‘That’s where the undercover bit comes in. Innowave Solutions doesn’t exist. I mean, it does, but it doesn’t do anything. They’re a shell business that I tracked back to the NCA.’
Henley remained quiet as she stared back at Ezra. There wasno joviality or humour in Ezra’s eyes. She felt sick as anxiety prickled her nerves.
‘The National Crime Agency,’ she finally said.
‘Yeah. They’ve got quite a few of these accounts set up which I think they use to—’
‘Pay their undercover agents.’
‘But what were the random payments for?’ Ezra asked quietly.
‘A salary. Expenses maybe,’ Henley said, picking up the empty cups and bringing them over to the sink. She stood facing the window, looking out to the dark garden as she searched her memories for her last interactions with Rhimes. The SCU back then had been busy. It wasn’t unusual for Rhimes not to be in his office, as he was summoned for another meeting at New Scotland Yard. She felt her chest filling with both disappointment and betrayal. She willed herself not to cry.
‘Boss,’ said Ezra softly. ‘Are you ok?’
‘Yeah, yeah,’ Henley sniffed, picking up a tea towel and dabbing the corner of her eyes. ‘I’m fine but I’m not going to pretend I’m not surprised.’
‘You must have thought something was up if you were asking me to look into his… well all of this?’
‘It’s one thing to think it but it’s another thing to know it.’
‘I suppose it’s not the sort of thing you can talk about when you’re on a SCU curry night out. “Oi, Ezra, pass over the tandoori chicken and by the way did I tell you that I was going undercover?”.’
‘No, you’re right,’ Henley replied.
‘You told me to start with the investigation into his death, right?’
‘But you started with the money, which was a good strategy,’ said Henley. ‘But what about the investigation into his death?’
‘I’ve got the postmortem and CRIS report that was opened when they found him.’
‘What about his emails?’
‘His work email was shut down, but they should have archived it.’
‘Don’t do anything that will get you—’
‘You panic too much, boss. He also had a Yahoo email account but there was honestly nothing in there that looked suspicious.’
Ezra handed a memory stick to Henley. ‘Everything is on there. The bank accounts. His Yahoo account if you want to go through the emails for yourself. I’m going to move onto his phone records.’
‘Thank you, Ezra.’ Henley turned the memory stick around with her fingers. Its weight didn’t convey the gravity of Ezra’s revelations. She took her free hand and rubbed the throbbing vein in her temple. In that moment she wished she could have gone back. Back to that moment when Eloise had told her she believed that someone murdered her husband. She would have been stronger and told Eloise she was wrong. That it was time to move on.
‘I know what I’m asking of you is a lot,’ said Henley.
‘Don’t worry about it. I’m doing it because it’s for you and it’s him,’ Ezra said sadly. ‘Grief is the strangest of things.’
‘Yes, it is,’ agreed Henley as she looked across at the black-and-white photograph of her mum that had been taken a year before she died. The time that had passed didn’t lessen the loss.
‘Oh yeah, you’re going to find one more thing that doesn’t make sense on that memory stick,’ said Ezra.
‘Like what?’
‘The conclusion on the post-mortem report doesn’t match the cause of death on the death certificate.’
‘That can’t be right. I saw the death certificate myself because Eloise was in no fit state to register Rhimes’s death. Their son, Nicholas, agreed to do it but on the day, he was in bits and Pellacia and I took him to Bromley Registry office. The registrar even gave me a copy of Rhimes’s death certificate, not that I’ve got a clue what I’ve done with it, but I clearly remember what was in the cause of death box: carbon monoxide poisoning. The registrar had the conclusion of the post-mortem report and that’s what she told us.’
‘That’s not what’s written in the post-mortem report I’ve got,’ said Ezra.
