by Andrew Hood
Don Lappin was a boss who was so pedantic about details that most detectives avoided him when possible. He had a way of always asking questions you had no answer for.
“Adam,” Don looked mildly annoyed about the interruption. He looked up and crossed his arms. “What brings you rushing into my office?”
Adam relayed the story Simon Murphy had just told him and ended with the 3 letter similarity to his own case. “So what you are trying to tell me Adam is that, two people have gone psycho and killed their boss.They have then killed themselves, both with witnesses, and you believe there is more to it? I’m supposed to give you a taskforce for three letters that make no sense to anyone?” Don had stopped talking but his facial expression kept the conversation going. Why?
“I have a feeling about this Don. There is more to it.” Adam tried to sound confident but was starting to question whether he had gotten carried away. “It’s amazing how the rookies always mention a gut feeling, like the TV cop shows. The experienced detectives bring me evidence and motive.” He was talking to the ceiling. He now turned his focused back on Adam. “Ok Mr. Taskforce. Belinda Matthews is a Forensic Psychologist. You have her for 2 days. If she thinks there is more to it than a couple of guys losing it and topping the boss, we can talk. If not, close it up and help Steve solve the real crimes.”
When Adam got back to his desk he was unsure whether to be happy or embarrassed. He decided to put off either emotion until he had spoken to Belinda for her feedback.
Back at his desk Adam found a message on his phone from a colleague about a murder he might want to take a look at, so he called Belinda, his new best friend, and asked her to meet him at the crime scene. They discussed the case on the way by mobile phone. She simply listened without comment or giving any indication of her opinion so far. Whenever Adam tried to gauge her thoughts she simply said she needed more time to think about it.
Convincing Belinda would need to be his first priority.
( * ) Shane’s customer meetings with Simone had not gone well. One of his new customers, whom he had never met before, had been very aggressive towards them. He had spent twenty minutes recounting all the ways Shane’s company had stuffed up in the last ten years even though Shane had no idea they had ever done business in the past. Already having the pressure of his boss at the meeting, Shane didn’t handle the situation as well as he could have. He never did with direct confrontation.
There was so much opportunity around that he didn’t see any sense in trying to convert someone who simply didn’t want his products when he could easily sell to someone who did. Unfortunately, with Simone present he couldn’t give up that easily.
Their feedback session afterwards turned into another bloodbath,all Shane’s blood, and they headed back.
The moment the lift opened back at the office Shane knew something was terribly wrong. There were staff huddled together is small groups everywhere talking amongst themselves. He saw that a few of the women even had tears in their eyes. There were also other people he didn’t recognize in the office.
“Shane, can you come over here please?” His director was calling for him from his office. Shane went numb as he crossed the reception area.The only reason someone at Michael’s level would want to speak to him would be if he was about to be retrenched. “Michael, what has happened?” He entered his director’s office to find another two people he didn’t recognize waiting for him.
Simone had tried to follow Shane into the office determined to be a part of whatever was happening but Michael put his hand up to stop her. “Simone, could you just give us a few minutes?” She didn’t say anything but it was clear she wasn’t happy to be excluded. She turned and hurried back to one of the groups around the room.
“Shane, these are Detectives Adam Kelly and Belinda Matthews. They would like to ask you some questions about Peter Roberts.” “What has he done?” Shane replied in disbelief. He had known Peter for two years and never seen him do anything illegal except of course downloading some pirated material off the net. It was hardly a police matter.
As soon as Shane was in the office the male detective spoke. “Michael, you have been great, would you mind if we borrowed your office for a few minutes?” Detective Kelly was taking over the conversation and had pushed the director half way out of the office before he had his response.
“Ah, yeah no problem. I will wait just out here.” He was not used to being told what to do and now made similar disgruntled gestures that Simone had only moments ago.
The detective then closed the door behind him and turned to Shane.“Shane what can you tell us about Peter Roberts?” The question was too open and Shane didn’t know where to start. “Well, what do you want to know? He’s a nice guy, a good friend. What has happened to him?”
“Had he been acting strange lately?”
“He always acts strange that’s why we love him but nothing out of the ordinary,” Shane replied.
“Are you able to tell us if he was religious at all?” They were answering all of his questions with other questions. Shane suddenly felt dizzy and was sure he was turning white. They had just used the words had and was. He had a feeling that whatever had happened that morning, Peter was now either missing or even dead. “He wasn’t interested in religion at all. Now I’m sorry, but I won’t answer any more questions until you tell me what has happened to him!”
“Ok Shane, one more question and we will tell you everything. What do the letters IDB stand for?”The detective now held out an exercise book that Shane instantly recognized as Peters. He had seen him take notes in it in customer meetings for months. As the detective started to flick through the pages Shane saw that amongst the notes he had been taking, Peter had written the same three letters over and over again. Sometimes they were repeated so often that he had worn through the page onto the one below.
“I have no idea.” Shane now had tears welling up in his eyes. He knew he was just about to hear bad news about a good friend and was anticipating the emotional pain.
“Ok. I’m sorry to have to tell you this Shane, but Peter murdered someone earlier today.”
Shane was instantly in shock.His mouth hung open.“Why,what happened?” his heart was pumping.
“We were sort of hoping you could tell us, he then killed himself.”
( * ) Adam had asked Belinda to stop and have lunch with him at a café on the way back to the office. He wanted to hear her initial thoughts in a place where he would not be embarrassed to argue his case if he had to. He was happy to have another murder that might tie in; however, so far there was no new evidence to support his suspicions.
Once their orders had been taken, Adam got straight down to business. “So tell me what do you think is going on here?” Belinda sat back in her chair and looked at Adam directly in the eyes for the first time since they had met. It was a very dramatic move that reminded Adam that she was a psychologist who knew how to make an impression when she wanted to.
For the first time he also noticed how attractive she actually was, which took him by surprise. He rarely neglected to notice an attractive woman whenever they were within one hundred meters. Her face had very even features but her light brown hair gave her a kind of sensuality that stayed in your mind even when she turned away. He would remember to check out the legs on the way out just for good measure.
“Something is going on!” She paused again for effect. “It’s too soon and we don’t know enough for me to help you but these people are not acting like this alone. They’re being externally motivated.”
“I am so relieved to hear you say that Belinda,”Adam said feeling the tension lift from the top half of his body. “What precisely gives you that opinion?” “Ok Adam, this is what I see. We now have three people, which we know about, that under extreme pressure have lashed out and killed someone and then themselves. If we firstly look at the lead-up to each event, we see no excess aggression. I believe that any time these people have been pushed they start to scribble some sort of mantra,
in this case IDB, to control and channel their anger for a time until they are ready to do something about it.”
“Ok, then what happens?” Adam had never considered any of this. He had only been thinking about the crime itself.
Belinda continued. “They now reach a point where they are put under some type of heavy pressure from an authority figure.”
“. . . And they lose it!” Adam finished her sentence. “No! They don’t, that the interesting thing Shane.” Belinda was now using her hands to help her emphasize the story. “An eyewitness at the Maloney case said when he was under pressure by the boss he was sweating and anxious; at this stage he thinks the grilling is going to continue. He then smiled and reached inside his coat for the knife, no more anxiety. He continued to smile or at least be calm while he carried out his actions. Theses were not always frantic emotional killings. It’s like they were suddenly told what to do. They may not have even known what they were doing consciously.”
“Then why are they killing themselves?” Adam replied. “Let me ask you this. Assuming a third party is involved, if the murderers hadn’t killed themselves, do you think that you might be able to stop more killings?”
“At least we’d know what to look for.” Adam replied desperately.
“Exactly, so if you wanted the killings to continue, how do you cover your tracks?” Belinda stopped and allowed Adam to follow the logical path. Adam was starting to understand. “You change the murder weapon or person every time and dispose of the old one so that it can’t be traced back to you.”
“Exactly! Your first step is to find out what IDB stands for and figure out how to trace it back to someone.” And with that lunch was served.
Chapter 3
Shane was at home with his family. It had become the only place he wanted to be since he learnt about the fate of his good friend Peter two days ago. When the Detective had finally told him what happened, their interview had stopped with Shane in complete shock. This was probably why they were looking for answers before they broke the news to him.
Shane had broken down after the police interview and his work had given him two weeks off to recover. He didn’t feel like he could ever really recover without the answers that he would probably never get. Nothing about Peter’s actions that day made any sense. He remembered their heated conversation that morning and hated himself for not resolving the issue. Perhaps if he had shown a little more interest, Peter wouldn’t have been in a bad mood that morning. He was sure there was something he may have been able to do that could have changed the course of Peter’s actions that day.
Shane still had the Detective’s card in his briefcase for when he might recall anything else but his brief case hadn’t moved since he got home two days ago. His mobile phone started to ring. It was Simone’s third call that morning. He had not taken the others or listened to her messages but decided to see what was so important that she continued to bother someone on bereavement leave with multiple calls. “Simone!” his voice sounded tired and unimpressed.
“Hi Shane, I’m really sorry to bother you. How are you feeling?”
What do you care? “I’m dealing with it Simone. What’s up?”
“Have you decided what you are going to do?”
“Do about what?” Now it was Shane’s turn to be a mind reader.
“Haven’t you listened to my messages from this morning?” “No!” Shane replied without an apology.
“Shane, I know you are still very upset. I thought it might be helpful if you came into the office for half an hour. We could get a bit of a rundown of where you are in your accounts so I could assign them to someone else, temporarily.Then you could take all the time you wanted to get over Peter and all of the hard work you put into your customers wouldn’t have to suffer.”
Shane had never heard Simone call his efforts hard work. It simply didn’t ring true. He did feel responsible for his customers though. “Ok, I will come in tomorrow morning for half an hour.” He then hung up the phone without saying goodbye.
“Who the hell does she think she is and why did you agree to go in?” Anita had overheard the call on her way back from putting Leon down for his afternoon nap.
“Babe, just let me hand off my accounts and then I will be free from that place. I am walking out after half an hour regardless of what she says. I don’t want to get caught talking to people.”
“Shane, you’re just not ready!” she had a sad look in her eyes.
“Sooner or later I will have to talk to someone outside of this house.” Shane gestured that he didn’t want to discuss it further.
( * ) The next morning Shane got into the office at 7:30 am to avoid as many people as he could. He knew Simone would be there. She often sent email early in the morning and late at night to staff and her managers. It was an old tactic in their industry to show everyone that you were working while they were not.
“Simone, can we do this review so that I can get going before everyone arrives?”
“Hi Shane, no problem. Meet me in meeting room four in ten minutes.” Shane walked as quickly as he could while avoiding all eye contact along the way. He wasn’t in the mood for any of this and hoped Simone would not push him. He wouldn’t stand for it today.
When she arrived he started to talk about his accounts while she took notes. She seemed quite happy about the whole thing. “. . . and as far as the Mutual account goes I am still getting the proposal together for them.” Shane had been talking for about 10 minutes with Simone hardly saying a word. When she mumbled something under her breath he stopped instantly.
“What did you just say?” He was looking at her directly now.
“I was just repeating what you said, that you had done nothing in the account,” she was trying to move on. Shane had worked very hard on the Mutual account. Most of his work was on useless action items that she had given him. Now she was saying that he had done nothing. “Well maybe if I wasn’t stuck doing account reviews all of the time with you, I could have gotten more done.”
Simone never backed down from a fight. “Well, maybe, if you had actually completed a review, I wouldn’t have needed you here to give your territory to Daniel.” She had said one sentence too much and from the look on her face she knew it. She started to change the subject as quickly as she could.
Now Shane’s mind started to race. She doesn’t want to have someone look after my territory while I’m away. She wants to give it to Daniel! Then when I get back they have to find me another job outside of the team. Simone was trying to use this situation to remove Shane from her team.
His breathing started to get heavier. He wasn’t listening to what she was saying now, he simply stared at her. She doesn’t care about Pete, she doesn’t care about me, she only cares about how much commission she is going to make at the end of the month. He was writing something on the files in front of him but never took his eyes off Simone.
She probably had something to do with Pete’s suicide. After all she has been my only source of pain for the last twelve months. I’m never going to go anywhere in this company while she is in it. I will never be happy while she is around.
He was still writing on the files and for the first time he looked down at what he had written. He had written the letters I D B about twenty times and he now knew what they meant.
( * )
Shane had a moment of clarity which he had never experienced before. He had a single idea and at that moment nothing else around him mattered. He couldn’t help himself. Shane started to smile. “This is a waste of my time.”
Simone was a little shocked: “I am trying to help you . . .”
“No Simone, you are trying to help yourself. Nothing you have done with me over the last year was to help me, only yourself.” She started to object; however, he no longer heard her words, only his own. “It is very clear to me now. There is no point in trying to work against you. I will not be happy with you in my life.”
He was proud of his words but it wa
sn’t the type of language he would normally use. This would be a moment he would remember forever as the instant he created a better life for himself, his family and others.
“Now Shane, don’t do anything here you are going to regret. You have been under a lot of stress.” She thinks I’m going to resign. He had stopped writing with the pen now and gripped it in a way that could never be used for writing. As if someone else had taken over his body he jumped to his feet so fast that the chair tumbled backwards. He jumped on to the table between them and now saw real fear in her eyes. She had not been expecting this and either had he really.
He caught her as she was rising from her seat and slammed her back against the wall behind her. She had fallen over her chair and now became entangled in it as she panicked. It had knocked the wind out of her and before she could take a breath he had stabbed her three times in the chest with the pen he was holding.
The fear in her eyes now was absolute. If he had not known her like he did, he may have pitied her in this moment. Instead he now remembered all of the times he had feared seeing her around the office. This fuelled his hatred and increased his satisfaction of what he had just done.
Shane had always been a timid person and as he left the room he felt like he had finally graduated in life. He didn’t know how it could ever get any better. He felt nothing but happiness. It occurred to him briefly that his team mates would silently cheer his action amongst themselves later when they found out.
Chapter 4
“Adam Kelly.”Adam was starting to associate every phone call as a potential opportunity to get more information. The case was all he could think about.
“Detective, this is Michael Sullen. We met on Tuesday when you were investigating one of my staff, Peter Roberts.”
“Hi Michael, do you have some new information for me?” “No, unfortunately, I wish that was all that it was. Shane Kirk, Peter’s friend, the gentleman you spoke to in our office, lost control about thirty minutes ago and stabbed his manager with a pen. He came into the building early and we think he lured Simone into a meeting room where he did it.”