by Andrew Hood
“Are police on the scene?” Adam replied in disbelief.
“Yes they just got here.”
“Give them my name and tell them not to touch anything until I get there.” “Detective, please tell me what’s going on? I have employees here that are afraid to stay in the office. I don’t know what to tell them.” He sounded like a desperate man.
Adam tried to be reassuring but it wasn’t one of his strengths.“Michael,I still don’t know what’s happening. I’m sorry. I wish I could give you some answers.”
Adam hung up the phone, collected Belinda and walked to his boss’s office. “Don, I need 5 minutes of your time.”
After seeing that Adam had Belinda with him, Don allowed them to stay. “Ok you have had your two days. What’s the story?” Adam reviewed everything he had discovered over the past week without pausing. He constantly asked Belinda to confirm any facts or opinions that he Suggesting Murder24
thought his boss might question. He then closed off the discussion by advising them both about his phone call 10 minutes ago with Michael Sullen.
“Don, I really think we need to start taking this a lot more seriously. I want this to be an official taskforce and I need more resources.” Adam had said so much in the last five minutes that he was now exhausted. He wasn’t even sure what to do with extra resources if he got them but he made the most of the opportunity.
Don sat there pondering what he had just heard. He turned to Belinda. “Belinda, great job so far, I will need you to stay with this for now. Can you give me and Adam a few moments alone please?”
Adam was concerned. He didn’t know if this was good or bad for him but simply regretted no longer having Belinda’s support. From what he could see, Don’s body language suggested that he still seemed to be forming his opinions about the matter.
When Belinda had left the room Don turned to Adam. “I’m going to level with you, I’m still not convinced that there is anything deeper in this. I am going to give you some time to play with it, if only for your own development. I want you to keep one thing in mind for me. From time to time, whilst being very valuable to an investigation, forensic psychologists can read too much into the actions of a crazy person. I want you to make decisions based on facts you can see rather than on an un-provable theory. Can you do this?”
Adam had just seen a side of Don he hadn’t before. “No problem.” “Good, then you’ve got your first taskforce. See if Tony can join the team and report to me every 2 days with an update, even if you have nothing to report. Now go and find out what the hell these freaks are doing out there.”
Don now waved the back of his hand at Adam as if to tell him to get out of his office. This was more the boss Adam knew.
( * ) Shane had been wandering aimlessly around the Melbourne City for the last thirty minutes. His emotions had gone from excitement to confusion. Now panic was starting to set in.
He saw desperate people around the city all of the time and was sure he now looked like one of them. Their eyes always gave them away. Shane struggled to keep his composure, like a drunk trying to walk a straight line, but every breath made him increasingly nauseous. He needed to find somewhere away from all of these people so he could think.
Suddenly he noticed a large church across the road which had a garden and lawn surrounding it. He had walked right past it many times before but never looked directly at it. The garden had been manicured perfectly as if god himself had attended to it. To Shane at that moment it seemed like the only quiet place in the city. He ran over and put his briefcase down against the church wall.
There was a lot to be confused about but there was little doubt in Shane’s mind that the first thing he needed to do was talk to Anita. If anyone were looking for him they would go to his home first and he didn’t want her to find out from someone else. He pulled out his mobile phone and dialed home.
“Hello.” Anita answered in a happy voice.
“Anita, it’s me. I’m in real trouble babe!” His voice was sounding very weak.
“What happened?” Instantly her tone changed to concern.
“Babe, Simone started giving me a hard time in the office and I lost my temper.”
“Don’t tell me you resigned.” “No it is a lot worse than that! I don’t know how to tell you this.”He paused. “I stabbed her with my pen! I swear, I don’t’know what came over me. I totally lost control.” After silently walking around the city for the last thirty minutes Shane was now prepared to ramble through the story.
There was no response from Anita for what seemed like minutes.
“You’re joking right?” “Anita, I really wish I was. I still don’t understand what happened. It was like I was someone else.” Shane hadn’t told her everything. Some of his own actions he wanted to understand himself first before he told his wife.
I don’t believe this! He could almost hear her thinking out aloud. “How badly did you hurt her?”
As Shane started to talk he was overcome with emotion. He started sobbing as he said, “I don’t know babe, I think she might be dead.” “Shane you will have to give yourself up to the police! It was just stress. She should never have called you in there so soon after Peter’s death. I told you that you weren’t ready.”
“Babe, I can’t leave it like this. If I give myself up I’m going to jail for a long time. I need to understand why I did it first.” He was pleading.
“You just told me why you did it. You lost your temper and lashed out.” “Anita, I love you so much, but there is more I can’t explain to you yet. I really need time to think first. I will explain everything to you but I want to understand it myself first.”
“So what are Leon and I supposed to do while you are on the run? Just stay here waiting for the police to track you down. I’m really worried about you.” Shane thought for a few moments. “Use the money we saved for Fiji for the next few days and if at the end of a week I still don’t know what happened I promise to give myself up to the police.”
“Shane you’re scaring me,” Anita now started crying.
“Today babe, I scared myself. Until I know what happened I don’t want to be around you or Leon. I love you both too much.”
( * ) Adam had brought his new team member Tony Crouch up to date as they drove to the new crime scene.Then the rest of the day, they worked together going over the added details of this morning’s events.
In his early forties Tony had a few more years experience than Adam as a detective. This was not something Tony kept to himself during their conversation. He often used terms like “in my experience”or “I have found that”,which was starting to get on Adam’s nerves. He guessed that Tony wasn’t too happy working for the office rookie. Perhaps that is what Don had in mind when he assigned Tony to the case.
Adam felt that the time had come to set the record straight. “Tony, I know that you have had a lot of experience with this stuff. You have led your own taskforces for years now.” First, start with the ego. “That is why I really need your support on this one. I may make mistakes and I’m happy for any discreet guidance but I need to be in control here.”Then give him the pitch. “This is a real opportunity for me to prove myself. I hope that I can get your support on this case?” Lastly get commitment.
Tony didn’t seem quite sure what to say. “Ok, I will support you where I can.” Adam knew it wouldn’t keep him quiet long. Ego always resurfaces at some stage. At the very least this little speech should buy Tony’s support to get the case moving.
They spent the day together investigating Shane Kirk who was the latest crazed suspect for the taskforce.They had spoken to his colleagues and then to his wife, who seemed to have no idea where her husband was. She probably wouldn’t have told them anyway.
As Adam threw his keys down on his desk back at the office, his mobile started to ring. “Adam Kelly.”
“Detective, this is Shane Kirk. I met you last week when we discussed Peter Roberts’s suicide. You gave me your card in case I r
emembered anything.”
Adam turned on the emotion in an instant. “Shane, your family is worried sick about you. Where are you now, I will send someone to get you?”
“I appreciate your concern detective, but I will come to you when I am ready.” He hadn’t fallen for it.
“Ok Shane, why have you called me?” Adam said now without the burden of insincere emotion.
“Detective, I want to talk about what happened today. I want to help you find out why I did this.”
Adam thought he seemed sincere. “Ok we can talk about it but I don’t want to do it on a mobile. Can I call you back at a desk phone?”
“I will call you. What’s the number?” Shane wasn’t falling for anything.
Five minutes later with Tony and Belinda in a meeting room, Adam took the call and put it on speaker.
“Shane, is that you?”
“Yes it is. From the sounds of it I’m on a speakerphone. Do you mind if I ask who you have there with you detective?” “I have two colleagues, Tony and Belinda with me. They are working on the case also.” It was agreed that Tony and Belinda stay silent unless necessary. They did not acknowledge their own presence and Adam saw no point in explaining their roles in the case. “What happened today, Shane?”
“I don’t know how to tell you this. I went in there to do an account review, so that Simone could have someone else looking after my territory while I was away. She made a few remarks about me not doing any work and I totally lost control.” Adam heard a change in Shane’s voice now. “Look, she has been on my back for the past twelve months. Simone made my life a misery! My wife Anita will back me up on this. Seriously, I didn’t go there today to kill her, I just lost control.”
“Ok Shane, this sort of thing happens. Why this call? Why won’t you come in?” “Detective, there’s more to the story,” he paused. “After I left Simone there dying I felt so good about it. It was like there was nothing else in the world I wanted. I wanted to end my life like Peter did. It was only because I saw a photo of my wife and son on my desk that I stopped myself. It was like I was coming out of a dream. I didn’t know what to do so I ran.” Adam could hear that Shane was upset. “Somebody made me do these things, I need to know who and why, before I can give myself up to you.”
“Shane, we believe you.” This was half true. “But investigating these crimes is our job. Come in, and let us find the answers for you.” “Adam,” He was now appealing to him personally. “Can you imagine being too scared to see your own family again. What happens if I lose my temper again and hurt them? I was in a dream today. It was like I was hypnotized. If I can’t understand this and straighten it out I will lose everything.”
“That’s not a smart move Shane. If you come in, it will look a lot better for you in court.” “I know, but unfortunately I need some answers first. Please understand, I need to feel that my family are safe around me.There is too much here that doesn’t make sense.”
“Ok, what more can you tell us? Who hypnotized you?” Adam couldn’t help himself. Even though he partly believed Shane, his fingers formed silent quotation marks around the word ‘hypnotized’.This was more for Tony’s benefit so that he wouldn’t think Adam had blindly believed the story. If it was only Belinda he would not have faked his lack of enthusiasm.
“I don’t know who but I know what IDB stands for.” Shane replied flatly. After a week of starting at the same three letter acronym and trying dozens of possibilities Adam couldn’t conceal his excitement at finally having it on the record. He had jumped to the edge of his seat like an excited schoolboy.“Fantastic, what does it mean?”
Shane seemed about to spill the secret when he abruptly stopped. “I tell you what. I will call you back tomorrow morning at 10 am on this number and tell you everything I know.”
“Shane, tell us now so we can get this investigation moving.” Adam pleaded. “Detective, I guarantee you that tomorrow morning at 10 am, I will be helping the police, you, with your investigation. I want to keep my family together so I will have no choice but to help you.”
“Shane we will have you in custody by 10 am tomorrow and it will be too late to help yourself.”
The phone went dead.
Chapter 5
Shane was now emotionally exhausted from the day’s events. He briefly considered it funny that he was now sitting in a garden at the side of a church. For someone who never acknowledged religion, it seemed ironic that this is where he had ended up on the most traumatic day of his life.
He had realized during the phone call to the detective that he was giving away too much information. He had no guarantee that it would be beneficial to him if and when he ever went to court for stabbing Simone. He needed to be smart here and build his case. This was like any negotiation. He has no power unless he can offer the police some answers; so he couldn’t give them away for free. He needed more time to figure out why he had acted the way he did.
Shane headed for the nearest Automatic Teller Machine and withdrew $1000, which was a day’s limit. The branches were all closed by now and he didn’t really want to go into one anyway. For him there was always safety in having cash in his pockets.
Shane then returned to his car, being careful that the police were not around it, and drove out of the city. He needed a hotel where he could buy a room for the night and pay cash, with no questions asked.
Shane headed for the airport and pulled into one of the hotels which cater for people between flights. Often travelers stay for either one night only or just a few hours at a time. To keep them cheap they only have one or two staff onsite at any time and don’t bother keeping customer information for mailing lists.
“I’d like a room for the night please.” Shane tried to look like a traveling businessman who had an unexpected overnight stay. All he had was his work briefcase to aid his disguise, so he kept it in full view at all times. It also helped him hide the blood stains on his shirt.
“Sure, that’s $69 per night. How would you like to pay for that?”The young lady behind the desk was not interested in customer service and hardly looked up at him. For service with a smile you have to give details.
Shane tried to make it look as though it was a tough decision. “I think . . . cash.” He tilted his wallet towards his body so that she didn’t see the large pile of $50 notes that were currently in his wallet and handed over two of them.
“Ok, room 44, which is at the end of the hallway to your right. Check out is at 9am.” Shane grabbed the key and started to turn away from the desk when he noticed a stack of membership applications to their loyalty program. He picked one up and saw that it had a listing of their other hotels in town so he folded it and took it with him. Membership was not what had caught his interest; rather he now had a list of places to stay for the next few days if he had to. It was cheap and anonymous.
His room reminded him of a prison cell, which was fitting, given his actions that morning. Everything looked purely functional at the expenses of any style or taste. The bathroom itself looked like a closet with a light bulb. He was sure he would be claustrophobic taking a shower, which he decided was the first thing he needed to do.
After the shower he put his dirty clothes back on and sat down to make a list of things he needed to buy the following morning. He felt dirty but didn’t want to sleep with any of his skin touching the filthy bed in front of him. New clothes were the first items on his list.
After half an hour of writing a list of items to buy and crossing them off if they were too expensive he decided to lie down and think about his options. Shane then pulled out his MP3 player from his briefcase and did what had been very natural for him over the past week. He placed his headphones on and pressed play. Since Peter had given him a copy of the new program two days before he died, Shane had listened to it everyday without ever thinking twice about it. It seemed to calm him down and he needed it to help him now.
Something was wrong. He wasn’t sure why but Shane felt differently about it
this time. As the familiar music started to play in his ears the emotional feeling he had was very different. He looked down at the player to double check he was listening to the right program. It read the same file name it always had.
Shane instantly knew that the program he had been listening to had somehow had a part to play in the last few days. Regardless of that he longed to hear it again, like a drug addict anticipating his next high even though he knew it was bad for him.
( * )
The next morning at 10 am exactly,Shane phoned the number they had given him the previous day and halfway through the second ring it was answered.
“Shane is that you?”
The detective’s voice was now becoming familiar to Shane. “Yeh, it’s me. Detective, just so you are aware, I am now recording our phone calls.” Shane had been shopping early that morning for some of the items on his list. He now had an elastic band around his mobile phone and a mini-cassette recorder that he had purchased earlier.
“Why, Shane? We record all of the calls, there is no need.”
“Detective, you record the calls for your purposes and I will record them for mine.” Shane felt a small feeling of pride in this statement.
“Whatever, but from now on please call me Adam. Shane, the only way this is going to work for you is if we are honest with each other and you trust me.” “Ok Adam, what I can tell you is this. IDB stands for ‘I Deserve Better’ for some reason it is one of the things going through your head when you start to get upset. I cann’t tell you why or where it comes from but from the looks of the way Pete had written in over and over again it must be important. For the record, I wrote it also in my meeting with Simone. I had written it down about seven times before I even realized I had picked up the pen.”
Shane could hear from Adam responses while he was talking, that he was excited to hear the explanation but frustrated that there was no further information to go on.