Page 17 of Murder in the Family

CAMERA MOVES to JJ Norton. He’s in his forties, with short dark hair and glasses; he’s wearing a black shirt with ornate silver tips on the collar points. There’s a tattoo on the inside of his left forearm. It looks like a barcode but it’s actually his DNA profile. He has a stainless steel water bottle in front of him.

JJ NORTON

I’m JJ Norton. And no, I’m not going to tell you what JJ stands for. As for the boring stuff, I dig about at crime scenes for South Wales Police, which I’ve been doing for the last five years. Before that, basically more of the same.

GUY HOWARD

(addressing the team)

You all know why this case is so important to me, but this is the point where it stops being ‘my’ case and starts being yours.

I’m making this film, but I’m not ‘directing’ it. Where this story goes next is down to you, andwhere your investigations take you. Whatever place that proves to be.

From now on, the only time I’ll be in front of that camera—

(points)

—is as a witness. Or if there’s some other, very good reason. And the same goes for Nick, too. It’s your gig now.

CAMERA PANS round the team, and by the time it pans out again Guy and Nick have gone.

BILL SERAFINI

(looks round the table)

So – are we going to get started?

People shift in their chairs, reach for their papers. There are one or two glances between them. Evidently Bill has made an assumption of authority.

In my experience, it’s always best to start a cold case review with a summary of the facts—

ALAN CANNING

I’m happy to do that—

BILL SERAFINI

(interrupting)

With respect, Alan, I think at this stage we need a fresh pair of eyes. Your input is going to be invaluable, clearly, given your knowledge of Met procedures, but right now we need a clean slate. No preconceptions.

So, how about you, JJ? This case hinges on the forensics, after all.

JJ NORTON

(wryly)

Don’t they always. But happy to oblige.

(pulls his papers towards him)

OK, so what do we know?

We know that Luke Ryder was married to Caroline Howard. That they hadn’t known each other very long, and the marriage had been, shall we say, ‘controversial’, not least in her own family.

We know that Luke was alone in the house the night he died, babysitting Guy. Caroline was at a party and the two girls were at the cinema in Notting Hill Gate.

We know that it was raining heavily by the time the police got there, but there were still some dry patches of paving under the body, suggesting the rain startedafterhe fell.

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