A Deadly Lesson

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‘Not really, I guess some of the site team were probably still around. I didn’t see if anyone else from SLT went back to their office or if they all left immediately.’

‘What about the car park? Were there any other cars still parked there?’ asked Moray Ruskin. The murder of Jillian Gwinnett was the first homicide case to be handled by Middlesbury CID since the probationer had been assigned to the unit full-time. Tony Sutton had been appointed as Ruskin’s mentor and so far he was pleased with the young DC’s instincts.

Waring thought for a moment. ‘None that I saw, but the Geography department is at the other end of the school, so I park in the PE car park; everyone else is up on the main site.’

Ruskin jotted down his reply. Sutton said nothing, letting the silence stretch out. Waring stared back.

‘OK, thank you for your help, Mr Waring, we’ll call you if there is anything else we need.’ Sutton clicked off the recorder.

The door snicked closed behind the departing teacher.

Ruskin looked over at Sutton.

‘He’s lying.’

* * *

‘Cause of death was strangulation.’ Professor Ryan Jordan showed Warren a series of glossy photographs. ‘You can see the petechial haemorrhaging on the eyeballs, and the hyoid bone in the throat is broken.’ He swiped to the next photograph. ‘She was strangled with hemp rope approximately one and a half centimetres in diameter; you can see superficial scratching from the fibres.’

The photographs were far from the goriest images that Warren had seen, nevertheless he was glad that he’d already eaten his lunch. He found his appetite tended to disappear otherwise. At least Jordan hadn’t insisted on inviting him down to watch the procedure.

‘You can tell from the way in which the bruising extends around most of the circumference of her throat that the rope was looped and dropped over her head. There are burst blood vessels on the top of both shoulders, suggesting that the killer pushed down on them to increase leverage. I identified some loose textile fibres that might have been transferred by her killer.’

‘Any sign of sexual assault?’

‘None. Her clothing was apparently undisturbed and I’ve done a full internal examination.’

‘Any ideas about time of death?’

‘It’s a pretty poor measure, as you know, but the drop in her core temperature is consistent with her dying late yesterday evening, rather than early this morning. Stomach contents revealed the remains of pasta and tomato sauce, which she is reported to have had for lunch, and what appears to be some sort of fruit cake and some grapes, which matches the catering order for the meeting she attended after school. Again, the degree of digestion supports the idea that she died late evening.

‘I’m awaiting blood toxicology tests, but so far I see no evidence that she was drugged or had consumed alcohol recently.’

* * *

The first twenty-four hours in a homicide investigation are known as the ‘golden hours’. Based on her apparent time of death, the inquiry into Jillian Gwinnett’s murder would soon be entering its second day. The victim had lain undiscovered for anything up to twelve hours, giving her killer valuable time to hide evidence, and so Warren and his team were already playing catch-up. Therefore, Warren decided to call a late-evening briefing. Most of his team had already been on shift for twelve hours, but they were still bright-eyed and full of energy, coffee and adrenaline keeping fatigue at bay. It couldn’t last in the long-term, of course. After the initial flurry of activity, if the killer wasn’t apprehended, by necessity the investigation would soon settle down into a more sustainable routine.

‘Tony, why don’t you kick off?’

Sutton smoothed his rumpled shirt and ran a hand through his greying hair. He’d already been on shift for some hours when the initial call had come in and even coffee was starting to lose its effect.

‘First of all, technology is not on our side. Many of the school’s CCTV cameras are broken, awaiting the start of the new financial year before they can be repaired. The school has a swipe card system, but it’s a very basic one. Staff members’ cards are divided into groups depending on which doors they have permission to open and at what time, but the cards themselves don’t have any identifying information. The SLT group for example have full access, including out of hours, but normal teaching staff and admin can’t come on site before 7 a.m. and can’t re-enter after 5 p.m.

‘Individual internal door locks remember the last time they were opened, but not by whom. For fire safety, most doors can be opened manually by pressing a release button or using a mechanical handle on the inside, so there’s no log of when people exit. The main external doors do log entries but only record basic information, such as what group of card was used. And staff routinely come in and out in groups.’

‘Well, we wouldn’t want to make it too easy for an experienced detective such as yourself, Tony. What have we got so far?’ asked Warren.

‘We’ve accounted for most staff’s whereabouts. Aside from the site team and the SLT, most staff were long gone by the time the meeting was finished. The school is typically locked up by six or six-thirty, but pretty much everyone had left by five-thirty. The school is on an energy-saving drive and they turn the heating off at three-thirty after the kids go home. Apparently, the building is old and draughty, and this time of year it gets decidedly chilly within an hour or so. Most staff take their marking home or log on to the school network remotely.’

‘What about the SLT? I can’t imagine them sitting around in coats and scarves in their after-school meeting,’ asked Warren.

‘The school has bought a number of portable oil-filled electric radiators that can be used to heat individual rooms and offices. It works out cheaper than keeping the heating on.’

‘Did Gwinnett have one?’ asked Hutchinson.

‘Yes, but it wasn’t switched on,’ said Sutton.

‘Which suggests that she wasn’t expecting to stay too late that evening,’ noted Warren.

‘Or her killer was worried about the school’s electricity bill,’ said Rachel Pymm, only half joking.

‘So all of the teaching staff, except for the SLT, were gone by five-thirty?’

‘Almost all. The majority of staff drive or lift-share, so we’re cross-referencing the times they claim to have left with ANPR cameras. Three members of staff said they used public transport, we’re also checking them out. The only person unaccounted for so far is Giles Sanders, the head of Science. He says he walked home. He also claims not to have left until 6 p.m. I guess he must have kept his coat on.’

‘Any CCTV?’

Mags Richardson shook her head.

‘Nothing. The camera above the main entrance has been broken for weeks. Depending on his route home, he might pass by a local newsagent whose camera covers a few metres of the pavement outside her shop, but it’s unlikely.’

‘OK, let’s put him on the list for a follow-up interview. If we’re still struggling to rule him out, we’ll raise a warrant to track down his phone’s movements. Anything from the door-to-door, Hutch?’

‘Nothing,’ said Hutchinson. ‘As you said it was dark by 5 p.m. so even those who were home yesterday evening had their curtains closed.’

‘What about non-teaching staff?’

Sutton flicked over his notepad.

‘There were four cleaners on duty Monday. To keep costs down, they start cleaning at 2 p.m. in unused classrooms and the canteen and then knock-off at 5 p.m. They have all undergone criminal record checks, obviously, and they wear ID badges, but don’t have swipe card access. They sign in and out of the visitors’ log, and the receptionist remembers seeing them leave.’

‘How do they clean locked offices then?’ asked Ruskin.

‘They don’t really. Waste bins are left outside the door for emptying and sensitive paperwork is taken directly to the communal shredder. About once a month, the cleaners do a quick dust and hoover, but have to be let in to the office to do so. The occupant is expected to either stay in there or ensure that sensitive material is not on display and computers are password locked.’

‘Who else is on the list?’ asked Warren.

‘The canteen staff were all gone by three-thirty – again, they signed out at reception. The last to leave was the canteen head, who delivered a tray of refreshments to the conference room where the SLT had their meeting. She left it, planning to pick it up the following morning.’

‘What time did the reception and admin staff leave?’

‘Everyone was out by a few minutes past five. They all either drive or lift-share, so we’re checking them out.’

‘What about the rest of the governors? Father Beresford said that none of them attended yesterday’s SLT meeting, however he has no alibi.’

Sutton consulted his notebook again.

‘In addition to Father Beresford, the governing body consists of seven members, including two members of staff who have already been checked out. Of the remaining governors, two have alibis, the rest don’t.’

‘Start with those who don’t have an alibi,’ instructed Warren.

‘Mick Shorting is a parent governor. He separated from his wife last year. His kids stay three nights a week at their mum’s, and he doesn’t have a new partner. Guess where they were Monday? He works for the post office and does the early shift, so he reckons he was at home from mid-afternoon and in bed by about nine. We’re canvassing his neighbours, to see if anyone saw him.’

Sutton flicked over to the next page.

‘Samantha Maitland is a businesswoman, forty-two years old and married, no kids. No prior ties to the school before joining the board, but she has known Noah Ball for years because she is heavily involved in Catholic education charities. Apparently, she’s training for a marathon and says she was doing circuits of Middlesbury Common yesterday. She reckons it’s safer than running on the roads in the dark. We’ll pull the CCTV from the area to see if we can locate her. Unfortunately, she doesn’t wear one of those GPS fitness trackers.’