THESE ARE ATTESTED ON SOUL AND CONSCIENCE.
MEANWHILE,
TERRY MARKHAM AT THE POLICE FORENSIC LABORATORY in Wetherby was examining the clothes taken from Peter Grimshaw’s house. He was especially interested in the white laboratory-type coat which showed clear signs of a blood stain to which an attempt had been made to wash it out.
He carefully examined every inch of the garment, using a high-powered magnifying glass. As he turned up the collar, he saw it—a single blonde hair.
Emily Black had blonde hair.
He put in a call to Dr Penrose Gordon-Blood in Sheffield and a car was sent to collect the pathologist and bring him to Wetherby. Gordon-Blood then used a comparison microscope to compare this single hair to the hair samples he had taken from Emily during his post-mortem examination.
After detailing the provenance of the two hair samples, i.e. hair found on a coat found on the premises of the accused to be compared to hair taken from the head of Emily Black, he listed the points of similarity, i.e. colour, length, diameter, distribution of pigment, granules, type of medulla etc. and then wrote:
The hair found on the white laboratory coat is similar in all respects to certain of the hairs taken from the head of the deceased child, Emily Black.
These are attested on soul and conscience.
Signed, Penrose Gordon-Blood, MD.
Copies of his report were sent to West Garside Police Station.
‘Got him,’ exulted Yarrow when he read the report, a glow of satisfaction suffusing his body. The noose was tightening around the neck of Emily’s killer, obviously, when he had carried Emily to the murder site, a loose hair had attached to the coat collar and even though he had brushed the coat down, he had missed that one single hair—a hair which was going to help send him to the gallows.
Analysis of the washed-out blood stain on the white coat proved to be less helpful; the blood was human, type O Rhesus Negative, one of the most common blood types. Emily Black was O Negative, unfortunately, so was Peter Grimshaw.
The black corduroy trousers proved to be more helpful. Despite Grimshaw’s attempts to brush away any dirt sticking to the knees of the trousers, he had not been totally successful, and several grains—in fact, more than several, a half teaspoon of grains of earth—were carefully extracted from the corduroy. Analysis of samples taken from the murder site compared in all respects to the dirt brushed out from the trousers, not conclusive evidence but adding remorselessly to the evidence piling up against Grimshaw. Burrs and grass seeds found lodged in the turn-ups of the trousers also compared favourably with control samples from the murder site.
But most damning of all, the semen stains found on the handkerchief in Peter Grimshaw’s bedroom matched those found in poor Emily’s body.
Yarrow had his case. He had, he now believed, enough to convince a jury beyond reasonable doubt that Peter James Grimshaw was the killer of Emily Black.
Peter Grimshaw appeared before the Magistrates and was remanded in custody to stand trial at Sheffield Assizes Quarter Sessions on the charges of abduction, rape, and murder.