“What does Errol Heston’s number end in?” Dillon asked.
“His handset ends in 651,” Reggie said.
“If they’re using unregistered burners, it looks like the gang are aware we can use their phones against them,” Tyler suggested.
“It does,” Reggie agreed. “The call data for Gifford’s handset is boringly predictable: a handful of incoming calls from the 777 number during the day before the breakout; a couple of incoming calls from it on the morning of the breakout. Nothing since the arrest.”
“Any contact with the 321 number?” Dillon asked.
“There’s one very short call from Mullings to 321 on the morning of the breakout, otherwise zilch.”
“What about cell site data for Mullings?” Jack asked.
Reg placed an A3 printout of a computer-generated street map on Tyler’s desk. “As you can see from the marks I’ve made on this map, this is the route that Gifford’s phone took during the day of the escape.” He traced it with his forefinger in case they couldn’t see the bright red line that he’d drawn on the paper. “It shows the location of each of the cells the phone came into contact with, along with the precise times that the phone was pinged,” Reg explained.
“You can see for yourself that Mullings’ phone was pinged in the Beckton area, where the Ford Scorpio was nicked from, a short time before migrating towards the cell covering the RLH.”
“How does his cell site data compare to the others?” Jack asked.
Reggie smiled. “Ah, now this is where it starts to get a little more interesting.”
“Oh, good,” Dillon said, drolly, “because I was in danger of falling asleep.”
Reggie produced more A3 maps in quick succession.
“This is the cell site map for the 777 number.”
Before they could look at it properly, he produced the next map.
“This is the map for the 321 number, and this…”
He slapped another map on top of the others, “…is the number for Heston’s 651 number.”
“You’re going too fast,” Dillon complained.
Doing the worst Inspector Clouseau impression that Tyler had ever heard, he announced, “Do not worry, Monsieur. Allow me to present my pièce de résistance…” With an elaborate flourish of his hand, Parker produced a sheet containing the merged data, which overlaid the routes of all four phones. “Voila.” Thankfully, at that point, he dropped the terrible French accent.
“As you can clearly see, the phones mirror each other perfectly, indicating they were all together in the build-up to the breakout. At that point, the two unaccounted for phones – the ones ending 777 and 321 – headed off towards Canning town, presumably in the hijacked helicopter.”
“Looks that way,” Tyler agreed.
“Call data-wise, the 777 phone is easily the most active of the four burners,” Reg informed them. “It’s obviously the ringleader’s phone. It rang all the other burners at various times yesterday morning, but the only one it called after the breakout was Errol’s. In fact, there were spasmodic calls from 777 to Errol’s 651 burner right up until midnight.”
“Mr Big wanting to know where his missing gang member was, no doubt,” Dillon said, stating the obvious.
“Exactly,” Reggie said, nodding his agreement.
“I don’t suppose the gang have gotten sloppy by calling anyone else?” Tyler asked.
Reggie grinned. “It’s funny you should ask that because 777 has been in touch with two other numbers over the past three days. I’ve submitted subs and call data applications for both, and I’m currently awaiting the results.”
“So, in summary,” Tyler said, “the gang purchased four pre-pay burners, which became active on Sunday, the day before the breakout. Gifford and Errol had one each, we know that because we’ve recovered the phones on them. We believe that the mysterious doctor, who’s obviously the mastermind behind the breakout, has the 777 number, and by default, Angela Marley has the 321 number. The 777 number has also called two other – as yet – unidentified numbers. Anything else, Reggie?”
“Yep, a couple of other things. Firstly, I’ve managed to obtain the SIM information for all four numbers. Long story short, the SIM cards they’re using run in consecutive order, suggesting they were all purchased at the same time from the same store. The service provider checked their distribution records to see if they could identify the store they were purchased from and, get this…” Reggie licked his lips and then performed a drum roll on Jack’s desk “…I’ve got the address in Barking where the phones were purchased from”
“That’s great work, Reg,” Tyler said. “I want someone over there first thing in the morning to check for CCTV and get a copy of any payment details.”
“I’ve already put all the info into Mr Q’s MIR,” Parker said proudly, “and I’m told a HP action will be coming out to do exactly that.”
A HP – High Priority – action was one that had to be resulted, or at least significantly updated, within twenty four hours of allocation.
“And what was the other thing?” Dillon asked.
“The 777 and 321 numbers are both still active, so I’ve had the TIU periodically reviewing their calls and movements over the last twenty four hours. It looks like they bedded down together last night and woke up this morning at the same location. I last spoke to the SPOC at five o’clock, and at that time neither phone had moved all day”
Parker pulled out his final map to illustrate the point. “The cell they’re pinging on covers this area here…” He pointed to a large circle he had drawn on the map. “It’s a fairly big area north of Barking Road so I’ll need the services of an analyst to narrow it down further, but it’s looking very promising that they’re still together.”
“They could have dumped the phones at that location and buggered off without them,” Dillon pointed out.
“They could have,” Reg allowed, “but I don’t think that’s the case because of the calls that 777 made during the day to the two unidentified numbers I told you about.”
“Is there
