With Carlton winding up his story and the room falling into silence behind him, Gus stuck the images of the scene and of Miranda Brookes one by one on the board and then stood to the side, allowing the team to digest them. After a few minutes, during which time he finished his doughnut, thankful for the sugar rush it gave, he stepped forward again. ‘Well? What’s your thoughts?’
He nodded towards Carlton, who, head tilted to one side was studying the images intently as if he’d never attended the crime scene. ‘I’d like the rest of the team’s responses, before we hear your thoughts, professor. If that’s OK?’
Carlton inclined his head with a smile and took his specs off to give them a well-needed clean. Nancy exhaled, and gathering her dress together and stuffing it between her legs, she leant forward. ‘Well, I can see why you wanted Sebastian on this one, Gus. I’m glad I trusted your judgement. Initially, I was inclined to hold off on bringing him in, but…’ She leant over and gripped the professor’s arm in an overly familiar, almost intimate squeeze that made Gus roll his eyes and had Alice covering up a snort of laughter with a coughing fit.
‘But…’ she repeated. ‘I know Sebastian likes to do little favours for us and I’m sure we can stretch to a few packs of his favourite doughnuts.’
While Gus tried desperately to avoid connecting with Alice’s grinning face, not wanting to dwell on any little favours Carlton might do for his boss, Nancy finally moved her adoring eyes away from Carlton and back to the board. ‘Besides, when I took off my DCS hat for a moment and put my DCI hat on, I opted to support my DI. But I’ll let others put forward their ideas, before I stick my tuppence worth in.’
Taffy practically bouncing on his chair, arm in the air, despite Gus’s repeated attempts to re-educate him away from such schoolboy behaviour, couldn’t contain himself anymore. ‘We’ve got a serial killer, boss. That’s a serial killer if ever I saw one. Look at it all – he’s laid stuff out under the body – it’s like a ritual.’
‘Yep.’ Compo nodding like a sycophant, eyes directed towards his mentor, Carlton, looking for approval. ‘Agreed. Ritual – that’s what this is – a ritual. The biscuit, the candle, the foetal scan, the rhyme, the sketch, the lavender…’ He listed each item, counting them off one by one on his fingers as he did so, desperate not to omit any from his list.
‘And the nail varnish!’ Carlton added to the list, his approving nod making Compo blush.
‘Nail varnish?’ Alice looked at Carlton. ‘What makes you think that’s part of this, Prof?’
‘Despite the lavender scent from the candle, I could detect another smell – faint but definitely discernible. It was nail polish remover, and it was definitely coming from her feet.’
Alice peered at the close-up images of Miranda’s feet. ‘Yes, the varnish is quite pristine – must have been applied recently – but what’s to say she didn’t remove her old varnish and apply it herself?’
‘Just a hunch.’ His confident smile belying his next words, Carlton shrugged. ‘I might be wrong, of course – but I told the CSIs to keep an eye out for nail polish in that colour and remover and to get it analysed. I also took the liberty of texting your delightful father to ask him to make sure he also gets the varnish from the victim’s toes analysed.’
Sensing that now was the time for Carlton to share his thoughts, Gus motioned for him to move to the front and moved to sit in the chair the psychologist had vacated. From experience he knew Carlton could talk for ages.
Peering over the top of his neon specs, Carlton smiled at each of the team. ‘It’s great to be back here. I missed you all. However, at this point, I have nothing much to add. I suspect this killer is only just starting and the only way forward is to follow the victimology and the concrete evidence. At some point this killer will have intersected with the poor woman and we need to identify when and where that was.’
He screwed up his face. ‘Or, and it pains me to say this, we’ll end up with more victims.’
He moved over to a vacant chair and sat down.
Momentarily discomfited, Gus paused, before standing again.
‘Any thoughts on the sex of the killer?’
But Gus knew before Carlton began shaking his head that he would get no commitment from the psychologist.
‘I need more information before I can ascertain that with any degree of certainty, Gus. I wouldn’t want to set everyone off down the wrong road so early in the investigation.’
‘Fair enough.’ Gus paused to collect his thoughts for a moment. ‘OK, that seems quite clear. I suggest that Professor Carlton and Compo work on victimology. What other actions do we need to take – apart from the usual neighbourhood interviews, which I’ve already instructed, and the notification of family, which I will do shortly, having already got a Family Liaison Officer ready to step in. We also need to determine how the killer gained access to the Brookes’ home. We know her husband was at work and, it seems his alibi is strong – we’ll interview him later. Which leads me to wonder did Miranda let her killer in or did he barge through the door when she opened it? These back houses are often quite secluded. There were no signs of forced entry on the front door or the windows, which indicates she must have let them in … unless of course he had a key or some other means of access.’
Alice frowned. ‘The only other point of access on the ground floor would
