Later that afternoon Crime Scene Manager Andy Harrison swung by the office, on his way home from Welwyn. He declined a cup of coffee, saying he needed to go to sleep as soon as he got in, ready for his next early shift.
‘We’ve got our forensic document analysis back for the suicide note found on Father Nolan’s dresser,’ he stated, handing over his iPad.
‘What’s the conclusion?’ asked Warren, preferring the team to hear the CSI’s summary, before going through the report in detail.
‘First of all, the examiner believes that based on the handwriting samples submitted for comparison, the author of the note was indeed Father Nolan. However, the writing shows some evidence of impairment.’
‘Such as alcohol and drugs?’ asked Sutton.
‘The examiner wouldn’t be drawn on specifics – he said that’s straying into the realms of forensic graphology and he’d rather stick with science – but he would be willing to speculate off the record and say that the handwriting strayed markedly from Father Nolan’s typically neat and quite pedantic style.’
‘What else is there?’ asked Warren.
‘The paper was probably torn from the A5 spiral-bound pad on the dresser. The fibres match, indicating that they come from the same batch of paper. Chromatography tests on a small sample of the ink match that of a biro also found on the dresser.’
‘What about fingerprints?’
‘They used alternate light sources on the paper, the pad and the pen, and found latent prints matching Father Nolan, but nobody else.’
‘Could it have been wiped clean? Surely there would be fingerprints from the shopkeeper or other customers that handled it before he bought it?’ asked Ruskin.
‘That’s a good question, but this type of pad comes wrapped in disposable plastic wrapping, so we wouldn’t expect anyone else to have touched the actual paper other than Father Nolan.’
‘What else?’ asked Sutton.
‘There are a total of eleven leaves missing from the pad. Two were found elsewhere in the room; a shopping list in the back pocket of a pair of trousers, and a list of what we’ve confirmed are horse-racing fixtures from a couple of months ago down the back of the bedside table. There was no sign of the nine missing leaves, however there were impressions left on the pad, and this is where it gets interesting.’ He opened a series of images on the iPad, each showing the same piece of paper, but under different filtered light.
‘Using alternate light sources again, they found indentations matching the suicide note, and they also found two other attempts at it. Both were in Father Nolan’s writing, but both had mistakes.
‘Because he was drunk?’
‘We can speculate. But there’s more. A third set of indentations, with the same words ‘Forgive me Father, for I have sinned’, but printed in block capitals and in a different person’s handwriting.’
There was a pause whilst the team digested that thought.
‘So basically, what we are saying, is that Father Nolan was made to write his own suicide note; but he was so inebriated that somebody else had to write the words down for him to copy?’
‘Yes. There were also traces of petrol caught in the paper fibres, where the pad and the note had been handled; there were no such remnants on the sheets found in his room. The concentration was too low to suggest that paper had been doused in fuel, or even had any spilled on it, more likely Father Nolan had traces of petrol on his hands from handling something with petrol residue.’
‘Such as the petrol can found at the scene?’
‘Entirely possible.’
A disturbing picture of Father Nolan’s last hours were starting to emerge.
What had initially looked like a tragic suicide, was now appearing much more sinister. The priest had drunk whiskey laced with his own medication. He had then been escorted, probably semi-conscious, to the undercroft where he had been made to write his own confession, before being doused in petrol and set alight. His killer then returned to his room and placed the note prominently on the man’s dresser.
The degree of planning alone gave Warren pause for thought.
* * *
Warren was sitting with Sutton in Grayson’s office again. Unfortunately, Grayson was due to brief Assistant Chief Constable Mohammed Naseem in the next few minutes, and so hadn’t offered either man a cup of his coffee.
‘Take me through what we have.’
Warren quickly brought him up to speed on the latest forensic developments.
‘So the killer probably returned from the chapel to place the suicide note on the dresser in Father Nolan’s room? And did so without being seen by the two kids that reported the fire?’
‘Yes, which narrows the potential routes that killer must have taken. They couldn’t have exited the chapel by the front door without being seen, so must have left via the rear entrance near the altar, which means they could then have walked unseen back to the house. It isn’t possible to exit the undercroft directly.’
‘And Rodney Shaw is still the main suspect?’
‘Yes. We are also trying to find a homeless person called Lucas Furber who was arrested for causing a disturbance in the abbey grounds some months ago, and who seems to have issues with the church, but Shaw is looking the most promising. His alibi for that night is collapsing around his ears as we speak.
‘We also know that the killer used a second set of keys to relock the chapel and the undercroft, so that they could leave a set with Father Nolan and make it seem as though he locked himself in there. Rodney Shaw has his own set of keys. On top of that, he has full access to the retirement home and can move around largely unnoticed. His footprints have been found around the fire exit that we believe Father Nolan was taken through.’
‘Circumstantial, and easily explained away by defence counsel,’ warned Grayson.
‘I agree. However, we might now have a sample of the killer’s handwriting, that we may be able to match to him. I’d also like those missing sheets of paper, but they could have been disposed of in any one of a dozen ways by someone like Shaw.’
‘What’s your plan?’
‘Full forensics on the likely routes between the house and the chapel. If Father Nolan was stumbling around drunk and drugged, he and his killer may have left fibres and other trace evidence along the route. We have samples of some of Shaw’s clothes from the search in relation to the thefts for comparison.’
‘What else? You have enough to arrest and question again, and to do another search explicitly to look for evidence in relation to the murder, but unless he confesses I’m not seeing enough to charge. If you need to bail him at the end of the interview, you’ve just tipped him off.’
Warren gave a sigh.
‘You’re right. We’ve seen no signs that he’s planning to flee, or that he thinks his previous arrest was for anything other than those thefts, so I don’t think he’s a flight risk. Let’s continue testing his alibi. We should also be able to find a sample of his handwriting for comparison purposes.’
‘Are we going to tell the church that it’s now a murder case?’ asked Sutton. ‘It’s all very well us not wanting to tip our hand by arresting Shaw, but the killer is still out there. The residents of that home – or the community at large for that matter – could be in danger here.’
‘A fair question,’ said Grayson; he looked troubled. ‘That’s a decision for ACC Naseem to make, I think, but I’ll pass on your concerns.’
Grayson looked at his watch and stood up.
‘I’ll tell Naseem that we have two potential suspects. Let’s talk again tomorrow and decide if we should arrest.’ He paused. ‘Of course there’s still one more unanswered question. Of all the things to make Father Nolan write on his suicide note, why “Forgive me Father, for I have sinned”?’