THE LALLYBROCH MURDERS

CHAPTER 19

Liam, Hank, and Barry had all gotten together in one of the interview rooms. They were going to plough through the list of calls to the helpline that had been previously dismissed.

Both Liam and Hank were aware of instances in the past where genuine callers with legitimate reasons to phone in had been incorrectly dismissed as crank callers. They both knew they could not afford for this to happen on this case.

Evidence for this one was proving hard to come by so they certainly could not allow anything to slip through their fingers.

They had to do everything they could to make sure that every possibility was checked and maybe even re-checked again if necessary.

Barry was reading out the details of each call individually and then the three of them discussed whether they had any credentials at all or they were in fact just a crank call and were rightly dismissed. This was the case for the mass majority and most were dismissed without any discussions at all but every now and again one would crop up that seemed to have at least a modicum of merit to it.

‘Now this one looks intriguing,’ said Barry upon finding one such call.

‘Tell us,’ Liam said, looking up from his own stack of calls.

‘Apparently this female caller had just finished a late shift at a Petrol station close to the park and was walking home afterwards when she spotted a woman helping a man out of a vehicle. The man appeared to be drunk and was not in control of himself and the woman was struggling to hold him upright. Claims and I quote. ‘It was unusual as you normally help drunken people into cars, not out of them,’ said the woman from the call. She then went on to say she watched the two people and then watched as she pulled the man’s head into her breasts. The caller figured they were a couple and thought no more of it until the picture of the woman appeared in the paper.’

‘Wow,’ exclaimed Hank, ‘She thinks the woman was Clair? And when was this?’

‘That’s the really interesting bit,’ Barry answered, raising both eyebrows. ‘This would have been no more than an hour before our fifth victim, Campbell, was attached.’

‘Wow, So, I’m kind of lost at this minute,’ Hank said looking confused. ‘Please tell me why on earth was this dismissed?’

‘Ok,’ said Barry turning the piece of paper over, reading over the notes from the call log. ‘It was dismissed originally as Clair Buchan does not have any vehicles registered in her name and hasn’t done so for nearly three years.’

‘Ah, ok so according to the center that took the call; they thought the chances were this was just a couple looking for some fun but there is way too many coincidences for me I think we need to look into this one. It wouldn’t have been hard, either, for her to have gotten a call. That’s still a very quick dismiss on their part,’ Hank said, tapping his nails on the table as he thought that over.

‘I agree,’ Liam nodded.

‘My instincts on this one are telling me not to ignore this.’

‘Have to say,’ Barry added, ‘appearing to be drunk and unable to stand alone?’ That could well be symptoms of someone who had received a muscle relaxant.’ Liam and Hank both nodded in agreement, definitely one of interest on this call for sure.

‘Could you do a follow - up on that one please Barry?’ Liam asked him.

‘See if you can find out any details on the vehicle? Something bothers me about that.’

‘And anything else she may remember, of course,’ Hank added. ‘In fact take a couple mug shots of Campbell and see if she recognizes him.’

‘Will do sir,’ Barry said, making a note of it.

Liam and Hank shared a look as ‘At last’, after two hours of trawling through some frankly ridiculous claims, they had found something that sounded genuine at least. Even if this did prove to be irrelevant, it would at least raise their spirit’s a little and help to motivate them trawl through the rest of the pile they still had in front of them.

Another hour and a half later nothing else of interest had popped up so Barry cleared everything up, collected some photos of Campbell, along with a few random shots to mix things up a little and got ready to head over to the home of Katie Fairclough to follow up on the call she had made to the police helpline.

An hour later, as Barry knocked on the door, he was immediately taken aback by the beautiful woman who answered the door. So much so that he almost tripped over his own words as he tried to introduce himself. Fortunately, upon seeing the badge, Katie had known exactly who he was and what he had come around for.

‘Please, do come in,’ she told him with a smile before leading him through to the living room. ‘Have a seat,’ she told him gesturing with her hands. ‘Now before we start, can I get you drink?’

‘Well to be honest, I was about to make myself a coffee anyway and I would be much more comfortable with one, so it would be no trouble to pour a second cup,’ she told him, offering a smile as well.

‘Oh well, since you put it that way that would be wonderful, thank you,’ Barry answered.

He tried his best not to but as she left the living room he couldn’t help but check her out. ‘Wow’, he thought, ‘This was a magnificent woman’ and she was beginning to do a number on him already and he had barely spoken to her yet. He got that feeling that for him to try and remain professional was going to be difficult and this just might be a rather challenging interview. And after this, he might have to find out the petrol station she worked out so he could see her more often.

He shook his head, trying to focus on the job at hand and he glanced around the room, taking in his surroundings. There was nothing extraordinary about this place but it certainly had its charm. There was a very cosy and homely feeling to it. The kind of place Barry could see himself wiling away the hours on an otherwise dreary Sunday afternoon.

‘What a lovely home you have here,’ he called out.

‘Why thank you very much detective,’ Katie called back from the other room. ‘It’s nothing much but its mine, and I’m happy here.’

‘I can see why, it’s very comfortable, and please call me Barry,’ he said, raising his palms. He wasn’t sure why he did that, she was in the other room and would not have been able to see him anyway. As he was chuckling away to himself, Katie returned with a tray in her hands. He couldn’t help but notice there was no rings on any of her fingers, something that broadened his smile even further.

‘Here we go, Barry.’ she said, putting the tray on the table making a real point to emphasize his first name. ‘I wasn’t sure how you take it so everything’s there to make it your own.’

Wonderful thank you,’ Barry said, gazing at the tray. There were two identical cups, each with its own spoon sitting in it, a large craftier of fresh coffee, a small jug with some milk or cream in it, and a little pot of sugar.

There was even a small saucer with a handful of biscuits placed neatly around it.

‘I don’t know what the coffees like,’ she told him. ‘It’s a new one we’ve just got in at work and I haven’t actually tried it yet. I really was about to make one when you arrived so you’re not quite the guinea pig but…’ she trailed off, a smile on her lips.

Barry laughed as he looked back at her. He remembered some advice he was given some time ago, although, he wasn’t sure where from.

‘Establish and maintain eye contain in order to obtain dominance when conducting an interview,’ was what he was told.

‘Let’s give it a try’ he thought. Immediately followed up with a big ‘Oh Crap’ thought as he looked into her eyes, no, that wasn’t going to help here at all.