‘Right,’ says Quinn, staring at him.
‘But what about a previous injury?’ Carter again. Who clearly has no problem looking like a swot. I’m guessing this must happen around him a lot because a couple of people are suppressing smiles. ‘Before the gunshot?’
Quinn frowns. ‘Like what, exactly?’
Gis is shaking his head. ‘There was nothing on the body, according to the PM. No injuries at all, not even bruising. And no defensive or other injuries on the hands that could have caused any sort of bleeding.’
Carter frowns. ‘But it could have been a head wound – before the shot, I mean. We can’t exactly check for that now, can we.’
Quinn snorts. ‘What sort of head wound? You think Swann gave him a clip round the ear and then asked him to hang on a minute while he got his gun? “Hold my beer while I nip down to the cellar?”’
Gis cuts across him because Carter’s gone very red. ‘OK, Carter, it was a good point and you’re right that we need to be careful not to get blinkered in a situation like this, but I tend to agree with DS Quinn: it’s pretty unlikely. Especially given what else Boddie found.’ He nods again to Quinn, who holds up the next sheet of paper.
‘The PM report,’ he says. ‘Most important thing to note here is that the vic was left-handed. And as you can see,’ he says, gesturing back at the photos on the whiteboard, ‘the knife was found in his right hand. Proof, if anyone still needs it,’ a pointed glance at Carter, ‘that the Swanns staged that scene. Swann cut himself, then put that knife in the vic’s hand after he was dead so we’d find his prints on it. Unfortunately for him, that wasn’t all we found.’
‘So,’ says Gis. ‘To sum up – right now everything is pointing to the victim never having broken into that house at all. That whatever this was, it wasn’t a burglary.’
Chloe Sargent is clearly still processing all this. ‘So the Swanns faked the break-in as well?’
Ev turns to her. ‘Clive Conway said the damage to the back door was pretty basic. Anyone could have done it. And there was no screwdriver or anything like that in the victim’s pockets. In fact, there was nothing in his pockets, period.’
‘It’s probably all in that black placky bag,’ says another DC, to murmurs of agreement.
Gis smiles. ‘Yeah, well, Barnetson is on the case on that, so watch this space.’
Baxter now. ‘So the knife wasn’t the vic’s either – is that what we’re saying?’
Ev gestures at the picture on the whiteboard. ‘That looks more like something from a kitchen drawer.’
The implication is clear.
Hansen looks up. ‘I checked that, actually. The Swanns have only one set of matching knives – some heavy old-fashioned things in the dining room, obviously kept for “best”. The cutlery in the kitchen was just a mishmash of different stuff. That knife could easily have been one of theirs – trouble is, we’ll never be able to prove it.’
But Baxter isn’t convinced, not yet. ‘We’re getting a bit ahead of ourselves, though, aren’t we? Even if he wasn’t a burglar, doesn’t mean it wasn’t self-defence. There could have been an argument – Swann’s a stroppy old git – he loses his rag, next thing you know – bam –’
‘So why not admit straight up that that’s what happened?’ says Hansen. ‘Did he think we wouldn’t believe him?’
‘What I think we can all agree,’ I say carefully, ‘is that right now we have a lot of theories and very few facts. We don’t know what this man was doing there, we don’t know if they were expecting him and we don’t know how or why he ended up dead. They could even have lured him there with the express intention of killing him.’
General murmurs of demurral here, and I get it – I find that hard to believe too – but we can’t afford to close down any possibilities. Not yet.
I wait for the noise to settle. ‘But whatever the answers to those questions, in my opinion they all point to the same conclusion: they knew him. Even though they’ve flatly denied it, they knew who he was.’
I look round, drilling down the point. ‘There’s a connection between these people – there has to be. If we can establish what that is, we’ll find out why he’s dead. And that means finding out who the hell he is.’
Gis makes a face. ‘Easier said than done, though, boss. We can hardly put his picture in the paper.’
‘So let’s find some other way,’ I reply, over a couple of ghoulish wisecracks. ‘Starting with how he got to Gantry Manor in the first place. It’s miles from anywhere and he had no car.’
‘Unless the Swanns moved it?’ asks Sargent.
Baxter’s shaking his head. ‘There wouldn’t have been time – not with all that laundry they were doing.’
I nod towards him. ‘Right. So no car and I doubt very much he was on foot. Not at that time of night, down an unlit lane. So what does that leave us with? A cab?’
Quinn nods. ‘That’d be my bet.’
Gis turns to him. ‘I guess I could get the Oxford Mail to run a follow-up based on that.’
Ten minutes later Gis has nearly finished doling out tomorrow’s tasks and the room is starting to clear, but I’m still at the whiteboard.
‘What is it?’ says Quinn, appearing at my shoulder. My first assumption is that he just wants to get an inside track Gis doesn’t have, but I check myself. It’s all too easy to treat Quinn like a cliché, largely because he spends so much time acting like one. But there’s more to him than that, all the same.
I gesture towards the pictures of Swann and his wife. ‘Make sure someone’s doing some digging on these two as well, will you?’
He nods. ‘OK, I can do that.’ He hesitates. ‘Any particular reason?’
I shake my head. ‘Nothing specific. I just can’t shake the feeling I’ve seen them somewhere before.’
* * *
Oxford Mail online
Monday 22 October 2018 Last updated at 16:44
Police appeal for witnesses in relation to fatal Wytham shooting
Thames Valley Police have issued an appeal to anyone who might be able to help them identify a man who was shot dead at Wytham last night. Officers were called to an isolated property on Ock Lane, on the outskirts of the village, after a member of the public reportedly heard gunfire emanating from the property.
Detective Sergeant Chris Gislingham told us: ‘We do not know who this man was, or how he travelled to Wytham last night. He was a young man, probably in his early twenties, and he must have friends and family who are concerned about his whereabouts. That’s why it’s important we identify him as soon as possible. We’re particularly interested in hearing from any taxi or minicab drivers who might have dropped off a male passenger in Ock Lane yesterday evening. You can contact us in confidence on 01865 0966552, or at the TVP social media feeds.’
DS Gislingham declined to comment on the circumstances that led to the victim’s death, or on reports that the shooting was the result of a burglary gone wrong. The identity of the householders has not been made public, but neighbours have said they are an elderly couple who have lived at the property for at least ten years. ‘They seem like very respectable people,’ said one neighbour, who asked not to be named. ‘They keep themselves very much to themselves. They must have been terrified, at their age, finding an intruder in the house at that time of night. I mean, it’s everyone’s worst nightmare, isn’t it?’
DS Gislingham advised anyone with concerns about their home security to download the Thames Valley Home Security Guide at https://www.thamesvalley.police.uk/police-forces/thames-valley-police/areas/advice/home-security-guide/.