from the
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beginning. We were sure we’d get a conviction against him, and we didn’t find it necessary to look elsewhere. But the forensic evidence eliminated the husband. That’s why he dropped out of the frame.’
‘Sir, it seems to me there was precious little forensic evidence.’
Hitchens sighed. ‘I know. But that was then, and this is now.’
‘There’s one other thing, sir.’
‘Yes?’
‘The Quinns’ children, Simon and Andrea - where were they at the time?’
‘At school, of course. They were aged fifteen and twelve.’
They must have been due to arrive home about then.’
The DI had started to tap his fingers with impatience, but frowned at the question. ‘It’s a long time ago, but I’ve a feeling the girl went to her aunt’s house. The boy turned up later on, though. I remember that. Somebody intercepted him and took him to a neighbour’s.’
‘Much later? How soon after the murder happened?’
‘Well, it must have been pretty soon. He only had to come from the college at Hope.’
‘But, sir ‘
‘The case against Quinn was sound, Ben. He pleaded guilty in court.’
‘Yes, I know he did.’
‘Well, then. The fact that he confessed should put your mind at ease.’
‘Funnily enough,’ said Cooper, ‘that’s the one fact that worries me most of all.’
‘Two murders in a week,’ said Gavin Murfin. ‘It’s too much excitement for me, at my age.’
Diane Fry sat on the edge of her desk facing them. She’d just come back from a strategy meeting upstairs and was looking pleased with herself.
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‘Just think yourself lucky, Gavin,’ she said. ‘You could have ended up working in Northern Ireland, where they have eighteen hundred unsolved murders on the books.’
‘If I was so stupid,’ said Murfin, ‘I’d have joined the army instead. At least I could have got shot at in a nice climate.’
Fry swung her legs impatiently. ‘Anyway, listen to this, guys. The pathologist confirms that William Thorpe died of strangulation. The blood came from someone else - a trail of it between the body and the doorway of the field barn, as well as the splatters we saw outside, in the nettles. So it definitely looks as though Quinn is injured.’
‘Maybe that’ll slow the bastard down, at least,’ said Murfin.
‘Alerts are going out, in case he seeks medical treatment of any kind.’
‘Did you hear that, Ben?’ called Murfin across the office. ‘Quinn was injured.’
Ben Cooper was opening a few birthday cards that had been left on his desk. One was from his colleagues in CID, another from Liz Petty in scenes of crime, signed ‘Hugs, Liz’. Somebody had tied a couple of silver helium balloons to his in-tray. They bumped gently against each other in the draught from Fry’s desk fan.
‘If that’s who it was that killed Thorpe,’ he said.
‘We have a sample of Quinn’s DNA now, Ben,’ said Fry.
‘No, we have someone’s DNA. We can’t say it’s Quinn’s until we find him and do a comparison.’
‘Yes, all right.’
Cooper looked up from his cards. ‘So how far did the trail of blood go?’
‘They couldn’t follow it beyond the gate. But if it is Quinn’s blood, it looks as though he’s made another mistake.’
‘Another?’
‘Being caught by two security cameras. Not to mention the trainspotter at Hope station.’
‘Yes, if Quinn went up there intending to kill Thorpe, he
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planned it very badly,’ said Cooper. ‘Getting angry and losing control of the situation, now that’s a different matter. I can believe that.’
‘This victim obviously fought back, anyway,’ said Fry. ‘That could be our breakthrough.’
‘Yes, Thorpe was the wrong person for Quinn to choose.’
Fry looked at him. ‘Still a bit doubtful, Ben?’
‘Thorpe wouldn’t have been any problem for Quinn, if he’d planned and executed his attack properly. The fact that Thorpe was able to fight back suggests bad planning. I’m surprised that Quinn even gave him the opportunity to resist.’
‘You make it sound like a spur-of-the-moment thing. But that isn’t possible. It’s not as if he came across Thorpe in the street. Quinn went to find him, just as he did Rebecca Lowe.’
‘Not quite the same. Unless Quinn had somehow got hold of a key, Rebecca must have let him in. There were no signs of a breakin, remember?’
Fry sighed. ‘Perhaps you’re right. But so what? What if Rebecca Lowe did let him in? Quinn might have tricked her into opening the door. Or she might have been taken by surprise to see him standing there on her doorstep. We can’t reconstruct the scenario clearly enough to know what happened immediately prior to the attack.’
