Hindsight (9781921997211)

by Casey, Melanie

  ‘Great, saves me doing it.’

  ‘If Sorenson will let me, I’ll help you do some of the leg work. What time are our friends from CS due?’

  ‘Eleven, I think,’ Phil said.

  ‘Sorenson is probably in by now. I’d better tell her what happened with Cass, while you make a few phone calls and try to get the lists.’

  ‘Yeah, fingers crossed that these new age types are into record keeping.’

  Sorenson was in her office and saw them return. She beckoned to Ed.

  ‘Better go give her the good news.’

  ‘Yeah and get myself officially removed from the case.’

  Sorenson demanded every detail about Cass’s visions. Then he told her about his own investigations into the expo angle, carefully leaving out the bit about foraging through Susan’s case file.

  ‘It seems we’ve got a serial. I’m going to include Susan as one of the potential vics, so I’m sorry, but you’re off the case,’ she said.

  ‘Can I at least help Phil chase the expo records?’

  Sorenson frowned. ‘I don’t suppose there’s any harm. When Byrnes and Rawlinson get here you can attend the briefing to assist with handover but after that you’re off. I’ll keep you informed of any developments just like any other relative of a vic; no privileged access to information, and absolutely no participation in the case. Got it?’

  ‘Got it, and thanks.’

  ‘Don’t thank me. If the killer had struck again last night I’d have hung you out to dry for not telling me sooner. Let’s hope we don’t get any reports of missing persons today.’

  He tried to read her expression. He couldn’t quite tell if she meant it or not. He thought she probably did.

  ‘See what you and Phil can come up with before CS arrives. It would be nice to have a shortlist of possible suspects.’

  ‘Wouldn’t it just?’ He walked out of her office and back to the squad room. Phil was hovering over the fax machine.

  ‘What’s up?’ Ed asked.

  ‘Spoke to the organiser of the 2009 expo. Nice woman, off with the fairies but thankfully her fairies are into keeping records. Nothing electronic of course but she told me she has handwritten records of all the stallholders, the organising committee and contractors they hired for security, waste disposal and everything else.’

  ‘She’s faxing it through?’

  ‘Yes, her neighbour has a fax machine. She’s taking her special book over there now.’

  ‘Her special book?’

  ‘Yes, apparently it’s covered in blue velvet, blue is the colour of communication, you know.’

  ‘Right.’

  ‘Personally I don’t give a shit what it’s covered in as long as what’s inside has the information we’re looking for.’

  ‘What about the one Susan went to?’

  ‘The woman I spoke to sounded more in touch with this millennium. She had electronic records but they were stored on disks and she needed to find them.’

  ‘She knew where they were?’

  ‘She thought so. She was going to look and ring me back.’

  The fax machine chugged into life. They stood there, holding their breath as the pages started to churn out. Phil snatched the first one off and turned it over. It was covered in neat lines of cursive; name, address, phone number, the type of stall they were running and their payment details. It was a beautiful thing. They stood grinning at each other. The fax machine went silent. Phil grabbed the rest of the sheets and they went back to their desks.

  ‘Give me half and I’ll start running some names as well,’ Ed said.

  ‘Are you allowed to?’ Phil asked, jerking her head in the direction of Sorenson’s office.

  ‘Yeah, I have the nod to help you until Byrnes and Rawlinson show up. After that I’m officially the invisible man.’

  They sat in front of their computers. For the next half an hour they plugged away in silence, entering name after name and searching for criminal records. Other officers came and went around them. Samuels hovered for a while, being nosy, but they both ignored him and eventually he drifted away. Phil’s phone buzzed, making them jump.

  ‘Detective Steiner. Ah, Cheryl, thanks for calling back. How did you go? Excellent! That’s great. Can you send them through? You can? Terrific.’

  She reeled off her email address and ended the call.

  ‘She found them?’

  ‘Yep, all the records were on one disk, stallholders, contractors and organisers. She’s sending it all through now.’

  ‘The gods might finally be smiling on us,’ Ed said.

  ‘I really hope so. Here it is. I’ll print it out now.’

  Ed waited impatiently for the files to print. He grabbed the sheets.

  ‘They’re not as thorough as the velvet book woman’s but they’re enough to start some cross-checks.’

  ‘Yeah, we can narrow our search to the ones that were at both.’

  ‘I’ll read off this list and you check the velvet book for matches.’

  They were both rigid with tension. They were on the hunt and could sense they were getting close. Slowly and meticulously they started going through the two lists. Every time they hit a common name, Ed made a note. After about twenty minutes they were done. They had seventeen names plus two companies that had provided services for both; one did waste disposal, the other promotional materials.

  ‘We don’t have time to look at the companies but I reckon we can run the other names before CS show up,’ Phil said.

  ‘Let’s do it. I’ve already run a couple. Split the rest and let’s get moving.’

  They frantically started to plug the details in. Half an hour later, they were finished.

  ‘I got one with a DUI, one with a sealed juvie record and one with an assault. You?’ Phil asked.

  ‘I only got one, but it’s a good one. Jason Weissman, thirty-one, restraining orders, assault, sexual assault. He’s a real gem and you want to know the best bit? He’s practically local. He lives in Mount Compass.’ Ed sat back, his eyes burning with a fierce intensity.

  ‘That’s got to be our guy. What did he do at the expos?’ Phil asked.

  Ed rummaged through the papers. ‘Velvet book has him down as a reiki massage therapist.’

  ‘Great, just the sort of guy you want giving women massages. Did Susan have a massage?’ She asked the question reluctantly.

  Ed sat there for a few seconds, staring into space. ‘I can’t remember her mentioning it but she liked a good massage.’

  Phil sighed. ‘I’m really sorry, Ed.’

  ‘Yeah, me too but at least we’re gonna get the bastard,’ Ed said.

  ‘Yep, when the goons get here we can ask them to look into the case files and see if there’s anything about the other vics attending expos. With a bit of luck we can get another hit.’

  ‘Yeah, and you can start calling Janet Hodgson’s colleagues and see if they remember her going to anything like that. You never know, we might just get the full set if we’re really lucky.’

  ‘Fingers crossed, but we should push Sorenson to let us bring this guy in for questioning even without the others,’ Phil said.

  ‘Bring Cass in too and see if she can do an unofficial ID on the guy.’

  ‘You’re kidding right?’ Phil snorted. ‘Any ID she gave wouldn’t mean shit.’

  ‘Maybe not, but she could at least give us some kind of confirmation that we had the right guy.’

  ‘I suppose so. Let me think about it. I’m still coming to grips with all that psychic shit.’

  ‘Oh great, it’s glum and glummer,’ Phil muttered, taking in the grim expressions on Detectives Byrnes and Rawlinson’s faces as they arrived. ‘So, you’re glad to be back here then?’

  ‘Couldn’t be more delighted,’ Byrnes said.

  Sor
enson noticed them and stepped out of her office. She was quick off the mark, not wanting any slanging matches before the briefing.

  ‘Morning.’ She nodded at the CS detectives. ‘Let’s go into the meeting room. We’ve got a lot of ground to cover.’

  They settled themselves around the table; Byrnes and Rawlinson on one side, Ed and Phil on the other and Sorenson at the head.

  ‘Let’s get started. As I told you yesterday, Detective Dyson had a hunch that our killer might have been operating in the region for a while. He did some research and came up with four other names who may have been victims of our killer.’

  ‘You really think you have a serial?’ Rawlinson snorted.

  ‘Yes, we do,’ Ed said quietly.

  ‘You realise that we have experts and computer programs that review all homicides looking for patterns?’ Byrnes said.

  ‘They’re not all homicides. Three are missing persons,’ Ed said.

  ‘Same applies,’ Byrnes scoffed.

  ‘Detective Byrnes, this is not personal. We’re all on the same team,’ Sorenson said, staring him down.

  ‘What’s the connection between the vics?’

  Sorenson nodded at Ed to give the details.

  ‘All the vics went missing or were killed in consecutive years starting in 2008. They all went missing in either June or July and they all had eyes that were a particular shade of green.’

  ‘Green eyes? That’s it? No other similarities?’

  ‘No.’

  There was silence while the two detectives digested the information.

  ‘How is your supposed serial finding his victims or haven’t you had time to work that out yet?’ Byrnes’s voice was syrupy sweet.

  Sorenson shot him a look but let Ed answer him.

  ‘As a matter of fact, we have. We think he found all the vics by posing as a stallholder at expos. So far we’ve worked out that two of the vics attended expos shortly before they died or disappeared.’

  ‘Only two? That’s hardly conclusive,’ Rawlinson said.

  ‘True but we have a consultant who works with us who confirmed the expo link between the killer and one of the vics,’ Sorenson said.

  ‘A consultant?’

  Ed looked over at Phil, knowing that what was coming wasn’t going to be pleasant.

  ‘She’s a psychic. She has an ability to visit a crime scene and see what the vic saw just before they died. She saw and heard the killer at one of the sites she visited,’ Sorenson said.

  Rawlinson snorted. ‘You’re kidding, right?’

  Byrnes sat there looking from Sorenson to Ed and Phil then back again. ‘I hope there’s a punch line coming because there fucking well should be,’ he shouted. He stood up and leant over the table. ‘Do you mean to tell me that you’ve had a fucking psychic running around the crime scenes?’ He thumped his fist on the table.

  ‘Detective, sit down!’ Sorenson yelled. ‘And moderate your tone or I’ll have you on report.’

  He sat, folding his arms across his chest and staring venomously at the Fairfield officers.

  ‘The psychic Ed used is reliable and discreet. There is no issue with her. Assuming the whole squad room hasn’t heard you yelling, the only people that know of her involvement are in this room. Now if you don’t mind, we’ll finish this briefing.’ Her eyes were like shards of blue ice as she looked around the room. Her comment was greeted by silence so full of tension the air practically rippled with it.

  ‘Right, there are a few more things we need to cover. Phil, did you find anything this morning?’

  ‘Yeah, we got lucky. We reckon we have a possible suspect. He was a stallholder at the expos that two of the vics attended and he has a record a mile long that includes violent and sexual assault. He also lives around here.’

  ‘We think it’s worth bringing him in for questioning,’ Ed said.

  ‘You do realise that we’ll be taking over this case now that it’s a Tier 3?’ Byrnes asked.

  Phil started to reply but Sorenson cut her short.

  ‘I was hoping we could work the case with you, especially since it looks like most of the vics and the killer are from this region. I have a teleconference booked with DCI Fisher in half an hour to advise him of the latest developments. I’m happy to discuss it with him if you’d prefer?’

  Byrnes glared at her. His jaw muscles clenched and unclenched a few times as he struggled to get his temper under check. ‘If Detectives Dyson, Steiner or any of your other officers are going to work this case then they do it strictly under my lead. They don’t scratch their arses unless I’ve approved it first.’

  ‘Of course CS would be in charge, that’s understood.’ She flashed something that vaguely resembled a smile but had about as much warmth to it as an average arctic winter. ‘Detective Dyson won’t be working this case. He has a conflict of interest.’

  ‘What conflict? He’s been working it up until now, hasn’t he? Don’t tell me there’s a chance he’s compromised the case as well?’ Byrnes’s voice went up a few notches again.

  ‘One of the victims is Detective Dyson’s missing wife.’

  ‘Oh for fuck’s sake! What is wrong with you people?’ Byrnes bellowed.

  ‘That’s enough! This is the last time I warn you!’ Sorenson yelled back.

  They stared at each other until Byrnes finally looked away.

  ‘Now, if everyone has themselves back under control, we all have work to do. I need to brief the senior leadership group. Then I need to brief the rest of the team here. Ed and Phil, I want you to run through what you’ve done this morning in detail and outline the rest of the cases you think are linked.’

  ‘Yes, ma’am,’ Phil said.

  She left the room and the four of them sat there looking at each other.

  ‘Well, I could use a coffee. Shall we grab one before we get into it?’ Ed said finally.

  Grunts and nods of assent meant they were all seated at a table down the road five minutes later. It still felt like they were two opposing teams facing off but the informal setting and coffee went some way to overcoming hostilities.

  ‘This’s pretty good coffee.’ Rawlinson sounded genuinely surprised. It probably hadn’t occurred to him that anywhere outside a five-kilometre radius of the city could make a decent brew.

  ‘So what made you think there might be a serial operating?’ Byrnes cut to the chase.

  ‘It was the eyes. Janet Hodgson and the other three women had exactly the same colour eyes as my wife.’

  ‘That’s a big leap to make,’ Rawlinson said.

  ‘Yeah, I knew it at the time but I guess I’ve been searching for answers about Susan for so long that I pretty much jumped at the idea.’

  ‘So how did you find the other vics?’

  The question was asked casually enough but Ed knew he was entering dangerous territory and had been preparing his answer. ‘Since Susan went missing I’ve been taking an interest in missing persons and homicides in the area.’

  Byrnes gave him a penetrating look but Rawlinson jumped in before he could voice any of the difficult questions that Ed was bracing himself for.

  ‘How did you hook up with the psychic?’ Rawlinson asked.

  ‘Sorenson recommended her. She knows her family. She’s legit,’ Phil answered.

  Ed had to hide a smile. It was amazing; her dislike for Byrnes and Rawlinson had her defending Cass. Who would have thought it? ‘I’m confident she’s the real deal as well. I saw her in action yesterday and there was nothing fake about her,’ Ed said.

  ‘How did she come up with the expo connection?’

  ‘When she has a vision she actually experiences what the vic saw, heard and felt just before they died. She got a glimpse of the guy who killed Marcy Lucas in 2009 and heard her say he was the guy from the expo.’

  ‘Hmm, and y
our wife?’ Byrnes asked.

  ‘I remembered she’d been to an expo in the months before she died,’ he lied.

  ‘So you really think that the stallholder is your guy?’

  ‘We think he looks pretty good for it; worth asking more questions and trying to get a search warrant for his house and car anyway.’

  ‘All right, Steiner, you and Rawlinson can go and pick him up. I’ll organise for the records to be sent down for the other cases if you give me the details. We’ll see if there’s any record of them attending expos,’ Byrnes said.

  Nods of agreement all round.

  ‘Oh, and Dyson? Bring your psychic in. I want to meet her and she might as well have a look at your suspect, nothing official, of course. After that you’re off the case.’

  They headed back to the station. Sorenson was already briefing the rest of the officers. They listened with rapt attention as she gave an outline of the situation, stressing that a serial killer was only a possible line of enquiry.

  ‘Questions?’ she asked.

  ‘Is it true you’ve been using a psychic?’ Samuels asked.

  Sorenson glared at him. ‘Who told you that?’

  ‘Some of us overheard your discussion in the meeting room this morning,’ he said with a smirk.

  Sorenson looked like she wanted to eat him alive but she managed to answer with a modicum of civility. ‘Yes, a psychic has provided us with some valuable assistance.’

  ‘Are they still working on the case?’ Samuels asked.

  ‘Jesus, the guy has more balls than brains,’ Phil whispered. ‘Any minute now Sorenson is going to rip his head off and shit down his throat.’

  ‘We have no plans for her to participate any further at this time. Her involvement in this case is strictly confidential. It’s not to leave this room.’

  She answered a few more questions and then called the briefing to a close.

  ‘It’s not every day we get a case this big around here,’ Phil said.

  ‘Let’s get this clear. The chances of this turning out to be a serial are pretty fucking slim but I’m prepared to humour you just in case you’ve bumbled your way to finding a genuine psycho,’ Byrnes said.

  ‘We’ll see, until then we have a shitload to do,’ Phil said.