The Coercion Key (11 page)

Craig wandered over to Nicky’s desk and deposited a box of cakes then he saw Davy beckoning him across.

“What have you found, Davy?”

Davy scratched his head and then the fresh stubble on his chin. It looked like he was attempting to grow a goatee without much success.

“Not a lot. Annette found the third key, but I’ll let her tell you about that. Des gave me the four s…sets of numbers, but there’s no link between them that I can find. I’m running them for a Fibonacci s…sequence but I’m not holding out much hope.”

Craig smiled, wondering what Liam would do when Davy tried to explain that.

“OK. Leave it until after the briefing. There are some cakes there if you’d like one.”

Craig grabbed a chair and sat down beckoning the others to join him. Jake and Annette were deep in discussion at their desks and Liam was rifling through the cakes even though he’d eaten one less than an hour before. When they were all seated Craig started.

“OK. We’re going to begin with Liam on Nelson Warner, then Annette and Jake, then I’ll take Victoria Linton’s P.A. and Davy will bring us up to speed on the search side.”

He nodded Liam on and listened while he recounted the scandalous lifestyle of Nelson Warner, pillar of the community. The team’s expressions ranged from shock from Jake and Nicky, through Davy’s amusement and finally to boredom with Annette. Craig smiled at her questioningly.

“When you’ve heard about one pervy middle-aged man, you’ve heard about them all, sir. Frankly I’m starting to be shocked when a Northern Irish man isn’t up to something shady.”

Liam was indignant. “Here, do you mind! I’m not pervy and neither is the boss.”

Annette sniffed. “We’ve only your word for that, Liam.” Then she realised what she’d said and grimaced at Craig. “Sorry, sir.”

Craig laughed. “Don’t worry; I’ve been called a lot worse. The interesting thing about Nelson Warner isn’t his lifestyle but why his wife put up with it.”

Annette sniffed again. “Because she’s weird as well.”

“Maybe. She’s certainly religious and it seems to be part of their church’s doctrine. The next question is, for a man who never seemed to be without a woman, how come Warner was alone on the evening of his suicide?”

Liam answered him. “That’s my next port of call, boss. I’m going to see the mistress this afternoon.”

“Good. Annette can go with you.”

“Aw, hell. I was hoping for a laugh.”

Annette arched an eyebrow. “And the rest, I bet.”

Craig cut short their exchange. “Annette, tell me about the third key please.”

Davy chuckled. “What a cool name for a computer game. ‘The Third Key’. I must design one.”

Craig smiled. “I want royalties for the name when you do. Annette?”

“Jake and I went to see Jonathan McCafferty’s wife Amelia this morning, and I can tell you there was no love lost there. There was a big age gap between them.” She wrinkled her nose in distaste. “She’s twenty-five to his forty-five, but that still didn’t stop him having affairs.”

“Some men are like dogs in heat.”

Everyone turned towards Nicky’s husky voice and she suddenly realised that she’d said her thoughts out loud. She blushed furiously. “I’m only saying… I didn’t mean any of you…” Finally she gave up and folded her arms defiantly. “Well, they are!”

Everyone gave her deadpan looks, just long enough to make her squirm. Craig was the first to laugh.

“You’re right, Nicky, some men are, but we couldn’t let that one pass.” He waved Annette on.

“Amelia McCafferty was very pretty but not very bright. That was my opinion anyway. Jake, what did you think?”

Jake was flicking through his notebook and he answered without looking up. “A pretty plank. As in ‘thick as two short ones’.”

Craig laughed again, not sure whether to rein them all in or not. Their off-hand humour was worse than usual today. It was probably a way of letting off steam, given that they were all under threat, but if anyone from outside heard it wouldn’t go down well. He decided to say something.

“Listen, everyone. While all the comments are very amusing, can I ask you not to say them in front of outside teams, please? They’ll think we’re running a comedy club in here.”

Liam nodded sagely. “Aye. Me and the boss are the only ones allowed to make cracks from now on. Rank has to have some privileges.”

At that Craig gave up trying to control them and Annette continued her report. “Amelia McCafferty hated her husband and she was quite open about it. She said she really doesn’t care that he’s dead, just as long as she gets his money.”

“Did she give you his key or did you find it there?”

Annette widened her eyes questioningly then glared at Davy. He shrugged apologetically, knowing that he’d stolen her thunder.

“She gave it to her in-laws. She didn’t realise what it was.”

“Or that it was made of platinum, I suspect.”

“No. Anyway, I thought I’d seen it at his parents’ the day before, sitting beside some pictures of Jonathan when he was a boy, so I went back and retrieved it as evidence.”

Craig nodded. “Good. I know Des has looked at it and Davy has the files now. We’ll come back to that in a minute. First I’m going to update you on Diana Rogan. I went back to the house and her husband let me look in the bedroom.” He shook his head sadly. “That’s where she killed herself. Her husband hasn’t set foot in the room since. He’s been sleeping on the couch.”

He paused for a moment remembering Conor Rogan’s pain then went on. “There was nothing significant in the bedroom but Diana Rogan was found wearing her suit, even though she hadn’t gone in to work that day.”

Annette gave a weak smile. “She wanted them to think that everything was normal as they left that morning, when she was really planning to kill herself. She didn’t want to spoil their day… It’s what I would do.”

Craig stared at her gravely, remembering her despair the summer before. “She must also have known her husband would have tried to stop her and she didn’t want to be stopped.”

Jake interrupted “Why not, sir? What was so bad about her life that she wanted to kill herself? She had everything; a loving family, two gorgeous kids, no debts as far as we know, so why? Do you think it was the same reason in all four cases?”

Craig nodded. “That’s exactly the question I asked myself, Jake. Was it the same reason? We know that our victims have to be linked in some way, but that could be more to do with the killer than anything between them. If they were being coerced into killing themselves would the reason they did it have been different for all of them, or the same?”

Liam’s loud voice rang through the room. “Here now, this is getting complicated. If I’m right you’re saying that all four of them had a link to their killer but it might not have been the same link? And whatever trigger he used to get them to kill themselves might have been different for every one of them?”

Craig nodded. “That’s almost right, Liam. The triggers that made them commit suicide might have been different, but I think what linked each of them to the killer was the same. I think Rogan, Linton, Warner and McCafferty were all involved in something to do with our killer and the clue to their involvement lies in the numbers on the USBs. As far as what made them commit suicide, my guess is that he blackmailed each of them with something different.”

“Like?”

“Something they didn’t want anyone else to know, the lives of their family and friends, the prospect of prison, anything like that. But it was something that our killer knew about each of them that was enough to make them kill themselves rather than let it happen.”

Craig stopped abruptly and scanned the five faces in front of them. He turned to Liam first.

“What would make you kill yourself?”

Liam blustered then decided to make a joke out of it. “Danni’s mother’s Irish Stew. It’s foul.”

He started to laugh then realised that no-one else was taking Craig’s question as a joke. Craig stared at him until he caved in.

“Nothing anyone could do to me would make me do it, but if they were going to hurt Danni and the kids, then would I kill myself if I could be sure it would protect them? Yes, probably. But I’d have to be certain.”

Craig nodded and turned to the others. “Anyone else?”

Annette spoke up. “I’d do it to protect my children, but no-one else.”

Liam and Craig glanced at each other, noticing how firmly she’d excluded Pete.

“Anyone else?”

Jake blushed and nodded. “The same as the others, but I’d also kill myself if I ever thought I had to go to prison.”

Davy jumped in. “Me too. I couldn’t s…stand it. Or if I was completely paralysed. I couldn’t stand that either.”

Nicky was the last to speak. Her voice was uncharacteristically soft and she looked more embarrassed than Craig had seen her before. Her words explained why. “Shame or hurt. If I did something to make my family ashamed of me, or if I’d hurt one of them so badly that I couldn’t repair it. I couldn’t live with that.”

Craig nodded. “My reasons would be the same as Liam’s, but for my family and close friends.” He paused for a moment, giving them each a moment to think, then restarted in a more upbeat tone. “OK. So that tells us that every individual has a different trigger that might force them into suicide. Natural suicides might be depressed, lonely, homeless or something else, but for seemingly healthy, solvent people…” He stopped abruptly and turned to Davy. “Davy, we did check that all our victims were healthy, didn’t we?”

Davy nodded. “Yes. No s…serious illness of any kind.”

“Good. OK, so for people with everything to live for to commit suicide there has to be a bloody good reason. Somehow our killer found out which button to press for each of our four victims and he pressed it hard. Agreed?”

He was answered by a series of nods, each of them still thinking of the worst thing that could happen to them in life. Craig carried on.

“But that doesn’t explain why these four people were chosen in the first place. What did they have in common with each other or the killer? Whatever that is we need to find it because it will give us our killer’s name.” He waved Davy on.

Davy scratched his chin hard before starting and Nicky winced. The black hairs peppering his jawline were sparse and blunt. They looked nothing like a beard, they just made his face look dirty and she wanted to give it a good scrub. Davy saw her look and scratched again very deliberately.

“I’ve been running every possible connection between our victims and s…so far there’s nothing that links all four. For example, two of them bank at NIBank and two don’t, three had dark hair and one didn’t, and so on. On their own there’s nothing nasty lurking in any of their backgrounds…”

Liam interjected. “Unless you count casual polygamy and affairs.”

Davy shrugged. “True, but they w…wouldn’t show up as crimes.”

Nicky muttered. “Even though they ought to.”

“S…So I’ve found no links between the four of them yet.”

Craig interrupted. “Have you looked at their professional lives?”

“Not in depth yet. That’s next. But on first look there’s nothing obvious. OK, w…we now have three of the USBs and the four numbers from the s…suicide notes are on the pages that Nicky’s handing out.”

Nicky passed around a pile of pages and they each took one. The numbers 111012, 740150, 501760 and 070645 were printed on each sheet. Davy restarted.

“We know the w…wording for the suicide notes was exactly the s…same but the numbers on the notes were all different. I’ve searched under everything general that I can think of and the numbers don’t fit. S…Same with any important dates in the victims’ lives.” He paused and turned to Craig. “Can the families be asked about these numbers, chief?”

“We’ll get onto it tomorrow. I don’t want us going back to annoy them again today.”

“OK. The other thing I’m trying is a Fibonacci sequence to see if that makes any sense.”

Davy paused, waiting for the inevitable roar from Liam. He wasn’t disappointed.

“A fibber what? Have you been messing about learning Italian again, son?”

Craig chipped in. “Actually you’re right. Leonardo Fibonacci was a thirteenth Century Italian mathematician.”

“His s…sequence is made up of integers….”

Liam mimicked being hanged, implying that it was preferable to a discussion on thirteenth Century mathematics. Davy sniffed haughtily.

“If you don’t understand you only have to ask.”

Nicky slapped Liam hard on the arm. “And it’s very bad taste to pretend to hang yourself during a suicide case.”

Craig laughed. “Not only then. Go on, Davy.”

“Anyway. I’m not holding my breath. I don’t think it is a s…sequence, although I’ve got The Met’s code-breaking team looking at it as well. So that leaves us with the numbers being relevant to the victims, or something I haven’t thought of yet that links them. If it wasn’t for the numbers showing s…seventeen months and fifty days, I’d say they were dates over the years that refer to some event.”

“An event that ended in the suicide of someone linked with our killer, sir?”

Craig nodded. “That’s possible, Jake. But the event could have been anything, and unless we find out what links our victims and what these numbers mean then we could be here all year. Davy, how are you getting on with the list of suicides?”

“S…Slowly. I’ve extended the search to include s…suicides up to the current day, just in case.”

Craig nodded. “OK, good work. Jake, any joy on the online game forums?”

“Davy and I are getting onto that this afternoon.”

“Right. Good work everyone. You all know what you’re supposed to be doing.”

Craig paused and swallowed hard, not wanting to remind them they were under threat, but needing to ask the question nonetheless.

“Has anyone noticed anything strange? Anybody following them or any odd phone-calls for instance?”

He was answered by a chorus of ‘no’s’.

“OK. Nicky and Davy, how are you getting on with your close protection officers?”

Nicky smiled. She’d invited her C.P.O. in for a Chinese meal the night before and he’d ended up playing scrabble with Jonny, her son. Davy looked less amused.