‘Look at the monitor, boss,’ Ezra said.
Henley found herself staring at an image of Durant’s phone screen. His wallpaper was a photograph of his late wife smiling brightly as she held a cocktail.
‘I’ve downloaded it all and sent it to your inbox, but this is what’s really interesting.’ Ezra clicked on a purple icon.
‘What is that?’ Henley asked.
‘It’s Discord. It’s an instant messaging app but it’s not just chatting to your mates. You can send videos, photos, can go live and watch livestreams,’ Ezra explained.
‘What’s so special about that?’
‘Well, you can also join different communities. Think of it like private member clubs because you have to be invited. It’s also encrypted so no one can just listen in. So, what you’re looking at are all the clubs that Durant has joined. Teaching, football, but these are the ones you’re going to be interested in. A lot of vigilante groups. Most of them he hasn’t participated in except for this one.’
‘Shadow,’ said Henley. ‘Is that right? Only five members?’
‘Small but active. Lots of chat, photos and documents,’ said Ezra as he clicked on #target.
‘Oh my God,’ said Henley as Ezra opened a PDF titled, ‘R v Tabitha Ashcroft’. ‘Those are prosecution case papers.’
‘I had a quick look, and everything is in there. Witness statements, schedule of unused material. Basically, everything I had when I was in court.’
‘Is Tabitha Ashcroft’s custody record on there and can you tell when these were uploaded?’
Ezra chewed his lip as he scrolled through the items. ‘6 September,’ he said.
‘That’s the date that Tabitha Ashcroft was sentenced. Are there any names mentioned in the chat?’
‘A couple. Someone called Don is mentioned a couple of times, but that’s the only real name. The others have got random usernames and as good as I am, I can’t reverse engineer that and find out who created it.’
‘Don’t worry, that’s good enough for me to get Durant back into the interview room,’ Henley said as Ezra’s phone rang.
Ezra peered at the display screen. ‘It’s the guvnor,’ he said. He picked up. ‘Hello. Yeah, she’s still here. Ok. He wants to talk to you.’
Ezra handed the phone to Henley and turned back to his computer.
‘Hello,’ Henley asked, struggling to keep the simple greeting balanced and nonconfrontational.
‘Ben Trezeguet is at Bethnal Green police station’ said Pellacia. ‘He was arrested an hour ago. I’m sending Ramouter and Copeland to deal with him, are you ok with that?’
‘That’s fine. I’m going to reinterview Durant.’
‘Ok. And we’ve got a problem with the Manchester visit. They’re rioting in Strangeways. Prisoners on the roof.’
‘So, they’re in lockdown?’
‘For the moment. The prison guvnor will let me know as soon as they’ve got the place under control and, when they do, Stanford and Eastwood are good to go. I’ll let you get on.’
Henley felt a tremor in her stomach as she lowered the handset. She’d tried to get a sense of Pellacia’s emotions as he spoke, but there’d been nothing. He’d spoken to her as though she were a stranger.
40
‘If I didn’t know better, I would say he looks pleased to be here,’ said Copeland, moving away from the spyhole in the door.
‘What do you mean?’ asked Ramouter who was crouched on the floor sorting through the forensic reports that had been printed in the wrong order.
‘What I mean is that he’s calm, and I swear that he’s got a smile on his face.’
Ramouter groaned as he straightened up. ‘Maybe this is what he wants, to be involved. To have an angle for his so-called news reporting.’
