Tree of Snakes Volume 2 Arc of Evil

By Hylton Smith

The Police and a reputable Newspaper are contacted by an unknown person. It leads to videos showing abused women who are still on the police missing persons files. Because the press are then able to monitor police reaction, the subsequent investigation is played out to the public. The agenda of the videos gradually appears to be serious scrutiny of the existing law and sentencing regarding domestic abuse. All is not what it appears to be.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hylton Smith
• Release date: Oct 16, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005359034

Hylton Smith

Born in the Northeast of England, I graduated from Newcastle University in Chemistry. My entire career has been in the manufacturing industry, first in research, then general management. After a number of years as the chief executive of a UK division of an American multinational corporation, I set up my own company, and in less than five years I was able to retire and turn to a boyhood yearning to write science fiction stories. This has gradually expanded to other genres such as alternate history and crime fiction.

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Published by Promethean

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters and incidents are products of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is entirely coincidental. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Copyright © by Hylton Smith 2022

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Prologue

In 2023, the Newcastle Police Force had an unusually difficult time. DCI Keane was due to retire within the next few weeks, but a very strange case headed in his direction. At the same time, a scandal involving his boss - Chief Superintendent Conway became embroiled in an allegation of corruption. He agreed to stay on until the case of potential homicide in the city hospital was resolved and the reputation of the force was restored.

This meant risking his own reputation by taking a raw young Detective Constable from the Cumbrian force to cut her teeth on the mysterious hospital incident. He’d then have more time to be involved in refuting the serious allegations against CS Conway.

DC Carlyle had lots of experience in the IT department of Cumbria, which was a welcome asset, but she was untested in leading a potential murder investigation. After weeks of speculation and frustration, Stephanie Carlyle and DC Daniel Frost convinced the CPS to take on the prosecution of multiple suspects with respect to the homicides of a rough sleeping man and a friend of his who was a musician. Gareth Beveridge was poisoned and taken to A&E, where he was helped on his way to mortality. Elvis Thompson was murdered solely because he had allowed his friend to stay over at his house once or twice a week.

At first, there appeared to be no connection between the two cases, but as speculation eventually began to turn into hard evidence, a breakthrough emerged. CS Conway had ruined the career of one of her Detective Inspectors and transferred him from the force several years ago. This man, Angus Baxter, had moved south and eventually landed a top security job in a large banking conglomerate. This enabled him to access certain personal account information, including that of CS Conway and her deceased husband. During his time in Newcastle, Baxter had exerted influence on jurors and Conway, specifically in a rape case prosecuting the rough sleeping man. The woman involved was ironically the sister of a receptionist at the city hospital. The verdict was ‘not proven’. Organised crime contacts took care of leaning on jurors whose identity should have been protected, and Baxter had blackmailed Conway into burying evidence to ensure Gareth Beveridge was given a derisory custodial sentence for causing physical harm to the woman who’d reported she was raped.

Subsequent screening of Conway’s financial records gave Baxter what he thought would constitute corruption, a much more serious allegation than judging rape evidence to be lacking in solid proof. Money laundering affected and infected the entire Newcastle Force as a result.

The woman who’d claimed she was raped was Rachel Stevenson, and her sister Rebecca Philipps (nee Stevenson) was married to Morgan Philipps, a city night club owner. Rebecca had never got over Rachel taking her own life following the not proven verdict. Her husband vowed to find a way to challenge the verdict and have the case re-tried. His appeal to his wife was that if Beveridge could be found guilty, he would suffer every day for the rest of his life, and she would have full closure knowing he would die in prison. To that end, he’d authorised his henchmen to seek out Beveridge and bring him in for an ‘interview’. However, when they did find him, at the house of Elvis Thompson, the man was in a shocking medical condition. Morgan Philipps ordered his heavies to get the sick man to hospital immediately. He desperately wanted to have his day in court with Beveridge. Rebecca prejudiced this by having an affair without her husband’s knowledge

When admitted to hospital, the patient had died within minutes. That’s when the reception staff were told to report the fatality to the police. There were signs of poisoning.

In the succeeding weeks, several charges were levelled against each nominated suspect and tried in court. Justice was finally seen to be delivered. But not for all.

This did help the Newcastle force to recover some of its reputation in the eyes of the public and the media. It also helped the sister of Rachel Stevenson to confront her depression, even though it would never bring her back.

It signalled a few changes at the station itself. Charles Keane agreed to stay on for another year as the new Chief Superintendent and Stephanie Carlyle accepted promotion to Detective Inspector. They hardly had time to settle into their respective new remits before an even more bizarre incident would test their capability.

Chapter 1

It was a cold, frosty Monday morning and the station coffee machine chose to malfunction. Even two hours without caffeine created mental lethargy. The repair man was cheered as he entered the canteen.

DI Stephanie Carlyle received a call from the duty desk.

We seem to have another one of those crazies writing to us. We opened the letter and it isn’t addressed to any officer in particular, it simply states that there is a missing person case on our files, but no action has taken place for months. Do you want to see the letter or just ignore it as a hoax? We often get these kind of idiots wasting our time, but I have to inform senior operational detective staff of their receipt.

Ok, can you send it up to me? I’ll check it out as soon as the coffee machine is fixed.

DCI Charles Keane put his head through the open door.

Steph, I just took a call from a journalist of high repute. He claims to have been given information regarding an abduction case from last year. The call referred to coordinates on an ordinance map which is claimed to be the last sighting of the victim. I think Daniel Frost looked into this case when it was first reported. You might want to have a word with Danny Boy.

That’s strange. The front desk just asked me to look at a letter received which they think is a hoax. A bus never comes on time and then four or five appear within a minute. I hope this isn’t the start of the silly season.

Armed with her caffeine top up, Steph waved Daniel to her office. Keane says you were working on an abduction case last year. One of the boss’s journalist contacts claims he received coordinates of where she was last seen. Her name is Marianne Vernon, does it ring any bells in the hard drive which inhabits that head of yours?

Yeah, we got nowhere with her disappearance. I’d need to check these coordinates, because when I was on the case her parents said she just walked around a corner of the street to meet her friend, then took a bus to town. We drew a complete blank when interviewing the neighbours and the bus company. To me, it seemed as if she never got on a bus. The friend she was supposed to meet said she herself was a few minutes late, but Marianne was a no show. We put a hell of a lot of time into this case, but never got solid leads to explore. I began to think she ran off and didn’t want to be found. Let’s go and see Keane.

Right. But cast your eyes over this note which arrived in reception this morning. It complains that a missing person investigation has been shelved and the language is choice to say the least. The author doesn’t sound like your everyday airhead.

She gave the slip of paper to Daniel and waited for his response. He shrugged his shoulders as he scanned the missive. ‘The police force we depend upon for the safety of our families is grossly under staffed, transparently incompetent, arrogant, and suffers chronic self-delusion. A great awakening will be required to shake this woolly mammoth into action. It begins now. Naomi Pearson has been missing for far too long but not forgotten by those who love her. Please note use of the present tense, we truly love her unlike the police, who insist she is most likely deceased, as predicted by their broad brush statistics. Typical of cretins who employ techniques they don’t really understand. They have most definitely not heard the last of this. Naomi will be found alive. Prepare for trial by the public’.

Steph, I wasn’t on the Naomi Pearson case but I have to say it had all the red flags of being a fantasy abduction. Recently married, she was the doting mother of a young child yet to have her first birthday, and has a brother who is actually in the Teesside force. Our people are still looking for leads but this guy is right, we came up with zilch. Unless I’m mistaken, and although her brother can’t officially be involved in her disappearance, he also thinks we’ve not taken it seriously enough.

Mm, come on, Keane will be waiting for us.

Keane opened the discussion by saying the journalist who’d contacted him was already on his way. This doesn’t give us long to compare the two communications we’ve strangely had in the last few hours. Daniel, you are the only one of us who has had involvement in the investigation the journalist will refer to, so you should have first shot at whatever new information he has. His name is Robert Denison, and he is highly trustworthy. Unlike many shit stirrers, he does have in depth knowledge of how we operate, and while he is sympathetic to our cause he isn’t anyone’s fool. When he contacted me, he stressed that the map coordinates were just part of his contact’s appeal. Apparently, the map is merely to show where the last sighting of the victim actually was, not the same one as we assumed at the time. Ok, any comments?

Steph asked if the journalist was also familiar with Naomi Pearson’s abduction. He will surely be aware of it but I’d rather he wasn’t troubled with questions about that just yet. We cannot be overly influenced by the quirk of having two ‘self-appointed sleuths’ being connected at this stage. I don’t like coincidences, but let’s just take one step at a time.

The front desk called to say that Robert Denison had arrived. Keane decided to meet the man himself.

Thanks for coming, Robert. We have DC Daniel Frost here, as he was involved with Marianne Vernon’s disappearance from the beginning. And, he works with Detective Inspector Carlyle from time to time. They are both keen to hear what else the contact had to offer other than the map, as am I. Please enlighten us, and coffee is on the way.

The three officers were intrigued by what they heard.

"When I took the call, I had no idea what this guy was talking about, thinking he’d got through to the wrong person. Because he referenced that Marianne Vernon was not in fact a missing person, I asked if he was prepared for me to record the call. When he agreed the conversation took a twist, as he threatened to disconnect if he felt at any time I was not taking his assertions seriously. Now, before you ask, I managed to keep him on the line long enough to trace the call. He had already anticipated that, and the call came from an internet café in Grey Street. Anyway, when I queried his confidence that Marianne wasn’t a missing person, he responded by saying that she was alive and well. Despite this being difficult to believe, I went along with his story so that he would keep me connected. Addressing me as Mr Journalist, he then flabbergasted me by claiming to know exactly why she was still alive. Listen for yourself.

‘I don’t suppose you have any knowledge of psychotherapy concepts, but I will try to explain the one which is relevant to Marianne. Transitory neural personality intervention is a very finely balanced scientific process. We aren’t speaking in layman’s terms here, so do not confuse this with hypnotism or quack amateurish impostors. The map I gave you is but the beginning of our task. I have personally checked out the corner of her street which the police quote as her last sighting before she disappeared. I know for a fact she was seen elsewhere after that particular testimony. If I can be convinced that you are trustworthy, you will hear from me again’.

I just had time to explain to the caller that I was only a conduit as a journalist and had a duty to inform the police of our conversation. He said he knew that would be the case and both myself and the force could find themselves on trial for negligence."

Daniel was the first to react. He could be right about where Marianne was last seen. One of the neighbours saw her but rushed back into the house when her five year-old son shouted to say her phone was ringing.

Keane and Steph were still mulling over what Robert Denison had told them. Finally, Keane thanked the journalist and suggested Daniel should be the focal point of any further developments because of his previous involvement in the disappearance. Denison was fine with that for now, saying he could only respond to this stranger contacting him, because there was no reverse capability at this point in time.

When he’d left the office the three of them leapt back to the mention of psychotherapy, in particular transitory neural, personality intervention. What the hell does that mean? said Keane.

Ever the joker, Daniel laughed as he said perhaps Marianne was hypnotised by some bitter nobody who’d failed to obtain his degree in Mumbo Jumbo."

Steph was more circumspect. In my time in Cumbria, I did come across something similar when I was on IT trawls. If my memory serves me correctly, it’s a novel science which can be used to calm down anxiety in people who can’t analyse their own condition, or explain it to medical staff in a coherent manner. I think the technique works in line with very small doses of sedatives like Fentanyl. We should take this seriously while we await the next contact.

Agreed. said Keane, "In the meantime Daniel, you or I should at least wander around these coordinates to see if this guy’s claims make sense. You know, GP surgeries, pharmacists, and noisy or quiet spots, parkland for the