Reilly explained what they had so far pieced together.
“Have you any idea what happened?” asked Colin Sharp. “Did Mr Makepeace actually see anything?”
“No,” replied Gardener. He explained what Edward was doing out and how he had discovered the scene.
“So we don’t know if anyone was actually hit by the car?” asked Sarah Gates.
“No,” replied Reilly. “It doesn’t look that way, but looks can be deceiving.”
“For what it’s worth,” said Gardener, “we certainly don’t think Ann Marie Hunter was hit by anything other than a large blunt object.”
“She has a hell of a lump on the back of her head,” added Reilly.
As his sergeant made that comment, Gardener saw the Home Office pathologist, George Fitzgerald, pull up. After he’d exited the car, the SIO spent a few minutes bringing him up to speed before rejoining his team.
“This will be really awkward; an RTC without witnesses always is. I’ve called the Collision Investigation Unit. They are the experts in fatal RTCs so we’ll let them do their job, and hopefully they can help and point us in the right direction.
“From what they’re saying, they’re going to run a 360-degree camera over the entire scene. That should produce a 3D computer image of the whole area. Then we can ‘float’ through on the computer. Fingers crossed we’ll find something to go on.”
Gardener stared around the village, peering at the nearest houses. “If there’s a question of whether or not someone could see something from their location, the lab will be able to print the whole scene with a 3D printer. But, as you know, without a car and witnesses – we’ll be struggling.”
“Is there any blood at the scene, that would help?” asked Sharp.
“I agree, Colin,” replied Gardener. “Blood on the scene would be a great starter for ten with footmarks left. A blood pattern analysis expert might tell us the point of impact, possible speed of the vehicle, and where the body landed, etc. It would help to know if either of the two bodies has been moved. But so far, we haven’t seen anything.”
“But to be fair,” added Reilly, “it is dark and we haven’t had the time to comb the area.”
Gardener agreed, and then said, “Hopefully, there will be something; fibres caught on twigs, or the wall, footprints on grass verges.”
“Fitz should be able to help with the bodies,” said Rawson. “A post-mortem will tell us a bit more.”
Julie Longstaff glanced around. “Is there any CCTV in the village?”
“Not that we know of,” said Reilly, “but while you were on your way we took the trouble to find out that there are a couple close to the area.”
“Once we get that information we can pull the CCTV from every building in a set radius,” said Gardener. “The parameters will have to be set by the density of the population. Burley is a remote village, so we’ll have to go large, maybe a mile or so.”
“And there’s always ANPR cameras,” said Benson. “They’re almost everywhere now; installed in police cars, both marked and unmarked, so every time a car drives past one of us we get the number plate recorded with a photo of the occupants.”
Gardener nodded. “Which would be great if we actually had a number plate. Nevertheless, I’ll be tasking an action team to go through all ANPR cameras both before and after – especially after – looking for accident damage, and any vehicle that has a report attached to it: reported stolen, no keeper details known, involved in crime, etc. We’ll be looking at cars registered from outside the area and after that, any other cars.”
Gardener knew it had to be treated as a full-on murder crime scene. With more officers, a path, action teams, CCTV recovery teams, house-to-house teams, and search teams. He knew it would be expensive.
“What do you want us to do, boss?” asked Rawson.
“Split into teams of two and start questioning everyone. I know it’s early and no one appreciates the job we have to do but an immediate house-to-house is vital, in case there are people visiting who don’t live here. Two of you have a look at the point of impact with the wall – a paint sample would be great. Then we can contact car manufacturers. With a bit of luck we’ll find something that might make this mountain worth climbing.”
Chapter Five
The incident room had been set up late the previous day but it was Tuesday morning before the team were given the chance to convene to share information. Little had filtered in on the Monday as everyone had been out collecting it, including the SOCOs, the fingertip search team and the CIU – though Gardener realised it could be a short while before they came up with anything.
Gardener stood in front of three whiteboards. Reilly sat on a desk to his left. The rest of the team were dotted around with drinks and notebooks at the ready.
“Okay,” said Gardener, “we know who the victims are but have any of you managed to find out anything about their lives: do they have family? Where do they live and work?”
Dave Rawson took the lead. “The neighbours speak pretty well of the Hunters; I say neighbours but the house they lived in is detached and set back from the main road.”
“Yes,” added Colin Sharp. “It’s called Highway Cottage but they don’t strictly have any neighbours, although their garden joins up with another. A Mrs Sheila Poskitt lives in the bungalow there. She reckoned they were friendly but quiet, a couple who kept to themselves. They were always there if you needed them but very rarely interfered with you.”