‘Yes,’ Butchers said.
‘Marjorie Keysham’s prescription was cashed in by Halliwell at Picket’s pharmacy, near the nursing home,’ Shap said. ‘The pharmacy say it’s not uncommon for a GP to pop in with prescriptions. But the actual prescription was for three times the amount that Halliwell entered on the computer records when he got back to work.’
‘And no-one compares the two amounts?’ Richard said.
‘Apparently not,’ Shap said. ‘The only way he’d be found out is if another doctor got called out to the patient, and discovered there’d been no visit, and they’d not had any medicine. Like I did.’
‘What about the drugs budget,’ the boss said, ‘that must have been on the high side?’
‘If he’s been at it for years then it might not be that obvious,’ Richard said.
‘What was Halliwell doing with the drugs?’ the boss said.
‘Flogging them,’ Shap said.
‘Who to?’ the boss said. ‘Find that out and maybe that will lead us to his murderer.’
Chapter 33
Back in the incident room, Janine was trying to work out a narrative that fit the evidence to date using Richard as her sounding board. ‘Halliwell and Aaron Matthews were known to each other, Halliwell was his GP. We know Halliwell was stealing drugs and we also know Matthews’ gun killed him. Add in Matthews’ history…’
‘A drug deal gone sour?’ Richard said.
‘It’s a possibility,’ Janine said. ‘And our Dr Halliwell is not exactly the upstanding pillar of the community we thought he was.’
‘Boss. I’ve got the Range Rover, Monday.’
Lisa had been scrolling through CCTV footage of traffic on the high street for Monday and Tuesday evening looking for the Range Rover.
She lined up the footage and played it for them to watch it driving down the high street from the west and then turning off out of view, towards the surgery.
‘Ten to six,’ Lisa said. ‘That’s the only one that matches Dr Gupta’s description, and the time’s right.’
‘Tenner says it’s a knock-off job,’ Shap said, ‘the gang will have used it to run a recce, done the job, then torched it.’
‘The job being to steal Halliwell’s briefcase and the diamorphine?’ Janine said. ‘I don’t know. Yes, the doctor is stealing drugs but the overall amount is chicken feed, a gang dealing in drugs is going to want a much bigger consignment.’
‘Maybe we are back to a splinter group,’ Richard said, ‘youngsters flexing their muscles.’
‘Or Aaron Matthews is a junkie and somehow finds out he can rip off his family doctor for the goods,’ Shap said.
‘How would he find out,’ Janine said, ‘we’ve only just stumbled on it. It’s obviously been the good doctor’s secret for a considerable time.’
Lisa shrugged, ‘I wouldn’t have said Matthews was a junkie.’
‘Tell by looking, can you?’ Shap said.
‘Nothing to show that at his flat, no obvious physical signs,’ Lisa said.
‘And Tuesday?’ Janine said, gesturing to the screen.
‘Nothing,’ Lisa said, ‘this vehicle wasn’t in the area anywhere close to the time of the shooting – not on the tapes and it would have had to pass this camera to reach the surgery.’
Janine sighed, finding the car in the vicinity on the Monday but not on the Tuesday was disappointing.
‘Can we get the plate?’ Richard nodded at the frozen image of the Range Rover.
Lisa wound the tape until the vehicle could be seen from the front and zoomed in. ‘Check it for registered keeper.’
‘It’ll be a knock off,’ Shap repeated.
Lisa accessed the database and typed in the registration number. The screen loaded with the registered owner details.
‘Neil Langan?’ Richard said.
Janine felt a kick in her chest. ‘Langan? We’ve a Dawn Langan. Practice nurse.’
‘Same address?’ Janine asked.
Shap checked Dawn’s details. ‘Yes.’
‘What was Mr Langan doing lurking outside his wife’s place of work on Monday?’ Janine said.
‘Well, he wasn’t giving her a lift home,’ Richard said.
‘Butchers said Dawn was a bit off with him,’ Shap told them, ‘hiding something? She must be sweating cobs.’
Janine rang Butchers at the surgery and explained the situation. Tasked him with speaking to Dawn Langan and establishing her husband’s whereabouts.
‘Dawn, can I have a word?’ Butchers said. ‘It’s actually Neil I hoped to talk to. Is he at home?’
‘No,’ she froze.
‘At work?’
‘No.’
Butchers waited. Dawn’s eyes flicked all over the place.
‘Is that usual?’ Butchers said, ‘Him being off the radar?’
She looked like she’d break, trembling, her chin wobbling, ponytail shivering.
‘Where is he, Dawn?’ Butchers said gently.
‘I don’t know where he is,’ she blurted out, ‘he’s not been into the sorting office. And his phone’s off.’
‘Was he at home in the early hours of Tuesday morning?’ Butchers said, thinking about the attack on Halliwell’s car.
Dawn looked away, as if she daren’t meet Butchers eyes. ‘No,’ she whispered.
‘What about Tuesday evening, around six thirty?’
She didn’t answer. Butchers could hear her breath, jerky and uneven.
‘And you didn’t think to tell us?’ Butchers said. Missing at the time of the murder. ‘Why’s that then?’ He picked up his phone.
‘Because this is nothing to do with him,’ she said vehemently, ‘even if he found out about us, he’d never hurt anybody. Neil is not a murderer. No way.’
‘Whoah!’ Butchers said, ‘Stop right there.’ Found out about us? ‘Who’s ‘us’?
Dawn Langan burst into tears. It was a good five minutes before Butchers could get any sense out of her. And when he did the whole picture changed.
Chapter 34
They were searching for Neil Langan: using the automatic number plate recognition system to look for sightings of his car, following procedures to get access to his phone records, and liaising with his bank so they could track him when he used his cards.
‘So,’ Shap marvelled, ‘Dawn Langan and Don Halliwell, playing doctors and nurses.’
‘And when Neil Langan finds out…’ Janine said.
‘He smashes up Halliwell’s car…’ Shap said.
‘And then shoots him,’ Richard said.
It was a strong motive and Janine knew that jealousy was a very powerful emotion. Being betrayed, cuckolded, dumped, drove people to kill. A minority to be sure – otherwise the murder rate would be phenomenal. She remembered her own sense of shock when she caught Pete cheating, the numbness giving way to a mix of cold fury and deep sadness. That Pete could risk it all, their marriage, their life as a family, daily contact with his children, for the thrill of sex. Janine was hurt even more when Pete chose Tina and left Janine, who was expecting their fourth child, on her own.
She had fantasized about hurting him, humiliating him, called down all sorts of catastrophes and punishments but that was all they were.
So, had Neil Langan, a postman married to the practice nurse, a man with no criminal record, been driven to act with such brutality? Violence against property was a very different matter than violence against the person. What had he thought? That if he shot Halliwell, put him out of action, that he might be able to win back his errant wife? Hardly. Janine imagined that if Langan had killed Halliwell it would’ve been done in a blur of hatred and rage, with no thought of the far-reaching consequences of his actions.
‘He just happens to carry a handgun in his postie’s bag?’ Janine said. ‘He goes from a clean sheet to criminal damage and murder in twenty four hours?’
‘He’s there on the Monday, casing the joint, planning it,’ Shap said.