‘How did that happen?’
‘Well, the firefighters do tend to have rather large boots. On the other hand, we’ve had more luck from the lay-by where Granger’s car was parked. One of the SOCOs scraped up quite a wide range of samples from the ground there. If we can match the right combination to a suspect’s footwear, it would help us enormously.’
‘Thank you/ said Kessen. ‘I want to make it clear that we’re going to limit the amount of information we release - particularly what we allow Neil Granger’s associates access to. So we should be circumspect.’
‘Yes, sir.’
DC Murfin leaned towards Cooper again. ‘What does that mean?’ he said. ‘I thought it was when you were Jewish, like.’
‘He means watch what you say.’
‘Ah. As if I’d do anything else.’
Cooper saw Diane Fry turn slightly to look at them over her shoulder, frowning as if she had caught a couple of pupils misbehaving in class.
‘Miss isn’t pleased/ said Murfin.
‘Shhh.’
‘I can’t emphasize enough that we must be meticulous in preserving evidence/ said Kessen. This is going to be a real team effort, so we must work together and communicate fully. And remember, everybody - there’s no “i” in “team”.’
Cooper heard Gavin Murfin muttering under his breath.
There’s a “u” in bullshit, though/ he said.
Before the briefing broke up, everyone seemed to need to take another look at the photographs of the victim from the scene. The colours looked so unreal, as if something had gone wrong with the film in the photographer’s camera. Granger’s face was streaked with blood from his head wounds, but it had dried blacker than normal where it lay against his skin. That was because it had streaked and mingled with the black make-up he wore everywhere but around his eyes.
146
‘If we can find out why and when Neil Granger had blackened his face with theatrical make-up, that might give us the lead we need/ said DCI Kessen. ‘But at the moment, we keep this fact to ourselves, too.’
Gavin Murfin had arrived at the office armed with an enormous Peak pasty and a slab of dark, moist parkin. He’d left the parkin in its cellophane wrapper, but the gingery smell drifting across the office made Ben Cooper’s mouth water as soon as he walked in.
DI Kitchens approached them with Diane Fry. Kitchens sniffed at Murfin’s pasty with interest, while Fry tried not to look at it.
‘Cooper, what are you currently working on?’ said Kitchens. The Oxley family, isn’t it? Excellent. We need to pin down Neil Granger’s closest associates, who he spent his time with. Maybe he was close to some of his cousins among the Oxleys.’
‘He moved out of Withens some time ago, sir, but we know he’s been back there. One of the residents saw him on Friday night, and he helped the vicar to clear up after his church was broken into and vandalized.’
‘Exactly. Keep on it.’
DI Kitchens drifted off to speak to Kessen. Cooper waited until he’d gone, and then he looked at Fry curiously.
‘You never mentioned the possibility of a connection with Emma Renshaw, Diane,’ he said. ‘I thought you would do.’
‘I’ve already talked to Mr Kitchens about it. It isn’t the main line of enquiry at the moment.’
‘It can’t be overlooked.’
‘No, it won’t be overlooked, Ben.’
‘I do remember the case. Granger was one of her housemates, too, and he’d known Emma all his life.’
‘He was also one of the last people to see her alive, as far as we know. But most of the activity was in the Black Country, where she was last seen. The mobile phone is the first indication we’ve had that she made it anywhere near home. Of course, there was no direct evidence at the time that any crime had been committed. Emma Renshaw simply disappeared. No body, no witnesses, no apparent motive. And no evidence.’
‘Until now. Now we have her phone.’
‘I suppose it’s still possible that she might have wanted to disappear. That was the conclusion at the time. But who knows what might have happened to her since then.’
147
Cooper hesitated. There’s another reason I remember the Emma Renshaw case.’
‘Oh, yes?’
‘We’ve been reminded of it fairly regularly during the last two years. There have been several minor incidents that officers have had to deal with. Advice has been given. An informal warning once, I think.’
Fry looked up from the file. ‘You mean the parents? Yes, I know about that. But thanks for telling me.’
‘And Neil Granger lived in Withens. So he was a near neighbour of the Renshaws, too.’
‘Like you say, he and Emma were old schoolfriends.’
‘Childhood sweethearts maybe?’
‘If they were, it sounds as though they’d cooled off. By all appearances, they were no more than acquaintances in Bearwood.’
‘But sharing a house.’
The general agreement is that it was a matter of convenience, splitting the cost.’
