THE LALLYBROCH MURDERS

CHAPTER 15

‘Well at first I didn’t, but working here,’ she paused, clenching her hands, ‘and seeing him again…,’ she trailed off, licking her lips before lifting her hair a bit, ‘it brought it all back,’ she finally finished.

‘So, how many times did you hit his head?’ Hank asked, looking at Liam from the corner of his eye.

‘Once against the wall, two maybe three times against the floor,’ she confessed. ‘I’m not really sure.’ She paused again as she took a deep breath and shrugged. ‘He reached up and grabbed my arm and well, I just kept hitting him until he let go.’ Her eyes remained in front, never glancing at the detectives.

Hitting him being?’ Liam pushed her, the implication that hitting was more like banging.

‘Yeah, banging his head on the floor.’

‘So probably more than two or three times?’ Liam confirmed.

‘Yes I suppose so,’ Clair said with a sigh. Hank was watching closely and had noticed that she had blood spatter on one of her shoes and the right trouser leg from the knee down.

While her top, however, was still clean. There must have been a lot of power behind those banging’s, along with a lot of rage.

‘Ok and what about the others?’ Liam asked hopefully.

‘What others?’ she countered, finally looking up at him and giving him a frown…

‘Never mind,’ Liam gave her a comforting look, trying to appease her.

‘I never meant to kill him you know,’ she muttered softly to them, playing with her hands before giving a glancing look towards each of the detectives. ‘I just wanted to hurt him the way he hurt me.’ The slouch of her shoulders told them that she really only thought she was getting her revenge, wrong or right in her book.

‘Although I can’t say I’m sorry. He deserved it,’ Her voice was firm with that statement but a small tear appeared in the corner of her eye.

‘You know you’re going to be charged?’ Hank asked.

‘That no matter if you felt it was wrong or right, it’s against the law.’ She nodded but didn’t speak, her eyes moving once more down towards the floor.

‘Ok, we’ll speak to you a little later,’ Liam told her as they opened the door and exited the vehicle. Once they climbed out, the uniformed officer immediately got back in again. Over the roof of the squad car, they shared another look before they walked back to their car and climbed in.

Liam and Hank headed straight back to the station and immediately handed in a request for a warrant to search the home of Clair Buchan.

They were looking for anything that could link her to the case, or to any of the victims, but more than anything they were hoping to find the missing sedatives that had been uses in each of the attacks. Her ‘All of a sudden’ remembering wasn’t a story they bought as easily as she wanted them to believe.

She was a small woman, at least in stature anyway, probably 152cm maybe 153cm but no more than that. Probably weighed around 65kgs, certainly not the kind or person you’d imagine winning a fight with a college soccer star, and honestly, someone you would over look in this type of case.

Unless of course she had some help, a means of having the upper hand.

And for all the limited clues they did have, there was no copycat on these crimes, and not a compliance, this was a one person job.

She was still the last person to have been seen handling the muscle relaxant and if she had kept it and used this herself, she would certainly have had the upper hand. And having been only a few months away from graduating as a medical student herself, she would have known exactly what this stuff was and how to administer it correctly.

Plus the rape case a few years back would have given her the link to the park they were looking for.

With the exception of the doctor earlier today, each one of the victims had been discovered in the same scenario that she had been, something that hadn’t clicked for the detectives, no reason to have clicked actually. However, now both Liam and Hank were convinced the killer was now in custody all they had to do now was prove it. And having that warrant, they were hoping, was what they would need to crack this case wide open.

Later that day, they got told that the search warrant had been approved. Right away, Liam and Hank headed down to Clair’s apartment and went through everything they could. After searching for two hours, they disappointingly they hadn’t uncovered the sedative or indeed anything to do with it. Nor anything else that would link her to the victims or the murders.

They did, however, find a notepad which contained a large amount of information on a student named Carla Jane Grey, known to her friends as CJ. This had included details of her normal routine; her class schedule, the clubs that she was a member of and when they got together, her hobbies, a list of friends she had in the area, when she did certain types of things to leave the house and several other personal details, all of which was questionable for Clair to have.

CJ was studying art and textiles and would most certainly have fitted the profile the killer had been using; at least according to the notes anyway. CJ was another straight A student who had been listed with the skills to be a future fashion designer, another high end paying job.

None of this would hold up in court, of course, or on its own anyway.

However, the clues didn’t always need to be big or precise, to help them, just enough for them to be led in the right direction and started building a case.

And in this case, this little thing was enough for the entire world to be looking like a killer was preparing for her next target.