Dave went looking for the officer who had been assisting them, the two of them returned to the office. “Do we have a liaison officer appointed to assist us?” “I don’t know the answer to that, the Commander will have that in hand. Sally went off to find the toilets, she came back and made two coffees, “sorry I didn’t know how you liked yours, do you want a cup?” “No thanks, I’m alright.” Dave asked Sally to fire up the computer in the room, log on to the MOD site, “can you find the file on Captain Thomas Grassington, I’ve got the one we were given, but dig around, see if there is anything that stands out, if his mobile phone number is listed, log on to the provider and down load the last six months calls. Find his bank account, download it and transfer it over to a spreadsheet. When we have done that, we will start on the missing girl.” The lieutenant looked at Dave and then to Sally, “are you allowed to do all that, look at bank accounts and phone records?” “We can look wherever we want, nothing is out of bounds.” The phone in the office rang, Sally picked it up, she handed it over to the lieutenant, “It’s for you,” “the commander is ready to see you.” Sally closed down the PC, Dave asked how far it was and, if would he get a coffee, “Two blocks and no.” “In that case, I’ll take one with me,” they followed the lieutenant, Dave was trying to get his bearings as they walked to the meeting. They were shown into a carpeted office, the fixtures were similar to the Brigadier’s office in Whitehall. Commander Henry Sissons was sitting behind his desk, Dave studied him this time, fifties, balding, six foot, glasses, had probably once been fit, but now a bit podgy. “David Stretton and Sally Fellowes,” There were two chairs on the other side of his desk, Dave pulled out one for Sally, he sat on the other, his coffee he put on the commander’s desk. He was reading Dave’s record. “Lieutenant, wait in the outer office,” it wasn’t a request, it was an order. “Why has the Brigadier given me a sergeant?” Dave looked round to see who the question was aimed at, there was no one else in the room. “If you read to the end of my record, you will see why, in case you missed it, I am now a civilian.” He finally looked up at Dave and Sally, “and you Miss Fellowes, you have no record at all, does the MOD not realise the seriousness of the situation. Sending me one of the ranks and someone with no experience.” “Commander, would you listen to me please, I may have been a sergeant, but I was bloody good at my job, I was a Military Investigator, there is no one better currently in the MOD, if there was, they would be here. The fact I wasn’t an officer should have no bearing on my ability to carry out this investigation. Miss Fellowes is my researcher, she digs and delves, makes sense of my findings, we are only interested in one thing, the truth, I don’t care who I upset in our search. We are both cleared to the highest level. Check with the Chief of Staff if you need confirmation. I respect those who respect me. Rank means nothing to me, I’m sure somewhere in my record, it says ‘insolent and rude’, it’s not wrong. Commander Sissons was now speaking in a low voice, “a lot of the equipment on board the submarine is experimental, it is being tested before being installed on the rest of the fleet. If it falls into the wrong hands then years of development have just been lost.” Dave realised why there had been so much urgency to get Sally and himself up here. “OK, as I requested earlier, I need a liaison officer, someone from the base who can smooth our way and has the authority to make things happen, a more secure office, the rest of the details of the investigations you haven’t given us, both on the base and from the local police. That will do for now, there will be more, when did you find out the kit was missing?” “Not until Saturday afternoon.” A rating came in through a side door, “Find CPO Rankin, if he isn’t on the base, locate him, I want him here in thirty minutes, and send in the lieutenant. He was told to find Dave and Sally a more secure office in this building big enough to have a meeting if needed.” Returning to Dave, he asked when they would be starting, “Sally had already made a start before we were called here, while she supervises the office move, I want to walk round the base, get a feel for the place, I will take it from there. We won’t work beyond 19:30, we have had very little sleep since yesterday morning. We will be back at 09:00 ready to go.” The rating re-appeared, “Sir, CPO Rankin will be here in fifteen minutes.” The Commander said to find someone from IT, “tell him to see Miss Fellowes and give her any assistance she needs.” Dave interrupted, “could you also organise coffee and biscuits for the three of us.” The rating looked at the Commander, he nodded. “Something else I have to say, there will be a delivery for us in the morning, once it has arrived, we will be armed from then on. If you have a problem with that, speak to the Brigadier before he leaves.” Another note was made. The coffee was brought in, it was followed by a knock, CPO Rankin came in, he saluted as he entered, Dave thought he looked exactly like everybody’s idea of a sailor, bushy beard, dark curly hair, short and stocky, he was smiling. He was told to sit down, “these people are here to carry out an investigation, you are to work with them and give any assistance requested.” Dave shook his hand and introduced himself and Sally. She asked how many people were aware of the incident. “The base is fully up to date on the missing people, you can’t keep something like the other quiet for too long, word gets round.” She looked at the CPO, “do you know?” He opened his mouth to speak and then closed it again. “I understand,” was all Sally said. The lieutenant knocked and entered, an office had been located, Sally and Dave drained their coffee, stood up and left, the CPO followed. The office was bigger and better than the one they had been in earlier. There was a meeting table in the middle and three desks. Dave waited until there were only the three of them in the room, “do you have a first name, we don’t want to call you Chief Petty Officer Rankin all the time?” “Alan or Al, or anything else you shout at me,” he was smiling again. “Do you know why we are here?” “I understand something is missing and have you come to try and find it?” “None of us in here are stupid, we all know something has gone from one of the subs. I need you, Alan, to smooth my way round the base, stop people holding me up, take me where I need to go. We will start with a walk round the site, I want you to tell me how it all works. Sally has enough to go on with, we will be working until 19:30 tonight and then back in the morning. One last question before you show me round, have you been told to report what we are doing, I’m not bothered if you have, I would just like to know?” Alan nodded, Dave said that it was OK, “if I was your boss, I would want to know.” As they were leaving, the printer and PC arrived. Sally said where she wanted it put, she waited until the IT guy had gone before starting, the first task was to check the record held at the MOD, compare it to the one they had been given, see if there were any differences. There were files held locally on all personnel, she looked to see if there was anything to add to what she already knew. Other than being found drunk sleeping in a doorway not long after he had enlisted, there was nothing of note on his record. Sally moved onto the missing girl, Morag Fossey was twenty six, she had worked at Faslane from when she had left college. Starting as a clerk, she had worked in different departments each time gaining promotion, for the last two years she had worked in Logistics, her job was to arrange the shipments for dispatch, she printed out the labels and prepared the paperwork. She was obviously happy, there had been no further applications to move from there. Her address was listed in Helensburgh, Sally had no idea where it was, she checked on Google maps, then street view, she lived in a mid terrace Victorian two storey house. Zooming in, she saw what looked like an intercom on the outside wall, the house was split into flats. Reading the paperwork from when she was reported missing, it was the other person she shared the flat with who had reported her disappearance. There was no mention of boyfriends, however that didn’t mean there wasn’t one. Apart from the occasional day when she had rung in sick, she appeared to be a good employee. Sally went back to the captain, she found his bank details, she logged on to Dave’s cloud storage using a VPN, on it was software Dave had acquired, it would hack into the bank accounts of anyone. The details of the bank’s admin website was held on the MOD servers, once she had that, she set the software working. Suddenly the screen changed, she entered ‘Thomas Grassington’ in the search box, there were seven entries, she went through each one until she found the one with the corresponding address. There was just over £25k in the bank, statements for the last five years were downloaded and printed out. She had no stapler yet, the papers were put into a folder. The phone records were next, again she downloaded and printed out the last five years, briefly looking at them, she could tell when he had been at sea from the lack of calls. There was a number he had been calling all through the five year period, she found the records for whom Sally assumed was his wife. The records for her were also downloaded. Sally looked at the clock, it was 19:15, time for one more search, from the report of the missing Morag Fossey, she found her flatmate, she searched the records held locally, she worked in the kitchens, Shona Stewart was a year older, she had worked on the base since leaving school. There was very little on her file, Dave might see something that interested him.
Dave and CPO Rankin had set off on a walk round the site. “I hope you are feeling fit, it will be a fair trek.” As they walked, buildings were pointed out and their function explained. Dave wanted to see where the subs were located, all the time, he was noting where the CCTV cameras were. Two submarines were tied up, an armed guard was stationed on the gangway to each one. Dave spent a few minutes looking at them, he didn’t know why, there was nothing happening. He turned and walked on, “show me where Logistics are based, explain to me how it works when we get there.” They stopped at a huge warehouse, the offices were above, it looked about ten years old. “There is a separate gate for Logistics, there are armed guards there permanently, even though the gates are locked at the weekends. Deliveries come in, depending on what they are, some are unloaded outside, munitions are unloaded inside and are stored underground, they are never in here long, just enough time to check them off, then transferred over to the subs.” “Who can go inside?” “Only those with authorisation, everyone who works there and some senior officers.” “We’re going in there tomorrow, are you cleared to enter?” “No, I’ve been in but I’m not authorised.” “You will be tomorrow.” They walked back to Sally through the admin block, the place was empty. “When do Logistics work?” “Normally 08:00 until 18:00, if a delivery or collection is booked for outside these hours, personnel will be here for it.” Sally was ready to go, “it’s a little eerie in here when you are the only one working.” The CPO escorted them to the car they had been allocated, he wished them a good evening, watched them leave, then returned to his quarters.
After a shower, and a change, they sat in the dining room with the Brigadier, the food was very good, both of them were starving. There table was far enough away from any other to allow them to talk, Sally said what she had done, “you’ve done well, tomorrow I want to investigate Logistics, it’s where the woman worked, we don’t know enough about her, it makes sense to start there. I have a job for you, I want you to interview the flatmate, we’ll find out if she is working tomorrow, if she isn’t I’ll organise a car to pick her up.” Sally protested, “I’ve never done any type of formal interview, I don’t know what questions to ask.” “I don’t want it to be formal, the police will have already done that, I want it to be a friendly chat. Find out about boyfriends, ask if she ever mentioned the captain, or ‘Tom or Thomas’. Make it sound friendly, say you need as much background information as possible to help find her.” “Do you think she has run off with the captain?” “No, according to the report we have, he is still on the base.” “Could he be hiding somewhere, or fallen and hasn’t been found?” “I don’t think so, we have three missing items, somehow, they are connected.” The Brigadier had listened to them talk, he had said nothing, he had never seen Dave work, only ever read reports, he was amazed at his speed of thought. “I will be gone in the morning, is there anything you want me to do?” “Yes, Fraser MacIntire is now Richard Shanks, can you have researchers start digging into his background, there won’t be much, I would also like you to check out the woman, name, address, bank account details, anything, no matter how small a detail.” “Do you think there is a connection?” “I don’t know, but anything you find out might help us further down the line.” They sat drinking coffee in a lounge which looked out over the river, “how was your trip to the US?” “There wasn’t much to it, I was asked to speak on the last day, we stayed an extra couple of days for shopping.” Sally spoke saying Dave had rather understated his role in the US, “I think he saved the day, but he won’t admit it.” “Sir, one last thing, can you email us authorisation to be armed, I don’t think we will need it, but you never know.” The Brigadier said he would do it when he was back at his desk. They could no longer see the loch when they went to bed, Sally said they might see the Brigadier before he left, but in case they didn’t she kissed him on the cheek, Dave shook his hand.
© 10210ken 2025
