By All Means (Fiske and MacNee Mysteries Book 2) Read Online Free Page A
Author: Alan Alexander
her in.
‘Hi, Aisha. What have you got?’
Aisha was a recent recruit to CID, the first woman in her Glasgow Pakistani family to have gone to university and the first woman from her local community to join the police. She helped Esslemont tick his diversity boxes, but no allowances had been made in taking her on. She had spent three years on the beat in Fraserburgh before applying for CID. She was tough, more experienced than her youth suggested, and very bright.
‘I’ve still not spoken to four of the guys who left the rig on Friday. Three of them I’m not worried about. Their names and addresses check out and I’ve spoken to partners or flatmates. So I expect them to phone back. If they don’t, I’ll keep trying. But there’s one that’s a problem. His name is Thomas Nuttall and the address and phone number on record are in Wallsend, near Newcastle. The number is unobtainable, so I checked it and, apparently, it doesn’t exist. Or at least it’s never been allocated. Nothing from his mobile, either. I got on to Northumbria Police in Wallsend and asked them about the address. It used to exist, but it was demolished two years ago. The site was to be redeveloped, but the recession put paid to that.’
‘Sounds as though Mr Nuttall, if that’s his name, doesn’t want to be found. Good work, Aisha. You carry on with that. See if Randall, or his head office, can help. Sara…’
Aisha interrupted. ‘Sorry, Boss, this may be nothing, but I Googled the name Nuttall, and one of the areas where it’s concentrated is Aberdeen. More than 1600 people, in and around the city.’
‘Right. It may be coincidence, but we should be ready to follow up if none of the other lines of enquiry produces anything, so see what the operators of the rig have on him, and we’ll take it from there.’
Vanessa turned back to DS Hamilton. ‘How are uniform getting on with the interviews on the rig?’
‘Nearly finished, I think. It’s forty people, but the interviews are pretty short and we managed to get four PCs out there. It’s overtime for them and most of them were up for the adventure. They’ve all got iPads, so we should have their interview notes quite quickly. I’ll have a quick scan and let you know if there’s anything significant.’
‘Thanks, Sara. Ordinarily, I’d give you a hand with that, but I’ve got an appointment away from the office that I can’t miss. Should be back by six o’clock, though. Will you still be here?’
‘My boyfriend’s picking me up at seven. Quick pizza and a film. So I’ll be here till then.’
*
The post mortem findings on Keller were serious enough for DI MacNee to report it to his immediate line manager, DCI Fiske. He caught her just as she was finishing discussing with Hamilton and Gajani their progress on the Jamieson murder.
‘Christ, Colin, this looks like a professional hit rather than an opportunistic mugging gone wrong. The killer probably removed the personal identification to delay the investigation. Have you spoken to the pathologist. Is he absolutely sure?’
‘Not only have I spoken to him, I’ve been to see the body. The bruises to the head are very clear, but the needle pricks to the vein had to be pointed out to me. There was a small amount of blood encrusted around them that’ll show up on the photos, but it was swabbed off during the PM and the marks were very clear. The pathologist says that when he saw the blood on the arm, and the needle marks, he decided to get a tox report quickly, so he sent the blood samples to the lab and then completed the PM. That’s how the results appeared in his report. Good thinking on his part, I thought.’
‘Indeed’. Vanessa looked thoughtful for a moment. ‘We’ll need to go to Esslemont with this. And he’ll want to brief the Chief, if he can drag him away from buffing
‘Hi, Aisha. What have you got?’
Aisha was a recent recruit to CID, the first woman in her Glasgow Pakistani family to have gone to university and the first woman from her local community to join the police. She helped Esslemont tick his diversity boxes, but no allowances had been made in taking her on. She had spent three years on the beat in Fraserburgh before applying for CID. She was tough, more experienced than her youth suggested, and very bright.
‘I’ve still not spoken to four of the guys who left the rig on Friday. Three of them I’m not worried about. Their names and addresses check out and I’ve spoken to partners or flatmates. So I expect them to phone back. If they don’t, I’ll keep trying. But there’s one that’s a problem. His name is Thomas Nuttall and the address and phone number on record are in Wallsend, near Newcastle. The number is unobtainable, so I checked it and, apparently, it doesn’t exist. Or at least it’s never been allocated. Nothing from his mobile, either. I got on to Northumbria Police in Wallsend and asked them about the address. It used to exist, but it was demolished two years ago. The site was to be redeveloped, but the recession put paid to that.’
‘Sounds as though Mr Nuttall, if that’s his name, doesn’t want to be found. Good work, Aisha. You carry on with that. See if Randall, or his head office, can help. Sara…’
Aisha interrupted. ‘Sorry, Boss, this may be nothing, but I Googled the name Nuttall, and one of the areas where it’s concentrated is Aberdeen. More than 1600 people, in and around the city.’
‘Right. It may be coincidence, but we should be ready to follow up if none of the other lines of enquiry produces anything, so see what the operators of the rig have on him, and we’ll take it from there.’
Vanessa turned back to DS Hamilton. ‘How are uniform getting on with the interviews on the rig?’
‘Nearly finished, I think. It’s forty people, but the interviews are pretty short and we managed to get four PCs out there. It’s overtime for them and most of them were up for the adventure. They’ve all got iPads, so we should have their interview notes quite quickly. I’ll have a quick scan and let you know if there’s anything significant.’
‘Thanks, Sara. Ordinarily, I’d give you a hand with that, but I’ve got an appointment away from the office that I can’t miss. Should be back by six o’clock, though. Will you still be here?’
‘My boyfriend’s picking me up at seven. Quick pizza and a film. So I’ll be here till then.’
*
The post mortem findings on Keller were serious enough for DI MacNee to report it to his immediate line manager, DCI Fiske. He caught her just as she was finishing discussing with Hamilton and Gajani their progress on the Jamieson murder.
‘Christ, Colin, this looks like a professional hit rather than an opportunistic mugging gone wrong. The killer probably removed the personal identification to delay the investigation. Have you spoken to the pathologist. Is he absolutely sure?’
‘Not only have I spoken to him, I’ve been to see the body. The bruises to the head are very clear, but the needle pricks to the vein had to be pointed out to me. There was a small amount of blood encrusted around them that’ll show up on the photos, but it was swabbed off during the PM and the marks were very clear. The pathologist says that when he saw the blood on the arm, and the needle marks, he decided to get a tox report quickly, so he sent the blood samples to the lab and then completed the PM. That’s how the results appeared in his report. Good thinking on his part, I thought.’
‘Indeed’. Vanessa looked thoughtful for a moment. ‘We’ll need to go to Esslemont with this. And he’ll want to brief the Chief, if he can drag him away from buffing
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