“As far as I’m concerned boss,” Wilkins beamed, “everything’s tickety-boo.”
Jack frowned disapprovingly. “Not sure PC Morrison or his grieving family would say things were tickety-boo,” he pointed out.
That wiped the smile from the OM’s face. “No, no, of course not,” he said, looking down at the floor, embarrassed. “What I meant was, from an evidential perspective, we’re doing really well. We’re only one day into the investigation and we already know who three of the four people involved in helping Winston to escape are. We’ve gathered all the CCTV from the hospital, and it’s fantastic. We’ve got the baddies arriving, going in, and then hijacking the helicopter a short time later. Basically, their every movement inside the hospital is captured on tape apart from the murder itself, but that happened in a private room.”
Jack grunted. “When I spoke to Reg Parker earlier, he was hoping that the scene outside Winston’s room and the fight with Tony Dillon might have been caught on camera too. Do you know if he’s managed to access that footage yet?”
The OM nodded solemnly. “Aye, he has, and it’s chilling to watch. The jury will probably convict them on that alone.”
“I’d like to see it if possible,” Jack said.
“If you pop into the CCTV viewing room and speak to Darren Blyth, he’ll play it for you. You can’t miss Darren, he’s a deep-voiced Manc, and he looks like someone stuck an owl’s head on the body of a scarecrow.”
Tyler smiled at the apt description, recalling Blyth from that morning’s meeting.
“I’ll do that, thanks. What about key witnesses? I’ve had an update about the pilot, Peter Myers, but what about the ward sister and the two drugged officers?”
“Yes, the ward sister, Melissa Smails, was key witnessed on tape this morning.”
This basically meant that the whole statement taking process was completed in an interview room with an audio or videotape running, and it was done this way to prevent defence counsel from trying to infer that the witness had been primed or fed things to say.
“She’s gonna be great in the box, from what I hear,” Tom Wilkins said. “She’s been looking after Winston for the best part of a week so she knows him by name and by sight, which eliminates any need for an ID parade. Also, she’s confident she could pick out both the fake doctor and Errol Heston in a line-up. I was reading through the First Description booklets a little while ago, and she has done a really good job describing them.”
“We don’t need to worry about Errol Heston now he’s brown bread,” Jack said. “I don’t suppose his involvement is going to be contested by anyone.”
“Especially as we recovered his gun,” Tom Wilkins said.
“Do we think it had been fired?” Jack asked.
Wilkins shook his head. “According to the SO19 officer who made it safe at the scene, all five rounds were still in the cylinder and there was no sign of recent discharge. It’ll have to be confirmed by the lab, but it fits in with what we already suspected – that Winston’s the shooter.”
“What about the fake nurse, Angela what’s-her-name? Will Sister Smails be able to pick her out in a line-up?”
The OM shook his head. “Marley had her surgical mask up the whole time that Smails was in the room with her. It doesn’t really matter; Marley left us a beautiful thumbprint on the unused syringe that was found near PC Morrison.”
Tyler nodded. “I think we’ll also get her wearer DNA off the coat that she left in the getaway car,” he said.
“Yes, I’m sure we will,” Tom Wilkins agreed. “Oh, and we’ve also got a statement from a real-life porter called Sidney Stevens who bumped into them a couple of times in the hospital, once on the ground floor on their way in, and then again in a freight lift as they were trying to get Winston out. Mr Q didn’t want him treated as a key witness though.”
That made sense. Although he’d witnessed them in the building, he hadn’t seen the offence and they hadn’t said anything incriminating in front of him.
“What about the two drugged officers?” Jack asked. “Have they come around yet?”
Wilkins nodded. “Yes, thankfully. They’re being kept in for another night of observations but we should be able to get them statemented tomorrow morning. The detective who spoke to them at the hospital told me he was really impressed with the amount of detail they both remember, and their evidence will be powerfully compelling stuff.”
Jack raised an eyebrow. If their recall was that good, he doubted that ketamine had been used on them. In his experience, people who had been given that particular drug struggled with their recollection when they came around.
“Will they be able to pick any of them out?” Tyler asked.
“No, afraid not. All three suspects were wearing surgical masks for the duration of the encounter.”
“Pity,” Jack said, disappointed. “Did they say who shot PC Morrison?”
“No, they were both out cold by the time that happened, and they didn’t even know their mate was dead until someone told them.”
“Please tell me the news was broken gently.”
“As gently as you can break news of that nature,” Wilkins said with a grimace.
Jack winced. Tom was right; there was no easy way to tell someone that their friend had just been executed. He turned his mind to the weight of evidence they had accrued so far. With the CCTV, witness testimony, fingerprint for Marley and the wearer DNA he fully expected to get from the coats of all three suspects, it was already looking like a pretty solid case.
“Any developments on the phone data yet?” he asked.
“Haven’t heard anything on that,” Tom admitted. “Reggie Parker was appointed as our phones man, so maybe you should have a word with him. Of course, it’s possible that the applications have been slightly delayed because Mr Q wanted him to get the CCTV up and running first.”
“I see,” Tyler said.
