‘Not even her ex-husband?’ Eastwood asked.
‘No. They didn’t tell him, and they didn’t tell their other kids either. They have a son who lives in Putney and a daughter in Ashford, Kent. I’m going to need you, Eastie and Stanford, to talk to the ex-husband and the siblings. Anyway, Fox-Carnell returns home on Monday afternoon and on Tuesday morning a short campaign of harassment begins.’
Henley pressed the remote again. The images Keith showed her appeared on the screen. ‘These photographs were taken by Sian’s stepfather on Wednesday morning. He also said that shit was pushed through the letterbox the day before, on Tuesday.’
‘Did he report it to the police?’ Pellacia asked.
‘No, he didn’t, but he told his wife. I don’t think that it’s too far-fetched to believe that the harassment was aimed at Fox-Carnell, which begs the question, how did anyone know that she was there? The only people who knew her bail address were the court staff, lawyers and us. Who knew?’
‘I’m thinking that the mum must have talked,’ said Ramouter. ‘She was anxious for Fox-Carnell to see her kids, but her ex-husband was having none of it, maybe she let it slip to him that Fox-Carnell was home.’
‘Or he worked it out for himself.’ Eastwood scribbled a note down. ‘But if the people who murdered Fox-Carnell are responsible for the harassment, why bother coming back on Wednesday morning to throw paint at the house, if they already had her? It’s possible that the harassment and the murder aren’t related at all.’
‘Eastie’s got a point,’ said Stanford.
‘She does, and that brings us to the next question: who was following Fox-Carnell?’ said Henley. ‘Fox-Carnell’s tag’s last location before it went dark was my street early Tuesday evening. Her body was found just before 7 a.m. this morning and her tracker went back online at 8.43 a.m.. We’ve got sixty hours where Fox-Carnell could have been anywhere or with anyone. She wouldn’t want to risk losing her freedom after all these years so it’s safe to assume that she was on her way home when she left my street. Someone took her between Brockley and Colindale.’
‘How was she getting about?’ Stanford asked.
‘Her dad said she was using public transport and that her mum had given Fox-Carnell her debit card. I’m assuming she was using that to pay for her fares. She also had an old phone her mum gave her with a pay-as-you go sim card.’
‘Even if her tracker went dark her phone wouldn’t have done,’ said Ezra who had entered the room with his shopping. ‘Unless she had an absolutely brick of a non-smartphone, her location services would have been on. I mean how would she find her way to your house if she didn’t have a map? Anyway, the point is that I can tell you where she went and who she may have spoken to before the phone company even starts to process your application for cell site data.’
‘Ezra, you’re right,’ said Henley. ‘I’ve been in touch with MIB and they’re still waiting on the phone company, but they were able to confirm that her phone’s last location was on Archway Road in Highgate.’
‘If that’s her last location, she either switched off her phone or her battery died,’ said Ezra. ‘But she could also have switched off her location services but that would be a bit pointless because her phone would still connect to a cell site tower.’
‘Are you sure you don’t want to join the Met officially?’ asked Pellacia.
‘Absolutely not,’ Ezra replied.
‘Ezra, I’ll email you Fox-Carnell’s phone number,’ said Henley. ‘In regard to the mum’s credit card, I’ve given Linda Fox until the end of the day to send me a copy of pending transactions.’
‘But in case she’s not compliant – and she probably won’t be,’ said Ramouter, ‘I’ve already submitted a request to her bank for confirmation of all transactions from Monday.’
‘What about MIB?’ asked Pellacia. ‘Surely they’ve done a lot more than make a phone call and traipse up here to have a pissing match with us.’
Henley shook her head. ‘They’ve given us what they’ve got, which is not a lot, but, that’s not all. We need to get a statement or call a press conference as soon as possible. There are images of Fox-Carnell’s body circulating all over social media. We had drones at the crime scene and people filming from their balconies. We need to be the ones putting out Sian Fox-Carnell’s name and not some random who managed to work out that one plus one does in fact equal two.’
‘I’ll contact the press office as soon as we’re done here,’ said Pellacia. ‘Where are we on forensics?’ he asked as Ramouter’s phone rang on his desk. Ramouter mouthed sorry as he turned his back to pick up his phone, speaking in hushed whispers.
‘At the moment, nowhere. It’s early days,’ answered Henley. ‘Anthony said that he’s going to fast track the results because of who we’re dealing with and in terms of the post—’
‘Henley,’ Ramouter shouted out, his face serious. ‘It’s Dr Linh Choi. It’s about Fox-Carnell. Pick up line three.’
Henley turned to the nearest desk and picked up the phone. ‘Linh, it’s me,’ she said.
Linh, the senior pathologist at Greenwich mortuary, let out a laugh. ‘You know, sometimes it would be nice to have a simple,he died in his sleepcase but with the SCU never.’
‘What’s going on?’ Henley asked cautiously.
‘I’ve got Sian Fox-Carnell on my table. The dad and uncle viewed her and left about forty minutes ago. Bear in mind this is the first time that I’ve seen the body because I sent Theresa down to confirm death.’
Henley remained quiet as she listened to Linh take a deep inhale.
‘She was scalped,’ Linh said.
Henley shook her head to make sense of what she’d just heard. Ramouter frowned at her, in question. ‘She was what?’ she asked.
