Faraday 02 Network Virus (33 page)

He held up a hand to stop her responding. “Don’t worry. I pointed out to him what a success you’d been since your arrival and he couldn’t disagree with that.” He shook his head. “But he insisted we must cope with our existing personnel.”

Charlotte sat and waited for him to continue.

“
You realise that the CID now has three DCI’s of which you are the youngest. There is also Charlie Taylor in Plymouth and Bert Tregarrick in Truro.”

“
I’ve met Charlie. He seems a very experienced guy.”

“
Yes, he is. Well, as the senior man, he’s the one I’ll have to bring in to HQ. I’ve already told him he starts up here on Monday.”

Charlotte nodded.

“
However the point is that Plymouth is a very busy patch - international port, home to the navy - all that sort of thing. And he covers a chunk of Cornwall and some of North Devon. He’s got two DI’s but he doesn’t think they can cope on their own.”

Here it comes, thought Charlotte.

“
Ahem, since Torquay is technically over-staffed, I’ve decided that we’re going to need your services down in Plymouth. Now that we’ve taken the pressure off poor old Stafford, he should be able to cope well enough on his own and you’ll be much more valuable to us down there.” He beamed at her. “You can introduce this marvellous new computer program to them. That should set the locals back on their heels.”

Charlotte sighed. “When do I have to start, sir?”

“
I thought you could go down on Friday and Charlie could show you the ropes before he leaves. What do you think?”

“
Friday is tomorrow, sir.”

“
Well,” he sounded surprised, “so it is. Is that a problem for you? You’ve got the rest of the day to bring Paulson up to speed and you can clear your desk on Saturday morning.”

“
But Stafford has just lost his sergeant, sir.”

“
Yes, of course, so he has.” Lord Harry stroked his chin as he thought about it. “Got any suggestions?”

“
First of all, what is happening to Sergeant Mallinson, sir? I presume there is no thought of his returning to Torquay.”

“
No. No, he’s been dealt with.”

“
Has he been charged?”

“
Er - no. There were mitigating circumstances.”

“
What?” Charlotte couldn’t contain her astonishment. “What
were
those circumstances?”

“
Er, well. I’m not in a position to tell you a lot. It appears that Mallinson didn’t decide to take the action that he did on his own. He thought he was acting on advice from above.”

“
From above?” She took a breath. “I can assure you that he arranged the assault on Sidney Pullman without the knowledge of either Stafford Paulson or myself.”

He raised a hand. “Calm down, Charlotte. There is no suggestion that either of you were involved.”

“
I should hope not. So who was giving Mallinson instructions over our heads?” Of course she knew at once who it must have been.

The DCC shook his head. “You will realise that I can’t tell you that, Faraday. Please take it from me that the whole matter has been dealt with. Sergeant Mallinson has received a severe warning and has been moved to a location where he will be carefully monitored in future. The other - um - person involved is also - er - beyond contact now. That is all I’m prepared to tell you.”

“
What if Pullman or his sister makes a complaint?”

Corbett actually shrugged. “If something like that happens we will have to deal with it in our own way.” He looked severely at her. “However it would not be a good move for either you or Paulson to encourage either of them to make a complaint.”

Charlotte took a breath. She realised she was sailing a bit close to the wind on this one and now was the time to back down. “I’ll tell Inspector Paulson what you say, sir.” She thought Lasham’s seizure was now fully explained.

“
So, do you have a suggestion for the new DS in Torquay?”

“
Personally I think Constable John Prendergast is ready for promotion and would make an ideal replacement. Can I speak with Stafford Paulson and telephone you if he agrees with my suggestion?”

“
Has he enough experience?”

“
I believe so. He also has the advantage that he has taken to the new computer program like a duck to water. If Stafford agrees, I believe he would be a real asset to the department.”

“
Of course he would need to be replaced in his turn.”

“
Again, I’ll ask Inspector Paulson if he has anybody in mind in uniform branch who might be suitable, subject to Superintendent Blackwood’s approval, of course.”

Lord Harry smiled. “I think you’re becoming a bit of a diplomat yourself, Faraday.” He seemed to relax with this decision. “All right then, I’ll leave you to discuss it with the appropriate officers and you can ring me with the outcome for me to rubber stamp. Meanwhile I’ll ring Charlie Taylor and tell him you’ll be arriving about ten tomorrow morning.”

- 39 -

Richard Harris’ response to Paulson’s request to investigate Gary Bostock’s account was prompt. Within the hour he was on the phone.

“
Hello, Stafford. I can call you Stafford, can’t I, now that we’re fighting on the same side, so to speak?”

The inspector rather gruffly agreed.

“
Good. Well, your information about this Bostock fellow seemed to be a real open-sesame to his numbered account for the Swiss. It’s clear that Bostock has been receiving a steady flow of funds from de Billiere for the past thirteen years or so - more than half a million in total.”

“
Good God!” Paulson sat down heavily. “He’s been doing all right then.”

“
He certainly has. The interesting thing is the pattern. He received an initial payment of fifty thousand pounds with which he opened the account. That was in 1998. Then there were two or three payments a year for about ten years. They started at about five thousand, gradually rising to ten and then twenty thousand until about three years ago when they stopped. Then, two years ago, there were three big payments in a period of about six weeks which totalled just over a quarter of a million. There’s been nothing more paid in since then.”

“
Can we prove it’s his account?”

“
Yes. I can get the bank to send me copies of the signatures they obtained when the account was set up.”

“
So our Gary Bostock is a rich man.”

There was a brief laugh at the other end of the phone. “I’m afraid not - not as far as this account is concerned anyway. There’s been a steady trickle of withdrawals, sometimes two or three a month in the last couple of years. Now there’s nothing left in the account except a couple of hundred.”

“
Actually that doesn’t surprise me,” said Paulson. “We interviewed the bloke yesterday and he claimed he was desperately short of money and that was the reason for kidnapping his daughter, in order to get more cash out of de Billiere. Apparently he’s been a big spender and especially likes a flutter on the gee-gees.”

“
What - more than a hundred thousand a year?”

“
It would appear so,” Strafford paused. “I’m not too worried about how he spent it. What I want to know is how he earned it - particularly the quarter of a million which he received two years ago. I take it that all the payments came from de Billiere.”

“
Oh, yes.”

“
I think we’re going to have a very interesting interview with the guy when we see him later this morning.”

“
It certainly sounds like it.” Richard Harris sounded cheerful. “I’d be grateful if you would give me a ring later to let me know what information you get out of him. Some of the stuff he lets slip could be very useful to us in the investigation of de Billiere’s affairs.”

“
OK. I’ll let you know what we feel we can release. Thank you very much Richard for your help in this. It’s much appreciated.”

“
My pleasure. I’ll e-mail you the detailed list of transactions on Bostock’s account. You should get it in the next half-hour.” He paused. “Of course you won’t disclose the source of your information to anybody else without our consent.”

“
No. Of course that’s agreed. It’ll only be if the CPS want to use it as part of the prosecution that the information will need to be made public. In that case you’ll obviously be warned beforehand so that you can make any representations you wish to them.”

“
Thanks for that. I think we’re closing in on these buggers. Tally ho! Stafford.” He rang off.

Now all Stafford Paulson was waiting for was the return of Charlotte so that they could restart their questioning of Gary Bostock.

- 40 -

As soon as Charlotte got back to Torquay Police Station Paulson said to her, “We’re actually being chased by Bostock’s solicitor to get on with the interview.”

“
Well, I never. Perhaps he wants to confess all.”

“
That’s not very likely,” he said gloomily. “His lawyer’s a chap called Paul Simpson. He’s a young fellow trying to prove how clever he is compared to the plodding police. I had a lot of trouble with him on a previous case a few months ago.”

“
Never mind, Stafford. I think he’d have to be Einstein to get his client out of the kidnapping charge.”

“
It’s not the case of how he treated his daughter that I’m worried about. I agree that one’s sewn up. But I feel it in my bones that Bostock’s the one who killed Joanne de Billiere, almost certainly paid for by her husband. I don’t want him to escape that one.”

He told her about his phone call from Richard Harris and showed her the list of transactions on Bostock’s account which had just been received by e-mail from the accountant in London.

Charlotte studied them briefly. “I agree he’s going to have trouble explaining those big payments two years ago. And I’ve picked up something which I think will help you. We’ll get him in the interview room in a few minutes. But first I need to tell you about what came up in my meeting with Lord Harry this morning.”

Briefly she summarised what she’d been told about Greg Mallinson.

“
I was thinking about it in the car coming back,” she said. “It’s clear that young Greg has been reporting direct to Lasham behind our backs and getting his instructions from the Chief Super.”

“
Bloody hell! What on earth’s been going on.” Stafford Paulson didn’t often swear.

She patted him on the arm. “Well, that won’t be happening any more now. I think we’re well rid of the pair of them.” She paused. “However that leads me on to the next bit of news.”

She told him about the proposed staff changes and managed to get him to agree to John Prendergast’s promotion to sergeant. Stafford said he also had a young uniformed constable in mind who they could offer the post of DC.

“
He actually approached me a few weeks ago and I said I’d see what I could do for him,” he said.

“
OK. I’ll go and talk to Blackwood after we’ve disposed of Bostock.” She grinned at him. “It looks as though your being outranked in Torquay is going to be mercifully short.”

“
Do you know,” he admitted, “when I first heard you were coming with your new-fangled computer I wasn’t at all pleased, but now I’m really grateful that you came. You’ve reawakened the enthusiasm in a tired old detective.”

Charlotte felt absurdly pleased as she replied, “I think you’re a damn good detective, Stafford. And I’ll be leaving you with the computer and a lad who knows how to operate it as your second-in-command.”

“
Yes,” he agreed, “but I won’t feel I can treat John as a colleague to discuss things with in the same way that you and I have.”

“
You
must
treat John as your new colleague. One day you may be able to hand over to him.”

“
I’ll try.” The gruff voice also seemed to have been touched by the sentimentality of the exchange. He took a breath. “Well, I suppose we’d better get stuck into this interview.”

Five minutes later they were seated in Interview Room 3 opposite Bostock and his solicitor.

Simpson opened his attack straightaway. “I must protest about you interviewing my client yesterday afternoon without a solicitor being present.”

Charlotte smiled coolly. “It’s on record that Mr Bostock was asked if he wanted a solicitor and he refused the offer.”

“
What’s more,” said Paulson, “there was no doubt about his guilt. The man was caught red-handed at the scene and the girl has confirmed he was her abductor.”

“
However you raised additional charges which my client had no reason to expect and you obtained a whole tranche of information from him which I would have advised him to withhold, if I had been present, until the charges were clarified,” protested the solicitor.

The DI snorted. “It was all freely given. We didn’t use thumb-screws or any other device. And, as soon as he asked to be represented, the interview was terminated and his request was granted,”

“
That is not the point. You have obtained information from him that he was not legally required to give to you.”

“
The reason for those additional questions,” interposed Charlotte, “was because information has come in from other sources which makes it likely that your client will be facing even more serious charges than kidnapping and restraining a minor. The purpose of this morning’s interview is to investigate these possible charges.”

“
I’m not happy about this at all,” said Simpson.

“
Well, you may advise your client not to answer our questions. However I would remind you both that he is being interviewed under caution and we feel we have enough evidence to show that his silence would be likely to be construed as an admission of guilt.”