THE LALLYBROCH MURDERS

CHAPTER 12

By now forensics was turning up and taking over the handling of the body. Liam pointed out the white object he had spotted on the ground, which they had bagged up and confirmed as a piece of skull. They also examined the victims head and confirmed that a small piece had broken away during the attack. The coroner’s office took the body away and the scene was closely scrutinized and examined. Unfortunately nothing else had turned up.

‘Well buddy,’ said Hank, ‘I don’t know about you but I’ve had enough, this has to stop. If this is Larry then we need to make sure he doesn’t do it again. Time we set up a 24 hour surveillance team on his home.’

‘I agree,’ Liam said, tapping his bottom lip with his index finger.

‘We need to know exactly what he’s up to. Time to ask the Captain the question we all hate.’

Hank chuckled as they walked back to their car to head back to the station.

Once they returned to the station, they put their ideas forward to the Captain. Thankfully everything was agreed, although as part of the deal they would have to take a watch themselves even, if that meant working through the night. It had been quite a while since they had done anything like that but if it meant keeping a round the clock eye on him, they were happy to do their part. From now on Larry would not be able to do anything without them knowing about it.

‘Ok, we have and ID on our latest victim,’ Barry told them, as they walked out of the Captain’s office and over to their desk, ‘Twenty year old Campbell Stratton in his final year at the college. His field of study was politics and social administration, expected to graduate easily.’

‘Let me guess,’ Liam interrupted, ‘Bright future ahead of him?’

‘Pretty much,’ Barry responded, raising an eyebrow and giving Liam that knowing look. ‘Not sure if it was boasting or not, but allegedly he had a job lined up in the Mayor’s office.’

‘Future politician huh?’ Hank added before all three of them gave out a collective sigh.

‘Strange thing about this one thought,’ Barry continued, unrolling a map of the area.

‘Apparently he had just left a meeting of the debate society, which had overrun for few hours. According to other members of the society, he was known to have left the campus at around twelve here,’ he said, pointing to the map with his pen. ‘By all accounts he was staying in rented accommodation over here.’ Barry slowly moved his pen to a second spot on the map, slightly north of the college campus. ‘So, the question that comes up is how come his body was discovered all the way over here?’ Both Liam and Hank frowned as Barry pointed to a third spot on the map in an easterly direction before continuing. ‘Nowhere near any direction that he would have needed to have travelled to get home,’ Barry commented, marking the locations with a red pen again.

‘Now that is interesting,’ Liam said, staring intently at the map. “That would kind of suggest he was taken there by the killer. Whether he went there willingly or whether he was taken by force, has yet to be determined.

Hmmm, the park sure seems to be playing a large part in all of this. I know it’s dark and out of sight but,’ Liam paused.

He was clearly putting a great deal of thought into this.

‘Would be out of hearing range too; for any residential areas I mean,’

Hank said seeing his partner’s concerned look.

‘Wouldn’t hear any cries, if there was some, that’s for sure,’ he added on.

‘Yes indeed, but why the park specifically?’ Liam thought that over before he pointed to the map. ‘Thinking of this logically, if you look at the route you’d expect him to take, going from the society location to home, there’s an industrial site nearby,’ he said, circling an area with his finger.

‘Which would have been closed at night and would have provided the same amount of cover; for example, it’s dark, its concealed, and at least a kilometer away from any residential properties.’

Liam tapped his finger against the map as he thought about this slowly before talking again.

‘Something tells me the park is an important space. Maybe our killer has some sort of link to it?’

‘Well, in that case, look at any testimonies. The crime scenes all roughly are the same, right?’

Hank asked, looking up at Liam, forgetting for a moment about Barry.

These two had been partners for many years and were able to read each other way too well.

They were able to pick up on body language, on facial expressions and each other’s thoughts.

‘You’re right Hank, we need to go back and review. Actually, Barry, you can look that over.’

Liam looked at the map once more and let out a breath. ‘Or maybe they’re sending a message? I don’t know, but whatever it is, there’s definitely something specific about the location, about this particular park. All five of our victims have ended up there and I think that’s deliberate rather than just opportunistic. And it wasn’t questioned before, the fact that our victim now would have no reason to have been really makes it more suspicious.’

Hank reviewed the map next to his partner and nodded in agreement while Barry stared at Liam wide eyed, almost in awe.

He knew these guys were good. He was, after all, aware of the reputation they had when they had transferred over from the city, much like everyone else knew around the station. They weren’t perfect, but this was confirming everything he had thought, that they were smart and able to look outside the box for clues. He knew he had to stick to these two and learn as much as he could, or learn what all they were willing to teach him for they would retire one day and he was hoping to make the step up himself.