The Escape (Detective Jane Sparrow Book 2) (13 page)

Jane got ready for work in record time and they headed of to the station. Perry followed her in, as he wanted to check with Ian and Eric which of the associations of Thaddeus they were going to be talking to. Jane could hear Perry calling off the names of the ones he knew, especially the ones who had bosses that he knew well. It sometimes still scared Jane how well Perry was connected in that world. But he wasn’t dealing anymore he was working as a consultant for the police when it came down to it and he will eventually be working on giving talks to local schools, colleges and university kids.

“Ok Ian, Eric you best gather your team and get going I’m sorry you have a lot of footwork to do today but stay together, check in regular and be safe.”

             
“Detective I will be going with them. I will take charge of re-routing all the information we collect in the field to you so you can investigate more on any probative Intel we gather. I will keep your team safe and make sure they check in regularly.”

“That will be great Sir thank you. Perry you have your list of people that you can talk to help. Me and Amy are only going to be going to the supermarket to collect the CCTV footage and then we will be back here to run point for the in flow of information. We’ve all got our jobs to do so lets go to work and make Thaddeus world a whole lot smaller.”

Perry came over and gave Jane a quick kiss goodbye and told her to be extra careful before he shot off to get on with his list of jobs. Ian managed to sneak in a quick peck on Amy with a small rub on her belly before the Superintendent noticed. Jane thought that it was quite sweet that he was willing to risk it to show Amy that he cared. Amy by this point was a little red in the face with embarrassment as neither of them had ever shown signs of affection in front of the rest of the team before.

“Ok Amy gets on to the bomb unit for me. Let them know we are going to be fielding them information across the whole of today regarding purchase of materials Thaddeus could use to make a bomb. We need to know with the said materials how many and what kind of devices he could be making. I am going to get onto the supermarket and let them know we are going to be coming. We also need to sort out at some point for somebody to go talk to the man that helped Thaddeus learn about bombs. I’ll speak to the prison warden and perhaps arrange for something tomorrow for one of us to talk to Kyle McManus.”

              “Ok I’ll get on it. I’ll call forensics as well chase up some of the information that we have been waiting on. And I’ll get on to the Doc for the awaiting toxicology reports.”

“Ok I’ll let the supermarket know were be there in about an hour.”

Jane went over to her desk to use her phone when she found that she had answer phone messages. One of the many things she used to take for granted that Jack did that she would now have to get used to doing for herself.

“Amy I have some messages hold off ringing the doc and forensics they may have been them that left them.”

Jane pressed play and waited she had two messages one was indeed from Doctor Dave Berry the coroner. Telling her she needed to call as he had new evidence relating to her case. The second was once again from him. Left at two thirty three in the morning Jane went cold and covered in goose bumps as it played he didn’t say a word he was just laughing.

              “Ignore it rise above him Jane. He is just taunting you. Leave it on there I’ll be able to save it to keep it for evidence. If you take over calling the good coroner, I’ll get onto the phone company because we both know they love me after our first conversation. And I’ll see if I can trace where that call came from.”

“Thanks Amy.”

Jane shook of the cold sweat that she was trying to break out in. Now was not the time to be freaking out. Now was the time to get to work. Jane started with the supermarket and spoke with the ever-helpful manager their Chris Everton. The manager offered to start finding the security tapes they may need for them straight away from all possible angles he had covering the car park area. The chief warden at the prison was next on her list and he was more than willing for any member of Jane’s team to go to his prison to speak to the inmate when ever most convenient for them. The prisoner in question would be placed in holding, basically solitary confinement, until that time when Jane could get to talk to him. Jane was hoping it would make him more willing to talk when they got there. Plus he wasn’t limited so much on his outside contact with the world so he could still be helping Thaddeus build his devices in which case Jane wanted that cut off.

Jane’s next phone call was to the coroner’s office Jane was intrigued to find out what had got the doc so excited with new evidence on the message.

“Hey Dave you left a message what’s the new evidence you got for me. I hope it’s not as horrible as the last.”

             
“Well it shouldn’t upset your stomach as much but horrible in a sense. I got the toxicology results back for our victims. They both had LSD in their systems. So it caused me to take another look at the bodies and I found small but distinguishable puncture marks to the top of the neck in the occipital region. Not a place you could inject yourself in for recreational use so it was definitely there killer.”

“LSD really well what does that mean?”

              “Lysergic acid diethylamide it’s a powerful hallucinogenic drug.”

“I know that Dave I meant what does it mean for our victims?”

              “Right you’re a Detective of course you knew that. Thaddeus probably used it to drive up the fear level. When used in a hostile situation like it was it could create a powerful distortion in their perception creating a very unpleasant affect.”

“How awful for them it must have made the whole situation with removal of liver and eyelids even worse for the both of them. But silver lining for the investigation we can hopefully track the purchase. How much are we talking Doc?”

              “Well he would of needed to purchase quite a large amount. It reaches half-life within the system between three and five hours. So say for our case half life was reached at five hours when the blood samples were taken for Helen Moore it had been twelve hours since her death so she only had ten micrograms showing in her system still. Where as Jack it had only been four hours from time of death when I took the samples and he had forty micrograms left in his system. The threshold for that drug is only between twenty and thirty micrograms. So at the time of administration I’d estimate that they were injected with about double that say sixty micrograms each.”

“Wow ok that is a lot. Thanks Dave I’ll look into it. Let me know if you get anything else.”

              “That should be it for me now. Forensics will let you know any other information like the tasers and white powder and about the extra piece of tissue found in the stomach. That is of course unless we get another body.”

“Lets hope not. Thanks Dave.”

Amy came of the phone at the same time. The bomb unit was all prepped to receive the information throughout the day and they were aware of the kind of information they wanted back. Forensics was going to be faxing over the results they have for the taser, numeric code, the white powder substance from Helen Moore’s hair and the extra tissue sample found in her stomach contents. The phone company had traced the call that came in at two thirty three to another payphone, different from the first one. So Amy was going to look in the system later to find its location and add it to the board of movements for Thaddeus.

Jane and Amy headed on out to the supermarket to meet with the manager Chris Everton to collect the CCTV tapes. When they arrived at the store they found that it was quite a large Morrison shop with what Jane could see at least three cameras on the outside perimeter of the store that could of collected a view of the kidnapping.

“Hi there I’m looking for the manager Chris Everton?”

             
“That would be me I take it you’re the Detective I spoke to in regards for the security tapes. I collected all the ones you needed and have them right here. The only member of staff that could have been in the vicinity at the time to see anything would have been our trolley collector. His name is Hal Walpole. He isn’t on duty today so I collected his contact details in case you wanted to speak to him as well.”

“That’s perfect. Thank you for all of your help. We will call if we need anything else.”

              “Please do any way in which we can aid your investigation into the matter we will do our best?"

“Once again thank you for your speediness and cooperation. Take care.”

With that Jane and Amy left the supermarket to head back to the station both hoping that there was going to be some more information waiting for them there. Jane was feeling a little bit strange from leaving the Supermarket it was a feeling she couldn’t quite explain. She was shocked it had been so quick and easy to get what they needed. It was like her brain couldn’t quite catch up.

              “Wow I wish all people were that helpful and speedy at cooperating.”

“I know right?”

              “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know its left me feeling a little strange. Nothing in an investigation is ever that easy when a large company is involved. Especially when it comes to the procurement of information normally they are all concerned with protocol and legal procedure.”

              “That’s true. Well you have been a Detective long enough to know when to trust your gut. If something doesn’t feel right question it look into the manager of the shop if you have to. But to be fair they probably don’t want it making it to the news that this is where she went missing from.”

“Your right Amy. Come on let’s get back to the station. We have lots to do.”

Chapter 11

Jane and Amy made it back to the station and found that they had several faxes waiting for them that they had been expecting from forensics. The crime scene techs had indeed found the numeric code confetti at the scene consistent with a two-prong taser. That is an x2 police issue sidearm. On the confetti they found the code 99924 so it was definitely registered to a police officer. But they would need to look into their own internal database to see which one was carrying that specific handset. The results were also in for the extra piece of tissue that was found in the victim’s stomach. It was too degraded to do a full DNA profile or to even compare it to the sample of Thaddeus DNA that was in the system. But what they could get was that it came from a Caucasian male, which is consistent. They had also managed to identify the white powder substance that showed up in the victim’s hair. The analysis completed by the trace department came back as a burn off from a factory that makes household cleaning, laundry and other such products.

“Really burn off from a factory that produces those kind of products. The only one in the area is Proctor and Gamble.”

              “That’s true. But is there any where near there where you have the privacy and the ability to be able to hang someone. I thought it was all commercial buildings around there.”

“There is a wooded area of to the side. It’s behind another commercial building that I suppose if he went to the centre of the wooded area he would be safe from view.”

              “Ok well shall I get a unit and some crime scene techs over there to go check it out. They might be able to find the tree. The bark should show wearing marks like a rope burn from where he had her lashed up.”

“Yeah call it in Thaddeus may have left us some more clues over there as well. I’m going to ring the maintenance for my apartment block see if I can get the tapes for the car park CCTV footage sent over. I best check my emails as well. Eric sent me a text to check in. Everything is going well the Superintendent apparently has sent us some things to look into.”

              “Ok well once I have called this through I’ll start on the tapes from the supermarket.”

“Thanks Amy.”

Jane spoke to the supervisor of the maintenance company he assured Jane he would have somebody bring the CCTV footage they need over within the hour. Jane checked her emails there were several there from the Superintendent. All containing multiple pieces of information regarding the purchasing of materials that Thaddeus had made that could make explosive devices. Most of it made no sense to Jane so she forwarded all of the emails regarding purchases over to the bomb unit for their analysis. Jane would let them work out what’s probative. And how many devices it means Thaddeus is capable of producing.