Dan sat poised and ready as Frank McAllister questioned one of the final witnesses. Jayne had been right, that he’d been too disinterested the day before, his focus being on himself, not the case. Nick Connor didn’t deserve that. This was the witness who counted though. The Senior Investigating Officer.
This case had always been about what the police didn’t look for, Nick’s defence built on the police fixation on his guilt, to the exclusion of all other possibilities. That remained the same, except there were now additional avenues to explore. For the first time in the case, he felt that Nick stood a chance.
Graham Hogg was wearing his best suit, grey and sober, too well-pressed to be an everyday office suit. His shirt still bore the creases from when it was in the packet, not fully ironed out.
Dan had come across him a few times before. For some detectives, Dan was part of the game, someone they could engage with away from the courtroom battlefield. Hogg was different. He was rigid and stiff, only ever seeing Dan as the enemy.
It was his rigid thinking that might let him down, and despite his outward confidence there was a slight tremble to his voice as he answered the prosecutor’s questions. It wasn’t the speaking in public part, but the prospect that one ill-thought word could trip him. He answered questions slowly, methodically, pausing to think every time, his brow starting to speckle with perspiration, his cheeks flushed.
He was right to feel like that, because Dan was ready to pounce on any slip-up.
The prosecutor sat down. Dan stood, his turn.
This was the part he relished the most. When a cat sees a mouse, its eyes are widest and most keen when the mouse is cornered, still with a chance of racing past before a large paw can trap it, even though its instinct tells it to stay small. It was the anticipation of the kill that excited the cat, not the kill itself.
It was the same for Dan. He paused, as always, giving Hogg another few seconds to wonder what was coming, waited until he licked his lips and tried to cover his nerves with a half-smile.
In the witness box, silences grew long and were only ever filled with more nerves.
Dan stood straight and gripped the edge of his gown. ‘Chief Inspector, did you know of Nick Connor before this investigation?’
Hogg paused for a moment, as if unsure whether he could answer like he wanted to, because experience told him that the jurors couldn’t be told of a person’s criminal past unless it showed a pattern of similar behaviour. He glanced to the judge, who nodded for him to continue, but she raised an eyebrow.
Dan knew what that meant: if the answer was a problem for the defendant, it was the fault of the defence lawyer.
Hogg read the cue and turned to the jury to answer. He was trained to be like that, to give the jurors the impression that he was treating them with respect, but it was really about giving himself a few more seconds’ thinking time. ‘Yes, I knew of him.’
‘As a petty thief, a small-time crook?’
‘He was a target criminal.’
‘Why?’
Hogg faltered for a moment, before he answered, ‘He was a prolific offender.’
‘A prolific petty offender?’
‘Well, yes.’
‘And selling stolen debit cards is consistent with his offending.’
‘I agree.’
‘Were you surprised when he was implicated in a murder?’
Hogg was about to answer, but he paused, knew that he had to revert to his media training. ‘We had an open mind on the case.’
‘You knew him as a petty thief, Chief Inspector. That’s what I asked you, and you didn’t mention that you knew him as a thug or a violent man.’
‘Well, no, but that doesn’t mean he couldn’t resort to violence.’
‘You’d agree it was out of character though?’
‘I didn’t know him that well.’
‘But you knew of his reputation, his background. He’s one of your targets, after all.’
Hogg turned to the jury again, trying to re-establish his authority. ‘He was a well-known figure to the police.’
‘I’ll ask you again, because you didn’t really tell the court what your opinion was. Were you surprised that Nick Connor had seemingly graduated from petty thief to murderer?’
Hogg glanced towards the prosecutor, who was ignoring him and staring at the desk.
‘Well, yes, I suppose I was.’
‘But despite your surprise, once you had Nick Connor in your sights, there were no other suspects. Right, Chief Inspector?’
‘We followed the evidence, and it all led to Nick Connor.’
‘Once you’d discovered who was selling the stolen card, what other lines of enquiry did you pursue?’
‘I’m sorry, I don’t understand.’
‘You know exactly what I mean, because if you only travel down one road, you will only reach one destination.’
‘If the evidence leads you down that road, I really don’t see your point.’
Dan was trying to not let his irritation show, but it was becoming difficult. ‘Do you think you carried out a thorough investigation?’
‘Of course I do. I’m a senior police officer used to dealing with murder cases. I am the SIO in this case.’
‘And for the benefit of the jury, what is a Murder Manual?’
‘It’s a manual that shows best practice in a murder investigation.’
Dan reached to a small book he had secreted under his papers. ‘Is this the one used by your Force?’
Hogg squinted as he tried to see. ‘Yes, it looks like it.’
‘You’ll be familiar with the section on the three elements of homicide.’
‘Of course,’ Hogg said. ‘I’m familiar with all elements of the manual.’
‘Tell the court what the three elements are.’
Hogg spoke with renewed confidence, back on familiar ground, when he turned back to the jury and said, ‘Location, victim and offender.’
‘The manual describes them as being like three circles, doesn’t it, and where they intersect is where the murder is? Where the victim and offender come across one another in a certain location is where the murder happens. That’s right, isn’t it?’
‘Well, yes.’
‘Location is important then?’
‘Of course.’
‘And why the victim was in the location is important?’
‘Yes, absolutely.’
‘Tell me, Chief Inspector, and also the jurors, why was Mark Roberts in Queensgate Park?’
He paused again, his head cocked. His voice had quietened when he answered, ‘That is something we have tried to establish.’
‘I asked you about the actions of Mark Roberts, not your actions. I can ask the question again, if you prefer.’
‘No, I understand it perfectly.’
‘And the answer is that you don’t know why he was there. Am I correct?’
Hogg paused before he answered, working out whether there was a better answer than the truth, but instead went for an apologetic look and said, ‘I’m afraid we were not able to establish that.’
Dan turned to the jurors but kept his mental focus on Hogg. ‘How did Mark Roberts travel to Queensgate Park?’
‘On foot, we presume, as his car was still at the hotel he was staying at.’
‘Not a taxi?’
‘It’s possible.’
‘Or a bus?’
‘Well, yes, equally.’
‘And he must have passed numerous security cameras?’
‘We couldn’t find any footage of him.’
‘It would be fair to say that you don’t know how long he had been there?’
‘That’s right.’
‘Or how he got there?’
He swallowed. ‘No.’
‘And what he was doing there?’
A shake of the head. ‘No.’
Dan paused before the next part. He knew he’d made some headway: he’d been able to get the officer to admit that they knew little about Mark Roberts, revealing how they’d focused on the offender and stopped thinking about the victim.
This next phase in his questioning was the crucial phase though, because it was where Nick’s case became interesting, where the jurors would think that there was a story they weren’t being told and that perhaps Nick Connor was nothing more than what he said he was: a weak and dishonest thief. But a murderer? Not a chance.