‘Quite a bit, sir. The Forensics Team found some recent bloodstains at the house. Some was in the kitchen, which Niall Paternoster claimed came from his cutting his finger on a potato peeler that was in a kitchen drawer while rummaging for a bottle opener. But that doesn’t explain a bloodstained T-shirt found hidden behind the panel in the en-suite — blood which the forensic lab has confirmed has Eden Paternoster’s DNA. As well as the blood found around the kitchen unit, which is a mix of both hers and Niall Paternoster’s.’
‘The kitchen knife is still missing?’ Branson asked.
‘Well,’ Gee said, and hesitated. ‘Maybe, but possibly not.’
‘Meaning what, Chris?’ Branson prompted.
Looking expansively at the team, Gee said, ‘It’s early doors, but as the boss told you, we have a major search of an area in Ashdown Forest currently under way. Just over an hour ago a woman’s blue-and-white trainer, with a matching shoe size to Eden Paternoster, was found alongside what looks like a shallow grave with no body in, which we have declared a crime scene and is currently being excavated. Close to that we’ve recovered a kitchen knife with bloodstains. I’ve not had a chance to examine it myself, but from the photographs that have been sent to me, it looks a pretty close match to the one missing from the knife rack in the Paternosters’ house. It’s being sent to the DNA lab for priority analysis.’
‘This knife,’ Branson said. ‘It was the largest in the rack?’
‘Yes,’ Gee confirmed.
Branson shot a glance at DS Stratford, then back at Gee. ‘The kind a butcher might use to cut up an animal?’
‘Quite possibly, yes.’
‘Are you excavating through the night?’
‘We are, until midnight.’
‘If you find any human remains, please call me, and I’ll come over.’
‘I will do, sir,’ Gee said.
Branson thought about the knife. He knew that in any stabbing where a knife without a hilt, such as a kitchen knife, was used, when plunged into a human body it would very likely strike bone, causing the assailant’s hand to slide forward from the handle onto the blade and create a deep cut. In the majority of stabbings the offender’s blood would be mingled with the victim’s. If this knife which had been found had any trace of Niall’s DNA, it would be a major step forward.
He made a note then looked up at the Crime Scene Manager again. ‘Did your team have any luck locating a will in the house, Chris?’
‘Not so far, sir, no. But they are still going through the contents of filing cabinets in a spare room being used as an office, and two more cabinets we found up in the loft.’
Branson nodded, then turned to Emily Denyer. ‘Emily, you’ve been investigating the Paternosters’ finances. How’s that going?’
‘Well, quite interesting, sir — particularly in light of what we’re hearing and from the interview with her husband. Mrs Paternoster seems to be a wealthy woman — in relative terms. She is very much the breadwinner in the relationship, earning substantially more than her husband. The house is in her name, probably because she is the one who put down the original deposit when they bought it. That lump sum came from a combination of her savings and an inheritance from her grandmother, who died five years ago. The mortgage appears to be paid off, possibly unknown to Niall, and at the present time, Eden Paternoster has just over £10,000 in cash savings, invested through her personal account at the HSBC bank in Ditchling Road, Brighton. I’m awaiting replies on her rental properties and there are still a couple of organizations I need to hear back from, too. I’m also trying to track down any life insurance that may exist.’
Glenn Branson thanked her and made some more notes, giving time for this significant information to sink in to everyone. ‘Nice work, Emily,’ he said.
Exton and Potting updated the team on the interview that had taken place earlier, and then Glenn addressed them all. ‘We’ve heard the evidence so far, which points to Eden Paternoster being murdered by her husband. We also now have a motive — in fact, possibly two motives. The first is financial. Would Niall Paternoster stand to gain from his wife’s death? Clearly yes. In the event of her body not being found, he would have to wait seven years for her to be declared legally dead. He could sell the marital home — which would, subject to the provisions in any will, of course — net him a considerable sum. The house is worth, at current values, around £600,000.’
He paused to look at his notes. ‘Of potential interest to us is a discovery from text messages on his phone, as well as the O2 data, that he had a liaison at 5.30 p.m. on Sunday with a person — or persons — unknown. The number appears to be for an unregistered pay-as-you-go, and there was no answer when we tried calling. It is my hypothesis that this as yet unknown person could be his girlfriend. From all the evidence I’ve heard so far — and from having met the man myself, along with the boss — this enquiry has the hallmarks of a marital breakdown due to infidelity.’ He paused again for a moment to make another note, before continuing.
‘From my reading of Niall Paternoster, we have a man with an inferiority complex. This is not helped by his wife earning far more than him. And her owning the marital home. Let’s consider for a moment that his assignation last Sunday might have been with a lover. What does that leave us with?’
Potting raised a hand, but Branson, seeing from his expression that another fatuous remark was coming, ignored it, instead continuing himself. ‘A very real and compelling motive to murder his wife. Her money, his lover, or both.’
He looked around the table. No one stirred.
Then he looked at his watch. ‘We can hold Niall Paternoster in custody until 9.45 a.m. tomorrow, after which we either have to charge him or go for a further court extension or release him on police bail. I am speaking to CPS but, from all I’m hearing, we may have sufficient evidence to charge him with his wife’s murder, if we want to go that route. Does anyone disagree?’
No one did.
50
Ending the meeting, Branson asked Norman Potting and Jon Exton to come to his office. When the door was closed and they were seated he said, ‘OK, let’s consider our options. As I said, I’m pretty confident with what we have that the CPS would sanction us charging Niall Paternoster with his wife’s murder, despite there being no body — so far. But I’m not sure that would be our best tactical move and, of course, we don’t know the full results from the searches in the forest.’
‘Tactics? Why do you say that, sir?’ Exton asked.
‘If her body, or part of it, is found, that’s one thing. But I’m puzzled by the trainer and the knife being discovered outside this shallow grave. If Niall Paternoster went to the trouble of taking her body out to the forest and burying it, why not bury the trainer and the knife with it?’
‘Perhaps he did, boss,’ Potting suggested. ‘And forest wildlife predators disturbed it — we’ve enough past experience of that happening.’
Branson nodded. ‘Yes, very much a possibility, Norman, animals might remove body parts and items of clothing, but I don’t know any animal that would take a kitchen knife. We’ll see what Lorna’s team find from their excavations but my sense is that it will only be items of clothing, and that her body might well have been dismembered and disposed of in bits — especially now we know that Niall was once a butcher — most likely in Shoreham Harbour. If that happened last week, most, if not all, would have been picked clean by crustaceans and fish by now. Either of you having shellfish for supper tonight?’