“Look, I’m warning you. There might be more shit heading your way. Be prepared. And if you do want to get ahead of it—” He held out a business card. I took it and grunted when I saw which tabloid he worked for. “As I said, you’re not my primary interest. I want some answers on other topics. Your name – it cropped up, is all. If you ever want to talk, let me know.” He backed away, his hands up to show he meant no harm.
As he walked off, I nodded at him and made a show of pocketing his card. “Probably not, but thanks anyway.”
“Your choice,” he said. I watched him depart. He walked across the village green to a shabby hatchback and lit another cigarette before getting in and driving off.
I made a push to get back to the safety of home quickly. We returned before the day had even fully begun. I made myself a healthy breakfast, put Dominic Grundy to the back of my mind, and then tried to figure out what to do with my time.
About 9 a.m., Nigella texted me:Turn on your TV now.
I switched it on and saw that a press conference was about to get underway. The backdrop readDorset Police– the reporter was nervously over-explaining every facet of the investigation of the case.
“And we’re a few minutes away from the family coming out. Sources in the police have told us they hope the press conference from the family will jog the memory of those in the local area on Saturday night—”
I sat on the floor in front of my TV with Kenny wrapping himself around me like a comfort blanket. I scratched his head in an absent-minded manner, and he licked my other hand.
The reporter broke off as several people arrived. A police officer in full uniform, followed by a man and woman in late middle age, as well as Marina Holt and … Simon.
“Good morning,” the officer started. “I’m Bryn Fordham, chief constable of Dorset Police. I welcome you all to this press conference today. We all wish it were under better circumstances, but unfortunately, we are not that lucky. I am joined by Mr and Mrs Patel, Riz Patel’s parents, Marina Holt, his campaign manager, and his fiancé, Simon Anson.”
Simon’s jaw was locked, and his eyes were focused on the middle distance. Marina gave a tight smile while Mrs Patel let out a sniffle and leaned into her husband.
“The murder of Mr Patel has shocked not just the local community but the UK, and even the world. For a political candidate to be killed in such a way is almost unprecedented in the UK. There have been almost no cases like this in the past forty years, not since the days of IRA terrorist action on the British mainland,” he said solemnly. “We understand that there has been chatter about similarities of this to the killing of Jo Cox MP in 2016 in Yorkshire, but as we have so far been able to ascertain, with help from other forces in the UK, there are no links between these murders.
“I will give a full briefing in due course, but now I would like to pass to Marina Holt, who was Mr Patel’s campaign manager for his race in the Central Dorset seat.”
Marina’s dark red hair was pulled back in a severe ponytail, and her mouth was a slit of red lipstick. Shewore a rather expensive-looking cream suit with a pussy bow blouse underneath. I felt my lip curl against her.
She took the microphone on a stand in front of her and arranged it awkwardly closer to her face and began to speak. She had a plummy accent that turned her Rs into Ws in the most infuriating manner.
“Riz was not just a colleague, but also afwend,” she said. I could see the insincerity dripping off her. “We, and the Labour Party, want justice for him and his loved ones.”
Chief constable Fordham stood again as the endless flashes and clicks of off-screen cameras from the press on the other side continued.
“We will now recount the last few hours of Mr Patel’s known movements on Saturday night.” He clicked a button on a remote in his hand, and a monitor behind him showed a Google Earth image of the area. “Dr Patel had been, along with Ms Holt and his fiancé, Mr Anson, at a campaign event in Borrington Upwild.” He named a village about two miles north of Sittingston that had a pretty green and not a lot else.
“The event lasted from around 13:00 until just before 14:30 when Dr Patel and Ms Holt travelled to a nearby café, the Cupcake Rooms, for a late lunch, which they departed from around 15:30. Dr Patel went outside for several moments to take a phone call around 14:55.
“From there they travelled to Bournemouth for a 17:00 interview with Marla Dickens, on her Saturday afternoon politics and talkback show on Smooth 98.1 FM.” Fordham clicked the remote, and a map of Bournemouth popped up on the monitor.
“Smooth’s offices are in the Hinton Road area of the city. Dr Patel drove separately from Ms Holt and arrived there at about 16:40. He was in the building until around 17:25. Phone records confirm he took another call aboutthis time, which lasted around ten minutes. After this, he made his way back to his fiancé’s home in Lilbury.
“Dr Patel arrived at his fiancé’s home on Rosebud Gardens in Lilbury around 19:00. This is unusual as the journey is only around fifty minutes, and traffic was light. Dr Patel grew up in the Bournemouth area; he’d made this journey several times and knew the route well. We are sure that with his local knowledge, he could have reached it in just over forty minutes. Ms Holt travelled separately and made her way back to her home for several minutes to change her clothes.
“This means we have around thirty minutes unaccounted for between him leaving the station and arriving in Lilbury.” The chief constable looked at the crowd over the top of his glasses and enunciated each word carefully. “We need anyone who saw a black late model SUV on the A341 between the aforementioned times to contact police.
“We have several CCTV images of Dr Patel driving through Bournemouth, through the Winton and West Howe areas of the city, which matches a route that he should have taken. However, the GPS appears to have been switched off in both his car and the location data for his phone. Unusually, Dr Patel seems to have switched these off several weeks ago. We are yet to understand why. We have no further CCTV images of Dr Patel’s vehicle until much later on in the evening.
“Dr Patel was wearing light brown chinos, brown lace-up shoes, a blue linen shirt with the sleeves rolled up. He was five foot nine, weighed eleven stone, and was British Asian. He had medium-length black hair and a short beard with no piercings or tattoos.
“At around 19:00, Dr Patel arrived at his partner’s home, where he appeared agitated and stressed and took several more phone calls throughout the evening. At approximately 19:30, he and his partner were joined byMs Holt and made their way to the home of Guy Frobisher at Honningtons manor house on the other side of the village of Lilbury.” Fordham clicked the remote again, showing another satellite image.
“They arrived around 19:40 and were present with several other people until around 21:30 when they left. Ms Holt accompanied them home and left around 21:50.
“Dr Patel and his partner were at home until around 23:00 when Dr Patel had another phone call and said he would instead spend the night at his own home in Salisbury, a forty-minute drive away. This was not uncommon, according to Mr Anson. Mr Patel frequently became anxious about his workload and campaigning and preferred sleeping at his own house.
“Around 03:00 on Sunday, we have CCTV images of Dr Patel’s SUV arriving in Sittingston from the western side of the town, which is unusual as Lilbury is to the south and Salisbury to the east. Dr Patel has no acquaintances in the village and, until this campaign, had reportedly no connections to it. He travelled up White Ball Road to the corner of the High Street, where he was captured on the CCTV of a local bank. He spent several minutes idling in the town centre before being captured on a separate camera at the entrance of the St Margaret’s Road Car Park, where he was later discovered by a member of the public at approximately 06:00.
“We urge any members of the public who saw his car travelling between the hours of 17:00 Saturday and 03:00 Sunday morning to contact Dorset Police immediately. No detail is too small.”
