Left You Dead

50

Ending the meeting, Branson asked Norman Potting and Jon Exton to come to his office. When the door was closed and they were seated he said, ‘OK, let’s consider our options. As I said, I’m pretty confident with what we have that the CPS would sanction us charging Niall Paternoster with his wife’s murder, despite there being no body — so far. But I’m not sure that would be our best tactical move and, of course, we don’t know the full results from the searches in the forest.’

‘Tactics? Why do you say that, sir?’ Exton asked.

‘If her body, or part of it, is found, that’s one thing. But I’m puzzled by the trainer and the knife being discovered outside this shallow grave. If Niall Paternoster went to the trouble of taking her body out to the forest and burying it, why not bury the trainer and the knife with it?’

‘Perhaps he did, boss,’ Potting suggested. ‘And forest wildlife predators disturbed it — we’ve enough past experience of that happening.’

Branson nodded. ‘Yes, very much a possibility, Norman, animals might remove body parts and items of clothing, but I don’t know any animal that would take a kitchen knife. We’ll see what Lorna’s team find from their excavations but my sense is that it will only be items of clothing, and that her body might well have been dismembered and disposed of in bits — especially now we know that Niall was once a butcher — most likely in Shoreham Harbour. If that happened last week, most, if not all, would have been picked clean by crustaceans and fish by now. Either of you having shellfish for supper tonight?’

Both Potting and Exton grinned. Exton looked queasy. ‘Actually, Dawn is cooking me a prawn curry.’

‘Better check where she got the prawns,’ Branson said with a dark grin.

‘I bloody well will!’

‘If Lorna’s team doesn’t find any human remains tonight,’ Branson continued, ‘then I think our other two options might be better. We could go for a further extension to give us ninety-six hours of detention, and see what else comes out of the woodwork. But the option I personally favour is releasing him on police bail tomorrow morning before the 9.45 a.m. deadline, and seeing if I can get approval to put surveillance on him. Before we do that, I’d like you to continue to interview him, make the challenges and see how he reacts to the discovery of the two sacks of cat litter in his house — but leave out our activity in the forest. He’ll probably pick it up in the media but if we tell him we’re looking there, he definitely won’t return.’

Norman Potting frowned, then made a strange, rapid movement of his lips, which he often did when he was thinking. It looked as if he was swilling mouthwash. ‘What about all the other evidence?’

‘Let’s keep some of it in our back pocket for now, Norman. Niall Paternoster’s hung his whole story on his wife needing cat litter. Focus on that, and challenge him over the other evidence found in the house to see how he reacts, prior to his release before the deadline. Then what I’m thinking is a press conference, where I will make an appeal for any sightings of Eden or any information that will assist the investigation.’

Both detectives looked at him for some moments. ‘That could be a smart move,’ DS Exton said. ‘You’re thinking about a possible girlfriend — the assignation on Sunday evening?’

Branson said, ‘I’ll be running my thoughts past the boss later to make sure he’s up to speed and on board. I want to nail this. If Paternoster has somehow managed to disappear his wife’s body, we’ll need to establish a motive for murder that’s a bit stronger than an argument over cat litter. An affair would be a pretty good one.’

‘I’ve never had to murder any of my exes,’ Potting said.

‘Really, Norman?’ Branson said. ‘How come?’

‘Because,’ he said with a wry smile, ‘they always dumped me first.’