Knight & Culverhouse Box Set - Books 7-9

Chapter 47

47

The major incident room at Mildenheath CID was buzzing as Jack Culverhouse updated the team on what they’d discovered. Steve Wing was the first to ask questions.

‘What, so he decided that rather than let the cancer get him, he’d rather die in a house fire and frame someone else for it? That don’t make sense to me, guv.’

‘He didn’t die in a house fire, though, did he? He died from jumping off the balcony and hitting the slabs.’

Culverhouse watched as the cogs whirred in Steve’s brain, a gradual look of realisation creeping across his face.

‘So you’re saying that Galloway was never trying to escape the fire? Jesus. He was never aiming for the pool, was he? He always intended to hit the deck and die quickly and painlessly.’

‘Exactly. Think about it. This is the kind of guy whose whole life has been built on pride. That’s what everything is about as far as he’s concerned. He’s proud he’s still doing well, proud of his beautiful house. Then a doctor tells him he’s dying and he can’t do a thing about it. That’s not how blokes like Freddie Galloway bow out. They do things their own way. Always in control, right to the last. He worked hard for that house as far as he was concerned, and he was going to take it with him. If he was going to die, he was going to do it his way and take the lot with him.’

‘The problem we’ve got,’ Wendy said, ‘is proving it. I don’t imagine any of the items in John Lucas’s garage will have Galloway’s DNA on them, but we’ll check against all known samples. We might be able to track down the purchase of the jerry can and trainers, but even if we do I very much doubt if Freddie Galloway himself nipped out to the shops to buy them. He’d have one of his men do it for him.’

‘If they were bought by someone we can link to Galloway, that could do it,’ Ryan said.

‘True, but it’s all circumstantial again. The way I see it, the situation is this. All signs point to John Lucas. But we can’t prove for definite Lucas was at the scene. It seems extraordinarily unlikely he would’ve been stupid enough to do something like that, and I for one believe him. I’ve sat opposite enough people in interview rooms to have a fairly decent idea over whether someone’s guilty or not. As we all know only too well, it’s not about working out whether someone’s guilty. That’s the easy bit. It’s about proving it. Now, we can’t prove something didn’t happen, so we’d have to prove that something else did. For that we’ll need to hammer the forensics. I’ve got a few ideas on that front.’

‘Nice one, Knight,’ Culverhouse said. ‘We’ll have a chat about that. Ryan, did you get anything on Newell’s financials?’

‘Yes and no,’ Ryan replied. ‘The guy barely uses cash at all, it seems. Everything is paid for on his debit card. He does take cash out occasionally, but rarely any more than thirty quid a month. Even at that, you’re talking less than four grand over eleven years — and that’s assuming every penny he withdrew was for the hitman. I don’t think you’d find many people who’d do a hit for that.’

‘Romanians might,’ Steve said.

‘Trust me, Steve. If we were looking at a four-grand hitman’s work, we’d know about it by now,’ Culverhouse replied.

He was interrupted by the sound of his work mobile phone ringing. The number on the screen told him it was the operational command centre.

‘Culverhouse,’ he said, answering the phone.

‘Sir, we’ve just had a call from a commuter at Middlebrook station who reported a man threatening to throw himself off the bridge.’

‘Right, well you’ll have to send uniform in. There are negotiators they can call in who—’

‘No, sir. Sorry. He’s not there any more. He climbed down from the bridge after she called out to him, then legged it. But she saw him take his mobile out of his pocket and throw it down onto the tracks. There was a train coming in, but the phone fell between the lines and didn’t get damaged. They managed to get the lines deactivated while they retrieved it. The phone had a passcode lock, but they could see from the signal indicator that the phone was on the Tesco Mobile network. Because they were worried for the man’s safety and didn’t have an ID on him, they got the network to identify the owner of the mobile. It was the only phone on Tesco Mobile within the vicinity of the station, and they matched it to Mr John Lucas.’

‘Christ,’ Culverhouse said, glad he’d held on and not just hung up the phone when the rambling explanation started. ‘And where is he now?’

‘No idea, sir. Units are out looking for him as there are safety concerns about him, but according to the eyewitness he ran towards the station building. By the time units arrived at the scene, he was nowhere to be found.’

Culverhouse tried to form a picture of Middlebrook station in his mind’s eye. ‘There’s a cab office there, isn’t there? In the station building. Get onto them and find out if they took a fare from a man matching John Lucas’s description. In the meantime, keep scouring the area. I’ll see if we can get Hotel Oscar Nine Nine up with thermal imaging. There’s a lot of woodland and scrubland around there. Oh f**k,’ he said, bringing his palm to his forehead.

‘What is it, sir?’

‘He’s only a mile or two away from the motorway junction, there. If he didn’t get any luck with the railway bridge, there’s a decent chance he might be heading for the road bridge over the motorway.’