Free The Mammoth Book of Unsolved Crimes by Roger Wilkes Page B

been abandoned in favour of the continuity of the children’s education here.
    Only one couple, Lesley and Andy Bryant, seem to have had any kind of regular contact with Janet Brown and that too began through the association with their respective daughters. The Bryants have a smallholding just up the lane from Hall Farm and Lesley formed a friendship with Janet that never extended to confidences but got as far as them discussing going on holiday together. The Bryants thought Janet a bubbly woman and had no sense of any disquiet in her life. They could not imagine her having enemies and certainly not a lover. Andy thought Grahaem a bit remote, but then, he considered, perhaps all doctors are like that.
    The Bryants knew the locals sometimes speculated about the solidity of Mr and Mrs Brown’s marriage but heard nothing from Janet to indicate any problem and, taking as they found, could only say that the couple seemed happy enough together. Andy sometimes said that it wouldn’t do for him, that kind of long-distance relationship, but that was the Browns’ business. Lesley knew how much Janet’s work meant to her. Janet had recently gone back to work after many years spent raising the children. She had originally trained as a nurse and midwife but had returned as a medical researcher. When she died she was approaching the end of a contract with an Oxford University health project, collecting data from hospital records about women who had successfully conceived after problems with infertility. It had been solitary work, spending hours at a desk in a hospital records department, going through files. But she had become known to the records’ staff and known to her colleagues back at the project’s office. She had enjoyed the job and had joined a course to develop her research skills, hoping her contract would be renewed. Her manager had wanted to keep her on but could make no promises until he was sure of further funding. Her position was in this limbo when she died. It was only later that the money which would have guaranteed her future employment came through.
    After a couple of months there were no leads to the identity of Janet Brown’s killer. Not even the (anonymous) offer of a £ 10,000 reward had helped. The inquiry was reviewed by other senior officers and Detective Superintendent Short made presentations of the case to groups of detectives. None of this made very much difference and there was still too much that defied logic and good sense. Short then decided to seek an independent view of the case and approached the forensic psychologist Paul Britton who has been among the pioneers of offender-profiling techniques. Short was not put off by Britton’s involvement with the aborted case against Colin Stagg over the killing of Rachel Nickell. It is, after all, detectives who lead, and take responsibility for inquiries, not psychologists. Paul Britton was only one more resource in any inquiry.
    Britton came down from his base in Leicester to meet Short and visit Hall Farm. He studied maps, plans, charts, the scene-of-crime video and photographs and witness statements which the investigation had produced. Short was pleased that Britton largely shared his view of the case and the possible motives behind it. Short was not prepared to share these motives with me, on the grounds that they remained speculative and might be confusing or misleading to anyone reading them who might have information about the case. He likened this to an inaccurate, or speculative, artist’s impression of an offender which, if published, could prevent the real offender being caught. He was, however, willing to arrange a meeting for me with Paul Britton. And so, we spent a couple of hours together one afternoon, in an office upstairs at Thame Police Station, not far from Radnage, where the incident room for the inquiry had been based.
    It was a difficult meeting, with the senior detective anxious to keep a grip on the speculation and Britton