Leo
In the incident room, Harry shoved the laptop away in disgust.
‘There’s nothing there, Leo. Simon Potts, the porter, may be an annoying git but he’s got no previous, no opportunity if the CCTV feed is to be believed.’
Leo nodded. He’d put Harry to checking the footage from the front desk, a thankless but necessary task. ‘OK. At least we can eliminate him.’
Harry reached for a biscuit from the team’s tin. They all contributed to a communal refreshment fund but Harry always took the lion’s share. ‘That Field man, the head honcho, now he’s in and out of the lodge like a randy man at an orgy. What about him?’
Leo went to the coffee point and poured hot water on his green tea brought from home. The office teabags would strip the enamel right off your teeth. ‘I’ve interviewed the director of the film unit. Field was on set for his cameo as he claimed. I’m not saying he couldn’t have slipped away while going to and from the location in the college, but I don’t think it’s likely. Also, I can’t see a motive. No one reports the porter having any beef with the bursar.’
Suyin came in with another stack of interviews and placed them on Leo’s desk.
‘Anything? Please say there’s something.’ Leo sat down to read through the reports. There were scores of conversations that would’ve taken many police hours to gather.
‘Nothing stands out, sir. Some aggro with the catering staff about overspend on their budget but nothing worth killing for. The Master of Linton said he’d never known a better financial officer.’ She poured herself some fizzy water from a bottle she kept in the fridge. ‘He is very keen we come up with a result.’
As if they weren’t.
‘Picked up anything between Kingston and the man who was there when they found him?’
‘Jago Jackson? Nothing, sir. Cordial but distant – that’s both how Jackson describes their interaction and the impression I got from others who know the two men.’
‘Still, the fucker was there when the body was found. Convenient if he left DNA during the attack to be there to haul the body ashore,’ said Harry cynically.
‘We’ll take a close look at him,’ agreed Leo.
Harry circled in his chair to look at the photos on the board they’d created. ‘What about the naked bird?’
‘Jess Bridges? I can’t see a connection – she’s new to Oxford, was with her friends until shortly before finding the body. I think we can rule her out for the moment.’ Leo leaned back and laced his hands behind his head, thinking. ‘Unless something else crops up during interviews, it looks like this wasn’t a workplace grudge or argument.’
‘Stripping him naked suggests something personal,’ said Suyin.
‘Humiliation?’ Harry frowned. ‘Or sex?’
‘No recent sexual activity according to the pathologist,’ said Leo.
‘Poor bugger.’
‘Nobody I spoke to had any idea of anything extra-marital going on, so if the boathouse was some clandestine assignation, then he kept it very quiet,’ said Suyin.
Leo shook his head. ‘No, it doesn’t feel sexual. A single blow over the head – that feels efficient. Calculated. One blow, job done, no further damage to the body. Someone with an emotional reason to hate him would’ve done more.’
‘Who else do we have?’ asked Harry, brushing crumbs off his shirt and over his computer keyboard. ‘No students at this time of the year.’
‘The film crew and the actors,’ said Suyin. ‘We’ve interviewed everyone on set that night. The production account, who did know him, was at home in London. She’s not needed on set during filming. Everyone else who was there didn’t know him, even by sight.’
‘Or said they didn’t,’ said Leo. ‘Let’s see what we can find out about the cast and crew. Kingston worked in the City before coming to Oxford. Maybe this goes back further than last Sunday?’
Suyin handed him the list of those involved in the shoot.
Leo’s eyebrows winged up. ‘That many?’
‘’Fraid so, sir.’
‘We’d better get started then. Spread the names out among the team and see if we can find any connection to Kingston. He was in finance. Maybe he pulled funding on a film, or lost someone’s savings way back, ruined a career?’ He rubbed his hand over his face. ‘No, that doesn’t feel right. That would have been revenge – more personal.’
‘We still have to look though, don’t we?’ said Suyin.
‘That’s right. We still have to look.’ Leo pulled the list towards himself and marked off the As.