John, Matt Harvey and Karen Williams are in the briefing room, waiting for the rest of their small team to assemble. In the meantime, John is drawing a Venn diagram on the whiteboard with the names of all the people connected to Nicola Scott. Behind him, he can hear the sound of someone running across the office and Adam Newman appears, red-faced and out of breath.
‘Sorry, guv, we’ve only just got back. DS Burton has gone to the bathroom quickly.’
‘Good,’ John says. ‘Let’s start without her as she’s already in the loop.’
He pauses briefly while Newman settles himself into a chair.
‘Okay, welcome, everyone. This is a briefing to bring you up to date on the investigation into the death of Nicola Scott who, from now on, I will now refer to as Nicky.’
Three pairs of eyes look at him eagerly.
‘As you know, on Friday morning we received an anonymous call reporting screaming from a house in Bramall Road in the early hours. That call has been traced to a phone box next to Clapham Common. Shortly afterwards, Nicky’s husband, James Scott, called the station to report her missing, and her body was found at number 6 Bramall Road at nine thiry-five. The house belongs to her brother-in-law Michael Scott, who is currently in India, whereabouts unknown. The approximate time of death has been put at between midnight and three o’clock on Friday morning.’
While John looks down at his notes, Lucy slips silently into the room and takes a seat beside Williams.
‘The pathologist has confirmed that she died from an acute epidural haematoma caused by two blunt force injuries to the side of the head – in other words a massive brain haemorrhage. On Saturday, a large Maglite torch was recovered from a rubbish bin in Gandon Road, which we believe is the instrument that was used to kill her. There were no fingerprints on the outside, but Nicky’s fingerprints were found on the batteries.’
There is a murmur of interest and John pauses while everyone absorbs this information.
‘It’s been confirmed that James Scott was staying in a hotel in Bournemouth on Thursday night and, according to the receptionist on night duty, he didn’t go out that evening. One of Michael Scott’s neighbours, Irene Hall – also a keyholder – told Lucy that she saw a man going into number six at around nine-thirty. He has subsequently been identified as Alexander Worthington, a friend of the Scotts. Lucy spoke to the tenant in the basement flat below the house, who apparently heard someone walking about upstairs during the course of Thursday evening. He has an alibi, as his girlfriend was with him all night. Another neighbour mentioned seeing a strange car outside the Halls’ house in the early hours. At the moment, Alex Worthington is the only feasible suspect. He has been arrested and remains in custody.’
‘What about the Halls? You said they had a set of keys?’ Williams pipes up.
‘We’ve checked out Irene Hall, her husband, Victor, and son, Andy, and there is nothing to indicate that any of them were involved. They provided alibis for each other but, in this case, that’s not a cause for concern. From what everyone says, they are decent people and they didn’t know Nicky Scott.’
‘And the brother?’ Harvey asks. ‘You said, “whereabouts unknown”. Maybe he popped back when nobody was looking.’
Newman sniggers and John gives him a sharp look.
‘He’s not a suspect. Lucy has been in touch with immigration and there’s no evidence of him entering the UK. So, moving on, the phone records reveal that, immediately prior to her death and for a few weeks beforehand, Nicky had been speaking regularly to Alex Worthington and he was also identified by James Scott, although not conclusively, on the CCTV footage from Stockwell Tube station. Worthington handed himself in yesterday afternoon and admitted he was with Nicky on Thursday evening, but strongly denies he had anything to do with her death. So far everything he has told us stacks up, but he remains the most obvious suspect. I had another session with him and his solicitor before lunch and his story hasn’t wavered but, as we all know, that doesn’t necessarily mean anything. Harvey, what news from Andover?’
‘They’ve taken some shoes and items of clothing from Worthington’s house and have done a thorough sweep of his car, which was retrieved from Andover station. Everything should be with Jim by now.’
‘Anything else?’
‘Yes, they spoke to his wife, Emma, who said that Worthington was behaving completely normally all weekend. She said she was pretty sure he hadn’t met up with Nicola Scott prior to Thursday night. DS Barker is going to fax through a transcript of the conversation.’
‘Nothing surprising there, then. Anything from the flat in Notting Hill, Newman?’ John asks.
‘DS Burton and I went there this morning and talked to his friend, Jerry Hammond. Worthington had a briefcase and a few items of clothing there, which have been logged downstairs and I’ll take them over to Jim after this meeting.’
‘Good. Did Hammond have anything worthwhile to say?’
‘Not really,’ Newman says. ‘He basically confirmed what Worthington told you.’
‘What did he say about his friend’s state of mind?’
‘He said he was pretty agitated, but that’s hardly surprising since Worthington had only just discovered that Nicky Scott had been killed on the same evening that he was with her. Apparently, he showed Hammond the article from the Mail which he had first seen earlier that morning.’
‘Okay. DS Burton, did you manage to speak to anyone at Worthington’s office?’
‘I talked to his friend, Tim Faulkner, who confirmed that they had a drink together on Thursday evening and that they parted ways at about nine. He said that there was nothing unusual about Worthington’s behaviour the next day and, if anything, he seemed pretty happy about life. When Faulkner arrived at work yesterday, he said that Worthington was sitting at his desk looking very unwell. Apparently, he spent a long time in the bathroom, where Faulkner checked up on him once. When Worthington eventually reappeared in the office, he said he was feeling sick and was going home. That was the last time Faulkner saw him. He did notice that Worthington was carrying a newspaper when he came back from the bathroom.’
‘Not surprising he was feeling sick, then,’ John says. ‘Right, so we know that Worthington was with Nicky on Thursday evening, both from what he has told us, and from fingerprints found on items in the house; what we don’t have is any evidence to prove categorically that he was there at the time of her death. Hopefully forensics will come up with something.’
‘And if they don’t?’ Newman says.
‘Then we have a problem and, at the moment, there isn’t a plan B.’
‘What about the car the neighbour saw?’ Adam asks.
‘That’s one of the things bothering us. We’ve got nothing on that at all. The other thing is the dog shit on the carpet in the hall. If that matches the two samples taken from the road and just outside the house, we need to know whose shoes brought it in. There was nothing on Nicky’s shoes and if we don’t find anything on Worthington’s it can only mean one of two things. Either he cleaned them thoroughly after Thursday evening or it wasn’t him and someone else was in the house that night. The problem is that Worthington had no reason to go onto the road. We asked him to describe his exact route from the Tube and he said he walked straight up the pavement to the house without any deviations.’
‘He could be lying for some reason,’ says Lucy, ‘but it seems unlikely.’
‘Have we had anything from the TV or newspaper coverage?’ John asks, scanning their faces.
Newman and Harvey shake their heads.
‘I’ve taken a few calls,’ Lucy says, ‘But nothing of substance. There was a woman who called from Fenwicks in Bond Street to say she was sure that Nicky had been one of her customers in women’s clothing on Thursday afternoon. That’s useful in that the timing fits with her meeting in Hanover Square, but that’s it, I’m afraid.’
‘The papers are running something again tomorrow, so let’s see what happens,’ John says.
‘How long are you going to hold Worthington?’ Harvey asks.
‘I’ve applied to the Super for an extension until tomorrow morning and we’ll take it from there. Okay, everyone, I think that’s it. Back to work – let’s crack this thing.’