I was forced to agree. The cabinet beneath where the television set had stood was open and DVDs and CDs had been spread about the floor. The television set itself had been hurled from the cabinet and now lay face down on the carpet. Both occasional tables had been overturned and the lamps that had been on them thrown to the floor. Two uplighters had suffered a similar fate and were lying across the floor, their glass shades shattered.
The dining room was also a scene of devastation; drawers had been pulled out of the sideboard and left on the floor, and their contents – mainly table linen – scattered over the thick pile carpet. There were pictures on the floor, too, while those that had been left on the walls were askew. In addition, a wine bottle had been emptied on to the carpet. An open, half-full whisky bottle stood on the sideboard. As Mortlock had jokingly suggested, it was a supermarket brand.
Detective Sergeant Flynn appeared in the doorway of the room and for a moment or two stood surveying the substantial damage.
‘Jesus!’ he exclaimed. ‘It’s just like a bomb’s hit this place. Looks like a job for the anti-terrorist boys, guv?’ he suggested jocularly.
‘It’s one hell of a mess, Charlie.’
‘Our intruder certainly had a go at this lot,’ said Flynn, ‘and the upstairs is probably the same.’
‘Apart from the second bedroom, I understand. At least that’s where Mrs Gregory is at the moment, so I’m told. I wonder why the burglar left that room undisturbed?’
‘I suppose he must’ve found what he was looking for,’ said Flynn.
‘It took him long enough,’ I mused aloud. ‘And I wonder what he was after? I’ve never come across a villain who made this much mess. I very much doubt that he was a professional. No, Charlie, there’s more to this screwing than the usual sort of break-in. He must’ve been searching for something specific.’
‘Maybe Mrs Gregory can shed some light on it, guv,’ said Kate. ‘It could’ve been something that the Gregorys didn’t want the rest of the world to know about, like a naughty home-made porno DVD or something the intruder could blackmail them with.’
‘Slow down, Kate,’ I said, although I thought she might have a point. But it didn’t do to jump to a hasty conclusion before we’d analysed all the evidence. And there was plenty of that about.
We were joined by Dave Poole.
‘What’s this neighbour, Sidney Miller, got to say about all this, Dave?’ I asked.
‘He strikes me as being quite a good witness, guv,’ Dave began. ‘He said that at about eleven forty-five, just as he was preparing to go to bed, he heard a woman screaming. Being a hot night, all his windows were open and so, he later discovered, were some in the Gregorys’ house, but only the upstairs ones. He quickly worked out that the screams were coming from the Gregorys’ place. When he got here, he found that the front door was open and Mrs Gregory was lying on the hall floor just inside. He said she was naked and bound with rope around her wrists and ankles. He untied her, and she told Miller that about an hour earlier a man had broken in, grabbed her and then tied her up and gagged her. She then said that the man left, but it took her some considerable time to dislodge the gag from her mouth, and that’s when she started screaming.’
‘She said the man left?’
‘That’s what Miller said she’d told him, guv.’
‘Did you take a written statement, Dave?’
‘Not yet. Miller looked about all in, so I told him to go to bed and that someone would call on him later today to get it all down in writing.’
‘Any idea what Miller does for a living?’
‘I didn’t ask, guv, but I expect he’s something to do with an airline or a hotel. From what he was saying, it seems that a lot of the people who live in this area have jobs in and around Heathrow. In fact, he mentioned that Mrs Gregory is an airline stewardess, long haul, and is away from home more often than she’s here.’
‘What do we know about our murder victim?’
‘His name’s Clifford Gregory, and Miller thought that he might be an accountant, but he’s not sure,’ Dave said. ‘However, he’s fairly certain he’s not employed by an airline because he works at home most of the time.’
‘We’ll see if he’s got anything to add to that when we talk to him later today. In the meantime, I’ll interview Mrs Gregory if she’s sufficiently recovered. In the circumstances, Kate, I think it might be better if you came with me. She’s probably a bit fragile after an experience like this and might be more responsive to a woman officer.’