Page 67 of The Scene of the Crime (Jessica Russell #1)

Arriving at Barking, Jessica went straight to Chapman’s office, but he wasn’t there.

She saw DC Bingham in the corridor and asked him if Chapman was in.

Bingham told her he was in the canteen with DS Wood.

Jessica thanked him and hurried up the stairs.

She saw Chapman and Wood sitting at a table, eating bacon sandwiches and drinking coffee.

‘Guy and Taff have identified two new suspects.’

‘That’s good news. Who might they be?’ Wood asked.

‘A Hatton Garden jeweller called Nathan Cole and a minicab driver, Christopher Bishop. Have their names come up in yours or anyone else’s enquiries?’

Chapman and Wood looked at each other, shrugged and shook their heads. ‘What have those two fellows been up to then?’ Wood asked.

‘Guy linked Cole and Wheeler to using the two burner phones, and Bishop’s print was at the Wheeler crime scene on the piece of tape. It also looks like De Klerk knows Cole.’

‘How do you know that?’ Wood asked.

‘Because he phoned Cole on the Friday morning before the break-in on Monday.’

‘Now that is interesting,’ Wood said.

‘How did it go at the hospital with Michelle?’ Chapman asked.

‘I think she’s lying about Johan still being unconscious and may know more than she’s letting on.’

‘What makes you think that?’ Wood asked.

‘Just a gut feeling.’ She looked at Chapman. ‘I’ll go into more detail when we talk to Anderson, but I’d like to do it now as he might want to take immediate action.’

‘Let me finish this bacon sarnie and I’ll come with you. Do you want a drink?’ Chapman asked.

‘No, thanks. I’ll meet you in Anderson’s office.’ She gave Wood a nod as she left.

‘Bet you’d love to,’ Wood said in a low voice.

‘Love to what?’

‘Come with her.’

‘Fuck off, Julian, and have some fucking respect. She and her team might have just saved you and me from revealing Stubbings as an informant.’

Jessica knocked on Anderson’s door and Chapman followed her in. ‘I’ve got some new information and forensic results for you,’ Jessica said.

‘Take a seat. I’ll fill Mike in on what happened at the hospital with Michelle first,’ Anderson said. He told Chapman what Michelle had said, and about Jessica spotting the water bottle.

‘Very sharp,’ Chapman grinned.

Anderson picked up his pen and opened his notebook.

‘What have you got for me, Jessica.’ She recounted everything she had discussed with Guy and Taff, then handed him copies of the mobile phone calls and cell site analysis Guy had prepared.

She also gave him a copy of Christopher Bishop’s criminal record.

‘This is excellent work by you and your team. It looks like De Klerk is definitely linked to Cole, which makes me wonder if he’s also connected to Wheeler somehow. ’

‘There is a tenuous connection between Wheeler and Michelle,’ she said. ‘She was his defence barrister in a GBH case.’

‘Interesting. I don’t wish to sound pushy, but has Diane got any DNA results yet?’ Anderson asked.

‘She was still working on the items when I left the office. I asked her to call me, but I haven’t heard from her yet.’

‘Would you mind calling her? The results might help us determine the best way forward.’

‘Not at all,’ Jessica said, pleased he had used the word ‘us’. She called Diane.

‘You must be telepathic. I’m still in the lab and I was just about to call you with my DNA results,’ Diane said.

‘I’m with DCI Anderson and DI Chapman. I’ll put you on speaker so they can listen. But don’t get too technical,’ she added. Anderson gave her a rueful smile.

‘OK, starting with the diamonds. I found three DNA profiles, which come from Johan De Klerk, John Wheeler and the third from an unknown male. I ran it through the database but didn’t get a hit.

However, the unknown DNA matches the saliva DNA I recovered from the water buffalo glass Jessica found in De Klerk’s cinema room.

I’m still working on the saliva DNA from the cigar we found in Montague Road, but there are already similarities to the unknown DNA on the diamonds.

I’m pretty sure they will match once I get a full profile.

Did that make sense to you non-scientists? ’

‘It did,’ Anderson said.

‘That’s great work, Diane. It proves that De Klerk and Wheeler handled those diamonds. I think we can all agree the unknown DNA is probably Nathan Cole’s,’ Jessica added.

‘Who’s Nathan Cole?’ Diane asked.

‘Guy will tell you all about him,’ Jessica said.

‘Thanks for all your hard work,’ Anderson said, thinking that was it.

‘I’m not done. I’ve more exciting results for you . . . if you’d like to hear them,’ Diane teased.

‘Fire away,’ Anderson said.

‘I recovered DNA from Wheeler’s wrist and hand swabs.

Naturally, his was there, but I also raised another profile and ran it on the database.

I got a match to a Christopher Bishop. His DNA was either transferred onto Wheeler’s wrists from the rope that was used to bind his hands, or Bishop held his hands while someone else tied them.

I’ve got a list of Bishop’s previous convictions. He . . .’

‘We already know about them, Di. Taff found his fingerprint on the piece of masking tape,’ Jessica told her.

‘Nice of him to tell me,’ she replied, obviously annoyed that Taff had stolen her thunder.

‘I suspect he didn’t want to disturb you while you were busy with the DNA work. Have you anything else for us?’ Jessica asked.

‘I found no foreign DNA on Wheeler’s fingernail clippings or scrapings.

I haven’t done any tests on the lockbox yet, as extracting DNA from the diamonds seemed to be the priority.

I also found Wheeler’s DNA on the waistband and hoodie of the clothing dumped in the communal bins outside Palmer’s flat.

You were right, Jess. Wheeler must have put it there, probably as part of his effort to frame Liam. That’s all I’ve got for you so far.’

‘Thanks again, Diane. My team and I appreciate all your hard work,’ Anderson said. Jessica thanked Diane and ended the call. ‘This is all rather odd,’ Anderson said, going over his notes.

‘How do you mean?’ Chapman asked.

‘There’s a connection between Cole and Bishop through phone calls, but nothing to connect Bishop to De Klerk or Wheeler.’

‘If Cole doesn’t have a driving licence, and Bishop is a minicab driver, maybe Cole uses him to get around,’ Jessica suggested.

‘Good thinking. We can check with Transport for London to see if Bishop has a cab licence,’ Anderson said. ‘If Cole has a driver’s licence, DVLA will have his home address. However, there could be quite a few males with the same name that we’ll have to sift through.’

‘We can connect Michelle to Wheeler through the court case,’ Chapman said, grateful that he wasn’t going to have to reveal what Julian Wood had told him about her, Cole and Chandice’s sapphire.

Anderson frowned. ‘Yes, but that doesn’t implicate her in any crime.’

‘She went away for the weekend. We know she has a safe containing jewellery, which she may have purchased from Cole, thus connecting the two of them. She may also have known what was in Johan’s safe and arranged the break-in,’ Chapman said.

‘That’s stretching things a bit, Mike,’ Jessica said. ‘Although I think she’s hiding something, I don’t believe she’d have wanted any harm to come to her husband. If she was involved, she’d have wanted him away from the house when the break-in happened.’

‘We don’t know much about Cole, but Wheeler’s a nasty bastard. Maybe he decided to break in no matter what and thought he could do the job without waking De Klerk, but it all went pearshaped,’ Chapman argued.

‘You’ve never met Michelle. Do you honestly think she could be behind what happened to her husband?’ Jessica said bluntly.

‘You just said yourself that she’s hiding something.’

‘Yes, but I don’t think she’d set Johan up. I think she was fishing for information yesterday so she could tell Johan what we knew. It could be she’s actually trying to protect him.’

‘Or herself. I’m just saying that we should be open-minded and not rule her out as a suspect.’

‘Let’s not start arguing with each other and focus on what we need to do next,’ Anderson interjected.

‘As I see it, we have enough forensic and phone evidence to arrest Cole and Bishop. I think we should interview them before we speak to De Klerk and Michelle. Do you both agree?’ They both nodded.

‘Ideally, I’d like to know if the prints and DNA from the water buffalo glass and the cigar belong to Cole before we arrest him.

If they aren’t his, there’s someone else we need to find,’ Anderson said.

‘Dawn Owens was going to enquire about any cleaners the De Klerks employed. Do you know if she got a result?’ Jessica asked.

Anderson checked on HOLMES. ‘Doesn’t look like it from her last report.

’ He ran a search using the word “cleaner”.

‘Here we go, there’s an entry on the house-to-house enquiries.

A neighbour of the De Klerks said they use the same house cleaner as them on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

She does the mornings at the De Klerks and afternoons at the neighbours.

Her name is Janice something, but it doesn’t appear she’s been spoken to yet. ’

‘Is there a phone number for her?’ Jessica asked.

Anderson nodded. ‘I’ll get one of the team to contact her, but I doubt she’ll be able to tell us much.’

‘Do you mind if I try calling her now?’

‘Not at all.’ Anderson read out the number.

Jessica dialled it. When the phone was answered, she confirmed it was Janice, introduced herself and put her phone on speaker. ‘I’d like to ask you some questions about the De Klerks and when you last cleaned their house. Is that OK?’

‘It’s terrible what happened to Mr Johan. I feel so sorry for him and Mrs Michelle. Do you know how he is?’ she said with an African lilt to her accent.

‘Johan is recovering well, but still in the hospital.’

‘Oh, thanks to God. I have been praying for them every day.’

‘Can you tell me when you last cleaned the De Klerks’ house?’

‘It was last Friday morning.’

‘And what hours did you work?’

‘I do five hours.’

‘From when?’

‘Seven a.m. to twelve.’

‘I take it you have a key to the premises.’

‘Yes, Mrs Michelle trusts me, and I let myself in.’

‘And do you clean the whole house?’

‘Oh, yes. I clean everything. I am very thorough.’

‘Do you do the basement areas as well? Including the cinema room?’

‘Oh, yes. And the gym and Mr Johan’s study.’

‘We found two crystal glasses in the cinema room on the Monday morning after Johan was hurt. One glass had a cheetah engraving, and the other a water buffalo. Can you recall if you saw them there on Friday morning?’

‘Oh no, they were not there. If they had been, I would have washed them by hand. I never put the crystal in the dishwasher.’

‘And you’re certain of that?’

‘One hundred per cent. Mr Johan often leaves the glasses in the cinema room and popcorn on the floor, but I always make sure it is clean and tidy. I don’t miss even a tiny speck of dust when I clean.’

‘Was Michelle or Johan at home that morning?’

‘Mrs Michelle was at work, and Johan was in his study. I remember it because I was going to hoover and dust the study, but he said not to bother as he was very busy.’

‘Did anyone come to visit Johan while you were there?’

‘No, if they did, I would know. I always answer the door when I am there.’

‘Thank you, Janice. You’ve been very helpful. I’ll let Michelle know she and Johan are in your prayers. I’m sure they’ll appreciate it.’ Jessica ended the call.

Anderson smiled. ‘That was crafty.’

‘If the fingerprints and DNA on the water buffalo glass are Cole’s, it proves he was in the De Klerks’ house and could only have got there after midday on Friday,’ Jessica said.

‘I’m going to organise arrest teams for Cole and Bishop.

Mike, I’d like you to lead the team arresting Cole and DS Wood for Bishop.

I’ll monitor everything from here and keep radio contact with both teams. Unless there is anything else, I think it’s time for the office meeting with the rest of the team. ’

‘Can you give me twenty minutes to speak to Julian and organise our teams?’ Chapman asked.

‘No problem. Is there anything else we need to discuss?’

‘There’s a way we can get Cole’s fingerprints so that Taff can make an instant comparison before an arrest,’ Jessica said.

‘And what’s that?’ Anderson asked.

‘Pay a visit to his shop, ask for an estimate on a ring or something.’

Anderson hesitated, then looked at her. ‘Are you up for doing that?’

She smiled. ‘I suggested it, so I guess I am.’