It’s firmly my opinion that AK left intending not to return to the works party. I’ve seen too many clues now that all point to this. I obviously don’t have enough information to know whether that means he was
a) going home
b) starting a new life
c) thinking of ending his life,
but I have a very strong inclination it was (a) and I’ve seen nothing to suggest (c). In fact swinging along as he does in the footage suggests active purpose and not heavy depression, or even feeling ill. I also think (b) is not likely at all. I don’t think he’d make a wrong turning on leaving the Lamb and I think he would have a very well thought out plan if that was the case. Continuing with (b), 18 minutes between the E&C sightings doesn’t seem long enough to have reached a destination and had something happen which has altered his plan, for him to come back.
So the clues that add up to not intending to return to the party, for me, are –
1) his difficult journey to Lewes. 2.5 hours makes me think he is anticipating a difficult journey home. Trains were back to normal I think, but I don’t know if AK knew that, given earlier cancellations and track flooding.
2) if he was intending on buying anything for the group, let’s just say for this instance a takeaway, he would know they were waiting on his return, they would probably not move on until he came back, he would not have walked past Fisher Street (even if he missed it he would know he had as soon as he got to Market St and doubled back to them), they would probably have been alarmed in case he’d come to harm or was lost and not left Lewes without looking for him, he would probably not have assumed they would wait for him much longer if the stint in the Lamb was coming to its probable conclusion around 20 minutes after he left, and he would have been worried about losing them in an unfamiliar town, instead of heading off in a completely different direction and not being seen again inside the Lamb or outside the E&C looking for them. For some of these reasons I don’t think he was looking for cigarettes either.
3) apparently his mates can’t remember anything so I have to wonder if he had told one of them he was leaving to go home that is also something they wouldn’t remember.
4) I don’t think it’s coincidence his phone went off just after he left the Lamb, the timing is too close to his departure for me to think it wasn’t linked and intentional. I think he may have wanted to conserve battery if he might need it later for sorting out a way of getting home, if there was a hold up on his journey, like contacting Lucy or calling a cab when he got closer to home, or he just didn’t want his mates calling him because he felt bad for not staying.
5) the extra money he would have spent on his journey to Lewes. 2.5 hours in a taxi would be an unexpected expense, for what is normally a journey of half that duration, at an expensive time of the year for a man with children and financial constraints. He might have been out of money except for his return fares, he probably budgeted for the night and they might have started chipping in for more drinks for instance, instead of each buying whole rounds. His anxious look could be to do with worrying about flooding and getting home on time and having no money on him to stay, and this could be why he didn’t have a drink at the Lamb.
6) He looks purposeful, even if he appears to have made a wrong turn at E&C, a mistake would also be purposeful until he realised he’d gone the wrong way
7) data usage seems to tally with looking for information which could be linked to maps but I doubt it with the direction he first took, and the next direction he took after that, without putting his phone back on in the meantime for another check of where he was. There is a bus stop for the 132 bus not far past the E&C at The Avenue mini-roundabout. He could have just stood there for a while having a smoke and waiting for a bus, but it only operates on Sundays and only takes you around Lewes, including Lewes bus station. So then he’s realised he needs to get back to the town centre. I believe he was heading for the bus stop close to the war memorial, and this popped up as one of the closest bus stops to the Lamb when he was accessing data.
So I theorize he was looking for a bus. Whether he actually got on one, one that they haven’t yet checked, or made a different decision when he got there is another matter. The phone not coming back on even once suggests to me he didn’t get on a bus. I don’t know how much of a heavy phone user he was but most people seem to check their phones when they have the opportunity or are idle for any length of time. Perhaps he has darted down one of those narrow dark lanes near the bus stop to relieve himself. Walwers Lane or Church Twitten. But after that?? Not using his cards or phone makes me think foul play.
