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Gardener was encouraged by the information he’d received during the last few hours. Though it didn’t constitute hard evidence, he was pretty sure it could only lead somewhere positive once followed up. After what Sinclair had told them about the pump and ICD manufacturers, he figured that could be the only fly in the ointment. If they proved uncooperative, he would come down on them so hard they would have to reach up to tie their shoelaces.
“Christ, I wouldn’t like this job, boss,” said Reilly.
“Well, you wouldn’t get down there, would you? All the biscuits you eat.”
Reilly smiled and glanced around the platform. “At least my age wouldn’t come into it.”
Gardener spotted Frank Thornton and called him over. “How are things?”
“Pretty quiet at the moment. These lads must be pretty pissed off.”
“It’s part of the job. Where’s Bob?”
“Had a call from a woman called Hillary Easterby, lives on Middleton Road. He’s just gone to see her. Says she has some information which might help.”
Gardener’s mobile rang. “DI Gardener speaking.”
“Mr Gardener, it’s Maurice Cragg. Where are you?”
“The railway station at Bursley Bridge.”
“Perfect,” replied Cragg. “We’ve had a call from Graham Johnson, runs the computer shop. He’s found something that he doesn’t like the look of.”
“Relating to the case?”
“Apparently, no. Something he doesn’t like the look of on a laptop that he’s repairing. Now I know it’s not strictly in your field, but I just thought if you were there you might want to check it out, save me sending any of my men.”
“Okay, Maurice. Sean and I will pop across the road.”
“Thank you. Thought you might like to know, young Gary’s had a breakthrough with Walker Brothers, got some good information for you. Still no news on KarGen.”
“Okay,” Gardener glanced at his watch. “Thank you. See you back at the incident room later.”
“Will do, sir.”
Gardener broke the connection and related to Reilly and Thornton what Cragg had told him. As they were about to move, Bob Anderson came up the station entrance steps.
“Sir, got something you’ll want to hear.”
They were all ears.
“Just been to see a woman called Hillary Easterby. She was out and about on both nights, Sunday and Monday. She’s recently recovering from an operation and she can’t sleep, so she goes for walks. It’s very quiet in the early hours. She saw Graham Johnson’s van on both occasions. It left the railway station around four o’clock, and headed off in the direction of Harrogate.”
Gardener glanced at Thornton. “He never said anything to you about having a van, did he?”
“No.” Thornton glanced at his partner, Bob Anderson. “Did she give you a reg and a colour?”
“White,” replied Anderson. “And it’s an 06 plate.”
“Have the DVLA supplied the numbers for all those in the area?”
“I haven’t seen the list if they have.”
Gardener rang Cragg, who read the numbers out to him. In total there had been an original list of two hundred within a fifty-mile radius. Cragg had narrowed that down to ten within ten miles, and three within five miles. One of which was Graham Johnson’s.
He told Anderson, who then gave him a piece of gold.
“She also said the driver’s side brake light was out.”
