THE LALLYBROCH MURDERS

CHAPTER 28

‘Oh you haven’t figured that one out yet then?’ she responded allowing herself a little snigger.

‘Nobody really cares about my side of things, just only about that day when I was attacked from HIM,’ she said referring to Charles Morrison but still seemingly unable to even speak his name.

‘There were six others involved, four guys, and two girls. There were a few of them skinny dipping in the river and they were trying to get me to join in, I had refused but they weren’t taking no for an answer.’ She paused and took a breath, and it was clear by her face just how horrible those memories were for her.

‘And then?’ Liam asked quietly.

‘I tried to get up and leave but they didn’t like that either. I felt very threatened and intimidated so I stripped down to my underwear and jumped in. Those that were already swimming grabbed me and tore my underwear off. It was terrifying, I thought I was going to drown. The ones that were left on the grass took the rest of my clothes and hid them and then they all dragged me back out of the river naked. They were all taking photos with cell phones and laughing, I’ve never felt so humiliated. Char..HE reappeared with my clothes so I gave chase to try and get them back and well you know the rest.’

‘You said nobody cares about your side but we had enough to press charges at the time. It was you who didn’t want to prosecute?’ Liam asked.

‘I couldn’t,’ Clair told him. ‘HE… Charles was blackmailing me. He told me that if anyone had found out what happened that day he, and his friends, would upload the photos they had taken to a porn website and then post links to everyone in the college.’

Liam closed his eyes and sighed, a part of him felt for her then but whatever had happened, murder was certainly not the answer and he struggled to tell her that. ‘Okay, so…’ but he didn’t say the rest, he didn’t need to because she cut him off, her arms crossed and her face rendering nothing yet again.

‘So yes, that detective was my mission. I wanted to hit four guys and two girls. Once I’d done that I could turn my attention to …HIM.’

‘Charles Morrison?’ Liam asked…….

‘Yes,’ she nodded, ‘he was always going to the final one.’

‘So if you had gotten away with it what you would have down then?’ Liam asked curiously.

‘I don’t really know,’ she told him shrugging her shoulders. ‘I hadn’t really thought that far ahead. My focus has been on completing the mission. After that who knows? Maybe I’d move away and start a new life somewhere. Doesn’t matter now anyway does it?’

‘I guess not,’ Liam replied. ‘So, following on from Tania then?’ he asked keen to get things wrapped up.

‘After Tania I needed two guys, Campbell and Landon. Campbell was a real challenge actually; see most guys were real easy. You just flirt with them a little and they would come running so to speak. Landon fell in to that category, took little to no effort at all to be honest.’ She paused again before going on.

‘Campbell though was different. You see, flirting didn’t seem to have any effect on him. In the end, I went to a debate society meeting that he was a part of. Oh what a night that was,’ she said rolling her eyes and mimicking a yawning action. ‘That seemed to go on forever. I think I deserved a bit of fun after that! I caught up with him afterwards and asked him about a couple of points he had raised and that did the trick he was full of it. Things were similar to Tania’s one after that. I offered him a ride home so he could tell me more about it and I injected him in the car. And then Landon, like I said, very easy just flirt with him a bit, Get him alone, and then give him the needle while putting my arms around him nothing to it.’

‘Ok well I guess that’s that then,’ Liam said before formally charging Clair with five counts of murder and one count of attempted murder. Clair look startled when the one count of attempted murder was brought up but she never questioned it and Liam wasn’t about to offer any more information than he needed to. However, Liam did figure that Clair was bright enough to figure it out at some point, no matter how good she was at covering her tracks.

Liam returned to the station and typed everything up. The following day Clair signed a full written confession avoiding the need for any further trials. All that was left was to add the new crimes to her charge sheet and increase her sentence accordingly.

Two weeks later, the judge began the sentencing hearing by repeating a summary of the brutality and violence involved during the attacks stating that the severity shown along with a complete lack of remorse had warranted only the most serious punishment available.

Although, technically the death penalty was still legal in this state no one had been given such a ruling in over a decade and not one person in the courtroom had even considered this a possibility. Therefore no one would have been surprised when a sentence of life without the possibility of parole had been passed. Clair had as always remained unmoved throughout, showing no emotions on her face at all. After all she had considered that her own life had realistically ended on that day down by the river where her own bright future had been so cruelly taken away from her and sadly she had given no real thoughts or cares as to what would happen to her from now on.

A loud shriek of ‘ROT IN HELL BITCH’ from the public gallery where the families of the victims were located could clearly be heard across the entire court as the bailiffs held her hands behind her back and placed the handcuffs around her wrists. And although she briefly glanced up to where the shouting had come from, again there were no reactions or emotions. Nothing could be seen as she was slowly led away to begin the rest of her life behind bars.

Liam and Hank watched on before they turned and walked out of the building and headed back to the station to but a stamp that read ‘CLOSED’ on the LallyBroch Murders.