‘First up, Durant’s car. We obviously can’t date the damage to the windscreen and the front bumper or tell you what caused the damage. Could have been an impact with a person, or it could’ve been a deer – there’s no way to know. On the backseat, we recovered blood and hair that we matched with Graham Ashcroft.’
Henley felt excitable nerves in her stomach as she made a note. ‘You’re a superstar.’
Anthony chuckled. ‘That’s not all. We also recovered Graham Ashcroft’s hair and blood from the broken glass. On the steering wheel we recovered prints belonging to Durant and prints and blood samples from, let’s call them, person A.’
‘I take it that person A is not on the database?’ Henley asked as the door opened and Ramouter stepped in. She mouthed one minute.
‘Yeah, person A is not in the database but the blood we recovered from the steering wheel matches not only blood that we recovered from the Ashcrofts’ kitchen but also DNA recovered from Sian Fox-Carnell and Nathan Hall.’
‘All three.’
‘Yes. A nice little golden triangle. But the DNA from person A doesn’t match the DNA that was recovered from under the fingernails of both Graham Ashcroft and Fox-Carnell.’
Henley could hear Anthony flicking through pages. ‘I’m kind of somewhere but nowhere,’ she said. ‘Clear evidence of two suspects but no idea as to identification.’
‘That’s one way of putting it,’ said Anthony. ‘But I’m about to add a silver lining to your cloud. Nathan Hall’s house. We recovered bloody footprints from the hallway and on the stairs. We’ve got three sets of prints. We originally had four, but we eliminated the housekeeper’s. The first print is a size twelve, Men’s Nike Air Max 90. Lot of wear on the outer edge of the heel, what you would expect with an overpronator. Second print, Vans Men’s Ward sneaker, size ten and the third,’ Anthony sighed. ‘The third is a nosy guy.’
‘What do you mean by nosy?’
‘The second print we found halfway up the stairs, adjacent to where Nathan Hall was hanged. The first prints were on the hallway floor, twelve inches from the staircase, suggesting to me—’
‘First prints held up Nathan Hall while the second print hanged him from the bannister.’
‘Exactly, but the third print carries on up the staircase and we track them into the main bedroom, the bathroom and also the living room. We then recovered fingerprints from the bannister and also the wall going up the stairs and when we ran them through the database we got a match. A Ben Trezeguet.’
‘Excuse me, say that again.’ Henley’s pen fell from her hand.
‘Ben Trezeguet,’ Anthony repeated. ‘Fingerprints and samples were entered onto the database a year ago. Suspect three?’
Henley circled Ben’s name twice and then got up and opened the door. ‘Stay there,’ she said to Laurence and his legal representative who were waiting in the hall. She pulled Ramouter into the room. ‘Sorry, Anthony, you were saying.’
‘Oh, nothing. Just that this Trezeguet geezer may be a suspect, or he could just be someone who’s getting in the way,’ Anthony opined. ‘Anyway, I’ll let you get on.’
‘What the—’ Ramouter stopped himself from swearing after listening to Henley’s update. ‘First the Fox-Carnell crime scene and then the press conference.’
‘And now we’ve got him at the Hall crime scene,’ nodded Henley.
‘Are you saying that Ben is involved and is out there perving on his handiwork?’
‘I don’t know if it’s exactly like that. Annoying as he is, my gut doesn’t tell me he’s involved in that way.’
Ramouter shook his head. ‘We’ve got direct – not circumstantial – evidence of Ben’s involvement. He was inside Nathan Hall’s house, fingerprints and there was blood on his shoes. You know how this works, boss.’
‘I do, but I have questions,’ said Henley. ‘Why would Ben make such a big mistake and incriminate himself by leaving his DNA behind in Hall’s house? Mantell, Bo Hyoo, Fox-Carnell and the Ashcrofts. Nothing.’
‘He got complacent. It wouldn’t be the first time a criminal let his ego get in the way and he gets sloppy.’
‘True,’ said Henley.
‘And even if we go with your theory, boss, why was Ben Trezeguet in Nathan Hall’s house? How did he get in? And why didn’t he call the police when he discovered the body hanging from the bannister?’
Henley smiled, both impressed with Ramouter’s determination and analysis and that he wasn’t afraid to challenge her.
‘We also can’t ignore that Ben’s got previous convictions. He’s not innocent,’ Ramouter went on.
‘No, he’s not,’ said Henley. ‘We’ll put him on the suspect board but, before we do that, let’s deal with Durant. He’s already lied to Stanford and Eastie. Let’s see if he’ll lie to our faces under caution.’
Henley kept her eyes on Laurence Durant as Ramouter completed the admin section of the interview. She had enough evidence to question Laurence but what she needed to move this case on was a confession.
