“Once the car has been obtained, you need to arrange to get it to the dock ASAP. The container ship is due to leave tomorrow. Any delays…well, there won’t be, will there?”
“No, boss. You can count on us, right, lads?” Stitch asked the other men.
The gang all nodded and shouted, “Yes.”
“Okay, if there are no problems, let’s get on with it.”
8
The team were all gathered around the whiteboard. Katy cleared her throat to speak and glanced at the door when a figure appeared.
“Don’t let me stop you, carry on, Inspector.” DCI Roberts sat in a spare chair at the back.
“Okay, let’s see what we have here. Four victims. Ray Thatcham, killed aboard his boat, along with the woman who appears to have been his mistress, Tina Lascombe. Two of our colleagues also lost their lives in this incident. The footage we’ve managed to obtain points us in the direction of two well-dressed thugs who were seen running along the towpath after the boat crashed into the bank. Did they set the fire on the boat? Or was it due to the impact? I have my doubts about the latter.”
“Do we know who the men are yet?” Roberts asked.
“Not yet. We’re still processing their images through the system. Annoyingly, it’s taking time to get a result, sir.”
“Okay, that’s unfortunate. Carry on.”
“It is. We haven’t been sitting around twiddling our thumbs in the meantime, as you’ll see when I reveal the next two cases which have come our way in the past few days. The second case is that of Ethan Johnson. He was injured outside the pub he owned. The footage shows four men this time. They laid into him and then stole his rare Porsche. He later died from his injuries in hospital. There was no way he could have survived the brutal beating he received. His injuries included a punctured lung, several broken bones and damage to one of his kidneys.”
Katy’s gaze drifted around the room and landed on Roberts, expecting him to add something. He didn’t, so she continued.
“The third case we’re investigating has to be the saddest in my eyes, although they’re all bad. Otis Casey was only twenty-nine. When we arrived at the scene, we discovered his prosthetic leg lying next to him on the pavement. Apparently, he lost the limb in some form of accident at work involving machinery for which he received a substantial compensation pay-out. He used the money from that to buy a Ferrari which, according to his model girlfriend, was his pride and joy. Again, four men were reportedly seen outside Otis Casey’s house. They stole the car after they beat the shit out of him.”
“Wait, so two high-value cars have been stolen. What about the first victim? Why are you linking the three cases?” Roberts asked, puzzled.
“That’s right. The victim’s boat was brand-new and worth a pretty penny, but it wasn’t stolen, just torched. That part is perplexing and doesn’t really add up to me. We’re linking all three crimes because of the suited men. All right, there were only two seen at the first crime and at the others it appears that four men attended each of the crimes. Again, we don’t know the reasoning behind that just yet.”
“What if the two goons from the original crime screwed up? What if it was their intention to steal the boat and things went wrong, as in, the river police turning up when they did? Maybe they panicked and that’s why they ran off,” Graham piped up.
Katy thought his assessment over for a second or two and nodded. “You could be on to something there, Graham, actually, Charlie raised the same point earlier. So, guys, you tell me what your digging has come up with.”
Karen raised a hand. “Nothing too much in the Thatchams’ accounts, general ins and outs. Although some of the high spends Mrs Thatcham has under her belt could be seen as dubious, I wouldn’t say they’re out of the ordinary for someone with money.”
“Okay. When we visited Thatcham’s business partner, he was the one who highlighted that Thatcham was having an affair with one of the secretaries. The question is, how did his murderers know they’d be on his boat and not tucked up in a hotel room somewhere? And what’s the connection?”
Roberts shifted in his chair, and Katy sensed he was about to make a pointless observation.
“Setting the first case aside for the time being, what about the other two cases and the missing cars? Tell me you’ve tried tracking the cars down through the ANPR system.”
“We’ve tried. No such luck, which is mystifying us. These types of cars would ordinarily stick out like a bloody sore thumb. Not this time. It’s as if they vanished into thin air.”
Roberts narrowed his eyes and chewed his lip.
“What are you thinking, sir?”
“I remember an occasion, not long after I arrived, actually, it was a case involving your mother.” He pointed at Charlie. “Bloody hell, what am I saying? It was the case you were unfortunate to be involved in.”
“When I was abducted by The Unicorn,” Charlie mumbled.
“Yes, sorry to bring it up, Charlie, it could be important, though.”
She waved a hand, dismissing his apology.
“We were chasing the fucker, and the car we were following suddenly disappeared. Had us scratching our head at the time. Until we figured things out, I can’t recall who sussed it, it was probably that smartarse mother of yours,” he said, smiling at Charlie who blushed under his gaze. “Anyway, whoever it was, we worked out that the vehicle we were chasing was driven onto a waiting lorry. Have you thought about that?”
Katy shook her head. “No, that hadn’t crossed my mind. I’ll get the team on it right away, thanks for the insight.”
“I’ve been known to have my uses now and again.
