McDougal turned out to be a serious-looking man in his early forties. He was balding at the front and wore spectacles with unfashionably large frames, which when worn on a pear shaped face that almost narrowed to a point at his chin, gave him the appearance of a large insect. He smiled however and got up to hold out his hand when Steven was introduced. ‘I’m hugely embarrassed at not being able to comply with your request,’ he said. ‘But my predecessor… well, let’s just say that things could only get better.’
‘ I appreciate the problems were before your time,’ Steven assured him.
‘ This is the scene of crime forensics log that you wanted to see,’ said McDougal, handing over a large manila envelope.
‘ May I hang on to this?’ Steven asked him.
‘ Of course, it’s your copy. Is there anything else I can do to help?’
Steven was pleased to see that McDougal’s desire to help seemed genuine. ‘Are any of the forensic team who worked on the Julie Summers murder under Dr Lee still on the staff?’ he asked.
McDougal thought for a moment before saying, ‘To be honest, there was a bit of a radical shake-up in the lab after Dr Lee’s departure. Quite a few people left for pastures new. I think maybe Carol Bain is the only one left from that time.’
‘ Do you think I could have a word with her?’
‘ Of course,’ replied McDougal. ‘Just give me a moment.’ He left the room and McClintock got up and said, ‘I’ll wait outside in the car.’
Steven nodded his appreciation. He was considering opening the manila envelope in the interim when McDougal arrived back with Carol Bain.
Steven’s first impression was that there was a woman like Carol Bain in every lab he’d ever known. His guess was that she had been there for over twenty years, did everything by the book and gave unswerving loyalty to whoever was in charge. He’d put money on her not being married and possibly still living with her mother — with whom she went on holiday with to the same resort and same hotel every year.
Carol Bain gave Steven a cautious smile and sat down opposite, taking practised care to keep her knees together and turned slightly to the side. She kept her back straight and clasped her hands together in her lap. Her greying hair was swept back and held in a bun; a cameo brooch secured the collar of her high blouse collar.
‘ Carol has been with the service for, what is it now Carol? Twenty-three, twenty-four years?’ said McDougal.
‘ Twenty-three,’ smiled Carol.
‘ And no time off for good behaviour,’ said McDougal.
Carol looked down and smiled wanly as if she’d heard the joke many times before.
‘ Well, I’ll leave you two to talk,’ said McDougal. ‘Let me know when Dr Dunbar is ready to leave, will you Carol?’
‘ I understand that you’re the only member of staff left from the team who worked on the Julie Summers murder, Miss… Mrs Bain?’ said Steven.’
‘ Miss,’ said Carol. ‘I suppose that’s right,’ agreed Carol. ‘Dr Lee retired after the case, John moved on to pastures new and Samantha decided that lab work wasn’t really for her — she was the most junior member of the team: she’d only been with us a few months.’
‘ Did you actually attend the scene of the crime yourself?’ asked Steven.
Carol Bain shook her head. ‘No, it was just John and Dr Lee as far as I remember.’
‘ John?’
‘ John Merton, the senior scientific officer on the team at the time.’
‘ Did you personally deal with Julie Summers’ body?’
‘ No, there was no reason to, I worked on the lab samples that John and Dr Lee brought in.’
‘ Can you remember which particular aspect you worked on?’
‘ Of course, the semen recovered from the body. Recovery of the DNA was our top priority. It always is in rape cases.’
‘ Couldn’t have been easy,’ said Steven. ‘I read that an attempt had been made to clean her up.’
‘ I don’t remember that being a problem,’ said Carol. ‘There was certainly enough material for our purpose. You don’t need much.’
‘ You actually did the DNA sequencing?’ Steven asked
‘ John and I both did it. We didn’t have an automatic sequencer at the time. We did it manually and independently of each other, pouring our own acrylamide gels and doing everything the hard way. Nowadays we have a machine.’
‘ Why did you both do it?’
‘ It was a sensible precaution. DNA sequencing could be a bit iffy in those days. Gels could leak; bands could run together, smudging often occurred. As it turned out, we both got reasonably clean gels with identical banding so there was no doubt.’
‘ And that was what convicted David Little,’ said Steven.
‘ A one hundred percent match with the DNA sample obtained from one of the men in the village who happened to be David Little was what did it,’ said Carol.
‘ Dr Lee must have been relieved?’
‘ It’s always good to get a clear result but I suppose you’re referring to the loss of the other samples?’
‘ Any idea how they came to be lost?’ asked Steven.
‘ Not really. Dr Lee had been working on some of them — fibres from the girl’s clothes I think. He liked to get involved in the practical aspects of lab work but in reality…’
‘ He was a bit of a liability?’
‘ Latterly,’ agreed Carol Bain, looking down at the floor again as if uncomfortable about speaking ill of a superior. I suppose he must have become confused when returning the Summers samples to the storage rack. Instead of putting them back in the fridge he must have put the whole lot out in the discard tray instead. Everything had gone to the incinerator before anyone realised what had happened. John usually kept a watchful eye on him when he was in the lab but he couldn’t do that all the time.’
‘ So you were left with no scene of crime samples at all apart from the semen recovered? No evidence apart from the DNA profile?
‘ Luckily the semen samples were in another fridge — the one next door in the sequencing suite. But it isn’t actually true to say that we had no other evidence; we did; it was the samples that we didn’t have any more.’
Steven looked at her for a moment, feeling slightly puzzled. ‘Are you saying that the samples were analysed before they were lost?’ he asked.
‘ Well, yes,’ said Carol, as if she’d never imagined anything else.
‘ I had the impression they had been discarded before they could be analysed,’ said Steven. ‘And that’s why no corroborating forensic evidence was offered in court.’
Carol shook her head and said, ‘No, I think the Fiscal’s office didn’t want to risk offering evidence that the defence might conceivably challenge. If defence counsel had asked for an independent analysis of anything we couldn’t produce, the prosecution case might have collapsed.’
‘ Ah,’ said Steven. ‘So there are reports available for the other samples?’
‘ The samples had been in the lab for a couple of days before Dr Lee discarded them so some if not all of them must have already been dealt with. It was a very high profile case.’
‘ I think there’s been a misunderstanding somewhere along the line,’ said Steven. ‘I was led to believe that there was no forensic evidence available apart from the DNA matches.’
‘ No, it should all be in the files,’ said Carol.
‘ You don’t happen to remember anything about it, do you?’ asked Steven.
Carol shook her head. ‘I’m sorry; it was such a long time ago but I do remember it all pointed to the accused, David Little.’
‘ Miss Bain, you’ve been a big help,’ said Steven.