Bleary-eyed, hair still damp from a hurried shower prior to running up the stairs to the incident room, Kay surveyed the crowd of officers milling about the space.
The morning commute was already underway beyond the windows overlooking Palace Avenue, the honk and shove of nose-to-tail traffic a constant white noise under the fraught conversations that filled the room while she turned her attention to the agenda in her hand.
A cacophony of telephones ringing swarmed around them while Kay logged into her computer and glared at the stack of files already overflowing from the in-tray on the corner of her desk.
She raised her voice over the throng.
‘Debbie? Which ones of these are urgent, and what can wait a day or so?’
A uniformed constable elbowed her way past two sergeants who towered over her and ran a practised eye over the folders. ‘Those three on top are the authorisations I need for overtime, cross-departmental agreements and budget schedules,’ she said, handing them over. ‘The rest of these you can ignore, but only until Monday. After that, I’m going to be chasing you.’
‘Deal, thanks.’ Kay signed the documentation where indicated with a flourish, and handed everything back before making her way over to where Gavin Piper stood at the far end of the room. ‘Gavin? What admin support have we been given?’
The detective constable stepped away from the whiteboard, eyeing the notes he’d been writing for the imminent meeting, his normally spiky hair subdued after a recent cut and dark circles under his eyes from working overnight.
‘Ten,’ he said, and pointed the end of the pen towards the back of the room. ‘Plus we’ve been told to expect four more probationary constables to help with the legwork from tomorrow. We’re putting those in the conference room next door. Sharp arrived twenty minutes ago – I put him in his old office. I think he’s talking to headquarters at the moment, but he’s taken over the search and arrest side of things so I can support you here.’
‘Okay, good.’ Kay ran her thumb down the list of items generated from the HOLMES2 database, relieved that her old mentor was on hand.
Detective Chief Inspector Sharp had been based at Northfleet these past two years and she only now realised how much she had missed his guidance and support.
With a press release emailed to all local journalists in the past half an hour, her team had swelled to accommodate additional help from other stations in the division and now all of those faces turned to her as she called for their attention.
‘Those phones behind you are going to start ringing within the next thirty minutes, so let’s make a start,’ she said, gesturing to the whiteboard as Gavin moved to a spare seat at the front of the group. ‘Given the nature of last night’s murder, you can expect that we’re going to be receiving a lot of attention from both headquarters and the public, who will all want a fast result. Most of you have worked a major incident before, so I won’t waste time this morning on procedure. I’ll give you your points of contact and you can liaise with them rather than me for the duration of this investigation. Ian? Can you start us off with a review of where we’re up to with regard to our victim?’
She stepped aside as Barnes joined her, his face grim.
‘Okay, so for those who haven’t yet had a chance to read the briefing notes, we have a Caucasian male victim estimated to be in his twenties who was shot in the chest and head while trying to outrun his killer. The pub where the incident occurred, the White Hart, has a reputation for unsavoury characters but to date we’ve had no major crimes there.’ Barnes crossed his arms as he peered at the crime scene photographs that Gavin had pinned to the board. ‘The killer escaped, and the landlord and the only member of staff there last night tell us they’d never seen either man before. Prior to the shooting, both men had been seen having an argument in the pub, but no one could hear what was being said. This morning, Traffic division reported finding a twelve-year-old silver hatchback burnt out in a stretch of woodland four miles away from the White Hart. Forensics are currently over there trying to ascertain if there’s any evidence to suggest it belonged to the killer.’
‘At the present time, we’re keeping an open mind on whether the killer escaped by car or on foot,’ Kay added, nodding her thanks to Barnes as he retook his seat. ‘No one in the pub at the time can recall hearing a vehicle driving away, and the landlord doesn’t have CCTV. Gavin, how are you getting on identifying the victim’s fingerprints?’
‘The results came through just now, guv,’ said the detective constable, scrolling through an email on his phone. ‘We haven’t got him in the system for anything. He’s as clean as a whistle.’
Kay narrowed her eyes. ‘No one’s that clean. So, we still have no identification for either man. We’d better hope Lucas has more luck with dental records when he does the post mortem. I’m guessing by now you’ve all heard that Len Simpson destroyed the only evidence we had in relation to the killer by washing the glass he used?’
‘I had a word with Harriet before I left the scene last night, guv,’ said Barnes. ‘They lifted fourteen different partial prints from the table the two men were at, and uniform are currently processing those to see if that helps.’
‘Okay, thanks. I guess we should be pleased that cleaning the pub isn’t a high priority for Simpson, even if the glasses are. Debbie, can you give me that list of task leads?’
The uniformed constable edged past the gathered officers crowding one side of the room and handed over a roster. ‘That includes the personnel expected to turn up tomorrow, guv.’
‘Thanks. Okay, Ian will be my deputy SIO and I don’t want anyone speaking to the media except me, is that understood?’
A murmur of agreement met her words, and she craned her neck to see over the assembled crowd. ‘Is Daniel here?’
‘Guv.’
She waited while a sandy-haired sergeant in his thirties weaved his way towards the whiteboard, and then turned to face the rest of the team.
‘For those of you who haven’t met him, Daniel Westland is one of our firearms enquiry officers,’ she said. ‘Daniel’s been seconded to the investigation to assist with accessing the National Firearms Licensing Management database in order that we can identify and interview certificate holders within the divisional area.’
A hand was raised from the back of the room, and Kay paused as Detective Constable Laura Hanway cleared her throat. ‘Yes?’
‘What about shotgun certificate holders, guv?’
‘Early indications from the CSIs working the scene last night indicate that the injury was caused by a semi-automatic firearm or similar, rather than a shotgun given the nature of the wounds and witness statements regarding the closeness of the two shots,’ she explained. ‘However, we won’t rule out shotguns entirely. Keep an open mind, as always. Daniel – I’d like you to work with Laura to develop an interview strategy for those certificate holders and make a start on researching who those people are this morning.’
She paused as a tall figure emerged from the office at the other end of the incident room and Sharp hurried to join her.
Despite being called in at midnight on his rostered day off, the DCI’s expression bore no indication that he might be ruffled by the events unfolding since the shooting.
Instead, a grim determination emanated from him, one that provided a balm to the tense atmosphere around her.
‘Good to see you, guv,’ she said, unable to disguise the relief in her voice. ‘Would you like to update the team about the latest on the search for our suspect?’
‘Thanks, Kay.’ Sharp turned his keen grey eyes on the officers. ‘I’ve just spoken with headquarters and there have been no further reported incidents involving firearms in the divisional area since last night’s murder. We’re conducting interviews with all 24-7 stores and petrol stations within a four-mile radius of the pub and reviewing CCTV cameras belonging to private properties and businesses on minor routes near the pub’s location in case we can spot our man passing by on foot. The media release that has just gone live across all networks is telling the public not to approach anyone seen carrying a firearm or acting suspiciously but to phone our hotline immediately. Trained administrative staff at headquarters will process those calls to eliminate any time-wasters before passing on the rest to you here to follow up. I’ll be dividing my time between here and headquarters until such time as the suspect is arrested.’
He nodded his thanks to her, and moved to one side.
Kay peered around him until she saw an imposing uniformed sergeant at the fringes of the group. Aaron Stewart had proven to be a lucrative asset within her team in the past, and she had no doubt he was capable of the task she was about to hand over.
‘Aaron, I need you to work up a background profile for the victim as we receive information from all the interviews that were conducted last night and tie that in with new details over the course of the day. Once we know who he is, I’d like you to take on the family liaison role please, given your expertise in that area. Call me if you find out something that needs addressing immediately.’
The sergeant nodded, lowering his gaze to his notebook as he continued to copy the notes from the whiteboard.
‘Ian, I’d like you to work with me to follow up with the regulars from the pub this morning, as well as speaking with Lydia and Martin Terry. Harry – I’d like you to lead the house-to-house enquiries today,’ Kay continued. ‘Uniform patrols spoke to residents in the immediate area last night but the focus was on their safety at the time rather than gleaning knowledge about the shooting. We need to ascertain whether our killer dumped his weapon in someone’s garden, so make sure outbuildings are checked, too.’
‘Will do, guv.’ Sergeant Harry Davis stood a little straighter. ‘I’ll also liaise with Laura and Gavin in case we hear about anyone who was in the pub who wasn’t on the list of names we were given.’
‘Actually,’ said Sharp, glancing at Kay, ‘I’d like Gavin to come back to Northfleet with me and act as liaison between the two investigations – the search and arrest, and your efforts to identify the victim. That all right with you?’
‘If you think we can spare the manpower, guv. However, we’ve only just made a start, and we’re going to have a lot of new information to sift through once any media statements are released.’
‘I’m sure the officers here will manage, and you’ve got more administrative staff turning up in the morning. It’ll be prudent to have someone able to coordinate between us with the authority to action any urgent matters that need addressing.’
Kay’s heart sank. ‘Okay, guv. Gavin – you heard. You’re with DCI Sharp so I suggest you make arrangements with Debbie and Laura to hand over any outstanding matters before you leave for Northfleet.’
‘Thanks, guv.’ Gavin tried and failed spectacularly at keeping a wide grin from forming. ‘I’ll make sure I let you have regular updates.’
‘Make sure you do. Okay, finally – Lucas Anderson has scheduled the post mortem for nine o’clock tomorrow morning, and he’s arranged for a ballistics expert to be in attendance to assist. I intend to go to that, and I’ll report back with anything that can clarify what Harriet’s team start processing with the forensics laboratory.’
She glanced up as one by one, telephones started braying across the incident room.
‘And on that note, you’d best answer those. We’ll reconvene again at four o’clock this afternoon unless we have a substantial breakthrough. Dismissed.’