Forgive Me Father - Paul Gitsham DCI Warren Jones

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phone was back in his room and there were no candles.’

      ‘He had a box of matches, could he have used those?’

      ‘Doubtful, the box was almost full and Forensics only found a single spent match in the whole area. Besides which, you know how volatile petrol is. It’s doubtful he could have slopped petrol over himself with an open source of ignition in the room, the vapour would have ignited immediately. Forensics didn’t find any burnt paper or rags at the scene to indicate that he made a fire to see by.’

      Grayson pulled at his bottom lip. ‘You’re right. I’m not quite ready to publicly declare it a murder, but it should remain an unexplained death for now.’

      ‘There’s more,’ interjected Sutton. ‘I was thinking about this after last night’s call. There was no sign of any restraint, and I believe that the working hypothesis was that Father Nolan drank enough whiskey and took enough sleeping pills to numb the pain sufficiently not to run around like a mad thing when he set himself alight.’

      Warren agreed; he could see where Sutton was headed.

      ‘Well, is it likely that somebody that far out of it would have the manual dexterity to light a match, apparently first time?’

      The three men were silent as they thought through the implications.

      ‘We need the results of the toxicology,’ said Warren finally.

      ‘Call the lab and get it fast-tracked, I’ll authorise the cost,’ ordered Grayson.

      ‘If the bloods come back and show that he was so insensate that he could be covered in petrol and ignited without any signs of restraint or a struggle, then that raises questions about how he got in that state in the first place,’ said Sutton.

      ‘Go on,’ said Warren.

      ‘The way I see it, there are two possibilities. First, that he drank the whiskey and potentially took his sleeping pills in situ. That is more believable if it was a suicide, otherwise how would you convince him to do it otherwise? There was no sign of a restraint or struggle. And why on earth would he go down to the undercroft with somebody?’

      ‘He could have been threatened or coerced in some way?’ suggested Grayson.

      ‘In which case it’s likely a murder,’ continued Sutton, ‘or he took the whiskey and pills elsewhere, probably his room, as it is private, and was then led down to the undercroft by his killer, who left the bottle and pills there to mislead us.’

      ‘Or a combination of the two scenarios,’ interjected Grayson.

      ‘Either way, it implies that he must have known his killer, at least to some degree,’ said Sutton. ‘Not only would they need him to have been comfortable enough to drink with him in his room or to go down to the chapel with him, they would also need to know about his medication.’

      ‘Which means we need the results back from the forensics in his room, and the likely route he took down to the chapel,’ said Warren. ‘We also need to know the whereabouts of all of the other residents, staff and carers that night.’

      ‘Then let’s see what Rachel Pymm has for us,’ said Grayson, getting to his feet.

       Chapter 10

      ‘Preliminary results are back in from the forensic examination of Father Nolan’s room,’ said Rachel Pymm as Warren, Sutton and Grayson joined Ruskin around her workspace. In deference to the fact that her job was almost entirely computer-based, her desk was adorned with three large monitors, arranged in a horseshoe.

      Warren felt a pang of sadness, quickly repressed. One of his last requisition requests from Gary Hastings had been just such a set-up. He’d largely taken over from DS Pete Kent as the unit’s expert user of the HOLMES2 crime management system and ‘officer in the case’, the person in charge of keeping track of the all the information flowing into a major inquiry, such as a murder. DS Rachel Pymm now did that job full-time.

      ‘Give me the highlights.’

      ‘First of all, surfaces that we’d expect to have Father Nolan’s fingerprints on, as well as whoever cleaned his room last, are completely clean,’ said Pymm.

      ‘What about the glass tumblers?’ asked Warren.

      ‘Again, suspiciously clean, with no observable fingerprints. Both glasses had also been well-rinsed. Tests are ongoing of the droplets of liquid in the bottom of the glass but early indications are that it was almost entirely tap water, with traces of ethanol and complex aromatic compounds of the type typically found in a grain-based spirit.’

      ‘Sounds like whiskey,’ suggested Grayson.

      ‘That’s what they think. More detailed tests should be able to confirm that and possibly identify the brand.’

      ‘So he shared a drink with his killer?’

      ‘Perhaps. They are doing their best to isolate any stray DNA from around the rim of the glass, but CSM Harrison says don’t hold your breath.’

      ‘Anything else?’

      ‘Nothing much. Just some residue in one of the glasses that may be an anti-depressant.’

      Warren choked back a response; Pymm smiled sweetly.

      ‘They also found tiny polymer fragments in the sink trap that could be from the capsule surrounding a timed-release tablet, again consistent with the anti-depressant prescribed to Father Nolan. Identification has been fast-tracked.’

      ‘Bloody hell,’ breathed Warren. ‘Anything more?’ His tone suggested that the time for teasing was over.

      ‘Several different shoe prints have been isolated from the ground outside the fire exit and the corridor immediately adjacent to it. Their orientation suggests that people have walked both in and out of the exit. Some of the prints on the ground outside heading away from the house match examples in the footwear reference database for men’s size ten Clarks of the type Father Nolan was wearing the night he died. Obviously there was too much damage from the fire to make a definitive match between these prints and his shoes.’

      ‘So, Father Nolan could have exited the house via the fire exit. Is the door not alarmed?’ asked Ruskin.

      ‘The wires to the contacts that trigger the alarm if the door is opened look as though they may have been tampered with, although it isn’t conclusive. The crash bar on the door is also suspiciously free of prints, but a clear hand-print on the right-hand wall as you look towards the door could be from Father Nolan. They are looking for a better source for comparison prints amongst his belongings before they declare a positive match.’

      ‘So, Father Nolan walked out of the fire exit, without triggering the alarm. As he did so, he leant against the wall – which might be an indication that he was unsteady on his feet, from having consumed alcohol and prescription drugs,’ suggested Sutton.

      ‘I’d be interested to know how mobile Father Nolan was,’ said Warren. ‘Assuming these footprints are from when he left the house with his killer, then he was still on his feet at that stage – the drugs and alcohol hadn’t rendered him entirely helpless. What about by the time he made it to the chapel? Was he still upright or did he need carrying? That might indicate if there was more than one killer.’

      ‘Forensics are still examining the most likely routes between the house and the chapel, but the pathways up by the house are pretty well-trod and weren’t immediately closed off,’ said Pymm.

      ‘Why aren’t Father Nolan’s footprints inside the hallway?’ asked Ruskin.

      Pymm answered, ‘The footprints outside are impressions in the soft earth. The footprints inside are transfer from the dirty soles of somebody’s shoes. They were only visible using electrostatic transfer.’

      Ruskin

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