THE LALLYBROCH MURDERS

CHAPTER 3

When they arrived at the scene Barry was on the phone, he waved them over but gestured that he didn’t want to be interrupted. They had a good look around at the scene while they waited for Barry to finish his call. They carefully walked around the perimeter and then over to the body, examining it without moving the zipper down. He grabbed a pair of gloves and slipped one on.

‘Now what is that?’ Hank asked curiously, his eye catching something unusual. He moved in closer to the victim’s bloodied head, the only part visible from the partially closed body bag.

‘Someone pass me a pair of tweezers,’ he called out. The instrument was handed to him and he dug in to the side of the victim’s head, the opposite side to which most of the injuries had occurred and eventually removed something white from her hair, ‘Well now that seems to be a finger nail,’ he said excitedly.

‘We can get DNA from this! If this belongs to our killer,’ he rushed out, his tone saying it all.

‘I’ll check her hands,’ said Liam, almost feeling the excitement. He pulled on a pair of gloves and slowly unzipped the bag a little further and then reached inside and removed her left hand, examining it closely.

‘Nope, no match there,’ he muttered before carefully replacing it from where it had come from and repeating the same process with her other hand. ‘God Damn it!’ He said angrily, pulling up the hand and showing Hank the finger with the broken nail. Hank carefully gave him the instrument and he the broken nail against her hand to make sure. ‘Yep it was hers. I thought we had something then,’ he ground out as he carefully put the nail in the plastic bag and handing it off to the team.

‘Sorry about that,’ Barry said, putting his cell phone back into his pocket. ‘That was forensics; they’ve finished with the second body and are saying they’ve found the same sedative in the bloodstream as there was in our first victim.’

‘Wow, I’m not overly surprised but wow all the same. Okay, I want you to try and track this stuff down. We have the manufacturer’s batch numbers from the hospitals missing consignment reports and we also have the dispatch notes form the courier so there’s a starting point. Go and see the manufacturer and try and pick up the trail from there, let’s see where it leads,’ Hank advised, shaking his head, although glad they had that little bit.

‘Will do Hank, will do.’

‘Thanks Barry. Now, what do we know about our victim?’ Liam asked.

‘Female victim possibly late teen’s maybe early twenties.’ Both Hank and Liam closed their eyes and grimaced.

‘College Student?’ Liam questioned Barry, glancing back down at the female in the body bag.

‘Well, we’re checking her description against missing persons but not expecting a match.

Neither of the first two was reported missing so not too hopeful on that one. Until we get a positive ID we can’t be sure by quite possibly yes.’ As Barry wrapped up his explanation, Hank gave out a sigh as the coroner fully zipped up the body bag. ‘And again, as per previous attack, the victim was found naked, head bashed against the tree.’

‘Still nothing left behind?’ Liam asked.

‘Well we did pick up a foot print near the body, however, no guarantee that it is our killers of course, but it does look suspicious. It slides away from the tree suggesting that someone slipped while exerting significant force in the direction our victims head would have been forced.’

‘But apart from that nothing?’

‘Sorry, Liam. I’m afraid not.’

45 minutes later, the two detectives were heading back to the station after jotting down their notes and deciphering what they were seeing, not that there was much and it was starting to put a damper on things. But once they walked into the station and made their way back to their desks, they could feel that there was a real air of excitement and celebration surrounding them as a couple of colleagues finally closed their own case that they had been working on for several months. Liam was delighted for his colleagues of course and congratulated them in the proper manner but this had only reinforced his determination to make a breakthrough on their own case. He was refusing to let the lack of clues and evidence hinder them.

‘Hank, let’s go talk to Barry.’ Hank nodded and followed Liam to the room Barry worked in, his hand softly patting Barry’s shoulder.

‘Any luck tracking the sedative Barry?’ Hank asked.

‘Not really. Everything indicates it was loaded onto the delivery truck. The only question is where it came off at and far as that goes there seems to be a Dead End at the hospital. I started off with the pharmaceutical company but they seem pretty solid, their checks and balances being legit, which puts it on the truck.

‘I did a background check on the driver and again nothing really but a couple of speeding tickets a few years back and running a red light ticket once but otherwise clean.

Also recently married with a 10 month old baby so too much to lose, at least you would imagine.

This brings us back to the hospital, delivery signed for and then nothing…’

‘Ok, Liam, I think you and I need to get back down to the hospital and have a look around the place. Somebody knows what happened to that stuff and we need to find out.’

As they were pulling into the parking lot Liam spotted a delivery truck arriving. ‘Perfect timing,’ he said, pointing it out with his eyes. ‘Let’s follow it and see what happens.’

The truck drove round to the back of the hospital where James appeared, pointed out a set of directions to the driver and then followed it down to a loading bay. Hank and Liam kept their distance so as not to be spotted but kept a close eyes as James began to unload the truck. With nothing suspicious going on, they approached the loading bay just as James was about to close the doors.

‘Good afternoon detectives,’ he beamed, appearing to be genuinely pleased to see them. ‘Any luck with the missing medications?’

‘To be honest with you, no.’ Hank told him.

‘That’s why we’re here. So this is where all the deliveries come?’ he asked while looking around.

‘Not all of them; depends on what the delivery is. This is where all the laundry comes; bedding, gowns, anything like that. All the food and perishables go straight to the canteen and then any medical supplies go to loading bay B. It’s pretty much the same as this but more secure. We can back the trucks through the doorway and then unload straight into the building,’ he continued.

‘Could you show us please,’ Liam asked him, his eyes taking in the open area of the bay.

‘Of course, follow me.’ The three of them made their way round to the left where there was a slightly larger set of industrial doors. ‘Here we are,’ James said. ‘These doors remain locked at all times unless we’re unloading.

‘Good. And who keeps the keys?’ Hank asked James.

‘Just me actually. I’m the only one that uses it, although I believe the General Manager keeps a set in her office and I expect security would possible have one too, in case anything were to happen.’

‘Now THAT is interesting,’ Liam exclaimed, pointing towards a wall 20 meters away where a security camera was mounted. It wasn’t pointing directly at the bay but certainly would have covered the area to catch someone.

‘How long has that been there?’

‘Quite some time, at least 10 years, maybe more.’

‘And who looks after the footage from that?’ Hank asked, glancing at Liam, both of them lifting their brows.

‘That would be security. You’ll find them at the top of the parking lot by the main entrance. In fact, you probably drove passed it on the way in.’

‘Thank you James, you’ve been a great help,’ Hank told, him confirming his thoughts that whatever had gone down here James had nothing to do with it.