What the Shadows Hide (DI Ridpath Crime Thriller Book 9) by M J Lee

Author:M J Lee [Lee, M J]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Canelo
Published: 2023-03-22T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifty

After checking the nursing home, and finding nothing out of order, he rushed back to Police HQ, pulling Claire Trent and Steve Carruthers out of their operational readiness meeting which was running late.

‘Make it quick, Ridpath.’

She obviously wasn’t a happy bunny.

‘As I explained yesterday, boss, DCI Meredith has done a lot of great legwork on the building and the investigation—’

‘Cut the crap, Ridpath, you’ve no need to butter up Meredith, he isn’t here. And besides, he had six months on this and got nowhere.’

He ploughed on. ‘But we’ve decided to approach the case from a different angle.’

His boss glanced at her watch.

‘We believe the key to understanding this case is the two victims. Who are they? Why were they in the room? Why were they killed? But we won’t answer the last two questions without answering the first. Who are they?’

‘Go on…’ said Carruthers.

‘DCI Meredith has used all the tools at his disposal; missing person reports, analysis of clothes, CCTV, even checked their DNA against the national database…’

‘And got nowhere. What are you suggesting we do?’

Now was the time to take the plunge. ‘I want to use genetic genealogy.’

She glanced across at Carruthers. ‘What the hell is that?’

Ridpath explained in great detail the process for tracing a missing person through discovering their ancestors combined with traditional genealogical research.

‘You mean like the discovery of the Golden State Killer?’

Ridpath nodded.

‘So you want me to approve this… search?’

Ridpath let out a breath, ‘Exactly, boss.’

‘No, absolutely not. I can’t sanction it.’

‘Why not?’

Claire Trent threw her pen down on the desk in front of her. ‘For starters, it might have ethical, legal and safeguarding considerations, breaking the European Convention on Human Rights and the Human Rights Act of 1998, as well as infringing the Data Protection Act of 2018. Not to mention the fact all familial searches have to be approved by a committee.’

Trust Claire Trent to know the procedures to protect privacy.

‘It’s only a recommendation for genetic searches to be approved, boss, not mandatory. And we won’t be searching on the police database, but in GEDmatch. Luckily, the people who have uploaded their DNA to GEDmatch have already opted in if the data is used by the police.’

‘But the legality of using informed consent as the sole appropriate legal basis to obtain highly sensitive data is a doubtful area,’ interrupted Carruthers.

They both stared at him.

‘I’m doing a part-time degree in law at the Open University. The ethics of privacy is one of the core modules.’ He paused, placing his forefinger across his lips. ‘The key question here is whether such research meets the tests of necessity and proportionality. I think there is a good case for necessity. We have spent the last six months trying to find out who these people are and have failed miserably. As for proportionality, the measure must be reasonable, considering the competing interests of different groups. Here, I would argue, it is reasonable to uncover the identity of a murderer, particularly when all other attempts have failed.’

‘There may be another couple of problems, boss,’ added Ridpath.

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