THE LALLYBROCH MURDERS

CHAPTER 6

The detectives looked around the crumbling apartment building as they walked up to the front door, their eyes catching a multitude of issues. Hank lifted a brow as Liam knocked on a door that was barely hanging on by the latches. They smiled as a young woman opened the door.

‘Clair Buchan?’ Liam asked, taking in the woman behind the door.

‘Yes, can I help you?’ She gave them a quick look over before her brows crinkled in confusion.

‘Detectives Johnson and Harvey, may we have a word with you please?’

‘Oh well, I’m sorry, I’m just on my way out and don’t have time…’ she trailed off as Hank interrupted her.

‘I’m afraid it is rather important.’

‘Oh well…’ she started but got interrupted again form Hank.

‘We won’t keep you any longer than need to; we promise.’

‘Well I guess you best come in then.’

‘Thank you Ma’am,’ Hank said as they followed her into the dingy and small apartment. ‘We wanted to talk to you regarding your incident down by the river,’ he started as both he and Liam took a seat on the smaller couch, their eyes catching sight of the poorness of it.

‘Oh um, I’m afraid I may not be much help, I don’t really remember much about that day.’

‘Shall we start with what you do remember?’ Liam probed.

‘Erm ok, well I’d finished studying at the college and decided to go for a run afterwards,’ she started, hesitantly.

‘In your normal clothing?’ She looked at Hank before slowly shaking her head.

‘No, no I was a member of the gym on campus; I would have had a locker there and used that to change.’

‘Ok, so why didn’t you work out in the gym while you there?’

‘Sometimes it’s just nice to get out in the fresh air you know? Feel the sun on your face, the wind in your hair, besides it’s a lovely spot down there. The river babbling on one side, birds chirping away in the trees on the other; very relaxing, you should try it.’

‘Thanks for the recommendation,’ Hank chuckled. ‘But I’m afraid my exercising days are long gone.’

‘Besides,’ Liam interjected, trying to join in on the conversation, ‘The job keeps us fit anyway. We’re always on the go one way or another.’

‘Quite so,’ Hank said. ‘So, you were saying?’

‘That’s about it. The next thing I recall, I was waking up in the hospital!’

‘And you’ve no recollection of how or why you got there?’

‘Sorry, Detective Harvey, no.’

‘Ok,’ said Hank, ‘Sorry to have troubled you. We’re just trying to follow up on a few possible leads,’ he said slowly rising from his seat before pausing half way.

‘Oh, one more thing,’ he said raising one finger in the air as if he’d just remembered something. Liam, of course while watching closely, had remained seated having seen this routing many times before from Hank. ‘I believe you are employed down at the hospital, Johnsons Cross, correct?’ He said sitting back down again.

‘Yes that’s right. I was studying medicine at the college so when that job became available it seemed perfect for me.’

‘And how long have you been working there?’ Liam inquired.

‘Oh not that long really, about six months I guess.’

‘But not in medicine?’ Hank asked.

‘Sadly no. After the river incident I was left with a slight shake in my hand, nothing too dramatic but of course not well for a surgeon.’

‘Of course,’ Liam replied, nodding his head in agreement. ‘No chance of maybe becoming a physician or something?’

‘Well no unfortunately that was ruled out too. You see, it doesn’t happen very often but on occasions I do get a small problem with short term memory loss and kind of get confused.’

‘We see,’ Hank said, although the glance the two detective’s shared spoke volumes, they might see, but believing was harder.

‘Yes, that’s why they only made me an assistant.

They only trust me with certain jobs you see.’

‘Wow that must hurt?’ Liam’s voice dropped to a sincere level as he asked, trying to gain the trusting confidence from her.

‘It’s not what I was dreaming of growing up for sure, but it’s as close as I could get, at least still helping people.’

‘I see. I wanted to talk about an incident that happened a little while ago at the hospital. There was a case, some sort of sedative that had gone missing, you wouldn’t know anything about that by chance?’

‘No,’ she stammered, ‘I don’t think so, sorry.’

‘Hmmm, interesting, we recently obtained some CCTV footage which clearly shows you unloading the very same product from the delivery truck that’s in question,’ Liam pressed on.

‘Oh!’ Claire gasped, with a slight panicky look on her face. ‘Oh, yet THAT, oh my, how embarrassing.

I had forgotten all about that.’ Hank just lifted a brow but gestured for her to continue. ‘Oh my God, I’m so sorry. I was, well struggling to make ends meet. I had all sorts of student debts and saw an opportunity to make a quick buck and I’m ashamed to say I took it,’ she said sheepishly.

‘When I was younger, I always thought I’d be a surgeon and have the means to pay it all off, so I was a little careless with allowing debts to build up. And, well, the salary of a porter’s assistant isn’t quite at the same level so everything had become a little, well, too much.’

‘So are you saying you sold it?’ Hank asked, clearly amazed by that statement; well, they both were.

‘Yes. Some guy approached me in the parking lot and offered to buy the stuff. I just saw a chance to get rid of some of the debts. I mean it was just a sedative, it’s not like it could hurt anyone right?’

‘And this was after you had stolen it?’ Hank pressed.

‘No, this was before. He approached me after work one night and said that if I could get him some he would pay top Rand for it.’ Liam’s brow lifted in a silent question, but the words soon came out.

‘Top Rand?’

‘Yes more than enough to clear my debts. At first I said no but he gave me his number and said to ring him if I changed my mind. Shortly after, well it was just there and temptation got the better of me and I called him.’

‘Ok and are you still in contact with him?’ She looked at Liam as he asked.

‘No, I destroyed the number afterwards. Once the debt was clear I wanted nothing more to do with it.’

‘And you haven’t seen him since?’ Hank asked as he wrote down the notes.

‘I did see he one more time and he asked for some more but I refused.’

‘Would you recognize him if you saw him now?’ Hank pushed.

‘I don’t think so. It was all over so quick and a long time ago now.’

‘Only a few months,’ Liam reminded her.

‘Yes but with my memory problems, that’s a long time. Sorry, but my memories have no standard of knowing time.’

‘We understand,’ Hank said, closing his notebook.

‘Oh my God, am I …am I in trouble?’ Her eyes opened wide as they filled with dread, worry, and a touch of fear.

‘To be honest Ma’am, we can’t really answer that. We have no desire to prosecute ourselves but if the hospital decides to press charges, then our hands are tied. There’s not really much we can do,’ Liam answered with a slight shrug of his shoulders.

‘I understand…’

‘Thank you for your help, we won’t keep you any longer,’ said Hank, rising from the couch. ‘I’m going to leave you with my card, please, if you think of anything at all, whether it’s to do with our buyer or the day down by the river, please give me a call.’

‘I will for sure,’ she said as she took the card.

A few moments later, Hank and Liam sat in the car and looked at each other.

‘I don’t like it,’ Liam said, ‘I don’t like it at all and I don’t trust her.’

‘I agree,’ Hank answered.

‘She definitely knows more than she’s letting on.’

Liam nodded in agreement, ‘and for someone who had somewhere to be when we arrived,’ he said adjusting his rear view mirror, ‘why is she peering through the top window to see if we’ve left yet?’ Hank looked in the side mirror to spot her as well.

‘Hmmm, it looks like we have ourselves a suspect.’

‘I guess we’re not pushing on the theft?’

‘Not just yet. I think we should keep that information to ourselves right now. Charging her would allow us to detain her for a little while and something tells me that could come in useful later on.’

Both men smiled and then Liam pulled the car away.