‘You mean besides having a pathological hatred of women?’ Bronski remarked.
‘There is that.’
32
Gus had nearly lost it when the officer left the room, but he knew he had to stay composed. Finally the door to the interview room opened and Officer Brent came back in, followed by another man.
The second man held out his hand, ‘Mr Wojinski, I’m Detective Malin, I’m investigating the crash this morning. I understand you are concerned that one of the cars might be your wife’s? Could you please confirm the make of your wife’s car?’
‘A Volkswagen Beetle, cream coloured, two years old, good condition. She’s a very safe driver.’ Gus couldn’t help but put up a defence of his wife and her driving skills.
Officer Brent looked at Detective Malin, waiting for him to explain what they knew so far.
‘Mr Wojinski, both cars were burned pretty badly in the crash and we are still trying to identify exact details, but as you know, the Beetle is a distinctive shape, and yes, we believe that one of the vehicles was a VW beetle. We also found the remains of a woman’s body in the car.’
Gus Wojinski went very pale, and his shoulders started to shake. He tried to speak but found that he couldn’t. Describing his beautiful wife as ‘remains’ was more than he could bear.
‘Sir, we can’t be sure, but we will do everything we can to let you know as soon as possible if the victim is your wife. It would help if we could access her dental records.’
Gus found that he couldn’t reply. He tried to say something but no words came out.
Three hours later, Gus poured himself a large scotch in their kitchen. Carol’s parents were travelling down from Maine and his mother had booked a flight for the next morning from Florida to be with her son. He kept trying to convince himself that it was all a mistake, but the reality was that it had to be Carol in that car. There was no other explanation as to why she wasn’t there with him on the day they were waiting to learn if they were going to be parents.
33
The hospital parking lot was nearly full and Bronski knew he was lucky to get a space with afternoon visiting in full swing. Officer Collins was sitting outside Angela’s room as the two detectives walked down the corridor. Although he knew both detectives by sight, he nevertheless asked for their IDs. Annie was impressed with his thoroughness. It might be needed.
‘So who’s been here today?’ Annie asked, as she nodded at the closed door of Angela’s room.
‘Captain Hegarty is in there now. He arrived at 10:00 and has been here most of the day. Doctors and nurses have been in and out. Jackie Winters was here this morning for about an hour.’
‘On her own?’ This time it was Bronski.
‘Yeah, and no sign of the other guy, Jim Moorcroft. But I understand he’s been banned from visiting, that right?’
Bronski nodded. ‘For now, at any rate.’
‘Oh, and that new priest, Father Loftus, was here again, his second visit. Only stayed a few minutes. He told me on his way out that he was praying for her. Captain Hegarty missed him by a minute or two. He’d gone for a coffee. I asked Father Loftus if he wanted to meet Mrs Goodman’s brother, but he said he had a number of other patients to see.’
‘Is that the same priest who was here the other day?’ Annie recalled previous mention of a visiting priest, and she couldn’t help thinking that Angela Goodman needed a miracle, never mind a priest giving her a blessing or whatever he did.
‘Yes, I was on duty then as well.’
‘Good. Keep up with the running log of everyone who enters this room. We still don’t have her attacker yet.’ Collins nodded and Annie and Bronski knocked softly and then let themselves into the room.
Annie introduced Charlie to Bronski and the two men shook hands. Charlie looked physically more tired than the last time Annie had seen him and she felt concerned about the strain this was having on him. Bronski appeared uncomfortable in the room. Annie had to admit that the noise of the machines was distracting and Angela looked worse than the last time they’d seen her. In this room, Annie was reminded that her brother Andrew was also lying in a hospital bed. If he woke up attached to lots of monitors and wires, he would start to pull them out, no matter how ill he was. Usually they had to keep him heavily sedated to prevent that. What would it be like for Angela Goodman if she came out of the coma?
‘Have you heard any more from the doctors?’ Annie asked, just as Charlie got up from his chair and offered it to her. She put her hand up to signal that she was OK standing. Bronski too was standing but Annie noticed that he was shifting uneasily on the opposite side of the room.
‘They are waiting for some more test results but they are hoping to reach a decision late this afternoon about whether they will operate again or not. They are going to discuss all the options with me, then I will have to decide, as her next of kin, what to do.’ Charlie hesitated for a moment before continuing. ‘I told her once that if I was ever sent home in that kind of state and she had to make a decision about me, just to let me go. I said I wouldn’t want to be kept alive artificially or end up in a persistent vegetative state. I said to tell them to switch off the machines.’ He was speaking in a very low voice and Bronski moved closer to hear him.
‘What did she say to that?’ Annie found herself asking.
‘Something like she could never make a decision to let me go, that she had promised my mother that she would always take care of me, that she would get another opinion, but she never said what I should do if it was the other way around.’ Hegarty looked at them both, but neither detective knew what to say in reply.
The three of them stayed quiet for the next few minutes, Charlie lost in his own thoughts and Annie and Bronski feeling responsible for Angela lying there and determined to find her attacker.
Finally Annie broke the silence. ‘Officer Collins said that Jackie Winters was here this morning.’
‘She’s been here every day. Takes some the burden off me, although I don’t suppose Angie knows that either one of us is here, but the doctors keep saying to talk to her. I only saw Jackie briefly. I went down to get us both a coffee and then she joined me in the canteen for a few minutes before she left to go back to work.’
Annie saw that his eyes were filling up. If Bronski hadn’t been there, she would have touched his arm but felt too embarrassed in front of Bronski. Yet, she knew she had to pursue something with him, in as gentle a way as she could.
‘Has Jackie mentioned anything about Jim Moorcroft?’
‘What do you mean? She lives with the guy, works with him. What are you asking exactly?’ He was paying close attention to her now and Annie didn’t want to make him suspicious yet. She wasn’t sure what Jim Moorcroft might have said to Jackie about being banned from the hospital room.
‘We’re just trying to understand a bit more about the relationship between Jim Moorcroft, your sister and Jackie Winters.’
‘What’s to understand? They’re all friends. Jim was the one who introduced Jackie to Angie. He was friends with Angie first, friends with both her and George. But I think Jackie is closer to Angie now. Sometimes they seem to me to be like sisters.’
Annie didn’t pursue the matter any further knowing that Charlie had a difficult night ahead of him. But she knew that she wanted to talk to Jackie Winters again and find out whether she was another victim of Jim Moorcroft’s.
Just as they were leaving, Charlie called after them. ‘Have you heard when I’ll be able to move into Angie’s?’
Annie looked at Bronski, but he waited for her to reply. ‘We’re still waiting for clearance from Glen Heaviley. Oh, and when we get it, we can put you in touch with a specialist cleaning company.’
‘Thanks, that would be a help.’
34
As the two
detectives walked out of the hospital, Annie suggested one more stop before they returned to the station. Bronski was sceptical. ‘She won’t want to see us at work. He’s in the same section, isn’t he?’
‘But they live together as well, so I think work is a better bet. I’ll telephone ahead and ask her to meet us in their canteen. She’ll have to think up some excuse to tell him, unless she wants to tell him the truth.’
As she’d suspected, Jackie Winters wanted to speak to them privately and suggested that they meet in the local mall after she finished work. She and Jim travelled to work in separate cars, so it wasn’t unusual for her to do some shopping on her way home.
Annie and Bronski were already in Starbucks when Jackie Winters walked through the door. For the first time, Annie noticed how slender she was; one of those women who looked like they needed to be protected by a man. It also stuck her, how alike Jackie Winters and Linda Moorcroft were physically. Annie wondered whether Jim chose that body shape on purpose. Jackie’s long hair was pulled tightly back into a ponytail, which made her look even younger. But her face was tense and Annie sensed that she would rather be anywhere else but meeting with them.
Bronski stood up as she approached the table. Five minutes earlier, Annie had selected the table with care, set back in the corner of the room, a fair distance from the next couple three tables away. It was important for them to be able to speak in relative privacy.
‘Can I get you something?’ Bronski enquired and Jackie noticed that the two detectives already had their coffees.
‘A skinny cappuccino, no chocolate on top,’ came the reply, as Jackie Winters slid the chair back.
Annie thought she would try and break the ice. ‘Nice mall: it’s the first time I’ve been here. I don’t recognise most of the women’s stores. They’re different from the ones I’m used to, although there are a few universal chain stores.’
‘I wouldn’t know. I have never been outside the US. I have no desire to travel to Europe either, so I will have to take your word for it.’ Jackie hadn’t so much as looked at Annie as she said those words, keeping an eye instead on Bronski as he approached their table with her drink. She also seemed to be scanning the whole coffee shop, perhaps anxious that one of their colleagues might be in there or pass by and see her.
‘One skinny cappuccino, hold the chocolate.’ Bronski placed the drink in front of Jackie who barely nodded a thank you. Bronski glanced at Annie to see if any start had been made, but her face indicated that he should take over.
‘Thank you for agreeing to meet us. We just had a few more questions to ask you, Ms Winters.’
‘I prefer to be addressed as Jackie.’
‘OK, Jackie, we interviewed your ‘partner’, if that is the correct terminology for Mr Moorcroft?’ Bronski faced her directly, but Jackie’s eyes were still scanning the room. She just nodded, so Bronski continued. ‘He may have told you that we found his fingerprints on a glass in the kitchen.’
‘So what? Jim and I were always at Angie’s. We probably saw her once or twice a week. Both our fingerprints will be all over her house. That glass could have been there for days.’
Annie felt that Jackie was getting overly defensive. Bronski was simply stating evidence found to date, so Annie decided to make an observation to test Jackie’s reaction. ‘Somehow, I doubt that, seeing how meticulous Angela Goodman was.’
‘So you knew her, did you? Seems to me that you are covering up for not believing her in the first place. If you had taken her seriously then maybe none of this would have happened. I certainly wouldn’t be sitting with you now.’
Annie knew there was an element of truth in what this woman was saying, but that wasn’t the point any more. The point was to find her attacker.
Bronski stepped in again. ‘Did he mention to you that he went into the house when he picked her up or when he dropped her off the night she was attacked?’
‘I can’t remember that we talked about that specifically but I think it is one of those things. We go in her house so often that you forget if you did it that one night or not. I remember he was running late that night because he was helping me get the meal ready and also had to pick Angie up. Sometimes Angie is waiting by the door and comes out just as you pull up in front of the house. Other times, you go up to the door. I know I have done both but I can’t say what Jim did that night. It wouldn’t surprise me if he couldn’t remember. It’s a bit like going out your door and forgetting if you locked it or not. Then if someone asks you directly, it’s even harder to remember. But surely, if he attacked Angie he would have been careful not to leave his fingerprints behind, wouldn’t he?’
‘Maybe he would simply have said that he’s in her house a lot and that his fingerprints were likely to be all over the house. And you would have corroborated that?’ Bronski was not giving up any ground.
Annie could tell that there was something about Jackie’s tone that Bronski didn’t like either. She felt it would be more fruitful to get into Jackie Winters’ relationship with Moorcroft and she was waiting for an opportune moment to bring that up. But for now, it was still Bronski’s interview.
‘Tell us again what Mr Moorcroft was like when he came home.’
Jackie straightened up in her chair. ‘I told you already, Detective. I was asleep. I loaded the last few things in the dishwasher, and got myself ready for bed. I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. I’d had enough wine.’
But Bronski interrupted her. ‘What time was that then?’
‘I don’t know the precise time. I wasn’t exactly keeping track. I guess it was well past 11. From the time they left the house until I fell asleep was probably less than 20 minutes. I was too tired to do more than I have just told you.’
‘And you didn’t wake up when Mr Moorcroft came in?’
‘No, he has a routine. Often he has another drink downstairs, puts some music on low. Doesn’t switch on loads of lights. I hardly ever hear him come in, if I go to bed when he’s out. I’m a deep sleeper.’
Annie decided it was time to change tack. ‘He sounds like a very considerate man.’
Jackie turned to her. ‘What is that supposed to mean?’
‘Most considerate men don’t have tempers.’ Annie was trying to see how Jackie would respond.
‘Are you giving me a lesson in men, Detective? Only I haven’t come here for that. If we’re finished, I have some shopping to do and I’d like to get started.’ Jackie appeared to be reaching for her handbag.
‘Just a couple more questions, so we don’t have to disturb you at work again.’ That got Jackie’s attention. ‘What is Mr Moorcroft’s temper like?’
‘I never said he had a temper and I don’t know what you are implying.’ Her tone was getting indignant.
‘What I am getting at is that we know Mr Moorcroft has a temper and that he has used it in the past. But maybe you didn’t know about that. Maybe he hasn’t shown it to you, or maybe it’s only a matter of time. I presume you know he was married before.’
‘He told me that soon after we met. But they split up a long time ago. He has no contact with her now. I don’t even know her name. He never talks about her. What are you saying? Is there more to it?’
‘He was arrested for an assault on his ex-wife. It would be in your interests to tell us if he is hurting you.’ But before Annie could finish her sentence, Jackie Winters grabbed her handbag and left without another word.
Neither detective tried to stop her.
‘Well, what do you make of that?’ Bronski asked, as he took the last swig of his coffee.
Annie pushed her cup away and commented, ‘I suspect she tries very hard not to be on the receiving end of his wrath. My bet is that she’s a victim too.’
‘I’ll drop you home unless you want to go back to the station for anything,’ said
Bronski as they got up to leave.
‘Thanks. I’ll take you up on the offer. I need to contact my mum. It’s close to 11pm in Scotland now. Hopefully she’ll be at home, not still at the hospital. She won’t mind if I wake her.’
Annie realised she’d been distracted most of the day and hadn’t given a lot of thought to Andrew. But she knew if there had been a crisis, her mother would have found a way of getting a message through to her, so no news was good news. Yet, she still had that pang of guilt about not being closer to home, even though Stockport, where she lived in England, was a good 500 miles from her mum and Andrew in Huntly. She also wondered if her ex-fiancé Paul might have been at the hospital. Sometimes it upset her how Paul stayed in touch with her mother. It was as if she couldn’t move on with her life, without him always being in the background. And she knew that her mother still hoped the two of them might get back together again.
‘So tomorrow we need to summarise where we are for Franconi. You still having doubts about Moorcroft?’ Bronski glanced at her while still watching the traffic.
‘Still that nagging doubt, but I’m not sure why. Wish we got more out of Jackie. Did you notice how similar she is body type wise, hair colour, and hair style to Linda Moorcroft?’
‘Now you mention it. You think he goes for a certain type, sort of fragile looking?’
‘Something like that.’
By the time they reached Annie’s place they’d decided how they were going to approach the review with Franconi. It still bothered them that a week after the assault they were no closer to charging anyone.
Det Annie Macpherson 01 - Primed By The Past Page 13
