Little Boy Blue

38

‘You are making a monumental mistake and when this is all over, I will be expecting a formal apology.’

Helen Grace had already been surprised twice by Paul Jackson in the ten minutes they’d known each other. His agreement to field questions before his lawyer arrived was unusual, as was his decision to adopt such an aggressive tone. He was either extremely confident of his innocence or an accomplished liar.

‘As I’ve said, you’re here because your DNA was found on the victim’s body,’ Helen responded calmly. ‘In saliva on his cheek and ear. It’s highly unlikely that our laboratory got that wrong. They double- and triple-check their findings -’

‘You hear about mistakes all the time in these places,’ Jackson interrupted. ‘Petri dishes that haven’t been cleaned properly, evidence that has been cross-contaminated, your lot are constantly arresting the wrong people because of cock-ups at laboratories.’

‘I agree that there have been mistakes, but the fact remains that it is your DNA. The only way cross-contamination could have occurred is if they had a sample of your DNA stored there from a separate incident. Is that the case? Have you ever had to provide a DNA sample for the police before?’

‘No.’

‘Then the only “mistake” that could have occurred was if your saliva was accidentally transferred to Mr Elder’s face. Can you explain how this might have happened?’

‘I’ve no idea. Perhaps our paths overlapped on the way to work, perhaps we use the same gym -’

‘Mr Elder works from home, keeps very different hours from you and to the best of our knowledge didn’t have a gym membership.’

‘I can’t explain it then.’

‘You’ve never met him?’

‘Never. I’ve said this three times to three different officers now. Perhaps if you tried listening to me, we could sort this mess out?’

Helen was about to respond when the door opened and Jackson’s lawyer hurried in. Helen knew Jonathan Spitz to be an astute and experienced lawyer and he wasted no time in reprimanding her for proceeding without him. Helen ignored his protests and carried on:

‘Mr Jackson has confirmed that he didn’t know Mr Elder and can’t account for the DNA samples we found on the victim’s face.’

Spitz looked relieved that no serious damage had been done.

‘I’d now like to ask your client about his phone history. I’m showing Mr Jackson a black iPhone. Can you confirm that this is yours?’

Jackson nodded.

‘For the tape, please, Mr Jackson.’

‘Yes.’

‘When we spoke yesterday,’ Charlie interjected, ‘you said that you’d never contacted Mr Elder via email, message, phone -’

‘Correct.’

‘Yet dozens of Snapchat messages were sent from this device to Mr Elder. I have the dates of some of them here’ – Charlie pulled a sheet of paper from her file – ‘August the tenth, August the fourteenth, September the first, September the sixth, September the fourteenth. The list goes on.’

‘I didn’t send them. The phone must have been cloned or something -’

‘It’s curious though that the gap in messages in the second half of August coincides with the dates that you and your wife were on holiday in Santorini. The data roaming charges on your account give us a pretty good picture of your movements and, of course, we’re double-checking this with Sally as we speak.’

For the first time since they’d started, Helen saw Jackson react. Clearly he was not keen on his wife being dragged into this.

‘Furthermore, we’ve had a chance to look at some of the other messages and texts you sent from this phone. And it’s interesting that the same grammatical tics that we see in your texts also crop up in the Snapchat messages that Mr Elder received. You always seem to leave a gap between a word and a question mark, for example, and you’re pretty scrupulous about using commas. Not everyone is as fastidious in their messaging these days.’

It was said with a smile, but provoked a blank response from Jackson.

‘This is all circumstantial,’ Spitz butted in. ‘Do you have any actual evidence against my client?’

‘Apart from the DNA evidence, you mean?’ Helen rejoined. ‘I should point out that no other DNA was found on the victim, hence our interest in talking to your client.’

Helen let that settle before continuing.

‘I’d like now to move on to your movements on the night of the fourteenth. You told my colleague that you left work at seven p.m. and went for a drink at the Saracen’s Head.’

Jackson said nothing. He appeared to be waiting for Helen’s next move before committing himself.

‘That’s strange, because your phone was transmitting in the Banister Park area of the city – very near to the Torture Rooms – at around eight p.m. that night and again at just after twelve thirty a.m. the following morning. I’m assuming that in the interim you were in the basement club and thus out of reception?’

‘I don’t know anything about the Torture Rooms or Banister Park. Somebody’s obviously messed up -’

‘Yet another mistake, you do seem to be unlucky…’

‘I went to the Saracen’s Head, I watched the game, had a few drinks -’

‘Why the Saracen’s Head, out of interest? You work in Lansdowne Hill, you live in Freemantle. Going to a pub near the hospital seems an excessive diversion.’

‘For God’s sake, I like the beer there, so -’

‘What beer do they serve?’

‘Shepherd Neame, I think… Adnams, a couple of local brews.’

‘Actually they haven’t served Shepherd Neame in over two years,’ Charlie interjected. ‘I went there yesterday afternoon, spoke to the bar staff. Nobody remembers seeing you there on Tuesday night. In fact, I couldn’t find a single person to back up your version of events.’

Spitz looked at his client, hoping for more defiance, but none was forthcoming. Helen took over, adopting a more emollient tone.

‘I know you’re in a fix here, Paul. You’re thinking of Sally, of the twins, of what this will do to them. But lying won’t help. We have firm evidence you knew Jake and were active on the S &M scene. Your phone places you near the scene of the crime, yours is the only DNA on the body and I have no doubt that one of those present at the Torture Rooms will positively ID you as having been there that night. So let’s start again, shall we?’

Helen looked Jackson straight in the eye.

‘Tell me what really happened on Tuesday night.’