Det Annie Macpherson 02 - Programmed To Kill

by Speake, Barbara Fagan

  Chapter 47

  ‘Monica, are you ready to go for that walk around town yet?’ Ruth Prentice shouted up the stairs.

  Monica walked to the hall doorway to reply. ‘In a minute, Mom. I’m trying to contact Matthew. I can’t understand it. He’s not answering his cellphone or the house phone. Could you keep an eye on Lydia for a few minutes, while I keep trying?’

  ‘Maybe he’s gone into work early,’ Ruth Prentice replied, making her way up the steps.

  ‘I wondered that, so I tried his direct line at the office. That’s just ringing too.’

  ‘You do worry too much, Monica,’ her mother said picking her granddaughter up out of the playpen. ‘Dad and I will play with Lydia in the back yard until you’re ready. We have all day, so take your time.’ The older woman cuddled the child and the infant nuzzled her neck.

  Monica Lansdowne paced the room. She always felt ill at ease when she wasn’t in touch with her husband. Matthew was too arrogant to share any responsibility for keeping in touch with her, so over the years she’d always taken the initiative herself. ‘Damn you Matthew, pick up the phone,’ she murmured before it went on to voicemail again. Scrolling down her contacts list, Monica debated whether to telephone his secretary. Although Sheila was always pleasant on the phone, the last thing Monica wanted was to appear to be neurotic, just because Matthew Lansdowne wasn’t answering his phone. Maybe it was best to go out with her parents and try again later.

  *****

  ‘We’re close enough to our favourite bakery, if you want to pick up some sandwiches to take back,’ Ellison offered as they approached the car.

  ‘Our favourite bakery, is it?’ Annie replied. ‘Next we’ll have a favourite song.’

  Ellison laughed. ‘You’ve got a sense of humour Detective.’ Inwardly, he was pleased with her comment, as it seemed to imply possibilities. Yet he knew the reality was that Annie was still hung up on Hegarty.

  The woman Annie had spoken to the previous day waited on them. The shop was really busy and she looked concerned that they might be there to ask her more questions. The relief on her face when they only ordered food was obvious. Back in the car, Annie put the bags on the back seat. ‘That woman who served us was the woman I talked to yesterday.’

  ‘Right, that explains it. I thought she looked a bit ill at ease. Probably thought we were there to interview her.’

  ‘So, how do you think it went with Frances Amato?’

  ‘Well spotted with the photograph. I hadn’t noticed it. Not sure how much that helps us but you called it again, Macpherson. So what’s your theory?’

  ‘We need to check Brother Jonathan with Baxter. I still have to do that. We don’t have enough to check Brother Jonathan’s computer. If Tony Amato knows about Brother Jonathan’s past, that might be all the excuse he needs to take things out on Frances Amato. He probably blames her for trusting the priest too much because he lives at the seminary with her uncle. She did admit that her son visited the seminary with his grandmother to see his great uncle. Certainly he wouldn’t be afraid of Father Bannister if he was seen as his great uncle’s friend.’

  ‘Good point. When we talk to Amato, let’s ask him about Brother Jonathan; see how he reacts. We’ll have to be careful, though. Don’t want to trigger off another assault on his wife,’ Ellison cautioned.

  Bronski was pleased to see them walk in with sandwich bags. ‘Hope you’re spoiling me. I’m starving.’

  While they were putting the sandwiches out, Ellison and Annie updated their colleague with the relationship between Frances Amato and Brother Jonathan. When the photograph was mentioned, Bronski commented to Ellison, ‘She keeps calling them, doesn’t she? Perhaps we should be on placement with Detective Macpherson in England, instead of the other way round.’ The two laughed.

  Annie blushed. ‘Before we get too excited, let me check with Detective Baxter again. We also need to see how Tony Amato reacts when we interview him, and John Merton, for that matter.’ She decided it was time to change the subject. ‘So, what’s been happening here?’

  Bronski swallowed the last bit of his sandwich. ‘I finally got Dennis Cullen. He was asking where we’re up to in the Hardman investigation. Apparently Captain Hegarty is away for a couple of days. I told him I couldn’t give him any details, as he isn’t a relative. He got a bit uppity with me and said that he was hoping that he and Angela Goodman were going to re-marry.’

  ‘Well, he seems to have been a slightly better husband than George Goodman. Anything else?’ Annie asked, hoping to give herself time to recover from the news that Charlie was away. Was he with Jane Garry? Only last week, she thought she’d be the one to go away with Charlie.

  Before Bronski could answer, the kitchen door opened suddenly and Franconi came through. ‘Good, you’re all here. I’ve been getting frantic phone calls this morning from the mayor’s office and then from the mayor’s wife, Monica. Even the chief has been on.’ He had the full attention of the detectives. ‘The mayor hasn’t turned up for work and they’ve been calling him all morning. The driver went round and couldn’t get an answer at the door. I’ve sent a patrol car with two officers and I’ve said to break in if necessary.’

  No one said anything. Franconi continued. ‘With his wife being away, who knows what the guy might get up to? He’s never struck me as the faithful type.’

  ‘Where’s Monica Lansdowne?’ Annie asked.

  ‘Up at the Cape … Cape Cod in Massachusetts, staying with her parents for two weeks.’

  One of the desk phones went. Ellison was nearest the door, so he answered it. ‘Captain, it’s for you.’

  The three gathered up the remains of their sandwiches and cleared out of the kitchen to pick up the conversation.

  ‘OK, secure the place. I’m sending Bronski, Ellison and Macpherson now and the forensics team. No one else goes in or out. Don’t discuss anything with the neighbours. This is going to be high profile.’ He put the phone down and rubbed the back of his neck, as if it was going to be a long day. No one pressed the captain, waiting until he was ready. ‘Looks like we have a third victim: the mayor. Can you imagine the publicity this is going to generate? Tied to the bed, duct tape, genital area sliced up. God, what are we dealing with here? You three need to get over to his house pronto.’ Franconi handed Bronski the slip of paper with the address and then continued. ‘I’ll call Heaviley’s team and alert the chief. I needn’t tell you how discreet you’ll need to be.’

  ‘What about Monica Lansdowne?’ Ellison asked.

  ‘I’ll call her and then his secretary. I’ll tell the secretary not to talk to the press. Any statement will come from us, not the mayor’s office.’ Franconi rubbed his neck again. ‘Surely this is way beyond what two angry fathers would do?’

  ‘Maybe, maybe not,’ Ellison shrugged, in frustration. ‘The reality is that we’re no further forward in the investigation than a week ago – possibilities, not probabilities and we’re still awaiting anything significant from the two autopsies and the two crime scenes, so far.’

  ‘So, maybe this time the murderer or murderers slip up and we get a break,’ Franconi replied, picking up the phone to call the chief.

  Chapter 48

  ‘Interesting that neither Amato nor Merton was at work today and will only be each other’s alibis,’ Ellison mused on the journey to the crime scene.

  ‘Yeah, but how does the mayor tie in?’ Bronski asked. ‘So far, we only know Lansdowne is connected to Mearns professionally. The link to Bannister is pretty flimsy – a former parishioner and there are probably hundreds of those. Bannister and Mearns have more links. Do you think the mayor is part of an abuse ring?’

  ‘I think we’re missing another connection, somehow,’ Annie offered from the back seat. ‘I think Amato and Merton could be pretty nasty people. However, to kill three men,
I’m not so sure.’

  Ellison turned to face her. ‘Maybe Lansdowne knew something that someone with an even bigger stake wanted to be kept quiet, so he had to go too. Maybe this is all about an abuse ring and someone believes he had become a weak link after the other two deaths. Wonder what Detective Baxter will make of it when he hears.’

  Annie shrugged her shoulders. ‘I’ll ring him when I get the chance.’

  Bronski signalled as he changed lanes. ‘We’re almost here. Macpherson, I don’t think you’ve been to this part of Westford yet. It’s the oldest and most expensive section of town. All the properties around here are probably two hundred years old.’

  Annie glanced at the old colonials in view, although she had to smile to herself at the description of them as old. After all, Britain went back to the Bronze Age. Still, two hundred years would seem ancient to Americans.

  Bronski parked the car and pointed to the house across the road. ‘As I said, an old colonial and a swath of land. We couldn’t afford a property like this with all three of our salaries combined.’

  ‘I couldn’t be bothered maintaining the swimming pool,’ Ellison remarked, and I bet every one of these houses has one.’

  ‘Those trees are lovely,’ Annie commented, ‘yet they also obscure the property, probably allowing access to go unnoticed.’

  ‘Here I am pointing out the beauty of the neighbourhood, and you, Ellison, can only see the maintenance issues and you, Macpherson, can only see the security problems.’ Bronski sighed as all three of them opened the car doors.

  Officer Franklin greeted them at the steps and recorded their names in the logbook, checking all three badges. ‘Officer Dooley is at the back entrance to the property. The front door doesn’t look as if it’s been disturbed, nor was the back door damaged when we got here. We’ve marked out areas to walk inside. The body is in the master bedroom on the second floor, which faces the back of the house.’

  ‘Right, we’ll make a start. Heaviley’s team has been alerted so they should be here soon, as well as the Medical Examiner. Meanwhile, no one else gets past you,’ Bronski instructed.

  ‘Yes, sir. There’s a box over there with suits and shoe coverings.’ The officer pointed to his left.

  ‘Let’s go up to the bedroom first,’ Bronski suggested when he and his colleagues were ready, ‘then we can look around down here while Heaviley and his team set up. The Mearns’ scene should still be in our minds. Let’s see how this compares.’

  Ellison didn’t mind Bronski taking the lead, although it hadn’t been discussed. With three murders there was plenty of work to go around and it was hard to believe this third one wasn’t connected. The big worry was whether they’d missed something with Bannister, which could’ve saved the other two men. He kept that thought to himself and hoped the same one hadn’t occurred to Annie. There was enough to contend with here.

  At the top of the stairs, they passed the nursery. Annie noted that it was done out in pink with animal motifs on the walls. It smelled of baby powder and soft lotions. The shade in the room was open, filling the room with the early afternoon sunlight. The next room was a family bathroom, the door also open. Then there was what appeared to be the master bedroom. She could smell death before they even entered the room.

  The body was lying in the centre of the bed in a pool of congealed blood. The tableaux it presented was virtually a carbon copy of Mearns’ with only a few differences. Bronski stepped forward, while Ellison moved to the opposite side of the bed. He had thought to retrieve his camera before they left the parking lot at the station and he took some shots. Annie stood beside Bronski and got out her notebook. ‘OK, first of all, the hands look to be secured behind the back and the feet are bound and secured. There is also duct tape holding the body in position on the bed, crisscrossing the chest. It looks visually to be the same type of tape used on Mearns,’ Bronski began, as Ellison continued taking photographs.

  ‘Only this guy is trussed up like a turkey – way more than the other two. In fact, it looks like with each one, more tape has been used to secure the victim. I bet when Lansdowne’s examined in the autopsy room, there will be signs of defensive wounds,’ Ellison commented from behind the camera. ‘He must have resisted far more for him to be secured like that.’

  ‘He’s certainly more powerfully built than either Bannister or Mearns,’ Annie commented. ‘Can’t imagine, from the interview we had with him, that he’s the kind of guy who would go down without a fight. He struck me as a bit of a control freak.’

  ‘I agree with that, Detective. Still, the murderer could’ve waited till he was asleep and bound him before he was fully alert,’ Bronski conjectured. ‘Or if there were two of them, as we’ve speculated in the past, one could’ve been holding a gun. Anyway, once he was secured, he’d have had little chance of resisting.’

  Annie almost gagged at the smell in the room. It was already hot in there without any air conditioning and the combination of bodily decomposition, urine and faeces was becoming ever more potent.

  Bronski continued, ‘It looks like we have another incised wound, which on the right hand side starts near the pelvic bone and curves downward, slicing through the scrotal sac. Fogarty will have to give us the exact measurements. It must be quite deep. See how the wound is gaping.’ He pointed, taking care not to touch the flesh. ‘That means that blood vessels, nerves, even muscle must be severed. Looks like a similar wound the other side, pulling up through the scrotum and severing the penis. Fogarty should be able to tell us more. Obviously the weapon is some kind of knife.’

  Annie couldn’t stop looking at Lansdowne’s eyes. They were wide open. The tape had started to lift off his mouth, as if he screamed and dislodged the ends. Only the sound of movement on the stairs caused her to look away.

  Glen Heaviley walked into the room, holding his bag. Directly behind him was the crime scene photographer. Heaviley acknowledged the detectives and then stared at the body with professional detachment. ‘Without stating the obvious, it looks like a third victim of the same killer or killers,’ he offered.

  ‘Our thoughts, too,’ Bronski concurred.

  Heaviley addressed the three of them. ‘The Medical Examiner was parking as we came through the door, so he should be up in a minute to certify death. Then we can try and get an approximate time. Do you need to be in here any longer or can we get on with it?’ In the corner of the room, the photographer began setting up his equipment.

  ‘We came up here first. So we’ll look around the rest of the house while you get started,’ Bronski replied, glancing around as the Medical Examiner walked into the room.

  ‘Well I never voted for the guy,’ Fogarty joked as he walked in and looked at the body.

  ‘At least we all recognise Matthew Lansdowne,’ Heaviley offered. ‘Nevertheless we’ll still need formal identification. Who’s letting the next-of-kin know? I presume that’s his wife.’

  ‘Captain Franconi was getting on to that as we left the station. I’ll check where things are up to and let you know,’ Bronski answered.

  By now Fogarty was taking the temperature of the body. Once again he pointed out the lividity to all present and also the stage of the rigor mortis. ‘I’ll confirm later. Best guess right now is that he died between midnight and about three.’

  ‘Right,’ Bronski replied, ‘we’ll leave you to it and have a look around the rest of the house. We’ll still need to look through drawers and stuff in here when you’ve sorted out the body.’

  Annie noticed one of the technicians bringing in the body bag as the three of them started down the stairs.

  Chapter 49

  ‘Still no word from Matthew?’ Jordan Prentice asked, noticing his daughter checking her phone again as they sat down in the seafood restaurant.

  ‘Not yet. Sheila was going to call the police to say that he
’s not been in work all morning and she can’t get him on either the cellphone or the house phone. I’ve also told the police that I’m worried.’

  ‘I’m sure it’s nothing, dear. You know, Matthew, he probably had some big meeting and forgot to tell anyone. So, let’s try and have a nice lunch while we can.’ Ruth Prentice glanced at Lydia, asleep in her stroller. ‘At least we’re in a quiet corner of the restaurant so hopefully Lydia won’t be disturbed.’

  ‘So, is it our favourite all around?’ Jordan Prentice asked without needing to look at the menu.

  ‘Sounds good to me,’ Monica answered. ‘Could you order, Dad? I’d like to freshen up.’

  ‘Sure,’ her father said as the waitress came over and took their order. When the waitress was out of earshot, Ruth Prentice spoke to her husband in a low voice. ‘I really don’t trust Matthew. What’s he up to causing Monica so much worry?’

  ‘I know,’ her husband replied. ‘She’s changed, don’t you think? I wonder if there are problems she’s not telling us about. She seems to have lost some of her zest for life and I think she’s losing weight. More than the baby weight, I mean. She’s starting to look gaunt.’

  His wife murmured her agreement. ‘I was putting that down to her having a young child to look after and not much time to spend on herself. It’s not easy being a new mom. She usually enjoys the two weeks she stays with us here. Somehow this year she’s different, can’t seem to relax.’

  Jordan Prentice signalled his wife that Monica was on the way back to the table.