Behind Closed Doors (34 page)

Lou shook his hand warmly. She’d always liked Rob – quiet, approachable, reliable. And more than anything else he didn’t have that stupid competitive machismo that sometimes got in the way of running an investigation. ‘That would be great, Rob, thanks.’

‘Feel free to interrupt if there’s anything you can help us with,’ he said.

Lou sat on a table at the back of the room. Almost instantly a DC she’d never met stood and offered her his seat. She gave him a smile and waved him back. ‘I’m fine here, thanks.’

Rob Jefferson didn’t have that many people, if this was the total number of officers he had assigned to the job, Lou thought. She counted three DCs and a DS – Jamie Turnbull, who Lou knew was about to go on paternity leave any day. In addition to the officers, Lou saw Clare Simpson, the senior CSI, and Zoe Adams, who was one of the analysts. Not Jason, then – that was a small relief.

Lou listened as Rob ran through the facts of the investigation so far. Clive and Annie had been found by Juliette at a quarter past six this morning. Juliette, who had already been interviewed once and then been taken to the hospital by one of the family liaison officers to see Annie, had woken up at six and noticed that her parents had failed to return from their night out. She had gone to check if the milkman had been, and had found them both on the front doorstep.

Lou found herself wondering if milkmen even still existed.

‘Jamie,’ Rob said, ‘what’s the latest on Annie’s condition?’

‘Just got a text from Jan Baker, our FLO. She’s on her way back with Juliette. Apparently Annie’s in a critical condition but Juliette didn’t want to stay at the hospital. We’ve got an officer with Annie, just in case whoever assaulted her decides to come and have another go.’

‘Thanks, Jamie. As far as timings go,’ Rob said, ‘we have CCTV of them leaving the restaurant at a quarter to eleven. They got a cab from the taxi rank outside the station, which dropped them off at home. The driver says this was at about five past eleven. Nothing unusual about them; he could hear them chatting in the back of the cab but he couldn’t remember hearing either of them saying anything specific. He didn’t see anything, and he didn’t wait for them to go into the house. I quote: “If I knew they was going to get hurt I would have waited.”’

This brought a few laughs.

‘So, assuming they didn’t immediately go somewhere else, it seems likely that they were attacked a minute or so later – just after eleven. Intel – what’s the latest?’

This time Zoe Adams spoke. ‘I’ve got this update from Alan. He sends his apologies; he was just finishing a phone call, said he’d be in in a minute. We’ve had an update on the burglary to the Rainsford house on Saturday night – I’ve got the crime number here if anyone needs it. Clive Rainsford said he’d phoned to cancel his cards as soon as they realised, but £800 had already gone from two ATMs in town. The third attempt was blocked. There was some online activity, too, but that was also prevented by the bank – so, aside from the jewellery and the Rolex, whoever it was probably didn’t make as much as they were hoping to.’

‘Any CCTV from the ATMs?’ Lou asked.

‘Yes, a male figure was seen at two of them. I’ll get a printout and the best stills put on the area briefing slides. Not particularly clear, but someone might recognise the clothing. Also in relation to the burglary, a vehicle which looks very like the Volvo that was stolen from the driveway appears on the CCTV from the garage on London Road, just at the end of Russet Avenue, last night. It’s shown heading towards the address and indicating to turn into the road at ten forty-three. Then it’s coming back again at ten past eleven.’

‘We can’t get an index on it?’

‘Apparently not. But we’ve found the vehicle in any case. It was alight in some woodland behind a school in the Park Hill estate just after midnight. Fire and Rescue put it out before it was a complete shell, so we might get some forensics from it. They recovered a phone handset, a fizzy drink bottle and a black hoodie, among other less exciting things. The phone has gone to the Computer Crime Unit for download; I’ve made sure they’ve got me down as the analyst so I’ll get an alert as soon as it’s done.’

‘Thanks, Zoe. Ma’am,’ Rob said then, looking at Lou, ‘is there anything you’d like to comment on before we get on to the forensics?’

In other words,
Can you tell us what you know?

‘Thanks,’ Lou said. ‘Yes, just a bit of background for you, and the reason why I’m sitting in on your briefing. I’m sure I don’t need to say that this information is strictly confidential.’

Briefly she explained about Scarlett’s reappearance – while there was no evidence linking this murder to recent events, it was certainly worth a mention. She looked around the room at the rapt faces, and as soon as she’d finished there were murmurs and whispers. Scarlett’s name was familiar to many. ‘The press haven’t cottoned on to it yet,’ she said, ‘and I’d like to keep it that way for as long as possible. I can imagine this attack will be national news, given the family’s history. Once they know Scarlett Rainsford is not only alive but has recently been found in Briarstone, the level of press attention will escalate. Another thing to consider is that we have recently spoken to both Annie and Clive Rainsford on separate occasions and they were both in a pretty fragile emotional state, which may or may not be of interest as your investigation continues. Any questions?’

Jamie Turnbull asked, ‘Where is Scarlett now? Does she know about what’s happened?’

‘She’s with one of my officers this morning, I’ve left it to her to break the news. We’ll bring her in as soon as we can to make a statement. For reference, though, her movements are pretty much accounted for, as far as last night’s concerned. Yes – you have a question?’

It was the DC who’d offered her his seat. ‘What was the reaction when she met up with her family again, ma’am?’

‘She had only had a chance to see her mother; she hadn’t seen Clive or Juliette.’

‘Where has she been all these years?’ This was from Jamie Turnbull again.

‘We’re in the process of unravelling all that. Forgive me if I’m not at liberty to go into detail. If we find out anything that might be pertinent to this investigation, I’ll make sure you’re briefed. Zoe – did you want to ask something?’

‘Did Scarlett Rainsford have a phone? Do we have the number?’

‘I’m fairly sure SB seized a handset from her during the warrant,’ Lou said.

‘Is it all right with you if I contact the SB analyst? If they’ve downloaded the handset already there might be call data I can use. You never know.’

‘Of course. If you have any trouble with that, let me know and I’ll speak to Mr Waterhouse. Okay? Thanks Rob – back to you.’

‘Thank you. Clare,’ Rob said, ‘can you take us through the CSI?’

‘Sure,’ Clare began, clearing her throat. ‘We’re still working on the car; I’ll let you know as soon as I’ve got a report on that. For now, though, I can tell you what we’ve done so far at the property. The initial scene was the whole of the front garden. Annie had been taken to the hospital by the time we got there. Clive was lying with his head on the grass and most of his body on the path. Didn’t look like he’d moved once he fell. We’re looking at extensive head injuries – same for Annie – with massive blood loss. No sign of a weapon. We did get a pretty good shoe mark from the garden. There was an area under the tree, behind some bushes, that was freshly trampled. Someone possibly waiting there for them to come home.’

‘Any way of telling which of them was struck first?’ Rob asked.

‘Not yet. We’re looking at the blood spatter. At the moment it would suggest possibly Clive first – a single blow to knock him out – then Annie, then back to Clive to finish him off. If we can get anything conclusive on that I’ll make sure it’s highlighted in the report.’

‘Thanks, Clare.’

‘One more thing, sir. The shoe mark had a match on the database. We don’t have a subject match but the same shoe mark was recovered from a scene last month.’

‘Who was the victim?’ Rob asked.

‘It’s an unsolved one. Carl McVey, the guy who owns those pubs.’

Lou was busy singing Sam’s praises to Detective Superintendent Gordon Buchanan, who was giving the impression of listening intently while glancing every few seconds at his computer screen. This didn’t bother Lou. She knew that, if she phrased the final sentences right, he would agree to what she was asking even if he hadn’t fully taken in everything she’d said.

‘Sam Hollands is the only member of my team who’s been able to establish a rapport with Scarlett Rainsford,’ she went on, ‘and she has a unique connection with her which will be invaluable to DI Jefferson now that the circumstances have taken such a dramatic turn.’

‘Indeed,’ murmured Buchanan.

‘And Caro Sumner. I know she’s only just been seconded over to me from Special Branch, but I can’t help feeling that, if we can unravel what happened to the Rainsfords, we will be able to get more useful intelligence about the trafficking networks operating out of Briarstone.’

Lou took a deep breath. This was her clincher.
Brace yourself, Gordon
…

‘The trafficking operations directly impact on a number of our highest risk-scoring criminal networks, county-wide,’ she said. ‘If we can get to the intelligence concerning who’s running the operations, there is a strong possibility that we will be able to dismantle maybe three or four of those groups. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you what an impact that will have on crime figures across the county. It’s not just trafficking, sir. It’s drug-importation, extortion, violent crime, all the way down the long tail of criminality to volume crime at street level.’

As expected, he was giving her his full and undivided attention. There was nothing like the promise of actually meeting a few Home Office targets to make a senior officer sit up and take note.

‘Sounds as though you’ve got things under control,’ he said.

‘So I can offer Caro and Sam to assist with Op Vanguard, for now, and maintain an overview of the operation myself?’

‘Agreed. Keep me updated, won’t you?’