‘Yes.’
‘Could you let me have the number?’
Darling gave it to him and he wrote it down. Then he asked, ‘Have you at any time during the past week lost your phone?’
Darling was silent for a moment. ‘No.’
‘Where do you keep it?’
The solicitor looked anxious, having an inkling where this might be going, but said nothing.
‘With me,’ Darling replied.
‘All the time?’
‘Yeah. All the time, like most people.’
‘Are there any occasions when you don’t have it with you?’
‘No. Not intentionally. I’ve left it behind at home, on occasions.’
‘Did you leave it at home on Wednesday, April 20th?’
‘No.’
‘Are you certain?’
Hesitant. ‘Yes.’
‘You seem unsure.’
‘I had it with me.’
Roy Grace produced a sheet of paper on which was printed a street map, with a small red circle drawn on it. He handed it to Darling. ‘I’d like you to take a look at this.’
The suspect and his lawyer both studied it.
‘Do you recognize it?’ Grace asked Darling.
‘It’s a street map.’
‘It is. Are you familiar with this area?’
‘Should I be?’ He sounded sullen.
‘Well, it does look as if you’ve spent a bit of time there recently. Which supplier do you use for your mobile phone, Mr Darling?’ Grace asked.
‘O2.’
‘The map I’ve handed you is a street map of the area of Hove immediately around Lorna Belling’s flat at Vallance Mansions. Do you see that red circle?’
‘Yes.’
‘Do you know the location where it is drawn?’
‘It’s the area around Vallance Mansions.’
‘Correct. We obtained this map from the phone company. It’s a triangulation report on your phone number. You told us a short while ago that on the afternoon of Wednesday, April 20th, you were measuring up the grounds of a property in Hurstpierpoint, and afterwards that evening you were walking your dog up on the Downs. Is that correct?’
‘Yes.’
‘According to O2, your phone, which you said you had with you all the time, was in the vicinity of Vallance Mansions from 1 p.m. until 10 p.m. on that day. Can you explain that?’
Darling stared at him, then at Guy Batchelor, and suddenly seemed to shrink even further.
‘I’d like to speak to my client in private,’ Doris Ishack said.
‘A little work on jogging his memory, perhaps?’ Grace said, unable to resist. It was met with stony stares.
‘Interview suspended at 10.07 a.m.,’ Grace announced for the benefit of the recording device.
48
Sunday 24 April
Roy Grace went outside with the DI so that Guy could have another cigarette. A former heavy smoker himself, some years back, Grace understood you’d never get the best out of anyone whilst they were craving a cigarette. There were patches of blue in the sky. Maybe later he’d get a chance to go home and kick a football around with Bruno. But for now Operation Bantam was his priority.
‘Give Darling time to sweat a bit, Guy?’ he suggested. ‘Let him start wondering what else we know about him.’
‘Yes, I like it. How long have we got before we have to release him — or apply for an extension?’
Grace looked at his watch, and did a mental calculation. He was interrupted in mid-thought by his phone ringing.
‘Roy Grace,’ he answered. It was Georgie English, the Crime Scene Manager. ‘Sir,’ she said. ‘I’ve just had the report from CSI Chris Gargan, on the semen that was found in the body of the victim.’ It had been sent to LGC Forensics for analysis — one of the labs to which Surrey and Sussex Police sent evidence for DNA testing. She began to list out for him the details of the lab’s findings. All the differences in the DNA of the semen found inside Lorna Belling, when compared to her husband’s DNA. Georgie English reeled off jargon: restriction enzymes, nitrocellulose, radiolabelled probe microbes hybridizing to DNA fragments, polymerase chain reaction, alleles.
It was like an impenetrable foreign language. He didn’t need this much information. English could have cut the crap and simply said, You’re screwed!
Or rather, Lorna Belling had been.
By someone not her husband.
Shit, shit, shit.
‘Shit,’ he repeated, and then said, ‘Is Chris Gargan sure, Georgie?’
Dumb question, he knew. Of course the lab were sure. The lab knew the importance of 100 per cent accuracy. It was what they had built their business on, police forces being able to rely on their reports in court. Belt and braces. No smart-arsed brief was ever going to pick a hole in their findings.
There was no match to anyone on the DNA database, she informed him with clear regret in her voice.
With Seymour Darling’s past criminal history, his DNA would have been on file. Although that still did not exclude him as a suspect. But it weakened the case against him.
He thanked her and ended the call, then relayed the essence to his colleague.
Batchelor took a final drag on his cigarette and crushed the butt in the wall-mounted receptacle, then they went back inside, both officers thinking hard and going through the ramifications.
‘So Lorna Belling had had sex with someone the day she was murdered. That doesn’t necessarily mean her husband didn’t kill her, does it, boss?’
‘It could have given him even more of a motive. Had he found out she was having an affair, which had been the trigger?’
Batchelor nodded. ‘Yup, that has currency.’
‘But what this information does do is blow this case wide open. It’s suddenly become a lot more complex. Whose sperm was it? What was her relationship to this person? Could this person, rather than her husband, be her killer? There’s a lot more work to be done,’ Grace said.
‘Meantime, what do we do about Seymour Darling?’
‘We have to release him on bail.’
‘I still have a feeling it’s him.’
‘He’s a lying little scrote, for sure,’ Grace said. ‘But we don’t have enough evidence to charge him. Not yet. Keeping him in custody any longer would just be a distraction for us.’
Batchelor looked pensive for some moments, then nodded, reluctantly. ‘You’re right, boss.’
Grace looked at his watch. There was now a mountain of work to be done on this case, but he was mindful of his responsibility to Bruno, too. He was also aware it was three days since the murder had been discovered and they were going to have to hold a full press conference. ‘Guy, let’s hold a planning meeting at midday. Ask someone from Media Relations to come along so we can prepare a press release and briefing for first thing tomorrow. Do you know who’s on call?’
‘Oliver Lacey, boss, I already checked.’
‘Good, he’s smart. Let’s think about the message we need to get out.’
‘We need witnesses who were in the vicinity of Vallance Mansions on Wednesday night,’ Batchelor suggested.
‘Yes. Anything else?’
‘Anyone who knew the couple? Clients of the deceased?’
‘Yes. But most, if not all, would be on the mobile from her home, which Digital Forensics have,’ Grace said.
‘Anything else, boss?’
‘Any householders in the area who had CCTV cameras pointing at the street in front of their property? But that should be covered by the outside enquiry team.’
‘It should be.’
‘What are we missing that we could appeal to the public for?’
Batchelor shrugged. ‘I dunno. Vehicles in the area?’
‘Yes, vehicles in the area. Unfamiliar ones. If she’s been having an affair, it might have been going on for a while. Her lover might well have arrived in a car. Someone, a vigilant member from the local Neighbourhood Watch scheme perhaps, may have spotted a car they did not recognize parking for a couple of hours and then leaving.’