‘Who are you thinking?’ asked Carson.
‘I’m not thinking anyone,’ replied Cross.
‘We’re looking at her phone records for the afternoon of the murder and the day before,’ said Ottey.
‘It has to be the mother, given their history and the recent, second assault,’ Carson insisted.
‘It doesn’t have to be anyone,’ said Ottey. ‘The girl could be lying. Maybe she didn’t let anyone in because she killed him herself.’
‘But the three cups,’ Carson pointed out, unable to resist the temptation to look in Cross’s direction for some sort of approval.
‘If it was premeditated, that could be part of a ruse to distract us,’ Ottey pointed out.
‘Are you bringing the mother in?’ asked Carson.
‘Not currently, no,’ replied Cross, whose mind was somewhere else completely, demonstrated by his leaving his office to seek the shelter of the back staircase to make a phone call in peace.
Swift was working a few cases, which took up his time as he waited for the results from the holdall and the letter opener. His eyes always lit up when he saw Cross’s name as the caller on his phone.
‘DS Cross!’ he answered with his usual alacrity. Almost. His enthusiasm was tempered by the fact that he was still in the throes of guilt-ridden angst about the door release. He felt he’d let Cross down with his failure to try it on his initial investigation at the crime scene. Cross had surprised him by disagreeing and informing him that his job was to process the scene, not question it. That was the job of the detectives, not the forensic investigators. Cross himself was the one at fault. He’d concluded this, with some annoyance, the very moment he discovered it was non-functional.
‘Torquil Squire is still living at his daughter-in-law’s house. For how much longer, I’m not at all sure. But it occurs to me, in the light of the current circumstances, with Persephone’s arrest, that it’s worth conducting a forensic examination of the bathroom I found her in. If she killed the victim it could be that she washed the blood off in the sink,’ Cross suggested.
‘What about clothing?’ asked Swift. Cross thought for a moment.
‘That’s possible. If she got blood on her clothes, she might have put them in the holdall along with the letter opener. There could be traces, but I would imagine the clothes have either been destroyed or washed by now,’ he said.
‘Except that she did keep the weapon. Might she not have kept clothing as well?’ Swift suggested.
‘No suspicious clothing was found in the search of her flat, though,’ Cross pointed out.
‘True.’
‘It’s a long shot, but if she washed her hands, or anything covered in blood for that matter, in the sink I think it’s worth a look,’ said Cross.
‘On it.’
*
It was at the base of one of the sink taps, around a disintegrating rubber washer, that Swift found a minuscule trace of blood. The sink had been rinsed down, but the point at which the tap joined the porcelain had been missed. He duly swabbed it. There was nothing else to be found in there. When he got back to the office, he found the results from the letter opener and holdall awaited him. He studied them for a moment then went straight over to the MCU.
Swift’s appearance in the MCU always interested Cross as he knew it meant that he had something he considered important enough to deliver in person. That and the possibility of getting any approbation of his skills first-hand.
‘So, the blood from the holdall is a match for the victim,’ Swift began.
This elicited an over-sibilant ‘Yes!’ from a fist-clenching Carson, who had appeared in the door to Cross’s office.
‘It’s most likely a transfer from the weapon,’ he went on.
‘Where else could it be from?’ asked Ottey.
‘Well, if she was wearing any clothes she’d then changed out of,’ he suggested.
‘Why would she have a change of clothes at work?’ Ottey continued.
‘A perfectly valid question,’ said Cross.
‘If she intended killing him, she might well have taken spare clothing with her,’ Swift pointed out.
‘A perfectly valid suggestion,’ replied Cross.
‘DS Cross asked me to go back to the crime scene and examine the bathroom where he found Persephone. It was a long shot, but it hasn’t been cleaned since the murder. I found a trace of blood at the base of one of the taps,’ Swift went on.
‘Perfect, I’ll call the CPS,’ said Carson, turning to leave.
‘Before you do that. There is something else. There were two traces of DNA on the murder weapon. The victim’s and a third party. We’ve done a comparison between Persephone’s DNA and the third-party DNA and it’s a match,’ said Swift.
‘Excellent,’ said Carson.
‘But not an exact match. It’s a familial match. It’s not her DNA but someone she’s related to,’ he told them.
‘So Persephone isn’t the killer?’ asked Ottey.
‘He didn’t say that,’ said Cross. ‘Simply that the DNA is a familial match.’
‘The mother,’ announced Carson. ‘Excellent work, Dr Swift. Josie, bring her in.’
‘Before you do that—’ Swift cautioned.
‘We have her DNA on file from the 2014 arrest,’ interjected Cross.
‘We do. I’ve cross-referenced it. It’s not her blood. What’s more – she’s not even a familial match to the blood on the knife,’ he told them. There was a moment’s silence.
‘Ian Hartwell,’ said Cross, quietly.
‘Who?’ asked Carson.
‘Persephone’s father. But he was in Spain the night of the murder,’ said Ottey.
‘We don’t know that,’ Cross pointed out. ‘All we know is that he arrived at the Squires’ house in Henleaze the next morning, claiming to have just flown in from Spain.’