DCI Warren Jones

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‘We’ve been trying to figure out what Rodney Shaw might have been doing during the unaccounted for period between him leaving work on the evening of the fire and his car re-appearing on the ANPR cameras eight minutes after he received the call about the fire and headed back to the abbey.’

Mags Richardson had moved her laptop next to Rachel Pymm’s workstation and there was a substantial pile of printouts on the desk between them.

‘I’m promised the records from his mobile phone any minute,’ interjected Pymm.

‘In the meantime,’ continued Richardson, ‘we’ve looked at the area within that ANPR dead zone, and for a few streets either side of it. It’s not great news, sir. Even in a small town like Middlesbury, there are a lot of homes and businesses in that vicinity that he could have visited. There are twelve public houses, two restaurants, nine fast-food takeaways and two bookmakers. He could even have been getting his car serviced or picking up some dry cleaning. I imagine if he did visit “Nelly’s Nails” it wasn’t for a manicure.’

‘Start canvassing the area if the phone data doesn’t give us any more clues,’ ordered Warren. ‘He lied about his whereabouts in the initial interview, I presume that there was a reason for that, but it doesn’t mean he was doing anything we’re bothered about. Let’s see if anyone can provide an alibi for some of that time so we can discount him.

‘Are there any interesting residents in the area that he could have been meeting?’

‘Define interesting,’ said Pymm, before answering her own question. ‘Thirty-eight addresses within that zone have occupants with at least one recordable offence on the PNC. That’s a bit above the average for an area of that size in Middlesbury, but it’s hardly a den of criminality.

‘The data has its limits, though, as it records addresses at the time of the offence. If we decide to go to town on this, we’ll need to cross-reference the latest electoral roll data with the PNC, and perhaps even benefits and tax records.’

‘File the appropriate requests for that information, but hold off on the analysis unless we get nowhere with the phone records. What type of offences are we talking about?’

‘Mostly low-level, or historic, but two properties have received multiple call-outs for domestic violence, another person served a six-month term for assault occasioning actual bodily harm and another resident has been convicted twice for possession of class B drugs with intent to supply, the last offence being eighteen months ago.’

‘I presume the domestic violence had no link to Mr Shaw?’

‘As far as I can tell. I’ve had a look at the reports filed and there’s no mention of a third party involved.’

‘Put them on the bottom of the list then. What about the dealer? Could Shaw be using again?’

‘Possible, although if she is his supplier, she’s moved up in the world. Both previous convictions were for possessing enough cannabis for several joints. The people she was supplying to were her boyfriend and a couple of friends at university, there was no suggestion that she was earning any money from it, and there’s nothing recent.’

‘Put her to one side and see if she comes back into the picture when we get his mobile phone records. What about the assault?’

‘A drunken brawl in a bar in Brighton back in 2007; the defendant broke the victim’s jaw and then took a few swings at the bouncers and passers-by, before trying to head butt the arresting officer. Nothing recent or before then.’

‘Sounds unlikely, unless Shaw is a friend. What else have you got?’

‘I looked at the ANPR records for the cameras surrounding the area for the previous forty-eight hours. Shaw’s car doesn’t appear during the preceding two days. I’ve requested records going back further to see if he made the trip regularly. In terms of the cars that left or entered the area within that time, no car both exits and re-enters.’

‘So it’s unlikely that he borrowed someone else’s car to go to the abbey without being seen?’

‘Not unless he arranged to leave it somewhere else,’ said Pymm.

‘What about other cars exiting or entering – could they have dropped him off, or picked him up from near the abbey?’

‘Thirty-two cars exited the area within the unaccounted time period. Since he would probably have needed to have arrived at the abbey at least an hour before the fire was set to drug Father Nolan and get him down to the chapel, and assuming he had no accomplice, then we can immediately trim that to twelve cars that would have given enough time to do what he needed to. Ten of those cars travelled away from the abbey; it would make no sense for him to have got in those cars, unless he was performing some sort of elaborate doubling back exercise to build his alibi.’

‘Not impossible,’ commented Warren. ‘But put them to one side. Tell me about the two cars that headed towards the abbey.’

‘One could have passed within a half mile of the abbey, the other just over a mile. The cars are registered to residents within that area.’

‘Put them on the list, they could have given Shaw a lift. We’ll pull them in for questioning if necessary. What about returning cars?’

‘Again, assuming that he needed to leave after we believe the fire was started, and unless he had an accomplice, four cars entered the area in the time before his car exited. None of them came from the direction of the abbey, although it looks as though a minicab may have picked up a fare within a mile of the abbey grounds. I’ve put in a request for their records.’

‘What about buses?’

‘The 562 has a stop right in the centre of the zone of interest, and another stop four streets over from the abbey’s main entrance. Four buses passed through the area between him driving into the zone and the time of the fire, but there were no return journeys between the fire being set and Shaw’s car re-appearing. I’ve already requested the CCTV from Stagecoach.’

‘OK, so no obvious reason for Shaw visiting that area or indications why he may have lied about it. It looks like we need to wait for his mobile phone records then, to see if he called anyone associated with that area or failing that to pinpoint his whereabouts more precisely. Get on with that as soon as the records appear. In the meantime, speak to Hutch about a priority list for door knocking, so we’re ready to hit the ground running as soon as possible.’

‘On it,’ responded both women simultaneously.

Chapter 22 (#ulink_ac529564-af77-54a6-bcc4-9ee2be491522)

Warren had planned on sneaking away early to surprise Susan when she returned from school; if nothing else, tonight was likely to be their last chance to have a glass of wine together for the foreseeable future.

And so he was torn when Andy Harrison called to update him on the search of the tool shed.

‘We were nearly done, after examining most of the surfaces and the handles of the tools most likely to come in contact with somebody stumbling around in the dark. We’ve got plenty of stuff to process and compare against what we’ve already got.’

‘Good work, Andy.’ Warren was keen to leave, but he wasn’t distracted enough to miss the satisfaction in the veteran CSI’s voice. And the man was an experienced Crime Scene Manager – he’d hardly be phoning Warren for a pat on the back for doing what he was asked.

Harrison took that as his cue to continue.

‘There was an old cupboard at the back of the shed, filled with the usual crap you’d expect, including a rusty souvenir shortbread tin.’

‘Dare I ask what was in it?’

‘Screws, plastic wall plugs, insulating tape.’

‘Anything else, Andy?’

‘Two hundred and sixty pounds in used twenty-pound notes. And plenty of nice, clear fingerprints.’

* * *

With his plans to leave early scuppered, Warren headed back into the office.

‘We have the mobile phone records for Rodney Shaw,’ said Pymm.

‘We’re processing the numbers dialled at the moment, but so far we have calls from Deacon Baines at the time he phoned to notify him of the fire. He called that number regularly, with lots of short duration calls and texts between nine and five most days. If I had to guess, I’d say that he and Baines kept in touch during the working day by mobile phone.’

‘That should be easy enough to confirm.’

‘The next most common number is registered to his wife, Yvonne Shaw. They speak at length about once a week, with occasional short duration calls and texts at other times.’

‘That seems a bit strange for a married couple, why can’t they talk at home?’ asked Warren.

‘Could their marriage be in trouble?’ suggested Pymm.

‘Look into it,’ ordered Warren. ‘Now, what about the night of the fire? Any suggestions where he spent the hours before being called back to work?’

‘That’s where we are struggling. Shortly after leaving work, he called an unregistered pay-as-you-go phone. It wasn’t the first time he’s called it, he does it at infrequent intervals roughly every two weeks. Short duration, about five seconds.’

‘An unregistered pay-as-you-go phone,’ mused Sutton. ‘Perfectly legal to own, but is anyone else’s nose twitching?’

‘Definitely,’ agreed Warren, ‘what do we have in terms of location data?’

‘We have cell-tower triangulation for his phone that entire day. To start, the phone is at his registered address overnight until about seven-thirty, when it moves along his expected route towards the abbey. It then remains within the abbey grounds until just after 5 p.m.’

‘So he didn’t leave for lunch?’

‘No, and it moves around a bit, suggesting he carries it with him rather than leaving it in a locker – which would make sense if he uses it to communicate with Baines during the day. We don’t have good enough resolution to narrow it down to precise locations within the grounds, but it doesn’t appear to go to the end of the complex where the chapel is located. However, he does spend the last hour of his day around the retirement home.’

‘Which gives a legitimate reason for any trace evidence that may be found at the scene,’ interjected Sutton.

‘Then what?’

‘The phone moves along the route taken by his car, travelling into the camera dead spot where we lost sight of the car itself. A few moments later, the phone appears to stop moving and then remains stationary for the next few hours, until shortly after he receives the call about the fire when it starts moving along the route that we tracked back towards the abbey. There’s no indication that the phone moved any appreciable distance at walking pace or in a moving vehicle, during those five hours.’

‘So that leaves us with three possibilities, either he was visiting a location within that area; he sat in his car for five hours …’

‘Or he left his phone in the car and disappeared off to do whatever he was doing before returning to the car sometime before he drove it to the abbey,’ finished Sutton.

‘What’s in that area?’

Pymm switched to a more detailed map. A large red dot was surrounded by two concentric circles.

‘The resolution from cell-tower triangulation in that part of town is between fifty and one hundred metres, which covers this inner area, with a decreased probability of it being within this wider perimeter. There was a little movement, but only a few metres, and within the error range for a stationary phone. In total, it includes about four streets, no bookmakers, and one pub. There are two other small businesses, a newsagent and an off-licence, the rest of the properties are residential.’