He caught sight of Grace coming into the office and he watched her make a path to the kettle. He acknowledged her with a raised hand as he clicked open his e-mail list. He had one waiting for him from Duncan Wroe, with the bold title of ‘Prints identified.’ Hurriedly he opened it up and scanned the short text. His face lit up as Grace was delivering his Sheffield United mug full of tea. “They’ve identified some of the prints found at Jodie’s flat.”
She raised her eyebrows.
“Kerri-Ann Bairstow!” He looked for a reaction. Grace’s eyes lit up. “Remember her?”
She nodded.
“What’s the betting that Kerri-Ann is the girl the downstairs neighbour saw in Jodie’s room on several occasions? The one who gave him a bit of a slagging.”
“It would certainly fit in with her character.”
Hunter nodded in agreement. They had come across Kerri-Ann Bairstow a few months ago, in August. She was a sex-worker, feisty and loud-mouthed, who had reluctantly become a witness for them in the ‘Lady in the Lake’ case.
“Well, if that’s not a turn up for the books. I’ll feed that in this morning, as well as what we learned yesterday, and then you and I will see if we can track madam down and have a little chat. Fancy her cropping up in two murders in such a short space of time. She’s certainly going to be pleased when she sees us two again — not!” A smile creased his face. “I’m betting she can tell us something.”
“Aye, and it’ll be like drawing teeth.”
“Oh I’m sure with your powers of persuasion you’ll get her to talk. You did last time, remember?”
Morning briefing took over an hour. Both Detective Superintendents were present and Michael Robshaw led the session.
Tony Bullars and Mike Sampson were first to speak. They had completed the search of Jodie Marie Jenkinson’s bed-sit but hadn’t found any significant evidence. Her mobile was still missing, and she hadn’t been the type of girl who kept a diary, so they were struggling to build up a recent picture of her day-to-day life.
That was when Hunter broke the news about the identification of the prints found in Jodie’s room. As expected, he and Grace were handed the job of tracking down Kerri-Ann Bairstow. Then he told everyone what he and Grace had learned the previous day. First, he reported on the interview with Amanda Rawlinson. He saw the looks around the room when he revealed Lucy’s pregnancy. “She was meeting Danny Weaver that night to tell him she was carrying his child.”
“So that could be the reason behind the flare-up in the market place,” interjected Det. Supt. Robshaw. “But why didn’t Danny Weaver explain when he was interviewed?”
“He might have boss, and Alan Darbyshire and Jeffery Howson chose to suppress it. Especially after what they had done to him with the confession,” said Hunter. “We now know that Danny wanted Lucy to run away with him and the pregnancy would certainly complicate matters. It could well have been the trigger behind the argument that night. I guess the only other person who’ll be able to answer that question is Danny Weaver himself, and he certainly wasn’t forthcoming in prison. There is also the added element of her husband, Peter. We don’t really know if he knew of all this and that’s the reason why she and Danny were arguing. Let’s not forget that when Lucy went out that night to meet up with Danny, we seemed to have overlooked the fact she went out alone. Amanda said that Lucy doted on her daughter, so why should she go out and leave Jessica? And there is nothing in the file which tells us who was looking after Lucy’s daughter that night. Someone had to be. What if that person was Peter, and he was telling Lucy to end it, or something to that effect? We know he threatened her and used violence towards her.” Hunter leaned forward on his desk and folded his arms. “I know, when we spoke with him the other day, he said he didn’t know about Lucy and Danny’s affair, but we only have his word for that. And after what Amanda told us yesterday, I wouldn’t believe anything he said. She certainly paints Peter Blake-Hall in a bad light. And she was also extremely critical of Alan Darbyshire and Jeffery Howson. They persuaded her what to put in her original statement, and then primed her about what to say in court. Weaver never stood a chance.” Hunter glanced across the room, his mouth set tight. “I got something else as well yesterday.” He related his meeting with the tramp ‘Chicken George’. When he got to the part about the photograph identification, he flushed, especially when he saw the look on Detective Superintendent Robshaw’s face.
He said, “I know I didn’t go about it right gaffer, but it was the only way I was going to get anything out of him. And to be honest I don’t think he’s got that long to live. You ought to see him. He’s in a real mess. He has all the tell-tale signs of liver disease. But he has given us something really positive to work with. He definitely pointed out Peter Blake-Hall and Ronnie Fisher as being the two he saw carrying Jodie into the Barnwell Inn. She was kicking and screaming, he said. Under the circumstances, I don’t think I could have got any better result.”
The SIO’s face changed. “Okay Hunter. I guess I would have preferred if the identification had been carried out according to procedure, but needs must in the circumstances. And it does give us something concrete to work with, but are you confident he told you everything? You’re happy that he definitely didn’t see what they did to her?”
“He said not, Boss. And to be honest I believe him.” Hunter turned to Grace, who acknowledged his words with a nod. He continued, “There was no hesitation whatsoever when he said that as soon as he saw them drive away he left by the back stairs and that he didn’t go anywhere near the cellar. We know from the layout of the pub that could be right and from the stuff he left behind in the loft, he certainly left in a hurry.”
“And he told you they had a black four-by-four?”
“Yeah, with blacked out windows. No prompting.”
“Okay, that’s good.” Michael Robshaw’s eyes swept the room. “This is our first real break-through. The link to the three recent murders now is the black four-by-four and so one of the main priorities is to find that car. The witness at Wentworth seems to think it could be a Mitsubishi Shogun. I want to know if Peter or Ronnie own one, and if they do, where it’s garaged.” He switched his gaze to Detective Superintendent Dawn Leggate, standing beside him. “Dawn, what do you have for the team?”
She didn’t have much to say. Scenes of Crime had completed processing the derelict inn and no significant evidence had been found. Task Force were scheduled to finish their search of its perimeter grounds that day, but she wasn’t hopeful of finding evidence, she added. “Much of the scene had been heavily contaminated by the contractors and their vehicles before we got called there.” She had managed to persuade the head of the forensic science team at Wetherby to fast-track all their submitted samples.
Detective Superintendent Robshaw brought in Barry Newstead. “You’ve managed to follow-up on the Crime Squad thing, I understand?”