‘Scalped. From skin to skull. 324mm across and 584mm down. I can see the knife marks on the bone.’
‘Right. Right.’ Henley pulled out a chair and sat down, suddenly weary by the savagery of the violence that Fox-Carnell had been subjected to. ‘How soon can you complete the post-mortem?’
‘As soon as I’m done with you, I’m opening her up.’
16
‘Do you know this is the first time that I’ve been to your house?’ said Ezra, following Henley into the kitchen.
‘Are you sure? I would have sworn you’ve been here before.’
‘Nope. I’m not saying you haven’t invited me, like when you had that barbecue back in the summer, but it was on the same day as my Grandad’s birthday. It’s nice in here.’
‘Thank you very much. So, what can I get you to drink?’
Ezra walked up to the counter and tapped the side of the coffee machine. ‘I’ll have a cappuccino from this fancy machine of yours.’
‘Of course you would.’ Henley opened the dishwasher and removed a couple of cups. ‘Biscuits are in the bread bin next to you. And whatever you do, do not feed the dog,’ she warned as Luna walked in from the living room, making her way towards Ezra.
‘So, are you ready?’ Ezra asked.
‘Shoot.’ Henley placed Ezra’s cappuccino in front of him and sat down with her own cup of tea. She hoped that Ezra could see past her fake confidence. She’d always prided herself on her ability to compartmentalise, but something had cracked inside her that night when Peter Olivier had stabbed her. Her professional life had finally intersected with her personal life, and she hadn’t slept through the night since. During those challenging times she’d always been able to rely on her old boss Rhimes, but the Streeter and Beckett case had forced her to question if she’d ever known the real Rhimes. The allegation was that he’d been corrupt and had sent an innocent man to prison for twenty-five years. When Rhimes’s widow, Eloise, asked Henley to investigate his death, Henley had hoped that she’d successfully exonerate him and close the door on the many questions that had circulated around his life and that he could finally rest in peace, but the opposite had happened. With each passing day of the Streeter investigation, Henley became more convinced he’d been murdered. Now Henley wondered if involving Ezra had been a mistake.
‘I think that Rhimes may have been working undercover or investigating someone in the Met,’ Ezra said.
‘Undercover?’ Henley repeated as she tried to process what Ezra was telling her. ‘Why would he be working undercover? Also, it doesn’t make any sense for—’
‘Boss. I’m just telling you what I’ve found so far. The first thing I did was look at the money. That’s what they did with me when I was being investigated. Start with the money and work backwards.’
Henley settled back in her chair as Ezra opened his laptop. He didn’t often speak about the events that led to him serving a three-year prison sentence for fraud. He’d insisted more than once that he wanted to forget about that part of his life, but his computer hacking skills and the fact that experts during his trial had been in awe of his talents was the reason why he’d ended up working for the SCU in the first place.
‘Rhimes had three bank accounts. A current and savings account that he held jointly with Eloise and his own current account which he had with Barclays for decades and a credit card. His salary went into his Barclays account,’ Ezra explained.
‘Nothing about that sounds in the slightest bit dodgy.’
‘Rhimes told me more than once that he was a simple man, not interested in “new-fangled ideas”,’ Ezra mocked. ‘So it doesn’t make sense that the man who refused to get a banking app on his phone had an account with Novafin Bank.’
‘Who the hell is Novafin Bank?’
‘Another one of these online banks that seem to be popping up every five minutes,’ said Ezra, spinning his laptop round. ‘What you’re looking at is seven months’ worth of Novafin bank statements.’
Henley scanned the statements. ‘Deposits but no withdrawals,’ she said. ‘Five grand deposited every two months from a Kit Walker.’
Ezra sniggered. ‘Whoever it is thought that they were being clever,’ he said. ‘I bet you don’t know who Kit Walker is?’
‘No. But I suspect that you’re going to tell me.’
‘It’s the real name of a comic book character called “Phantom”. My dad used to read the comics to me as a kid. The account name may be fake, but the sort code isn’t. The account is held with another online bank called Stellar Banking.’
‘No one is going to pay you five grand a month just for the fun of it,’ said Henley.
‘Or go through all the trouble of setting up accounts in fake names and bouncing all the money around.’
‘How do you know that they’re bouncing all the money around?’
Ezra shrugged. ‘I don’t but I’m thinking that if you’re using online bank accounts based in Iceland you must be bouncing the money.’
‘What about these payments? £1800 in April. £870 in May. £109 in August. £339 in June. They’re all from the same account. Innowave Solutions.’
