Chapter 39
‘You handed in your notice?’ Stanford exclaimed, the last piece of his sausage and egg McMuffin suspended in mid-air as they stepped into the lift.
‘That’s what I said,’ said Henley, pressing the fourth-floor button. She pulled a face as she caught sight of her exhausted reflection in the lift door.
‘But you didn’t mean it. Did you?’
Henley sighed. ‘No, I was pissed off and running my mouth.’
‘You’ve let Copeland get to you,’ Stanford said.
‘Which is not like me. I can usually rise above petty office politics but, I don’t know, I feel as though she’s purposely needling me.’
‘Maybe she feels threatened by you,’ said Stanford as the doors opened and they stepped out. ‘You’re quite a force you know.’
‘If she’s threatened by me then she should behave, keep herself quiet and not go whining to Pellacia just because I accidentally stood on her toe.’
‘You really are miserable sometimes,’ Stanford said, laughing as he pushed open the door into their room.
Henley paused and inhaled deeply when she saw that Copeland was already at her desk.
‘You can’t say that she’s not diligent,’ Stanford said, lowering his voice. ‘Looks like she was the first one in.’
‘I’ll get her a bloody medal,’ Henley muttered under breath.
‘As I said, miserable,’ said Stanford, picking up the internal post.
‘Morning, guv,’ said Copeland brightly.
‘Morning,’ Henley replied flatly. ‘How are you?’
‘Oh, I’m good, just going through the transcripts from the forum chatroom which reminds me, Ezra’s been looking for you.’
‘Ez is already here? It’s not even 8.30 a.m.,’ Henley said as the door opened and Pellacia walked into the room and passed her with no acknowledgement.
‘He was here before me, and I arrived at 7.30 a.m.. I think he was just keen to get a start on Durant’s phone.’
‘Thanks,’ Henley said, picking up a new notebook and pen from a desk. ‘If anyone is looking for me, tell them I’m downstairs.’
Henley watched as Ramouter walked along the hallway, in his own world as he moved his head in time to the music being pumped through his headphones. He was almost nose to nose with Henley before he realised she was there.
‘Morning, boss,’ he said warmly. ‘Looks like I’m not the only one who decided to have an early start.’
‘We’ve got a full house,’ Henley replied. ‘Even Copeland was here before me.’
‘She’s keen.’
‘Hmm,’ Henley said non-committally.
‘I’ve been working with you long enough to know what your hmm means,’ Ramouter said, the jovial look on his face now replaced with one of concern.
‘It doesn’t mean anything,’ Henley said, turning towards the staircase.
‘I know that she can come on a bit strong, but she’s got good intentions. She just wants to do a good job.’
‘You’re running to her defence a bit quickly.’
‘I’ve spent time with her.’
Henley raised an eyebrow.
‘Not like that,’ Ramouter replied hurriedly, his cheeks flushed with embarrassment. ‘There’s nothing going on.’
‘I never suggested that there was, but—’
‘We’re just friends,’ Ramouter said adamantly. ‘Really, it’s nothing more than that. I don’t think Copeland sees me that way. She’s newly divorced and…’
‘Even more reason for her to—’
‘Boss, come on. You know me.’
‘But I don’t know her,’ Henley said firmly. ‘Be careful.’
‘I know what it’s like being the new guy and trying to fit in with a team that’s tight. Really tight,’ he said.
Henley recognised the truth of his words and nodded her head in agreement. ‘What are you asking me to do, Ramouter?’ she asked.
‘Just give her a chance, like you did with me.’
Henley scanned Ramouter’s face as she searched for suitable words to object to his more than reasonable request. ‘I’ll think about it,’ was all she said.
Ramouter smiled with relief. ‘For a minute there, I thought you were going to tell me to piss off,’ he said.
Henley turned her back and as she walked downstairs shouted, ‘I nearly did.’
‘What time do you call this?’ Ezra asked as Henley walked into his office.
‘I call it far too early to be putting up with any cheek from you,’ Henley replied, taking a seat next to him.
‘Because I’m about to take myself out for a full English breakfast in a mo’ and I’m feeling a bit smug with myself, I’m going to let that slide.’
‘I take it you summoned me down here because you got something useful from Durant’s phone?’
‘Look at the monitor, boss,’ Ezra said.
Henley found herself staring at an image of Durant’s phone screen. His wallpaper was a photograph of his late wife smiling brightly as she held a cocktail.
‘I’ve downloaded it all and sent it to your inbox, but this is what’s really interesting.’ Ezra clicked on a purple icon.
‘What is that?’ Henley asked.
‘It’s Discord. It’s an instant messaging app but it’s not just chatting to your mates. You can send videos, photos, can go live and watch livestreams,’ Ezra explained.
‘What’s so special about that?’
‘Well, you can also join different communities. Think of it like private member clubs because you have to be invited. It’s also encrypted so no one can just listen in.
So, what you’re looking at are all the clubs that Durant has joined.
Teaching, football, but these are the ones you’re going to be interested in.
A lot of vigilante groups. Most of them he hasn’t participated in except for this one. ’
‘Shadow,’ said Henley. ‘Is that right? Only five members?’
‘Small but active. Lots of chat, photos and documents,’ said Ezra as he clicked on #target.
‘Oh my God,’ said Henley as Ezra opened a PDF titled, ‘R v Tabitha Ashcroft’. ‘Those are prosecution case papers.’
‘I had a quick look, and everything is in there. Witness statements, schedule of unused material. Basically, everything I had when I was in court.’
‘Is Tabitha Ashcroft’s custody record on there and can you tell when these were uploaded?’
Ezra chewed his lip as he scrolled through the items. ‘6 September,’ he said.
‘That’s the date that Tabitha Ashcroft was sentenced. Are there any names mentioned in the chat?’
‘A couple. Someone called Don is mentioned a couple of times, but that’s the only real name. The others have got random usernames and as good as I am, I can’t reverse engineer that and find out who created it.’
‘Don’t worry, that’s good enough for me to get Durant back into the interview room,’ Henley said as Ezra’s phone rang.
Ezra peered at the display screen. ‘It’s the guvnor,’ he said. He picked up. ‘Hello. Yeah, she’s still here. Ok. He wants to talk to you.’
Ezra handed the phone to Henley and turned back to his computer.
‘Hello,’ Henley asked, struggling to keep the simple greeting balanced and nonconfrontational.
‘Ben Trezeguet is at Bethnal Green police station’ said Pellacia. ‘He was arrested an hour ago. I’m sending Ramouter and Copeland to deal with him, are you ok with that?’
‘That’s fine. I’m going to reinterview Durant.’
‘Ok. And we’ve got a problem with the Manchester visit. They’re rioting in Strangeways. Prisoners on the roof.’
‘So, they’re in lockdown?’
‘For the moment. The prison guvnor will let me know as soon as they’ve got the place under control and, when they do, Stanford and Eastwood are good to go. I’ll let you get on.’
Henley felt a tremor in her stomach as she lowered the handset. She’d tried to get a sense of Pellacia’s emotions as he spoke, but there’d been nothing. He’d spoken to her as though she were a stranger.