Chapter 27 Chapter Twenty Six

Even though he's been inside the house more than once and his marks may be everywhere in the house, Tom decides to don the necessary gear before entering to protect the scene from further damage.Amidst the rustling of his disposable sterile gown and shoe covers as he walked, he headed for the kitchen, convinced he would find Becky there.She was talking to the crime scene supervisor, a big black man with a perpetual smile on his face, called Jumerk Osoba, or Jumbo as they usually called him.When asked, he always replied that he liked the mystery of the unknown and the feeling that there were surprises waiting for him everywhere.To him, a new crime scene is the sack of Christmas presents a six-year-old reaches for.His smile widens with each new piece of evidence, and his enthusiasm is contagious.Of course, if there was a corpse, he would stop smiling.But it was the perfect scene for him, with no obvious evidence and no dead bodies to worry about.

Tom couldn't help thinking of the word "not yet" hanging in the air, but he pushed the thought out of his mind.He noticed that Becky was drinking water and looking a little flushed.He'd have to talk to her privately later to see if she was all right, but he wanted to talk to Jumbo first. "Hi, Jumbo - nice to meet you. I know, a first class team here today." Jumbo laughed out loud when he heard this. "Yeah, Tom. Only the best for you, my friend. I'm looking forward to this operation." He laughed again, his voice a little thin, coming from a black man of his size. It seems very uncoordinated.Tom couldn't help laughing at the sight of Jumbo rubbing his big gloved hands together with uncontrollable joy. "No obvious evidence found. Now we're going to get to work and see what we can find for you." Jumbo glanced toward the terrace, then looked back at Tom, raising his eyebrows in silent inquiry.Tom didn't think there was anything to explain, but he really hoped it wouldn't go so far as to dig up the floorboards.

Jumbo strode decisively out of the kitchen and set out the task briefly.Tom walked towards Becky. "Are you all right?" he asked. Becky looked at him blankly, then seemed to shake her head. "Yes, I'm sorry, I'm fine, I'm just very cranky. When I walked into the house, I had a weird feeling like I was in a morgue. The silence was killing me, and I really felt like I was going to Stumbled over a dead body. I was terribly relieved when the lads in charge of the crime scene arrived, although Jumbo himself was a bit of a surprise. Where did we find him?" "He's the best around here, and you'll see," said Tom, going to the window, and gazing into the garden. "Do you think Robert really ran away, or did he walk a little far?"

Becky shook her head. "He ran away, I could feel it. We're pretty sure he slipped out from behind, there's no need to scale the fence if it's just for a walk. Look, there's a shoe print in the soft mud, and he's got a small Children's plastic chairs dragged from their play area to the fence." "So why is he doing it now? What information do we have that makes him so scared to move elsewhere? Do we know that Olivia isn't where he says it is, or do we have a picture of another woman? Are we getting any closer to the truth? I'd love to—we've got to find these kids."

"He's scared, Tom. He knows we're after him," Becky responded, "only we don't know what he did to her—or the kids." Tom shook his head.At first they thought it was plausible that Olivia had an affair with the dark-skinned visitor at the hotel, but the fact that another woman had pretended to be Olivia for three days suggested an extraordinary deception.But for which side?Did Robert know before this week that Olivia had never been to the new hotel on Anglesey? Becky held up the empty water bottle. "I'll have to throw this out and see where we're going. It's a mess upstairs, and the bedrooms look like they've been at war. But when I show Jumbo around, he doesn't think so. "

As Becky moved forward, Tom distinctly heard Jill Tennant's voice, inspecting Robert Brooks' computer before it was shipped off. "Good morning, Chief Detective Inspector Douglas," he said, going into the kitchen.Tom was delighted to see Jill's penchant for trendy shoes again as usual.Although the hem of the crimson sneakers was only visible through the overshoes, Tom was sure that once the overalls were removed they would match perfectly with his shirt or trousers. "Morning, Jill. Sorry to drag you here on the big weekend. Did you talk to Becky when you came?"

"Of course. She told me that Mr. Brooks usually locks the door of the study, so I'm looking forward to finding out the secrets hidden there." Jill said, rubbing her hands. "Brooks told us his computer is password protected, will it be difficult to deal with?" Tom asked. Hearing this, Jill just lifted his chin with a complacent expression, and Tom knew what answer he would hear without guessing. "At least the power is back. I reckon the idiot next door broke the cable yesterday afternoon, so let's hope his digging gets under control today," Gill said.

"Tom, are you free?" Jumbo's voice cut through the din of the house.Everyone immediately quieted down—there must have been some major discovery.Tom bypassed Jill and went up the stairs two steps at a time, Becky close behind.They followed the sound to the master bedroom. "Quick, even by your standards. What did you find?" Jumber was obviously holding something in his hand, but in a second Tom was stunned by the confusion in the room. "My God, did a tsunami happen here and I missed it?" he asked. "Ah, that's the first thing. Becky—Is it all right for me to call you Becky, Inspector Robinson?" Jumbo didn't stop to ask for permission, but continued: "Becky suspects There's been a fight here before, but I think it's all done by one person. I think he was standing here," Jumbo took a big step to the left, "pull out the drawers and throw the whole thing The rooms are all, there doesn't seem to be much that has been put back. The bed has marks of someone sitting on it, and the only women's clothes ripped from the hangers. So I'd say it's our Mr. Brooks throwing a tantrum .”

Judging by the state of the room, "flaming" is the most understated word for this year. "Do you think he's looking for something?" asked Tom. "I'm skeptical, because I'm pretty sure he's in a hurry. But..." Jonbote paused, looked around the room, and smiled again, "If he's been looking for something, he's doing it for nothing. Just like you As you can see, some of the drawers were pulled out and turned upside down, but some were just tossed aside and stood quietly. Take a look at what we found glued to the bottom of one of the drawers."

Jumbo handed Tom two plastic evidence bags, each containing a passport.Tom looked up at Jumbo, doubt written on his face. "One British passport has Olivia Brooks' name on it and the other has Jasmin Jahhand's name on it. Another thing I don't know if it's related is that both passports have They are all stamped with Iranian visa stamps dated last October." Both Becky and Tom drove to the scene of the crime, so they had to go back to the case room separately, which disappointed Tom because he could have had Becky as an adviser.They already knew that Olivia and Jasmine had passports. Although Robert had made it clear that they didn't, it was obvious that Olivia had hidden the passports and didn't want him to find out.Assuming they all went to Iran last October, who looked after the two boys?

Tom saw no sign of Robert lying when he said neither Olivia nor the children needed passports.Olivia must have hidden them, and Tom was sure Robert didn't know anything about Iranian visas.It only took Jumbo about five minutes to find them, and God knows what else he'd find in that house.It didn't take long for Tom to find out, the phone beeped and the name "Jumbo" flashed on the screen. "Hey, Jumbo, don't tell me you cracked this case in an hour," said Tom half-jokingly. "Huh, you'll be amazed at the slimy little bits we found under the rocks here. You'll find out when you talk to Jill. He's been jumping up and down with excitement and made my boys climb a Ladder in the morning." "Ladder?" Tom asked in surprise. "What the hell does a ladder have to do with his computer?" "Leave that to Jill, I don't want to upstage him. But really, Tom, for a moment, I don't really like that feeling, I can't really say why, but it just feels like we're about to split Layers of filthy inside, find out what happened in this house." Having said that, Jonbot paused, and Tom heard him take a deep breath, as if trying to clear up the chaotic guesses in his mind, let him Keep your head clear, "Anyway, I'm going to find out the truth instead of guessing here. By the way, have we got the credit card and bank records yet?" "Not yet. We just applied. Why are you asking about that?" "Nothing, it's just that I'm particularly interested in what they bought from John Lewis right now. We found an empty John Lewis shopping bag in the trash, and that was about the only thing in there, I know you've been Just noticed. A couple of things upstairs had the John Lewis label on the packaging as well, and in the kids' room there was a duvet with a fringe and some pink pajamas that I'm guessing were Their daughter's." "Are these suspicious items?" Tom couldn't help but asked in doubt. Suddenly, Jumbo's loud laughter came from the phone. "Huh, you must think I'm crazy, Tom. No, but they might have been bought with something else. One of my girls was checking the kitchen and found all the knives on the knife block, all in the same place. That was right. However, being a bright-eyed, OCD girl—just my type—she took them all out and sent them in for fingerprinting. She also noticed that they were Sabatiers brand knives—the ones that usually have three round steel rivets on the handle, you know? Well, almost all of them are Sabatiers Diamant knives, Except for one. That knife looked almost like the others, but it was actually a John Lewis." Tom was deeply admired after hearing this.That girl must be very observant, not because it's worth noting. "I hear the whirring of your head, Tom," Jumbo yelled into the phone, over the sound that seemed to be drilling something, "but the most interesting thing is that all Sabati Olivia's fingerprints were on all of Erles's knives, and no one else's except one. That knife had only Robert's fingerprints on it, and only one set of fingerprints, and it may have been cleaned very thoroughly and later Only Robert has touched it, so it could have been a new knife." Before he could speak, Tom knew what he was going to say. "There wasn't a trace of blood on that knife, nor on any of the others, we've checked them all. I think it was replaced though, and it was recently. That's why I wanted to make sure if it was Robert who bought it back. , and if so, when did you buy it. As soon as we get everything else done, I'll bring the luminol reagents to the house. I don't think we have much choice, do we?" Jumbo had stopped smiling now, and Tom could hear it in his voice. "You think you'll find blood?" Tom whispered. "Honestly, I don't know either. It's just that the knife has left me with a lot of doubts. Like where did the original one in the set go. And it turns out that no one has seen or heard of it in over two weeks. We've heard about Olivia Brooks - except maybe her husband, but I don't think we can trust a word of that person." "I'm all for it," replied Tom. "I'll let you know what's going on." Just as Tom pulled into the parking lot, Jumbo hung up. Tom thought to himself, God, if I let that bastard get away, don't let him kill them all.