‘Really, Roy? So what are you looking for exactly?’ Pewe whined.
‘Proof of life — sir.’
25
There was a long silence. Finally it was broken by the ACC’s voice.
‘You’d better be right,’ Pewe retorted lamely.
Roy then ran through the lines of enquiry his team were following and gave Pewe an update. ‘So actually, sir, I hope I’m wrong,’ Grace said.
‘Meaning what exactly, Roy? You’re a homicide investigator through and through. Don’t pretend otherwise. I know you, and what you and all homicide investigators like more than anything is a good murder — what do you call it — a Gucci murder? You’re not hoping she’s alive at all, are you?’ he said snidely.
‘I am, for your reputation, sir. We need to keep the crime stats down, don’t we? To make you look good, right?’
‘I told you not to push me, Roy.’
‘Is that because you know just how far you might fall?’ Grace responded facetiously, killing the call with a broad smile.
Oh yes, he was enjoying this. He felt the way he did in the weekly Thursday-night poker games he used to attend whenever he could, with a bunch of police colleagues. The rare, incredibly exciting moments during those games when he held a pretty much invincible hand. A full house, Aces on Kings, four Aces or — something which had happened to him only once in all the years he had been playing — an unassailable Royal Flush. Ace, King, Queen, Jack, Ten of the same suit.
It was that Royal Flush he held now. And he was loving it.
As he re-entered the room, still smiling, his phone rang again. Certain it was Pewe, Grace rejected it and muted the phone.
He addressed the team. ‘We are finalizing the strategies for forensics, search and arrests, and establishing the key lines of enquiry which will be circulated. A crucial line of enquiry at this stage is the victimology. Speaking to Eden’s friends, work colleagues and family will be a critical part of this.’
He turned to Branson. ‘Glenn, we’ve heard Niall Paternoster’s account of dropping his wife off in the car park of Tesco Holmbush and her apparent vanishing. Despite all his supposed endeavours to contact her, as he told the officers who attended at his house this morning, and you and me subsequently, so far we have nothing to confirm that his missing wife is OK. He made a couple of comments, which I relayed to you, that gave me cause to believe all was not good between them.’
DS Exton raised a hand. ‘Boss, given the photograph’s analysis from Digital Forensics, do you think Eden Paternoster was even in the car at all yesterday afternoon?’
‘It’s a good question, Jon. My hypothesis at this point is no, his wife was never in the car. This is a cover story her husband’s made up and it all sounds very plausible — at least to him, in his mind. I think it is very possible Niall Paternoster murdered his wife sometime before Sunday afternoon. One urgent task for the Outside Enquiry Team will be contacting her employers again, Mutual Occidental in Croydon, for more information. Apparently, she has not been to work since Thursday of last week.’
He looked at Luke Stanstead. ‘Can you continue to develop the sequence of events and timeline and share it with the team?’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘Perhaps Paternoster hasn’t taken into account the CCTV coverage that the Tesco store has. There is clearly no evidence, from the footage or the staff interviews, that his wife was either in the car park or the store at the time he claims. All we know for certain, from the plotting of his phone, is that he drove to Parham House at the approximate times he told us, wandered around the grounds for three hours and then drove to the Tesco store before going home. There is nothing to support his assertion that his wife was with him during this time. And the evidence from Aiden Gilbert’s Digital Forensics Team indicates this. It’s my view that he is trying to mislead or misdirect us.’
There was a brief silence, broken after a short while by DC Hall. ‘The CCTV only covers limited areas, doesn’t it, boss?’
Grace nodded. ‘Yes, correct, Kevin.’
‘So she could have gone into the store without being detected?’
‘It’s possible but extremely unlikely. One of the photographs of the interior shows a camera in the aisle where the cat litter is kept.’ Grace turned and pointed at the specific photograph on the whiteboard. ‘If she’d gone in to buy cat litter, as he claims, she would have been picked up on CCTV in that aisle.’
Hall nodded.
Grace continued. ‘Another action I want is a check of the index of the Paternosters’ BMW with all ANPR cameras in Sussex, all speed and traffic light cameras, and with the Highways Authority cameras measuring traffic flow. We’ll see if there is any tally with a cell-site analysis of both of their phones.’ He made a brief note, then looked up again.
‘OK, everyone, from the evidence to date, I’m elevating Operation Lagoon from a missing person enquiry to a “no body” murder enquiry. My Policy Book will reflect my decision.’ He glanced at his watch. ‘DI Branson and I established earlier that Niall Paternoster drives a mate’s taxi mainly during unsociable hours — usually starting at midnight at weekends and 10 p.m. during the week. Let’s get that vehicle checked on the cameras, too. Velvet, team up with Polly.’ He turned to DS Potting and DS Exton. ‘Norman and Jon, I want you to go straight from this meeting and arrest Niall Paternoster on suspicion of murdering his wife. I will policy this decision and my reasons for making it, most important of which is the recovery of evidence that might be in the house. I don’t think we’ll require support from the Public Order Team — but if you meet resistance, we will deploy them. So I think we should have them standing by.’
Both officers nodded.
‘We’ll then see if we get anywhere interviewing him lawyered up.’ He turned to Gee. ‘Chris, I’d like you to attend as Crime Scene Manager.’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘I want you to draw up the forensic strategy. I need your team to look for any signs of bloodstains and cleaned-up blood. Have them look through all Niall Paternoster’s clothes.’ He turned and pointed at the photograph of him in Tesco yesterday. ‘Especially look for the clothing he was wearing yesterday, on the day he claimed she disappeared. Take anything you can find of hers — toothbrush, hairbrush, diary, the usual stuff — anything that might have her prints or DNA, for lab analysis. As we are treating the entire property as a crime scene, we all know the drill. It’s possible he might have killed Eden some days earlier, so organize a sidescan sonar search of anywhere that looks recently screeded, particularly the garden. Lorna, can you pick that up?’
‘Yes, boss,’ she said. ‘My POLSA colleague, Sergeant Barbara Onoufriou, can start work in the house, garden and any searches arising from our presence there.’
Grace turned back to Gee. ‘Chris, one thing in particular I want you to look for is evidence of any missing bedding, in particular a duvet or duvet cover.’
Gee nodded, making another note.
‘Worried Mrs Paternoster might be out of her comfort zone, chief?’ Potting quipped.
It brought a few grins. Grace smiled at the DS. ‘Norman, I know you’ve tended to favour divorce in the past, but just supposing you decided to murder your wife, what would you have in your house that you’d utilize to carry her body out of your home and into your car, to take her to a deposition site?’
Potting thought for a moment. ‘I don’t know, boss — maybe a tarpaulin or a roll of spare carpet — or perhaps plastic sheeting?’