The Setup
Detective Constable Shelley of the Thames Valley Police is investigating the murder of Mr Brian Pagett, a second-hand car dealer, found bludgeoned in his showroom on the Botley Road in Oxford at 7:15am on Monday 11th November 1974. The last confirmed sighting of Pagett alive was at 5:30pm on Sunday, when he closed the showroom. His estranged wife, Mrs Karen Pagett, has provided a detailed statement of her movements that evening. DC Shelley has checked the times against known facts and found an impossibility.
CID CASE NOTES — DC R. SHELLEY Thames Valley Police, St Aldates, Oxford Re: Death of Brian Pagett, 10th November 1974
Interviewed Karen Pagett (estranged wife, currently residing at 14 Marlborough Road, Grandpont) at 1030hrs on 11/11/74. She gave the following account of her movements on Sunday evening:
- 1700: Left her flat on Marlborough Road. Walked to the Odeon Cinema on George Street to see The Sting (confirmed showing: 1730 start).
- 1730-1945: Watched the film at the Odeon.
- 1945: Left the cinema. Walked to the Randolph Hotel on Beaumont Street for a drink with her friend, Mrs Janet Cole.
- 2000-2100: Drinks with Mrs Cole in the Randolph bar. (Mrs Cole confirms by telephone: 'Karen arrived about eight, we had two gin and tonics each, she left around nine.')
- 2100: Left the Randolph. States she walked home to Marlborough Road, arriving at approximately 2130.
MY OBSERVATIONS:
The Botley Road showroom is roughly ten minutes' walk west from the Randolph Hotel. Mrs Pagett's route home from the Randolph to Grandpont would not normally take her past the showroom — she would head south, not west — unless she made a deliberate detour.
However, the critical issue is the gap in her evening. The Odeon on George Street is a three-minute walk from the Randolph on Beaumont Street. Mrs Pagett states the film ended at 1945 and she arrived at the Randolph at 2000. That is a fifteen-minute gap for a three-minute walk.
More importantly: I telephoned the Odeon. The Sting has a running time of 129 minutes. A 1730 showing would end at approximately 1939 — consistent with her statement of leaving at 1945. But the manager informed me that due to a projector fault on Sunday evening, the 1730 showing did not begin until 1750, meaning the film would not have ended until approximately 2000 hours.
If the film ended at 2000, Mrs Pagett could not have been at the Randolph at 2000. Mrs Cole confirms Karen arrived 'about eight.' This means either Karen did not watch the full film — leaving the cinema early, with up to thirty minutes unaccounted for — or she was never at the Odeon at all. The Botley Road showroom is a twelve-minute walk from the Odeon. She had time to visit the showroom and still reach the Randolph by eight o'clock.
No alibi witness for the cinema — she says she attended alone.
Recommend bringing Mrs Pagett in for formal interview under caution.
The Question
What impossibility in Karen Pagett's timeline does DC Shelley identify, and what does it suggest?