A/N : Thank you dear reviewers once again for taking the time to write a review. I can't express in words how much I appreciate it.
Chapter 12William McKluskey was sweating. His mouth was dry and he felt sick to his stomach. He looked around the drab, grey interrogation room, at the plain steel table bolted to the floor, at the young man bouncing lightly from foot to foot consulting a large buff folder and then back at the table.
"Just start at the beginning and tell us the truth." Danny could almost smell the man's fear. He knew he was close to cracking. Danny glanced briefly at the two way window. Even though he couldn't see Jo and Don, he knew that Jo was nodding. Time to turn up the pressure. Danny spun around and slammed a photograph onto the table making the man flinch.
"Joshua Wilson, security guard with Hever Security. Died in a fire at a warehouse on Lambert Road five years ago."
William McKluskey glanced at the picture and returned his attention to the table.
"Five years ago you were also a security guard with Hever before you got the supervisor job at Ascot."
William McKluskey's head shot up. "I had nothing to do with that – I wasn't even there..."
"No you weren't because you were involved in a car crash and Joshua Wilson was a last-minute replacement." Danny slapped another photograph on the table.
"Samuel Wilson, Joshua's brother, killed in a fire at Detective Taylor's apartment." Bang, another photograph appeared. William McKluskey licked his lips nervously. "Detective Mac Taylor. Assaulted. Look at his face! This was done by you and Mickey Brewster."
William McKluskey looked at the photograph in horror. "No I had nothing to do with that. I swear. I have never hurt anybody. That was all Mickey. I swear!… Please … don't let them hurt my wife. Please."
Danny almost felt sorry for the man in front of him. He knew what it was like to have your family threatened. He softened his tone a little. "Mr McKluskey, Mickey Brewster is behind bars. We have evidence linking him to the assault on Detective Taylor. He is going to prison and he isn't going to hurt anyone. Tell me who he was working with and how you're involved."
William McKluskey rubbed his hands across his face and looked at Danny, resignation all over his face. It was all falling apart and he knew it. In a way he was relieved. It had all gone too far. "We were just supposed to steal some stuff. Nobody was gonna get hurt. You have to believe me."
"Go on." Danny sighed with relief. Finally they were getting somewhere.
"At the beginning we just lifted a few small items from the storage facilities. Just me and Mickey. You know, a few clock radios, them games consoles. They were put down as natural loss, you know inventory errors, breakages and such but then we planned the Lambert Road job. When we realised what was going to be there Mickey wanted to take more but I told him... we couldn't, we'd get caught. Nobody notices small amounts but anything bigger ... Mickey said that if the warehouse was torched no one would know."
"So Mickey Brewster deliberately set fire to the warehouse?"
"No, not Mickey. I helped steal the stuff and he sold it on via some guy he knows who's got an outlet store out of town. He said there would be an investigation if they suspected arson. It had to look like an accident but he knew someone who could do that."
"Who?"
"I don't know!" At Danny's look of annoyance McKluskey placed both hands on the table and leaned forward. "I swear to you I do not know. He never told me the name of the guy who set the fires. He only ever turned up after we shifted the stuff. I swear to you I never even saw him."
Danny frowned. "So the other fires while you were working for Ascot were also deliberate?"
McKluskey nodded "Yeah, after the Lambert Road scheme worked I moved to Ascot. I provided the where and the when. What inventory was going to be shipped in, when, the plans to the warehouse security systems. I fixed the cameras to show nothing and I made sure that Jones and Martinez were the security guards assigned. Mickey took care of everything else."
"Jones and Martinez?"
"Because I was supervisor I had to remain at the office. We had to have security guards who were in in on it. Mickey provided the names and I ensured they got hired. Alvin Jones and Jimmy Martinez. Jimmy was on the rota for last night's fire."
Jo glanced at Don.
"I'm on it. I'll call you …." As he left Jo's phone rang.
"Yes Sheldon. Okay. We'll be right there." She hung up and rapped on the window three times.
x
x
As Jo and Danny approached the conference room they could see Sheldon talking animatedly to Adam and Lindsay. Lindsay was looking shocked.
"Hey Babe! What's up?" Danny's voice was full of concern to see the anguish on his wife's face.
"Danny! Oh God Danny! We think Jake Barnett may be involved."
Danny stopped abruptly. "Jake Barnett? Are you kidding me? We've worked together ..." Danny wasn't able to finish his sentence. His mind was working overtime. "We … we first met at the Lambert Road fire. Mac and I worked that case together … No! No!" Danny's face was full of denial as William McKluskey's words echoed in his mind. "... there would be an investigation if they suspected arson. It had to look like an accident but he knew someone who could do that..." Who better than a fire service investigator?
Jo could sense how distressed everyone was. "Let's sit down. Jake Barnett is the fire service investigator that is in charge of the fire at Mac's right? What evidence do we have that he is involved?"
Lindsay sat down at the conference table with Danny beside her. "The only people that were present when Mac opened the safe and took out the box were Don, Danny and myself. The only people who knew that the photographs were in the safe were Samuel Wilson and the two men who attacked Mac. Wilson is dead, Brewster has an alibi for the night of the fire which leaves the third man ..."
Adam began to sing the theme tune from the film as he tapped on the console at the end of the conference room. Everyone glared at him. "The third man … Jake Barnett. He was at Mac's apartment."
"No Adam, he left as we arrived." Danny was still in denial. He didn't want to believe that a colleague, a friend even, was involved.
"Sorry Danny but he was still there when I arrived. I bumped into him in the hallway. He was stood right outside Mac's door." Adam glanced at Danny. "And then there's this!"
Everyone turned to face the monitor at the end of the room. Adam brought up a fire service photo ID of Jake Barnett and then next to it the photograph taken by Samuel Wilson outside the bar with the blue neon cocktail sign.
"Okay this is the photograph that shows Mickey Brewster talking to our third man. I can't get facial details but I can ..." he paused as he tapped a few keys " … isolate his profile ..." A portion of the photograph expanded to fill the screen thus eliminating Mickey Brewster from the picture "...sharpen the edge ..." The photograph began to look more like a silhouette. "And now with a little magic from Mr Barnett's biometric ID … voilà!"
With a flourish, Adam hit a key. Green lines appeared on top the photograph of Jake Barnett tracing the contours of his face. Forming a 3D image, they rotated 90 degrees and moved over the top of the silhouette.
The room was silent. The profiles from the two photographs were a perfect match.
