Search of Puffin Cottage uncovers blood and hair samples

The search of Puffin Cottage is the point at which a painstaking murder investigation yields concealed physical evidence: beneath butter in Dan Padgett’s refrigerator, Kate Miskin and Francis Benton-Smith find Nathan Oliver’s labelled blood sample and a separate hair sample. The discovery connects Padgett’s cottage to evidence that had been missing from the investigation, while birth certificates hidden elsewhere in the cottage expose a secret about his family. The search’s quiet, methodical progress ends abruptly when someone appears at the kitchen window and blocks the door, converting a successful search into a dangerous encounter.

Timing and Stakes

Kate and Benton delay entering Puffin Cottage until the time is right. Searching before daylight, while the other cottages are dark, would make their light conspicuous and risk drawing attention. More importantly, if the evidence is still inside, Padgett might remove or destroy it as soon as he realizes a search is under way. The investigators therefore move quickly and quietly, crossing the headland from Kate’s apartment and using the clearly labelled keys Rupert Maycroft had given them. Kate locks the cottage behind them, preserving the secrecy of their entry.

The search also carries an emotional charge that Kate recognizes. She has long disliked the invasion of a victim’s private space, with its intimate and often pathetic remains, and usually feels an irrational guilt while searching. This time, remembering Adrian Boyde’s mutilated face, her unease gives way to anger and hope. That change does not make her less careful: when the search produces evidence, she insists on photographs and controlled handling rather than allowing triumph to interrupt procedure.

The Cottage and the First Concealment

The cottage’s familiar, dispiriting order has been disturbed. In the growing light, Kate sees that the ornaments have been cleared from the mantelpiece, the bookcase is empty, and two cardboard boxes stand nearby. These changes suggest that Padgett has begun clearing the room, sharpening the urgency of finding anything he might otherwise carry away. The sitting room remains gloomy behind its drawn curtains, as if still in mourning, but the newly emptied surfaces show that its contents are no longer settled in place.

Benton explains that he borrowed one of Nathan Oliver’s novels from the library and read it through the night. He describes a scene in which a sixteen-year-old girl is raped on a school trip, noting the novel’s simultaneous treatment of the man’s and the girl’s perspectives. Kate declines to pursue the literary discussion and directs attention to the bread oven in the fireplace. Its iron door is shut and its interior dark; Benton uses a torch from Kate’s murder case while she asks him to test whether any bricks are loose.

Working at the grouting with his penknife, Benton dislodges a brick and finds a cavity. Inside is an envelope containing two birth certificates: one for Martha Padgett, born on 6 June 1962, and one for Dan Padgett, born on 9 March 1978. The space for the father’s name on Dan’s certificate is blank. The documents make the concealed family question concrete without answering it on their own. Their hiding place, behind a removable brick in the oven, shows that Padgett treated them as evidence he needed to keep out of sight.

Evidence Hidden in the Refrigerator

The search continues into the small kitchen, where clean surfaces and a tidy floor suggest a room that may have gone unused for weeks. The refrigerator complicates that impression: it contains butter, milk, and half a loaf of wholemeal bread. Kate checks the eight remaining slices individually and finds nothing pressed between them. She then examines the butter. At her request, Benton finds a meat skewer, and she tests the tub carefully; it enters less than half an inch before meeting something concealed inside.

From this moment the pair document their actions. Kate asks for photographs of the refrigerator and the tub, then removes the surface layer of butter. A sheet of foil lies beneath it, covering two small foil-wrapped packages. One contains a phial of blood whose label still bears Nathan Oliver’s name and the date; the other contains a hair sample wrapped in tissue paper. Benton observes that the handwritten name and date should allow the blood to be identified, even though Padgett has not kept the paperwork describing the tests Guy Staveley wanted performed.

The location and packaging make the find more than a casual discovery of stored material. The samples are concealed beneath food in a refrigerator whose contents otherwise seem inconsistent with the kitchen’s apparent disuse. Kate and Benton photograph the items, including the refrigerator and the rubbish bin, place the phial, hair, and butter tub together in an exhibit bag, and seal it. Both sign the label, creating a documented record of the evidence they have recovered.

The Search Becomes a Confrontation

The bin adds a further, striking detail to the search. Among its contents are broken china figurines and torn pages; the head of a figurine lies on the pages. Benton identifies the remains as the wreckage of his mother’s keepsakes and a paperback by Oliver, linking two kinds of destruction in Padgett’s cottage. The objects do not by themselves explain his actions, but their presence makes the cottage’s disorder more revealing than its otherwise clean surfaces.

As Benton finishes photographing the evidence, Kate and he notice a fleeting face at the kitchen window. They cannot be certain what first alerted them; they register two frightened eyes and a shorn head before the figure disappears. They hurry to the door, but the delay in finding the right key costs them several seconds. When Kate tries to insert it, the lock will not accept it: the person outside has blocked the door with his own key.

The search therefore ends on a double reversal. Inside the cottage, the hidden samples turn suspicion into material evidence and the certificates expose a family secret; outside, the person who has apparently discovered the search prevents the investigators from leaving normally. The episode’s suspense arises from the contrast between painstakingly controlled evidence handling and the sudden loss of control at the exit. The recovered items are secured, but their discovery has also made the investigation’s danger immediate.