Chapter Forty

 

Suse and Emma were driving back to the office when Emma broached the awkward subject. 'How much does Slater know about all this?'

'I had to tell him that we were following up a new line of enquiry. But I said there was no point going into details until we saw how it was going to work out.'

'That's a good plan.'

'But now, we've got a name that's worth checking out. We'll need to come clean and make this official.'

'How official exactly? We won't win any favours with Kev Slater if you start bringing Rob Haines' name into it?'

'I was going to see how far we could go without it,' Suse said. 'I know you have some loyalty to him, but it could hold us back from finding this killer. We need all the resources available on this.'

'I do know that you're right, that the case is more important. But on the other hand Rob is owed a break. All that anyone ever sees at work is the times that he messes up. He's about to work out a deal and being seen to be helpful to us could really help him.'

There was silence as they drove on. Finally Suse said, 'How about this? We'll go back to the office now. It's getting late, it's a Thursday, chances are high that Slater will have gone home already. We can do some searches, have a bit of a poke around at this Jeremy Bradley character. See what we find.

'If he looks like a good candidate, then we go to the boss with it without mentioning Rob Haines. But, if we have anything solid, something that even Kev Slater can't deny, then we'll bring his name into it.' Emma nodded. 'How much can we get past Kev? I got the impression that you already knew his aunt, Bea?'

'Yes, I met her a while back, the old CID went round to her house for a big summer barbecue.'

'That's good. Any of us could've made the link between the witnesses who discovered the bodies. And then, you could've done the research with the school. And when we sat down with Mrs Matthews, then that was a pre-existing contact that you had.'

'And we did a proper interview,' Emma confirmed. 'Two people present and we took notes.'

'Let's just hope that he buys it,' Suse said.

Back at the office, Suse and Emma were joined by Nick Dent who'd pulled the overnight duty manning the phones.

The first thing Emma tried was the main police computer even though none of the fingerprints found had been recognised. But she did get one result – about nine months earlier, he'd notified the police of a theft from a vehicle. What had gone missing was a quantity of explosives. She copied the details over and emailed a quick query off to the army bomb disposal team who'd helped with the crime scene. She asked if the type and amount was consistent with John Garner's crime scene. But she knew that she was just covering her bases – Jeremy Bradley was looking like their man.

She was just about to start a DVLA search when Nick Dent said, 'Hold on, I've got something.'

'What you got?' Emma asked.

'He has his own LinkedIn profile. This could be the easiest job ever.'

'LinkedIn? What line of work is he in?'

'He's got his own company,' Nick Dent said slowly. 'He does special effects for TV companies as a subcontractor.'

'Suse,' Emma called out, 'Jeremy Bradley has just moved up to number one spot on our suspects list.'

'Seeing as he was the only one on it, that's not hard,' she said, moving closer so the two of them were now standing behind Nick's desk. 'What have you got?'

'You're not going to believe this,' Nick said, 'but he works in special effects for TV.'

'Bloody hell!' Suse couldn't believe it. 'So he'd have all the skills needed. Making things move, blowing things up, working out the numbers on the bridge job.'

'Yeah,' Nick said. 'Even better, his whole CV is there. He started off doing models for an architectural firm.'

'So, used to doing detailed and precise work,' Emma said. 'It's all starting to fit together.'

'He's definitely strong enough to take to Slater now,' Suse said.

'Now or in the morning?' Emma asked.

'I think it'll keep. We'll need to raid Bradley's house so we'll need to get everything sorted. First thing though, we bring this to Slater.'

In the end, DI Kev Slater was slow to totally believe Emma and Suse's story.

'So, you just came up with this link and then went round to see Mrs Mathews, the ex-head teacher of Bradwick High. Just happened to have her phone number to hand, did you Emma?'

'Yes,' she said evenly. 'I'll hold my hand up – you must know that she's Rob Haines' aunt. She holds an annual barbecue and the whole team went, just weeks before the big raid. So, I met her then and thought she'd be a useful contact to keep.'

Kev Slater narrowed his eyes. It was clear that he didn't totally believe their story. 'Well, as long as you can get that past the CPS, we should be fine,' he said before going back to his office.

As soon as he was gone, Suse turned around to the board. She clapped her hands a few times until the whole room looked at her.

'We have a suspect,' she said, turning to write on the board. 'Jeremy Bradley. Some of you will already have had the pleasure of meeting his brothers, Lee and Steve.' There were nods and murmurs around the room. 'But the youngest, Jeremy has kept under the radar, until now.' She briefly recapped the theory about the three girls and their young lookout. 'So now we need to know everything there is to know about Jeremy Bradley, most importantly where he is now.'

There was a new energy in the room as people went back to their desks to do some work that could actually lead to the case being closed.

'We need to find an address and bring him in,' Brian said. 'As soon as possible. He left plenty of evidence behind so as soon as we've fingerprinted him we'll know for sure.'

Nick Dent practically rolled his eyes. 'I don't know how they did things back in your day, sarge, but Emma just said he had a company. Let's start off by seeing what his registered address is. Smart people set it to their accountant or a PO Box, but you never know.'

'Let's just hope that he's made a mistake for once,' Emma muttered under her breath as Nick's fingers flew over the keys.

'Looks like a residential address on the Seaview Estate,' Nick said. He went to the board and wrote the address under Jeremy Bradley's name.

By this time, Kev Slater had come out of his office. 'Right. This is the first proper lead we've had in the whole case. We are not going to mess this one up. I want everyone to work this name and address today. We'll get a full workup on the place, some idea of the layout, background checks on our suspect. We'll go in there first thing tomorrow and surprise him.'

'I've got contacts on the Seaview,' Emma said. 'I'll go and chat them up. Make sure he's still living there. See if there's anything we need to be aware of that won't be on a computer screen.'

Kev Slater merely nodded. For someone who had a strong lead on catching a killer, he looked decidedly miserable.