Forgive Me Father

by Paul Gitsham

  ‘File the appropriate requests for that information, but hold off on the analysis unless we get nowhere with the phone records. What type of offences are we talking about?’

  ‘Mostly low-level, or historic, but two properties have received multiple call-outs for domestic violence, another person served a six-month term for assault occasioning actual bodily harm and another resident has been convicted twice for possession of class B drugs with intent to supply, the last offence being eighteen months ago.’

  ‘I presume the domestic violence had no link to Mr Shaw?’

  ‘As far as I can tell. I’ve had a look at the reports filed and there’s no mention of a third party involved.’

  ‘Put them on the bottom of the list then. What about the dealer? Could Shaw be using again?’

  ‘Possible, although if she is his supplier, she’s moved up in the world. Both previous convictions were for possessing enough cannabis for several joints. The people she was supplying to were her boyfriend and a couple of friends at university, there was no suggestion that she was earning any money from it, and there’s nothing recent.’

  ‘Put her to one side and see if she comes back into the picture when we get his mobile phone records. What about the assault?’

  ‘A drunken brawl in a bar in Brighton back in 2007; the defendant broke the victim’s jaw and then took a few swings at the bouncers and passers-by, before trying to head butt the arresting officer. Nothing recent or before then.’

  ‘Sounds unlikely, unless Shaw is a friend. What else have you got?’

  ‘I looked at the ANPR records for the cameras surrounding the area for the previous forty-eight hours. Shaw’s car doesn’t appear during the preceding two days. I’ve requested records going back further to see if he made the trip regularly. In terms of the cars that left or entered the area within that time, no car both exits and re-enters.’

  ‘So it’s unlikely that he borrowed someone else’s car to go to the abbey without being seen?’

  ‘Not unless he arranged to leave it somewhere else,’ said Pymm.

  ‘What about other cars exiting or entering – could they have dropped him off, or picked him up from near the abbey?’

  ‘Thirty-two cars exited the area within the unaccounted time period. Since he would probably have needed to have arrived at the abbey at least an hour before the fire was set to drug Father Nolan and get him down to the chapel, and assuming he had no accomplice, then we can immediately trim that to twelve cars that would have given enough time to do what he needed to. Ten of those cars travelled away from the abbey; it would make no sense for him to have got in those cars, unless he was performing some sort of elaborate doubling back exercise to build his alibi.’

  ‘Not impossible,’ commented Warren. ‘But put them to one side. Tell me about the two cars that headed towards the abbey.’

  ‘One could have passed within a half mile of the abbey, the other just over a mile. The cars are registered to residents within that area.’

  ‘Put them on the list, they could have given Shaw a lift. We’ll pull them in for questioning if necessary. What about returning cars?’

  ‘Again, assuming that he needed to leave after we believe the fire was started, and unless he had an accomplice, four cars entered the area in the time before his car exited. None of them came from the direction of the abbey, although it looks as though a minicab may have picked up a fare within a mile of the abbey grounds. I’ve put in a request for their records.’

  ‘What about buses?’

  ‘The 562 has a stop right in the centre of the zone of interest, and another stop four streets over from the abbey’s main entrance. Four buses passed through the area between him driving into the zone and the time of the fire, but there were no return journeys between the fire being set and Shaw’s car re-appearing. I’ve already requested the CCTV from Stagecoach.’

  ‘OK, so no obvious reason for Shaw visiting that area or indications why he may have lied about it. It looks like we need to wait for his mobile phone records then, to see if he called anyone associated with that area or failing that to pinpoint his whereabouts more precisely. Get on with that as soon as the records appear. In the meantime, speak to Hutch about a priority list for door knocking, so we’re ready to hit the ground running as soon as possible.’

  ‘On it,’ responded both women simultaneously.

  Chapter 22

  Warren had planned on sneaking away early to surprise Susan when she returned from school; if nothing else, tonight was likely to be their last chance to have a glass of wine together for the foreseeable future.

  And so he was torn when Andy Harrison called to update him on the search of the tool shed.

  ‘We were nearly done, after examining most of the surfaces and the handles of the tools most likely to come in contact with somebody stumbling around in the dark. We’ve got plenty of stuff to process and compare against what we’ve already got.’

  ‘Good work, Andy.’ Warren was keen to leave, but he wasn’t distracted enough to miss the satisfaction in the veteran CSI’s voice. And the man was an experienced Crime Scene Manager – he’d hardly be phoning Warren for a pat on the back for doing what he was asked.

  Harrison took that as his cue to continue.

  ‘There was an old cupboard at the back of the shed, filled with the usual crap you’d expect, including a rusty souvenir shortbread tin.’

  ‘Dare I ask what was in it?’

  ‘Screws, plastic wall plugs, insulating tape.’

  ‘Anything else, Andy?’

  ‘Two hundred and sixty pounds in used twenty-pound notes. And plenty of nice, clear fingerprints.’

  * * *

  With his plans to leave early scuppered, Warren headed back into the office.

  ‘We have the mobile phone records for Rodney Shaw,’ said Pymm.

  ‘We’re processing the numbers dialled at the moment, but so far we have calls from Deacon Baines at the time he phoned to notify him of the fire. He called that number regularly, with lots of short duration calls and texts between nine and five most days. If I had to guess, I’d say that he and Baines kept in touch during the working day by mobile phone.’

  ‘That should be easy enough to confirm.’

  ‘The next most common number is registered to his wife, Yvonne Shaw. They speak at length about once a week, with occasional short duration calls and texts at other times.’

  ‘That seems a bit strange for a married couple, why can’t they talk at home?’ asked Warren.

  ‘Could their marriage be in trouble?’ suggested Pymm.

  ‘Look into it,’ ordered Warren. ‘Now, what about the night of the fire? Any suggestions where he spent the hours before being called back to work?’

  ‘That’s where we are struggling. Shortly after leaving work, he called an unregistered pay-as-you-go phone. It wasn’t the first time he’s called it, he does it at infrequent intervals roughly every two weeks. Short duration, about five seconds.’

  ‘An unregistered pay-as-you-go phone,’ mused Sutton. ‘Perfectly legal to own, but is anyone else’s nose twitching?’

  ‘Definitely,’ agreed Warren, ‘what do we have in terms of location data?’

  ‘We have cell-tower triangulation for his phone that entire day. To start, the phone is at his registered address overnight until about seven-thirty, when it moves along his expected route towards the abbey. It then remains within the abbey grounds until just after 5 p.m.’

  ‘So he didn’t leave for lunch?’

  ‘No, and it moves around a bit, suggesting he carries it with him rather than leaving it in a locker – which would make sense if he uses it to communicate with Baines during the day. We don’t have good enough resolution to narrow it down to precise locations within the grounds, but it doesn’t appear to go to the end of the complex where the chapel is located. However, he does spend the last hour of his day around the retirement home.’

  ‘Which gives a legitimate reason for a
ny trace evidence that may be found at the scene,’ interjected Sutton.

  ‘Then what?’

  ‘The phone moves along the route taken by his car, travelling into the camera dead spot where we lost sight of the car itself. A few moments later, the phone appears to stop moving and then remains stationary for the next few hours, until shortly after he receives the call about the fire when it starts moving along the route that we tracked back towards the abbey. There’s no indication that the phone moved any appreciable distance at walking pace or in a moving vehicle, during those five hours.’

  ‘So that leaves us with three possibilities, either he was visiting a location within that area; he sat in his car for five hours …’

  ‘Or he left his phone in the car and disappeared off to do whatever he was doing before returning to the car sometime before he drove it to the abbey,’ finished Sutton.

  ‘What’s in that area?’

  Pymm switched to a more detailed map. A large red dot was surrounded by two concentric circles.

  ‘The resolution from cell-tower triangulation in that part of town is between fifty and one hundred metres, which covers this inner area, with a decreased probability of it being within this wider perimeter. There was a little movement, but only a few metres, and within the error range for a stationary phone. In total, it includes about four streets, no bookmakers, and one pub. There are two other small businesses, a newsagent and an off-licence, the rest of the properties are residential.’

  ‘Right, use the electoral roll and any other records you can find to work out exactly who lives in those houses, then liaise with Hutch to prioritise door knocking. The pub, the newsagent and the off-licence may remember him or his car, especially if he did sit in it for some time.’

  ‘What about the houses? If Shaw was visiting a resident there and up to no good, the last thing we want to do is go knocking on that house and warn him off,’ said Richardson.

  ‘By the same token, that person could also eliminate Shaw from our enquiries,’ said Sutton.

  Warren mulled over both comments for a few moments.

  ‘Let’s play the odds shall we? See if we can find a few houses occupied by little old ladies with nothing better to do than stare out the window all day and notice strange cars.’

  ‘Dog walkers and curtain twitchers, every detective’s best friend,’ commented Sutton.

  Chapter 23

  The whiteboard in the main CID office now had a second name in the suspects column, beneath Lucas Furber.

  ‘Rodney Shaw, head groundsman at the abbey. He has historic convictions for violence and drug possession, supposedly clean since leaving prison in 1986. Everyone at the abbey was aware of his past, and regarded him as a poster boy for the power of redemption.’

  It was 6 p.m. and Warren was with Tony Sutton briefing DSI Grayson on the team’s progress so far.

  ‘Motivation is circumstantial at the moment, but there are unconfirmed reports that he was heard violently arguing with our victim a couple of weeks prior to his death. We don’t know what the argument was about, but it is possible that he has substituted his drug addiction for a gambling problem. He has been known to frequent at least one bookmaker in town, where he was described as an unlucky gambler. The same bookie was also a regular haunt of our victim, and a worker there saw them meet, and felt that Shaw was ashamed of being seen by Father Nolan.’

  ‘Killing Nolan to hide his lapse seems a bit much,’ opined Grayson, indicating he had been at least half-listening as he scrolled through emails on his phone.

  ‘Ordinarily, I’d agree,’ said Warren, ‘however, there has been an unexplained loss of money over the past few weeks, they believe twenty pounds each day. The abbey management were reluctant to consider that there might be a thief on site, but it looks pretty obvious that they have a problem and that the person in question has access to the money before it is deposited in the bank. Shaw pretty much has the run of the place, and has been in the office plenty of times when the takings are placed in the digital safe. It wouldn’t be too difficult to memorise the code, which hasn’t been changed for years.

  ‘This afternoon Forensics found a significant number of twenty-pound notes in a tin, in the communal tool shed used by the grounds men and the volunteer gardeners. There were fingerprints from both Father Nolan and Rodney Shaw on the tin.’

  Grayson put down his phone, his attention fully on Warren now.

  ‘I assume your working hypothesis is that Father Nolan bumped into Shaw in the bookmakers and confronted him over his gambling. At some point he found the biscuit tin in the shed and realised that Shaw had been stealing to support his habit? Shaw then killed Nolan to stop him from revealing this and covered up the murder by making it look like a suicide?’

  ‘That’s about the size of it. Obviously the exact sequence of events is yet to be determined.’

  Grayson puffed his lips out.

  ‘It’s tenuous, Warren.’ He looked over at Sutton. ‘What do you think, Tony?’

  ‘I agree it’s not much, but we’ve plenty more circumstantial evidence. I think he’s at least worth a closer look, and I’d like to see what he has to say for himself under caution.’

  Grayson scowled and took a sip of his coffee. He’d recently upgraded the coffee machine in his office to a new model that took individual capsules. Warren felt slightly guilty every time he had a cup; Susan had shown him an article explaining how the capsules were a disaster for the environment. But it was still the best coffee in the building …

  ‘What else have you got?’

  ‘So far, no alibi for the night in question. He claims to have been home alone when the murder took place. But we now know that’s untrue.’

  ‘Go on.’

  ‘In terms of opportunity, he admits to having his own set of keys to the chapel and the undercroft, so he could easily lock the door again from the outside and leave the communal keys inside with Father Nolan. He is trusted implicitly and he doubtless knows that the majority of CCTV cameras are fakes. He is also familiar with the retirement home; he has access to keys for all the doors and would be able to slip in and see Father Nolan easily enough without being seen by anyone else. Even if he was seen, nobody would think anything of it. He could have tampered with the alarm on the fire exit at any time in the previous six months since the last fire brigade inspection.’

  ‘Have Forensics found any evidence that he was in Nolan’s room yet?’

  ‘None so far.’

  Grayson looked torn.

  ‘It’s flimsy, Warren. He’s lied to us about his whereabouts that night, so we could arrest him and justify a search warrant. But unless he confesses immediately, or we find something unequivocal, we’ll probably end up bailing him. Do we want to run the risk of spooking him? Officially it hasn’t even been publicly declared a murder yet.’

  ‘There is another way,’ suggested Sutton. ‘Arrest him over the missing money, and see if he confirms our theory about his gambling addiction. Then see if we have enough to justify a search on those grounds. The money in the biscuit tin is a few hundred pounds less than the discrepancy noted in the abbey’s takings, so assuming he hasn’t already pissed it up the wall at the bookie, it could be at home.’

  ‘It would take some clever wording on the search warrant, to ensure anything we find is admissible in court,’ warned Warren, ‘and it would seem a bit suspicious if the officers in charge of Nolan’s supposed suicide suddenly start pursuing a bit of missing cash.’

  ‘There is also the small matter of no thefts being reported at the abbey,’ added Grayson.

  ‘I’m sure we can persuade Deacon Baines to report the thefts, and we can use different officers that Shaw hasn’t met before to conduct the actual interviews,’ insisted Sutton.

  Grayson picked up the golf ball that sat on the end of his desk, and absently threaded it through his fingers. Almost a minute passed.

  ‘OK. Go and speak to legal, and see if you can knock together a warrant th
at won’t get thrown out by a defence solicitor for over-reaching. If they can craft something, then come back and I’ll make a decision then.’

  It was hardly a ringing endorsement, but Warren would take it.

  Chapter 24

  It was late evening before Warren received his reply from legal about the wording on the search warrant for Rodney Shaw. In the meantime, he had convinced Deacon Baines to file a report about the missing money, thus allowing them to open a legitimate investigation. Since the murder, the abbey had been closed and so there had been no opportunity to see if the thefts had continued. Despite the late hour, Warren was determined to celebrate with his wife and had texted her to put a bottle of prosecco in the fridge; they could drink it in bed if necessary.

  ‘We can execute a section eight search warrant for evidence pertaining to the stolen money, as long as the dominant reason for the search is the thefts. However, once we’ve gained access to the property, we can seize anything else that may be evidence of unrelated criminality under section nineteen.’

  Grayson pinched the bridge of his nose.

  ‘Christ, Warren, it’s a potential legal nightmare. If we do find something and his defence team argue that the dominant reason was not the investigation of the stolen money, then anything you find could be inadmissible.’

  He drummed his fingers on the table top.

  ‘Right, you need to plan this very carefully. Coordinate Shaw’s arrest and interview with the execution of the search warrant and fully brief Scenes of Crime. I want you physically present leading the search. Tony and I can monitor the interview by video link and maintain an open channel with you. If you find anything that looks as though it may be related to the murder but not the stolen money, then call it in and await further instructions. If necessary, I’ll arrange a second warrant and if needs be further arrest Shaw to keep his lawyer happy.’

  ‘Will do, sir.’

  ‘Who will do the arrest and conduct the interview?’