THE LALLYBROCH MURDERS

CHAPTER 25

The guys got back to the station and immediately headed straight for Barry’s desk. Barry was on the phone when they arrived and the smile on his face told them that this conversation would have nothing to do with vehicle registration plates.

‘Let me guess, Katie?’ Hank asked with a slightly stern look as Barry hung up the phone.

‘Not directly, no,’ Barry told him. ‘She’s covering for a colleague and working late tonight which she’s not really a great fan of. So I thought I’d be the nice guy and arrange for some flowers to be delivered to her workplace just after she starts her shift. Give her something to smile about you know?’

‘Young love Huh? Liam said to his partner who just closed his eyes and shook his head slightly.

‘Well as long as you have something for us to smile about as well?’ Hank responded.

‘Sure do sir,’ Barry gave him a knowing smile. ‘Ok well the first one you gave me,’ he said repeating the registration number, ‘no luck with that one. It was registered to forty eight year old Nick Vester who is a factory worker that lives on the same street. The second one however,’ Barry said, once again confirming the registration to a fifty nine year old named Robert Buchan.’

‘Buchan?’ they both muttered almost in unison. ‘Any rela….’

‘Relation?’ Barry interrupted finishing the question for them. ‘Knew you’d ask me that so I’ve already checked into it; and yes Robert Buchan, is in fact, the father of our one and only Clair.’

Hank nodded his head in appreciation. ‘Well don bud and good work,’ he told him before leaning in towards the junior detective. ‘I hope she loves flowers,’ he added quietly although both Liam and Barry could hear him very clearly.

Liam chuckled briefly.

‘Ok, let’s seize the vehicle. Barry can you raise the paperwork for that, but hold on to it for a moment? I’ll get the captain to order a release of the keys from Clair’s personal belongings. Then Hank and I will take a quick look around the vehicle before we bring it in.’

‘I’m on it,’ Barry said smiling to himself.

After a short visit to the jail to collect the keys, the two detectives pulled up to the location of the vehicle registered to Clair’s father. At first, they thought it had been moved but thankfully it was still there; the view had just been obscured by a delivery van. They wandered around the outside of the car, looking at the bodywork for anything suspicious.

Although, they weren’t expecting to find anything but had to check anyway and indeed nothing unusual had been spotted.

Liam inserted the keys into the door unlocking and opening it on the first attempt. Proof if need that Clair had access to this particular vehicle. Neither of them got into the vehicle, they didn’t want to contaminate any forensic evidence that may have been present in any of the fabrics inside. So a thorough visual examination was carried out, although nothing had caught their eye. The same process was repeated with the back doors and with the same result, nothing to cause any concerns.

They finally walked around to the rear of the car and Liam opened the trunk. It was clean and empty. Liam reached in and carefully lifted the carpet exposing the well underneath which housed the spare wheel. Hank looked on waiting for his partner’s response. The look on his face, however, told him everything he needed to know. Hank tilted his head back, looking up to the sky waiting to hear the magic words.

‘We got her,’ Liam said withdrawing a single vial of what looked like a muscle relaxant. ‘There’s a whole case of these in here and guess what? There is six of them missing.’ Hank punched the air, his feet almost leaving the ground. Then Liam continued, ‘There’s also a handful of syringes, a few needles, and an opened box of medical grade nitrile gloves.’

They both took a deep breath and smiled at each other feeling a sense of euphoria. Liam put the vial in his pocket and closed the trunk before phoning the Captain to tell him what they had found while Hank passed along the message to Barry to proceed with the seizure of the vehicle.

While waiting for the tow truck to arrive, and after he got off the phone with the Captain, Liam also phoned the home of Carrie and Frank Richards. He wanted to give them the news that the evidence their daughter had given them earlier that day had provided them with the big breakthrough in the case that they had been waiting for. And that Clair Buchan would now be charged with not only the attempted murder of Tania but also with five further counts of murder.

The tow truck arrived and began to load the station wagon so Liam and Hank headed back to the station to fill in the necessary paperwork to officially charge Clair. As they opened the doors, every single member of staff rose to their feet and applauded them. Even the Captain came out of his office to join in with the celebrations.

If they thought they were buzzing earlier, then this was absolutely incredible. Moments like this were exactly the reason why they had gone into homicide in the first place. They had closed cases before, of course many times over in fact, but this was special and a feeling that would stay with them forever.

Once all the forms were signed and everything was ready to go, Liam’s next point was to call the governor and make all the necessary arrangements to formally charge Clair the following morning. She was already serving time for manslaughter anyway so she certainly wasn’t going anywhere.

Therefore they both decided things could wait until tomorrow, a night of celebrations were called for.

As they had done on several occasions before, they would pick up a nice bottle of champagne and head back to Hank’s place. Although this time they had decided to invite Barry to join them. He had helped them on several occasions and been a big part of the investigation so why not? They both agreed he had deserved it. They would have also invited Katie to join them but they already knew she was working late. Barry, however, was thrilled to be included and gratefully accepted.

Sometimes, you just needed the right break in a case at the right time, to make everything come together, and as of right now, everything was how it needed to be.