Jane took a few sniffs but couldn’t smell anything. The handler got down on his knees and sniffed the floor.
‘There’s a very faint smell of bleach if you get close enough,’ he said.
‘Could you please come downstairs, Mr Durham,’ Jane shouted up.
‘She was drinking my best ’61 Médoc a few days ago. Now look how she repays me,’ he muttered.
‘DS Tennison is just doing her job,’ Lloyd said.
‘She did a good job on my son, that’s for sure,’ Thomas retorted, starting down the stairs.
‘Rumpole’s not reacted anywhere else down here. The trail ends at the bottom of the stairs,’ the handler said, putting him on the lead.
‘How sure can you be it was Becky he was following?’ Jane asked.
‘Obviously I can’t say one hundred per cent it’s her. But I know my dog and he’s never let me down. Something happened down here that necessitated the use of bleach. I’m going to see how he tracks from the hallway to the outside. I’ll also check the bin areas.’
Boon followed Lloyd and Thomas down to the crypt.
‘Nothing upstairs so far, sarge,’ he said.
‘Well, there’s a surprise,’ Durham scoffed.
‘The dog has tracked Becky Rogers’ scent down into the crypt. It ends at the bottom of the stairs,’ Jane told Durham.
‘Did Rumpole tell you that?’ he mocked.
‘He also reacted in a manner that suggests a cleaning agent was used just there.’ Jane pointed to the spot.
‘This is bloody ridiculous. I have a cleaner who comes here twice a week. She uses bleach to clean the stone floors.’
‘What, even in the crypt?’ Boon asked.
‘She’s very fastidious. Speak to her if you don’t believe me,’ Durham replied.
While Lloyd examined the stairs and hand rope, Jane went to look in the wine cellar area. She immediately noticed the wall blocking the tunnel had been repaired with some new bricks in the middle. Jane recalled Nick telling his father the wall needed fixing.
‘I see you’ve had the wall repaired,’ Jane remarked.
Thomas laughed out loud. ‘Please don’t tell me you think a body might be behind the wall.’
‘Boony, nip out to the equipment van and see if they have any sledgehammers and pickaxes,’ Jane said.
Thomas’s eyes bulged and his face turned red with anger. ‘That’s it! I’ve had enough of this nonsense! I’m not having you destroying my house! I’m calling my solicitor now!’ He stomped off towards the stairs.
‘Come back here now, please, Mr Durham,’ Boon shouted.
He went after Durham and grabbed him by the shoulder. Durham spun round and punched Boon hard in the face, knocking him to the ground. Boon winced in pain as he landed hard on his coccyx.
Durham realised what he’d done. ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to do that. I wasn’t thinking straight.’ He put his hand out to help Boon up.
‘You fuckin’ arsehole!’ Boon exclaimed, knocking Durham’s hand away.
Durham stood upright, his face turning blue as he struggled to breathe.
‘Oh God, please help me,’ he pleaded, clutching his chest as his face contorted with pain.
Boon was struggling to get up. He could only watch as Durham staggered backwards, fighting to breathe. As Thomas fell, Lloyd managed to catch him and lay him gently on the floor.
‘He’s having a heart attack. Keep an eye on him, Jane, and I’ll call an ambulance,’ Lloyd said.
She shook her head. ‘That’ll take too long. Get some of the uniformed officers to take him to the hospital in the police van.’
As Lloyd ran up the stairs, Durham’s breathing was getting shallower, and his eyes began to close.
Boon knelt beside him. ‘Where’s Becky?’
‘He’s unconscious. We need to try and resuscitate him,’ Jane said, pinching Durham’s nose and putting her mouth over his.
It wasn’t long before some uniformed officers arrived with a large riot shield which they used as a makeshift stretcher to take Durham to the hospital. Jane instructed one of them to remain at the hospital with Durham as he was a suspect for abduction and murder. She gave another officer Nick Durham’s home phone number and asked him to get the duty sergeant to tell him about his father’s heart attack.
Jane used Durham’s phone to call Stanley and told him what had happened.
‘Bloody hell. How bad is he?’ Stanley asked.
‘Not good. But Boon and I resuscitated him. And he was breathing with a slow pulse when the uniformed officers took him away. I’ve asked that the duty sergeant contact Nick Durham.’
‘So it looks like Becky was in Durham’s house, then,’ Stanley said.
‘It looks like he killed her in the crypt,’ Jane said. ‘Her body might be in the old tunnel, so I’m going to knock the wall down.’
‘Do it,’ Stanley said.
‘And if she isn’t, I’m going to keep searching,’ Jane replied.
‘Don’t exhaust yourself. Take a rest if you need one. Salmon wants a briefing with the team tomorrow morning at nine.’
‘Did you tell him about the search warrant?’ Jane asked.
‘Yes, he was pissed off that I didn’t ask him first. I reminded him that he buggered off to the Yard and left me in charge.’
‘Are you going to update him?’
‘No. He’s spent most of his career behind a desk in planning and development. He scurries off when you confront him with a difficult situation because he doesn’t know what to do.’
‘Let’s hope he stays that way,’ Jane remarked.
‘I’d best let you get on. I’m not going anywhere, so keep me updated.’
As Jane put the phone down, Lloyd approached her.
‘I examined the stairwell rope. There are traces of blood going up it on the underside. Someone with a bloody hand used it to support themselves as they climbed the stairs. It’s possible Durham carried Becky’s body upstairs and put it in a car to bury her elsewhere.’
‘I’m still going to knock that wall down. You any good with a sledgehammer?’
‘I always hit the high striker bell at the funfair,’ Lloyd grinned.
It didn’t take long to knock a hole in the wall and search the tunnel, but there was no sign of Becky.
‘DS Tennison... I’ve found something of interest in one of the wheelie bins,’ the dog handler shouted from the top of the stairs.
Jane and Lloyd followed him to a dimly lit wooden hut at the far end of the parking area. Inside were four large metal wheelie bins, one of which was on its side with the contents strewn across the floor. To one side, placed neatly on police exhibits bags was a bleach bottle.
‘I found that bleach bottle in the bin. It looks like it might have a blood smear on it. One of the residents told me the bins are emptied every Tuesday morning at around ten.’
‘Which means the bottle could only have been put in the bin on Tuesday after ten or today,’ Lloyd remarked as he put on protective gloves and placed the bottle in an exhibits bag.
‘The uniformed lads helped me search the other bins. There were no blood-stained items in them,’ the dog handler said.
‘He probably burned any towels or cloths he used to clean up... or dumped them with Becky’s body,’ Lloyd said.
‘How quickly can you test that bleach bottle for fingerprints?’ Jane asked Lloyd.
‘Is there any rush with Durham being in hospital?’ Lloyd asked.
‘If a doctor says he’s fit to be interviewed, I’ll do it by his bedside. I want as much evidence against him as possible.’
‘I’ll take the bottle back to the lab and get to work on it first thing in the morning. Has Thomas Durham ever been arrested?’
‘Not as far as I know — unfortunately,’ Jane replied.
‘No problem. I can use the coffee mug he drank out of earlier for comparison to any marks on the bleach bottle. I’ll also take lifts off other items likely to have his prints on them.’