Death's Privilege (11 page)

‘No, they won’t, Eric. They won’t find anything untoward at all, will they?’

‘No. No, they won’t.’ He knew when it was time to retreat.

‘Do you plan on telling them, Eric?’

‘Certainly not me, Valerie.’

‘Good.’ She looked at the grandfather clock, put down her teacup and stood up. ‘Now, I must go to the study.’

‘I do wish you’d spend less time up there. It’s not good for you. Let’s go for a walk out in the real world, it’s an unusually pleasant day and there’s still an hour or so of light.’

‘I’ve got things to do, Eric. And so have you. I suggest you use that hour of light as best you can.’

Semples sighed. He put on his coat and driver's cap and headed for the door.

Eleven

Sarah came in early, filled out the section 8 warrant paperwork and went into DI Manford’s office to ask him to sign it. Search warrants had to be signed by an inspector before approaching a magistrate. Even though inspectors were generally supportive of their officers’ efforts to plan and execute warrants, it still felt like a sales pitch.

Manford looked through the paperwork. The first few pages were duplicate copies: one for the file, one for the magistrate and one for the occupant of the searched premises. ‘Not a drugs warrant?’

‘We’re not strictly looking for drugs. Just for the phone. The phone’s linked to the indictable offence of supply. Finding the phone may lead us to further drugs offences or to a witness who can fill in the gaps in her final night,’ said Sarah.

Manford rubbed his chin. ‘Section 8 works for that. What do we know about the address? Tower Road’s a well-to-do area, right?’

‘We were there yesterday. We spoke to the occupant, Sally-Anne Moretti, who showed us a phone, but not the one we were after. Sergeant Dales knows her from his days on the drugs unit. We could only nose around so far without a power to search the place.’

‘I doubt a magistrate would have authorised a warrant without you attending first, in any case. They’d be reluctant to grant the power to smash a door in for something this...speculative.’ Manford put the warrant application on his desk. ‘Right, talk me through it. Pretend I’m a magistrate that has already signed his quota of warrants this month. Sell it to me.’

Sarah was sure magistrates didn’t have quotas to hit, although some were definitely known for being stricter than others. ‘It starts with the drugs offence. Sheila’s body was found with a quantity of white powder on her bedside table. Whilst we were there, Sheila’s phone rang. She’d had forty missed calls from the same person. Her phone examination revealed the number belongs to someone called Eamon. There are numerous texts between them suggesting a romantic, and incredibly volatile, relationship.’

‘Why won’t a simple door knock suffice?’ Manford asked, already knowing the answer of course, but seeming to enjoy playing devil’s advocate.

‘We attended yesterday and the occupant told us she didn’t have the phone.’

‘And why don’t you believe her?’

‘The emergency call from 12 Tower Road was dropped, but a male’s voice could be heard in the background. When the officer attended, the occupant let him in. The occupant refused to give her details, but there was a young boy at the address of around four years old and the current occupant has a four-year-old son. She’s also been living there for the past six months, which covers the time the phone was used to call in.’

‘That’s enough for me.’ Manford scribbled his signature at the bottom of each page and handed the warrant back. ‘There you go. Best of luck.’

Early-turn were briefing as Sarah walked back into the main office. The room was mostly empty with everyone huddled around the early-turn DS as he filled them in on the overnight crimes. Dales sat at their desk. It was still their desk, something that didn’t look like it was going to change anytime soon.

‘Morning, Sunshine.’ Dales was strangely chirpy for the hour, given that he lived over a fifty-minute drive away. Sarah lived on the Mavenswood patch, which wasn’t ideal. The police service regulated their officer's living arrangements. They checked whether the area was suitable and living in your own district was often frowned upon, and in some cases outright refused. She’d seen a few faces from briefing slides strolling around her neighbourhood, but they hadn’t given her any trouble.

Sarah waved the signed warrant in her hand. ‘Manford signed up a warrant for 12 Tower Road. I’m just going to call through to the court and ask to see a magistrate.’ She looked at the clock on the wall. ‘Hopefully there’ll be one hanging about before proceedings start. Could you see if DS Hayward and Joel are free to come?’

‘Will do.’

Sarah was in luck. The clerk of the court said if she arrived in the next fifteen minutes, she’d be able to speak with a magistrate before the courts opened. Getting an audience with a magistrate once the hearings were in full swing could often be an all-day process. She was ushered through as soon as she arrived and within minutes had a signature on every page just below DI Manford’s.

When she returned, Dales was sitting exactly where she’d left him. ‘Matt and Joel are coming. They’re just downstairs getting their kit together.’

Sarah wheeled a chair over and put her head in her hands on the corner of their desk. ‘How are you so awake?’

‘I’m a morning person.’

‘This means you’re driving.’

‘This means you’re listening to talk FM.’

‘I may need something a little more upbeat than someone reading a list of sports scores. Anyone else coming along?’

‘No, just the four of us. No drugs dog available either. I know we’re not strictly looking for drugs, but there’s no harm in taking one along. There’s one between us and the next county and they’ve had some major incident, so we’ll just have to sniff around ourselves. You went to uni, you should at least know the whiff of cannabis, right?’

‘That is a grossly offensive and inaccurate stereotype. Shocking.’ She smiled and sipped the tea Dales had made her. Hayward walked in with Joel a few feet behind carrying his kitbag on his right shoulder whilst holding Hayward’s in his left hand.

‘Any luck with a mutt?’ Hayward sat down at his desk, panting from walking up two flights of stairs. Joel placed the kit bags on the floor and took a seat next to Hayward, greeting Sarah on the way.

‘Nope. Not surprising, really.’ Dales looked at the clock on the wall. ‘We should get moving soon. Sarah, give the boys a quick briefing so I can tick that box on your portfolio.’ Hayward leant back in his chair, hands resting on his belly. Joel took his notebook out and updated the date, ready to note down the morning’s plan.

‘The address is a terraced property with a thick wooden door and a bay window to the front. The garden backs onto other properties making the chances of escape to the rear unlikely if it all goes pear-shaped. The plan is to knock on the door, present the warrant and keep her calm and amenable as best we can. She has a four-year-old child in the house, so we’ll use force only as a last resort. We spoke to Moretti yesterday and I’m not expecting too much resistance. It’s possible there will be a male at the address and it’s his phone we’re after. There are a few Eamons on the system, but nothing comes up that links any of them to the address or the number we’re looking for.

‘We’re looking for a phone, so we’ll seize any we come by and return any negatives once the examinations are done. It’s also possible we’ll come across some drugs. Moretti has a history, although says she’s clean now, and Eamon may have supplied Sheila on the night she died, so he may keep his stash at the address.’

‘Why don’t we just smash the door in?’ suggested Hayward. ‘The warrant gives us that power, you know. Saves risking them flushing anything.’

‘And common decency gives us the power to knock politely, rather than scare seven bells out of a four-year-old. If we need to use force, we’ll know, and we will.' Sarah understood why Hayward thought that way. He would have conducted countless warrants during his time on the drugs squad, and the speed of entry would have made the difference between securing evidence and hearing it flush down the toilet. Still, this was her warrant and she was going to do it her way.

‘If her kid’s put in a dangerous position, it’s because she chose to deal drugs there, not because we chose to enforce the law.’ Hayward shrugged his shoulders. 'Not our problem if you ask me.'

Sarah’s phone rang. A raspy voice told her Leilani Hayes was asking for her in the front office. ‘Having met Sally-Anne, I doubt we're going to encounter too much trouble. I’ve got to pop downstairs, Leilani’s come back in.’

Dales looked at his watch. ‘If she doesn’t give you anything substantial this time, tell her next time she comes in, she’ll have to speak to whomever’s free. I know you don’t want to, but you’ll soon be her personal police officer.’

‘I know, but I can’t just brush her off. What if she gets seriously hurt and feels she can’t report it because I’ve made her feel like a nuisance? He has hit her, you know.’ Sarah picked up her pen and book. ‘I won’t be long.’

‘I’ll time you.’

‘Here we are again. That woman seems to like us being in the smallest room.’ Leilani Hayes was sitting in room three when Sarah opened the door.

Sarah stayed standing. ‘How can I help?’

‘You don’t seem yourself?’ Leilani tapped the desk.

‘I have an appointment in a few minutes, so I don’t have a lot of time.’ Sarah didn’t feel right. Leilani had a warmth that made her a difficult woman to be cold to and, as a victim of crime, deserved her attention. Some people took years before they were able to fully commit to supporting a police investigation and with her confidence and beauty, qualities society placed a premium on, she may have been finding it all the harder to accept she needed help.

‘Okay, I understand. I should have called ahead. He hit me again. Right here.’ She pulled back her collar to reveal a deep purple bruise that ran along the base of the right side of her neck down to her collar bone.

‘That’s a hefty thump.’

‘And at the back of my head.’ She twisted around in her chair, bent her head forward and lifted her hair. ‘You can see it if you look closely.’ Sarah leant over the desk. ‘He hit me there because it’s difficult to see, I suppose. The one near my neck was done in rage, I expect. I’ll just have to wear collars now.’

‘So, you’re here to formally report it?’ Sarah sat down and opened her book. Moretti could wait. ‘Please tell me you’re here to formally report it.’ Dales texted. Sarah ignored it.

‘Could you just add it to the log?’

‘Come on, Leilani. That bruise is brutal. And that close to the neck, it could easily have been lethal. Tell me who he is.’

‘Just the assault side of things. I don’t want anything done about that, but there’s something else. I want to give you something, but I need you to promise that whatever you find out, you don’t make any arrests without telling me first. If it comes to it, and we can build a strong case, and you’re certain of that, certain that you can protect me, then I’ll provide a statement for everything.’ Her expression was full of a nervous fear that Sarah wanted to reach out and wipe away. Leilani took a small white envelope from her black shoulder bag. ‘You said if you could trace where the money went, you’d be able to show he’d taken it without my permission. That would be pretty good evidence, right?’

‘Well, it would, in combination with your statement. I want you to commit to this, but I want you to be fully aware of the facts.’

‘I know, I know. Here. These are the details for the account the money was transferred into. I thought about what you said last time. If we can prove the money went from my account to his, we’ll be on a stronger footing for the rest of the case, right?’ She handed Sarah the envelope.

‘He transferred money from your account to his? Surely he knows we can trace that?’

‘He wanted to show he had my details, access to my online accounts. Arrogance, I guess. Said if I changed the password details or told the bank, he’d hurt me.’

‘These details are a start. Getting this kind of information from banks can take a long time without signed permission from the account holder. And even then, I can’t guarantee that we’ll be able to tie the account to him. The most important thing is to stay away from him. And if he turns up at your door, please call 999. Did you call when this happened?’

Leilani stayed silent, hunching her shoulders and curling up slightly. Sarah slid the envelope into her notebook. ‘I will. If that comes to something and we can prove that side of it, I’ll go to court. But you have to promise to protect me from him. He hangs around with some nasty people.’

‘I’ll do everything I can.’

Sarah knocked on Moretti’s door with the warrant in hand. Dales, Joel and Hayward stood at the gate, trying to make four police officers knocking on a door with a warrant look as unintimidating as possible.

Moretti opened the door in her dressing gown. ‘Again? What now?’

Sarah stepped forward so half her foot was inside the door. ‘We’ve got a warrant to search the address.’

‘What? For what? I told you I don’t have the bloody phone.’ Morreti wasn’t moving. ‘You can’t just keep coming back when you like.’

Sarah held up the warrant and ran her finger across Moretti’s address. ‘It’s right here, signed up by the courts.’ Sarah flicked to the magistrate’s signature. ‘I’ll leave a copy of the paperwork with you. In short, Sally-Anne, we’re going to search the house. And it can be done a lot easier and quicker if you co-operate.’

Moretti tightened the belt on her dressing gown. ‘At least give me five bloody minutes. I’ve got guests.’

Sarah stepped inside and heard a child crying upstairs.

‘I need to check on my child.’

‘I’m coming up with you.’ Sarah waved the others in and followed Moretti up into her son’s bedroom. She gestured to the others to stay downstairs.

It was more like a teenager’s room than a toddler’s. The wall-mounted flat screen opposite the bed played a
Peppa Pig
episode, which must have been playing on repeat all night, and one half of the room was filled with toys. Moretti went over and hugged her son. Sarah watched her every move.