"I know what's on your mind, Eric, but please don't fret about it."
Eric glanced his way and then back to the road. The comment broke the ice on the subject but the young DC looked more uncomfortable as a result.
"I'm sorry about… you know, Alice and—"
"Thanks, Eric. It's nice of you to say so."
Eric smiled awkwardly, tilting his head as he made to speak but seemed to think better of it and ended up stumbling his response. "Just so you know, I don't believe she did it. Alice. She's not the type in my mind."
"In your mind?" Tom asked, reading the unsaid in between the lines. Perhaps she was in someone else's?
"Oh… yes… well, I mean that I know her. And she's not capable of it."
"It's okay, Eric. Things just have to run their course. It's the way it is." He was keen to put him out of his misery, as well as to shelve the conversation. He agreed with Eric, although Alice's attitude about the whole situation bothered him but as yet he didn't know why.
"Talk to me about the harassment Mary Beckett reported," Tom said.
Eric spoke without losing focus, his tone lightening with the subject change. "The calls made to her from the burner phone were logged but the service provider told us it hasn't been active in the last three years. The number hasn't been reassigned though."
"Do they do that?"
"Oh yes. Most notably when contract plans are cancelled and the number isn't transferred it will be reassigned. Network providers can recycle prepaid mobile numbers if they believe the phone is no longer active. It's how they make the most efficient use of the numbers they have. It can be done within thirty days of the number being made dormant."
"And they don't have to tell the owner?"
Eric shook his head. "No. This particular number has shown up on the networks since Mary Beckett made a complaint but, aside from confirming the phone is still in our area, the data isn't particularly valuable to us."
"Why not?"
"It wasn't used to make calls or send texts. The SIM went active and traded data across the web, but communications were encrypted."
"And what does that mean in English, Eric?" Tom asked, smiling. "I doubt we're dealing with MI5 here."
Eric laughed. "No, of course not. Probably means the user swapped messages within an app of some kind. These can be encrypted for privacy at both ends, so all you see is data passing to and from the handset. Not even the app producer could tell you what was in it."
"Right, but it's still active?"
"As far as we know, yes. The usage has been sporadic but it would indicate the owner is local to our area, resident as well I suspect. The phone seems to come active in short bursts every few months then goes quiet again. Strange. More recently it has been used to call another mobile number, though."
"Another burner?"
Eric nodded. Tom wondered why the mobile might be used in this way. A prepaid mobile was popular with those who wanted the benefit of a phone but weren't high consumers of either minutes or data. Other users might be young children, parents trying to rein in their spend and keep the costs down. Neither seemed to fit into this scenario. The notion of a child carrying out a campaign of harassment of this nature was fanciful. But why would an adult use a mobile so sparingly? Even people who had limited interaction over the phone would show a consistent pattern, not leaving long periods between use. Eric was right, it was strange. Why it was suddenly actively calling another number was intriguing.
"Has the other number been flagged as well?"
"Yes," Eric said. "The network will contact us if and when there is activity. Obtaining the transcripts of previous or future calls will need an extension to the warrant."
Tom rolled his tongue across the inside of his cheek. Although this was a murder inquiry, they would need more justifiable cause in order to see the details contained within those transcripts. If Beckett's harassment was more recent he was certain they'd get it, but not as things currently stood.
"What about Mary Beckett's accusations regarding her being stalked?"
"That is interesting," Eric said, taking a left turn and feeding the steering wheel through his hands. "She came to us several times to report someone following her, much as her sister described to us. The first note on file I could dig up was from six years ago. At first, she was given fairly generic advice – keep a record of events, number plates of suspicious vehicles, try to avoid being alone in vulnerable locations. Stuff like that. It doesn't seem very adequate."
Eric had a point. The criminal justice system had been slow to recognise stalking as a crime and the subsequent legislation even longer to get through the system. Police forces around the country were adapting to the realisation of the different forms harassment could take as well as how serious it could become.
"Yeah, we've come a long way even in the last six years. Unless someone was actually assaulted, there never used to be much we could do. Did she keep reporting incidents?"
"Yes, repeatedly. Eventually her file was passed up to CID to investigate. I imagine her as being quite a formidable woman." Tom agreed. Formidable was certainly an apt description but he could imagine some more colourful words also being used.
"And the outcome?"
"No case to answer. In the investigator's opinion," Eric said. "I'd have to check whose case it was. I can't remember off the top of my head. It didn't go down well with Mary Beckett, though. And it didn't stop her filing reports. In the end she was advised to stop wasting police time. She
