themselves for the impending operation, grabbing log books for cars, checking their officer safety equipment and making
