Chapter 40
Sarah stared at the witness statement, then back at her inbox.
She’d had numerous phone calls and several email exchanges, all of which had informed her that she’d already been given everything she was going to get from the police, and yet now here it was: Louise Coulter’s original statement, made immediately after the burglary – the same day, in fact.
The burglar had left with jewellery and electrical items, all the usual things burglars came for, but there was no mention of any underwear having been taken.
The burglar hadn’t even gone upstairs. This new statement did nothing to support the case against Jamie Clarke and had almost certainly been deliberately withheld from her.
Her instincts had been correct: the burglary file did hold secrets.
So who had decided to send it to her? And why?
She flicked back to the email that had come with the statement.
There was no accompanying message. This was not particularly unusual for the police, or indeed for the CPS, if it was part of a series of ongoing disclosure, but this statement wasn’t.
It had arrived in isolation, with no explanation.
She glanced down at the footer, which gave the sender’s details: DS Robyn Heaton, Major Investigation Unit, Farringdon Police Station.
Sarah sat back in her seat, puzzled. The MIU wouldn’t get involved post-conviction. It would be down to the data records people or the force’s legal department. So why, all of a sudden, was this detective sending her the evidence she had been asking for?
She opened up the document she had prepared listing every witness in the case against Jamie and summarising the evidence each had provided. She ran through the names of the police officers who had dealt with the original investigation, but DS Robyn Heaton was not among them.
OK. So, word had got around, perhaps, that Jamie had got himself a lawyer and was looking into the merits of another appeal, and maybe this police sergeant – someone impartial – had time on their hands.
Sarah skimmed through the evidence provided by each of the Blenheim Road residents and sat back in her seat, feeling a renewed sense of anger and disbelief.
It now seemed highly likely that the knickers allegedly stolen in the burglary were not discovered to be missing until after Jamie had been charged with Christy’s murder.
It was looking more and more likely that Louise Coulter’s statement had been taken by the police to bolster their case, and if Louise Coulter had been manipulated into giving this evidence, then why not Benfield and Norris?
Sarah opened her inbox again and gazed at the email from Robyn Heaton, then clicked on REPLY and typed:
Thank you for your email and attachment, which I have now had the chance to consider and which I believe triggers further disclosure.
She paused again. All her instincts were telling her that this statement had been sent to her under the radar. Did she really want to set off a paper trail that could put Robyn Heaton in a difficult position?
She deleted the draft and looked at the phone number underneath DS Heaton’s name. She could call the number instead. But should she?
Another sudden blast of loud music emanated from the living room. At the same time, Sarah heard the front door opening and Will’s footsteps in the hallway. A second later, the volume was turned down and Will came into the kitchen.
‘Have you been enjoying the background music?’ He smiled.
‘He hasn’t been too bad,’ Sarah said. ‘But he’s getting restless. I need to take him out.’
‘Let me take him,’ Will said, setting down his laptop bag.
‘Are you sure? You’ve only just got home.’
‘It’s fine,’ Will said. ‘We’ll take off for a bit. Go for a drive. Give you a break.’
After Will had gone upstairs, Sarah went back to her emails.
She had been to Farringdon Police Station many times for other clients, but her name wouldn’t be on Jamie’s original police file.
Had she met Robyn Heaton in some other capacity?
Her name did sound familiar – and if she was in the MIU there, then …
Wait. Wasn’t Robyn Heaton one of the detectives on the Tate Kinsella case, the one she had worked on the previous year?
Sarah quickly found the file on her laptop, scrolled to the disclosure notice from the police, and there it was.
Robyn Heaton had been the second interviewing officer.
Sarah remembered her now. While the lead detective had been typically hard on Sarah’s client, DS Heaton had been pleasant, fair and thoughtful.
She had seemed honest, like someone you would have faith in, someone who would do the right thing – even if it was something that would hurt the police.
So, what was DS Heaton trying to tell her?
Whatever it was, she would expect Sarah to be discreet, which ruled out any more communication through the data controller.
Sarah examined Louise Coulter’s statement, going through it line by line to see exactly what it was that had made it so troubling to the police that it had been hidden from the defence.
Was it simply the fact that there was no mention of any underwear being stolen?
Or was it the fact that Louise Coulter – a lone, semi-dressed woman – had managed to frighten off the burglar?
This hardly fitted with the burglar being the type of person to rape and kill a woman.
At this, a sudden thought came to her. She stared at the statement again, and then she saw it: the repeated use of the word ‘person’.
The person was carrying something … the same person …
the person was gone. At no point did Louise Coulter mention a ‘he’ or a ‘him’.
This had happened in 2003, and Sarah very much doubted that Louise Coulter had been an early adopter of gender-neutral pronouns.
It seemed far more likely that she hadn’t been at all sure her burglar was a man.