‘Indeed I have. I was listening to them just last night. Great band.’
‘Well, there was a lot of web activity connected with them, including set lists for all the concerts they’ve ever played along with quite a lot of downloads. I must say I was quite astounded when I saw how many there were. In fact, Mr Miller seemed quite addicted to rock and roll in general, with a real passion for vinyl music sites.’
The emphatic distaste with which Liam pronounced the words ‘rock and roll’ was hard to miss. Music began and ended with opera, as far as he was concerned, and he and Banks had had a number of disagreements on the subject. Luckily, Colin was a bit more broad-minded and was at least fond of some jazz, just as long as it didn’t get too adventurous or discordant. Early, not late, John Coltrane. Cool Miles, not funky. Bix and Louis even better. ‘What do you mean by web activity?’ Banks asked.
‘The usual. Downloads, file sharing, discussion groups, blogs, tweets, chatrooms, threads, message boards, eBay, Craigslist, esoteric memorabilia sites, you name it. Nothing illegal, unless you count the file sharing and the occasional illegally downloaded bootleg recording.’ Liam passed him a print of the screen capture. ‘This was the page that was showing when he last closed the lid of the laptop. I don’t know whether it means anything.’
Banks took the photo from Liam. ‘Any idea what time?’
‘He logged off the desktop at 7.45 Sunday evening, but that doesn’t mean he went out immediately to meet his death.’
‘Point taken,’ said Banks. ‘We think it was later than that, anyway, and someone was seen leaving the car park in Coverton around half past ten. It just helps us pinpoint the timing a bit more accurately.’
‘Ah, one of those detective thingies.’
‘That’s right.’ Banks read the printed sheet. It was a simple Wikipedia article about the music of 1972, listing the albums released in that year. Banks remembered 1972. He had been living in Notting Hill and attending London Polytechnic, studying for his Higher National Diploma in Business Studies. Glancing down the page, he was surprised to find that Credence, Them and the Velvet Underground had all split up that year, and that the first album to be released was Jamming With Edward. He handed the sheet back to Liam. ‘Jamming With Edward, indeed,’ he said.
‘I assume you’ve heard of it?’
‘Yes,’ said Banks. ‘It was something to do with the Rolling Stones.’
‘There’s a lot of late 1971 and early 1972 in his recent memory. Top movies, current events, bestselling LPs, politics, what books were being read, that sort of thing. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Be Here Now, The Dice Man. Specific searches on movies such as A Clockwork Orange, Get Carter, 10 Rillington Place. And vinyl LPs like Rainbow Bridge, Harvest, Tupelo Honey. Whatever they are.’
‘Music, Liam. Music.’
‘If you say so. And what does all this add up to, oh great detective?’
‘Wish I knew,’ said Banks. ‘That he was interested in 1972? I’ve had a quick look around his home and his vinyl and DVD collections, too. It’s similar to what you found on his computer. I get the impression that our Mr Miller lived in a bit of a fantasy world since he lost his job. Or in the past. He satisfied his needs with DVDs and online porn and chatrooms. Definite loner. Anorak.’
‘No wonder he was a loner if he was sitting around at home listening to rock and roll records and watching porn. Who’d want to share that with him?’
‘Everyone needs a hobby, Liam. If he was searching all this 1972 stuff on his computer, maybe he was on a nostalgia fishing trip, searching for something from his past, reminding himself what happened back then? He certainly didn’t seem to have much going for him in his life around the time he died. He would have been at university back then. He was at Essex from 1971 to 1974, so 1971 to 1972 would have coincided with his first year. Maybe it was his annus mirabilis? His first great love? Or he could have been doing research for something. A book, or an article, maybe? You said he wrote pieces for fanzines and what have you now and then?’
‘Some film review sites and book reviews, yes.’
‘Were there any visits to suicide sites, assisted death, that sort of thing?’
‘None.’
‘Any other recent searches?’
‘Much of the same, really, music, current events, film, books, including a few for ’73 and ’74. Could they have any connection with his death?’
‘If they do,’ said Banks, ‘I’ve no idea what it might be yet, but I’ll make a note of it. As I said, those were the years he was at university.’
‘Perhaps he met an old friend who stirred it all up?’
‘Perhaps.’
‘Or maybe he was meeting someone to buy or sell some sort of rare, forbidden Grateful Dead bootleg recording?’
‘I doubt that there are any. The Grateful Dead have put out just about every concert they ever played in one format or another, mostly for free. It’s a novel idea, though, Liam, someone murdered in a rare Grateful Dead bootleg deal gone wrong. I like it.’
‘Well, what would I know? I’m just a civilian.’
‘Let’s leave the speculation behind for the time being. Have you had a chance to work on the mobile yet?’
‘We’re still processing the SIM card, but I wouldn’t expect too much more. We did get a list of the recent calls made and received, along with the scratch pad numbers. It’s just a cheap phone, not a smartphone, or anything fancy like that, so there’s no email or web browsing. He didn’t seem to do texts, and there aren’t very many calls, which makes our job a lot easier.’ He passed Banks a sheet of paper. In the week before his murder he had made only three calls and received two. Before that, there were a few more to or from different numbers scattered about but, as Stefan Nowak had said, not very many.
‘Not much to go on, is it?’ Banks said.
‘I guess you could say our Mr Miller was definitely not a party animal. It’s a pay-as-you-go mobile, and his last top-up was five months ago, for a tenner. He’s still got four pounds sixty pence left. I know people who would go through that in an hour.’
‘So he lived his life online?’
‘So it appears. What there was of it. Sorry.’
‘And the photos?’
‘Just photos. I can’t say exactly how old they are, but they’re not digital. Some of them look to be late sixties or early seventies to me, judging by the architecture and what people were wearing. As far as we can tell so far, they’re all over twenty years old, anyway. The last ones were probably taken outside some college or other in the late eighties. Maybe where he got his first teaching job. Anyway, we’re getting them scanned, and you’ll have copies as soon as we can. We’ll be checking the originals for prints, of course, like the envelope and the money, but I wouldn’t expect too much.’
‘Too bad,’ said Banks. He held up the sheet. ‘Can I keep this?’
‘It’s your copy. Take this, too. We got it from the computer. It might come in useful.’
It was a head-and-shoulders shot of Miller. From the background, it was clearly taken by the computer’s built-in camera: straggly goatee, slightly hostile, lined face, deep-set eyes, thinning, longish hair. Banks thanked Liam and headed back to his office.
Chapter 3
There weren’t many shops on Coverton High Street. On one side stood a row of detached houses set back behind low stone walls or fences and hedges, most with trees and well-tended gardens. Each house was unique; and one even had an octagonal clock tower attached. Banks guessed it was probably an old converted schoolhouse. All were built from local limestone, with the occasional dark seam of gritstone in a lintel or a cornice. Where the row of houses ended, across from the entrance to the car park, there was about six feet of grass before the narrow drive that led down to the Old Station. The station, empty for years, had recently been converted into a combination café and gift shop, the kind of place that smells of potpourri and scented candles, and some of its wall space had been given over to exhibitions of works by local artists. Behind the station, on the road that ran at a right angle to the high street, stood the Star & Garter, a low-roofed, whitewashed building. No doubt, in spring and summer, hanging baskets of geraniums would festoon its facade, but in the grip of a wet and chilly November, it was noticeably bare and unwelcoming.