‘A drop in the ocean,’ DC Ross agreed, smiling, and yet again he was rewarded with a cold glance from an irritated Dewar.
She tapped the bonnet. ‘Let’s check out the charities, see if we come up with a nice round wedge going out.’
Mike phoned Joan in the office and told her to get someone over from Tech Support asap to examine Donna’s office computer and in particular the charity accounts she handled. They were to pay particular attention to the 2012 transactions for the six-month period before Josh died and to work backwards from 5 November. He also asked Joan to get a vehicle transporter sent down to the garage for the removal of the Ferrari to the lab. Joan in turn told him that Ian Holme QC had arrived, Barolli had served the disclosure and Holme was now in a private consultation with Donna.
Mike pointed out that without the keys to the Ferrari there was not a lot they could do until the car was taken to the lab and opened.
They could however check along the walls in case there were any loose bricks to hide the keys behind, but none were found. The garage was bare apart from the bike, old bits of newspaper and oily rags.
DC Ross looked up to the ceiling and it struck him as rather odd that there was no light or even wires for one.
‘A switch, but no lights,’ Ross mused, but everyone ignored him, thinking he was trying to be funny. He asked Barbara for the set of keys recovered from Donna’s car. Taking the small garage key, he inserted the tip into the top of the light switch box, then used the tip as a lever, at which point the front of the box came open revealing a hidden compartment with keys to the Ferrari.
‘Am I good or am I good?’ Ross said, taking a bow.
‘Irritating… but good,’ Mike conceded.
A cursory search of the car revealed no driving, insurance or registration documents or anything else of value to the investigation. Nobody was inclined to continue beyond that, so as not to destroy possible evidence from fingerprints and DNA.
Mike and Dewar departed to head back to the incident room, leaving Barbara and DC Ross waiting at the garage for the arrival of the tow truck.
‘Imagine it, nearly a hundred thousand quid, you could put that down on a mortgage for a house, or a flat,’ Ross said wistfully.
‘Yeah, but if you’ve got the money, it’s a different thought process – young rich City blokes have all got Bentley’s and Porsches. Me, I’d be happy with a convertible Mercedes but I would need a sugar daddy to get one.’
‘Maybe he had a rich girlfriend,’ Ross said, yawning.
‘He had a rich wife and his mother-in-law is loaded, she was left millions.’
Ross turned to look back at the Ferrari: even with a light film of dust it had a gleaming power, far out of his league, but given the choice he would have had a red one.
Chapter Twenty-One
Paul Barolli was still fast asleep on the sofa when Anna got back from the canteen, his mouth wide open and making a snoring noise that sounded like a log being slowly sawn in half. Anna went over and shook him gently but Barolli, clearly still disorientated, rolled off the sofa, hitting the floor with a thud. Anna couldn’t stop herself laughing as she helped him up, asking if he was okay. He rubbed his eyes and confessed he still felt really rough. Anna suggested that he go home and sleep it off but Paul said he’d be okay and slowly went to his office.
Anna decided it was time to pack up her files and paperwork into plastic boxes so Dewar could use her desk while she was away without disturbing everything. As she checked over her desk she noticed Dewar’s copy of Donna Reynolds’ bank statement. Anna was forced to admit to herself she still had mixed feelings about Donna’s involvement in Josh’s death but everyone else on the team seemed convinced that they’d ‘got their woman’. A gut feeling was no argument against the weight of evidence that had accumulated against Donna. Anna knew that if she were still on the case she would have gone over everything with a fine-tooth comb and certainly more than once. The problem was, she didn’t have the time, and if she was honest with herself she was ready to walk away.
The desk phone rang, and when she picked it up it was Pete Jenkins.
‘Hi, Anna, I expected Dewar. I thought you’d be off on the big bird by now.’ He chuckled.
Anna told him that she was just tying up loose ends and her flight was in the morning.
Pete said he’d miss her and she was to send him a postcard of the FBI Academy so he could put it on his wall and say he’d been there. Anna laughed. Pete asked her if she had a pen and paper handy, as she might want to write some information down, but that he would also e-mail a report for the team later.
‘The money we recovered from Esme’s last night, I’ve got some results.’ He explained that Mike had taken Donna’s fingerprints after arresting her and they were now loaded onto the live scan computer system, while a courier had just delivered her DNA swabs. He had so far managed to look at the fingerprints on the top and bottom note in each £1000 bundle.
‘As expected, Josh Reynolds’ fingerprints are on lots of the notes. On one bundle I found both Josh and Donna’s prints and on others Josh and Marcus Williams’.’
‘Evidence-wise that doesn’t prove anything against Donna,’ Anna remarked.
‘No, but from firearms residue on the cash bag that match the Enfield revolver and fibres that match felt matting in the safe, it’s reasonable to conclude that the bag was in Josh Reynolds’ safe at some point.’
Anna recalled that Marcus Williams had said Josh put the fifty thousand in a cash bag.
‘It just doesn’t make sense that Josh would take the money from his safe and hide it under floorboards at his mother’s,’ Anna reasoned.
‘I agree, but however you look at it, to open the safe you need to know the code. Josh obviously knew it, but do you really believe that Donna, his own wife, wouldn’t know?’ Pete asked, and Anna knew there was sense in what he was saying. Still, something niggled her as she sought to make sense of Donna’s actions.
‘But if she went to Esme’s last Thursday, why not take the money then? We’d been to see her that afternoon and Dewar as good as accused her of murdering Josh.’
‘Unless she had a torch she wouldn’t have seen a thing. The power had been cut off for some time,’ Pete said with a touch of sympathy.
‘She could have gone back in daylight,’ Anna said.
‘Anna, I’m a forensic scientist not a detective, so I can only present you with my results. I’ve got a lot to do, so I need to crack on.’
‘Thanks, Pete, I’ll pass the results on to Mike Lewis.’ Anna sighed, frustrated that she couldn’t put her finger on what was wrong.
There was a knock and Joan came into the office with the news that she had the results of the cell-site analysis for Josh Reynolds’ phone for 5 November, which were very interesting. The constable held out the paperwork but Anna said to leave it on the desk for Dewar and Mike Lewis to look at, as they might want to use it in the interview with Donna.
‘They found a Ferrari in a garage at Esme’s flat, apparently just like the one Dewar thought it would be,’ Joan continued. ‘She wants Donna’s work computer examined as she suspects Donna was stealing money for Josh from the Lynne Foundation charities.’
‘I know you mean well but I really don’t want to hear any more about Dewar and the bloody Reynolds case. As far as I’m concerned, my part in the investigation is over,’ Anna snapped, exasperated with Joan’s continual need to drip-feed her information.
Joan’s lower lip began to tremble as she apologized for being a nuisance. She picked up one of the plastic boxes, saying she would put it in the storeroom and come back for the other.