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“When was the last time any of them had been with her?”
“Two, maybe three weeks ago.”
“Did any of them know Stapleton was servicing all of them?”
“Apparently not,” replied Benson. “Or at least they weren’t admitting it.”
Gardener thought otherwise.
Time was moving on, so he went on to Barry Morrison. Because of the blood spatter pattern on the jacket they could place him at the scene, but were still no nearer to working out whether or not he killed her.
“Is NASH what killed him?” asked Anderson.
“No. He had blocked superior vena-cava syndrome.”
“Can we have that in English?” asked Frank Thornton.
Gardener smiled and explained what Fitz had told them.
“Jesus. That had to be someone who knows what they’re doing,” said Colin Sharp. “Let’s face it, how many of us could even find a vein in our arm, let alone where Fitz said it was?”
“You’re right, Colin. It’s very specific.”
“Morrison could still have killed Nicola Stapleton. What if he was made to do it?”
“What purpose would it serve?” Gardener asked. “If the killer wanted Morrison to kill Stapleton, it’s more than likely they would have something on him and want to use that information.”
“So we still think he was made to watch?” Anderson asked.
“Makes more sense. Frighten him half to death.”
“Maybe the killer knew them both,” said Rawson. “Maybe the pair of them were trying to stitch him or her up over something, and this was their revenge.”
“Could be.”
“Well, we’ve certainly uncovered stuff in his flat that would account for that theory,” said Sharp.
“Really?” said Gardener. “We’ll come back to that. I want to put some actions into place with this one. The sealing wax hasn’t been analysed yet. When it has, we’ll have more to go on, but one of you can make a start. Find out all you can about sealing wax. Is there different stuff on the market? Does one brand set faster than another? How easy is it to apply? Can it be used in a syringe? How hard would it be to do what’s been done to Barry Morrison?
“Someone should speak to the National Injuries Database. It was started back in the 1980s at Guy’s Hospital, and used as a reference guide for doctors who hadn’t seen injuries of a certain kind before. It’s a good indicator of how common or uncommon an injury is, where it’s been seen before, and who has used it as a method to kill. We may strike lucky.”
“There’s a good chance we won’t,” said Anderson. “I’ve never heard of that before.”
“That’s why we need to widen the field. Inquire at the local libraries, the bookshops, etcetera. See if anyone borrowed – or bought – medical books containing such information. One of you should contact the NCA’s Cyber Crime Team. They might be able to tell us who’s searched online for these specific forms of killing.”
“Have a look at using a browser called Tor,” said Colin Sharp. “It allows you to change your IP address, and then you can do a ‘Deep Net’ search. Normal search engines like Google only search a small percentage – about 10% – of what is actually out there, because only about 10% of the Internet is indexed. If you conduct a deep net search you’ll get a lot of information that other search engines don’t even know exists.”
“Excellent, Colin, that’s a little job for you,” Gardener continued. “Sealing wax wasn’t the only thing inside Barry’s body. Someone definitely killed him.”
“What else was there?” asked Briggs.
“Fitz found this.” Gardener held the bag up for everyone to see.
“What is it?”
“A key. Possibly a safe deposit key.”
“Where was that?” asked Rawson. “Wasn’t up his arse, for God’s sake, was it?”
