SCENE OF CRIME : Extract

Lloyd went out to the garden where a scene-of-crime officer was asking for the photographer. At least they'd found something to photograph, he thought, as he made his way down past the bricks to the bottom of the garden.
'Got something?' he asked.

'The rain's been helpful,' said the SOCO. 'We've got footprints. We found one set on the patio, but these have been made by someone else. I'll be able to make a pretty good cast of them.'

Footprints at the bottom of the garden tied in with Tom's theory regarding the means of entry. And the SOCO seemed to be endorsing his two-intruder theory. Now for his other one. 'Is either set likely to be female?'

'Not unless she's got very large feet. I'd guess a size ten or eleven shoe here, and maybe a nine on the patio.'

So this row which the neighbours had heard had probably not been between the intruders, unless there had been at least three of them, one of whom didn't leave footprints. It was perfectly possible not to step on mud, even crossing from one garden to the other, so there could have been a third intruder. But a row followed by a death was always worth looking into. Lloyd looked back up the garden to the dining room, and wondered.

It could, of course, have been one of the reportedly frequent rows between Carl and his wife that happened to occur immediately before Carl left the house. And it could have been coincidental to the break-in; a quarrel being the last contact someone had with the deceased before being suddenly bereaved was not at all unusual, and very guilt-inducing. But if it had been the Bignalls that Mr Jones had heard, it had been different from their usual rows: this one had apparently sounded violent.

So the question had to be asked, but Lloyd hadn't asked it yet. He didn't believe in asking questions when people expected him to ask them. Much better to catch them off guard, when they had decided he wasn't going to ask at all.