James Locker- The Duality of Fate

by Martin Lundqvist

  Samantha Robinson:

  - And the USB stick with sensitive case material that we found in your house.

  Michael Fuller:

  - I got it from other sources.

  Samantha Robinson:

  - Right...

  - So tell me about the break-in at James Locker's house where you painted him a message at his mirror with blood that turned out to be Antonio DiMaestro's?

  Michael Fuller:

  - I did not do that...

  Samantha Robinson:

  - So you claim that you have not broken into James Locker’s house recently?

  Michael Fuller:

  - Well I did break in at a later stage because I reckoned there was something fishy about the entire "break-in at James Locker's house" scenario

  Thomas Anderson:

  - Yes, you might claim that was your motive. And we have you on video while breaking in there. A hidden camera took this video. But I do have another theory on why you broke in that second time. You did it so you could replace James Locker's medicine Xenopropsyche with the substance Xenoantipsyche, which is a dangerous drug for people with a weak mind.

  - Were you aware of James Locker's mental health issues?

  Michael Fuller:

  - Yes of course, as his boss I was mindful of the fact that he had a breakdown after the breakup with his ex-girlfriend. But he received medication and from what I could tell he was doing fine.

  Thomas Anderson:

  - Were you also aware of his colour-blindness which would make it impossible for him to see the difference between his medication Xenopropsyche and the substance Xenoantipsyche which almost killed him?

  Michael Fuller:

  - Well, I am sure it is in his file, but it was not a detail I ever reflected over.

  Thomas Anderson:

  - Okay. In your house, we found an amount Xenoantipsyche, with your fingerprint on them, how do you explain that? Were you a user yourself?

  Michael Fuller:

  - No, I have never been using that drug.

  Adam Smith:

  - Moving on, you went to Jessica Hall place drunk and intimidated her, before killing her, a couple of hours later. Why did you do that?

  Michael Fuller:

  - I confronted her because I thought she knew about Antonio DiMaestro’s whereabouts.

  - I never killed her or hurt her in any way.

  Adam Smith:

  - Okay, but you were in the neighbourhood at the time of the murder?

  Michael Fuller:

  - Yes, I was at my favourite whiskey bar which is next to her apartment complex.

  Adam Smith:

  - Okay, do you have anyone that can confirm that you were there at the time of the murder?

  Michael Fuller:

  - Maybe my bankcard usage can, otherwise I don’t think so.

  Adam Smith:

  - Well, your bank card usage would not be sufficient evidence to your favour though as you could have asked anyone to stay and buy drinks with your card and pin number, while you "went out to smoke ." I am sure you would be able to find many takers for such an option.

  Michael Fuller:

  - Well, I suppose I could, but I did not, I bought drinks for myself.

  Adam Smith:

  - Whatever you say, Mr Fuller, whatever you say.

  - You went to Jessica Hall's apartment a third time that night, or you stopped in the elevator and claimed to be going to a friend's place, who were you seeing?

  Michael Fuller:

  - Okay, I admit I was going to Jessica Hall's home again because I was irate and frustrated. I felt that she was lying to me and indeed knew where Antonio DiMaestro was hiding.

  Samantha Robinson:

  - Well, I believe you went back to take the precious necklace you stole from the DiMaestro mansion when you killed Miranda DiMaestro the week earlier. You got second thoughts because although it was a smart way of setting up Antonio DiMaestro for the murders, it was just too valuable to waste on such a venture.

  Michael Fuller:

  - I don’t know what you are talking about? What necklace?

  Samantha Robinson pulled out a picture from the case folder of the expensive jewellery that was left on top of Jessica Hall's dead body.

  Samantha Robinson:

  - This necklace.

  - A costly necklace. I did some research on it, and it turned out a Sydney jeweller sold it to Antonio DiMaestro for $85,000 a few days before last Christmas.

  Thomas Anderson:

  - Moving on.

  - A few days later you crashed your car into a tree in Olympic Park. What were you doing out there?

  Michael Fuller:

  - I was on my way back home, from my investigation of James Locker’s house.

  - As you all know I got a concussion and was hospitalised for a couple of days.

  Adam Smith:

  - Yes, we are aware of that because it was a few relaxed days. No hacking of our computers, no break-in at our colleagues' and no murders.

  - But once you left the hospital, you became homicidal once again. This time your victim was Emily Luong. Why did you attack her, she has no connection to Antonio DiMaestro as far as we know?

  Michael Fuller was considering his options before answering this question. As far he knew they had not presented any evidence that he was actually at Emily Luong's place so they might be shooting blindly at him, then again if he denied an apparent fact he would ruin his credibility. He decided to move ahead and tell them.

  Michael Fuller:

  - Well, I got a call from a mysterious person who called himself Jordan Palmer. He claimed that James Locker was collaborating with Antonio DiMaestro to set me up, and this was the reason the police had been unable to locate Antonio DiMaestro.

  - Furthermore, he told me that James Locker's ex-girlfriend Emily Luong had incriminating evidence against James Locker and that I had to see her that night otherwise James Locker would arrest me on the evidence he had forged.

  Adam Smith:

  - Okay now you have passed the border for delusional paranoia I reckon.

  - So why did you shoot her? The woman you tried killing was not James Locker's ex-girlfriend Emily Luong. I know that, and you knew that as well, as you have met Emily Luong on several occasions on police functions.

  Michael Fuller:

  - Yes, I realised that it was not the right Emily Luong the moment she opened her door. So I got baffled, and then I left.

  Samantha Robinson:

  - Well according to the emergency call, which is as you know always recorded she called in to report that a drunken delusional man who called himself Michael Fuller were threatening her with a gun and claimed that there was a conspiracy within the police. When a squad car arrived 15 minutes later, they found her, shot in the head.

  - Did you go back and shoot her?

  Michael Fuller:

  - No, I did not.

  Adam Smith:

  - Okay. When you were arrested for drunk driving a couple of hours later, you were found to carry a Desert Eagle pistol. Why did you wear this gun, and what happened with the .22 calibre silenced revolver that you used for the killings?

  Michael Fuller:

  - I did not kill anyone, so I don't know where that weapon is as it has never been in my possession.

  - As for the Desert Eagle pistol, I took it in case I was walking into a trap as I did not want to be captured by some low-life mafia scums without the chance to defend myself.

  Samantha Robinson:

  - So you admit that you considered the option to kill someone that night?

  Michael Fuller:

  - I recognise that I brought a gun with me in case I needed to defend myself!

  Adam Smith:

  - Okay, Michael. I think this concludes our initial interrogation of you. Of course, we will follow up with more detailed questions later, but as for now, we are done.

  - If this were an employment interview, this would be the stage where
we told you that we would get back to you and then you would never hear from us again. Since it's not, you will see us a lot the weeks to come. Some custody guards will pick you up shortly and bring you back to your seven square meter accommodation brought to you courtesy of the taxpayers of New South Wales.

  After Adam Smith had finished his line, he left the room together with Thomas Anderson and Samantha Robinson.

  7.13 Strategy meeting after the interrogation

  AFTER THE INTERROGATION of Michael Fuller Samantha Robinson, Thomas Anderson and Adam Smith went to a restaurant for lunch as well as to devise their strategy for the work to come. The issue with John Dean was still to be solved, and if Michael Fuller was correct in his accusations, they had a problem with Barry Itch to resolve as well. Since they did not know the allegiances of the other members of the team, they decided it was better to keep their thoughts to themselves for the time being. Once they had finished their meals, Samantha Robinson started the talking.

  Samantha Robinson:

  - So what are your thoughts about the case? Do you think Michael Fuller did it? There are some strange things about I reckon.

  Adam Smith:

  - Oh, I am confident the bastard did it. He seems delirious from all the drinking and loneliness I reckon. I mean look at the facts. He was at all the crime scenes at the time of the murders, and we found a lot of evidence at his place. I say he lost it and went on a killing spree. Maybe that's why he was so good in the first place because he had killers mind?

  Samantha Robinson:

  - I agree with all you are saying, but what about his motives? He did not seem to have any?

  Adam Smith:

  - Well, I knew that a comprehensive murder investigation should state the killer's motives, physical evidence, and witnesses. But we don't live in a perfect world as it is in the textbooks, so I think we have more than enough to get him convicted. If not that's for the court to decide.

  Thomas Anderson:

  - Yeah, I agree with Adam on this one. One can never be a 100 per cent in any case, and it's healthy to be sceptical before judging, but sometimes we just have to leap of faith. If it was only the evidence, we found at his place it could be a setup. But he was at all the murder scenes even though he has no logical reason whatsoever being there.

  - As for motive, I don't think most serial killers I have read about actually had a reasonable, rational purpose; I think it's just an urge to kill that drives them. Often this urge is fuelled by an extreme paranoia like in Michael Fuller's case.

  Samantha Robinson:

  - Yeah, I know that what you are saying makes sense logically, but still, my gut feeling says there is something fishy in this case.

  Adam Smith:

  - Well if people's gut feeling were always right there would be no need for logic and reasoning, would it?

  - Besides a lot of times my gut feeling tells me that a woman I am talking to wants to bang. And then again a lot of the times when I get that feeling the only moist I am getting is that from her drink shoved in my face!

  Samantha Robinson:

  - Well, thank you for sharing a compelling argument, Adam!

  - Moving on, how do you think we should proceed with Barry Itch and John Dean?

  Thomas Anderson:

  - Well with Barry Itch we are not even sure he has done anything or if what Michael told us is just a product of his delusional paranoia. Nevertheless, I will make a thorough scan of his phone to see if I can find the file.

  - As with John Dean, I reckon the best way would be to have my buddy Wayne Bruce talk to the Minister of the Police directly as we spoke with internal investigations yesterday, but they did not seem eager to help or do anything at all. For sure John Dean is suspended for now, but my feeling was that the case would be cancelled in a few weeks and then we will have status quo, with the risk of having John Dean promoted to detective. But if we get one piece of crucial piece of evidence more, I am sure we'll get this snake!

  Samantha Robinson:

  - I do have an idea about that. Don’t banks put in marked notes in kind of robberies or suspicious cash withdrawals?

  - The withdrawal of $10 000 in cash that Michael Fuller did would indicate illegal business to take place. So there is a chance the bank put some marked notes among the ten grand Michael received. What if we were to ask the bank if they put in marked banknotes among Michael's $10 000? If we ask the minister directly for a search order against John Dean's house and if we find the marked notes we have enough proof for a conviction.

  Thomas Anderson:

  - Great. You and I will do that, while Adam will check Michael's phone for the supposedly incriminating audio file against Barry Itch.

  - Finally, Johnson, Baker, Chung, and Lee can do detailed interrogations with Michael Fuller. I don't think spending time interrogating him will give us anything of value, but we never know, and better keep those deadbeats busy as well!

  Adam Smith:

  - Agreed. Let’s do this.

  - Oh, and Thomas, save your energy for tonight.

  Thomas Anderson:

  - No worries, I am not as bizarrely over-sexual as you are.

  - See you tomorrow!

  After finishing talking they split up to proceed with following up on their respective leads.

  7.14 A search warrant

  AS IT TURNED OUT THE bank indeed had placed marked notes among the $10,000 that Michael Fuller withdrew from his account two weeks earlier. The marked banknotes were indeed good news as this would make it easier to prove that John Dean indeed had betrayed the team through sabotaging the investigation and leaking information to Michael Fuller. As Thomas Anderson had predicted it was a lot easier to get, the internal investigations to work on the case after Wayne Bruce spoke to the New South Wales Minister for Police and Emergency service Michael Lawson. With the assistance of internal investigations, Thomas Anderson and Samantha Robinson received a search warrant and went to John Dean's house. John Dean greeted them at his door.

  John Dean:

  - What the fuck are you two doing here? You have already gotten me suspended what more do you want with me?

  Thomas Anderson:

  - Oh, it's quite simple John, we want you out of the team for good. You see internal investigations are highly unlikely to do anything at all on their own, and then you would be back, maybe even getting promoted to Detective.

  - But we are only one tiny bit of evidence from putting you behind bars, and then you are gone forever. And as you can see on the search warrant, we managed to persuade the minister himself to sign it.

  - So I suggest you hang out in the garden with Officer Chung while the rest of our team search your house for the evidence we need.

  A couple of hours of searching began. Finally, Officer Baker managed to find a bag with money in it, in a hidden compartment in the garage. Samantha Robinson made a quick count of the cash and estimated it to be around $8000.

  Samantha Robinson:

  - Well John, look what we found, $8000 in cash in a hidden compartment in your garage. How do you explain this?

  John Dean:

  - Well, I fell behind on my mortgage payments so a friend of mine lent me the money so I could get ahead, it's all legit.

  Samantha Robinson:

  - A friend you say? Who just happens have $8000 lying around in cash to hand out to you? Because seriously if it for the mortgage it would be easier for your friend just to wire you the money.

  John Dean:

  - Well, he just happened to have the money lying around. Besides, you guys are not working for the taxation office, so I have no obligation to let you know about all of my private finances.

  Thomas Anderson:

  - That is true; nevertheless, we are confiscating this money to examine whether they stem from illegal sources or not.

  - But don’t worry, we’ll make it quick so you can come by tomorrow and pick them up if our research can’t prove that any crime has occurred.

  Af
ter having said the team left John Dean’s house to go back to the police station and try tracing the serial numbers of the confiscated banknotes.

  7.15 Adam Smith confronts Barry Itch.

  ADAM SMITH SHONE LIKE the sun when he finally found the audio file on Michael Fuller's mobile phone which proved that the circumstances Michael Fuller had provided about his resignation were real. Adam Smith was very confused by the fact that the same man that forced him into spending five unpaid Saturdays attending workplace equality seminars for using inappropriate language would cover up serious crimes conducted by Michael Fuller.

  Adam Smith was considering how he could use the audio file with the cocaine discussion between Barry Itch and Michael Fuller, to do maximal damage to the BITCH. Adam Smith had never been a fan of Michael Fuller whom he found arrogant and the pushy, but his real nemesis in the CSMI was without doubt Barry Itch its director. There was no doubt that this was due to a clash of personalities as Adam Smith and Barry Itch were each other's opposites. While Adam Smith, was outspoken, impulsive, messy, hard to offend and ultra-macho in his approach to things Barry Itch was careful with what he said, very controlled, extremely tidy, very easily offended and very much against the macho culture of the police. Adam Smith could not understand why someone who was against chauvinism would have come up with the idea to join the police force in the first place. After all, the reason for Adam Smith to become a police officer was that he would get a lot of macho atmosphere at work as well as a uniform that could be used to pick up and impress a specific type of women. As long as Barry Itch was the director of CSMI Adam Smith realised that there would not be much of a macho attitude at his workplace and as the uniform was not as good for picking up women as he had hoped it would be, he was quite disgruntled with his work situation from time to time.