A Deadly Lesson

by Paul Gitsham

  * * *

  Warren was going over his notes from Sanders’ interview when his phone rang. It was Pete Robertson, the force’s Forensic IT specialist.

  ‘That was quick, Pete, you’ve only had Jillian Gwinnett’s laptop for a day.’

  ‘Well, there may be more to find, we’ve only just started looking. But I thought you might want to see the most recent document that she was working on before her computer switched to hibernate mode. It makes for interesting reading. I’ll send it over to you.’

  ‘Sounds intriguing. Anything else?’

  ‘The computer switched to hibernate mode at 7.58 p.m. Unfortunately, we can’t tell if that was done manually, or if it was automatic; the settings are for the computer to lock its screen after ten minutes of inactivity, to sleep after thirty minutes and then hibernate after one hour.’

  ‘Terrific work, Pete. What about the victim’s personal devices?’

  ‘Jillian Gwinnett wasn’t a big user of technology in her personal life; she had a very basic smartphone, with only the default apps installed. Her only other device is a rather elderly laptop that seemed to be almost exclusively used for school work. It has an old version of Microsoft Office installed and a remote networking client that connected her to school. Even the bookmarks on her browser are mostly education-related.

  ‘We’re going through her files as we speak, and I’ll let you know if I stumble across anything interesting. Otherwise I’ll get a report to you by the end of the week; it shouldn’t take too long, the hard drive is less than half filled.’

  Warren thanked him and hung up. He sighed. Robertson’s report fitted with what Warren’s team had learned about Jillian Gwinnett. Never married, with no known significant relationships, her life seemed to have consisted largely of school work, volunteering at the local church and helping her mother care for her disabled younger sister.

  According to the interview transcript from her next-door neighbour, who claimed to be one of Gwinnett’s few friends outside of work and the church, Gwinnett had been a shy person, somewhat awkward socially, who gave little thought to her own needs.

  ‘She was completely selfless. I’m sure she earned a good wage as a deputy head teacher, but you’d never know it. She gave most of her money to her mother to help her look after her sister.

  ‘I did worry about her sometimes, especially now her mother is so frail. Jill was a really strong person, but I know she was concerned that her mother wouldn’t be able to cope much longer, and that she’d either have to take over her sister’s care, or look at putting her in a home. I can’t imagine her putting her sister in a home, so she’d probably have given up her job. And then I don’t know what she’d have done with herself. Education and the church were her life.’

  Warren sighed again. He wondered what would happen to Gwinnett’s mother and sister now that she was gone.

  The arrival of an email from Pete Robertson jerked Warren back to reality. Opening it, Warren saw that it was a standard Microsoft Word document. Robertson hadn’t been exaggerating; it made for very interesting reading.

  Warren poked his head out of the door. ‘Tony, come and see this. Rachel, send some uniforms around to Matthew Waring’s and bring him in for an interview. Tell them not to take no for an answer.

  * * *

  ‘Why did you lie to us, Mr Waring?’

  The young teacher looked shocked. ‘I don’t know what you mean.’

  Dressed in a tracksuit and faded T-shirt, it looked as though Waring had been taking the opportunity presented by his unscheduled day off to catch up on some exercise.

  Tony Sutton laid out the contradictory evidence from the swipe card log.

  Waring licked his lips. Sutton could see that he was clearly contemplating whether to lie further and dig a deeper hole for himself or cut his losses and come clean.

  ‘I must have been mistaken about the time and got confused. I usually pick up some marking from my office before I leave, I guess I just assumed that I did so on Monday night.’

  ‘What did you and Ms Gwinnett speak about when you returned with her to her office?’

  Waring licked his lips a second time.

  ‘I don’t know.’ He looked nervous, before brightening suddenly. ‘Oh, yeah, I remember. Jill was due to do a re-admission interview for a pupil on Tuesday. I was the on-call member of staff who originally removed him from the lesson he kicked off in. She wanted to get all the facts straight. His parents are really difficult and we didn’t want it to become too protracted.’

  ‘And that took over half an hour?’ asked Sutton.

  ‘Well, as I said, his parents can be very difficult.’

  ‘Tell me what happened in Roxy’s nightclub on 16 January or, more specifically, in the car park. It was your birthday, I believe?’ asked Warren.

  Waring whitened.

  ‘I don’t know what you mean,’ he stammered.

  ‘According to this written warning, you and colleagues from the Humanities department went out to celebrate your thirtieth birthday. After a significant amount of alcohol, you all attended Roxy’s nightclub in Middlesbury town centre.

  ‘One of your co-workers, a newly-qualified teacher by the name of Karen Suiting, went outside for some fresh air at about 11 p.m. and you joined her. She claims that you were very drunk and asked her out on a date. Despite her informing you that she had a boyfriend, you persisted in trying to seduce her, placing your hands upon her rear. When she started to walk away, you made a grab for her, at one point groping her breast. When she told you to get off her and leave her alone, you then implied that successful completion of her NQT probationary year could be facilitated by sleeping with you.’

  ‘I don’t… I didn’t…’ Waring was stammering, a look of horror on his face.

  ‘This warning was found on Ms Gwinnett’s computer. I believe that you and she had an argument about it on Monday evening. That was why you spent so long in her office,’ said Sutton.

  ‘My wife’s a teacher,’ said Warren. ‘I know that something like this will kill your career. Who is going to put you in a position of responsibility if that’s how you behave towards junior colleagues? Worse than that, how old was this NQT? Twenty-two? That’s barely four years older than a sixth-former. It doesn’t take a leap of imagination for somebody to start asking how you might behave around one of your pupils if you met her in a nightclub? Perhaps a little extra help with a piece of coursework could be arranged?’

  ‘No, I would never—’

  ‘It doesn’t matter if you would, Mr Waring. It’s all about perception.’

  ‘I think I need a lawyer.’

  * * *

  ‘I think he’s a nasty piece of work, but I’m not convinced he killed Gwinnett,’ said Warren. ‘For a start, that document was still open when the computer switched to hibernate mode. Why didn’t he close it and delete the file?’

  ‘Heat of the moment? He’d just killed someone, I doubt he was thinking straight,’ suggested Sutton. The two men were sat in Warren’s office. Sutton was drinking coffee from the concession that now supplied refreshments to the building instead of the old canteen; Warren was drinking coffee from the communal urn, refusing to fork out several pounds for something that should only cost a few pence.

  ‘Maybe you’re right,’ mused Warren. ‘It’s often the smallest of slip-ups that brings them down.’

  ‘Speaking of small slip-ups, that rope was shedding fibres all over the place, I wonder what forensics will find when they search his house?’

  * * *

  ‘Forensic IT have been looking at the victim’s school laptop,’ started Warren. ‘Based on the last confirmed sighting of her at 6.30 p.m. and when her computer was placed into hibernation mode, we can narrow down the likely time of death to between 6.30 p.m. and 7.58 p.m., the latter time assuming that it was the killer who placed the computer into hibernation mode after Gwinnett’s death. If the computer went into hibernation mode automatically through inaction, it is po
ssible that she was killed at 6.58 p.m., or even earlier if the killer did something to her computer before leaving. This is broadly compatible with the time of death estimate made by Professor Jordan.’

  ‘So who does that leave in the frame?’ asked Tony Sutton.

  The afternoon briefing was fully staffed; the investigation was still in its early stages and information was flying in from all directions.

  ‘The remainder of the SLT present in the meeting are now accounted for, and the alibis of most of their teaching colleagues and the governors, with the exception of Father Beresford, check out. Frustratingly, his neighbours were away, and he routinely turns off his mobile phone when he’s at home. Noah Ball’s car was picked up on traffic cameras driving away from the school only a few minutes after the meeting ended, it would have been close to impossible for him to have killed Gwinnett in that time. The same goes for the other assistant head, Diana Barnstaple. We still need to confirm the movements of the site team, but at present we have two main suspects.’

  Warren moved over to the dry-wipe board, which was divided into two columns, each with a photograph.

  ‘After the meeting ended, Gwinnett was seen walking back to her office with assistant head teacher, Matthew Waring. He originally claimed to have left her at six-forty-five, however he now says he was mistaken and admits he was there until about seven.

  ‘In terms of motive, Waring is ambitious and looking for promotion to deputy head, either at Sacred Heart or elsewhere. It could be argued that Jillian Gwinnett’s death has left a vacancy for which he may well apply. Not only that, Gwinnett had recently started investigating potentially career-ending allegations of professional misconduct against him. A letter, outlining the allegations and her intention to start proceedings, was still open on her laptop when she was found.

  ‘His car was picked up travelling away from the school at eight minutes past seven. Traffic estimates that he could have left the school as late as six minutes past seven, assuming he had green lights all of the way.’

  Warren moved over to the left-hand side of the board.

  ‘Giles Sanders, head of Science. He has been applying for assistant headships and deputy headships repeatedly for the past couple of years. Like Waring, he potentially stands to gain professionally from Gwinnett’s death. Furthermore, Gwinnett is responsible for his job reference, which could be described as lukewarm at best.

  ‘He too has been caught in a lie regarding his movements that evening. He claimed to have left school at his usual time of 6 p.m. but his swipe card was used on the staffroom photocopier at 6.30 p.m. We have no record of when he left, and since he claims to have walked to school that day, no vehicle movements. We’re awaiting his mobile phone records, to see if he can be tracked that way, but he’s being uncooperative at the moment.’

  ‘Could he and Waring have been working together?’ asked Mags Richardson. ‘They both stand to gain from her death, assuming that the school sticks with internal candidates to fill their vacancies.’

  ‘And presumably Waring knows that there is no CCTV coverage of the bottom car park, so he and Sanders could have left in his car unnoticed,’ said Ruskin.

  ‘Well, Matthew Waring would be a strong candidate for deputy head – his closest internal rival, the other assistant head, is close to retirement and by all accounts more than happy in her role as head of sixth form,’ stated Warren.

  ‘A strong candidate except for that written warning,’ said Rachel Pymm.

  ‘Which she had yet to file, so killing her would have solved that problem, as well as creating a vacancy,’ pointed out Sutton.

  ‘I imagine if Waring was promoted to deputy head that would have left an assistant headship position that Giles Sanders would have been happy to fill,’ suggested Pymm. ‘All those job applications were for Outstanding schools within the Catholic sector, which suggests that he’d probably be happy to stay at Sacred Heart, if the terms were right.’

  ‘And when Noah Ball retires, Waring could be promoted to head teacher and Sanders to Deputy,’ added Sutton.

  ‘Surely they can’t just appoint their successors like some Third World dictatorship?’ protested Ruskin.

  ‘On paper no, but academies and faith schools enjoy a lot of autonomy,’ said Warren. ‘They can certainly write the job description to match their own favoured candidate, and as long as everyone is singing from the same hymn sheet, they should be able to fudge it. Getting the chair of governors onside would seem to be the most important thing, and Father Beresford struck me as a rather pragmatic man.’

  * * *

  It was after 6 p.m. when Warren next checked his mobile phone. There were no missed calls, but there was a text from Susan.

  Call me when you can. I have something important to tell you. xx

  Warren felt a thrill of excitement as he closed his office door, and called her back. He glanced at the calendar on the wall and tried to do the sums in his head. Was it possible? After all of their trying, had it happened naturally?

  The phone rang for so long that when it finally stopped, he assumed it was the voicemail kicking in.

  ‘Sorry, I left the phone in my bag in the hallway and didn’t realise it was vibrating.’ Susan sounded a little out of breath.

  ‘You said you had something important to tell me?’ Warren tried to keep his voice calm; already, he was planning to drop everything and head home as soon as the call ended. He’d pick up some flowers on the way. Wine was out of the question, obviously, but the garage sold Susan’s favourite chocolate.

  ‘Yes. I only just found out myself. I thought you’d want to know as soon as possible.’

  Warren wondered when it would be appropriate to share the news with family and friends. Susan’s mother, Bernice, hadn’t been entirely supportive of the couple, but he was sure that as soon as she heard the news she’d come around. And this time of year was heading towards what would have been Nana Betty’s birthday. A bit of good news to look forward to would do Granddad Jack the power of good.

  ‘It turns out that not everyone was pleased when Noah Ball and Jill Gwinnett took over the running of Sacred Heart Academy.’

  ‘Oh. Is that what was so urgent?’

  ‘Well, maybe not urgent, urgent…’ Susan’s voice trailed off. ‘Sorry, I thought it might be useful.’

  ‘No, no. It is. What do you mean “not everyone was pleased”?’

  ‘What’s the matter?’ Warren could hear the confusion in Susan’s voice.

  ‘Sorry, sweetheart, you caught me a little by surprise.’

  ‘Why? What did you think I was calling about?’

  ‘Nothing,’ said Warren hastily. ‘I was being silly.’

  ‘Well, clearly it wasn’t nothing. What were you expecting me to say?’

  Not for the first time, Warren thought his wife had missed her calling. He was sure she would have had enjoyed a successful career in the police, or the security services for that matter – her interrogation skills were second to none. Then again, it was a skill she apparently put to good use in the classroom. He knew from long experience that there was no point being evasive.

  He sighed.

  ‘I thought you might be calling me to tell me that you were, you know…’

  The silence at the end of the phone was rich with unspoken words. It stretched forever.

  ‘No. I’m not.’ Her voice was quiet, but steady. Before Warren could say anything else, she cleared her throat, continuing as if nothing had happened.

  ‘Now the shock’s worn off, the gossip’s starting in our staffroom. Apparently, the previous head teacher of Sacred Heart, Russell Leigh, was unhappy about being asked to leave.’

  ‘Really? I thought it was OFSTED’s decision? I wouldn’t have thought he or anyone else at the school had much say in the matter?’

  ‘OFSTED can’t demand the sacking of anyone. Except in extreme circumstances, only the school’s governing body have the power of appointment and dismissal. Rumour has it that Mr Leigh f
elt that he had been driven out, and that he should have been given the chance to get his house in order.’ She paused. ‘He apparently referred to it as a “coup” by Father Beresford, who wanted to see the school run in a more “traditional” manner. Noah Ball had a reputation within the diocese for going back to basics when turning a school around, and so he fitted that mould. The governing body supposedly resigned as a result of the poor OFSTED, but some have since said they didn’t feel they could work under the new regime.’

  Warren let out a low hiss.

  ‘That certainly paints a different picture. Where does Jillian Gwinnett come into this?’

  ‘From what I’ve heard, she had been complaining about falling standards for years and argued with Mr Leigh repeatedly. She’s a real traditionalist, with lots of friends in the wider diocese. Apparently, she, Father Beresford, Noah Ball and several of the governors have known each other for years. They’re known as “Team Ball”, not always flatteringly. Jill Gwinnett was the one who persuaded Father Beresford to join the governing body, and then when OFSTED delivered their report, followed by the diocesan inspection, she joined Beresford in pushing for Leigh to go.’

  ‘Which left the door open for Noah Ball to take over as head, and appoint her as deputy,’ finished Warren.

  Day Three

  Sometimes a night in the cells is enough to persuade someone to open up and confess all. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case for either of the suspects currently in custody.

  An early morning interview with Matthew Waring resulted in nothing more than a repeated denial of any wrongdoing and an irritated solicitor. Waring had surrendered his phone, and Warren was forced to concede that aside from his initial lie about how long he had spent arguing and then pleading with Jillian Gwinnett not to ruin his career by launching formal disciplinary proceedings, the assistant head teacher had largely cooperated. And whilst it was theoretically possible for Waring to have killed Gwinnett, got into his car and been photographed a mile away, barely ten minutes after her apparent time of death, it seemed unlikely.