Left You Dead

33

At 8.45 a.m. Roy Grace sat with his assembled team in the conference room, for the second briefing of Operation Lagoon, having just completed a brief management team meeting.

‘I have some significant developments to report,’ Grace announced. ‘The first is that Niall Paternoster, Eden’s husband, was arrested yesterday evening on suspicion of her murder and detained overnight in custody. He will be formally interviewed again this morning by Jon Exton and Norman Potting in line with the interview strategy. DC Alec Butler, our tier five interview adviser, will update us later about what was said last night. This was only his first account and, to date, he has not been challenged on anything he has said.’

He glanced at his notes. ‘During the search of the Paternosters’ home in Nevill Road, last night, some substantial evidence came to light. The first of which was a mobile phone which we have established belonged to Eden Paternoster. Her husband claimed she had brought it with her on their Sunday outing to Parham House, but the battery was low. The Forensics Team, however, found the phone in a drawer in her bed, concealed beneath a pile of her lingerie.’

‘Totally pants!’ Potting said, grinning and looking around.

Grace looked at him a little more sympathetically than normal. ‘But we do have something else that may be significant, which was found wrapped in plastic concealed behind a wall-inspection plate. A torn ladies’ T-shirt, presumably belonging to Eden, on which there are some small blood spots. It has been sent for fast-track processing at the DNA lab.’

He looked at his team, letting that sink in before continuing. ‘They also found evidence of blood on the kitchen worktop and the floor tiling beneath, samples from which have been sent for testing, too. Further of note,’ he added, ‘there’s a wooden knife rack with a knife missing — and from the position and size of the slot, it would appear to be the largest of the knives.’

He paused for a moment. ‘Two perhaps even more significant items were discovered during the search. Both of these were secreted under a loose floorboard in a spare bedroom. The first was Eden Paternoster’s passport, which her husband indicated to the officers who attended yesterday morning, PCs Alldridge and Little, was missing from its usual place.

‘The second was a white gold wedding ring and another diamond ring — possibly an engagement ring. The wedding ring was engraved on the inside with the initials EP — NP, 19.09.15. The initials of Eden and Niall Paternoster and the date of their wedding. When Niall was booked into custody last night, a wedding band was removed from his finger. It had the same initials, reversed, and the same date. This would indicate to me that either she had removed it — together with her engagement ring — before her disappearance, or perhaps more likely if he did murder her, that he removed both to hamper identification.’

There was a brief silence. Several of the team made notes.

Grace continued. ‘At this stage, I’m challenging anything that Niall Paternoster has told us and going solely with the facts we have.’ He turned to DS Alexander. ‘Jack, is there any update from your house-to-house enquiry team from the neighbours?’

‘Not yet, sir. It’s a priority action this morning.’

Sergeant Dennison-Wilkins turned to Grace. ‘Boss, as the missing knife may be important evidence, we have taken a photograph of the matching knives. I’ll have all the gardens bordering the Paternosters’ house searched and all bins in the neighbourhood by Barbara Onoufriou and her team.’

‘Do you know when rubbish collection day is?’ Grace asked.

‘Tomorrow, sir, so we’ll be getting it done today.’

‘If you need more resources to search the immediate area, let me know.’

‘I will need more,’ she said.

‘Fine, draft in some extra staff. Norman, Jon, you’d better leave for the custody centre to carry on with the interviews, keep me posted.’

He was interrupted by his phone. Raising an apologetic hand, he answered. It was Aiden Gilbert, from Digital Forensics.

‘Roy, I’ve got the data from the phone we were sent over last night — registered to Mrs Eden Paternoster.’

‘Hang on, Aiden, I’m in a team briefing — I’ll put you on speaker. Can you update the team?’

A moment later, everyone in the room could hear Gilbert’s voice. ‘Hi, everyone. I can confirm, on examining the phone we were sent last night, according to the phone records and plot from O2, that the last time this phone was active was Thursday of last week, August twenty-ninth, until 10.10 p.m. It had left its previous location in Croydon, Surrey, at 5.45 p.m. and travelled south to Brighton, to Nevill Road, Hove. We’ve identified the Croydon location as the premises of the Mutual Occidental Insurance Company, which I understand to be Mrs Paternoster’s workplace. No calls were made before it was switched off.’

‘Hi, Aiden, Glenn Branson here,’ Branson called out.

‘Yes, Glenn?’ Aiden responded.

‘Was the phone’s battery flat when you received it?’

‘No, it wasn’t, but it didn’t have much charge and was switched off.’

‘Thanks.’

Grace thought for a moment. ‘Aiden, your team has Eden Paternoster’s iPad as well as her laptop and phone. Have you had time to check out her social media activity again?’

‘There’s been no more activity, at the moment. So far we’ve identified she has Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok and Strava on these devices.’

‘I’d appreciate it if you can let me know, soonest, if there is any activity on any of these.’

‘We’ll be straight on it.’ There was a brief pause. ‘Also, Roy, we’ve been working through the night on her husband’s phone. We may have some potential information for you shortly.’

Grace thanked Gilbert, ended the call and turned to DS Alexander. ‘Jack, I need you to prioritize the action with Mutual Occidental and find out who last saw Eden at work.’

‘I’ll do that straight after this, sir.’

Grace thought briefly through the possibilities, trying to make some sense of the convoluted information. Niall Paternoster claimed the photograph of Eden in front of the lake at Parham House had been taken on Sunday, yet Aiden Gilbert said it was date stamped over a week previously. Did the husband really think they would believe him? One of his favourite quotes — from Einstein — suddenly sprang into his mind: Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.

He turned to Stanstead. ‘Luke, have anything for us?’

He nodded. ‘I do, boss. The information we have received from the Intelligence Team and the victimology enquiries. Eden Paternoster’s maiden name is Townsend. If I have the correct family history, which I’m pretty certain I do, she has a previous record as a victim of DV. When she was sixteen, back in 2004, her mother stabbed her father fatally. For that, her mother got two years, suspended, for manslaughter. Eden was in the room when it happened.’

‘A suspended sentence, which means,’ Branson said, ‘the court and judge and jury trying her pretty much felt she was justified, right?’

‘Self-defence?’ Grace questioned rhetorically.

Grace made a note in his Policy Book, that when obtaining the medical records for Eden they would need detailed information on the likely impact on the victim through medical consultation, and how that might present and play out in later life. Next to it, he wrote, ‘Significant factor?’

Under the thirty-six-hour rule they had until around 9 a.m. tomorrow to make the decision whether to charge Niall Paternoster, release him or apply for a warrant of further detention, if necessary. For that, they would need sufficient grounds to convince a magistrate to grant it.

‘EJ,’ Grace said, ‘there’s a very bright child psychologist I know, Orlando Trujillo. Try to get hold of him and when we have Eden’s medical records run the history by him and ask for his views on how that might have shaped her personality. I’m particularly interested in how she might have subsequently reacted to domestic abuse or violence — I’m speculating here based on what I and DI Branson felt after talking to her husband, that he might be an angry and controlling man. I’ve got Trujillo’s contact details on file and I’ll give them to you straight after this meeting — and I’ll sanction his fee.’

‘Yes, sir.’

Addressing the civilian Financial Investigator, Emily Denyer, he asked, ‘Anything to report?’

‘I’m preparing the necessary paperwork and I’ve already made a number of requests to the financial institutions to gather the details for the background checks, sir,’ Denyer said.

‘Anything that comes to light, tell me immediately — don’t wait for this evening’s briefing.’

‘No, guv,’ Emily said.

Each team member then provided an update on their own investigations. Grace thanked them all and ended the meeting, remaining seated to write up notes in his Policy Book.

While he worked on it, he reflected with a tinge of sadness that when he’d first started as a Senior Investigating Officer, the main purpose of the Policy Book was to help inform other detectives who carried out regular reviews of a Major Crime investigation in progress, looking to advise on anything the SIO and his team might not have thought of. But these days its prime purpose was to protect the SIOs from any accusations of wrongdoing and also to justify his decision-making process. Just one more example of how he and his colleagues spent more time these days protecting their backs than doing the job they were paid to do. Which was to save lives, serve and protect.

But he did look forward to seeing Cassian Pewe’s face when he met with him later this morning and presented him with the latest evidence.

Although not as much as he looked forward to hearing what it looked like when Pewe was confronted with a photocopy of Guy Batchelor’s notebook.

His train of thought was disturbed by his job phone ringing.

‘Roy Grace,’ he answered, and heard Gee’s voice at the other end.

‘We have an interesting development, boss,’ said the Crime Scene Manager. ‘You’ll never guess what we found in a cupboard in the utility room.’

‘I’m all ears, what did you find?’