Syn (The Merseyside Crime Series Book 2) - Malcolm Hollingdrake (world of reading TXT) 📗

that it’s her voice. After this call it’s likely the phone was cloned. Carla requested his presence at the location where his car was found. We need to ascertain if she sent it, if it was recorded and whether she was dead at that point.’

Skeeter was ready to interrupt but decided to listen a little longer.

‘It’s clear that Carla Sharpe’s number may well have been cloned recently, possibly the same day she went missing. Our systems allow us to monitor the anomalies but as we were late in getting the permission, we can’t tell when that occurred. If that’s the case and the phone is cloned, the likelihood is it will be used either to send false information or inaccurate tracking info. This makes its use as evidence totally valueless to us but vital to whoever is holding it. Cloning for the benefit of receiving calls at someone else’s expense has pretty much disappeared as phones have become more sophisticated and equipment to perform the task expensive. If the person, however, has the SIM card then it’s a piece of cake as you can buy a SIM reader off eBay for a few quid.’

‘Spoofing?’ Tony asked knowing what the answer would likely be.

‘Right. As you know that means the number shown on someone’s caller ID is not the actual number that’s placing the call. A person can use their own phone and it mimics that of another person; they see the person’s name or image come on screen and believe it to be a call or message from them when it’s not. Again, it’s simply a case of pulling the identifiers off the hardware. It’s not illegal either in most cases.’

‘So, what you’re saying is that we’ve no way of tracking that phone?’

‘Not accurately, no. What’s important here is in the last hour we’ve managed to track some activity from Carla’s phone. Brief, but it was there. We can’t see what. It may even be from the other phone or the phone that was cloned. It’s one of the two if that makes sense. If there was activity, we at least have a heads-up.’

‘Why not get the provider to just block the number?’

‘Then it would be finished. We’d have nothing. At least this way we have some intelligence. We know someone has the phone or had the phone and we’ll be aware of any activity. The providers are co-operating fully and we know the phone’s not been destroyed.’

‘Thanks, from a technical dunce, that’s really helpful, I think.’ She touched his arm. ‘Anything you get.’ Turning to Skeeter April was about to ask a question but was brought up short.

‘Didn’t want to interrupt. According to the pathology report Carla Sharpe was dead before that message to Jennings was sent. Probably by six to eight hours.’

The room was momentarily silent.

‘Will there be murder number three? Was that flicker of phone activity a signal, another invitation the killer is sending out?’

If Stuart Groves were keeping any sort of log, then that meeting was one of the fastest he had achieved in recent months. He believed he had conducted himself professionally but felt a twinge of guilt that he had not given the client his full attention. In his defence, it had to be said, he had not sold him any services he did not require. A future date for that had been pencilled in the diary. Signing out, he smiled at Marcia. ‘See you in an hour or so. It’s non-stop today!’

Looking at the group’s diary she could see he did not have a further appointment until later. She smiled. ‘You have an appointment at four … Yes? Non-stop, right!’

He interpreted her tone and blushed slightly.

The red Audi A3 estate burbled into life and headed down the short driveway. It would be five minutes before he would arrive at the multistorey carpark on Tulketh Street. It sat at the end of a one-way system. Glancing at the back seat he smiled in anticipation.

As far as carparks went, this was generally spacious, the parking places numerous and generous. It was the upper storey, the one open to the sky he wanted. Driving up the ramp the camera recorded the registration. He would need to find a pay booth later in order to leave without incurring a fine. Midweek, there were few cars up there and those that were would have arrived early and would leave late. At the far corner, behind part of the building that towered above the upper-level brick parapet, was one large parking place. Again, owing to the distance from the exit it was seldom used. Stuart drove across the deserted roof area. The parking space was empty. He reversed in so the car’s rear section was completely out of view. Remaining in the car he would watch for Carla. He was five minutes early. He watched as gulls called and circled before settling momentarily on the tarmac. It never ceased to amaze him how large and aggressive these birds were.

April briefed the impromptu meeting.

‘As you’re all aware, DCI Mason has successfully managed to obtain a forty-eight-hour reporting restriction on Carla Sharpe’s death. Primarily it gives us time to locate her next of kin and secondly, and more importantly, for operational reasons. We now have a list of all the friends linked in the contacts of the following people: Rodgers, Smith, Jennings, Sutch and Sharpe herself. The last two were taken from their computer hardware. I’m going to question Briggs again today. If he were so infatuated with Sharpe, enough to take her name, then he might just know more than he’s letting on.’

Skeeter’s face broke out in a huge smile. She had forgotten about the hunch she had felt when they had spoken with him earlier.

‘Anyone not interviewed from those lists, I want someone round to see them and I want it done sooner rather than later. Tony, you’re coming with me to see Carlos. We’ll not forewarn. Kasum, Lucy and Fred get the list sorted