Ben watched Declan from the bottom step of the basement stairs, giving him room to work. He’d taken samples, body temperature, room temperature and bagged both victims’ hands up. Not touching the faces, he turned to Ben.
‘Can I remove these cloths?’
Ben nodded. ‘Yes, they’ve been photographed. CSI will bag them up. I just wanted you to see them in situ before they were removed. What do you think?’
Declan didn’t answer. The light in the cellar wasn’t that good. He was crouched next to Saul Potter’s face; with one hand he shone a torch onto it while with the other he lifted the corner of the material to take a look underneath. He let out a long, low whistle.
‘What a mess; it’s overkill and I’m leaning towards it also being personal. Whoever did this meant business, they wanted him out of action and fast.’
While Ben pondered this, Wendy came down, clutching an assortment of both plastic and brown paper evidence bags and crossed towards Declan, holding a plastic one open for him to drop the cloth in. He did and she sealed it shut, then placed it into a brown bag, sealing that, too.
‘I’m thinking they were killed down here, so whoever our killer is managed to lure them down somehow. Not sure how they managed to kill all three without there being a fight though. He’s a pretty big guy; how do you take him out when you’re threatening his family?’
Ben nodded. ‘Maybe by threatening his family the killer had complete control, either that or they were drugged. Any signs at all of them being attacked upstairs and moved down here, Wendy?’
‘I’ve made a quick check of the house, where I found a bucket under the kitchen sink with some white cotton cloths inside that I’ve bagged up to send off; they look similar to the ones on the victims’ faces. There are no signs to suggest a break-in. Whoever did this must have known the family or at least they trusted them enough to let them inside.’
Ben was rubbing his hand across his stubble. ‘Whoever did this must have been covered in blood. Can you take a close look at the sinks, bathrooms for any forensics? They had to have cleaned themselves up before leaving. Unless you think there is a chance he could have killed his wife, made it look like a suicide, managed to get his daughters down here, killed them then himself?’
Declan looked at the compression on the side of Saul’s skull. ‘It’s a significant injury; it would be difficult to do that to yourself, and also would need a heavy weapon, like a wooden bat or club. Did you find anything like that near to his body, Wendy?’
‘No.’
‘There’s your answer, Ben, that’s a no. You’re looking for something heavy enough to do this amount of damage. It will be bloodstained, hair, skin should be visible on the end of it, and some other person has clearly taken it with them. Although, can you help me roll the bodies? You never know, they could be lying on it.’
Ben knelt down and between them they rolled Saul onto his side, but there wasn’t anything underneath him. They did the same with Beatrix.
‘Well there’s your answer: whoever killed them knows enough about forensics to take the weapon with them.’
Ben’s mind was working overtime. Olivia was the obvious suspect. Could she have killed her family then hanged herself, wracked with guilt? There were so many possibilities and the only person who could tell them exactly what had happened was Bronte, who had slipped into a coma.
They gently rolled Beatrix onto her back and Ben felt his heart tear a little at the terrible way this young girl had had her life taken away from her. He stood up, the creaking sound from his knees echoing around the room. He felt much older than his forty-five years this morning.
Declan began to put the samples he’d taken into his case then snapped it shut.
‘I’m happy for the bodies to be moved to the mortuary now, unless you need to keep them in situ a little longer.’
Ben wasn’t sure what he wanted to do. Wendy had called in a crime scene manager from headquarters to come and assess the scene. He decided to leave them where they were until this had been done. There was no rush: better to have triple-checked the scene for every shred of evidence than to rush it.