Invasion of Privacy: A Deep Web Thriller #1 (Deep Web Thriller Series) (38 page)

Da Silva’s face flushed at the insult. Jenny guessed that McLintock had called a one-to-one briefing with Da Silva at short notice and, rather than risk exposing his inexperience to the Chief Super, Da Silva had invited the core investigation team in to ensure the briefing went well. Especially after having had to let go their prime suspect, Derek Saxton. McLintock would have seen through it in seconds, but it was probably the best call Da Silva could have taken in Jenny’s absence. Jenny sat in the remaining empty seat next to Da Silva.

Da Silva leaned forward to respond, but Jenny jumped in. “Sir, I’m sure DCI Da Silva just wanted to make sure you had the absolute latest on the two cases, direct from all the lead officers.”

Alan, Karim and Fiona all turned as one to gape at her, surprised that she had risen to Da Silva’s defence. Jenny hadn’t informed them about her little agreement with Da Silva.

“Well now,” said McLintock, with an amused tone. “You really are all singing from the same hymn sheet today. I’m impressed.” He clearly wasn’t. Jenny assumed McLintock had been trying to catch Da Silva out. Station gossip said McLintock had had it in for Da Silva from day one because he’d had been forced to accept Da Silva as the new DCI over a personal friend he’d lined up.

Da Silva attempted to reassert some control. “DI Price, we have almost finished the briefing and the DCS supports the current investigative strategies we’ve outlined. And we have all the resources we need. However, in these last few minutes it would be good if you could update us all on the new line of enquiry you’ve been chasing down.”

He had worded it well, not giving away that he had no idea what she’d been up to for the last few hours. Other than a brief text saying she was going to the Saxtons’ house, Jenny hadn’t had a chance to give Da Silva any explanations for her absence.

“Sure, but I’m not sure it’s going to come to anything.”

“We eliminate
every
line of enquiry, DI Price,” stated McLintock’s voice. “That’s our job.”

“Yes, I know that,
sir
.” Jenny felt the hairs bristle on her neck at his insinuating tone. It seemed as though he had locked his sights on her now that she’d been seen to side with Da Silva. “While at the Flexbase offices this morning, a witness came forward with new evidence that the Saxtons have had private webcams installed in most rooms in their house. However, unbeknown to Mr and Mrs Saxton, it seems that their webcams have been hacked into and have been broadcasting everything going on within their home to an Internet site available to Joe Public.”

“That’s all very interesting,” said McLintock, “but I fail to see how this has anything to do with the murder of Audri Sahlberg, never mind Anna Parker.”

“And I agree, sir. I’ve spent the morning successfully
eliminating
this new line of enquiry.”

She noticed Alan suck air through his teeth at her catty response. Even Da Silva nodded once with a brief smile before catching himself. 

“Yes, yes, I’m just coming,” said McLintock, his voice muffled. He was obviously talking to someone else. His voice became clear again and Jenny realised he had completely missed her rejoinder, which was probably a good thing. “Right, I’ve got to go see the Commissioner. Keep at it everyone. Obviously, we’re out of the critical first forty-eight hours for Anna Parker, but the second victim is still fresh. Chase down every lead and I’m confident we will apprehend this sadistic killer. And no more fuck-ups like Saxton.”

The line went dead. Karim reached over and pressed the button to end the call. 

“Are you completely barking mad, Jenny?” said Jason Edmonds. “Even in SOCO we know his nickname is Tick-Tock. And why. He’s a walking time bomb with a fuse shorter than the match used to light it.” He shook his head. “My advice? Don’t ever be the match.”

“Yeah, Jen, be careful,” continued Alan. “I’ve seen Tick-Tock blow a few times. It’s not pretty. I’ve seen bloody good senior officers reduced to quivering jelly.”

Jenny was surprised at her colleagues. She was fully aware of McLintock’s reputation, but in the two years she’d been based at Holborn, she’d seen no evidence of it personally. She’d only heard the stories third-hand. And anyway, why should she pander to yet another self-aggrandising senior officer? As long as she did her job well she knew she could get away with some attitude. In fact, as a female officer, fronting up some attitude was a necessity. As long as it was based on good police work.

“Come on you lot. Let’s focus on the case and not Tick-Tock.”

“Please! Can you all refer to the Chief Super with the respect he deserves,” said Da Silva.

For a second, Jenny wasn’t sure if Da Silva was making a joke or ordering them to use McLintock’s rank and proper surname. She turned to look at him and spotted a small smirk. Well, well. Perhaps there was hope for Da Silva after all.

“So, what are these investigative priorities you’ve all agreed with DCS McLintock?” she asked.

“Top of the list is Flexbase,” offered Fiona. “It’s the thing that links the two crimes, other than the same MO. Whoever killed them has to know their meeting room booking processes intimately. We’re running down every Flexbase employee, every tenant and all their employees, and even every visitor to either office in the last six months.” 

Jenny agreed. It was the highest priority.

“I’m still running with trying to work out if there is any link between the two victims other than the crime scene,” said Karim.

“And I’m after supporting both these strands,” said Harry, the computer expert. “For Fiona I’m automating some background checks of all the employees. We received the employee list from Flexbase about half an hour ago.”

So, the Flexbase CEO had already delivered on his promise to her earlier.

“Are the files limited to
current
employees?” asked Jenny.

“They are,” replied Harry, and then seeing where she was going added, “I’ll ask yer man for ex-employees for the last two years.”

“What about tenants? When I was at Flexbase earlier, their CEO, David Dawson, said he’d have that info sent over as well.”

“It’s coming. I received the email with the employee file from a . . .” Harry studied his Blackberry. “. . . Magnus Peggler. Yer man says here that the tenant file will follow later.”

“Yes, I met Peggler. He’s their IT Director. You said you were supporting both strands. What about Karim’s?”

“I’m after doing a pile of social media analysis to see if there’s anything in common between the two victims.”

“Anything so far?”

“Just the one hit. On both their Facebook profiles, they’ve both
liked
the same nightclub in London, called Ice, so it is.”

“That’s fantastic, Harry. A real lead.”

Harry beamed at her praise.

“Yes, I’ve picked that one up,” said Alan. “I’m off over there when we’re done here.”

“My guess, for what it’s worth,” said Fiona, “is that they’ve both ‘liked’ it on Facebook in order to get on the club’s guest list. These days, nightclubs do online guest lists with cheaper entry but in return they get access to your Facebook profile and free advertising to all your friends. The kids all lap it up.”

“Blimey, what a downer, Fiona,’ said Karim. “Our first decent lead and you’re pissing all over it already.”

“Just bringing you old fogeys up-to-date with the modern world,” retorted Fiona, looking round at each of her colleagues. “And anyway, it’s still worth checking it out. Just because they ‘liked’ it to get in on the cheap doesn’t mean they weren’t there at the same time. They might have met each other. Or been chatted up by the same guy. Anything.”

“Okay,” said Jenny. “Let’s also come at the nightclub angle from the other direction. Karim, make sure you check with Anna and Audri’s friends about Ice. Have you tracked down Audri’s friend, what’s her name?”

He looked at his notebook. “Ornetta Stavoli. I’m seeing her later today. I’ll ask her then.”

“Good.”

“I’ll talk to Kim Chang, Anna’s friend, about it,” said Jenny. She turned to the Crime Scene Manager. “What’s the latest from the crime scenes, Jason?”

“Well, we can definitely pin down the same perpetrator to both crime scenes - the same fingerprints, DNA and trace evidence all show up at both meeting rooms, but nothing on our databases. We’re still eliminating employees though, just to make sure.”

Da Silva asked, “What about the cleaning services company?”

They all stopped and stared at him. Seeing their dubious looks, he explained himself. “Well, most office firms outsource the cleaning to some specialist company. I’m thinking they won’t be on the employee list for you to eliminate. You never know, the same cleaner could have been to both sets of offices and cleaned both meeting rooms, leaving the same fingerprints, DNA and trace evidence.”

“That’s actually a bloody good point, sir,” said Jenny. And then realising she had sounded a little condescending added, “It really is. You got that, Karim?”

“Yeah, okay.” His displeasure at his mounting workload was patent, but he wrote his action down.

She turned to Dr Gorski. “And pathology?”

Jenny leaned forward to listen attentively to ensure she understood Gorski through his thick accent. “Nothing that you do not know already. It is same dagger used on both victims. Slicing motion from right to left across throat is cause of death in both cases. Both were raped. Analysis of semen recovered from both victims indicates it is same killer, but we will wait for labs to confirm.”

“So everything points to the same perpetrator. We are still proceeding as a linked series?” she asked Da Silva, who nodded.

“Have the press got wind of this yet?” She looked at DS Schuster, the press officer. Jenny had only met him two or three times. As before, he was sharply dressed in a plain black suit with a white shirt and plain grey tie. It was as if he wanted to give the press the image that everything he said was absolutely straight. No colour was being added.

“Not yet, but they will. And in the next few hours, in my opinion. My recommendation is that we announce it first. That way we can maintain some control.”

“I agree,” said Jenny.

“And so do I,” said Da Silva, “but DCS McLintock doesn’t. He wants us to announce it at the same time we make an arrest. And, as he said, an arrest that sticks, this time.”

Jenny looked at her watch. “The odds on us making an arrest in the next few hours are pretty slim. We’ve got some good leads to trace down, but I just don’t see it happening.”

“The boss is the boss, Jen,” stated Alan helpfully.

“What about this SecretlyWatchingYou website, DI Price?” asked Harry. “Are you sure there’s nothing in it? I took a quick look when you told me about it on the phone earlier. It’s hosted in Russia. If all those locations on there are like the Saxtons and are being broadcast without their permission then, for the life of me, it must be breaking hundreds of invasion of privacy laws.”

“What does all that add up to?” asked Alan.

“In layman’s terms,” said Harry, “it means its the Devil’s website.”

Jenny spoke. “There is an outlandish theory I’m going to check out later to do with SWY.”

“SWY?” asked Da Silva.

“Sorry, sir. Short for SecretlyWatchingYou.com.”

“Since when do you talk like a geek, Jen?” asked Alan. He turned to Harry. “Sorry, Harry. No offence, mate.”

“You’ve gone and got yourself some outside help,” accused Fiona, with a smirk. “Harry not good enough for you anymore?” And then, putting two and two together added, “So, who’s this witness who came forward about SWY?”

“All right, all right. The witness is called Brody.”

“Brody who?”

“Brody Taylor. The point is that the website might be being used by the killer to stalk the victims, gathering the information he needs to trick them into going to a Flexbase office.”

There was complete silence while everyone processed this.

Harry broke the silence. “I hope your theory is wrong. From what I saw, the site is a fortress and there’s not even a cat in hell’s chance of the Russian police helping us.”

“So what you said to Tick-Tock earlier was a complete lie,” pointed out Alan, shaking his head at her foolhardiness.

“Not really, Al. It’s such an outlandish idea the odds on it being for real are pretty slim.”

“How are you going to test this theory?” asked Edmonds. 

“I’ll check whether Anna Parker’s place is on . . . the site.” She had been about to say SWY again but quickly changed tack.

“With
Brody
,” said Fiona, in the voice of a teenage girl talking about some hunky boy.

Bloody hell; was she that easy to read? 

“Yes, Fiona. With a key witness who is able to help us with this line of enquiry.”

Jenny’s phone vibrated in her handbag. Normally she wouldn’t answer her phone during a meeting, but she needed a way to distract everyone from the weird turn it had taken. She looked at the caller ID and saw that it was a mobile phone number, but not one she had programmed in.

“DI Price,” she answered. And immediately kicked herself. What if it was Brody?

A female voice spoke through tears. “Jenny?”

Jenny sat up and the room hushed. 

“Yes?” Jenny suddenly recognised the voice. “Kim, is that you?”

“There’s something strange going on here, Jenny,” Kim said through sobs.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I broke a light in Anna’s room. By accident, mind . . . ”

Where the hell was she going with this? Jenny waited patiently. Her colleagues stayed silent, cognisant of Jenny’s serious tone.

“Anyway, this electronic bit came out of it. Patrick said it’s just the dimmer bit of the light, but that can’t be right, can it?”

Jenny had no idea what Kim was burbling on about. “Sorry Kim, I’m not following you.”

“Well, I took it out of the bin and had a proper look at it.”

“What is it?”

“Jenny, I think it’s some kind of camera. I think someone’s being spying on Anna.”

Jenny felt the whole world tip on its axis.

CHAPTER 13