‘What for?’ she asked. It would take less than five minutes to tell them what she knew about Rhimes. To give them a choice to say ‘yes, I’ll help you’ or just ‘walk away’, but the opportunity passed when she saw that Copeland was at her desk.
‘Didn’t you get my message?’ Stanford asked as Ezra entered the room.
‘I’ve been having problems with reception all afternoon,’ Henley said. She checked her phone and saw that she was still missing signal bars.
‘We believe we’ve got a viable link to our vigilante group. Two serving prisoners in Strangeways and also we have footage,’ Stanford explained.
‘Footage of what?’
‘Nathan Hall,’ said Eastwood. ‘Both from his security gate camera and what Ezra found online.’
‘Ok. Start with the prisoners. Who are they?’ asked Henley.
‘Karim Messenger and Gareth Humphreys,’ said Stanford. ‘They were both convicted of assaulting Douglas Mantell and were also members of a vigilante group called Iron Shadow.’
‘Such a ridiculous name,’ said Eastwood. ‘No points for creativity.’
‘What about Bo Hyoo?’ asked Henley.
Eastwood swivelled her monitor towards Henley. ‘Both charged with harassment after doxxing her and following her on the street, but for some inexplicable reason they were NFA’d on an assault charge.’
‘What was the alleged assault?’ Henley asked.
‘They tarred and feathered her, and I do not mean that as some poorly disguised joke,’ Eastwood said, clicking on a photograph icon.
Henley gasped and put her hand to her mouth as Bo Hyoo, sitting naked on a hospital bed, appeared on the screen. The skin on her neck, back and left arm had been stripped away and was red raw. White feathers were visible in her hair and on the back of her neck.
‘They couldn’t get hold of actual tar, so they used sulphuric acid,’ Eastwood explained.
‘You said that Messenger and Humphreys weren’t charged,’ said Henley tightly.
‘DI Connors, the SIO for the Bo Hyoo GBH is adamant that it was Messenger and Humphreys but there was a problem with identification. Bo Hyoo couldn’t describe her assailants, there were no independent witnesses and no forensics.’
‘What about an alibi?’
‘They didn’t give one and they both went no comment,’ said Eastwood. ‘They were RUI and six weeks later NFA’d. Bo Hyoo spent a week in hospital and then moved to Sheffield to stay with her sister. Two months later she started reporting incidents of harassment. The same tactics: shit through her letterbox, paint on her sister’s door.’
‘So, they followed her to Sheffield?’ Henley asked.
Eastwood nodded.
‘Which leads to the question, how did they know she’d moved?’ Stanford asked. ‘Bo Hyoo was on strict bail conditions which meant her solicitors had to apply to Manchester Crown Court to amend her residence condition. The only people who knew she’d moved out of the city would have been the court, prosecutors and her own solicitors and, call me a prophet, I doubt Bo Hyoo was giving out her address to all and sundry.’
‘You said she had strict bail conditions,’ said Ramouter who had been listening quietly at his desk. ‘She must have been on tag?’
‘She was,’ Eastwood confirmed. ‘And guess which company was responsible for her electronic monitoring?’
‘Soteria,’ said Ramouter.
‘Bingo.’
‘There’s something missing,’ Henley said, catching Pellacia from the corner of her eye, inching closer towards them. ‘You didn’t say that Messenger and Humphreys were responsible or even thought to be involved in the murders of Hyoo and Mantell.’
Stanford shook his head. ‘No, they were both serving at the time of the murders which is why we think it makes sense for Eastie and I to head up there and speak to them. They were a part of this Iron Shadow gang, so they should be able to tell us how they got hold of Hyoo’s address and the MG5 for Mantell’s sex offence case.’
‘Before I agree to send you two up north, how do we know they were definitely part of this Iron Shadow gang and that they’ve got anything to do with our victims on the board?’ Pellacia asked.
‘Copeland. Go ahead,’ said Eastwood.
