Gilly MacMillan - What She Knew

But my anger was mostly directed at whoever painted those words, because it made me feel very, very afraid.

In my kitchen, in front of Nicky, I threw a plate across the room and it shattered into pieces against the wall. Another followed it, and then a mug, some cutlery. I threw everything as hard as I could and then I looked for more things to throw.

‘Don’t!’ shouted Nicky. ‘Don’t do this. Please!’

She manhandled me. She took hold of me, gripping my upper arms. She sat me down on one of the kitchen chairs and she knelt on the floor in front of me.

‘Where is he?’ I asked her. ‘What’s happening to him?’

‘Don’t,’ said Nicky again, her voice quieter this time, and her face close to mine. ‘Please don’t.’

I stopped resisting her, and I sobbed until my throat was sore and my eyes were swollen almost shut.

Fraser and I had a pre-meet before the whole team got together for the evening briefing. She was looking at her computer screen as I took a seat.

‘Woodley’s bringing in our friend Edward Fount of fantasy world fame in the morning,’ she said. ‘And Christopher Fellowes, the forensic chappie, has sent me a profile that we can use when we’re considering the non-family abduction option. You’ll not be surprised to hear that it’s an almost perfect description of Mr Fount.’

‘I still think he’s not our man.’

She took off her reading glasses to study me. ‘I know that, I take your point, but I can’t dismiss him on a hunch. This isn’t an episode of Columbo .’

In spite of everything, that made me smile. Columbo had been a favourite childhood show.

Fraser went on. ‘Can we run through who else we’re looking at? Rachel Jenner?’

‘Chris emailed me his thoughts on her.’

‘He’s been a busy boy today, which is good, because he’s expensive enough. He should have copied me in on that. Can I see it?’

I got the email up on my laptop, winced a little in anticipation of her reading the first paragraph.

Email

From: Christopher Fellowes ‹cjfellowes@gmail.com›

To: James Clemo ‹clemoj@aspol.co.uk›

24 October 2012 at 15:13

Re: Rachel Jenner

Jim

Thanks for your mail – good to hear from you.

I’ve had a chance to watch the footage from the press conference. Would it be terribly wrong of me to say WHAT A COLOSSAL BALLS-UP? I hope it’s not your neck that’s on the line for that one, but somebody’s ought to be. We’d worked up a good script for her. What a waste.

You wanted me to pull together some thoughts about Rachel Jenner as a potential suspect. Seeing as we don’t yet know whether this is an abduction, or a murder, I think the way forward for now is to keep in mind that these are very different crimes which throw up differing motives and therefore profiles. I’ve detailed these for you:

Family abduction

In my view this is only a small possibility in this case, because in the vast majority of family abductions a mother taking a child would keep the child with her, and both would travel somewhere where they felt the father would not be able to reach them or harm them. However, it is worth looking into whether other family members might have helped her to conceal the child, in order to keep him away from his father. Family abduction by a parent almost always takes place after a divorce where custody arrangements are disputed.

NB I am not excluding the possibility that another family member (i.e. somebody who is not a parent) could have taken Benedict, for motives of his or her own that don’t relate to the ones I’ve outlined above. That would be a separate scenario entirely.

Filicide

Much more complicated, this. Generally there are a few different motives, not all of which are relevant to this case. The two most likely to be relevant to Benedict Finch’s disappearance, in my view, are as follows:

Accidental filicide/battering– usually an impulsive act characterised by a loss of temper; often occurs in context of psychosocial stress and lack of support. Did she lose her temper with him in the woods? Or perhaps before they left home and hid his body somewhere en route?

Mentally ill filicide– complex this one. Filicide often seems like a rational act to these women; older children more likely to be victims. A large percentage of these women are already known to social services or mental health services and have pre-existing diagnoses that could include melancholia, manic depression, schizophrenia or assorted character disorders.

Munchausen’s Syndrome also worth considering here, in which case the family would certainly already be known to medical services, though probably unlikely if Dad is a medic.

Worth mentioning also two other categories:

Mercy killing– a murder committed out of love, usually to spare a child suffering, which could be caused by disease or perhaps the potential loss of a mother if the mother herself is contemplating suicide. It’s not unusual for a parent or parents to take their own life simultaneously in this scenario.

Spouse revenge filicide– the killing of a child in ‘revenge’ for something, often infidelity. The aim is to ‘get back’ at the spouse.

Please bear in mind that these are first thoughts only but they should give you something to go on. I’d be on the lookout for custody disputes, previously existing psychological or psychiatric issues; previous involvement with social services; mother’s predisposition to suicide; revenge impulses pertaining to her husband (did he cheat on her?); and check out her support network. No doubt you’ve done many of those things already.

I would need to come and meet Rachel Jenner if you want to progress these any further in terms of getting a detailed psychological picture of her. On the basis of what I saw in the press conference, she certainly possesses the capacity for uncontrolled outbursts of anger and a potential impulse for revenge (i.e. her threats to Ben’s abductor).

Of course none of this rules out the possibility that the perpetrator of this crime (whether it be abduction or murder) is a non-family member – which DI Fraser and I have spoken about. I’m currently formally writing up my thoughts on that and will send directly to DI Fraser and cc you in on.

Please give me a call if you’d like to discuss.

Best, Chris

Dr Christopher J Fellowes

Senior Lecturer in Psychology

University of Cambridge

Fellow of Jesus College

‘Forward it to me please, Jim,’ she said once she’d read it. ‘There’s some good stuff in there. I’ll edit and pass on to the rest of the team. We should also take note of his point about the wider family.’

‘The sister interests me, but that’s all the wider family there seems to be. There’s also a friend, Laura Saville, who Emma’s met at the house.’

‘Has she been interviewed?’

‘Not yet, but she’s a priority. And on top of that the school have sent over a very long list of people that Ben could have had contact with.’

‘Anybody stand out?’

‘I met with the head teacher and Ben’s class teacher. They were very obviously stressed out, but trying to be helpful. The Head’s a little defensive I’d say, it’s obviously a nightmare for him, especially because he’s only been in the job since the beginning of this school year. They raised one or two concerns about Rachel Jenner that you already know about.’

‘You mean the broken limb that the child had?’

‘Yes, but I can’t see any evidence of wrongdoing there. I do think she’s been depressed though, that’s pretty clear, and it might be the most significant thing from our point of view.’