‘Or medals, too,’ the Master said. ‘Not getting a medal when someone else does, that can be a big source of resentment. Over what time period do you want?’
‘If you can go back ten years — I would think anyone harbouring a grudge who’s planning some kind of revenge would act within a decade. How long had Sir Peregrine worked for the Royal Household?’
‘Gosh, I can check — but around twelve years.’
‘He was in the Royal Navy?’
‘Correct. He was a good and brave man. Terrible loss.’
They were interrupted by Grace’s job phone ringing. Raising an apologetic hand he answered. ‘Roy Grace.’
It was EJ Boutwood. ‘Sir, we’ve just had a call from the witness who saw the motorcyclist on the Downs. She’s just remembered the second digit of the motorbike’s licence plate.’
‘Brilliant!’ Grace said. ‘That will greatly help with narrowing the field on the ANPR search. Have we got a time agreed with her for her cognitive interview?’
‘We have, sir: 2.30 p.m. tomorrow. Alec Butler and Velvet Wilde will be conducting it.’
Grace thanked the DC and ended the call. Then he updated the Master. ‘Good news, potentially. It seems like our key witness has remembered further information.’
‘Your key witness? This lady who saw the motorcyclist? Sarah — was that her name?’
Grace nodded. ‘It’s not much, but it’s a second digit of the motorbike’s licence plate. Hopefully in the cognitive witness environment she might remember more.’
‘Maybe the entire plate?’ Magellan-Lacey asked, hopefully.
‘I’ve known that happen,’ Grace said.
The Master clapped his hands together in a sudden flash of exuberance. ‘Here’s to Sarah!’
41
Thursday 23 November 2023
Even though they’d crammed extra chairs into the Major Crime Suite conference room, there weren’t enough for all the rapidly expanding team, some of whom had to stand.
Roy Grace normally held his morning briefing meetings much earlier, but today he’d delayed proceedings, waiting for two detectives from the Scotland Yard Counter Terrorism Command, who had been stuck in a jam on their way down from London. Also, unusually, because of the high profile of this investigation, he was joined by ACC Downing, and a PIP4 Strategic Adviser who would be with him to answer questions at the next press conference, straight after this briefing.
Behind Grace was a large screen, headed OP ASSET. A photograph of the dead man in situ at the scene, as well as photographs of the area where the shooter had lain were shown. On another screen, an association chart of Sir Peregrine’s family, friends and work colleagues — so many it needed multiple images — was shown. Finally, there were photographs of the derailed train, the inside of the tunnel, and the topography around the south exit.
‘Good morning, everyone,’ Grace said. ‘For the record, the time is 11 a.m., this is the sixth briefing meeting of Operation Asset, the investigation into the shooting of Sir Peregrine Greaves, Private Secretary to Their Majesties, and the investigation into the derailment of the Royal Train in Clayton Tunnel, which we believe to be linked. We welcome to the investigation DCI Jacqueline Crawley from Counter Terrorism Command, Sergeant Sam Frost and Security Coordinator DS Russ Lewis from the Royalty and Special Protection unit — RaSP.’
He updated the team on his meetings yesterday with both The King and The Queen, the murder victim’s widow and the Master of the Royal Household, along with the information provided by, to date, the only witness who saw anything, whose full name was Sarah Stratten.
Then he continued, ‘The team conducted interviews yesterday at Buckingham Palace with members of the Royal Household who had had any association with the deceased during the past ten years. You were joined part-way through by DI Branson. Have you anything significant to report from this?’
‘Jack has something of interest, chief,’ Potting said. ‘To get through everyone we divided the workload initially between us and then with DI Branson when he joined us. Jack had the only real odd note of the day.’
Grace looked at the tall young DS. ‘Tell me, Jack.’
‘It was one of the footmen, sir,’ Jack Alexander informed him. ‘Wearing his full livery. Name of Geoffrey Bailey. His body language seemed wrong. It was like he used the opportunity of the interview to air a personal grievance. He said nothing about the deceased, he was just bitter that he’d been ignored — left out of — Sir Peregrine’s recent recommendations for awards of medals by The King to Royal Household staff. Bailey also told me he was gay, and I got the sense he was implying some kind of discrimination was at play, but he didn’t explicitly make any allegation of that sort.’
‘Was he any more specific about the medal he’d hoped for?’ Grace asked.
‘Apparently there’s a whole hierarchy of medals within the Royal Household, sir — they are handed out for long service or for special work — he didn’t state which particular medal he felt he should have received, but I’ll find out.’
‘Is there anything in his past record to indicate any familiarity with firearms?’ Grace asked.
Sam Frost, the Royal Protection Officer, raised a hand and Grace signalled to her to go ahead.
‘We have had concerns about this person, Geoffrey Bailey, for some time and have been keeping a watch on him. The late Queen was advised by us that he was a bit of a loose cannon, but she said she liked him and so he was kept on. After her death, we did advise Their Majesties to let him go and they agreed — initially. But when he was served a termination notice, he went running to them. One issue we have with both Their Majesties is that they can be very supportive of their staff. It’s a nice trait, but it does mean our hands are a little bit tied when we feel someone is a potential problem.’
‘Are you suggesting this Geoffrey Bailey might have been the offender, Jack?’ Grace quizzed.
‘No, boss, he has a cast-iron alibi — he was working in Buckingham Palace all day on Monday, from 7 a.m. until after 5 p.m.’
Grace nodded, thinking. ‘OK, let me understand your concerns about this footman a little better. When you interviewed him, he aired a grievance about being passed over for a medal. But does that have a relevance to our murder enquiry?’
‘I can’t say it does, sir, but there’s something about him that made me very uneasy. I think he was hiding something.’ He tapped the side of his nose. ‘I intend to find out more.’
Grace smiled.
‘Everyone else I interviewed — and I think every single person the whole team interviewed — expressed some emotion about Sir Peregrine’s death, except Geoffrey Bailey. It was all about him — and I just had the feeling that he might know something more than he was telling us, and was using his exasperation over the medals to mask it.’
‘OK, I think you’re quite right to raise a flag with this man, Jack,’ Grace said. ‘He definitely needs to be interviewed in more depth. I agreed with Sir Tommy Magellan-Lacey that we would give him a list of anyone we were dubious about and wanted a second interview with. Polly is going to be up in London quite a bit over the coming weeks, in her FLO role with Sir Peregrine’s widow — I’ll ask Sir Tommy when would be a good time and then you could go up and interview him with Polly.’
‘Yes, sir.’
Grace turned to the BTP officer. ‘Steve, welcome to your first briefing. Do you have your initial findings on the derailment to share with us?’