Page 30 of Murder in the Family

HUGO FRASER

(appreciatively)

Nice piece.

JJ NORTON

And if it looks familiar that’s because Caroline gave exactly the same model to Guy as a twenty-first birthday present.

He taps his keyboard and a body map appears on the screen.

JJ NORTON

OK, so to recap, the body was found at approximately 22.45, and at that point Ryder had been dead for around an hour. We’re going to go outside shortly and see for ourselves, but if you look at this diagram here—

(turns to site plan)

—you can get a sense of the lie of the land.

JJ NORTON

There’s a tennis courthere, a paddockhere, and these buildings alonghereare the old stable block, which the Howards converted into a workshop and storage. That’s where Ryder kept his motorbike.

The lofts above had been knocked together into a self-contained apartment for Caroline when she first started work for the Howards as their au pair, and as we’ve just heard, by the time of the murder Maura Howard had moved into those rooms.

There’s actually quite a steep slope away from the house towards the stable block which you obviously can’t tell from this, but that’s why there are those flights of steps – the garden is basically laid out in terraces.

(puts down the plan and looks round)

As I said earlier, there was no evidence that the assailant was ever inside the house, and the doors were all locked when the girls got home. Nor were any identifiable footprints found in the garden – the weather saw to that.

ALAN CANNING

And in any case, it was October, the weather was bad and it was only 5° – anyone coming to the house could quite easily have been wearing gloves and a mack, and that would have all but eliminated any DNA transfer, even without the rain. And being dressed like that wouldn’t have aroused any suspicion either, not given the weather.

JJ NORTON

So either Ryder realized there was an intruder in the garden and went outside to investigate, which seems rather unlikely, or the person was someone Ryder knew—

MITCHELL CLARKE

Like the cryptic King’s Cross man. Or woman—

JJ NORTON

—and for some reason Luke didn’t want to let them in the house and elected to talk to them outside, despite the weather.

LAILA FURNESS

That’s not so odd, though, is it? The absolute earliest he could have been killed was just after nine thirty, and by that time he must have known Maura and Amelie could be back any minute. If hewasmeeting someone even remotely suspect, I can easily see him wanting to keep that fact from the girls.

BILL SERAFINI

(nodding meaningfully)

Especially if he didn’t wantCarolineto find out. The girls wouldn’t keep anything shady from her – especially if they could use it to get back at Luke.

LAILA FURNESS