Eye of the Raven (10 page)

‘
Dr Lee must have been relieved?’

‘
It’s always good to get a clear result but I suppose you’re referring to the loss of the other samples?’

‘
Any idea how they came to be lost?’ asked Steven.

‘
Not really. Dr Lee had been working on some of them – fibres from the girl’s clothes I think. He liked to get involved in the practical aspects of lab work but in reality . . .’

‘
He was a bit of a liability?’

‘
Latterly,’ agreed Carol Bain, looking down at the floor again as if uncomfortable about speaking ill of a superior. I suppose he must have become confused when returning the Summers samples to the storage rack. Instead of putting them back in the fridge he must have put the whole lot out in the discard tray instead. Everything had gone to the incinerator before anyone realised what had happened. John usually kept a watchful eye on him when he was in the lab but he couldn’t do that all the time.’

‘
So you were left with no scene of crime samples at all apart from the semen recovered? No evidence apart from the DNA profile?

‘
Luckily the semen samples were in another fridge – the one next door in the sequencing suite. But it isn’t actually true to say that we had no other evidence; we did; it was the samples that we didn’t have any more.’

Steven looked at her for a moment, feeling slightly puzzled. ‘Are you saying that the samples were analysed
before
they were lost?’ he asked.

‘
Well, yes,’ said Carol, as if she’d never imagined anything else.

‘
I had the impression they had been discarded
before
they could be analysed,’ said Steven. ‘And that’s why no corroborating forensic evidence was offered in court.’

Carol shook her head and said, ‘No, I think the Fiscal’s office didn’t want to risk offering evidence that the defence might conceivably challenge. If defence counsel had asked for an independent analysis of anything we couldn’t produce, the prosecution case might have collapsed.’

‘
Ah,’ said Steven. ‘So there are reports available for the other samples?’

‘
The samples had been in the lab for a couple of days before Dr Lee discarded them so some if not all of them must have already been dealt with. It was a very high profile case.’

‘
I think there’s been a misunderstanding somewhere along the line,’ said Steven. ‘I was led to believe that there was no forensic evidence available apart from the DNA matches.’

‘
No, it should all be in the files,’ said Carol.

‘
You don’t happen to remember anything about it, do you?’ asked Steven.

Carol shook her head. ‘I’m sorry; it was such a long time ago but I do remember it all pointed to the accused, David Little.’

‘
Miss Bain, you’ve been a big help,’ said Steven.

‘
I’ll tell Dr McDougal we’re through,’ said Carol.

When McDougal returned, Steven explained about the misunderstanding, saying that it wasn’t the actual forensic samples he needed access to, the reports on them would be fine.’

McDougal looked blank. ‘I’m sorry?’

‘
I understand from Ms Bain that forensic analysis was carried out on the samples before they were destroyed. If I could just take a look at the reports?’

McDougal seemed bemused. He held up his palms and hunched his shoulders. ‘I’m sorry; I didn’t find any record of anything being done. I too was under the impression that the samples had been lost before they could be analysed. There’s nothing in the files. Was Carol quite sure?’

‘
Seemed to be,’ replied Steven flatly.

Carol Bain was called back to repeat what she had told Steven.

‘
Did you actually see the lab reports yourself, Carol?’ McDougal asked her.

‘I may have done,’ said Carol. ‘But I have no recollection. It was all such a long time ago. As I told Dr Dunbar, the only thing I remember clearly was Dr Lee saying that the evidence backed up the case against David Little.’

‘
So the samples
were
analysed,’ said McDougal quietly. He turned to Steven and said, ‘I don’t know what to say. There’s definitely no trace of these reports in our records.’

‘
Maybe they were discarded after the samples were lost,’ said Carol. ‘I mean, if the Fiscal felt that the evidence couldn’t be used then Dr Lee might have decided that there would have been no point in keeping them.’

‘
That might have been the thinking at the time,’ said McDougal, his tone suggesting that this would be quite wrong in his book.

Steven turned to Carol and said, ‘If you didn’t do any work on the missing samples yourself then the analysis must have been carried out by one or more of the others you mentioned. That would be Dr Lee or Mr Merton or . . . I’ve forgotten the other person you mentioned?’

‘
Samantha Styles. She was the junior SO on the team; she left lab work and subsequently trained to be a nurse. She’s a nursing sister now; I bumped into her at the Western General last year when I was visiting my mother. Time flies.’

‘
Indeed it does,’ said Steven thoughtfully.

‘
Well, Doctor Dunbar, I’m not sure there is much else we can do to help in the circumstances,’ said McDougal. ‘Was it one particular piece of evidence you were concerned with?’

‘
It was a detail,’ said Steven, recovering from the disappointment of having his hopes raised and then having them dashed by the absence of the paperwork. ‘I suppose the main thing to know is that there was corroborative evidence that pointed to David Little.’

Steven left the building and got into McClintock’s car.

‘
Get what you wanted?’

‘
One of the scientists remembers that the lost forensic samples were analysed before they were lost.’

‘
Thank God for that.’

‘
She also remembers Lee saying that the reports backed up the case against David Little.’

‘
There you are then,’ said McClintock.

‘
But the reports have gone missing.’

‘
Jesus,’ muttered McClintock. He drove in silence for a few minutes before asking, ‘Is it really such a big deal?’

‘
Maybe not,’ conceded Steven although, in truth, he wasn’t sure himself. He had reservations about the whole affair.

‘
Let sleeping dogs lie?’ said McClintock.

Steven smiled at McClintock’s obvious desire to see the back of him.

‘
I haven’t decided yet,’ he said truthfully. He saw McClintock’s hands tighten on the wheel.

‘
But the DNA evidence against Little was watertight,’ said McClintock. ‘And you now know that the lab did have other evidence against him, even if they couldn’t use it. What’s left?’

‘
I’d be happier if I knew what that evidence was,’ said Steven. He was also thinking that he would have been more comfortable if the pathologist hadn’t been a drunk.

In spite of what Carol Bain had said about the reports not being required why would Lee destroy them? Surely he would just have filed them along with the DNA evidence. Maybe he still had them in his personal files? Steven saw this as a distinct possibility. It could be that they just hadn’t been transferred when the case was over and big changes were being made in the lab. ‘You don’t happen to know where about on Speyside Lee moved to?’ he asked.

‘
You’re not thinking of going to see him?’ exclaimed McClintock.

‘
I might,’ said Steven.

McClintock sighed slowly. ‘Must be eight, nine years since he retired. If he’s kept up his drinking you’ll be lucky if he knows what day of the week it is.’

They had arrived back at Fettes. As Steven got out the car he said, ‘Like I said, I haven’t decided yet what I’m going to do.’

‘
Get wise,’ advised McClintock. ‘Go back to the sunny south.’

Steven smiled but added, ‘If you could find out where Lee is living, I’d be grateful.’ He gave McClintock his mobile number.

The sun had come out and Steven decided he didn’t want to go back to his hotel room. He wanted to be out in the fresh air, away from the smell of stale tobacco that accompanied McClintock. He needed to stretch his legs and time to think. He opted for a walk through the botanical gardens, which were close to police headquarters and where spring was definitely in the air as he walked along avenues lined with budding trees.

He found a quiet bench near the Chinese garden where he could enjoy the warmth of the sun on his face while he went through the paperwork that McDougal had given him. He started with the list of forensic samples taken at the scene of the crime. It seemed thorough and comprehensive and recorded Ronald Lee and John Merton, as the forensic lab staff attending the scene of the crime.

Half way down the list he found what he was looking for. Scrapings
had
been taken from under Julie Summers’ fingernails. A visual examination had suggested that blood and possibly skin were present under the three fingers of her left hand, all of which had been broken. Three separate samples had been taken and were labelled 21, 22 and 23 in the inventory.

Steven raised his head and closed his eyes for a moment, enjoying the sun on his eyelids and thinking that this more or less cleared up any worry he might have had about what Combe had claimed. Biological material had been found under Julie’s fingernails and although he hadn’t seen the written report, Carol Bain remembered Lee saying that the analysis had positively identified David Little as her assailant. ‘Hallelujah,’ he murmured. Combe’s confession could be buried with the rest of him.

Feeling more at ease, Steven started reading through the medical officer’s report on David Little. He only got to the second paragraph before he felt a hollow feeling in his stomach and it grew bigger by the second. According to the doctor who’d examined him, there were no marks on Little’s face. The only recorded scar on his entire body was a single three-inch scratch mark on his left forearm.

Steven looked at the date of report. The examination had been carried out on January 14
^th
, eleven days after the murder. Would scratch marks have had time to heal? He thought not – at any rate, not completely and the examining doctor would have looked in great detail for evidence of any such marking. How could Julie Summers have had Little’s blood and tissue under three of her nails when he only had a single scratch mark on his arm? This was something he thought he would now have to ask Lee personally.

Steven called McClintock.

‘
So you’re off back to London then,’ said McClintock hopefully. ‘You just called to say good-bye?’

‘
No,’ replied Steven. ‘I’m phoning to see if you’ve got that address for Lee?’

‘
I was afraid you were going to say that,’ said McClintock wearily. There was a rustle of paper and he said, ‘He lives a couple of miles outside Grantown on Spey in a house on the Ardlung estate called Ptarmigan Cottage.’

‘
Thanks,’ said Steven.

‘
What decided you to stay?’ asked McClintock.

For a moment Steven considered not telling but then he said. ‘There was blood and skin under three of Julie’s fingernails. ’

‘
So?’

‘
According to the doctor’s report, there was only a single scratch mark on Little.’

‘
That’s not impossible if she moved her fingers horizontally,’ said McClintock. ‘I mean, if she swiped her hand across his face then . . .’

‘
The scratch was on his arm. His face was unmarked.’

‘
Well, his bloody arm then,’ said McClintock.

‘
Little said his cat did it.’

‘
He bloody would, wouldn’t he?’

‘
She was murdered in January.’

‘
What’s your point?’

‘
Little would hardly be out and about in a short-sleeved shirt, would he?’ rapped Steven, sounding equally annoyed.

‘
I guess not,’ McClintock conceded. ‘But Christ, his sleeve could have been pushed up in the struggle.’

‘
Maybe,’ said Steven in a tone that suggested he thought it the least likely explanation.

‘
So just what are you going to ask Ronnie Lee, assuming he’s still on the same planet after all these years?’

‘
I’m hoping he might still have the original lab reports on what was found under Julie Summers’ nails,’ said Steven. ‘If he has, I want to see them.’

‘
You don’t let go easily, do you?’ said McClintock with a sigh.

‘
Nope,’ agreed Steven.

‘
I understand the local police are getting touchy about your presence,’ said John Macmillan when Steven called Sci-Med to say that he would be staying on in Scotland for a bit.

‘
I’m not unsympathetic,’ said Steven, ‘but there are one or two things about the secondary evidence that I want to be perfectly clear about. You wouldn’t think that should be too difficult but they’re certainly making it look that way. Not only were all the forensic samples discarded in some lab screw-up at the time but even the lab reports on them have gone AWOL. I’m reduced to hoping that the police pathologist of the day still has them somewhere, hidden away in his personal files or even in a box under the bed. It’s crazy.’