tonight’s meeting for O’Connor here. McCann, you’re next: house-to-house, who saw or heard anything out of the ordinary?’
‘First-round statements taken, all given over to Pringle, but we still need to catch up with a couple of stragglers, especially Matt Long, owner of the land where the girl was found.’
O’Connor nearly jumped from the top table in frustration. ‘Why? Where is he? What’s the delay?’
‘The man is nearly a hundred. He’s been unwell, bedridden.’
‘But he’s at home?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Send Hyland up there immediately. We need a statement from him, and with Hyland’s medical background it should be a doer. Just make sure he takes it nice and slow.’
Donoghue, who was busy recording the next job number to Hyland, looked to Pringle. ‘What’s the story with the statement from the woman who saw the car at the canal?’
‘Statement says she remembers being annoyed when she had to walk out on the road in order to pass a navy Toyota Carina parked on the footpath. It was parked on one of the smaller roads off the canal, around the time the girl was last seen. She’d noticed it on another occasion, earlier that same week, but hadn’t seen anyone in it. She was positive it was a Carina because she used to drive the same model, but hadn’t taken note of the registration plate.’
‘Anyone else notice it?’ Donoghue looked out over his glasses.
‘No.’
‘What, is she the only person with eyes?’ He turned from Pringle to McCann. ‘Look at the times when she saw it, we need to know who was at home, who else could have seen it. Maybe someone else might remember more.’
‘Before you do, McCann, let me have another look at that house-to-house sheet.’ O’Connor looked over at Donoghue, who noted the request. ‘We’ll need to put something more specific in there about unfamiliar cars parked in the area.’
Chief Superintendent Nolan turned to O’Connor. ‘Right, bring us up to date before we start the visuals.’
‘Okay,’ O’Connor said, standing up so everyone could hear him. ‘We’ve extended the search area, but it’s still too early to send in the tracker dogs. Hanley and the tech team need time to make sure they’ve picked up everything. The photographs, which will come up now in the visuals, reflect the general terrain, access roads to and from the area, Montpelier, Glenasmole, all the way up to Military Road.We are concentrating the search in the area to the left of the main Bohernabreena Road, the side the girl’s body was found.
‘A cast impression has been made of the boot print found at the scene, using the usual Crownstone. The size of the boot is between a nine and a ten and, judging by the depth of the impression, our guy is in and around the twelve stone mark, certainly not too heavy on his feet. Other points about it – tiny particles of gravel, more than likely built up over time, were found in the indentions or grooves on the sole of the boot. We’ve checked with the sheep farmer, Murphy, the only other person who walked in the vicinity, and the print is not his. The impression is from a left boot, showing excessive wear on the left-hand side, meaning the wearer had an inclination to lean more on the far left of his left foot. Pattern not unusual, could be found in many makes of hiking boots, but based on the cast taken it is likely that this boot was put to frequent use.’
‘Update on forensics?’
O’Connor turned to Nolan. ‘Yeah, sorry, Boss. Hanley has confirmed that we are probably dealing with a secondary crime scene, no blood splatters found. As of right now, the body is giving us very little. We’ll know more when Morrison does the postmortem this evening, and we have a better handle on the whole thing.’
‘O’Connor, put pressure on the labs if you have to,’ Nolan ordered. ‘We’ll need those toxicology reports pronto, you know how they like to take their time.’
O’Connor turned to Gunning. ‘Caroline’s
‘First-round statements taken, all given over to Pringle, but we still need to catch up with a couple of stragglers, especially Matt Long, owner of the land where the girl was found.’
O’Connor nearly jumped from the top table in frustration. ‘Why? Where is he? What’s the delay?’
‘The man is nearly a hundred. He’s been unwell, bedridden.’
‘But he’s at home?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Send Hyland up there immediately. We need a statement from him, and with Hyland’s medical background it should be a doer. Just make sure he takes it nice and slow.’
Donoghue, who was busy recording the next job number to Hyland, looked to Pringle. ‘What’s the story with the statement from the woman who saw the car at the canal?’
‘Statement says she remembers being annoyed when she had to walk out on the road in order to pass a navy Toyota Carina parked on the footpath. It was parked on one of the smaller roads off the canal, around the time the girl was last seen. She’d noticed it on another occasion, earlier that same week, but hadn’t seen anyone in it. She was positive it was a Carina because she used to drive the same model, but hadn’t taken note of the registration plate.’
‘Anyone else notice it?’ Donoghue looked out over his glasses.
‘No.’
‘What, is she the only person with eyes?’ He turned from Pringle to McCann. ‘Look at the times when she saw it, we need to know who was at home, who else could have seen it. Maybe someone else might remember more.’
‘Before you do, McCann, let me have another look at that house-to-house sheet.’ O’Connor looked over at Donoghue, who noted the request. ‘We’ll need to put something more specific in there about unfamiliar cars parked in the area.’
Chief Superintendent Nolan turned to O’Connor. ‘Right, bring us up to date before we start the visuals.’
‘Okay,’ O’Connor said, standing up so everyone could hear him. ‘We’ve extended the search area, but it’s still too early to send in the tracker dogs. Hanley and the tech team need time to make sure they’ve picked up everything. The photographs, which will come up now in the visuals, reflect the general terrain, access roads to and from the area, Montpelier, Glenasmole, all the way up to Military Road.We are concentrating the search in the area to the left of the main Bohernabreena Road, the side the girl’s body was found.
‘A cast impression has been made of the boot print found at the scene, using the usual Crownstone. The size of the boot is between a nine and a ten and, judging by the depth of the impression, our guy is in and around the twelve stone mark, certainly not too heavy on his feet. Other points about it – tiny particles of gravel, more than likely built up over time, were found in the indentions or grooves on the sole of the boot. We’ve checked with the sheep farmer, Murphy, the only other person who walked in the vicinity, and the print is not his. The impression is from a left boot, showing excessive wear on the left-hand side, meaning the wearer had an inclination to lean more on the far left of his left foot. Pattern not unusual, could be found in many makes of hiking boots, but based on the cast taken it is likely that this boot was put to frequent use.’
‘Update on forensics?’
O’Connor turned to Nolan. ‘Yeah, sorry, Boss. Hanley has confirmed that we are probably dealing with a secondary crime scene, no blood splatters found. As of right now, the body is giving us very little. We’ll know more when Morrison does the postmortem this evening, and we have a better handle on the whole thing.’
‘O’Connor, put pressure on the labs if you have to,’ Nolan ordered. ‘We’ll need those toxicology reports pronto, you know how they like to take their time.’
O’Connor turned to Gunning. ‘Caroline’s
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