In Dark Water (Detective Shona Oliver 1)

‘Are you telling me not to investigate this death, sir?’

‘I’m saying we have other operational priorities, Shona. Oh, by the way,’ he said, effectively ending any further discussion, ‘are you still on for the Scottish Trade Against Crime reception next week? Kenny Hanlon will be announcing the new crime prevention initiatives his business group are co-funding.’

Shona hadn’t realised that the STAC launch was so soon. A trek up to Glasgow to stand around smiling at business leaders who thought they were entitled to tell her how to do her job because they were paying for the drinks was the last thing she wanted. Baird, she knew, would be in his element.

There were several operational reasons why Police Scotland should suck up to Kenny Hanlon. Money was the chief concern, closely followed by positive press coverage. Hanlon was a celebrity businessman who had his own show on BBC Scotland, The Enterpriser, a kind of tartan Dragon’s Den and The Appre

ntice rolled into one. The funding figures looked impressive and community groups would welcome it with open arms. Was this a serious attempt to cut crime or a vanity project for Kenny Hanlon? Shona had yet to decide. She resolved to treat the evening as a research trip, an opportunity to judge, and perhaps influence, how much in the way of extra resources could be channelled into her patch in the aftermath of Operation Fortress. ‘Yes, of course. I’ll be there.’

Baird cut the call. Shona scanned the main office through the glass panels of her room. Catching DC Kate Irving’s eye, she motioned her to come in.

‘Boss?’ Kate stopped in the doorway, notebook in hand.

‘How are we doing with CCTV on the baby milk job? Any updates?’ Shona had run through the notes Murdo had left on the desk without learning anything new.

Kate slumped her tall frame against the door jamb. ‘It’s slow going. I’ve got Hannah and Ed on it, but there’s multiple cameras from each store. It would be a lot easier if Op Fortress hadn’t swiped Vinny the Visuals. One of the small shops sent us a CD. I spent most of yesterday afternoon trying to find a laptop with a disc player in it.’

‘Have you cross-referenced the thefts with the timeline, given yourselves somewhere to start?’ Shona asked.

‘Well, we’re trying. The store thefts began about two months ago, but there’s dozens of statements, and some of the shops didn’t notice the thefts until later.’

‘You see, this is why a timeline is important on multiple incidents, otherwise you’ll be running around like headless chickens. Page one stuff, Kate.’ Shona pushed her chair back. ‘Get a provisional timeline on the whiteboard, based on calls coming in. Get someone on statements adding to it, use the clerical assistants if you’re stuck, one or two are quite quick at reading through pages of text. Then you, Hannah and Ed confirm dates and times based on CCTV. I want descriptions on the board in an hour. Suspects and any cars. We’ll put a press release out in time for this evening’s news. We’ll get a lot of calls, mostly useless, but DCI Baird wants us to take this on.’

‘We’re not handing this over to a MIT?’ asked Kate.

‘No, it’s ours. Opportunity to shine, Kate. Crack on.’ Shona ushered her back through the door. Then she set the timer on her phone and when it pinged one hour later she looked at the satisfying list of paperwork accomplished and headed out into the main office.

‘Listen up, folks.’ Shona paused for a beat as heads turned from computer screens and calls were ended. When she had everyone’s attention she continued. ‘Update please, Kate.’

DC Irving jumped up from her chair. ‘These are our suspects, ma’am.’ She began fixing a series of around twenty screen grabs of mixed quality beneath the timeline on the whiteboard. Shona was reminded of the game she’d played with Becca when she was little, matching pairs. Cards laid out face down, then turned over for a moment before being replaced in their original position. Shona’s eye for detail meant she’d quickly memorised the entire deck and their positions, but she always let Becca win. Becca was good at it too and rarely needed her help. Perhaps it was hereditary. The thought that she’d passed a useful trait on to her child gave a small moment of pride.

‘They’ve been careful,’ said Murdo, indicating the prints on the board. ‘Baseball caps, hoodies, headscarves. Keeping their backs to the cameras.’

‘Which suggests they could be local and know their targets,’ said Kate, studying the display with serious grey eyes. ‘Or that they’re from outside the area but they’re organised and did their homework. Either way, it’s likely they checked out the shops before they hit them, so there may be footage from a previous visit.’

‘But when?’ Murdo pointed to the surveillance video frozen on Kate’s laptop screen. ‘Do you not think you’ve enough on your plate with that lot?’

Kate nodded glumly.

‘Pairs,’ Shona said. ‘Ever play it as a child? It’s a bit like Snap.’ She began grouping together the photographs where the suspects showed similarities. ‘Tall individual, probably male. The Co-op theft was reported as two males, but a previous witness said a couple, so the smaller suspect is probably female.’ She held up another photograph. ‘There’s less of a height difference here and they’ve changed clothes. Heels? No, it’s in the build too, but they could have bulked up with layers of clothing.’ She stepped back for a moment before grabbing a marker pen and writing ‘suspect A’ on the board and gathering together all the prints of the tallest person.

‘Kate?’ Shona said, holding out the pen. Kate came forward, added ‘suspect B’, and placed all the pictures of the smaller individual in a group. The rest of the team made comments and pointed out details.

‘We could really do with Vincent to look at this,’ said Shona, inwardly cursing the temporary loss. ‘He’d check the videos for possible links in how they walk, posture and mannerisms, but from these stills I’d say we are looking for minimum two, but more likely three or four individuals.’

She picked up two of the clearest images. One showed the couple from the back, but with a partial profile of the man just visible beneath his pulled down baseball cap. In the other image, the female figure was seen from the front, her head dipped beneath the hood of her grey sweatshirt. ‘Is that a Nike logo?’ Shona showed the image to the team. A few of them nodded uncertainly.

‘Could be,’ said Kate. ‘I wondered if that was a strand of blonde hair?’ She pointed to a faint pale smudge at the woman’s collarbone.

‘Perhaps,’ agreed Shona.

‘I thought that was the cord from her hoodie,’ said Murdo.

‘Okay, get these two out to the press,’ ordered Shona, handing him the prints. ‘If we can get a possible ID on even one of these individuals, it will be a start.’

‘Press office want us to put up someone for interviews on this. TV and radio,’ Murdo said, passing the images to one of the civilian staff. Kate looked up, hopeful. Shona was tempted to let her do it, just to teach her an important lesson.

‘The press office should have more sense. Some smart-arse reporter will make a feeble joke, you know.’ Shona threw up her hands in frustration. ‘“Is breast now best following a spate of baby formula thefts?” or “Are Dumfries Police feeling like right tits after baby milk heists?” Now that, see that?’ She broke off and pointed at two smirking male support staff who quickly straightened their faces. ‘That is exactly the reaction I’m talking about.’