Текст книги "The Electrician's Code: An Evans and Blackwell Mystery"

Автор книги: Clarissa Draper

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Текущая страница: 7 (всего у книги 17 страниц)

Chapter Twenty-One

Theo woke later than usual and, after arranging to meet Dorland at Mrs. Hathaway’s home, stepped into the shower. The hot water helped him think. The revelation that Maddock Tipring’s uncle worked for MI5 threw the case into a whole different direction. It could explain why he wasn’t finding a motive or suspects. He would still have to follow up his original line of enquiry but he wasn’t faced with a dead end.

He didn’t know what to expect from Heather Hathaway, the next nurse on his list. Dorland had confirmed that Heather had really been away at the time of Mr. Tipring’s death, so the most he hoped for from her was a motive as to why anyone would want to kill her previous employer.

The nurse lived in Tulse Hill, a top floor flat just south of Brockwell Park. One thing Theo liked about interviewing witnesses was that he was able to see London, all of it. And some of it was extremely lovely.

Dorland arrived before him and was standing outside the address, sipping coffee.

Theo rang the bell. A woman looked out from her window on the top floor and Theo waved. They heard a click and quickly Dorland grabbed the door to let them inside. The six flights of stairs left them breathless and the nurse stood waiting at the top of the stairs with a pitying look on her face.

“Try that flight with groceries,” the nurse said, motioning them into her small, sparsely furnished apartment. Two suitcases lay open and a small pile of clothing lay on the floor. The nurse was in her late thirties and wore a beautiful Chinese silk robe on top of her flannel bunny pajama suit. Her hair was pulled back in a bun. “I just returned yesterday from China, sorry for the mess. I never thought you would show up for another few days at least.”

“We want to ask you some questions about Mr. Tipring,” replied Theo.

“Yes, as soon as I arrived home my friend rang me and said he had died. Murdered. I had worked for him for six years, as you probably know. My landlord also mentioned you had stopped by.”

“Yes, I’m sorry for your loss,” replied Theo. “We were hoping you could give us a reason why anyone would want to kill him?”

She shook her head. “He was a bit odd, in an older person sort of way, but I wouldn’t say anyone had a reason to kill him.”

“We talked to Mr. Tipring’s solicitor,” Dorland said. “He was going to give most of his money to different charitable organizations, but to his nurses, he left some money. Were you aware of that?”

“I doubt that he planned to leave me any, not with how we ended our relationship. Would you like some tea?” Both officers shook their heads and Dorland lifted up his coffee cup in explanation. She sat down in a rocking chair beside the front window and offered them the sofa.

“What happened between Mr. Tipring and yourself?”

“I really don’t know. Sometimes I sit and think about what happened and well, I didn’t do what he said I did.” She stopped and looked at them. “Mr. Tipring had some jewelry, some earrings. I don’t know if you saw the box when you entered his house but, he really loved them. I believe they belonged to his mother. Whatever the reason. Well, I took holidays and some temporary nurses were called in from the agency to take over. I returned three weeks later and everything was fine. Then one day, about a week after I had returned, he comes into the kitchen when I’m preparing his lunch and starts accusing me of stealing one set of earrings from the box. I told him it wasn’t me but he thinks he remembers seeing them after I had returned. I don’t know. I doubt he knew when they went missing. Anyways, right there, right on the spot, he fired me. And because I’m accused of stealing, I never received severance pay and the agency dropped me.”

“Did they ever find out who stole the earrings?” Dorland asked.

“I’m not sure. I got a job at a tour company with my cousin. It’s where I work now.”

“That must have made you angry.”

“If you think that I had a motive, maybe the first week. But I got the job with my cousin two weeks later, it pays better, the hours are better, and I get large discounts and opportunities to travel the world. It was the best thing that ever happened to me. I met a man overseas in France and in three months, we’re going to be married. If anything, I should thank Mr. Tipring. No, I didn’t murder him. And as for the money, I doubt it will amount to much and I don’t really need it.”

“So as far as you know, the person who stole the jewelry must have been one of the sub nurses?”

“It’s really difficult to say. I can’t accuse anyone of doing it. I never had a chance to look into it. The earrings may have just fallen to the bottom of the case and are there now. He dismissed me and I left. If a pair of earrings is missing, I can’t explain what happened to them.”

“Do you know if any of the earrings were worth anything?”

Heather laughed. “Worth something? No, they were probably worth a few dollars combined. Sentimentality, nothing more. There were no pearls or diamonds that were real, cheap gold. Some were starting to rust, and gold does not rust. A nurse would have no reason to steal those earrings. They were worthless to anyone but him. No one would risk getting into trouble over those.”

“Do you know anything about his art?” asked Dorland.

“No, not really. He did them for his own enjoyment; he never sold any. Although, he did give two away. I know he gave one to his hometown, where he grew up. I used to drive him there once a year to see it; it was one of the few places he ever traveled to. Funny that, the man must be one of the vainest personages on earth, only leaving the city to see tile work he did himself. And I don’t know where the other went.”

“I heard that he used to name them,” said Dorland.

“Yeah, I forget what he used to call them. Unusual man, though. I think of him often.”

“When you worked there, did he receive any visitors? Did he talk of his past, his family, his job?” asked Theo.

“Not that I remember. He hated his neighbors, read the paper religiously, and preferred his tea a certain way. No one came to visit him, not regularly, and he was content in his own little world. I wish I could remember more, and I will try to, but it’s all I have.”

“Did he ever mention working for the government?” asked Theo.

Dorland looked sharply at him.

“The government?” replied Heather. “No, he was an electrician.”

“What about family? Do you know if anyone worked for the government?”

She opened her mouth to speak but paused before replying, “I don’t know what you’re looking for. Patients often open up to their nurses. Sometimes you can’t get them to shut up, but not our Mr. Tipring. No, he kept the world to himself. Oh sure, he made chit chat, but if I think about it, I didn’t know anything about him really. What a way to live.”

“I would like to talk to the nurses that filled in for you while you were on holiday. Do you still have the number for the nursing agency?”

She wrote it down for them.

After leaving the flat, Theo said, “If one of those girls did steal the jewelry and Tipring found out whom, the culprit may have wanted to silence him.”

“Over a pair of earrings? First, why would anyone want to steal a cheap pair of earrings and second, why would anyone kill for them? If he did accuse one of the nurses, she could easily argue that the man was crazy and explain they were worth nothing.”

“I think we should find out if the old man was crazy or not,” Theo suggested.

“How do you plan to do that?”

“We should find out if the man has really had a pair of earrings stolen or not. We fetch the box of earrings and compare them to the pictures the solicitor has in his office. I’ll ring him and find out if we can come in. Follow me to Mr. Tipring’s house.” Theo made the call to the solicitor and agreed to meet him at one that afternoon.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Crystal has made two copies,” Sophia said to Liam.

“Will the two of you please watch the footage again, frame by frame if you have to. And Melony, watch Elaine. If she goes anywhere near that box of chocolates, I want to know. Is it possible he slipped a piece of paper under his tea cup or inside it?”

“I don’t think so because she washed the cup without removing anything. Besides, if he did leave anything behind, she’ll have to inform her boss in some way and we’ll catch her.”

“There is always that.” Liam sighed.

Sophia thought it was best if Crystal and she divided up the task. She chose to watch Miles while her friend watched Ms. Smith. Almost frame by frame Sophia watched Miles enter the flat, hand the box of chocolates, and examine the ornaments in the room. Never did he place his hand in his pockets to retrieve the numbers nor did he write on anything. If he was placing the information for Ms. Smith to find, they had a clever pre-arranged system. No pattern stood out.

Finally, Miles sat down on the sofa and picked up the deck of cards. One by one he dealt the cards out. Seven in a row. One by one he turned the cards over and moved them around.

“Sir,” a voice came over the radio, “Miles has arrived home. He has entered the bathroom.”

“Do we have cameras in the bathroom?” Liam asked.

“No, sir, however, if he makes a phone call while in the bathroom, we will know. We just heard the toilet flush and he has only been in there twenty-two seconds. He is exiting the room and zipping up his trousers.”

“I don’t think we need that much information.”

“Well, just so you know, we don’t believe he has done anything in the room except take a piss.”

“What is he doing now?”

“He’s turned on the telly.”

“Has he been on the computer or made contact with anyone?”

“No, sir.”

“What the hell did we miss?” asked Liam. “Damn it. What did we miss? They can’t be that clever. We are cleverer than the two of them, surely.”

Crystal tapped Sophia on the arm and signed, “I found something.”

Sophia leaned over and looked at the screen on Crystal’s computer.

“Out of habit, I watch for lags in everything, the streams, the speed, and I think we have an anomaly. You see, the cameras are all streaming on our network. Everything is streaming through the network, including every mobile phone who chooses to use our network to update their Facebook page. Well, I catalogued the usage on the network from the moment we started here. I know what device matches what address. You see, your two computers are here and mine, here. That’s the computer with the monitors and right now our friend Bert is also accessing it.”

Sophia turned to Bert who was intently typing on his mobile phone.

“However,” Crystal continued, “I set a program to track our devices and their usage.”

“That’s above and beyond . . .”

“Well, I had created the program a long time ago. Mainly to track you and your life.”

“Hmm,” signed Sophia, “that’s nice to know. Comforting.”

“I can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic when you sign.” She waved Sophia off. “That aside, it tracks new devices as well. Anyone that isn’t listed by me—and all of Liam’s devices—are picked up and I get sent a message.”

“When did you get a message?”

“Shortly before the meeting started. I ignored the message at first because we were trying to focus on the meet but now I’m curious. Who logged onto our network and how were they able to gain access?”

“Are you doubly sure it’s not just someone in the room? Or perhaps it was one of the team that followed Miles over to the house. While they were waiting for the meet to end, they logged into our network.”

“That might be the case. I’m running a check through all the systems to see what was accessed. I didn’t set up the security on the network so I can’t be sure how protected it is. If, however, someone who was not given the key was able to access the network, he . . . or she, is amazing.”

“You think it may be someone like Ms. Smith who accessed the network?”

“Or someone she knows.”

Sophia looked to Liam who was currently on the phone, explaining the situation to his superiors. “If that’s the case, there’s a lot more to be worried about.”

“Yes. We can hope it turns out to be one of us. But, if it doesn’t, not only is there a chance the information we collected is accessed but, they know we’re here—watching them.”

“Maybe we should shut down the network and re-establish it.”

“If we do that now, we risk not only missing any feed while the cameras are down but we also risk alerting the hacker that we know we’re on to him or her.”

“Well, at least take offline whatever is not crucial. Especially our computers. If the person is capable of that, he may be able to access our drives.”

“All right. And it may turn out in the end to be one of us. In which case, the panic is for nothing. But I don’t think we should ignore it.”

“No.” Sophia breathed out deeply. “We have to let Liam know.”

“No, just you.”

Sophia tapped Crystal’s shoulder as she rose. “Thanks for the support.” She went and stood by Liam and waited until he finished his call. She really had no idea how to tell him, not even sure he would understand. Perhaps though, this news would be good news. At least it would be something and a chance that the hacker left a trace behind. When Liam slammed his phone in his shirt pocket and turned to face her, she doubted the wisdom in telling him.

“What is it?” Liam asked her. “Have you found something?”

“Well, maybe.” She started biting her fingernails but Liam pulled her hand out of her mouth.

“Talk.”

“It wasn’t my find exactly, it’s Crystal’s discovery. We think there might be a chance—and right now it’s a strong might—that someone may be piggybacking one of our networks.”

“What does that mean?”

“Someone may be accessing our network.”

“What for?”

“We’re not sure yet. It could be something as simple as using our Internet or something more serious.”

“How serious?”

“Well, there is a chance that someone is hacking into our system.”

Liam’s mouth hung open. “That’s bad.”

“Yes, that’s worst case. However, we don’t know what the person is up to. Why did they choose our network and who is it? We’re not sure it’s even related to the case here.”

“Is there a chance it’s related to one of the cases you’re working on?”

Sophia shrugged. “Doubtful. We’ve only noticed an increase since we’ve been here—we being Crystal and I—which leads me to believe it’s not. Crystal is doing a diagnostic and as soon as we know something, you’ll know about it as well. In the meantime, I’m going to keep reviewing the footage. Something is not sitting right with me.”

“What?”

“I don’t know yet.”

Sophia went back to her workstation and started the footage again. She continued to watch Miles play solitaire, slowing the frames down to assure herself Miles didn’t write information somewhere on a card or paper on the table. Sophia paused the footage and rubbed her eyes. This was going to make her batty. The shipment information had to be in the box of chocolates. However, if it was, why wasn’t Ms. Smith doing something with that information? She hadn’t been near the box again since eating the one caramel.

“Where did Miles pick up the chocolates?” Sophia asked Liam.

“He works for a chocolate factory,” Liam replied. “That’s why it didn’t surprise us when he said he wanted to bring chocolates. However, we assumed it may be the perfect ruse to get a message. It had to be considered.”

“And it still has to be considered,” said Melony.” We may have no choice but to get that box.”

“Yes,” said Liam, “but, if it’s not inside and we pick it up, she’ll just be more careful with the real way she’s going to be delivering the coordinates.”

“You don’t think she’s already being careful?” asked Melony.

“Yes,” said Liam, “but it would only take a phone call to get them to move the weapons and then pick them up at a later date. We know one thing for sure: she won’t be the one picking up the weapons now that she has handed the money to Placko. At some time in the near future she will have to give her boss the information.”

“Has anyone considered whether she is only there to hand the money over. She may never get the coordinates at all,” asked Sophia.

“That has been considered,” said Liam. “However, from our intel, she’s the only one who has contact with Placko’s men. And it’s all we have to go on.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

Mrs. Zamora, the first substitute nurse on the list, was a single mother with four boys. The four energetic boys chased each other around their front garden with large sticks. When Theo and Dorland entered the yard, all the boys stopped in unison and stared.

“Who are you?” the oldest-looking one asked. He was probably ten.

A younger asked, “My mum is inside with a headache. She sent us outside.”

“Well, we will try to talk to your mum, all right?” They all nodded their heads eagerly and slowly followed behind the two officers to their front door. A lady opened the door when they rang the bell. She rubbed her eyes.

Theo immediately showed the woman his warrant card and asked, “Mrs. Zamora?”

“Yes?” She glanced behind the two officers to her four kids who immediately dashed off in different directions, “What can I do you for?”

“We are investigating the death of a Mr. Tipring. We believe you once worked for him.” The woman stared at them blankly until Theo added, “A one-legged man with tiled art?”

“Oh yes. I only worked for him for a few days and it was quite a while back.”

“About four months ago?”

“For me that’s quite a while, Detectives. Do either of you have children?” Both shook their heads no. “Well, when you do, either time seems to go too fast to get things done or too slow for the work to end. You’ll understand. As for Mr. Tipring, I don’t remember much. What was it you wanted to ask me?”

“We are looking for any motive or reason that someone might want to kill him,” said Theo. “We have recently learned that there was jewelry stolen from the house. We are looking for any information, anything you might be able to tell us.”

“Jewelry? I don’t remember any jewelry. Was it very valuable?”

“No, not really.”

“Why then would anyone want to steal it?” The question seemed like an obvious one to her.

“So you don’t remember any jewelry? A box of earrings?” asked Dorland

“Afraid not.” She grabbed her forehead and rubbed it vigorously. “Why would a man keep jewelry? I do remember the art though. Kevin get down from there this instant, don’t make me come over there. Look, sorry, like I said, I only worked there for a few days. I hardly remember to put the rubbish out; I can’t tell you anything about any jewelry.”

Theo said, “If you don’t mind me asking where you were at around seven Wednesday morning.”

“At seven in the morning on a school day? Ask any one of my children, they will know I was probably yelling at the top of my lungs to get these lazy rug rats out of bed and to school on time. Believe me, I wish I had the time to think of watching a murder mystery on television never mind think of committing one.”

With that, she started running after her smallest son, and with a quick scoop of her finger pulled a large wad of rocks and dirt from his mouth. “Get in the house and rinse your mouth out. That’s disgusting.” She pushed him toward the house and started after another one. Dorland and Theo sneaked out of the yard.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Suddenly a voice interrupted on the radio. “Sir, we have a man approaching the house.”

“Who is it?” asked Liam.

“Unknown, sir.”

“Stay back,” Liam commanded. “This may be her contact. On alert, everyone.”

The volume was raised over the speakers. Everyone stepped a little closer to the monitors and watched. A man wearing a dark coat and baseball hat approached her door and knocked. Ms. Smith, who was hanging some dish towels on the clothes line, looked up and toward the front of the house. She wavered a bit but went back to hanging. The man knocked again, this time louder. Ms. Smith heard the door this time and after placing a pin on the line, wiped her hand on her apron and entered the house.

Before answering the door, Ms. Smith again looked over the state of her living room. Sophia watched to see if she looked at the chocolates but she didn’t seem to. Then she approached the front door slowly and opened it on the chain.

“Oh, come in,” she said, calmly. She unhooked the chain and stepped back. He entered and shut the door behind him—locking it. She stood there quietly, as if waiting for him to speak.

“Do you have something for me?” she finally asked.

The team leaned in closer, straining to hear the reply. The man reached into his jacket.

“Did he say something?” Liam asked.

“I didn’t hear anything.”

Until they did. The sound was barely audible over the speakers but the reaction was clear. Ms. Smith stepped back slightly and fell to the ground. He stood over her and aimed at her head. Another muffled bang resonated over the speakers. Sophia wanted to vomit. She clasped both hands to her mouth and looked away. Crystal stared at the monitors in disbelief.

“Shit,” Liam yelled. “Move in. Move in, all teams.”

The shooter stepped over the body and walked to the back garden. The officers were at the front door trying the handle and then banging their bodies against the door. Almost without effort, the killer scaled the back wall and disappeared from the screen. Liam ran from the flat. Some of the officers were running down the street, in hopes of catching the man.

Sophia followed Liam from the flat into the hall and leaned against the wall. Crystal came out and stood in front of her.

“What happened?”

“Someone came to Ms. Smith’s house and shot her.”

“What? She’s dead?” Crystal attempted to go back into the room but Sophia grabbed her arm.

“You don’t want to see it,” Sophia assured her.

Crystal didn’t go back in and instead stood in front of Sophia in the hall. “About three and a half minutes ago, before that man arrived, the same person signed into our network. I think it’s too coincidental to be one of us. There’s someone hacking the network. And he must be nearby.”

“So there’s a chance that he’s in this building.”

“Within network range.”

“But why? It doesn’t make any sense? What are they after? Are they hoping to access secrets? Did they download anything?”

“The only thing they accessed were the cameras,” said Crystal.

“That makes even less sense. Why would someone in close connection to Ms. Smith or the buyer want to be spying—or even need to be spying—on themselves?”

“Maybe it’s someone Placko set up to spy on Ms. Smith. To make sure she complied with the rules.”

“Yes, but whoever it was knew she was watched by us. They know we’re here watching her. If Placko did suspect, why would he send Miles to meet her?”

“For the money.”

“Yes, but Ms. Smith handed over the money without batting an eyelash. She never let on that they didn’t fulfill their end of the bargain.” Sophia paused and thought. “Unless she expected the killer because he was the one bringing the information about the shipment.”

“Maybe.”

“It doesn’t make any sense.”

Sophia’s mobile rang. It was Liam.

“I want you and Crystal over here going through Ms. Smith’s computer. Take it apart if you have to, but find out what we need to know.”

Sophia and Crystal walked over to Elaine’s house together. Sophia didn’t want to see Ms. Smith up close, dead on the floor. She decided she would focus on the assignment instead. Crystal grabbed her hand and gave her worried eyes.

A few of the neighbors had looked out from behind curtains when the unit banged down Ms. Smith’s door. Sophia stared at the walk in front of her and raised her hands to cover her face. It was like tagging along behind DCI Blackwell on one of his cases. She didn’t belong there either. There were times she preferred being used as a coffee-runner instead.

Outside Ms. Smith’s door, one of the team members blocked the entrance and was about to demand they show identification when Liam opened the door and ushered them inside. Both of them stood there for a moment, unsure of the sight they would see but knew it was unavoidable to forgo the event.

A strong cigarette smell hit Sophia when she entered the house. She wasn’t expecting it. Even though she had sat watching poor Ms. Smith smoking fag after fag, she didn’t imagine she would be greeted by that smell. In a way, she was relieved. Then she saw the victim and all relief went away.

Ms. Smith lay still in the entrance way. Blood pooled on the apron around the wound on her chest and underneath her body, but her face was haunting. The look of surprise and horror wasn’t wiped from her face by the large hole slightly above her right eye.

“God,” Sophia said.

“Avert your eyes,” Liam told her. “Just follow me to the living room.”

But she couldn’t. She couldn’t take her eyes off the face. Liam didn’t seem fazed by what he saw. How many dead bodies had Liam witnessed?

“Avert your eyes,” Liam repeated.

Sophia looked into his eyes. “This shouldn’t have happened.”

“No, but it does. We can’t protect everyone.”

“She wouldn’t have died if we had stepped in sooner.”

“You don’t know that. She chose to get involved in criminal activity. She knew this could be one of the consequences. We can’t blame ourselves when things go wrong. She wasn’t innocent in this matter.” He grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the living room.

Sophia turned to Crystal who was still staring at the corpse. “Come,” she signed. “Stop looking at the body.”

“I haven’t seen a dead person before.”

“I’m really sorry,” replied Sophia. “I would like to tell you it gets easier but it doesn’t. Well, not for me yet.”

Crystal shrugged. “It’s not as bad as I thought it would be. Although her face is pretty nasty. I wouldn’t want to be the family member that has to identify the body. That’s never a pleasant task to begin with.” She looked up. “What are we doing now?”

Liam led the way to the back of the house, to a small room set up as an office and storage area. Along one wall a small desk sat between shelves and books and on that desk sat a laptop. The same one they had seen her use on camera.

“I want the hard disk contents but the priority is information that may lead us to the shipping container.”

“The computer is turned off,” signed Crystal. Sophia translated for her.

“Yeah, so?” asked Liam.

“Well, when I last checked on the tape, Ms. Smith hadn’t turned off the computer before hanging the laundry. And, as far as I know, she didn’t have time to turn it off before answering the door.”

“Maybe it turns off on its own,” said Liam.

Sophia put her hand on Crystal’s arm to stop her from continuing. Then Sophia signed and said aloud, “We’ll just work on it.”

When Liam left the room, Sophia explained, “No matter what we tell the man, he’ll be confused. It’s better just to look into it ourselves and give him a report back.”

“You know what it means though, don’t you?”

“Yes. Someone out there either has remote access to this computer or has the capability of hacking into it, just like he hacked into our network.”

“Yes.”

Crystal reached down to turn on the computer and then stopped. “I have a bad feeling about this. I think if we turn on the computer, we may start events that will completely destroy all evidence on the hard disk.”

Sophia nodded. “I think you might be right. I want to bring the computer back with us and examine it elsewhere. Away from all accessible networks. Somewhere we can contain the damage. I’ll let Liam know.”

Sophia tiptoed around the house, searching each room for Liam. She found him outside in the garden examining a piece of material left behind by the killer. She explained to him what the issue was with the computer. “Damn it, Evans, this is time sensitive. We don’t have time to move the computer, take it apart, and do God knows what all with it. We just need to access it. Take it off the network and turn it on. That way our little hacker friend can’t access it.”

“You don’t understand—”

“Just do it,” he yelled at her. “Tell Crystal to do her job without complaining.” He took a deep breath before continuing, “Look, if something goes wrong, I’ll take full responsibility, all right?”

Sophia rolled her eyes. “You’re an asshole, you know that?” She stormed back into the house. When she returned to the room, Crystal had the computer unplugged and was about to open the case. “Crystal, we can’t take the computer apart. We need to just turn it on.”

“But—”

“I know. But that’s our orders. I will make sure that Liam takes full responsibility for whatever happens.”

“Stupid man.”

“I know. While you get it back together, I want to examine something in the living room. Something is bothering me. Also, I want to look into that chocolate box before everyone manhandles it.”

The living room was full. At least ten officers milled around the table with the chocolate box, debating the contents.

“It has to be in one of the chocolates. I say we open up each one.”

“That’s ridiculous, why wouldn’t he just put it in the bottom of the box?”

“That way we won’t have any idea where to find the note.”

“Well, we’ve all had that idea, Einstein. That’s why we’re debating it now.”

“I still say we eat the chocolates.”