Det Annie Macpherson 02 - Programmed To Kill

by Speake, Barbara Fagan

  Chapter 54

  Ellison was already on his computer when Annie arrived. ‘Morning, Detective Macpherson. I trust no hangover this morning.’

  ‘No, Detective, you saved me from myself, again. Besides we need clear heads today. I can’t believe we’re handling three murder investigations. I’ve never been in this position before.’

  ‘Well, at least they seem to be linked, so we’re not dealing with three different, unrelated cases and three potential murderers, although there’s as much evidence to trawl through. I’ve got a message to collect the autopsy results from Fogarty for Bannister and Mearns. I thought I might swing by the morgue in a few minutes. I still haven’t got a time for Monica Lansdowne and her father to arrive. Want to interview them with me, if you’re free?’

  ‘Sure. I’d like to see what Monica Lansdowne is like. What about interviewing the staff in the mayor’s office? Isn’t that a priority?’

  ‘Not sure who’s doing that yet. Fogarty is seeing Jeff Lansdowne at ten o’clock for the formal identification. Bronski needs to be there for that and then he’s interviewing Jeff Lansdowne here.’

  ‘Why not let Bronski pick up the reports?’

  ‘Thought I could be there and back before he even arrives and get a head start looking through them.’ Ellison sat back into his chair to have a bit of a stretch.

  ‘Want coffee first?’

  ‘No, I’ll get off. I might stop at Starbucks on the way back and treat you.’

  When Ellison had left, Annie got out the three files and started to look through them. The file on Lansdowne was the thinnest so far. The autopsy results on Bannister and Mearns would be useful additions. Yet, Annie realised, they might not tell them much more than they already knew. Her desk phone ringing interrupted her reading. A few seconds later Detective Baxter was put through.

  ‘Sorry not to have been in touch before now, Detective, I had a couple of days vacation. Then I was late because of my run.’

  ‘Are you training for anything in particular, sir?’

  ‘I run marathons when I can, so I always try and stay fit for the next one. Did Chicago and New York in the last couple of years. How about yourself, Detective? You a runner?’

  Annie laughed. ‘No sir, nothing that energetic.’

  ‘You should try it, very relaxing. Gives you time to think and you see things you’ve never noticed before. Anyway, what can I do for you, Detective?’

  ‘I imagine you know that we’ve had another homicide to add to our investigations.’

  ‘I heard the news. So are there close similarities between all three?’

  ‘The mutilation of the bodies is so close, that it’s almost unimaginable that there could be three different perpetrators. In each case the genitals are nearly sliced off. The mutilations are a definite message.’ Annie glanced at the three files on her desk.

  ‘But three men, from three different walks of life?’ Baxter asked.

  ‘It would seem so, which is why we’re trying to establish if there are any connections between them. We know about the link between Bannister and Mearns and it could make sense that someone who was abused by the priest in the past and then saw Mearns as his defender might link them. Then there is the fact that both have obvious sexual predilections, yet Mearns is more sadomasochistic from the looks of the equipment we found in his apartment. Still, when we get his computer results, which hopefully will be today, we may be surprised and I may be ringing you back.’

  ‘So you are expecting those today?’

  ‘Hopefully, and now there’s also Lansdowne’s computer, so that will have to be looked at too. Speaking of Lansdowne, he’s harder to link. He was a former parishioner of Bannister’s and was in discussion, or so he told us, with Mearns about a new business venture to stimulate employment. None of that exactly ties him into a motive for murder. So far, he doesn’t seem to have any sexual aberrations, from what we found at the crime scene. He’s the only one who’s married and has a child.’

  ‘That you know of,’ Baxter commented. ‘Bannister wouldn’t be the first priest to have a child lurking somewhere in the background and Mearns, who knows? Not being married doesn’t mean you don’t have kids.’

  ‘That’s true. We’ve made the assumption with Bannister being a priest and we’ve nothing to indicate that Mearns had any children or even if women were his preference.’

  ‘Sounds like there may be more to come out. I don’t envy you the task, Detective, but you have a good team there from what I hear from your captain.’

  ‘Thank you sir.’ Annie was secretly pleased that Franconi boasted about his detectives to his colleagues, but she needed to question Detective Baxter more closely. ‘The other thing, sir, is that we were wondering if Matthew Lansdowne’s name has ever come up in your investigations?’

  Baxter laughed. ‘It’s starting to sound like I need to work on your team.’

  ‘We do seem to keep finding people in common, don’t we?’

  ‘That we do, Detective, but off hand, I think we draw a blank with Matthew Lansdowne. Everyone on my team knows the mayor’s name so I’m sure if his name had cropped up at all, I would know about it.’ That comment made sense to Annie. Before she could reply, Baxter continued. ‘Tell you what, I will double check. Now I better get back to why I called you. When I got in this morning, I had some feedback from one of my team. Detective Smithfield has been looking into Mearns some more from our case files. It appears that Mearns acted for two other clergy who are within your jurisdiction. One is a priest from Our Lady of the Saints, a Father Paul Benedict. Mearns managed to get his molestation case dismissed on a technicality a couple of years back. I can send you all the details.’

  Annie was making notes to enter into the files while Baxter continued. ‘The other is a Brother Jonathan and that goes back about twenty years. The victim at the time was eight years old, a Martin Brantingham. Any of those names ring a bell with you?’

  Annie realised her mouth had gone dry. First Frances Amato and Brother Jonathan. Now Detective Baxter was coming up with his name. ‘Brother Jonathan does, if he’s the same one who’s now at Sacred Heart.’

  ‘Let’s see …’ Annie could hear papers being sifted through. ‘That’s the address we have for him now.’ Baxter hesitated. ‘Of course, that was Bannister’s parish! Sorry, I must be in vacation mode still.’

  ‘That’s a very interesting piece of information. Brother Jonathan’s involvement is getting more and more complex.’

  ‘How so?’

  ‘First of all, he was summoned to Father Bannister’s side by the seminarian, Damien Bailey. He also has the main responsibility for the seminary and holds all the master keys to the building and the individual bedrooms. He tried to notify Bannister’s next-of-kin before we even asked him to and he then came with me to tell Marion Bannister of her son’s death.’

  ‘And maybe he and Brian Bannister continued their joint interests?’

  ‘Maybe. The interesting thing, though, is that we had an unexpected event at Father Bannister’s funeral. At the very end of the burial as people were leaving, Tony Amato and John Merton, both names you’ll recognise, unwrapped a wreath spelling out the word Pervert and dropped it on to the casket. We’ve yet to interview them about it. The interesting coincidence is that Frances Amato, who never mailed her husband’s complaint about Father Bannister to the bishop, is the niece of Brother Jonathan. She went to the funeral, unknown to her husband and was unaware of his actions at the burial. However, when we went to interview Tony Amato the following day, only his wife was home. The woman was sporting a black eye and was loath to explain how it happened.’

  ‘Interesting. Were there any links to Brother Jonathan on Bannister’s computer?’ Baxter asked.

  ‘Not as far as we know, although we haven’t had the full repo
rt back yet from forensics. The other thing is that when we looked up Merton in the files, he had been arrested about twenty years ago when he was a teenager, for an assault on Brother Jonathan. Nothing came of it as Brother Jonathan dropped the charges.’

  ‘Hmm, circles within circles, wouldn’t you say?’ Baxter commented.

  ‘I think the mayor complicates the picture. If our theories are right about a tie up with child abuse, you’d expect Brother Jonathan or maybe the Father Benedict you mentioned to be potential victims, rather than Matthew Lansdowne,’ Annie theorised.

  ‘Well, maybe we can’t assume that it’s not abuse either, as it is early days with Lansdowne. Having a kid yourself doesn’t rule you out of being a child molester. Do you think that the two clergymen should be questioned as to whether they feel they’re in any danger?’ Baxter offered.

  ‘If you fax or email the information to us, I’ll discuss that with my two colleagues, neither of whom is in the office at the moment.’

  ‘I’ll do that now. Good to talk to you again, Detective. And, think about taking up running. It might clear your mind enough to work out who the killer is.’

  Annie laughed again. ‘Thanks for the advice, sir.’ She put the phone down and made a note in all three files, in case there was a later link established. She also listed the names: Father Paul Benedict, Brother Jonathan and Martin Brantingham on the whiteboard. She was about to pour herself another drink when the squad room door opened and Ellison came in with two Starbucks coffees. ‘Dave, you know the key to my heart.’

  ‘That’s good, Detective, because you’re the key to mine.’

  Annie laughed as she took the proffered coffee. ‘You’re such a charmer. Autopsy results reveal anything new?’

  ‘Is that all you want me for, my detection skills?’ Ellison retorted.

  ‘It’ll do for a start. So tell me about the autopsy results and then I’ll fill you in on my conversation with Detective Baxter, who by the way says that the captain’s been telling him what a good team of detectives he has.’

  ‘Has he now? That’s encouraging.’ Ellison sat down and opened his coffee. ‘I was simply going to pick up the autopsy reports and then I literally ran into Fogarty. He insisted on taking me through the results so he could highlight a few things. He’s also anxious to get on with the Lansdowne autopsy, which could be tomorrow morning. In fact, before we finished, Bronski arrived followed by Jeff Lansdowne in quick succession. In the end, we had to cut our discussion short. I told Fogarty I’d take the reports back here and telephone him with any questions. So Bronski knows I have both reports. By the way, I told Bronski we were impressed by his performance at the press conference. He was surprised we stayed behind to watch it.’

  ‘So Bronski will be bringing Jeff Lansdowne back here?’

  ‘Yeah, any time soon.’

  They both moved over to the squad room table. Ellison opened up the two reports. He found one of the relevant bits that Fogarty had pointed out. ‘The most interesting finding is that there was some DNA left on Mearns that matches Bannister.’

  Annie’s eyes widened. ‘Really?’

  ‘Yeah, apparently it came from some body hair. Heaviley’s team have been able to confirm that much so far, as Fogarty passed the evidence to them. Fogarty thinks that the same weapon was used on both and that blood and hair was still on the weapon from Bannister when it was used again on Mearns.’

  ‘So those two are definitely linked then, no question?’

  ‘Fogarty is willing to testify to that effect when it comes to it.’

  ‘That’s great. Anything else of interest?’ Annie took another drink of her coffee while Ellison flicked through some pages of the report.

  ‘Mostly what we observed: the manner of the deaths, the duct tape and the extreme mutilation. The pattern and angle of the incisions are very similar. Fogarty believes the murderer is right handed. The only possible link to the perpetrator is a few tiny brown threads. They’re heavy duty, probably from a work uniform or overall, that type of thing. They’ve also been sent to Heaviley’s team for further investigation. It seems that’s all the murderer left behind so he had to have been gloved and taken a lot of precautions to remain undetected. Both men were really fit, so the issue of how they were overpowered remains. There is no evidence from the autopsy to suggest more than one killer. Of course, the reverse is also true, nothing to rule it out either. Both were left to die in excruciating pain: Mearns at the scene as we know and Bannister later in hospital, never having regained consciousness.’

  ‘So, we’ve got a methodical planner, who targeted his victims and was probably let into the premises. So that might mean that he was either known to the victims or in some sort of disguise. Then somehow he manages to subdue each of them long enough to put tape on the wrists, and then in both Mearns’ and Lansdowne’s cases, to also bind the ankles. Now if we find a further link to Lansdowne …’

  Annie’s summary was interrupted by the arrival of Bronski. ‘Jeff Lansdowne is in interview room one. I’m going to make us both a drink. He’s in a bit of a state after identifying his son’s body. I thought I would give him a few minutes to compose himself.’

  ‘Do you want me to join you?’ Annie asked.

  ‘Yeah, if you’ve got the time, I’d find it helpful. I presume there’s no word yet from Monica Lansdowne and Jordan Prentice.’

  ‘Not yet,’ Ellison answered, deciding to leave the information from the autopsies until Bronski and Macpherson finished with Jeff Lansdowne.

  Chapter 55

  Jeff Lansdowne was wiping away tears when the two detectives entered the room. Bronski introduced Annie. ‘Mr Lansdowne, we’re very sorry for your loss,’ she said, shaking hands with him.

  ‘Thank you, Detective. My wife and I want whoever did this to be found. What kind of monster does something like this? I asked to see Matthew’s injuries. I owed that to my son. Now I wish I hadn’t. What father wants to see his son mutilated like that? The murderer has to be very depraved. Those wounds were horrific and the thought that he was alive when …’ The man couldn’t continue and broke down completely. It was several minutes before he recovered sufficiently to speak again. ‘I simply cannot tell my wife what was done to Matthew. I don’t know what I’ll say to her. She’s a very anxious woman. This won’t do her health any good.’

  ‘We’ve kept the nature of the injuries from the press and the public, as they appear unique to the murderer. The next-of-kin in the first two cases only saw the bodies covered in a sheet. All three victims sustained the same mutilations: your son, the lawyer Patrick Mearns and the priest Brian Bannister. We’ve been trying to find out if there are any links between the three men. The injuries are too similar for them not to be the work of one person. I know this is a difficult time for you, but can you think of any possible connections between them?’ Bronski asked.

  Jeff Lansdowne started to shake and clenched his fists. ‘Are you implying that if you’d found the murderer of those first two men, my son might be alive today?’

  Bronski folded his hands on the table. ‘No, we had no way of knowing that your son was a potential victim, so we had no way of preventing his death. We don’t even know if there are other potential victims out there, which is why it is critical that we find out what links your son to the other two victims. Maybe then we’ll have a solid lead.’

  Annie thought back to her conversation with Detective Baxter and the mention of the two other clergy, including Brother Jonathan whom Mearns had represented. Might they also be potential victims? She had yet to relate her conversation with Baxter to either of her colleagues. The last thing she wanted to do was to sit with relatives of either of those two men and be asked the same question.

  Matthew Lansdowne’s father took a handkerchief from his jacket pocket, removed his glasses and wiped his eyes. ‘Matthew me
ntioned going to the priest’s funeral. He said he and Monica used to be parishioners. Beyond that I don’t know. He did have a friend named Pat when he was at the University of Westford. I don’t recall his last name. I’m not sure Matt ever brought him home. I was travelling a lot in those days so I could’ve missed meeting some of his friends. I can ask my wife, although she never commented on any connection when she heard the names on the news. I think she would’ve done if she’d thought Matthew knew the victims. She was always sending him clippings from the papers about people she thought he might have known.’

  ‘Did your son make any comments to you regarding the news of the first two victims. Was there any indication that he was concerned for his own safety?’

  The older man’s jaw dropped and his eyes widened. ‘No, nothing. Although we didn’t see a lot of him and Monica in recent years. He’d been so busy since he became mayor. We never liked intruding on the little time they had together as a family. We always thought it was an imposition on Monica when we visited – you know, staying with them. They knew they could always call on us, though, for anything. Monica is very close to her family.’ Jeff Lansdowne hesitated and looked at the two detectives, his face becoming paler. ‘She won’t have to see those injuries, will she?’

  ‘There’s no need for her to,’ Bronski replied. ‘She may ask to and we can only caution her against it.’