Evil at Echo Point

by Grace York

  "We don't have anything for you," Kendall said with a hand in the air before the man could speak.

  He started to protest, and Addison took it as her cue to leave. Kendall could more than handle the media. At least Isaac was having a bit of a rest. She got the feeling the opportunities to do so would be few and far between until this case was solved.

  12

  Addison brought Olivia up to date on the case as much as she could as they drove.

  "We didn't talk about Ricky Maddison as a suspect last night," said Olivia as she safely negotiated a sharp bend on the road between Getaway Bay and Riverwood. Addison was pleased to see her daughter was maturing into a careful driver.

  "No. We focused mainly on the three people closest to the victim. Your father used to say more often than not the murderer would be found close to home."

  "I don't remember him saying that," said Olivia.

  "He didn't like to talk about his work in front of you kids," said Addison. "He didn't talk about it much with me, for that matter. Not until after he knew…"

  Addison still struggled to finish that sentence. Rob had only had eight weeks from the time he was diagnosed to the time he passed away. In that time he'd finally opened up to Addison about a lot of what he'd seen in his years as a homicide detective. She wished he'd unburdened himself sooner, but she was grateful he'd talked to her at all.

  "I miss him," said Olivia. She kept her eyes firmly on the road.

  "Me too," Addison agreed. "I know he would have been very proud of you."

  They were silent for a moment, before Olivia brought them back to the case.

  "Max says Ricky Maddison is a bit of a hothead, and he can definitely hold a grudge. Do you think it's possible he went looking for Trent later that night?"

  "If their argument wasn't over, it's possible," said Addison. "I've seen Ricky around town a few times but I don't know him. Have you met him?"

  "No. But I know his type, if what Max says is true. If he'd had more to drink after the fight, he could have wanted to continue it. He's a local surfer; they all know the trails around Echo Point. He could easily have gone looking for Trent."

  "But he'd have gone to the campsite, wouldn't he? How would he know Trent was out at the lighthouse? It's a decent trek from the campsite out to Echo Point."

  Olivia shrugged. "Maybe he saw him from the beach?"

  "Maybe. Can you see up to the point from down on the beach?"

  "You can during the day," said Olivia. "It would be easy enough to go out there at night to check."

  It wasn't a bad idea. Adam would definitely be up for the excursion. They'd have to go quite late, well after dark, to replicate the conditions at the time of the murder.

  "We'll need to check the moon phase as well," Olivia continued. "That will have a bearing on whether Trent could be seen from the beach."

  "Good point," said Addison.

  "And we'll need someone to be up on the cliff," Olivia added. "You think Lenny and Brooke would do that? Then you and I and Adam could head down to the beach and see if we can see them."

  "Sounds like an excellent plan," said Addison. "You're going to make a fine criminologist when you graduate."

  "I hope so," said Olivia. She turned the Rav into the carpark of the shopping centre in Riverwood. "Shall we get a coffee before we hit the shops?"

  "Another excellent plan."

  After their coffee Addison and Olivia spent a lovely four hours shopping, only pausing briefly to reenergise with a quick lunch at one of the cafés in the centre. They were just about to head for home, arms laden with bags of goodies, when they heard a commotion near the food court.

  "That doesn't sound good," said Addison. Olivia was already headed towards the noise.

  "Woah, Mum, look! It's the brother."

  Addison managed to catch a glimpse through the growing crowd of two men arguing. Olivia was right; one of the men was Chad Burchard. She quickly recognised the other one as Brody Hitchcock, the twins' friend and bodyguard.

  "You don't have to stick around anymore!" Chad yelled at Brody. "I know you hated him. So what are you still doing here?"

  "I didn't hate him," said Brody. "We've been through a lot together. Come on mate, calm down."

  Addison observed at least half a dozen mobile phones in the crowd filming the confrontation. This would be all over the news tonight. What were they thinking airing their grievances in public like this? Should she try and shut it down?

  Olivia was one step ahead of her. She'd spotted a security guard, and raced to ask her to step in. The security guard nodded, said something into the walkie talkie clipped to her shirt as she strode over and pushed through the crowd, then stepped in between the two men.

  "That's enough," she said, in a voice more stern than Addison had expected. "Both of you, come with me." She led them away, and Addison watched as the people holding phones in the crowd followed the trio until they went down a nearby corridor and into the centre management office. Addison was relieved when it was over, but she was afraid the damage had already been done.

  "What were they fighting about?" Olivia asked her mother.

  "I didn't hear enough," said Addison.

  "I did," said one of the young men who'd been filming. "The Burchard bloke accused his friend of killing his brother. I've got it all here on video." The man pushed his glasses up his nose and smiled triumphantly.

  Addison struggled to hide her disdain for people who took delight in other people's dramas. She was about to give the man an earful when Olivia stepped in.

  "Do you mind if I have a look?" she said, with the sweetest smile on her face Addison had seen in a long time.

  "Ah… sure, go on," said the man. He cued up the video on his phone for Olivia to watch. "I got a good angle, see?"

  "Oh wow," said Olivia, playing up to the amateur film buff. "If I give you my number, could you send this to me?"

  The man's eyes lit up. "Of…of course. What's your number?"

  Addison took a few steps back and watched on horrified as her daughter gave her mobile phone number to a stranger. Olivia made sure the man sent the video straight through, then excused herself to join her mother.

  "Did you really just give your number to a stranger?" Addison asked once the man was out of earshot. "He seemed a little… strange."

  Olivia waved her mother off. "He's harmless, Mum. Besides, that's what blocking is for. He doesn't know anything else about me. Not even my name. If he tries to contact me, I'll block him and that will be that. I think it was worth it to get this."

  Addison shook her head and sighed. "Okay. Give me a look then."

  "Not here. Let's go back to the car."

  Addison agreed, and they collected their shopping bags and headed for the parking lot. Once they were safely inside the car Olivia cued up the video and they watched, heads almost touching as they peered at the little screen.

  When it was over, Addison leaned back against the passenger seat headrest.

  "Wow," said Olivia. "I bet our videographer sells this to the highest bidder."

  "I bet he does," said Addison. "Come on. We need to get this to Isaac before it's all over the evening news."

  13

  "It's certainly worth looking into," said Isaac once the video had finished playing. "Can you send it to me please?" he added.

  "Already done," said Olivia. "Only worth looking into? Chad straight out accused Brody of killing his brother."

  "Chad's not one of our investigating officers," said Isaac with a sigh. They were in the main section of the police station, and he slumped down into the chair at one of the spare desks. "If I arrested every person a victim's family member had accused of wrongdoing, I'd… well, I'd make a lot of wrongful arrests."

  "But you'll take another look at both of them," said Addison. She was siding with Olivia on this one. Not only had Chad accused Brody of murder, his actions in doing so had more than hinted at him being capable of violence himself. The video only told hal
f the story. Addison and Olivia had both seen Chad's fury with their own eyes.

  "Both men are still under investigation," said Isaac. "And yes, we'll take this into account. No doubt it's hit the Internet already?" he asked with a glance at Kendall.

  "All over the news websites, Sarge," she confirmed. "It seems this has made both Brody and Chad equal frontrunners for the killer in the public eye. Neither of them have come out of it looking the picture of innocence."

  Isaac shook his head. "What the devil possesses young men to behave like this in public?"

  No-one had an answer.

  "We'd better be getting home," Addison finally said. "Oh, are you busy tonight?" she asked Isaac.

  "I guess I'll be interviewing Chad Burchard and Brody Hitchcock to keep you two happy."

  Addison smiled. "When you're done with that, do you want to come over for dinner? You can help us out with a little side project."

  Isaac shrugged. "Of course. What's on the menu?"

  "I haven't decided yet," said Addison as she and Olivia headed for the door. "Bring white wine."

  "Why didn't you tell him what we have planned?" Olivia asked once they were back in the car and headed for the beach house.

  "I didn't want to give him the chance to think about it. No doubt he'd come up with some safety reason or other why we can't go out to the beach at night. This way we'll spring it on him just before we go. With all of us there, he'll be less inclined to say no."

  "Good thinking," said Olivia with a smile. "Do we need to stop at the market to pick anything up for dinner?"

  Addison ran through a few recipes in her mind, finally settling on something she'd seen recently in a magazine. "Stop at the butcher, we need some lamb mince," she said. "I think I have the rest of the ingredients."

  "Lamb mince? Making a shepherd's pie?"

  "A slightly healthier variation," said Addison. "Lamb, chickpea and pumpkin pie. We could all do with a few more vegetables."

  Olivia laughed. "By we you mean Isaac."

  "No, I mean all of us. Except Lenny, of course. How that man eats as much as he does and stays as thin as a rake I'll never know."

  "He's got a lot of nervous energy." Olivia parked outside the butcher. "You want me to go in and get it?"

  "Yes please," said Addison, enjoying the thought of staying in the air-conditioned car. It was getting on in the afternoon, but it was still over thirty degrees outside. "Here, take my purse. Five hundred grams of lamb mince, and if you see anything you fancy for tomorrow night's barbecue, get that too."

  Addison checked her mobile phone while Olivia was gone. She found the video of Chad and Brody's fight on the first news website she looked at. There were a lot of comments about it, and just as Kendall had said, opinion was divided as to which one of them could be the killer. There was one thing that stood out, though. All of the commenters thought one or the other had killed Trent.

  As she watched the recording again, Addison cooled on the idea of either Chad or Brody being Trent's killer. She didn't know either man personally, of course, but she liked to believe the best of people. They were both so young with everything to live for. Why would either of them want to murder someone so close to them? No, Addison was more interested in the idea that someone else was up on that cliff with Trent in the early hours of New Year's Day.

  Back at the beach house, Addison got busy preparing the dinner. The recipe called for a number of vegetables to go into the dish, and as well as those, she checked the fridge and found some carrots and mushrooms that needed using. Those would go nicely with the pumpkin and lamb mince, so she chopped them up and added them into the mix.

  She'd told Olivia the whole household could do with more vegetables in their diet, but if she was honest, she really had been referring to herself. She baked for Hazel most days, and she cooked meals for the household every night, but she had to admit she'd gotten a little lazy of late. There was a trend towards eating more vegetables and less meat these days, and the science behind the idea really made sense to Addison.

  Not that she was about to go full vegan, of course. She loved chicken and lamb, and the occasional poached egg on a Sunday morning. But the idea of substituting more vegetables and legumes for meats a couple of nights a week, or at least cutting down on the quantity of meat, made perfect sense. Besides, if she was going to stay active for as long as possible while she aged, she needed to do something to get the number on the scales creeping in the opposite direction.

  "What's cooking?" asked Adam as he bounded into the kitchen, seemingly full of energy. He was almost as sickening as Lenny, the amount of food he ate while still managing to stay relatively slim. But then he was still in his twenties, so his body metabolised food quickly and painlessly.

  "Lamb and vegetable bake," said Addison, choosing to leave the chickpeas out of the description. Adam was one of those men who enjoyed everything she cooked, as long as she didn't tell him it was healthy.

  "Sounds good. Can I help?"

  "You can set the dining table. Thanks."

  "No problem. How many?"

  Addison did a quick count. "Six. The kitchen table will do."

  "Who's joining us?" Adam asked as he laid the knives and forks out before getting a beer for himself from the fridge.

  "Isaac. Don't have too many of those," said Addison, pointing to his beer. "We're going on a field trip after dinner."

  Adam's eyes widened. "Field trip? Cool. Something to do with the case? I've been writing all day today. I deserve some fun."

  Addison frowned. "We're investigating a murder, Adam. It's not supposed to be fun."

  He took a long swig from the beer bottle. "It is for me. Where are we going?"

  Addison described their plan to go out to Echo Point and see if a person at the top could be seen at night by a person standing on the beach.

  "Great idea. Isaac on board?"

  Addison put the finishing touches on the dinner and popped it into the oven. "He will be if this tastes as good as it looks," she said with a grin.

  14

  The plan worked brilliantly, and Isaac didn't put up much of an argument against going out to Echo Point. He, Addison, and Adam went down to the spot on the beach where the surfers had had their fire on New Year's Eve, while Lenny and Brooke ventured to the lighthouse at the top of Echo Point. They were under strict instructions to be very careful at the edge of the cliff, and both had a torch as well as their mobile phones.

  "I did some research on the moon phases while you were washing up," said Adam as they walked along the beach, torches in hand. "A third quarter moon occurred on December twenty-ninth, so two nights before New Year's Eve."

  "Third quarter moon?" asked Addison. "So you could see a quarter of the moon then?" She'd never understood how the phases of the moon worked.

  "No, you could see half of it that night," said Adam. "Third quarter refers to the path the moon takes around the earth, not how much of it you can see. At that point it had done three quarters of its orbit."

  "So how big was it on New Year's Eve?" asked Isaac.

  "Same size it always is," said Adam. It was dark, but Addison could still see his grin.

  Isaac shook his head and corrected himself. "How much of the moon could you see on New Year's Eve?"

  "Less than half, but more than you can see right now," said Adam. "After the third quarter the moon is in its waning crescent moon phase. We see less and less of the moon until it reaches the end of its orbit, when it is directly in alignment with the sun. At that point it's a new moon, and it starts to get full again."

  "So it would have been brighter on New Year's Eve than it is now," said Addison.

  "Yes, but not much. Less than half the moon was visible."

  They reached the remains of the fire from the surfers' party. Addison looked up to the lighthouse. She couldn't see any lights or people there. She pulled out her mobile phone and called Lenny.

  "Are you there yet?" she asked when he answered on the first
ring.

  "No, still walking through the bush. We only just passed the campsite. The path is pretty clear, but we definitely need the torches to see where we're going."

  "Okay," said Addison. "Be careful, and let us know when you get there."

  Lenny promised to do both, and Addison ended the call.

  "They're still walking," she told the others. "So how did you go interviewing Chad and Brody?" Addison asked Isaac. He hadn't wanted to discuss it at dinner, with Olivia, Brooke, and Lenny present.

  "As expected, once I finally located them. They're staying with Chad's father. He's rented the penthouse at Ed Mathieson's new apartment complex."

  "What did they have to say about their public argument?" asked Adam.

  "Chad was very apologetic," said Isaac. "He said it had been the grief talking. That he didn't really suspect Brody of killing his brother. Malcolm weighed in with his opinion that the fight was nothing more than a couple of hot-headed young men having a bit of a disagreement and blowing off some steam."

  "A bit of a disagreement?" Addison was shocked. "One of his sons was accusing their best friend of murdering his other son. I was there. It looked like more than a bit of a disagreement to me."

  "Me too," said Isaac. "But they were both adamant they'd made up and no-one was accusing anyone of murder."

  "Do you believe them?" asked Addison.

  Isaac shook his head. "I think Malcolm gave them a good talking to, and they agreed to present a united front to me as well as to the media. They said they were friends again, but their body language said otherwise."

  "Did they tell you what prompted the argument in the first place?" asked Adam. "Why did Chad think Brody was responsible for Trent's death?"

  "Chad said he thought Brody had wanted to quit his job as their bodyguard and go home to Brisbane. He'd been getting the feeling Brody wasn't happy travelling with them any more. But Brody denied it, and Chad said he now believed him. They said it was all a misunderstanding."