Page 133 of The Scene of the Crime

‘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 adriver’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. Ithink 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.’