Murder In The Academy : A chilling murder mystery set in Belfast (Alice Fox Murder Mysteries Book 1)

by Maggie Feeley

  “Let’s not forget as well,” she continued, “that the cover-up extended way beyond the place of death and the subsequent relocation of the remains in a freezer in another building. Had it not been for the storm and the disruption that caused, Helen Breen might still be residing undiscovered in that freezer. All her electronic devices, laptops and mobile phones, both from work and home, were carefully removed and therefore unavailable for examination. The possibilities for digital forensics are limited given that we have, as yet, no hardware but that may yet change. We can hold on to the possibility of some remote access through the college system if we need to but I doubt there is much to be gained from that. This may be yet another distraction on the part of the killer to keep us looking in the wrong direction.” She paused. “Another point. Breen apparently carried a large handbag that was also absent from the scene. Similarly, the swiping of the victim’s passkey at nine thirty-six suggests that someone other than Breen herself did this and the key was then taken and disposed of along with her other belongings. The messages sent to Jackson Bell and Liam Doyle were from Helen Breen’s college email account but they were not sent by Breen, who was already dead. The timing suggests that this was not the work of the cleaners who were still in the Marine Biology Centre at this point. We might deduce that it was the murderer who had removed the devices from the office when they left, who then sent these messages later the same evening … unless of course there is yet another actor involved in the scene. Again there is a rapid shift from enraged murderer to calculating and technically savvy strategist.” Paton furrowed her brow and clamped her lips so that they turned downwards. “It is becoming increasingly difficult to keep up with the number of potential players in this drama.”

  There was a protracted silence as they all reviewed this suggestion. Then Paton continued.

  “So, holding all that in mind and moving onwards … forensics from Hillsborough confirms that Doyle was there, made himself a cup of tea and left the dishes in the sink. No attempt there to conceal his presence. Again we know from CCTV that he collected her car as requested in the email and drove it to Hillsborough where he left it expecting her to return later. His mobile phone records show all those attempted calls and no responses. His prints were also on the car as would be expected. Doyle’s presence in Hillsborough enabled the removal of any devices that might provide links to the killer… or possibly was intended as a red herring to implicate Doyle and send us off on a wild goose chase. Probably both of the above. The search of Doyle’s house did not reveal any devices other than his own laptop and phone that confirms his account of things as being entirely accurate. Are we agreed Doyle is no longer a suspect?”

  She looked around for any further comments on Doyle but they were all agreed.

  “Next there is the CCTV of the evening of the murder and in particular the time leading up to the killing … and the swiping out of Helen Breen’s card at nine thirty-six. There is considerable traffic in the area around the end of evening classes at nine twenty and the subsequent twenty minutes when things gradually calm down. There is no sign of Bell or Wilson, which supports their claims that they were not in the college that evening. CCTV also backs up Professor Janet Hartnett’s account of herself. She clearly approaches the swipe machine at nine-thirty as is recorded. She then has a conversation with a number of students and after that it becomes unclear what happened as there are too many people milling about to track her. Might she have had Breen’s card and waited for the remaining six minutes to swipe it out, ostensibly after she herself would be perceived to have left? The security guard does not remember noticing anything one way or the other as he was dealing with numerous enquiries about lost property and such like and totally distracted. So, Hartnett remains in the picture?”

  Burrows and McVeigh both strongly agreed.

  “We will both add to this theory later,” Burrows said hurriedly so as not to interrupt Paton’s flow of thought.

  “Good. So now I want to give an account of my meeting this afternoon with Tara Donnelly, the founder of DePRec. This was useful and, thanks to a steer from Alice Fox, suggests that because of the nature of its political work, DePRec has been very much of interest to the Security Services over the years since its foundation.”

  She recounted Tara Donnelly’s account of the attempt by Security Services to recruit her, the threats to her family and her own safety and her subsequent hasty departure from DePRec. As Caroline spoke it became clear from the expressions of both men that she was striking harmonious chords with their own findings. Her report was nonetheless unrushed and she finished by saying that she planned to place an inquiry with MI5 to ascertain if they had any current business in DePRec. She wanted to take the team’s advice first so as not to risk alerting a potential suspect that they were closing in.

  Burrows reflected that Paton looked even more stern and determined than usual and he knew this to mean that she had a sense they needed to tread very carefully. She reached for a slice of pizza and a can and sat back to listen to what her colleagues might add to her revelation.

  Burrows took the floor.

  “I think I can usefully add to that, Boss.” He checked with Ian that he was happy to hold off for the moment and consulted his notes. “I will begin with the outstanding detail in relation to Wilson, Doyle and Bell. Doyle, you have pretty much covered, ma’am. He was more of a victim of Helen Breen than an assailant. Despite a difficult start in life he has made something of himself and she saw his fragility and exploited it. I think we are all agreed that he is off our suspect list. Wilson too is mostly bluster and enjoys a good rant about the ills of capitalism and its proponents. He is more dangerous to himself than to anyone else as his blood pressure must rocket when he goes off on one. Ian followed up with Angela Wilson, his estranged wife and they did have a long Skype call on the evening of Breen’s murder. She can verify he was in his home and her Skype account has details of the time and duration of the call. She also said he can be very argumentative and annoying but is basically harmless. Thanks to Ian for that feedback.” He sipped his can of orange and sifted his notes. “I had an interesting follow-up with Professor Bell this afternoon. It actually takes on a whole added significance in the light of the Tara Donnelly experience.”

  Burrows related how he sought to ascertain if Bell had a motive for killing Breen because she was holding him to moral ransom because of his sexuality. The emergence of Security Services in pressurising Bell’s role as an informant had surprised him but made sense now. Bell had assumed the mantle rejected by Tara Donnelly and, as recently as the night before Breen’s murder, had been relieved of his position as a preferable replacement had been found. Burrows reported that Bell had repeated the agent’s words about his replacement being something about the reliability of old friends.

  “So the new DePRec informant is someone already known to our handler …” mused Paton. “This is all getting very murky indeed. OK, what else have we got?”

  Burrows continued. “I called Frank Breen this morning and talked about the school days when he and Janet Baldwin, as she then was, were in the same class. He wasn’t part of the rugby set but both his sister and Baldwin were. He repeated that he didn’t think Helen and Janet were close but they did mix in the same set although Helen was younger and less integrated. She wouldn’t have been involved in the same party set that Janet Baldwin was quite central to. In sixth form they had partied quite hard he recalled but it was around the time of his father’s sudden death and that overshadowed a lot of his memories of those days. I sent him a copy of the photo and he had not seen it before. He recalled there had been a flurry of scandal involving Baldwin in their final year but he was outside that circle and it was not really of interest to him. Frank had some old school journals that he had looked out and remembered the names of a few young men and one young woman in particular that Baldwin was close to. He sent copies of a few class photos, which included the people he thought Baldwin socialised with. I tracked do
wn the woman, June Carson, and called to see her after my visit to Professor Bell.”

  Bill took a gulp of his drink and a bite of pizza while Ian enquired about the names of the young men he had mentioned.

  “Let’s see …” Burrows consulted his notes. “Here we are. Frank said that he thought that Janet was close to two guys both of whom played for the first rugby team. One was Nigel Power and the other was Samuel Kennedy.” He raised an eyebrow inquisitively at Ian. “Does that tally with anything you’ve got?”

  “Yes, sir. I will let you finish and then I think I will be able to join a few dots.”

  They simultaneously felt the satisfaction of a set of disparate pieces drawing more closely together and refocused their attention to the steady unfolding of evidence.

  “June Carson had not remained in touch with Baldwin after college when their lives had separated once and for all,” said Burrows. “She did not know that Baldwin, now Hartnett, was back in Belfast although she had heard on the grapevine that her old friend’s marriage had broken up. Not much remains private in this small place.” He had a number of photos in his hand now and directed them to copies he had made for them. “Anyway, as promised, June Carson had gathered up some old school photos and she talked me through some of the connections. There is an overlap with the pictures that Frank Breen sent. I asked Carson about Helen Breen and she grimaced and said she was an unpleasant, precocious young girl whose company she had mostly avoided – but that Helen had tagged along with their crowd occasionally and been difficult to dodge completely. Apparently she could turn the charm on when it suited and had a certain influence in the group even though they were older than she was. You’ll see both Power and Kennedy feature in a number of these pictures. Kennedy was Janet’s boyfriend for a portion of their final year at school and June had been seeing his friend Nigel. It wasn’t a serious affair and they had split up before the end of the school term. She described it as fizzling out when cramming for exams took over from other priorities. I showed June the still photo of Baldwin and the two guys and she appeared genuinely shocked. I asked if she recognised either of the men and, although I thought she hesitated, she said it was impossible to say given the poor quality of the image. I asked if she knew where either Power or Kennedy was now and she said that she knew nothing about Nigel Power. He had been a high-flyer and had gone to an Oxford College from school and they had lost touch. Kennedy had gone on to play rugby for Ulster but had been brain-damaged as a result of a tragic sports accident and required full-time residential care after that.”

  Burrows sat back and shuffled his pile of papers.

  DI Paton tapped the notebook in front of her. “Let’s take a short break, guys, and Bill, if you can capture some of this latest evidence on the board that will be very useful. I want to place a call to the Super before he heads to the golf club for his Saturday night out. I need him to do some diplomatic telephone calls for us and there is no time like the present.”

  She headed off towards her office with the promise of a prompt return. While Burrows fixed pictures to the board, wrote names and connected arrows, Ian readied himself for his input with steadfast concentration.

  Within a matter of minutes Paton returned, took her seat at the table and reached for more pizza. “Right, Ian. Where did you get to with Janet Hartnett and the story behind the picture? We are all ears.”

  “I’ll start with a brief bio. Janet Baldwin did Social Policy at Queens and then moved to Bristol University where she did a Master’s and a PhD. I’m wondering if she and Kennedy were involved when she was at Queens and if she was still here when he had his brain injury.”

  “Interesting,” interjected Burrows. “During the autopsy Cynthia did say that the perp might have some understanding of brain injuries. Hartnett’s ex and her son both experienced head injuries.”

  Paton and Ian both registered this connection and McVeigh continued.

  “She met Dr Robert Hartnett who was a lecturer in Bristol University and they married in 1997. While she was doing her doctorate, she got a part-time job in City of Bath College teaching Social Care and specialising in care of the elderly. She and Hartnett had one son called Rory who was seriously brain-damaged at birth and has required special schooling and considerable additional care throughout his life. They were unable to have any more children. She got a fulltime post in Bath, was eventually promoted to senior lecturer and then in 2008 moved, as principal, to a London College specialising in professional and academic qualifications for those working in care and therapeutic professions. At this point Robert Hartnett remained in Bristol and their marriage did not survive the commuting and care demands. She moved to Belfast City College in September 2013 as Head of Faculty of Human Sciences, which as we know includes DePRec. I have unearthed details of her publications and numerous committee memberships but I don’t think we need to go into those now.” He switched to a separate file and extracted some pages. “I had some luck too with William Baldwin, the father. He’s a man in his mid-seventies who owned a busy hardware shop on the Newtownards Road in East Belfast. It was sold when he retired some ten years ago and he and his wife Norma moved to the bungalow in Crawfordsburn where they now live with Janet and her son Rory. He is a Mason and a member of the Orange Order and in the 80s was an open supporter of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA). That would not have been unusual for a business owner in that area where failure to back the local unit, even tacitly, would not have been good for trade. In later years Baldwin cleaned up his image somewhat and became involved in Belfast Rotary Club and he plays golf in Holywood Golf Club. Your recollection of his involvement in some dubious fundraising activities back in the day were correct, ma’am.”

  Paton smiled unassumingly and motioned to McVeigh to keep going.

  “In the mid to late eighties there was a considerable push on raising funds in paramilitary organisations – for arms, in support of families of political prisoners and for rent, printing costs and administration of community-based offices. There were door-to-door collections, fundraising events, profiteering drinking and social clubs linked to various groups and of course donations from wealthy sympathisers. These ventures were mostly but not entirely above board. There was also a darker side with attempts to capitalise on an emerging drug trade and a market for pornographic merchandise. Most of that was distributed overseas for obvious reasons. Northern Ireland is too small to keep the lid on the identity of even amateur porn stars, if material were circulated locally. In 1988 there was a case under investigation where some entrepreneurial chaps had decided to get into operating gambling schools, drug-running and even some moviemaking. A file was opened and your DI Rogers was keen to pursue the matter but pressure was brought to bear and the file was closed, allegedly for a lack of evidence. I managed to get a copy of that file and I understand why Rogers was peeved. There is quite a lot of detail in there, including mention of Baldwin’s somewhat threatening intercession about the community unrest that might result in bringing charges. He wasn’t the only one who advised against continuing. Some internal weight within the force was applied and things ground to a halt. There is nothing in the file to suggest that Baldwin had any family interest in the case so we have to assume he kept that connection to himself.”

  “Are we surprised by that at all?” Paton remarked meaningfully.

  “However … there are parts of the evidence file that are redacted including some of the names of those interviewed during the inquiry. These include the initials of an N.P. and an J.B. that might well be Nigel Power and Janet Baldwin. I didn’t manage to locate a copy of the video but judging by the age of Breen’s photo it hasn’t seen the light of day since it was made. If there was a copy it may well have surfaced in the rugby circle that Breen was part of … If need be I can try and follow that up tomorrow.”

  Paton made hand signals to suggest slowing the pace of things. “Let’s see where we are. I think we may be looking at a Sunday morning stroll along the beach in Crawford
sburn.” She smiled at the two men with exaggerated enthusiasm. “Helen Breen had held on to an image that was potentially damaging to the reputation of Professor Hartnett and at least one of the men in the image. We have an ongoing Security Services connection to DePRec that seems to have involved gathering information by means other than that passed on by Professor Bell. He was surprised by the handler’s knowledge of internal departmental matters. We need to think that if someone has been using digital and other surveillance here they may well be ahead of us and know we are closing in.” She made a scribbled note on the paper in front of her. “The reference to old friends and Bell’s replacement with a new contact suggests a history between the special agent and a newly arrived college staff member. In many ways now Professor Janet Hartnett becomes more and more interesting.”

  “We have discounted her up until now as she had no obvious motive,” said Paton. “Now we can say that the potential to be discredited when she had just created a new life for herself and her son here might have made her desperate. Her opportunity was also doubtful because she was off the premises too quickly to cover up her tracks after the killing. We have CCTV footage of her clocking out at nine-thirty, or thereabouts, and her family would undoubtedly confirm her arrival at home at the usual time. But what if she had an accomplice? What if there was someone else who also wanted to get Helen Breen out of their hair? If Hartnett was played and encouraged by our friendly agent, she could have killed Breen and left the building as usual with a promise that the tidy up would be in the hands of the professionals.”