Costa Crew 2: They Walk Among Us

Chapter 12 - The Bigger Picture

Becky's hands trembled as she turned the laptop around to let Paul see the email. He shook his head in disbelief. "We need to show this to Drake," he said. "I'll call him now."

Paul expected the call to go to voicemail, but thankfully Drake answered. "Let me guess, you want in on the investigation?" he asked contemptuously.

Paul sighed. "Raymond, this is bigger than any issues you have with Anti Corruption. Becky Hidgens is forwarding you an email she got from Amelia Murphy a few hours ago. You have to admit, there has to be some sort of police involvement."

There was a pause as Drake opened up his email. "I see. In that case I suggest we both run our separate investigations. I get first look at the evidence but you can see it when I'm finished. You're right, there's got to be someone in the force pulling some strings somehow, but right now the most important thing is finding Murphy's killer."

"Seems fair," Paul agreed reluctantly. "You've got a good team and so have I, between us we can get to the bottom of this. Who's working on the case?"

"White and Barlow," Drake replied.

"Are you kidding?" spluttered Paul. "Barlow? He's a disaster! I'm all for giving him a chance to improve, but this case?"

"He seemed happy to take it," said Drake. "Besides, those two are the only members of my team that weren't on the Operation Godfather raids. I know you'd rather I assigned DS Green, but he's got a clear conflict of interest."

"I understand, but…"

Drake lowered his voice. "Paul, I know you don't want to hear it, but we have to treat Rebecca Hidgens as a suspect, if only to eliminate her. She's got a clear motive to want Murphy dead. I'm not saying she's the killer, but we have to investigate the possibility. Chances are we'll do an investigation and rule her out early on. She's got nothing to worry about provided she didn't do it."

"Thank you for reminding me that you are actually a good detective," said Paul. "Anyway, I just wanted to give you a heads up about the email. I'll speak to you later."

He hung up then opened up a word document on his laptop and began brainstorming.
Email from Amelia - what does it mean?
Not dead? (Wait for autopsy - should confirm)
Knew about death - planned? Suicide?
Prank? Hacker?
Becky's work email - someone inside police force
Probably killer who sent the email

"You holding up okay?" asked Paul.

Becky shrugged. "I honestly don't know. I know I should be relieved that she's gone, but something feels off. The email didn't help."

Paul nodded. "It's the fact that she was murdered as well. Could be a rival crime group, or maybe Amelia wasn't the Godfather."

Becky frowned. "She told me she was the Godfather when she was about to kill me. She's a liar, but I don't think she was lying about that. You wouldn't exactly say you were the most wanted person in the country if you weren't."

"Unless she was protecting the actual Godfather," countered Paul. "They could have had Amelia killed for her silence as soon as she started getting visitors."

"You could ask Anthony, he might have known if Amelia had any secret bosses," suggested Becky.

Paul nodded. "That's just about the only thing I can do right now. I've been trying to get the Operation Godfather files from the archives for weeks, and now I'd imagine Drake wants to take a look. Normally I'd pull rank, but he's working on Hunt's orders, I'm working on my own, my hands are tied until he gives me the file."

They ate in silence, until an idea began to form in Becky's mind. "What if Curt's death is somehow connected?" she mused.

Paul frowned. "Hear me out," continued Becky. "We suspected that Amelia knew something about it, but Drake passed it off as her seeing an opportunity to get to me. But she's in prison, and she's lost everything. There is no version of events where Amelia comes out on top. The least she can do is make sure that I don't either."

Paul sighed. "Becky, have you considered the possibility that neither of these deaths have anything to do with you? Curt was killed because of something in his life, and Amelia was killed because of greater links to organised crime?"

"Normally yes, but this is my brother and my nemesis, it's too much of a coincidence. She even compared us to Sherlock and Moriarty, and while she didn't say this, I think she was referring specifically to the Benedict Cumberbatch one."

"That's because Benedict Cumberbatch is the best iteration of Sherlock, at least in my opinion," replied Paul. "What's this...oh."

Becky leaned back and nodded. "Exactly. Jim Moriarty's bored. His only fulfilment is messing with Sherlock. Then his options are staying alive and letting Sherlock clear his name, or killing himself so that Sherlock has no choice but to do the same. He's bored with life and finds that he can hurt Sherlock a lot more after he's dead, as explained in the finale."

"Don't bring the Sherlock finale into this," Paul groaned.

Becky frowned. "I enjoyed the Sherlock finale."

"That's because you'll enjoy anything that has Benedict Cumberbatch on screen," Paul laughed. "You'd enjoy Doctor Who series 11 if Benedict Cumberbatch was standing in the background."

Becky shook her head. "If Jodie Whittaker couldn't save that series, I don't think Benedict could. Or Lauren Lopez or Elizabeth Olsen. Granted, series 1 and series 2 of Sherlock were much better than 3 and 4, but it had a solid finale."

"Agree to disagree, but let's bring this back to Amelia," Paul said.

"Right," said Becky. "Amelia's in prison, meaning her life is pretty much over. She sits there every day, with nothing to do except hate me and everyone else who put her there. So she's not afraid to do whatever it takes for revenge. That email convinces me that she knew she was going to die. This isn't over."

"So if your theory is right, then Amelia's not finished with us and there's still trouble coming our way," Paul groaned. "And what that trouble might be…"

"We're just going to have to wait and see," finished Becky. "But I guarantee whatever comes next won't be easy to fix."