THE LALLYBROCH MURDERS

CHAPTER 4

The two guys made their way up into the security office to enquire about obtaining the footage.

‘Six months ago? No, that would be too long ago,’ the guy behind the desk told them, shaking his head but not really glancing at them.

‘They use a rotation system with four drives and each one gets changed every month. They keep three in storage while the fourth gets wiped, ready for re-use so three months is as far back as we could take it.’ Damn just when things were starting to pick up, another Dead End.

They were just about to leave when a young lad looked up from his computer, ‘Six months ago did you say? I’d have to check with IT, but I think that was when they were updating the whole system.’ Both detectives glanced at each other before looking at the guy.

‘Well if I remember correctly, there was a problem installing the new computers and there was about a week between the old ones being removed and the new ones going in.’

‘Ok but again…’ Hank pushed for the man to make sense, the two men not quite grasping what he was saying, or even suggesting.

The young lad laughed at these two. ‘Well without the old system running they wouldn’t have been able to reformat the drive and rather than shut the cameras down they probably bought a new one; meaning there should be a fifth drive.

Chances are the one you are after, which was due to be wiped anyway, would have been taken out of circulation to make sure the timings stayed correct. And knowing how this place runs, rather than wipe it and use it for something else, it’s probably sat in a drawer in someone’s office desk somewhere. They may have destroyed it but IT would know for sure and besides if it’s still in one piece and anyone’s still got it, it would be them.

I can call up to them to check and see if you like?’

Hank had to stop the eye roll at the lad; this was a murder case, yes he would want the call placed. Liam read the look on his partners face and turned back to the lad.

‘Please call them.’

10 minutes later, the lad beamed at the two. ‘Looks like it’s your lucky day,’ the young lad proclaimed, putting the phone back down. ‘They’re sending someone over with it now.’

Hank gave Liam a knowing smile. He had long been an advocate for the old fashioned leg work. Sure, it was time consuming but sometimes, like today, it just worked out, and let’s face it, if they had just phoned and asked for the footage they would never have even come close.

‘Present for you Barry. Can you go through that for me please?’ Hank asked handing him the hard drive.

‘Sure thing boss but what am I looking for?’

‘Anything that might help us discover where that sedative went. Somebody knows what happened to that stuff and we need to find out.’

‘I’m on it,’ Barry said, heading off with the drive in his hand.

‘Liam, what say you and me head over to the park and go over the crime scenes again? Today is a good day and I’m feeling lucky!’

45 minutes later, Liam and Hank walked slowly around the park, having a good look around and taking in all of their surroundings, their eyes trying to search out for unknown clues that might have been missed, or something that was irregular to the park.

Liam smiled to himself when they got to the point where the second attack had taken place, not because any clues that had been there had been gone now, it just never ceased to amaze him how quickly life had returned to normal after something so dramatic happened. Just a few short days ago this place had been a hive of activity with police officers, detectives, forensics, and the coroner’s office all scurrying around trying to complete their own objectives and agendas. Now there were just a small number of students laughing, smoking and working on their assignments; all completely oblivious as to what had happened there beforehand. Or, if they had thoughts about it, or cares, they weren’t showing it. In fact, there was even one girl sunbathing, leaning back on the tree trunk pretty much on the very spot the attack had taken place. He could still see the marks on the tree where the bark had broken away when the poor victims head had been smashed against it. And the girl there now not even gave it a second glance or a questioning gaze.

They completed their walk and although they hadn’t gotten anything new from it, it was always good to get away from the downright chaos back at the station. They knew that this was a slim chance of anything showing up, but sometimes a refreshment of the eyes can make something pop that wasn’t there before. They both shook their heads, making their way back to the car; maybe Barry had some more Good News for them.

When they got back to the station, an hour and a half later, they didn’t quite get the news they were hoping for, checking on Barry, who could only shake his head sadly at their unasked question.

He was still trolling through the seemingly endless hours of video streams and although the general chaos had remained, there was a definite lull in their own case, which was not something they liked. So, as per usual Hank poured himself a coffee and sat down at the desk to pour over the mountains of paperwork and pictures in their files in the faint hope he could find something he had missed before.

‘Guys, you need to see this,’ Barry called, popping his head round the doorframe and beckoning them in with his hand, two hours later. ‘James Fraser claimed he unloaded the truck alone right?’ he asked as he clicked on the laptop, starting the video stream again. At their nod, he pointed to the screen, ‘So, who is that? Because according to my eyes, that does not look like James.’

The video played and clear as day, you could see James with a much more prominent limp working alongside what appeared to be a female colleague taking the boxes off the truck and setting them down in a tidy pile immediately behind it.

‘It gets worse,’ Barry said, glancing at the two detectives who stood behind him. Both Hank and Liam stared at the screen in disbelief as James suddenly disappeared from the stream and the female continued unloading the truck. ‘And now for the cherry on the top,’ Barry said as she appeared at the back of the truck with a parcel in her arms, looking around as if to check if anyone was watching then turning left out of the shot and returning a minute or so later, empty handed.

She then appeared to be calling out, at which point James reappeared, signed the paperwork and waved the truck off. Right after the truck disappeared from the shot, James appeared to go into a meltdown as he seemingly realized something was wrong.

The female looked like she was shrugging her shoulders, dismissing whatever James was beginning to panic about.

‘Well done Barry. Can you get us a few screen shots of this; with a facial shot if at possible? We need to go and see James again and find out who this woman is,’ Hank said, patting Barry’s shoulder.