Chapter 7

He mused, “Just like the others” What did she mean by that? He shook his head to clear it, thinking that he read too much into things.

He turned back to Reg. “Thanks you for your help, Mr. Robertson; in fact, you and the ladies. You were all helpful, one way or another. I’ll let you know if we have anything to go on.”

He left, shaking his head at the oddities of this group of university students, nice as they seemed.

Once back at the station, he spoke to the station commander about the idea that the students had about a link to the university. “I was wondering, sir, if we should have a look at the three vehicles we found with links to the university?”

His boss peered inquisitively at the Sergeant, knowing how perceptive the man was. He decided to give him his head for a while anyway.

“Sergeant, I like your proposal, provided we don’t spend too much time on it. See what you can find out about these vehicles, and we can take it from there. I will authorise access to the available data for you.”

“Thank you, sir. I’ll report back as soon as I can.”

Once he got that, Sergeant Phillips cast his suspicious eye over the data on the three vehicles. One Range Rover had been stolen for a joyride and left in the university car park, undamaged. That one could be dismissed from the search.

The second was removed from a local garage, where it was in for a service. The garage was extremely lax, he felt, to allow that to happen. He would speak to the owner about future security measures. There was a degree of damage to the vehicle, as it had been used to attack an ATM at a local supermarket. The thieves had grabbed cash from the machine and sped off in another vehicle, leaving the Range Rover on site. The damage was all to the front of the vehicle. Again, this one could be ruled out.

The third was the one he thought worth exploring. It belonged to one of the Professors, and had been taken from outside his flat. The professor had gone to work with another professor, on a car-sharing agreement, therefore it was unaccounted for during the day of the crash event. That fitted the scenario. Unfortunately, its present whereabouts was unknown.

This made the Sergeant think hard. Where do you hide a Range Rover? The simplest answer is inside a garage or lockup, provided the roof is high enough for such a vehicle to fit in. Ownership or lease of the garage would however be a give-away to the thief, so a doubtful solution. The Sergeant needed some help with this search.

He went to the staff canteen to look for certain constables who did a lot of inquiries through road patrols. The ones he thought were best at this were fortunately sitting there, having their break before going out on another patrol.

“Fred and Gavin: just the men I was looking for!”

“What are you after, Sarge? We are due to be out in a few minutes, so we can’t do any job for you just now.”

“No, no. I just want you to do some thinking. If you were trying to stash a stolen Range Rover, where would you put it?”

Gavin laughed. “I wouldn’t steal one in the first place. It is a pretty obvious vehicle. If we assume the thief isn’t stupid, he would go for the clever option, which is to hide it in plain sight, among other vehicles.”

“Explain please, Gavin?”

“Any place where there are many vehicles parked will deter anyone from looking too closely at the vehicles. A multi-story car park is not a good bet, as it gets checked every night for forgotten cars, but an airport long-stay car park is perfect. No-one checks on the vehicles, as many sit there for months while the owner is away on a job in another country.”

Fred added, “The other good bet is an industrial estate car parking area. Even at night there are people at work, so cars parked there are never noticed as anything unusual. Another possibility is the car parking area behind a car showroom.”

“Why’s that?” asked the Sergeant, whose expertise lay in other directions.

“People buying a new car usually have a trade-in, so the car park often has vehicles of all ages parked there. During the day, anyone can simply drive in, park the vehicle, then walk out and away, as if he was a customer who has bought a new car and his wife is waiting for him round the corner in the new car. They usually leave the keys in the ignition, and the showroom staff collect them later and label them with the registration number.”

Gavin concluded the litany with,”The last option is the staff car park of a large firm, where hundreds of cars are parked every day, and not often in the same spot, so a different vehicle in any spot is not unusual. Personnel changes occur regularly, and staff switching to a new or newer car is perfectly normal.

The only person likely to notice a strange vehicle is someone working late, and even then they are usually tired and concentrating on getting home. They may very well ignore other vehicles in the car park.”

“Wow. I am impressed, guys.” said Sergeant Phillips. “Can you do me a favour and keep an eye open for a black Range Rover in any of these possible sites? It is a stolen vehicle, and I can give you the registration number. I know that you have loads of stolen vehicles to watch out for, but I expect this one to be parked, colour black, and probably damaged on the near side.”

Gavin sighed. “Okay, Sarge. We’ll do that. Are you on duty tonight, or going home?”

“Home, in a few minutes, but feel free to ring me on my mobile if you find our target. I want a close look at it before Forensics moves it. We may have to check it for fingerprints and DNA, and I’d like a quick eyeball of the exterior and interior before they move it.”

The constables scanned every car park they passed, and made a few detours to include others, and eventually came to the Tesco store. The huge car park there was best checked by driving into it. Even at this time of the evening, there were dozens of vehicles there. There was a staff area behind the store, so they drove round there as well. Parked in an unobtrusive corner was a black Range Rover.

Taking their police car closer to it, they examined the number plate. Bingo! It was the one the Sergeant sought. While the driver phoned the Sergeant’s mobile, Gavin got out and took himself inside the store, where he asked for the person in charge.

A woman was summoned, and she said, “I am the night manager, constable. Mrs Mary Flanders. How can I help you?”

“Mrs. Flanders, we are interested in the black Range Rover in your staff car park. Can you tell us anything about it?”

She looked blank. “Range Rover?” She turned to the customer services girl who had called for her. “Jenny, a staff Range Rover. Do you know anything about this car?”

“Big, black, flashy thing? It has been in the car park for some time. I assumed it belonged to one of the managerial team who is away on a holiday break; that’s why I didn’t comment on it. It was stuck in a corner slot.”

The constable was decisive. “Then we can take it that it does not belong to a current member of staff? A member of the public might have left it there, possibly. Do you have CCTV coverage of the staff car park?”

The customer girl looked carefully at the night manager for an answer. Mrs Flanders swung her head around to look at who might be in hearing range, then advised, “I think we should move to my office for this discussion, constable. We never discuss security matters in front of the customers.”

Nodding his acquiescence, the constable said, “Excuse me while I notify my colleague in the car.” He phoned the car and explained why there would be a small delay.

“Lead on, Mrs. Flanders.”

They walked through the store to the administrative area. Mrs Flanders led him to a room where she had her office. A security man was in the same room, watching a battery of CCTV monitors. He looked up as they walked in, and asked, “Can I help, Mrs Flanders? Or do you want me to leave temporarily, if it is private?”

“Stay as you are, Tom. We may need your assistance with a problem.”

The constable walked behind the security man’s chair, to look at what could be seen on the monitors. He found the one for the staff car park, and asked the man, “Tom, can you bring up the Range Rover on the screen? It is in a corner parking slot.”

Tom moved a knob on his control panel, and the camera obediently swung round, but came to the end of its range before showing the black vehicle. The canopy of a tree obscured the corner. Tom muttered a curse, “Damn. It looks like coverage doesn’t stretch to that corner, constable.”

“I see. Were you aware of that failing, Tom?”

“No, sir. It hasn’t come to my notice until now. No-one has mentioned it.”

Fred was thoughtful for a moment. “Does this system record the images, Tom? If so, for how long?”

Tom told him, “It goes onto hard disk. Our system has five hard disks for recording. Each disk stores up to a week’s recordings, and switches to the next when full, so the total runs to a maximum of five weeks before it returns to the first one and rewrites the disk, though it might be as low as 30 days, depending on a number of factors. Other stores may vary, but the minimum target is 30 days.”

Fred was delighted. “In that case, Tom, can you search through the staff car park recordings, and see if you can establish when that vehicle arrived. If you can find that, look beyond for a little while, to see if the driver who parked it walks into view. If you can find such images, please do us a copy that is date and time stamped, as evidence in a criminal prosecution. Can do?”

“Yes, sir. We can manage that. It will take time, unless you can suggest a date?”

Fred frowned. “I’ll need to get back to you on that, but certainly by tomorrow. Is this all right with you, Mrs Flanders?”

“Yes. I have to report to my superiors any dealings with the police, but that can wait until tomorrow, so that we know what is to happen. I could do with more information before reporting up the hierarchy.”

Fred concluded, “Right. Someone will be in touch with you by tomorrow about the images.”

He went back out and round to the car, where Gavin had been recording the find and all the details. He said to Fred, “Do you want to phone the Sarge now, Fred?”

“Yeah. I’d better do that, not that we can have anyone doing anything much until morning.”

He rang the Sergeant and passed on the find information. Sergeant Phillips was delighted, especially about the CCTV possibilities.

“Thanks, Fred. I’ll get the forensics people on to it ASAP, once we get it delivered to them. I presume you put a sticker on the vehicle?” This was a ‘police aware’ sticker, prior to having a recovery vehicle pick it up without making any change to the vehicle condition. It would be wrapped up and chained down to the recovery truck.

“We have, Sergeant. We’ll let you get back to your family life now!”

“Indeed. I had a good meal and am drinking my coffee now. See you tomorrow, and thanks again. You have a favour available if you need one.”

Sergeant Phillips checked his watch and noted the time of the call in his police notebook, and a synopsis of the call, plus a note to have the CCTV material collected. Things were looking up.

At the Robertson household, celebrations were in full swing. The assessments were now over, and they all anticipated good passes, based on their own estimates of how things seemed to them.

Less enthusiastically, Reg had spread a delicate and quiet enquiry around the university as to the full name of the ‘Jim’ who had tripped him some weeks ago, but so far without any feedback. He wondered about this until an informant told him that the man had put out the word that his name was not to be revealed to any of the Robertson clan. The guy had a bad enough reputation that this blanket demand was having its effect. No-one wanted to risk his ire, it seemed.

Then came a surprise. Frances got an email, saying simply ‘JIM is Fitzgerald, in second year’. The sender was a public computer in the media centre, clearly used for its anonymity, and date stamped, showing it had been used during the busiest time of the day at that centre. Nobody would remember who sat where, at the computers. There would be no way to trace the sender, as was clearly the intention.

Frances showed the email to Reg.

“Darling, please don’t get involved with this man again. We don’t need any more hassle of any sort.”

“Frances, my love, I don’t intend to do anything directly. If the police come up with anything that they can pursue, then we can simply mention this man as worth looking into.”

She relaxed. “All right then. I and the other girls don’t want to see you hurt.”

“I know. You are my flock of avenging eagles looking for prey. I have no wish to be a tethered goat as a tempting snack for Jim or anyone. I have better things to do with my time, such as keeping my girls happy.”

“An ideal target for your enthusiasms, darling Reg. Now that Mr Fixer has got all the house security upgrades done, we can take things easy for a while. What do you think of the wines that Prudence brought in?”

“Better tasting than I expected. All I could ever afford in the past was plonk, so my taste buds never experienced the joys of good quality wines. I am learning to appreciated the finer things in life, such as my wives.”

“Good choice, my love. For you have to attend at least two parties in the next three weeks, so you need to be sociable and able to converse about such wines, and good cheeses like Brie and Manchego.”

“As long as I am also able to spot soft cheeses that Prudence needs to avoid, such as the Brie you mentioned.”

“Of course. None of us wants Prudence to get another migraine. Beware of Taleggio and Camembert, Prudence, and any other which might have tyramine in it. Red wine often contains tyramine, so make sure you stick to white wine, and not a lot of that, either; PLUS, you must drink at least a glass of water before bedtime. Reg, make sure she obeys me on that.”

“Yes, dear,” sighed Reg. “I’ll read up on migraine triggers before we go out to any event. At least I have a decent suit to wear.”

“That was for our commitment ceremony, Reg, not for every event. If we feel you need another rig-out for a special event, we will get you one; is that understood?”

“Yes, Frances. I am on your wavelength now about money. I accept that for the moment I am a kept man, until I get my degree and take up a well-paying job. I want to be able to look after my girls in the future, instead of the other way round. I know you all do it out of love, but I still have emotional baggage that says a man should look after his wife – or wives in our case.”

“Reg, you should look on it not as being a kept man, but having grant aid that comes from us rather than from the government. We will happily allow you to care for us that way when you can afford to, if that will make you happy. You are already making us happy, so we want to reciprocate; that is all.”

“Okay, I can go along with that reasoning. Frances, I love you, girl. I want you to remember that, even if I do some moaning at times.”

“I know, Reg. You are still adjusting to life with us. We understand, my love.”

Frances also got a phone call from her father, to report on the insurance payout.

“Frances, your claim in regard to the break-in has been paid in full. The insurance people were all set to up my premiums as a result, but when I told them about all the security improvements, they changed their collective mind, and in fact dropped it slightly after consulting the actuarial oracles. You said it was Prudence’s father who organised the improvements, didn’t you?”

“Yes, Daddy. Why?”

“I was just wondering if I could get him to arrange for security improvements at my other buildings.”

“Mmm ... Daddy?” Frances was now being careful in what she said.

“Yes, girl?”

“I don’t think Prudence’s father is in that kind of business. His work is kind of hush-hush, and he was going out of his way to help us, so I don’t think he is in the market for what you want.”

“Oh, I see. Not even as a sort of sideline business, then?”

She laughed lightly. “You do try hard; don’t you, Daddy? I will get Prudence to speak to her father about it. Will that satisfy you?”

“Yes. He is effectively your father-in-law, so we relatives ought to help each other, is what I am thinking. Would you disagree?”

“No, Daddy, I wouldn’t. I am simply being careful to not upset anyone. Okay?”

“I follow. Good girl. Marriage has made you even more mature. Are you girls all okay with Reg? Just checking; for your menage is so unusual.”