He was pacing up and down the kitchen, holding the photograph of Angela Goodman she’d given him that night. He’d described the one he wanted and she knew it immediately. He knew at the time she was only trying to pacify him. Telling him lies. Saying how sorry she was; saying those things so he wouldn’t hurt her.
Now, all these days later, he got it out of the drawer and took it over to the table, placing it down carefully so he could study it. Under the kitchen light, she almost seemed to have a halo around her. Twisting his whisky glass in his hand, he knew that he could never accept what she did to him, that whatever revenge he was taking would never be enough. It would never make up for the consequences of her actions.
Suddenly he picked up the photograph again, talking to her, wanting her to hear his words.
‘Angela … you bitch. You know how long I’d been planning this? Yes, since the day of your lies. How could you? I loved you – you knew that. How could you turn it into something so dirty? All those gifts I gave you. All my time, all my attention. I wanted you to have all those things. I wanted you to have me. You deserved me.’
‘And you know bitch that she didn’t deserve it. You knew she relied on me. Even when you had become my world. I was prepared to give everything up for you. She noticed how I had changed. How my affections were elsewhere and I think she was jealous of you, of how you were stealing my soul. How could you not know the effect you had on me? How could you stand there and tell all those lies? Make me sound like a madman. You twisted everything.’
‘How could I fail? When it came to it, you wouldn’t even admit it was your fault. You said some awful things, still twisting the truth. You said it was because of me, not because of you. How could you say that? That was worse than all those lies you told in that courtroom. The way you made everyone believe you. They were taken in by you, just like I was.’
‘But I won’t fail again. I owe it to her.’
He stared at the photograph for a long time in complete silence, finally picking up the whisky glass again and swigging the remainder. Then he took the photograph over to the sink and held his lighter to one corner. He smiled as he saw the last burning fragment fall into the sink.
39
It was unusual for Jackie not to answer her phone and Jim was getting very irritated. When he thought about it, it seemed that she’d been getting more secretive of late. There had been more trips to the mall, with precious little shopping to show for it. Maybe she was having an affair. Once or twice when her cellphone rang, she disappeared into the kitchen. She never left it lying about so he might chance on answering it. Whenever he questioned her, it was always a wrong number or her service provider wanting to offer her free minutes or something. There had to be more to it.
‘God damn you, Jackie, pick the phone up.’ The cellphone went on to her voicemail before he slammed the phone down on the kitchen counter, got his coat on and grabbed his car keys for the second time that evening.
*****
Dave Ellison poured them each a glass of wine. Annie had had just enough time to tidy up the apartment and have a quick shower before he arrived. After the day she’d had, she needed to relax. The message from Paul had really spooked her. She didn’t know what she would have done or how she would have felt if she’d been home to answer it. But there was that selfishness again: thinking of herself and her reactions, rather than the content of the message. Andrew was going to pull through. She swore he had nine lives, just like the kitten her parents had bought them when they were little. Andrew didn’t really know how to treat a kitten and Annie was jealous because no matter how overly enthusiastic Andrew was with the kitten, it followed him everywhere. Annie could never entice the kitten to play. The memory made her smile.
‘Is this a Scottish custom, eating pizza on a plate with a knife and fork.’ Ellison’s comment brought her out of her reverie.
Annie looked at the neatly set table and smiled. ‘Sorry, I forgot how informal you Americans are. I’m used to eating pizza at the dinner table with a knife and fork, but I am happy to bow to my host country’s customs.’ She started to remove the cutlery, but Ellison reached over and took her hand to stop her. His touch made her blush and she had to look away, hoping he didn’t notice.
Ellison smiled, ‘I couldn’t make you change who you are: the table it is’. As he brought the two glasses of wine over and sat down, Annie apologised again for her wet hair. Ellison didn’t seem to mind.
‘Haven’t seen much of you the last day or two. Are you getting some breaks with the case or is Bronski just wanting to keep you to himself?’
Annie laughed. ‘I think it’s ‘No’ to both of those. We’re keeping a close eye on Jim Moorcroft, the guy with the previous you found, although somehow I’m not convinced. His ex-wife seems pretty frightened of him, even though she hasn’t seen him for years. From what she told us, he did more to her than came out in the records.’
Ellison was already on his second piece of pizza, when he noticed Annie looking at him quizzically. ‘Sorry, I’ll slow down. I didn’t realise how starving I was. You were saying?’
‘Maybe I better eat and not talk if I’m going to have any of this pizza.’
‘OK, I hear you. I’m stopping now till you catch up.’
Annie took a few bites and had some wine while Ellison leaned back in the chair, completely relaxed. Annie could tell that he enjoyed being right where he was, but now she was feeling self-conscious. He really was quite attractive and she was feeling more like abandoning the pizza altogether and curling up on the couch next to him. But her personal rule about relationships at work nagged at the back of her mind. ‘Now you are embarrassing me. Eat will you?’
Ellison laughed, and then picked up another piece of pizza. ‘So you were saying about the ex-wife.’
‘She was really nervous talking to us, almost as if we might bring her into contact with him again. Obviously, the last thing she wanted.’
‘So, there was more to it than just the loss of temper he claimed it was?’
‘A lot more, including marital rape which she never reported.’
‘Um.’
‘Then, of course, once we finished interviewing her, we were interested in whether or not he was still abusing women. He had been so adamant when we interviewed him that what had happened with his ex-wife was a single event, that he was provoked. Well, you know the story, and you’ve probably heard stories like it a hundred times.’
Ellison nodded. ‘I was called out to a lot of domestic violence cases when I was a rookie. The thing I never understood was how the women always went back. We’d go to the same houses over and over.’
‘I know, depressing, isn’t it? I don’t know how some cops specialise in domestic violence. Anyway, so you see where we were coming from. I was convinced he’d still be at it, so we also interviewed Jackie Winters, the woman he lives with now.’ Annie paused to sip some wine and have more pizza.
‘Isn’t she the good friend of Angela’s who’s been keeping a vigil at the hospital? The cops stationed outside the room have mentioned her.’
‘Aye, she seems very close to Angela, although she met her through Jim Moorcroft who has known Angela for years. Jackie Winters came on the scene a year or two ago and moved in with Moorcroft soon after. All three of them work together. Angela is the section manager, so in effect, they both work for her.’
‘Interesting that she was Moorcroft’s boss.’
‘Interesting how?’
‘I was just wondering how things were at work. Was Moorcroft frustrated that he was in a junior position to Angela? Were they really friends or did he harbour some resentment towards her? Did she get a promotion that he went for too, that kind of thing? Just a thought.’
‘Thanks, I’ll try and get some more details, find out if they ever competed for the job, but what I w
as leading on to was our talk with Jackie Winters. I was surprised that she really took umbrage at our questions, especially when we asked if she’d experienced his temper. Suffice it to say, she stormed out.’
‘Your interpretation of that being?’ Ellison was cradling his wine glass, having had his fill of the pizza.
‘I think she has been his victim too, but maybe she’s too frightened to say anything to us.’
‘Wouldn’t be the first time, would it?’
*****
Charlie knew that there was still something on Jackie’s mind. They hadn’t finished the conversation about the interview with the two detectives. The plates had been cleared away and they were both having coffee. No chance of being interrupted by the waitress for a little while. The time was right to bring it up again.
‘There’s something else, isn’t there? You’ve listened to me all night, now is there something more about the interview with the two detectives?’
‘A perceptive male and still a bachelor. How does that happen?’ Jackie had a twinkle in her eye.
Charlie knew he was blushing. Even though he was a captain in the army and had just finished a tour of active duty in Afghanistan, part of him was still that scared little boy: wanting his big sister to take care of him; wanting his mother’s love that he’d never had. ‘Come on, this is about you now, not me. There’s something the matter, isn’t there?’
Jackie had been drawing imaginary circles with her coffee spoon on the table. Now she looked up at him, her eyes immensely sad. ‘You have enough on your mind, this isn’t really your problem,’ she said hesitantly.
‘Jackie, you’ve been at the hospital day and night since Angie was admitted. I owe you. So tell me, what was said in the interview that’s bothered you?’ Charlie had put his coffee cup to one side and was focusing all his attention on her.
It was a good feeling for her, but not something that could go anywhere.
‘I guess it’s probably the third time I have seen those two detectives. I find Detective Bronski all right, but that Scottish woman is too abrupt for my liking.’
Charlie kept his own counsel on that one. ‘Was it her manner or something she said or asked that’s bothering you?’
‘A bit of both, really. She said that Jim had been married before, but I knew that; he’s told me. Something happened in the past. Detective Macpherson said he’d been arrested for assaulting her while they were still married.’
‘What do you mean? Has he been in prison? Did you know about that?’
‘Charlie, are you accusing me of something?’ Jackie was getting visibly upset.
‘No, of course not. It’s just that he was the last one to see Angie, drove her home. What if something happened, what if he …?’
‘Stop it! I would know.’ Then Jackie started to fill up with tears. ‘Excuse me a minute, I’m going to …’ She was up before she could finish the sentence. The waitress saw the sudden departure and Charlie asked for the check somewhat abruptly. He was standing with Jackie’s sweater by the entrance to the diner as she came out.
40
Franconi was in his room expecting them. Annie remembered not to bring in her Starbuck’s coffee. She’d been warned that Franconi never drank the stuff and brewed his own. After he got up and poured himself a second cup, he looked at the two of them. ‘Want one?’
Both detectives politely refused, so Franconi sat back down at his desk, ready for business.
‘So how goes it?’ He took a sip of his coffee and then picked up a paper clip and started cleaning under his fingernails. Annie hoped that her face didn’t show that she would have preferred him just to toy with it.
The two detectives didn’t hesitate. They’d already decided that Bronski would take the lead. ‘We’ve just been in touch with the hospital. Angela Goodman was operated on again in the early hours of this morning. She survived the second bout of brain surgery but has still not regained consciousness. The doctors have said that the next 48 hours will be critical.’
Franconi’s face, for once, seemed to be expressing genuine concern. ‘Well at least we’re not into a murder inquiry.’
‘No, let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.’ Bronski looked over at Annie momentarily and she was also nodding. He continued. ‘We’re still following up a few leads. We interviewed Linda Moorcroft, Jim Moorcroft’s ex-wife. There was more to the arrest than what’s on file. There were charges she never pressed, including marital rape, because she couldn’t bear to testify to that in court. She also dropped the assault charge, probably out of fear and because she didn’t want to admit to adultery. But from the account she gave us, she was certainly the victim of domestic violence.’
‘So, it sounds like he was capable of the assault on Angela Goodman?’ Franconi looked away from his nails momentarily.
‘We think so sir, but we have no firm evidence yet.’ Annie butted in even though Bronski was leading. He didn’t seem to mind, nodded and then continued.
‘We spoke to Jackie Winters as well. She wasn’t going to admit that there are any problems between them, but we obviously touched a raw nerve because she stormed out when we asked if he had a temper.’
‘Too close to home, we think.’
‘What do you make of this Jackie Winters? Strike you as the type who would suffer in silence?’ Franconi threw the paperclip in the bin, and stared at his nails even as he spoke.
Bronski turned to Annie for her opinion. ‘No, not really, unless he has some kind of hold over her. Some men seem to intimidate even the strongest of women. We gave her an opportunity to talk to us. She wouldn’t or couldn’t, but I don’t think we should leave it at that. I think we should speak to her again. She could be protecting him.’
‘You’ve got a point, Detective. We need to know more about those two. At first they seemed like the Good Samaritans and then we find he has an arrest record. How goes the search into her background?’
‘Dave Ellison has been helping with that, but we seem to have drawn some blanks with her background check. Can’t find anything about her before the last five years,’ replied Bronski.
Franconi just murmured. ‘Strange. Tell him to keep at it. What about the soon to be divorced Mr Goodman, is he out of the picture?’
Bronski came in again. ‘Can’t really see a motive. It’s not like she was stalling on the divorce, so he was free to carry on with Genevieve Montgomery. The affair was common knowledge by the time of the assault, so there’d be no point in beating her up. It might have been different if she was being awkward about it. None of our searches has brought up anything about him. A womaniser maybe, but no previous for anything.’
‘Has the brother, what’s his name, got any ideas?’ Franconi put a second paperclip down and glanced over at Annie.
‘Captain Hegarty can’t believe anyone would do this to his sister. He admits he doesn’t know a lot of things about her past as there is an age gap, but they appear close. He showed me an email from her though, that said she had things she wanted to tell him, things he didn’t know. She was looking forward to him coming home so they could talk.’ Annie paused.
‘And he has no idea what that could be about?’
‘Not when I spoke to him, although he’s had more time to reflect. I’ll ask him again today. I need to ring him anyway, as he wants to know if he can access his sister’s house. He wants to try and clear up some of the mess. I have some details of specialist cleaning companies to give him. They’ll need to do some of it. We’re just waiting for clearance that Glen Heaviley’s team are finished with it.’
Franconi pushed his chair back and the two detectives knew that it was a signal that the interview was coming to an end.
‘You need more on this woman’s past: maybe there’s something there. From the state of the crime scene, this wasn’t random.
Someone wanted to kill Angela Goodman but they just stopped short, probably by accident. Did you say before that she had another husband, before Goodman?’
Annie came in this time. ‘Captain Hegarty gave us his name and we’re trying to locate an address for him: then we’ll have a word with him.’
‘And we still have someone at the door to her room, don’t we?’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘OK let me know any developments.’ With that Franconi picked up his pen and dragged some paperwork over.
When they got back to their desks, Bronski picked up a pink slip. ‘It’s a message from Hegarty. He’s at the hospital; wants to speak to one of us. Left his cellphone number and says he’ll have it on in half an hour.’
‘Want me to ring him?’ Annie asked.
‘Let’s just go down there. We need to ask him some more questions anyway.’
Annie grabbed a last sip of coffee and put her jacket on, but then stopped a moment. ‘Can I just ring Glen Heaviley and find out if they are finished with the house? Might be useful to give him some news.’
The traffic was awful and it took them the best part of an hour to get through it, find a space in the parking lot and get up to the ward. As they approached the nurses’ station, one of the nurses finished making a phone call and switched over to using the computer. It took her a couple of minutes to acknowledge the two detectives at the desk. Annie held her badge out.
‘Detective Macpherson and Detective Bronski. We’re here to see Angela Goodman. How is she?’
Annie assumed that nurses in the US would be more business like, with the payments required for hospital care. This nurse was a bit too officious for Annie’s liking. ‘About the same; still hasn’t come around from the operation.’ With that, she picked up a file and came around the side of the desk, making it obvious that further questions would have to wait. Bronski and Annie walked the length of the ward and nodded to the cop on duty.
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