“Colin, we’re going to arrange for an enlarged picture of this, and I want you to take it around all the hospitals in the area and see if they can offer any advice on it. Do they recognize it? Would they know the manufacturer? Do they have any like it in their own stock? Are they all accounted for, or are there some missing?”
“Will do, sir, but there isn’t much to go on.”
“I know, Colin, but we’ll settle for anything they can offer. If our killer is using these, they must have access to them. Maybe it’s a doctor, a nurse, or even a chemist. Perhaps someone who works for the manufacturer who has a grudge. Maybe it’s someone who works in a warehouse. The possibilities are endless, but if they can shed any light at all it would help.”
Before passing it over, Gardener asked Reilly if he could find any tech lads who could handle his request for photocopies. He wanted the actual pump to show to Sinclair.
“As for the SIM card, we now have to broaden the search. We have to identify the card. Once again, we need to find the manufacturer. Are there any marks that will help us? Maybe someone can start by searching Google. After that we need to speak to electronics experts, people who work on phones, computers – just about anyone involved with these things.”
Frank Thornton put his hand up, as if he was in class.
“Frank?” asked Gardener.
“There’s a computer shop in Bursley Bridge, right opposite the station. We’ll go tomorrow, maybe he can help.”
“Okay,” Gardener continued. “Whoever did this is good enough to manipulate technology to their own advantage, which is why I think we may be looking for two people. I’m not saying a doctor isn’t capable, but you have to ask yourself, would a doctor really have the time?”
Gardener moved over to the ANACAPA chart. It was growing. An array of names had been linked to the three scenes they had started with. Photographs of the crime had been pinned to the board, as well as some of the evidence such as the cards found in the cellar. Despite the lack of anything solid, he still felt like they were going somewhere.
He pointed to Alex Wilson’s name on the chart. “This man is going to be a real problem. As Thornton and Anderson have just said, his flat was empty.”
“You think he was planning on going somewhere?” asked Rawson.
“No. But whoever did this to him obviously had that idea. We brought Armitage in to have a look, and he was shocked. He said that there wasn’t much to begin with, but whoever had been in there had totally emptied the place. As we’ve heard, the only item left was his computer, and the hard drive had been removed.
“That suggests to me that someone had been watching Wilson very closely, and perhaps knew
that whatever was on that hard drive implicated him. I want you guys who have been on the house-to-house of Bramfield to go back and ask further questions of the residents. Whoever did it, had done so between Thursday night and Sunday night. Now you know as well as I do, when you first call on people they don’t remember a great deal, it usually takes a day or two to sink in and then they start to remember other things. So call back.”
Gardener nodded to Reilly, who took over.
“Because of that, we have very little on Wilson.” Reilly nodded to Thornton and Anderson. “This might help you two. We know he has pre-cons. We know that he had a gambling addiction according to his uncle, so maybe that’s a starting point for his affairs. Did he have a credit card? Did he use the bookies in the town, or maybe those a little farther afield? Internet gambling, maybe?
“What we also know, that his uncle didn’t, was that he had a drug problem. Someone was supplying him with drugs, and he was selling. Now that’s a big can of worms we’ve opened.
“We interviewed Jackie Pollard this afternoon. He was found at the scene. We know that he was training to be a junior doctor, and that he’s also a drug dealer. We need you to find out as much as you can about Pollard. Sergeant Cragg has some notes for you lads to look at, but we need a lot more. Check out his background, his financial status, everything. We want to know everywhere he’s been for the last month at least, the last week especially. More important, what was the link to Alex Wilson?”
“Is he our man, do you think?” asked Bob Anderson.
“Let’s say that we’re not completely satisfied with what he’s told us,” replied Gardener. “Two more names came out of that little conversation, which could implicate Pollard and leave him in it up to his neck.”
Gardener briefed his team with everything he had on Jackie Pollard, Lance Hobson, and Sonia Knight, and how the two men met up inside. He also voiced his theories regarding the disappearances of Hobson and Knight.
“No one has seen either of them for at least a month. The interesting thing here is the phone in the shop this morning was Lance Hobson’s, and the message it received came from Sonia Knight’s.”
Colin Sharp drew Gardener’s attention.
“If the call to Hobson’s phone came from Sonia Knight’s phone, surely it couldn’t have been Pollard. We had him locked up.”
“Good point, Colin,” Gardener replied. “But at the moment, we can’t rule anything out. You know as well as I do how fast technology is moving. I’m pretty sure there are some phones that can send a delayed text message.”
Colin Sharp nodded and Gardener continued.
“Knight has been calling Pollard regularly for quite a while, but a month ago, all calls and texts stopped. Then last night he received a message to go to the shop in Bramfield, where he would find something to his advantage.”
“Was he set up, do you think?” asked Sharp.
“Maybe,” replied Gardener. “Then again, maybe he’s the one doing the setting up. Maybe he wants revenge. Hobson’s business was cutting into his so much, he’s prepared to stick his neck out for it. You see, Sean and I went round to Hobson’s place today, in Harrogate. There was absolutely no sign of life. It’s as if Hobson and Knight have disappeared off the planet.”