Jamie’s picture was projected onto the whiteboard behind Kelly’s head. The photo they used was a professional one. In it he beamed at the camera, as if preparing for a high-level meeting about funding for his first big gig. He looked innocent and earnest. His teeth shone, his hair was neat, his shirt was crisp, and he looked as though you could trust him with anyone’s daughter, or half a million pounds. The squeaky-clean image didn’t marry with the porn haul though, and it worried her. Something about his character didn’t add up.
‘Don’t let looks fool you,’ Kelly said. ‘His bosses suspected significant recreational drug use, also he was ruffling a few feathers in the industry.’
She tapped a few keys and links came up behind her on the whiteboard. One of them was the solicitor’s emails referencing several litigation claims about corporate manslaughter. Another was a photo of Joe Folly.
Kelly considered the jobs she’d dish out to her team today and studied her little band of trusty combatants. Within budgets squeezed as tight as a courtesan’s corset, and morale as low as the tide in Morecambe Bay when the cockles come up to feed, anyone willing to commit to the task was, in her book, a hero.
Emma Hide was her young feisty terrier, but she was intelligent too and that surprised and disarmed people. Dan was her Glaswegian hound who couldn’t be knocked off a scent. Fin was all Irish charm (didn’t she know it), with a serious underbelly of grit. Kate held them together like the mother hen she was, and Kelly steered the ship.
‘Meet the DiggerMan,’ she said.
They stared at her.
‘You know him?’ she asked.
Dan and Emma nodded.
‘He’s brilliant, he talks about the most amazing stuff and he’s got millions of followers,’ Emma said.
Kelly felt old and out of touch and wondered where her youth had gone. Earning a wage and raising a child, she guessed. Perhaps the DiggerMan was somebody she might have followed before she grew up, when she lived in London with her flatmates in Bow Wharf.
‘I was researching all these influencer types and he popped up. He’s got a lot to say about Hampton-Dent and I think he’s worth looking into. On one of his YouTube videos he publicly appealed to Jamie Robbins to be a guest on his podcast.’
She waited for the information to sink in. They were beasts of a different realm nowadays, with the onslaught of the digital space, and policework couldn’t ignore it.
‘Dan, Emma, I have no idea how to find a podcaster who is a digital nomad and could be anywhere in the world, and who might not want to be found. This guy is almost invisible. Litigators can’t even pin him down and Hampton-Dent are eager to silence him for some reason. I want you to find him.’
‘On it, boss,’ they said together.
‘Fin, I’m leaving it to you to chase forensics; there are a few results I want ASAP.’
‘Didn’t you say people heard him cry out, boss?’ Fin asked.
‘Yes, exactly. The coroner wants a full picture before he’ll rule one way or the other. I’m expecting results for fibres from the hotel bed, fingerprints from items in his room as well as his luggage. The smashed glass has been dusted and we need to trawl through any CCTV to look for anyone wearing a purple scarf during the event. And then there were the muddy shoe prints inside his bathroom that didn’t match his own, they looked like CAT Boots to me. Jamie was a size eight and these were much bigger; the SOCO thought about a size ten or larger. The porn has been sent to specialists. We’re hoping to find some kind of source for the hefty collection. It seems like overkill to me. Why drag all that to a hotel for a four-day event?’
More additions popped up on the board as she tapped her computer.
‘How long are we expecting the tox results to take, boss?’ Emma asked.
Kelly shrugged. ‘The coroner has called the lab to expedite. I’m heading off to chat to him after he’s finished with the autopsy.’
She drew breath.
The lack of sleep and the buzz in her head about her research made her twitchy and she fiddled with the ruby ring on her right hand. Being so close to a pregnant woman, and the fact that Water Nymph had carried a child too, made her sentimental.
‘So. Water Nymph.’
A picture of a grey squirrel appeared on the whiteboard alongside the young woman with porcelain skin and stained fingers. It was greeted by a ripple of good-natured laughter.
‘This is Skippy. Found alongside the deceased.’
A sachet ofYouthBlastpopped up at Kelly’s bidding and she tapped on her computer keys.
‘No ID. She was dressed plainly and could be waiting staff. We’re appealing to all Lakes hotels for missing person reports, starting with ones in a ten-mile radius. Autopsy confirmed sexual assault. She was also pregnant.’
She let the news sink in. Emma hadn’t officially informed her of her pregnancy yet but there was silence and Kelly saw Dan reach under the table to find Emma’s hand.
‘Now, you should have all received a separate brief on the business interests of Jamie Robbins. This is his product.’
