Chapter 21 #2
Logan swallowed down a bite of square sausage and darted his tongue across his bottom lip. ‘It’s possible. If someone’s trying to move in, they could wipe out the competition, pin it on Bosco, and get away free and clear.’
‘Or it could just be Bosco, boss,’ Tyler reasoned. And it was clear that he desperately wanted it to be.
‘It could,’ Logan admitted. He wanted it to be Maximuke, too. And maybe it would be. Maybe it would be that simple.
But when was it ever that simple?
They ran through their list of suspects. Bosco sat at the top, naturally. Below that was a bit of a mishmash. Eleanor Belov. Kendrick Crichton for Victor. Victor’s brothers, Mikhail and Sergei, for Kendrick.
‘It’s no’ exactly much,’ Ben said. He held up his hands. ‘I mean, not that my opinion matters. But you’ve got close to bugger all there.’
‘We’re waiting on phone records,’ Hamza said. ‘Victor’s, Kendrick’s. I’ve put in a request for Eleanor’s, but doubt we’ll get it without something solid to go on. Worth a try, though.’
‘I want the brothers brought in,’ Logan said. ‘We’ll keep them separate. Try and play them against one another, see if one of them cracks.’
‘We might struggle there, sir,’ Sinead said. ‘CID have questioned them a few times and got nowhere.’
‘Aye, well, we’ll see if I can’t work my charms,’ Logan replied.
‘What about the wife, boss? Eleanor? We bringing her in?’
Logan scratched at his chin and considered Eleanor’s photograph on the board. It was a blown-up image from her Instagram. In it, she was lifting up a pair of mirrored sunglasses to show her eyes, and smiling for the camera.
It was taken a few years ago, presumably before her first husband, Jason, had died. She looked a good bit younger than she did now, but it was one of the few photos on her socials that gave a clear view of her face.
Unlike her second husband and her in-laws, she’d never been brought in for questioning. There had been several approaches by CID, but they had all been firmly rebuffed by her legal team.
What she’d said back at the house, about having multiple accountants and lawyers, had not, it seemed, been an exaggeration. If they pulled her in too soon, without something cast iron to batter her with, her legal reps would have a field day.
‘Not yet,’ he decided. ‘Let’s see if the brothers give us anything first. But, Hamza, I want you digging into this whole Bitcoin story, see if you can make heads or tails of it.’
‘You think she’s lying, boss? About the money?’
‘I mean, she built a fuck-off huge mansion into a hill, so there’s definitely money coming from somewhere,’ Logan reasoned. ‘But I don’t know enough about cryptocurrencies, or whatever, to be able to tell if she’s talking shite.’
Hamza glanced down at his notebook, which was already crammed with things to do. ‘I’ll have a go, but—’
‘I know a bit about crypto,’ Dave announced. ‘I mean, probably not as much as Hamza, but I know a bit.’
‘I don’t actually know that much, beyond the basics,’ DI Khaled admitted.
‘OK, well score one for me, then,’ Dave said.
‘How come you know about it?’ Tyler asked.
‘Because I’m not just a pretty face. I’ve dabbled a bit. A few altcoins, some US stablecoin stuff. Made a killing on some NFTs a few years ago, before the arse fell out of it.’
‘Oh. Right,’ Tyler said, staring blankly back at him.
‘Was that English?’ Ben asked. ‘Because most of it was gibberish to me.’
‘Don’t worry about it,’ Dave told them. ‘If we can find out her wallet address, I could have a wee nosey about on the blockchain and see what’s what.’
‘Well, like Ben, I don’t have a clue what any of that means, but it sounds good,’ Logan said.
‘You said she’s bought a house with it?’ Dave asked. ‘That’s a good starting point. She’d have to cash out via an exchange. I’ll get to noseying.’
‘Good. Do that. The rest of you—’
A knock at the door interrupted him before he could finish dishing out the orders. Nobody moved, other than to look in Tyler’s direction.
‘Oh, right, I’ll get it, will I?’ he said, finally taking the hint.
‘If it’s for me, tell them I’m no’ in,’ Dave said.
Tyler bounced up onto his feet, pointed to them all as he backed towards the door.
‘Don’t get too used to this errand boy stuff. This’ll all be stopping when I make DS.’
‘If you make DS,’ Sinead countered.
‘You keep telling yourself that, babe,’ Tyler said, winking back at her.
Tyler turned to the door, opened it just enough so that he could slip his head through without anyone in the corridor seeing inside, and spoke in a low voice to whoever it was who was out there.
‘One sec,’ he finally said, turning back to the room. ‘Ham. I mean, boss. It’s for you. A Sergeant Fleck? Says it’s urgent. It’s about Victor Belov.’
‘Bring him in,’ Logan said.
Tyler shook his head. ‘He’s got some old boy with him, boss. Civilian. Says he’s got info.’
Hamza only just beat Logan to his feet. He let the DCI lead the way, and Tyler held the door for them as they stepped out into the corridor.
Sergeant Fleck from the morning’s presentation stood beside an old man Hamza also recognised from the meeting.
Joe Robertson. The man who’d made an arse of eating that egg sandwich.
The man who had found Victor Belov’s body.
‘Uh, hi, Detective Inspector,’ Fleck said. He looked up at Logan and gave him a nod of acknowledgment, or maybe recognition. ‘Sir.’
‘Everything alright, Sergeant?’ Hamza asked.
‘Eh, aye. Well, no. Unfortunately not,’ Fleck said. He was clutching his hat to his stomach, fingers fiddling with the trim. ‘Joe here, after you’d left, while we were packing up, he… Well, he told me something.’
‘Joe?’ Logan pointed to the old man, who stood with his head lowered, making no attempt to meet anyone’s eye. ‘Is this…?’
‘Joe Robertson. He found the body last night,’ Fleck said.
The sergeant sighed, and took a moment to shoot the old man a reproachful look.
‘And, well… It turns out that’s not all he found.’