‘Avril Jenkins suffered numerous catastrophic injuries.’ Foxy referenced his notes as he began to relay the details. ‘She was attacked fiercely and repeatedly with a poker, suffering perimortem injuries of a fractured skull, jaw, left cheekbone and left orbital socket. Multiple stab wounds were inflicted, post-mortem, to the chest and abdomen. The blade was ten to twelve inches long. Dismemberment started with her lower legs and was done with a small-toothed hand saw. Then the left arm was removed at the elbow joint. Then they began to remove her head but didn’t complete this act. In total, three different weapons were used: a poker, a knife, and a hand saw. All of which were left at the crime scene. Due to the lack of defence wounds on her hands and forearms, I’d speculate that she was either caught unawares or was held still whilst the first blow was struck. You’re looking for between one and three assailants.’
Foxy closed the file and looked at the sea of faces in front of him. The silence and lack of eye contact told him that everyone in the room was as physically appalled by the details of this murder as he was.
‘Avril Jenkins was in remarkable physical shape for a woman of 72. She had no significant arthritis, she had all her own teeth, her hair and nails were strong and healthy. She’d looked after herself. I found no DNA beneath her nails and no defensive wounds, but I did find restraint marks around her wrists and ankles. She may also have been drugged — but we’ll have to wait for toxicology to be sure.’
Foxy invited questions, but there were none. He said that he’d be available to anyone at any time if questions did come up, because he was very much looking forward to doing the post-mortem on the sick individual or individuals who got off on mutilating pensioners. As he left to begin the post-mortem on Jessica Chi, Ridley stepped up.
‘Avril Jenkins’ house is worth around the £10 million mark. It became solely owned by her in late 2011 when her husband, Frederick Jenkins, passed away of natural causes. The Jenkins’ family solicitor, Arnold Hutchinson, has given us reasonable access to her finances, bearing in mind he has to do right by Frederick’s brother, Terence Jenkins. He is the sole beneficiary. Hutchinson has little personal information on Avril. He wasn’t aware of her being harassed by Adam Border, nor has he ever met Adam, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything. She was a very private lady. He says that if Avril had been worried or scared, he certainly wouldn’t have expected her to ask him for help. So, in her own way, it seems she asked us.’
Ridley scanned the room, making eye contact with each person in turn.
‘What was dismissed as a cry for attention was, in fact, a cry for help. That’s on us. As we progress with this joint operation, do me a favour and never lose sight of that. Avril Jenkins and Jessica Chi are unlikely participants in what is turning out to be one of the biggest drugs hauls of this kind in recent years. Mal Kaminski and Josh Logan are exceptional Drug Squad officers with extensive international experience. Work closely with them, because not only do we want in on that drug gang bust when the time comes, but their investigation will more than likely be the quickest route to our killer as well.’
Ridley paused and the room waited. This was the most comprehensive briefing he’d given in a very long time and the attentiveness from his team was tangible. Jack presumed that his confrontation with Ridley, although verging on insubordination, had also struck a nerve. But whatever the reason, it was nice to have him back.
Ridley looked across the room at Jack, and silently gave him the nod to now add whatever he considered important. Jack made his way forwards to stand in front of the whiteboards.
‘Yesterday, two new things were discovered. In addition to the body of Jessica Chi, I mean. The items of jewellery Avril alleged were stolen from her by Jessica were found buried in the back garden. I checked the items found against the reported list of items missing, and they match. They’re with Angel in forensics. And the second thing discovered was that the cellar seems to have a partitioned section to it that we’ve not yet accessed.’
This was the first Ridley had heard of it. ‘A third hidden room?’
‘Potentially, sir. All I know for sure is that the outside of the cellar has a bigger footprint than the inside. This wasn’t flagged by the council because, rather than adding extra space, it seems that space has been taken from the existing cellar. If there’s nothing else you need me for this morning, I’ll head back to the house and find out what’s down there.’
Ridley agreed that this should be Jack’s priority. Perhaps this hidden room and its contents were what the elusive Adam Border was looking for all along?
The front and back gardens of Avril Jenkins’ property were now at the fingertip search stage. Some uniformed officers swept sticks around the undergrowth, while others were on their hands and knees, checking under bushes, and the unluckiest officers were elbow deep in the drainage system.
The greenhouse, now devoid of any contents pertinent to the case, was slowly being demolished and loaded onto lorries. Burnt cannabis plants were amongst the rubble and debris, so needed to be destroyed safely and in a controlled environment. The two outbuildings were being processed by SOCO and the Drug Squad: the integrity of prints and DNA was vital to maintain, along with collecting and protecting the gas canisters, heaters, lamps, lab equipment and mixing chemicals. All of this would be a mine of information once it could be got into the safe, sterile environment of the forensic labs.
Jack walked the outside of the cellar again, and then the inside, marking exactly where he believed the missing space to be located. Against the back wall of the cellar was an extensive wine rack, twelve sections high and at least twenty feet wide. Jack’s knowledge of wine was as scant as Maggie’s, but the dust on the bottles and the dates on the labels suggested that this was an actual collection — for investment and not for drinking.
The wine rack was bolted to the wall with several heavy brackets, each fixed with four screws. This was the wall Jack needed to get behind.
He removed a random bottle of wine from the outer column, reached his arm into the space and knocked on the wall behind. Bricks. He then replaced this bottle, moved along one column and did the same again. By the fourth column, Jack was no longer knocking on brickwork at the back of the wine rack, but on what felt and sounded like hardboard. Jack stood this bottle against the wall of the cellar out of the way. The space it came from now marked the outer edge of what could be a hidden doorway. Jack continued to remove bottles and knock on the wall behind; when he knocked on bricks, he replaced the bottle and when he knocked on hardboard, he put the bottle to one side. Ten minutes later, the empty spaces in the wine rack marked out an area of hardboard that was around one and a half metres square. Now all he had to do was work out how to get in.
After examining the wine rack from top to bottom and left to right, Jack resigned himself to the task of having to first of all remove the numerous brackets. He started to search for a toolbox.
The cellar looked like a junk shop, with mismatched furniture, collectable ornaments, pieces of cut-glass and trunks overflowing with hundreds of items of old clothing. There were stacks of picture frames, some very ornate, others old and worn, and in various sizes.
Avril’s extensive hoarding was making life very difficult and, fifteen minutes later, Jack was no closer to locating a toolbox. He was just about to give up and go back upstairs to get a butter knife to use to remove the bracket screws, when he came across a switch on the wall, hidden behind an ornate, Victorian-style bedroom mirror.