‘DI Ogborne and this is DC Borrowdale, Canterbury CID. What have you got for us?’
‘Not a lot, I’m afraid. Kayleigh Robson lived here alone. The block’s due for a major refurbishment and Kayleigh was the last remaining tenant. She worked at the convenience store down the road. Some of the locals knew her by sight, but she appears not to have had particular friends in the area. At least, nobody remembers seeing her with anybody. Those who admitted knowing her said she kept herself to herself and barely spoke to people except briefly when they were shopping.’
‘Did you check the shop out?’
‘The owner confirmed Kayleigh worked there, but said she hadn’t been in for over a week. Apparently, he found a note pushed through the door saying she needed a break and was taking a fortnight off.’
‘When did he find the note?’
‘First thing on Friday of last week, the 14th. Said it must have been pushed under the door during the night. He’d scribbled the date on it and kept it in a drawer. So we know she was alive on the Thursday, maybe early on the Friday.’
‘Mmm …’ Ed hesitated a moment before replying. ‘Probably, unless somebody else delivered the note. What about CCTV?’
‘Maxton House, where her flat is, doesn’t have any security cameras. Nor is this road covered, but there are cameras up there.’ Sergeant Burstford pointed up to the main road. ‘On the Folkestone Road, there are multiple cameras between here and the centre of town.’
‘And the shop where Kayleigh worked?’ asked Ed.
‘They have security cameras inside. We’ll check the tapes for last Thursday and Friday – should pick up Kayleigh’s movements and maybe someone with her.’
‘Good. We might be able to point you to some additional cameras.’
‘Ma’am?’ Burstford’s response was tinged with annoyance. Clearly, Dover was his patch and he didn’t take kindly to outsiders telling him his job.
‘Relevant intel, Sergeant. Kayleigh had a mobile, but forensics didn’t find one in her flat. Two of my colleagues are with the parents in Strood. They’ll be asking the mother, who paid the phone bills, for details so that we can access the mobile records. With luck, we’ll get intel about contacts and meetings around the time of her death.’
Burstford smiled. ‘If you can identify meeting places, we can target relevant CCTV.’
‘It’ll be good working with you, Sergeant. Let’s hope our collaboration leads to a swift result.’ Ed turned to enter the building, then added, ‘Two weeks without notice – that must have pissed him off.’
‘Her boss at the corner shop is from an extended family. Easy for him to get someone to cover. I got the impression he wasn’t sorry to see Kayleigh gone. Said she was an adult and it was her life.’
It had been her life, thought Ed, and it hadn’t been a long one.
‘Thanks. If anything else comes up, let me know. We’re going to take another look upstairs.’
‘Okay, Nat, what’s your first impression?’
‘From what I can see, it’s like you said in the car: everything looks to have been thoroughly cleaned.’
‘The whole flat was pristine. Of course, the sheet and pillowcase were stained where they’d been in direct contact with her body, as were the clothes she was wearing, but everything else had been recently washed.’
‘Scrupulously clean flat,’ said Nat to himself. Then to Ed, ‘What were her hands like?’
‘She’d been dead six to ten days.’
‘Right. I was thinking she might have been a compulsive cleaner.’
‘Unlikely. The flat had been methodically cleaned yet there were almost no cleaning items in the cupboards. Every hard surface had been wiped down with bleach, but forensics found no bleach in the flat, not even empty containers. The bins in the bathroom and kitchen were empty, and fitted with new liners.’
‘Someone carefully covering their tracks, taking their rubbish and cleaning things with them,’ suggested Nat.
‘And someone took her mobile,’ added Ed. ‘Almost certainly the person who cleaned the flat and moved her body.’
‘And the cleaning left no fingerprints?’
‘Only hers on items at the back of cupboards, but we’ve struck lucky. There was a partial print in the bathroom, which appears not to be Kayleigh’s, and a smudged palm print on the outside of the front door, origin debatable.’
‘How come there was a stray print in the bathroom if every exposed area had been wiped?’
‘Chance. The loo has a split-button flush and one half was set a couple of millimetres lower than the other. Whoever cleaned the place hadn’t poked their cloth completely in and the print was left on the lower button. It was incomplete, so a fingerprint match is unlikely to be conclusive, but forensics will be able to retrieve DNA. With luck, whoever left it will be on the National Database and we’ll get a match.’
‘What about the smudge on the door?’ asked Nat.
‘Forensics will run the DNA.’
‘And CCTV?’
‘You heard the Sergeant.’ Ed eyed Nat disapprovingly. ‘It’s a street of old buildings. There’s no camera covering the road, let alone the entrance to Maxton House.’
As Ed spoke her mobile rang. ‘DI Ogborne.’
‘Dorling. I’ve just started the post-mortem and there’s a couple of things I thought you should know immediately.’
Ed switched her phone to speaker, so that Nat could listen in.
‘When we washed the body, we found ligature marks at the wrists and ankles.’
‘Why weren’t they picked up at the scene?’
‘She’d been dead at least a week. Body discolouration alone shouldn’t have masked them, but concealer had been applied to cover the marks. Like make-up, it came off when we washed the body.’
‘Right, and your second point?’
‘Well, the stress associated with being restrained, and whatever else happened to the poor girl before she died, probably triggered cardiac arrest. I’ll confirm that in my report, but I’ve already seen enough from the livor mortis pattern to be certain the body was moved after death. She died lying on her back with limbs spread-eagled from her body by the ligatures.’
‘What about sexual assault, traces of semen?’
‘There were no signs of forced penetration, but she wasn’t a virgin. However, there was no semen and no trace of lubricant.’
‘Okay. Thanks for letting us know so quickly. Can you be more precise with time of death?’
‘Sorry. Putrefaction was too advanced for a vitreous potassium measurement.’
Ed sighed. ‘So … we’re stuck with six to ten days?’
‘That’s what my report will say, but from the temperature in the flat and the extent of decomposition, I’d bet on eight or nine.’
‘There’s a possibility she was alive last Thursday.’
‘That would fit my best guess of eight or nine days.’
‘Thanks, I’ll not quote you.’
Ed switched off her phone and turned to Nat. ‘What do you make of the pathologist’s findings?’
‘Kinky sex gone wrong? That would fit with the guy putting concealer over the ligature marks and cleaning the place so thoroughly.’
‘I