THE LALLYBROCH MURDERS

CHAPTER 2

‘Well it’s not much but it’s a start!’ exclaimed Hank, with maybe even a slight hint of a smile beginning to crack on that otherwise icy cold stare of his.

‘We need to contact every medical centre and drug outlet in the area and find out where this stuff came from.’ Hank was just about to pour himself a coffee when Liam made the breakthrough they were looking for.

‘Hold on just a moment. Apparently,’ he said, ‘The local hospital down at Johnsons Cross reported a load of stuff missing a few months ago.’

Liam looked over some paperwork that had landed on his desk that morning. Hank glanced at his partner, the glint in his eye whenever there was something good to track.

‘Well, well, well, we best get down there and have a chat with them then,’ Hank said, putting the coffee pot back in its place before he could pour a single drop.

‘It wasn’t so much of it going missing,’ said the registrar, whose tag read Lerato J. ‘More of an entire batch of it not arriving; very unusual actually. We have the dispatch note from the supplier saying that it was sent but according to our records it never actually arrived.’

‘And who would have been accountable for that?’ Liam asked, looking around the area before looking at the young woman in front of him again.

‘Oh that would have been our porter James Fraser, great chap, been with us for years and if anyone knows their stuff it’s our James.’

‘He as the one who reported it missing?’ Hank questioned.

‘Yes.’

‘And how long was there between realizing it was not there and reporting it?’

‘Oh immediately, it’s standard procedure,’ she said pulling the file form the Cabinet. ‘It’s doesn’t give an exact time but as you can see the missing content report has the same date as the Delivery Note!’

‘Can you call him in please? We would like to speak with him,’ Liam asked. The woman nodded and quickly paged him to come in.

Shortly after, a gentleman entered the office, probably late fifties, about 175cm, medium build, but nothing extraordinary, nothing that would make him stand out, however he was walking with a slight limp. ‘What may I help you with?’ he asked.

‘Take a seat please; we would like to talk to you with regards to a missing Delivery a little while back,’ Hank told him.

‘AHH yes I remember it well.’ James told them. ‘I’ve been here for over 20 years now and I’ve never experienced anything like it. I unload the truck myself and check everything off as I go but on this occasion one of the batches that were listed just wasn’t there.’

‘As in someone stole them from the truck? Or as in the shipper might not have loaded it?’ Hank asked.

‘No, the supplier does a check of their own, in fact, it’s double checked. The supplies we get are valuable and expensive, they can’t afford for something to go missing. So the loader checks to make sure it’s all there, then a supervisor checks it right before it’s shipped out.’ James reached over and flipped the paper over. ‘That’s is all their check marks next to the items and their signatures. Then there is mine to show what was missing.’

‘Did you contact them letting them know there was something missing?’

‘I did, Detective Harvey, but there was nothing they could do as their end was covered.’

‘AND did the truck driver report any one tampering with their shipment?’

‘When I called the supplier, I called the courier as well. From what they said, nothing had turned up yet, or nothing was reported.’

‘James, would you mind if we took a look inside your apartment? We’re not accusing you of anything but we need to look at every possibility in order to rule it out. We can, of course, take you into custody and arrange for a search warrant, if you felt more comfortable with that,’ Liam offered.

‘Oh no,’ James interrupted, ‘there will be no need for that. You are more than Welcome to take a look. I could do with a break any way, they run me ragged around here,’ he chuckled.

‘Thank you sir. A couple of uniform officers will be here in a few minutes and they will escort you home and do what is necessary,’ Hank said, closing up his notepad as Liam nodded.

It wasn’t ideal knowledge, for now someone had stolen those drugs, almost as if it was just taken right off the truck, without eyes to ever see. That was a smooth move on someone’s behalf, with a lot of attention to detail in order not to get caught.

A few days later, everything had seemed to have calmed down. No new murders had popped up and they were still struggling to find some solid evidence to really break the case. The good news was that James’s apartment was clean and although he had been noted as a person of interest, he was no longer really being considered a suspect.

And apart from being students as the nearby college there was also no apparent link between either of the victims, at least from what they could tell as of right now. The first one was bright young lad who was studying the Legal system with dreams of working within one of its professions of some description. The second one couldn’t really have been any more different from the first victim. He was a popular kid but with a rather low I.Q and was only at the college on a Soccer Scholarship paid for by a small sportswear company in his home town, clearly hoping to strike it lucky if the boy ever made it to the big leagues.

As the two men were overlooking the files on their two victims, Hank’s phone rang. He glanced down at the screen and then up at Liam, who only lifted a brow. ‘Hello?’

‘Hi Sir it’s Barry you’re not going to like this but it looks like they’ve found a third body down at the park. Unfortunately, the press has gotten a hold of it and this place is swarming with reporters, this time around, we were unable to contain it. So, I’ll meet you down at the scene.’

‘Same type of scene?’ Hank asked, causing Liam to let out a soft sigh, along with a head shake. A third victim and both men knew what that meant, a serial killer was on the prowl.

‘Yeah, everything looks exactly the same except for one thing, according to what I can see anyways.’

‘And what’s that?’

‘The, erm victim sir, this time around, it’s a female.’