‘No comment.’
‘What else are we going to find in your toolbox?’
‘No comment.’
‘Blood?’
Jackson opened his mouth to reply, but the solicitor pressed an arm across him; a simple reminder to stick to the script.
‘No comment.’
‘Will we find Petr Nowakowski’s blood on any of your tools?’
‘No!’
‘Sorry, Mr Jackson, are you saying we won’t find any of Petr’s blood on your tools?’
He opened his mouth to speak again, before shaking his head, his lips trembling as he fought against the urge to say whatever he was holding back. ‘No comment.’
‘What about Maria Alexandrou’s blood?’
A shake of the head again. ‘No comment.’ Anger was becoming exasperation.
‘Because, Mr Jackson, the thing is, even if you’ve cleaned your tools, our forensics team are so good at finding the traces that are missed. So even if you think you’ve done a good job of cleaning them up, I wouldn’t count on it.’
Jackson rose from his chair and leaned in, ‘No comment!’
Both Patel and Laura instinctively sat back in response, playing up to the shock of his aggression. The solicitor tugged on Jackson’s arm, dragging him back to the seat.
Patel waited until Jackson had taken several breaths to calm himself before continuing. ‘Blood gets everywhere. It gets into the hinges and joints, particularly in scissors where the blades pivot. You think warm soapy water and a brush will be enough, but that doesn’t clean the microscopic traces unseen by the human eye. Those are the traces that help us nail killers. And sometimes that’s all it takes. Just a trace of Petr or Maria’s blood on your tools and we’ll have enough to press charges.’
‘I didn’t kill anyone!’ Jackson erupted, the first splash of a tear hitting his cheeks.
‘We believe you did, Mr Jackson. And the evidence we’re currently searching for in your house is going to confirm that. I know it was your solicitor’s idea not to answer any of our questions, but it won’t be your solicitor in the dock with a jury deciding his guilt. It’ll be you and you’ll be on your own to face their verdict. Hiding the truth now might seem like a good idea, but it really isn’t. The sooner you tell us the truth of what you did to Petr and Maria, the sooner we can all move on.’
‘I’m not a killer,’ he sobbed, burying his head in his hands.
The solicitor put the lid on his fountain pen and rested his pad on the table. ‘I think now would be an opportune moment to give my client a break, don’t you?’
Laura suspended the interview, leaving Kate to watch Jackson from the viewing suite, as he broke down into shuddering sobs beside his lawyer. She had to admit it was a convincing performance, but she’d seen better. Switching off the monitor, she headed to the incident room to discuss tactics for the second round of questioning, and to check in with Humberidge to see what progress they’d made at Jackson’s house.
47
‘Go ahead, Humberidge,’ Kate said, leaning towards the conference phone in the supe’s office. ‘You’re on with the supe, Patel and Laura. How’s the search going?’
Humberidge’s voice crackled through the speaker. ‘We’ve bagged up his computer, but no sign of a tablet device or mobile phone yet.’
Kate muted the receiver so she could fill in the supe. ‘Jackson didn’t have a phone in his possession when we picked him up, and has yet to confirm where it is. From what we’ve managed to ascertain he uses the same phone for business as personal use.’
‘I’ve taken a picture of the pages in his address book and have emailed it over,’ Humberidge continued. ‘There’s only a couple of dozen entries, but might be worth checking those nearby.’
‘Patel will take a look at those when we’re through here,’ Kate said, catching eyes with Patel. ‘Anything else of interest we can use in the interview?’
‘Only been inside for half an hour, ma’am, but will keep you posted. The only other find of any significance is a box containing four unopened packets of photocopy paper. It’s the same brand of box and paper as was used to deliver the victim’s hearts.’
Kate clenched her fist in satisfaction. SSD had already confirmed that the brand used was generally stocked for both commercial and educational facilities to purchase. It wasn’t a smoking gun, but at the very least an uncanny coincidence. If only SSD had managed to locate a fingerprint on either of the boxes Jackson had covered in the wrapping paper, they might be a step closer to charging him.
‘I want you to check and see if he has any of the wrapping paper he used left. Check every room and all bins inside and outside, even for a scrap of it. Also, check for any glues or adhesives, so we can compare to what was used to attach the paper.’
‘Will do, ma’am.’
‘What’s the garden like? Anything unusual?’
‘There’s no garden at the front of the property, just a concrete driveway. The back is like a forest: overgrown and not cared for. No recently disturbed patches of soil as far as I can see, but I’ve got Vicky out there doing a closer sweep as we speak.’
‘Any sign that he might have burned the remains of the bodies? Ash, maybe, or charred patches on the concrete?’
‘Will have to let you know. I’ve got three constables trying to make contact with the immediate neighbours to see if anyone noticed any suspicious behaviour in the last couple of weeks, but I’ll keep you posted.’
‘Thanks, call me back as soon as you have anything else so I can coordinate with the rest of the team.’ Kate disconnected the line and straightened up.
The supe removed his glasses and chewed at one of the arms. ‘And presently there is no forensic evidence linking him to either victim?’
‘No, not unless we find something in his home or where he’s disposed of the rest of the bodies,’ Kate confirmed. ‘I have officers and dogs still at Mottisfont combing the grounds, but it’s such a large estate to cover that it could take days to find anything. But I’m not even convinced that’s why he was there this morning. On the security feed he is seen entering with the satchel we apprehended him with, but it only contained a packed lunch when we checked it. Plus, he didn’t have any digging equipment with him, and there was no trace of dirt on his hands or beneath his nails. As tough as it is to admit, I think he was only there to see the sights today.’
The supe paused to consider what she’d said. ‘Well, you need to work as quickly as you can. If the evidence isn’t strong enough by the morning, you know you’ll have to release him.’
‘You’re absolutely right, but I think we need to leave him to a stew a little longer. We need to buy Humberidge and the team as much time as possible to thoroughly examine his home. If we disclose the circumstantial evidence we have at present, his solicitor will be laughing.’
‘I think he wants to speak,’ Patel countered. ‘If we could just get him away from his solicitor, I’m sure he’d come clean.’
Kate agreed. ‘But his solicitor will have been working to reel him back in since his last outburst.’ She paused and tried to focus on finding the solution. ‘Right, you two go back to the incident room and see what else you can dig up about his background. I want to know what school he went to, whether his parents are still alive, who he knew at college, I mean, anything that tells us more about him as a person so we can better focus our search for his victims.’
‘I think Quinlan is still in the incident room trying to identify the people in Jackson’s social media photos,’ Laura offered. ‘I’ll see if he can fill in any of the other blanks.’
‘Good. I’m going to go and visit Imelda Watkins, the owner of number forty-eight Abbotts Way. I want to know why he used her property to do what he did. Maybe she can shed some light on what drove him to kill Petr and Maria.’
* * *