‘It can seem a bit daunting, Denise. As I say, you were an important witness and that detective would be just trying to see if you might remember something else which could have identified who the man was.’
‘But I couldn’t. I told him that. He had his back to me all the time and his collar was up. I didn’t see his face.’
Hunter watched Maddie take her journal from her bag and turn to a fresh page. As she took out her pen, he said, ‘It is a long time ago now, Denise, and things won’t be that fresh, but would you mind just going back to that day before they all went missing? Just say what you can remember. I won’t prompt you about what you put in your statement back then; all I want you to do is just go through that day. Only tell me what you can remember, okay?’
Hunter watched her nod, her gaze fixing his, though it looked as if she was staring right through, and he guessed she was trying to recapture the images from that day before she started to talk.
Bringing back her focus, she said, ‘I remember it because I was doing my cleaning and washing that day. That’s how I came to see him when I did. I’d done our bedroom and bathroom and then come down to start on the front room. I was doing the hoovering near the window, and that’s when I saw him at their door. He was just standing there.’
‘You never saw him arrive?’ Hunter asked.
Shaking her head, Denise answered, ‘No, he was already there. I saw him knock at the door, wait a few seconds, then he looked to the side alleyway and back to the door.’
‘So, you saw him for a good few seconds?’
‘Yes, it wasn’t long. I went back to the hoovering and roughly a minute or so later, I saw he had gone.’
‘So you don’t know if he went into the Bannister house or if he walked away?’
‘No.’ She shook her head.
‘And it wasn’t David?’
She shook her head again. ‘No. It wasn’t David. David had fair hair. This bloke’s hair was darkish brown. He had his collar up, hiding his face, but I could see the top of his hair. Anyway, I saw David come home about an hour later, so I know it wasn’t David.’
Her comment stirred Hunter up from his chair. ‘What? You saw David come home an hour after you saw this man at their front door?’
‘Yes. As I said, I was also doing my washing that day and the first load had just finished. I was cleaning the window at the time and was just going to leave it to hang out the washing when I saw David come home. He let himself into the house.’
Hunter had not seen anything in Denise’s statement about what she had just said, though he remembered that the summary had made mention of David going home. He said, ‘Roughly what time was this?’
‘Lunchtime. I hung out the washing, finished cleaning the window and then went in the back for a cuppa and a sandwich. I finished the rest of the washing and did the kitchen. Then Alex came home and we had our tea.’
‘So, you didn’t see the man or David again that day?’
‘No. We didn’t go back in the front room until after we’d had our tea. We put the TV on to watch the early evening news, if I remember.’
‘Denise, your statement doesn’t say anything about what you’ve just said about seeing David coming home when he did. All it mentions was you seeing that bloke at the front door of the house.’
She threw him a puzzled look. ‘Well, I told that detective that. That’s what I said about him confusing me. He was asking me if I’d got it wrong and that it was just David I’d seen, but I hadn’t. The bloke had darker hair than David, and I saw David dressed in his work clothes that day. This bloke had on a dark overcoat.’
Hunter stroked his chin, thinking through what Denise had just told them. After a few seconds he asked, ‘Was there anything else from that day that you told the detective who came to see you?’
‘You mean about the man getting into the car in the alley I saw later that night?’
‘Man getting into a car?’ Hunter jolted upright.
‘Yeah. In the alleyway next to Tina and David’s house. It was parked by their wall.’
There had been no mention of any man getting into a car in the case file. Hunter said, ‘Tell me more about this, Denise?’
‘Well, as I say, it wasn’t until later that evening, and I didn’t see properly because it was starting to get dark and there’s no streetlight near the alleyway. It must have been about half-nine-ish. I was just closing the curtains and I saw it parked there. It stuck out because I’d never seen it there before, so I was a bit curious.’
‘Did you get its number?’
‘I never thought to. It didn’t look suspicious, and there was a man just getting into it. I thought it might be someone from David’s work, delivering something. David was always doing odd jobs around the house, and sometimes for other folk at weekends. He helped my Alex re-point the back wall and re-build our outhouse.’
‘And it definitely wasn’t David’s car?’
‘No. I know David’s car. He always parked it at the front of the house. Although he hadn’t parked it there that night. He’d left it a few doors away. He’d parked it there when he came home at lunchtime and never moved it.’
‘And, you’ve didn’t recognise this car?’
‘No. Never seen it before.’
‘What about the man getting into it?’
‘I couldn’t see him properly at all. Like I say, it was getting dark and there’re no streetlights near the alley. He was just a figure.’
‘Can you tell me exactly what you saw him do from the moment you saw him?’
‘Well, as I say, I was just closing the curtains and he was there, getting into the car. I saw him get in and shut the door and then he just sat there. The car didn’t move. I told Alex there was someone sat in a car next to David’s house, and he came and had a quick look and said it was probably one of David’s work mates, and for me not to be nosy, so I closed the curtains. It wasn’t there when we went to bed, because I looked out of the window before I closed the bedroom curtains.’
‘And there’s nothing about this figure you saw getting into the car that stood out, that would help describe who it was?’
Denise seemed to think about it for a few seconds, then shook her head, answering, ‘No.’
‘And anything about the car that stood out?’
‘Other than it was a Peugeot, no.’
‘A Peugeot? How do you know that?’
‘I didn’t know what type it was. It was my Alex who said what it was. He said he could tell because of the badge on the grill.’
‘Did you mention this to the detective, or detectives who came?’
‘Only one detective came. A young fellow. He took my statement and he took one from Alex. He came back again a couple of weeks later and kept asking me if I could be mistaken about it being David’s car and if the man could have been David getting into a different car. In the end I got all confused. After all, David went off in his car, didn’t he? That’s what the detective said, that they had done all their enquiries, and that they believed David had killed Tina and Amy and driven off with their bodies and committed suicide by driving into a river or lake somewhere. He wrote another statement for me about what I’d seen.’
Hunter spun all this new information around in his head. He knew that interviewing techniques and the taking of statements had changed dramatically over the years to enable a more accurate account to be obtained. But even if there had been doubt as to the identity of the person or the vehicle seen in the alleyway next to the Bannister home the night before they were all reported missing, it still should have been mentioned somewhere. The same went for David Bannister being seen going into his home one hour after the sighting of the stranger at the front door of the house. This was very sloppy detective work that needed correcting. There were leads here that needed following up.
CHAPTER SIX
On his way in to work Hunter stopped off at a convenience store, grabbed some milk and picked up a copy of the local weekly newspap
er. The lead story was the abduction of Rasa Katiliene, and on the front page was a picture of her leaving the pub with the heavy-set man she was last seen with. They hadn’t named him or found out that he was a convicted sex offender who had also been cleared of the attempted murder of a street worker, but they made it clear that he was sought in connection with Rasa’s disappearance and the police were appealing for the public’s help. It made for a powerful local story, and Hunter dropped it on the front seat of his car to read later. He had his own headline story to deal with for the next few hours and didn’t need the distraction.
The moment Hunter got in to work he boiled the kettle, made himself a drink and settled down to the tasks at hand. Two things were at the top of his list: to see if he could find the first statement of Denise Harris and the statement of her husband Alex, which mentioned the man seen getting into the Peugeot parked in the alleyway beside the Bannister residence; and to see if he could find George Evers, the man who had tipped off David Bannister about the sighting of Tina with one of their work colleagues. He was puzzled why there was no statement from him on file, especially since St. John-Stevens had gone to the trouble of checking his alibi during the time period of the sighting.
Hunter also wanted to know the identity of the work colleague who Tina had allegedly had an affair with, despite Alice telling him that she believed the man had been killed in a motorway accident. Hunter decided he would give the task of finding Denise and Alex Harris’s statements to Maddie, and he would try and track down George Evers. He picked up the phone and rang the Intelligence Unit. As he only had a name and no other personal details, his first check was to see if a George Evers from Barnwell was on the system. He was told there were several George Everses listed, though none from Barnwell. Hunter thanked the call-handler and hung up.
His next port of call was the voters list. He got twenty-seven hits countrywide, none from Barnwell. This isn’t starting well, he told himself, rubbing a hand over his face. He had already learned from a phone call yesterday that the building suppliers George Evers and David had worked for no longer existed; they had been bought out by one of the major retail building suppliers over a decade ago, so that avenue of enquiry was dead. He had just begun printing out the addresses of the twenty-seven George Everses when Maddie strolled into the office. For the first time that week, she didn’t appear harassed. In fact, Hunter thought she looked remarkably relaxed and fresh, and she had make-up on.
She put her bag on her desk, slipped off her coat, started up her computer and made her way across to the kettle, announcing, ‘I could murder a cuppa.’
‘Everything okay this morning?’ Hunter asked.
‘No dramas, if that’s what you mean. And I’ve set my handbrake this morning,’ she replied with a hearty laugh. ‘By the way, did you sort out the owner of the Merc? Who does it belong to?’
Hunter gulped. For a split-second he was tempted to tell her a lie, but then dismissed that idea and answered, ‘It belongs to the new DCI.’ He felt his stomach flip, and swallowing the lump in his throat continued, ‘The scratches are hardly noticeable, so unless he asks me point-blank, I’m not going to say anything. And if he does ask, I’ll say it was me, like we discussed,’ he added, seeking out her eyes. ‘I suggest we keep this just between ourselves.’
Maddie met Hunter’s gaze. ‘Well, as long as it’s not going to cause any further problems for you.’
‘Further problems?’
‘What he’s done. Why he’s put you here.’
Hunter cocked his head. ‘So there are rumours flying around, are there?’
Maddie blushed. ‘Well, there are, but if it’s any consolation, Sarge…’
‘Hunter,’ he interjected.
‘…Hunter, everyone’s on your side. They think it’s well out of order, what he’s done. And I did check back with Grace, because I wanted to know the truth and I knew she’d tell me.’
‘And what did Grace say?’
‘She told me exactly what had gone off on Sark, with that guy Billy Wallace, and that the DCI had used Guernsey’s investigation to get his revenge because he’d tried to get you suspended over the gang-shooting of one of your informants, and his decision had been overturned by Detective Superintendent Leggate. That’s what she said.’
Hunter released a smile. ‘All in my favour, thankfully, and I wholeheartedly agree with what she told you. And now that’s aired, as long as you can work with me, then I’m sure we’ll make a good team.’
‘Definitely.’
‘Good. Now, has anything come back from all those enquiries you’ve made?’
‘NHS England have replied. The Bannisters haven’t accessed any medical services since the sixteenth of July, nineteen-ninety-one. Well, at least under their names, they haven’t. I’ve also made a request for their medical records from the practice they were registered with to see if there’s anything in David or Tina’s record that might have triggered David’s actions,’ said Maddie.
‘Okay, that’s a good start.’
‘And no child allowance has been collected for Amy since that date and there have been no financial transactions. Their bank account was closed down in nineteen-ninety-eight following a court request by Alice. The seven-year ruling, as you know.’
Hunter nodded. ‘Well, that just about confirms that they are more than likely dead. Which, of course, the file suggests, and all of what you’ve just said seems to support that conclusion. But what’s concerning me is why none of the enquiries you’ve just done are shown in the file. I know we didn’t have the internet back then, but phone calls and requests could still be made for everything you’ve mentioned. There are just so many gaps. And now we’ve started reviewing it, those gaps are bugging me. I’m especially concerned about the lack of detail in the summary and the lack of statements for what we now know are important features of the case. It points out that something tragic happened that day because of the family’s disappearance, but what it’s left out is the sighting of two strangers that could be linked. Sure, it mentions the one at the front door at lunchtime, but it’s missed out the one seen getting in a car parked in the alleyway next to their house that same evening. And although there is the possibility that the one at the front door could be David’s work colleague that Tina was having an affair with, we know from the file that St. John-Stevens alibied him for that day, so who is the man seen in the evening, and why is he not given a mention in the file? It doesn’t make sense. We also have the forensic evidence taken from the house that suggests someone was attacked, and I have to say that’s another thing that’s puzzling me.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Well, SOCO found evidence of significant traces of bloodstaining in the kitchen that had been cleaned with bleach. If we go with the presumption that David did kill his wife and daughter and that the deed was carried out in the kitchen, why bother to clean it up if you are then considering killing yourself? People usually clean up the scene when they want to hide what they’ve done. And why didn’t David leave a note? The majority of suicides do. They usually want to explain why they’ve done what they’ve done. The other thing is there’s no mention of any bloodstained weapon found at the house. He must have used something.’
‘Maybe he took the weapon with him.’ Maddie shrugged her shoulders. ‘But I see where you’re coming from. Why go to the fuss of cleaning up the mess and taking away what you’ve used to kill someone with, if you’re then just going to top yourself? What you’re saying, Hunter, is that David wouldn’t have needed to do any of that if suicide was on his mind.’ She paused a moment and continued, ‘But the argument to contradict that is that anyone who’s just killed their wife and daughter is not going to be thinking logically. We know from our experience that in the majority of cases, most people who kill simply flip and are not thinking straight.’
‘But how many murder suicides have you come across where the killer has cleaned up after themselves before they’ve committed suicide?’
<
br /> ‘None that I know of or have heard of. I’ll give you that.’
‘None, exactly. For me, if he’s gone to all that trouble of cleaning up in the kitchen, it would have been for the reason of covering up his crime. There are two ways of looking at this. The first as the file suggests, that David killed his wife and daughter, drove away their bodies and then he committed suicide by driving into a lake or river. Or the second, that someone else killed them all, cleaned up the mess, and then drove away with their bodies and dumped or buried them and made it appear as if David had flipped, killed his wife and daughter, and then gone off and committed suicide.’
Maddie nodded. ‘There’s also a third.’
‘Oh, what’s that?’
‘That David did kill them and then cleaned up the mess in order to cover his tracks but whilst he was dumping their bodies, say by driving into a lake or river as suggested, he had an accident and went in with them and drowned.’
‘There is that. I never thought of that. It is a possibility, I suppose.’
‘It is, but it’s also obvious from your second suggestion that you think that someone else killed them.’
Hunter nodded quickly. ‘Definitely. Those two strangers spring to mind. Were they two different people or was it the same person?’
‘We’ve raised a lot of issues here, and come to several conclusions as to what happened, but we’ve only second-hand knowledge of the case. The person who has all these answers is St. John-Stevens. You need to sit down with him and ask him these questions.’
Hunter’s face set tight. ‘Me? What? And point out to him his sloppy detective work?’
‘That’s not something you’re going to say to his face, are you?’ Maddie said with a cynical grin. ‘According to the file, the evidence points to David Bannister killing his wife and daughter and then killing himself, but we’ve uncovered things that challenge that judgment. What we now know is that there is a least one other person, who has not been identified, as far as we know, and he was seen next to the Bannister home on the day they disappeared.’
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