‘OK, good point. Not while Reggie’s here. It wouldn’t be fair.’
As she resumed reading, Grace leaned forward and picked up the iPhone from the table. It was Bruno’s phone, the one he had been looking at while crossing the road and fatally hit by a car. After the accident it had been seized by the Roads Policing Unit, and just returned to him yesterday via Aiden Gilbert. He’d spent much of last night looking through it, trying to understand what had so distracted his son that he’d walked out into the road in front of a car.
It seemed, from what Gilbert had told him, that at the moment of the collision, Bruno had been looking at a genealogy site. What was that about?
There was also a mystery text on the phone. It said:
Good to talk. Speak again soon?
It was from an unknown number. Probably nothing significant, he thought — hoped. Perhaps he should find out.
Cleo closed the magazine and put it down on the table, alongside their copy of The Week. ‘Interesting piece,’ she said. ‘I just looked at the forecast for tomorrow — it’s looking lovely. Shall we do something? Have an outing? I don’t think I can walk too far, but would be good to have a break while I still can.’
‘Sure, what are you thinking?’
‘A pub lunch, perhaps? How about the Ram at Firle or Rose Cottage at Alciston?’
‘Either would be great. Maybe take in a car boot sale first? We’ve not been to one in ages — we might find a few Christmas presents and some decorations for the tree; and Humphrey’s destroyed all his toys — we might pick up a few new ones for him to rip to bits!’
She beamed. ‘Sure, great idea. But let’s not buy a painting, eh?’
Glossary
ANPR — Automatic Number Plate Recognition. Roadside or mobile cameras that automatically capture the registration number of all cars that pass. It can be used to historically track which cars went past a certain camera, and can also create a signal for cars which are stolen, have no insurance or have an alert attached to them.
CID — Criminal Investigation Department. Usually refers to the divisional detectives rather than the specialist squads.
CSI — Crime Scene Investigators. Formerly SOCO (Scenes of Crime Officers). They are the people who attend crime scenes to search for fingerprints, DNA samples etc.
DIGITAL FORENSICS — The unit which examines and investigates computers and other digital devices.
HOLMES — Home Office Large Major Enquiry System. The national computer database used on all murders. It provides a repository of all messages, actions, decisions and statements, allowing the analysis of intelligence and the tracking and auditing of the whole enquiry. Can enable enquiries to be linked across force areas where necessary.
IOPC — Independent Office for Police Conduct.
MO — Modus Operandi (method of operation). The manner by which the offender has committed the offence. Often this can reveal unique features which allow crimes to be linked or suspects to be identified.
POLSA — Police Search Adviser.
SIO — Senior Investigating Officer. Usually a Detective Chief Inspector who is in overall charge of the investigation of a major crime such as murder, kidnap or rape.
Chart of Police Ranks
Police ranks are consistent across all disciplines and the addition of prefixes such as ‘detective’ (e.g. detective constable) does not affect seniority relative to others of the same rank (e.g. police constable).
