and some had even made themselves a slice of toast. It was such a familiar sight, she thought to herself as she gazed around. In spite of the faces being different and the Police Forces being hundreds of miles apart, this briefing scene could have mirrored the many that she had conducted with her old team back in her native Scotland.
“Mr Robshaw has had to start at Headquarters today, to sort out the budget for the investigation, so he’s asked me to take briefing. We have quite a lot to go through this morning especially the revelation yesterday so we’ll run this from the top.”
She tapped the incident board with her pen.
“We all know that sixty-three year old retired detective Jeffery Howson was found murdered at his home on Monday and the likelihood is that he was killed late Saturday night. We also know that before his death he made a phone call to Barry here, stating he wanted to meet and tell him about the murder of Lucy Blake-Hall in nineteen-eighty-three. That the wrong person had been convicted of it and that he knew who had done it. Have I got that right?” She turned to the Civilian Investigator she’d heard so much about but had not had time to get to know yet. In fact, such had been her baptism, thrown immediately into this murder enquiry, that with the exception of Hunter she hadn’t had the time to get to know any of her new team.
Barry nodded back.
“I can also see from the notes on the board that we now have the background to the Lucy Blake-Hall murder. Hunter, you and Grace had that enquiry. Can you expand on the information on the board?”
Dawn watched Hunter pick up his loose notes from his desk. She shot him a delicate smile.
“Yes Boss. We picked up the investigation in its entirety from the Cold Case Unit yesterday. We’ve haven’t had time to go through everything, as you will appreciate, but I have read the prosecution file and the report on his appeal, and Grace is currently trying to organise the old card index system for inputting into HOLMES. She has also spoken with the Forensics lab at Wetherby. It would appear they still have the exhibit slides from the original investigation and they have their own set of comprehensive notes, which is a real plus.”
The team listened as Hunter outlined the Lucy Blake-Hall case. He gave a brief resume of her family circumstances -married with a five year-old daughter, back in 1983, and then focused in detail on the last sightings of her on Friday 26 th August when witnesses saw her with her lover, Daniel Weaver, firstly in the Coach and Horses pub, and then later that same evening arguing in the market place in Barnwell.
“Jeffery Howson and a Detective Sergeant Alan Darbyshire, whom, I’ve been informed by Barry, retired as a DCI in nineteen-ninety-two, arrested Daniel the day after she had been reported missing after visiting him at his home. He had scratches to his face and refused to say how he had got them. Weaver was known to the police. He has previous for a chemist break-in and also possession of a controlled drug with intent to supply. He did eighteen months in a young offenders’ institution in nineteen-seventy-seven.”
He outlined the interrogation of Daniel Weaver at the police station, in which, after initial denials, he admitted to his affair with Lucy and confessed that she had scratched him during an argument on the evening of her disappearance. Hunter revealed how Jeffery Howson and DS Alan Darbyshire had also discovered Lucy’s handbag hidden under sacking during a search of Weaver’s garden shed and that after making another initial denial he had gone on to give a full and frank admission as to how he had strangled Lucy and then buried her body up on Langsett Moor.
“A team of police officers spent a fortnight up on the moors searching for signs of her burial site, but at that stage Weaver had been appointed a solicitor and refused to cooperate with the investigation further, so her body was never found.
“Mr Robshaw has had to start at Headquarters today, to sort out the budget for the investigation, so he’s asked me to take briefing. We have quite a lot to go through this morning especially the revelation yesterday so we’ll run this from the top.”
She tapped the incident board with her pen.
“We all know that sixty-three year old retired detective Jeffery Howson was found murdered at his home on Monday and the likelihood is that he was killed late Saturday night. We also know that before his death he made a phone call to Barry here, stating he wanted to meet and tell him about the murder of Lucy Blake-Hall in nineteen-eighty-three. That the wrong person had been convicted of it and that he knew who had done it. Have I got that right?” She turned to the Civilian Investigator she’d heard so much about but had not had time to get to know yet. In fact, such had been her baptism, thrown immediately into this murder enquiry, that with the exception of Hunter she hadn’t had the time to get to know any of her new team.
Barry nodded back.
“I can also see from the notes on the board that we now have the background to the Lucy Blake-Hall murder. Hunter, you and Grace had that enquiry. Can you expand on the information on the board?”
Dawn watched Hunter pick up his loose notes from his desk. She shot him a delicate smile.
“Yes Boss. We picked up the investigation in its entirety from the Cold Case Unit yesterday. We’ve haven’t had time to go through everything, as you will appreciate, but I have read the prosecution file and the report on his appeal, and Grace is currently trying to organise the old card index system for inputting into HOLMES. She has also spoken with the Forensics lab at Wetherby. It would appear they still have the exhibit slides from the original investigation and they have their own set of comprehensive notes, which is a real plus.”
The team listened as Hunter outlined the Lucy Blake-Hall case. He gave a brief resume of her family circumstances -married with a five year-old daughter, back in 1983, and then focused in detail on the last sightings of her on Friday 26 th August when witnesses saw her with her lover, Daniel Weaver, firstly in the Coach and Horses pub, and then later that same evening arguing in the market place in Barnwell.
“Jeffery Howson and a Detective Sergeant Alan Darbyshire, whom, I’ve been informed by Barry, retired as a DCI in nineteen-ninety-two, arrested Daniel the day after she had been reported missing after visiting him at his home. He had scratches to his face and refused to say how he had got them. Weaver was known to the police. He has previous for a chemist break-in and also possession of a controlled drug with intent to supply. He did eighteen months in a young offenders’ institution in nineteen-seventy-seven.”
He outlined the interrogation of Daniel Weaver at the police station, in which, after initial denials, he admitted to his affair with Lucy and confessed that she had scratched him during an argument on the evening of her disappearance. Hunter revealed how Jeffery Howson and DS Alan Darbyshire had also discovered Lucy’s handbag hidden under sacking during a search of Weaver’s garden shed and that after making another initial denial he had gone on to give a full and frank admission as to how he had strangled Lucy and then buried her body up on Langsett Moor.
“A team of police officers spent a fortnight up on the moors searching for signs of her burial site, but at that stage Weaver had been appointed a solicitor and refused to cooperate with the investigation further, so her body was never found.
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