Angels Bleed (Fallen Angels Book 1) (12 page)

9:39 am

‘We have made good progress.’ relayed Saul, looking towards the camera concealed in the bookcase.  He was standing beside the small table with the phone on it, opposite the door into the Drawing Room of Featherstone Hall and looking between the bookcase and the plasma screen above the fireplace.  Strange was standing in the corridor just outside the room, looking on encouragingly.

‘I’m sure you will know that Rebecca Angus has gone missing.  She was last seen being taken from the Fielding Institute by someone purporting to be Dr Hanlon.  We have reason to believe that you and he may in fact be the same person.’ Saul waited for a second to see if the telephone rang, wandering closer to, and staring intently at the bookcase.  It didn’t ring, the only sound the constant background beep, beep, beep from the heart monitor on the TV.

‘Every Police Force the length of the country has an image of Dr Hanlon and of Rebecca Angus and are on high alert for anyone matching their description.  You may find that movement in public will become difficult.’  Saul suggested, calm and measured in the delivery.  He waited again, walking away from the bookcase and sitting down at the piano, lifting the lid over the keys.  He plinked a key in time with the heart monitor, gazing over to Strange as he did, who frowned, and shaking his head, raised two fingers and mouthed ‘Plan B’.

‘We have confirmed that Michael was in this room, probably on the night of his death.  After reviewing the case files, we can also confirm that Rebecca Angus stated that she was also in this room.  I am sure you know that Dr Ennis felt this location was part of Rebecca’s DID.  We now know it wasn’t.  We are also assuming her assertions about Madame Evangeline are true.  We are trying to find some evidence of her existence.  Based upon Rebecca’s statements, if she is real, then either she was involved in Michael’s death, or knows something about it.’  He stood up from the piano and walked towards the crate in front of the fire, running a hand along the top of it, then tapping a finger slowly on the side.  He shot a challenging glare back at the bookcase as he did so. 

‘We did think it might be Rebecca in the crate.  But we have pictures of how she looks now.  They are harrowing.’ he said as he leant against the crate.  ‘I can fully understand why you are so furious, if that is what has happened to her as a consequence of a miscarriage of justice.  I can see why you would want to help her in any way you can.  I can see why you want whoever is responsible for the atrocities exacted upon her brought to justice.  We feel the same.  I feel the same.’ he stood up from the crate and walked towards the plasma screen, positioning himself in front of the right hand side of it, which showed the arms of the person in the crate.

‘What I can’t understand, of someone who is so passionate in their convictions of Rebecca’s innocence, of someone who is so forthright in wanting to see justice done, is why they would threaten the life of someone else to reach their goal.  Does that make you any better than the person who killed Michael and let Rebecca be convicted?’ he posed, running a finger down the image of the arm on the screen as he spoke.

‘There have been twelve people reported missing in the past forty eight hours in Northumberland and the Scottish Borders.  Their families are distraught, each and every one of them frantically wanting to be reunited with their loved ones.  They want to know where they are and what has happened to them.  One of them could be in that crate.  One of those families could have their minds put at ease. One of those families could be reunited with their loved one.  You could make that happen.’ he turned back to the bookcase, imploringly, the beep, beep, beep of the heart monitor the only sound in the room as he waited patiently for about thirty seconds. 

The beeping continued as Saul sighed dejectedly.  ‘We are doing everything we can to try and get a resolution to this case in the next fourteen hours.  I will do everything I can.  I would just ask that you work with us.  Please.’ he shook his head disconsolately as he started back towards the door into the room.  He paused before he went through it, looking at the ‘Basket Of Apples’ picture for a moment, taking in the different perspectives in the painting before continuing out. 

‘It was worth a try John.’ consoled Strange, falling in behind Saul as he headed off down the corridor, patting his back as he passed by.  ‘We have to try and open some kind of communication channel with him, see if we can negotiate.’

‘I don’t think that’s going to happen Sir.  He has a plan and he is sticking to it.  We’ve got until midnight to find the killer, or to find him: that’s not going to be negotiable, no matter how much we find out along the way.’

Corporal Garry was striding towards them from the MIU, a look of thunder on his face.  Strange took a stride in front of Saul and put a hand up to pause the verbal onslaught he could see rising in Garry’s expression.

‘I know Gaz, we shouldn’t have gone into the room until you had cleared it, but I am in overall command, and we just needed to quickly see if we could open a line of communication with our ‘Unknown Caller’.  We are running out of time and we have to try and see if we can negotiate some kind of extension or at least some compromises. I take full accountability for that action and the consequences.’ he said firmly, Garry fuming a foot away.

‘With respect Sir…’  Garry started, but Strange interrupted him.

‘In my experience Gaz, sentences that start with that phrase always end up disrespectful.  I know you don’t agree.  That’s fine.  Arguing about it is not going to change what has happened and will just lose us valuable time.  Are you any further forward finding out about the bomb?  Thoughts on the trigger mechanism?’ asked Strange, walking forward and putting a hand on Garry’s shoulder, gently directing him to walk beside him towards the MIU.  Saul joined the line on the other side of Garry.

‘My last word on it Sir:  You were bloody stupid.’  Garry said.

‘Noted, and agreed.  News?’  Strange pressed.

‘You were bloody stupid because we have found out that there is an active trigger on that bomb.  We have managed to break the security key on the Wi-Fi in the room and can see the traffic streams.  There are three thousand two hundred and fifty encrypted channels going into that crate.  Then there is one unencrypted.  I think it has been left unencrypted so we can get an idea of what the rest are doing.’ started Garry.

‘Which is?’ asked Strange as they approached the MIU and started climbing the steps.

‘The IP packet information suggests that a heartbeat signal is being sent to the trigger device in the crate.  The heartbeat is a time, 12:00 am tonight.  The coding suggests that if the trigger doesn’t receive at least one heartbeat message in a millisecond period, it will explode.  Anything that disrupts the signal to that crate, literally anything, will blow it up.’

‘Okay, so what does that mean for us? Can we hack into these encrypted channels and change the time, change the commands?’ asked Strange as they convened around the table.

‘Reynolds is looking at that.  Have you seen anything?’ Garry enquired, walking up behind Reynolds.

‘Only that the majority of the c…connections are very small.  Just a c…couple of Kilobits a second being sent.  I think these are all the heartbeat c…connections.  Then there are about a dozen which are large, a c…couple of Megabits at least.  I think these are the video streams.  The worrying thing is the source IP address of the unencrypted c…connection.’ said Reynolds.

‘Why is it worrying Steven?’ asked Strange.

‘It is c…coming from a government c…computer system.  I’ve looked up the IP on Whois and it is registered to a Department Of Health Office in London.  I would guess that the c…computer has been hacked and a Bot is running on it.’

‘A what?’ asked Saul.

‘A Bot is a small c…computer program.  They are generally used illegally, to hack into c…computers, to carry out Denial Of Service attacks or to surreptitiously spy or steal information from organisations.  Lots of them together, as we have, are called a Botnet.  All the other heartbeat connections are probably c…connecting in from hacked locations too.’ informed Reynolds.

‘That doesn’t sound good at all.  It is worrying, very worrying.  Do we have any contact information for that Department Of Health office Steven?’ enquired Strange, a pensive expression on his face.

‘Yes we do.’ answered Reynolds.

‘Good.  Could you get in touch with them and see if you can talk to someone technical and find out some more about that Bot.  Please stress to them the importance of not switching it off at the minute.  If that is going to be a problem for them, please pass them back to me.  Is that clear.’ asked Strange.

‘Yes Sir, no problem.  Just before I give them a call Sir, I have some information back on the CCTV search for Limousines.  We have identified fifteen black limousines coming out of Edinburgh on the three roads identified on the night in question.  We have carried out PNC checks and have names and addresses for them all.  DI Munro is chasing up the contacts now.’ said Reynolds.

‘Great work Steven.’ Strange started, patting Reynolds on the shoulder, before walking towards the whiteboards and noting the information about the Wi-Fi connections under the crate.  ‘Steven, did we get any information from the Telco’s about where our ‘Unknown Caller’ was calling from?’

‘No Sir, they couldn’t pin down a specific cell unfortunately.’ answered Reynolds.

‘Sir, given that we now know it is an active trigger on that crate, I think we need to keep everyone out of that room.  It is quite literally a time bomb.  Any one of those connections dropping could set it off.’ stressed Garry.

‘Point taken Gaz.  I promise, if we need to go back in there again, I will run it past you first.  Just bear in mind we may have to, so if you have anything you think can protect us, or if there are any other things you can check to see if you can disarm it, please, please be my guest.’ said Strange.

‘It’s going to be difficult to find anything, but we will keep trying.’ Garry answered.  ‘I’ll get back to it now.’ he finished before leaving the MIU.

Saul joined Strange at the whiteboard and the two of them looked intently at the information in front of them. 

‘Who are we still waiting updates from?’ asked Saul. 

‘Well, we know who all the local missing persons are now and have made contact with all of the relevant parties.  Nothing obvious there at present.  To be honest, that is going to be a dead end unless we can see any more from that crate.  Hopefully Steven can get somewhere with those video feeds once he has talked to the DoH.  Companies?  We haven’t had an update on companies yet.’  Strange said poking a pen at the note ‘Who owns this house?’

‘Phyllis, have we managed to find out who the owner of this house is yet?  Have companies house come back about Axiom.’ asked Strange, turning back to the bank of computers where she was sitting.

She was on the phone but put her call on hold and quickly said. ‘Just confirming that now Sir, give me another minute and we will have the information.’

‘Excellent.’ smiled Strange reassuringly, before turning back to the board. 

‘We still need Darrie to let us know if he has seen anything untoward on Michael’s skull.  Then there is confirmation on how the other Dr Hanlon managed to intercept Dr Ennis’s phone calls and e-mails.  I’m still not sure about Dr Ennis.  My gut tells me he is involved in some way.’ Strange said, turning to Saul, whose eyes were darting around the wealth of information on the board in front of him, deep in thought. ‘What are you thinking John?’

‘Just about pictures.’ he replied, after a few seconds in silence.  ‘There’s a Cezanne in that room over there.  And there’s a Cezanne in Ennis’s office.  Could be a huge coincidence and I have no idea at all how that could be of any significance, but it just makes me very wary of him.’        

‘Sir?’ said Phyllis, interrupting firmly.  ‘I have the company and contact information for the owner of the property now.’

Strange and Saul turned and approached Phyllis, Strange speaking.  ‘Great news Phyllis, who do we have then?’

‘It’s a very convoluted chain of companies, with offshore title and holding companies all under the umbrella of a group company called Pison Properties.  Its registered office is on Grey Street in Newcastle.’

‘Sorry.’ interrupted Reynolds, putting his call on hold.  ‘Did you say Pison?’

Phyllis looked at him sternly.  ‘Yes Mr Reynolds, I said Pison.’

‘It’s Okay Steven.’ interjected Strange, placing a hand on his shoulder, ‘Do you have anything to add before Phyllis continues?’