Knight & Culverhouse Box Set - Books 7-9

Chapter 19

19

It was often the case that the first custody interview with a suspect would seem completely fruitless. The general rule was that they’d either open up and tell you absolutely everything straight away or they’d frustrate you to the point where you wondered why you’d even bothered.

All wasn’t lost, though. The team were coming to the end of their shift — or, at least, the end of the period of time they’d be allowed to work consecutively — save for the late debrief. Although historically murder investigations meant you worked whatever hours you could, this now had to be within a certain limit. After all, a wise defence solicitor could easily request staff working logs and claim that the investigation might be flawed in places due to overtired and overworked police officers. The truth of the matter was, all police officers were overtired and overworked regardless.

‘Right,’ Culverhouse said as he marched into the incident room, ‘let’s get this over and done with quickly. It’s been a bloody long day and I’ve got a cold pint waiting for me next door. If we hurry up I might be able to drink it before closing time.’

Culverhouse sat down in a chair and folded his arms and legs, looking at Janet Grey expectantly.

The pathologist smiled, knowing the DCI’s little ways only too well, and briefed the team on what she’d discovered so far.

‘To summarise, it’s pretty much what we expected when we first arrived at the scene. The cause of death was heavy trauma due to a fall, consistent with the height of the balcony and the weight of the deceased. It was the fall that killed him. There was quite a lot of smoke in his lungs, which indicates that he’d been inside the house when the fire was burning. There was no major evidence of scorching or any sign of him actively having tried to fight the fire, so we can assume that it was pretty well active by the time he discovered it.’

‘Which is odd, isn’t it?’ Wendy asked. ‘I mean, it makes sense that the fire had been well established by the time he discovered it, because it was during the night. He wouldn’t have just been walking around the house at that time. But if that’s the case, why didn’t he die in his sleep of smoke inhalation? How did he discover the fire in the first place?’

‘Fire alarms?’ Steve offered, trying to hold back from laughing.

Wendy immediately felt rather daft. It had been a long day.

‘Correct, DS Wing,’ Dr Grey said. ‘The watch commander reckons there are signs of smoke alarms having been installed, although it’ll take a while for them to be able to confirm that for definite. Plastic doesn’t tend to last too long in a blazing inferno, apparently. Who knew?’

‘So what, he jumped and missed the pool?’ Culverhouse asked.

‘Looks like it. Probably not the easiest thing to do, especially if you’ve been woken in the middle of the night, are getting on a bit in age and you’ve got lungs half-filled with smoke. I’d like to see you land a perfect ten in the deep end, Detective Chief Inspector.’

‘You’re not the only one, Dr Grey. My body is a temple.’

‘Yes. To Buddha.’

‘Alright. Enough of the s****l tension. Let’s get back to dead bodies. When are you going to have something I can use to charge our suspect?’

Janet Grey smiled. ‘I’m afraid that’s between science and the Crown Prosecution Service. I can’t magic up evidence if it doesn’t exist.’

Culverhouse grunted as he rubbed the stubble on his chin. ‘No, but on the other hand the custody clock is ticking, and we’re going to struggle to get an extension if there’s nothing we can pin on our man. We can’t interview again until the morning anyway. Not with Chamberlain as his brief. We’re better off waiting until everyone’s had some kip. Got to play well within the lines with that bloke.’

‘Well, there’s a first time for everything, eh, Detective Chief Inspector?’ Grey said, smiling at him as she closed her notebook.

‘Have we had anything back from the scene?’ Culverhouse asked, of no-one in particular.

‘Nothing yet,’ Steve Wing replied. ‘But that doesn’t mean they’ve not found anything. There’s probably still some areas the fire officers won’t let them into. Might take a while. They’ll be going through the night, bagging and tagging.’

‘Lucky them,’ Culverhouse said. ‘We’ll need to hope they uncover something that ties our man to the scene. Otherwise, we’ll have to release him.’

‘That wouldn’t be so bad, though, would it?’ Ryan asked. ‘I mean, he’s got a probation officer assigned to him so it’s not as if he’s going to be able to go far.’

Culverhouse stood with his hands on his hips. ‘Oh, I’m not worried about him going far. My concern is that if he’s come out of prison and is exacting his revenge on people who’ve wronged him in the past, we have no idea how long that list of his might be. For all we know, he could be hell bent on knocking off as many old enemies as he can before we catch up with him. Which is why we need some sort of evidence either way, and pretty damn quickly.’

‘They’re doing their best,’ Wendy said, trying to placate her boss. ‘But as you say, there’s not a whole lot we can do now other than head off and get some sleep.’

‘Heh. Sleep? I’m having a pint. You lot coming?’

The DCI’s tone of voice led them to believe it wasn’t so much an invitation as an order. And, in any case, each of them knew they could probably do with a drink.