18

Later, at her desk, Fry finished reading the pathologist’s report on the Mullen family. She could hear Mrs van Doon’s voice in her head, describing how the hot gases had damaged the lining of the airways and lungs, leaving the tongue, pharynx, and glottis scorched and inflamed. Damage to the lungs had precipitated pulmonary oedema. Inhalation of carbon particles blocked the air passages with mucus. Any burns on the victims were post-mortem. They had been alive, but not necessarily conscious.

Finally, she put the report aside. Forensics would have to give her something to build a case on. It was difficult not to get impatient, though, when Brian Mullen was out of hospital and walking around. She pictured him sitting in the conservatory at the Lowthers’ bungalow, with his mother-in-law fussing round him, bringing him cups of tea, giving him a hug when he needed it.

Hesitating only for a moment, Fry picked up the phone and called Wayne Abbott.

‘There’s a lot of stuff to get through, you know. And the Darwin Street enquiry isn’t the only one we’re dealing with.’

‘I realize that, Wayne, but I need to know whether you found any fingerprints in the sitting room.’

‘The only ones we could retrieve came from members of the family. We were lucky to get what we did, considering the fire and smoke damage, and the amount of waterlogging.’

‘Did you lift any from the wooden toy – the dinosaur?’

‘I’m afraid not. It was too badly charred.’

‘And the lighter fluid can?’

‘That’s gone to the lab at Wetherby. They’re giving it the works, but it takes time.’

‘Is that our best hope, Wayne?’

‘Right now, yes. Unless you can produce a likely suspect.’

‘Thanks.’

She finished the call and looked around the office. Everyone was busy with tasks connected to the Rose Shepherd enquiry. Everyone. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t demand a bit of their time.

‘Hey, Ben, would you take a look at this?’

‘What have you got?’ said Cooper from across the room.

But before Fry could show him the photo of the toy dinosaur, her phone rang. It was pretty much a one-way conversation: ‘Great, OK … I see. Yes, sir, right away.’

Cooper was still hovering at his desk when she finished. ‘What’s up?’

‘The DCI wants us in for a meeting, right now. HOLMES has finished processing Rose Shepherd’s diary, address book and the other documents found in her house. Remember the mysterious “SN” mentioned in the diary? There’s only one name in her papers with matching initials: Simon Nichols.’

‘Simon Nichols …’ said Cooper, responding to a vague familiarity.

‘That’s it. Does it mean anything to you?’

‘Isn’t he in Fairport Convention?’

‘In what?’

‘It’s a band. Folk rock.’

‘Oh, right. You think Rose Shepherd might have been a folk rock groupie?’

‘No, it must be another Simon Nichols.’

‘HOLMES can’t give us any clues as to who this Simon Nichols is, or where we can find him. But the incident room are checking all the usual intelligence. There’s also a team going through all other sources: phone directory, electoral roll, DVLC … We need to track down any Nichols in the area.’

‘In the area?’ said Cooper. ‘He isn’t necessarily –’

‘I know. But we’ve got to start somewhere. We should start getting results soon. Meanwhile, does anybody have any thoughts?’

‘Whoever killed Rose Shepherd didn’t enter the house, so far as we can tell,’ said Hitchens. ‘So we can conclude that he wasn’t worried about there being evidence in the house that would lead us to him.’

‘That assumes the crime was carefully thought out beforehand.’

‘It looks that way.’

‘Of course, it might only have been the shooting and the getaway that were planned,’ suggested Cooper. ‘If he thought of killing Rose Shepherd as a way of solving some problem, he might have overlooked what would happen once her body was found.’

‘Perhaps he knew there was nothing in the house that could lead back to him,’ said Hitchens. ‘If Miss Shepherd didn’t know him, if he was a hired professional, there’d be no direct connection between him and his victim.’

‘That’s logical,’ said Kessen. ‘But there’s one other alternative.’

‘Yes?’

‘What if he’d already searched the house and removed anything incriminating? Then he’d feel able to carry out the killing from a safe distance.’

‘Well, it could explain why there are no personal letters in the house. But who would have the opportunity to do that? The security at Bain House was too tight, and Miss Shepherd was rarely off the premises.’

‘What we need is a motive to narrow the field a bit. Any suggestions? I suppose we can discount robbery, since there was no attempt to enter the house.’

‘Money could still be a motive,’ said Hitchens. ‘If there’s a will –’

‘There doesn’t seem to be one in the house. It’s possible there’s a solicitor somewhere with a will, but the London firm who handled the house purchase say they have no knowledge of it.’

Fry smiled. ‘If there’s someone out there who planned this murder in order to inherit Rose Shepherd’s money, they’ll come forward eventually, won’t they?’

‘Eventually? That won’t do. We need to be able to show some progress on this enquiry pretty quickly,’ snapped Kessen.

‘OK, what other motives might we consider?’

‘Jealousy? Revenge? Perhaps Rose Shepherd was a threat to someone?’ suggested Fry.

‘Jealousy requires some kind of close personal relationship,’ said Hitchens. ‘Miss Shepherd doesn’t seem to have had any of those. Not recently, anyway.’

‘What about this Eric Grice?’

‘Grice, the handyman? What about him?’

‘He seems to be the only person who was allowed into Bain House, the only one who had any contact with Miss Shepherd. I wonder if there was more to their relationship than a bit of odd-jobbing.’

‘Well, they were both unmarried, so that shouldn’t have been a problem. A bit on the mature side, perhaps, but I’m told that doesn’t necessarily make any difference.’

‘Judging by her obsession with keeping herself to herself, she would probably have rejected any attempts at intimacy out of hand. For all we know of Grice, he might not be the type to take that calmly,’ said Fry.

‘But if he crossed the line in some way, Miss Shepherd would have kicked him out, surely. Yet she let him keep coming to the house, didn’t she?’

‘Did she? How do we know that?’

‘Only from Grice himself,’ admitted Cooper.

‘When does he say he was last at Bain House?’

‘Three weeks ago, to clear the guttering and sweep up dead leaves.’

‘Well, we know for a fact that he had contact with Rose Shepherd, which puts him in a very small minority for now. And he must have known which room she slept in. What sort of vehicle does he drive?’ said Hitchens.

‘He has an old Land Rover that he carries his tools around in.’

‘Four-wheel drive?’

‘Of course. But Grice says he was always restricted to certain parts of the house. It sounded convincing,’ said Cooper.

‘Maybe,’ said Fry. ‘But that just means he was limited to one area per visit. How many times did he go to Bain House?’

‘Five or six times, he says.’

‘Enough opportunity to work his way through the whole house?’

‘I suppose so.’

‘Besides, we only have his word for how restricted his movements were. Miss Shepherd isn’t available to confirm his story.’

‘Right,’ said Kessen. ‘Let’s take a closer look at Mr Grice. Get a detailed account of his last visit to Rose Shepherd. And check whether the tyres on his Land Rover are a match for the tracks from the field.’

‘We don’t actually have any evidence against Grice,’ pointed out Cooper.

‘If he isn’t implicated in the shooting, he won’t mind co-operating, will he?’

‘It doesn’t always work like that.’

‘His other clients won’t feel happy about the police asking questions. He must understand that co-operation is in his own best interests.’ Kessen seemed to think this settled the problem. ‘All right, I want Grice to list every single room he’s visited in Bain House. Then we can match up his account with the prints we lifted. In particular, I want to know whether he was ever in that master bedroom.’