Abacus

about Mr. Hoskings is that he possesses a current firearm license for four weapons he owns… one of which is a point two two calibre rifle.” Michael paused to allow the information to be absorbed before continuing. “As far as I can tell, the weapons are housed in a gun safe at his Enmore address.”
    “That’s excellent work, Mick,” Jesse praised. “Can I get you to now organise further surveillance on him? Can you organise that?” Michael nodded. “Same deal as with Cheung, can you put together a full profile on him, and how did we go with the phone records for the victim and Cheung?”
    “Pretty good. I did both call charge records for calls the victim made as well as records for numbers that called him. There were plenty of calls made to the victim’s phone leading up to first of May. On the first of May the phone activity stopped. Up until this time, phone activity was daily.”
    “Good,” Randall interjected. “ A fairly good indication of his date of death. Who was the last call made to?”
    “Looks like his sister Kaitlyn. ” Randall nodded attentively as Michael continued. “The other mobile calls were made from various numbers. I eventually found a current mobile number for Cheung, and cross-referenced it with the victim’s phone records. Interestingly, the victim in the month leading up to the first of May did not call her at all, however, on twenty-eighth of April, she called his number. The call lasted three minutes.”
    “Sounds very promising,” Sheik added.
    “Big fella, how did you go with the victim ’s unit?” Randall asked.
    “Well , the unit is on the third floor of a large complex. It is a single bedroom unit. Before the search I spoke with the neighbours who were all fellow students at the university. Since he has lived there, they have not seen him with a steady girlfriend. They said he was a very quiet neighbour; he didn’t have loud parties or cause any problems. None of the neighbours have heard anything out of the ordinary in the last month.
    “ The real estate agent arranged access to his unit for us. It was sparsely furnished with only the bare essentials. I was unable to find any documentation or photos relating to Cheung or any other female. I listened to his answering machine and there were a number of calls from concerned relatives and friends from the university. I have kept a recording of those messages. I found a mobile phone charger plugged into the wall, but no mobile phone. The charger was a NOKIA brand. I looked around the bedroom and found an empty box for a NOKIA sixty-three hundred, which I assume is the one he used. This phone is unaccounted for. We searched the kitchen, bathroom, lounge room and laundry for any evidence and I can confidently say that it was not the crime scene.
    “ Everything appeared neat and in its place. I have told the real estate agent that we might have to revisit the unit, so it has been locked up and will not be leased again until we finish our inquiries. We could arrange for luminal testing to determine any blood splatter but it is my view that this will be a pointless exercise.”
    “Excellent. So at least we have secured the unit if we later need it.”
    “Now w hat does everyone think about approaching Cheung and Hoskings?” Jesse asked, inviting feedback.
    “We are going to have to lock the m into their version of events soon,” Leanne said calmly. “Obviously, timing is of the essence.”
    Jesse leant over t he backrest of a spare chair. “Well, it would obviously be nice to get a device into the house before speaking with them to generate some conversation, but we are a bit short of a gallop to substantiate a warrant. Obviously the possession of a point two two calibre rifle by Hoskings helps us, but there are probably one hundred thousand such owners across the state.”
    “Yeah , I agree with that,” Sheik said with hands clasped. “But as well as conversation between the two, we also have to consider other physical evidence. If we show our hand too soon, the rifle or other evidence at the Enmore home may be lost.”
    Randall nodded. “Yeah, good point, Sheik. Once we lock them into a version, which we may be able to later discredit, we may be in a better position to get the warrant. Listen, I think the best way to prevent the loss of evidence is to keep the surveillance on them after the interviews, see where they go. And if they do go back to the house and try to dispose of anything, we’ll be