Caroline rested her chin on the palm of her hand, her elbow propped on her desk.
‘In any other case I’d say this was dynamite, but I think I’m even more confused now than I was before,’ she said, having digested what Aidan had just told them. ‘Thoughts, Dex?’
Dexter let out a breath. ‘Christ. Yeah, I think I’d agree. It would explain why Susan Thornton was acting so strangely when we spoke to her. If she’d recently found out her husband was having an affair, you’d imagine there’s a part of her that’s pretty glad he’s gone. But she barely said anything, and acted almost as if she just wanted to put the whole thing out of her mind and carry on. You don’t think she was involved, do you?’
Caroline gave a mock shrug. ‘Not my place to say. But without having had time to digest everything properly and look at it from a distance, my instinct would be that it was actually just very convenient timing for Susan. She doesn’t strike me as the sort of woman to organise a hit on her husband. Especially when we already know the man we’re looking for is connected with Norway in some way, with everything we know so far about his business dealings over there. It seems likely to me that’s the answer here, and that Susan might feel she was done a favour by complete coincidence. If she even knew about the affair, that is.’
‘We can easily find out,’ Aidan offered. ‘Are we doing coincidences now, then?’
A wry smile appeared on Caroline’s face. She had to give him that one. ‘Usually not, no. But they do happen. And when they do, they tend to be bigger than you might realise. I’ve seen some big cases get hampered and slowed down by detectives trying to find links where there aren’t any. I find that if you feel yourself getting bogged down by that, apply Occam’s razor.’
Aidan’s blank reaction told Caroline she needed to offer an explanation. ‘The simplest answer is often the right one,’ she said. ‘We humans tend to overthink things and look for convoluted patterns of logic. We try to make sense of every piece of information and link it all together without even realising what we’re doing. Occam’s razor says the simplest possible answer is usually the right one.’
‘I’ll take your word for it,’ Aidan replied.
‘Either way, we need to find out what Susan Thornton knew — if anything — and when. But tread carefully on that, because she might very well have known nothing. Her husband’s just been killed, and if we wade in there, all guns blazing, firing off about how he’d been having an affair with another woman behind her back, it’s hardly likely to help matters.’
‘Do we know who the mystery woman is?’ Dexter asked.
‘Only that she’s called Toni,’ Aidan replied. ‘Or at least, that’s the name she’s saved as in his phone. It’s taken them up until now to get past the security on his phone. Honestly, it’s best not to ask.’
Caroline looked back down at the sheets of paper on the desk in front of her — printouts of messages they’d obtained from Clive Thornton’s phone. The earliest messages were only from the morning of Clive’s murder, but they appeared to be a continuation of an existing conversation. Caroline considered this must mean Clive had been systematically deleting messages to and from Toni on a fairly regular basis, hiding the evidence trail.
[Toni 09:26] Sounds good to me! Looking forward to it ;-) xx
[Toni 12:21] How’s your day going, sexy beast? Xx
[Toni 13:13] I’m guessing the joke about six coach loads of tourists came true!! :-P xx
[Toni 15:04] All messages left unread...? Hope everything’s ok and you’re just rushed off your feet. Or will Miss need to punish you later? Xx
[Toni 17:10] Are you ok? I thought maybe you might have left your phone at home but would’ve expected you to be back by now. Please let me know all’s ok xx
[Toni 17:46] MISSED AUDIO CALL
[Toni 17:47] Clive, is everything ok? I’m getting worried now xx
[Toni 17:54] MISSED AUDIO CALL
[Toni 18:18] OK, I’m presuming this is something to do with what you said the other day about her finding out. I completely understand if you don’t want to take the risk anymore. I can’t pretend I’m not disappointed but of course I totally get it. It’s not worth ruining your marriage over a bit of fun. It’d just be nice if you could let me know, so I know xx
[Toni 18:36] Clive, I’m guessing you’ve blocked my number or something. I’d rather you were able to just tell me it’s over, but I get the hint. I don’t know if this’ll ever reach you or if you’ll ever see it, but my door is always open. I really enjoyed our time together xx
‘Where did we find Clive’s phone?’ Caroline asked. ‘Was it on his person?’
‘No, he’d left it at home that day,’ Dexter replied. ‘It was charging in his kitchen. His wife said he did forget it from time to time, but it had been a while since it’d happened. I guess some people just aren’t as attached to their phones as others.’
‘Very true. Not out of the ordinary, considering his generation. And Mrs Thornton was at home that day?’
‘Yep.’
‘So she might have seen messages flash up on the screen?’
‘He had notification previews disabled. She would have been able to see there were messages, but she wouldn’t have been able to read them.’
‘Would she have been able to see who they were from?’
‘I’m not sure. But if so, it’d only show a name.’
‘That’d be enough to get the red mist to descend, especially if she was already suspicious or had confronted him over it in the past,’ Caroline said, immediately regretting the conspiratorial tone in her voice.
‘True. And for all we know, she might know the PIN code to his phone. If she did, she’d have been able to read everything.’
Caroline nodded slowly. ‘No wonder he didn’t tend to leave his phone at home much anymore. Have we put in to the phone networks to find out who this Toni’s number is registered to?’
‘Yep, we’re on it,’ Aidan said.
‘Good stuff. Once we’ve got an ID on her, we’ll go and chat with her. I’ve a feeling that’ll open up a whole lot more.’
Dexter’s mobile phone rang in his pocket. Not recognising the number on the screen, he answered the call.
‘Dexter Antoine.’
The voice at the other end of the phone was loud enough for everyone to hear.
‘Hello, it’s Andrea Ruston calling from Border Force, regarding your request for information on Mr Karlsen. Do you have a few moments? I’ve got something that might be of interest to you.’