‘Boss? Can I have a word?’
Phil had just walked back inside when Elli approached him. She looked excited, empowered. Without waiting for him, she went over to her desk, sat down, clicked her mouse.
‘Here,’ she said. ‘I got curious about the DVDs.’
‘Glenn McGowan having sex in his living room,’ said Phil.
‘Aha,’ she said, holding up one finger. ‘That’s what I thought. That’s what we all thought. That’s what made me curious. Remember the discrepancies? The timing? When did he do this if he’d only just moved in?’
‘Yeah, I do.’
‘Well…’ She began pointing and clicking at the screen. ‘There’s a program I’ve been toying with. A bit of measuring software, gives dimensions to rooms. Handy for computer re-creations and virtual simulations of crime scenes. You can build up 3D models with it. If you know what you’re doing.’
More pointing, more clicking. The screen changed. A three-dimensional image of a room appeared.
‘Here we are. This is Glenn McGowan’s living room. I got a uniform to go and measure it for me. Now…’ Another point and click and the screen image changed. It showed another room. ‘This is the size of the room on the DVD.’ She pointed with her finger. ‘You can see that this wall is longer, this one shorter. The door comes in at a different point. And in photos of McGowan’s house, you can see into the hallway from this door. On the DVD you can’t. It’s blacked out.’
She looked up at him, eyes shining with her discovery.
‘So what does this tell us?’
She looked slightly deflated that he hadn’t worked it out. ‘That the DVDs were filmed in somewhere decorated identically to McGowan’s living room. In fact, I think it’s the other way round. McGowan’s living room was decorated to resemble this place.’
‘So the DVD was filmed a while before he turned up at the house?’
‘Yep. All our timeline questions answered. The DVD was filmed first. The house was decorated to look like this place.’
‘So where is this place?’
Elli smiled. ‘I can’t come up with all the answers. This club, maybe?’
‘Maybe,’ said Phil. ‘Thank you, Elli. Fantastic work.’
She beamed. ‘Thanks, boss.’
He didn’t have time to say anything more as Nadish Khan was waving him over. He looked pale and jittery, Phil thought; not surprising after the night he’d just had.
‘What you got for me?’ said Phil.
‘This,’ said Khan, pointing to his screen.
‘What’s that, then?’ asked Phil.
‘Well, I went back to looking through Keith Burkiss’s stuff.’
Phil noticed Khan glance across at Sperring, who seemed to not be listening. Studiously so.
‘I just thought, you know. Because before, I found that connection with Keith Burkiss and the guy he paid to kill him. And that might be the guy we found.’
‘Scott Sheriff, yes.’
‘Yeah. Well, I went back into those emails. And I found something else. Some from Hugo Gwilym.’
Phil leaned forward, interested now. ‘Go on.’
‘Well, as far as I can tell, it looks like Burkiss was helping Gwilym with research as well. Like Glenn McGowan was.’
‘That’s quite a coincidence.’
‘Yeah. What I thought. This deviant book he was doing.’
‘Deviant psychopathologies.’
‘Yeah. That one. Keith Burkiss was helping with the research.’
Phil frowned. ‘What was deviant about Keith Burkiss?’
‘That’s what I wondered,’ said Khan, a look of triumph on his face. ‘So I read through all the emails. And there’s one from Gwilym saying that he’s deviant through rage.’
‘Rage.’
‘Yeah, rage. There’s loads of emails like that, about how he wants to plan his own death, how he wants his ex-wife to get nothing, all of that. How the whole thing’s been done just to piss her off.’
‘He’d have himself killed just to piss her off?’
Khan pointed to the screen. ‘What it says here.’ He sat back. ‘Then other ones start appearing. Asking if he’s serious about what he’s saying. If he wants to go ahead with it. And Burkiss says yes. The emails end by saying “one of our representatives will be in touch”. What d’you think?’
‘Very interesting. But that would mean that Gwilym was the link, not this club.’
Something shone in Khan’s eyes that Phil couldn’t read. ‘So it’s this Gwilym guy, yeah? Not the club or anything, anyone else?’ He swallowed hard. ‘Not Ron Parsons?’
‘Well, we’re keeping an open mind. But…’ Phil stood up. ‘Good work.’
Khan looked relieved. ‘Cheers, boss.’
Phil walked over to Imani’s desk. Tried to ignore the fact that Sperring had been eavesdropping and even now was scrutinising Khan.
‘I’ve found out who owns the building,’ said Imani. ‘The one the club’s in.’
Phil looked at her. The DC’s face was a mess. Her eyes were swelling, bruising underneath. Her nose was heavily plastered. ‘You should be at home,’ he said.
‘Haven’t got time for that,’ she said. ‘Look.’
Phil looked.
‘They’ve tried to cover it up, but if you know where to look, it’s easy.’
‘And how do you know where to look?’
‘A hunch. After Parsons tried to hide the ownership of McGowan’s house, I thought he should be the first one to look at. Or rather the same company, Shield Holdings.’
‘And they’re the owners?’
‘Yep. Hidden, but not unfindable. If you know what you’re looking for.’
‘So Parsons is involved.’
‘There’s a few names listed as directors, not just him. Cheryl Parsons, that’ll be the current Mrs Parsons, I think, and Grant Parsons.’ She looked up. ‘That’s his son, right?’
‘Grant, yeah. Son of Parsons. Wasn’t that his name?’
They kept talking. At the next desk along, Nadish Khan quietly picked up his mobile, sent a text. Waited. The reply was swift. He sighed, looked round again to see he wasn’t being observed, sent another. Waited. Again the reply wasn’t long in coming. With a heavy, resigned look on his face, Khan stood up and made his way to the door.
Phil, talking to Imani, hadn’t noticed him leaving.
But Sperring had. He got up from his seat. And, at a distance, followed him.