By All Means (Fiske and MacNee Mysteries Book 2) (7 page)

'I don't really know.   I only spoke with him twice, once when he stopped by when he arrived, and once by radio last Wednesday.'

Eisner was becoming irritated by Wootten's reticence.  He had a short fuse at the best of times and jetlag didn't help. 

'So what did he tell you?'

'Not much. These guys aren't supposed to reveal their findings to local management.'

'Why were you talking to him?'

'I was trying to find out if he had come across anything that might affect production.  He wasn't very forthcoming, but he didn't sound happy.'

'Why were you concerned about production rates?'

Wootten shot him an angry look. 'Because it's my job?' 

The interrogative inflexion showed her irritation, but Eisner wasn't about to let it go.

'Tammy, Packard told me that Vermont One isn't meeting its targets.  If Jamieson had discovered why, I need to know.'

'That's all I know.'

Eisner didn't even try to hide his scepticism, but decided to move on.

'Have the press been on to you?'

'Only to ask for background on Jamieson.'

'From now on, you don't talk to them.  You refer them to me and I'll decide whether to call in the PR professionals.'

*

By one o'clock, Eisner was in Hedelco's offices at GRH, talking to Bernard Donovan.

'Keller clearly wasn't happy with some of the things he turned up.  He didn't want to go into detail - he's not supposed to reveal his findings to anybody outside head office - but he told me that if we didn't deal quickly with some failings that could affect patient safety, we would be at risk of contractual penalties or statutory intervention.'

'What the fuck does that mean, Bernard?'

'It could mean inspections by the Health and Safety Executive and Healthcare Improvement Scotland, which means the goddam government.  They can slap improvement orders and fines on us. And that would cost money.  Cy wouldn't like that.'

'Bet your life!  He's already concerned about profit margins here.  Are we looking at losses?

'Not unless the inspectors come in.'

'OK. Let's make sure they don't.  Who else knew about Keller??

'My top team knew he was here.  He may have spoken to some of them.'

'How much do the police know?'

'Not much. They know he was a inspector and he had found some things that concerned him.'

'The press?  The health board handles that side of thing, I believe?  In future, refer all enquiries to me.  I'm going to do some digging around to find out what's going on.'

*

At about the time that Eisner was leaving Donovan's office, the Chief Constable's staff officer took a call from the office of the First Minister in Edinburgh.

'Good afternoon, Inspector. Paul MacIver, Special Advisor to the First Minister.  The First Minister would like a word with the Chief Constable. When would it be convenient for her to call?'

CHAPTER FIVE

At the team meeting at 0830 hrs on Thursday morning, DCI Fiske was joined in Conference Room 5 by Esslemont, Colin MacNee, Sara Hamilton, and the three DCs who had been attached full time to the investigation:  Duncan Williamson, Stewart Todd and Aisha Gajani.  ‘Dongle’ Donaldson had been persuaded out of his hideout and was introduced all round, and the pathologist who had conducted the
post mortems
had agreed to be at the end of a telephone line if any questions arose about cause of death, time of death or related matters.  DI Andy Hanna, on secondment from Strathclyde Police Fraud Squad would arrive later.

‘Right,’ Vanessa said, ‘We need updates on the main lines of enquiry.   I’m tempted to say that shouldn’t take us long, because were getting nowhere fast, but I’m never defeatist.’

As the slightly uncomfortable laughter subsided, she turned first to DS Sara Hamilton.  ‘Sara. You and Aisha have been following up the nearest thing we’ve got to a lead, Thomas Nuttall, or whatever his real name is’.

‘Newcastle Police talked to people at the store where his clothes and ID were found and the cashier remembered him.  She was surprised when he asked to borrow scissors to cut the labels off the clothes he’d bought so that he could wear them.  He paid cash – nearly £150 – and she didn’t notice at the time, but remembered when prompted, that he wasn’t carrying anything when he left. The shop was busy and she let it go.   The barcode scanning system gave us a pretty detailed description of what he bought and we think we’ve got him on CCTV.  Not a particularly good image, but better than nothing.   We’ve circulated his description and photographic are trying to enhance the image so that we can put that out as well. Network Rail are sending over DVDs from the CCTV at Aberdeen and Newcastle stations and we’re checking with the bus companies as well.  It’s all a bit labour-intensive, boss, so we could do with some more bodies.’

‘More bodies is the last thing we need, Sara, but I know what you mean.  I’m using uniform to go through the hospital videos, so they may be able to do the rail and bus footage as well.  As most of you will know from the file notes, it’s almost certain that Thomas Nuttall is not his real name.  We believe that he has appropriated the identity of a Thomas Nuttall who died about a year ago.  This makes Jamieson’s death look planned, as was Keller’s.  Your opportunistic killer doesn’t go around with syringes and lethal drug cocktails.   So we’ve got two planned killings.  Enough coincidence, already.’

Esslemont pursed his lips: not a man for levity where murder was concerned.

‘Stewart, what have you discovered about the availability of the drugs found in Keller’s body?’

‘Just because they’re used to execute people doesn’t mean they’re difficult to get.   I raked around the Internet a bit and found several sites offering to supply both potassium chloride and Pentothal.  You have to be a wee bit careful, though, or you’ll end up with potassium choloride, which is a substitute for salt rather than a murder weapon. The sites looked pretty accessible, with minimal checks on purchasers, mainly in Eastern Europe and the Americas.  I checked with our drugs squad and then with the SCDEA and they said that the only risk in sending for the stuff through the post would be its interception by customs, and in the absence of intelligence that’s unlikely.   The guy I spoke to at the SCDEA also said that if the purchaser could provide a medically-related identity, that would make it even easier.   The message is that these drugs aren’t all that hard to get and that the suppliers are unlikely to co-operate with us.’

Vanessa said that this was such an unusual cause of death that it was unlikely that the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency would know any more about the drugs’ availability than her team did, but she commended Todd for his thoroughness.

Duncan Williamson reported on progress so far with the 2400 hours of video material he had collected from GRH.   There were multiple sightings of Keller between Monday and Friday and in all of them he had his laptop bag over his shoulder.  He was having them brought together on one DVD so that people at the hospital could identify the locations.  This might give them a way into what he had been investigating. 

‘The last sighting of him was at four o’clock on Friday afternoon, coming out of the lift at the end of the corridor leading to the toilet where his body was found. He was on his own, and he was carrying his laptop. He appeared to walk towards where he was killed.  We’re now trying to identify everybody who came out of these lifts or up the adjacent stairs between three and five on Friday.  But it’s a painstaking business.  There are six wards and various other units that are accessed from that stairwell and lift, so there’s a lot of traffic.  We may need to use face recognition technology to match images with hospital personnel records.’

Colin MacNee snorted.  ‘Hedelco are going to love that.  Please can I have the job of telling Donovan?’

Vanessa laughed, weakly.  ‘A bit  below your pay grade, Detective Inspector.  But what you can do to earn your keep, is take over this meeting while I go to the loo’.  She was already on her way, looking a little pale.  If Sara Hamilton still had any doubt about what was ‘wrong’ with her boss, they vanished.

‘You all know about the ownership connection between Hedelco, who manage GRH, and Ebright, the operators of Vermont One.  We don’t know if that has any bearing on the murders, but we can’t ignore it.  Given that the most difficult financial document any of you ever deals with is your overtime claim, or maybe your credit card bill, we’ve called in some help.  DI Andy Hanna will get here later today on a two-week secondment from Strathclyde.  He"ll be analysing the financial state of Hedelco, Ebright and their parent company, Burtonhall, to see if anything crawls out that might throw some light on why these two men ended up dead on our patch.’

DCI Fiske came back in, apologised for her abrupt exit and took over.

‘You’ve all met Dongle Donaldson…Christ, do I have to call you that?’

‘I might not answer if you don’t, Boss.  It’s who I am now.  I’ve almost forgotten my real name.’

Everyone, except Esslemont, laughed, and Vanessa pressed on.

‘Dongle knows more about hard drives than anyone you’ve ever met.  He’s already working on Jamieson’s laptop and we hope that will give us access to the encrypted emails he sent back to his head office.   I’m also trying to get copies of them sent to me from Rhode Island, but for Ebright, like Hedelco, the default response is “no”.  That makes me very suspicious and very determined.  Anybody fancy a small wager that these murders have a corporate connection?’

Vanessa consulted her notebook.  ‘Right. Most of you are in the middle of lines of enquiry and you should carry on.  Duncan and Stewart, leave the uniform boys and girls to get on with the video evidence.  You need to talk to Hedelco’s senior staff at GRH – Donovan’s “top team”, as he calls them – and find out what they know about what Keller was doing between Monday and four o’clock on Friday.  We can then compare anything you find out with the video evidence of where he went.  Might help to establish motive.  Aisha, could you try to find out when and where the real Thomas Nuttall’s identity records were accessed.  When did someone apply for a copy of his birth certificate?  Check out the usual suspects for unlawful access to his national insurance number.  That sort of thing.  Our suspect needed a false identity, probably for some reason as well as murder. Check out what he had to produce to get the job on Vermont One.  See what you can find.’

DCI Fiske looked at the DCS, who nodded.

‘I’ve called a press conference for noon today. I wouldn’t have done so except that some information about this enquiry has got into the public domain when it shouldn’t have.   If you’ve seen the
G & T
this morning you’ll know what I’m talking about.  Either there’s a leak, or someone let something slip inadvertently.  If any of you thinks you may be the source, you need to tell me.  In any case, I’m going to try to find out, and if anyone’s at it, God help them!’

*

Jack Eisner, Burtonhall’s Director of Security, was an ex-FBI agent who had taken early retirement from the Washington office of the Bureau in his early fifties. He had met Cy Packard occasionally, during joint operations with the CIA, and had contacted him to see if there was a possibility of his working for Burtonhall.  They had a lot in common, especially their view that corporate information should be protected at all times, even, and this was slightly odd for former law officers, from the forces of law and order.   Their operating principle was: hand over nothing voluntarily, but avoid enforcement action.

After his meetings with Tammy Wootten and Bernard Donovan. Eisner considered how to go about finding out more about the investigation into the deaths of Jamieson and Keller.   On his way across the Atlantic, he had remembered that a former FBI colleague had gone to a similar job to his in a development corporation that was engaged in a huge and controversial development in the UK.   As soon as he had Internet access at Heathrow, he went online to find the company, and details of where it was operating.

The Last Corporation (Company motto:  “Last shall be First”) was the corporate embodiment of a flamboyant Philadelphia property magnate, Ewan Last.  It had interests all over the world and had, over the last few years, been engaged in developing a major leisure complex not far from Aberdeen, on the fringes of the Cairngorm National Park.  The development was controversial, fiercely opposed by some, because of its environmental impact; strongly supported by others, because of the investment it brought to the region.  Its methods, however, had been pretty universally deplored, and in the North East of Scotland it was hated by its opponents just as much as Hedelco was by its detractors, and for largely similar reasons.

Eisner’s Internet search brought up details, in news reports, of The Last Corporation’s dealings with public and private organisations in and around Aberdeen. His former colleague’s name rarely appeared.  That was no surprise.   However, Eisner reckoned that if anyone could put him in touch with people who could tell him what was going on with the GRH and Vermont One enquiries, it would be someone in the Last office in Aberdeen.

“Hi, my name’s Jack Eisner and I’m trying to locate an old colleague of mine, Frank Mancuso.  I think he works for the Last Corporation and I’m on a flying visit here and it would be good to meet up.’

The receptionist who took Eisner’s call was well trained.   ‘I’ll try to help, sir.  Please give me your name again, and a contact telephone number, and we’ll get back to you within the hour.’

Eisner was impressed.  She had been friendly and apparently helpful, but she had neither confirmed nor denied that Mancuso worked there.  Mancuso was now in control.  It would be up to him to decide whether to make contact.

Eisner had a shower to try to stave off the worst effects of jetlag. Flying business class helped, but he was still beginning to feel shitty.   As he was towelling off, his cell phone rang.  It was Frank Mancuso.

‘Jack! Are you in Bonnie Scotland?’

‘Better yet, Frank. I’m in Aberdeen, and I wondered if you’d be free for a drink or some dinner this evening.  It would be good to catch up and there’s something you might be able to help me with.’

‘Name it.’

‘Not on the phone. It’s kind of sensitive.’

They agreed to meet in the bar of Caledonian Hotel in Union Terrace at 6.30 that evening.

*

Before the press briefing at noon, the NEC press office issued what Vanessa Fiske had come to call ‘a Harry Conival Special’: a briefing that gave an impression of openness, but made public only what the investigating officers wanted known.  In this case, it was limited to information already in the public domain, and it was crafted in a way designed to influence the line of questioning Vanessa and Colin would face.

SUSPICIOUS DEATHS ON THE VERMONT ONE OIL PLATFORM AND AT GRAMPIAN ROYAL HOSPITAL

North East Constabulary is investigating two suspicious deaths. Both are now being treated as murder.

The body of Harvey Jamieson, of Shreveport, Louisiana, USA, was discovered late on the afternoon of Friday October 5 on the Vermont One Oil Platform, operated by Ebright Offshore Drilling, approximately 100 miles north east of Aberdeen.   The cause of death was a blow to the head and a fall from a height of about six metres.

The body of Peter Keller, of Biddeford, Maine, USA, was found at Grampian Royal Hospital at about 8.00 a.m. on Saturday 6 October.   The cause of death was a lethal injection.