Chapter 22 #2
‘No associations,’ he continued. ‘I spent the weekend going through the original Sian Fox-Carnell murder investigation file and I couldn’t find anything to link the two either in terms of evidence, victims or location.’
‘But they do share something in common,’ said Henley as a notification signalled the arrival of the email that she’d been waiting for. ‘Wait. I’ve just received the toxicology report for Fox-Carnell.’
‘What killed her?’ Ramouter asked as Henley left her desk and joined Pellacia at the front, taking over.
‘Fentanyl. It’s a schedule two controlled drug in the UK but that doesn’t mean that it’s not lethal,’ said Henley. ‘Most people who die of a fentanyl overdose have levels that range from 3 to 58 micrograms per litre of blood.’
‘How much did Fox-Carnell have in her blood?’ asked Eastwood.
‘75.3 micrograms,’ Henley replied as Stanford released a low whistle.
‘She also had traces of alcohol and cannabis in her system. The levels are low, which is to be expected considering that she was held captive for two days before she was killed. That’s not to say that she may not have been drinking heavily before she was taken.
I could smell the alcohol on her breath when she approached me.
’ Henley turned her back and drew a red arrow between Fox-Carnell and Tabitha Ashcroft.
‘So, there are two things they have in common. First, the scalping.’
‘What?’ Ezra asked wide eyed.
‘Turn around,’ Henley instructed, aware that Ezra didn’t have the stomach for the images of a brutal death that she faced daily. Ezra did what he was told and she picked up the photograph of the back of Fox-Carnell’s head and placed it on the board.
‘Christ,’ Pellacia muttered as his hand involuntarily went to the area on his chest where the serial killer, Peter Olivier, had left scars.
‘Fox-Carnell was scalped before she died. Tabitha Ashcroft too,’ said Henley.
She placed a second photograph, with two images, on the board.
The first image was the left side profile of Tabitha Ashcroft, showing bruising along her jawline and a large cut with a thin segment of skin laying against her scalp like an unopened envelope. The second image was a close up.
Stanford shook his head. ‘How is she?’
‘Understandably a mess. She was admitted because the wound was infected and she was on the verge of developing sepsis,’ said Henley. ‘The only reason she’s not in the morgue is because her husband saved her.’
‘I also don’t think we can ignore the fact that both Fox-Carnell and Tabitha Ashcroft had appeared in court recently,’ said Ramouter. ‘It seems to be more than just a coincidence.’
‘I agree, which leads me on to where we go next. The other link is that both victims suffered instances of harassment at their homes before they were attacked. Fox-Carnell’s parents had a noose painted on their window and shit pushed through their letter box.’
‘How pleasant,’ Eastwood said as she screwed her face.
‘The Ashcrofts also suffered harassment. Slashed tyres and demands for money.’
‘Blackmail?’ asked Stanford.
‘Yes,’ said Henley. ‘Which Graham Ashcroft paid. Fortunately, our blackmailer wasn’t smart. We’ve got a name. Laurence Durant. Husband of Sherri Durant, the woman who Tabitha Ashcroft killed. Stanford and Eastwood, can you pay him a visit?’
Eastwood was already standing and picking up her jacket from the back of the chair. ‘Sure. But, to be honest, boss, blackmail to murder – it’s a leap.’
‘It is. It could be something, or it could be nothing, but that doesn’t mean that we sit and wait to see,’ answered Henley.
Stanford took a sheet of paper containing Laurence Durant’s details from her outstretched hand ‘But before you both go; Ezra, are you ready?’ Henley spun the whiteboard around so that the photographs faced the wall.
‘Finally,’ Ezra said, jumping off the desk and making his way to the front.
‘I don’t come down here often and you kept man waiting for ages.
I haven’t got any fancy graphics to show you because, well, you wouldn’t understand ’em.
I’ll get straight to the point. Soteria lied about the reason why their systems went down.
’ He paused, took a breath before continuing.
‘In their press release Soteria said the reason they lost contact with everyone who was on tag was because they’d reached their data storage capacity, and they couldn’t track anyone.
That just struck me as dodgy. When I was given early release from prison, they put me on tag, do you remember, boss? ’ Ezra said, turning to Pellacia.
‘I remember that a couple of officers turned up here to question you about breaching your curfew.’
‘Exactly, anyway, the point is back then Soteria were constantly maxing out their data storage because they were cheap. All that meant was that they couldn’t send notifications to probation the minute you weren’t home on time.
But the minute they increased their data storage; notifications would be pinging all over the place. ’
‘So, you’re saying that even if they’re out of data your movements are still being recorded?’ asked Stanford.
‘Exactly. And these new trackers, they’re a million times better than what I had; they can tell you the seat you’re in at the cinema.
Now that Soteria’s systems are up and running, they should have sent you a log of her movements from the minute they tagged her but they haven’t, so I went digging on the parts of the web that you shouldn’t really go. ’
‘I don’t know why you’re being so melodramatic. He means the dark web,’ said Stanford.
‘What are you saying, Ez, that they were hacked?’ asked Pellacia. ‘They wouldn’t be the first company to be a victim of ransomware.’
‘Keyword there is ransom,’ said Ezra ‘Usually when big companies like this are hacked there is a group asking for something stupid. Acer got a ransomware demand for $50 million, there was another gang who demanded ￡60 million worth of bitcoin after they hacked a couple of IT companies in Amsterdam and Germany. The point is, they all do the same thing: hack the system, make it unusable, copy all the data and then ask for stupid money otherwise they’ll release the data.
From what I can see, there is not one hacker, cybercriminal or whatever you want to call them demanding a ransom from Soteria.
There is no evidence that they were hacked’
‘If they weren’t hacked and it wasn’t a data storage issue then what was it?’ Ramouter asked.
‘I think it was an inside job,’ said Ezra.
‘We’re assuming that this is all about Fox-Carnell. Soteria is monitoring over 12,000 people and all of their tags were down. Why would anyone in Soteria want to make just one person disappear into the wind?’ asked Eastwood. ‘Unless they were in on it.’
‘That’s another leap. A big leap,’ Stanford commented.
Pellacia looked at Ezra. ‘Can you confirm if what you’re suggesting is true?’
‘I can,’ Ezra said slowly, ‘but I’d rather do it through the front door as opposed to the back door, if you know what I mean.’
‘We need a warrant or an invitation,’ said Henley.
‘I don’t think that we’ve got strong enough grounds to convince a judge to give us a warrant,’ Pellacia mused.
‘And even if we did, we’ll be wasting time drafting an application and then hanging around Bromley magistrates waiting for an available judge on the off chance that they’ll sign off on a warrant for us to search Soteria’s computer systems.’
‘That settles it,’ said Henley. ‘Eastwood and Stanford will go and speak to Laurence Durant and Ramouter and I are heading to Soteria.’
‘Can I come?’ Ezra said excitedly. ‘I’m not being funny, but you two would be like bunnies in the headlights the minute they showed you their servers.’
‘Ezra, despite your brilliant work you’re a civilian. I’m not having you out on the street,’ said Pellacia.
‘Oh, come on, guv, you know it makes sense. You lot don’t just keep me around because of my good looks.’
Ramouter laughed. ‘He has a point. The boss and I go down to Soteria and they agree that we can look around, but what exactly are we looking for?’
‘It will be the equivalent of standing in the middle of Greenwich Park and being asked to find a squirrel named Derek,’ said Ezra.
‘That makes absolutely no sense.’ Eastwood shook her head.
‘Of course it doesn’t and that’s my point. Look, all I’m doing is looking at their systems, that’s if they let me and if they so no, I’ll just come back here or maybe the boss will buy me a burger to console me,’ Ezra said with a shrug.
‘I don’t like it,’ said Pellacia.
‘Me neither,’ agreed Stanford.
‘But I don’t think we have a choice,’ countered Henley.
‘We’ve got three options. Waste time applying and waiting for the inevitable rejection of our warrant application, plead our case to the NCA Cyber Security unit and again waste time waiting for them to authorise sending an agent who – and I will put money on it – will be less qualified than Ezra or—’
‘Fine, fine. It may not be the worst thing,’ said Pellacia, raising his hands in defeat. ‘But Ramouter I want you to stay here. I need someone by my side for the press conference at 1 p.m..’
‘That’s good with me. I’ll use the time to go through the council CCTV footage,’ said Ramouter.
‘And, Ezra, I don’t even want you turning left unless Henley tells you to, do you understand me?’ Pellacia asked.
‘Crystal,’ Ezra said as he gave a salute.