STRANGE BODIES (a gripping crime thriller)

by Antonia Marlowe

  ‘I’ll discuss this in more detail with everyone. But I really wanted your opinion on something else. How do you think everyone would react if I bring Verity in on this … officially?’

  Fraser grinned, then pulled an exaggeratedly sober face, ‘No problem, sir. I’m sure the men would enjoy having another pretty face to look at.’

  ‘Don’t be an idiot, Fraser,’ he said coldly. ‘Ms Burne was instrumental in bringing this murder to our notice. She is probably the only person in Sydney, maybe Australia, who has access to a PeeWee, so I’m going to ask her to see if she can get those disks working. In fact she even found the concealed safe, and to cap it all she’s named in his will.’

  Fraser’s jaw dropped. ‘What? You found a will and she’s a beneficiary.’ He looked stunned. ‘Did she know him?’

  ‘No, she didn’t. And she’s not really a beneficiary. She’s been asked to do something with his booby-trapped computer, I mean electronically booby-trapped. Now you see why I wanted a quiet word before the meeting. You know Verity, you know the team … how do you think they’ll react if I bring her in? Oh, and by the way, not a word about the will, please. I’ve sent it over to his lawyer and I’m waiting to get the go-ahead from him.’

  ‘I don’t see a problem, sir. Expert consult, usual fee. So this is definitely ours?’

  ‘Greene is delighted to be shot of it. It’s tainted for him because of Mostyn. He has to front a press conference today and head off to New Canberra to see the Commissioner tomorrow, poor bastard.’

  ‘Poor bastard,’ echoed Fraser

  ‘Right, get another murder board up. I’ll make some more calls and be right there.’

  A call to the lab gave the answer he was expecting … they didn’t have a PeeWee and a quick check around Australia hadn’t turned one up either.

  Verity wasn’t answering her phone so he left a message. His next call to Levinsky’s law firm was more successful.

  By now others had wandered in and were standing around discussing this latest case while Fraser set up a board with hard copy and photos of some of the evidence from the Levinsky case. Adams liked to have the pictures of murder victims permanently in front of the team for the duration of a case, a constant reminder of what they were investigating. They now had three live cases and three boards. Adams brought them all up to date about Levinsky.

  ‘As you can see,’ he concluded, ‘we may get an idea about motive if, or rather when, we can find out what’s on those disks. There doesn’t appear to be a PeeWee in any of our labs but I know where I can get hold of one privately. As you know it was two civilians, Professor Morgenstein and Dr Verity Burne, who were instrumental in bringing this particular murder to our attention. She was also the one to find the concealed safe that contained the disks. And she has access to a PeeWee.’

  ‘Does this mean she’s a suspect, sir?’ asked DI Price.

  ‘Hardly. We have a good idea of how this murder was carried out. Dr Norris, would you do the honours?’

  Norris sent the images generated by the separation technique to one of the wall screens. ‘The technical stuff you’ll find on your comps but this is the visual. We separate the layers and look at, in effect, a timeline in this three dimensional display. There’s only one bare footprint, see, it’s been coloured tan, but there are a number of the high heeled ones in red. These were all made at the same time. I suggest that the woman, and she’d have to be quite strong, rested the body briefly just inside the door. The other prints, in blue are those of the first officers on the scene, and the smooth featureless ones are in green. I can fairly safely assume those were the body snatchers.’ Someone sniggered at the term, commonly used for the corpse retrieval orderlies from the morgue. Norris ignored that and asked, ‘Do we have a simulation yet, Sergeant Fraser?’

  ‘Yes, Dr Norris. CECI sent one through. Here we are.’ He sent the computer generated simulation to another wall screen.

  ‘This is excellent animation ... see how this unfolds. Levinsky opens the front door, woman enters, follows him upstairs.’ He frowned at the simulated woman. Some wag had given her enormous breasts, short skirt, mesh stockings and long blonde hair.

  ‘At the top they go into his bedroom, then she does something … pure speculation till we get another tox report but probably a drug administered by a sharp object, possibly concealed in her hand. There was a small mark on his left wrist that suggested that. Okay, he falls, she undresses him, heaves him up, semi-fireman’s lift … she’d have to be strong alright. Only a few steps to the bathroom. She pauses for a second … see that’s where his bare foot just touches the tiled floor … continues to the bath. She straddles him … high-heel prints were found right there,’ he pointed. ‘We can only speculate as to what she did then, but we see the shoeprints leave the bathroom and become fainter as she goes back to the bedroom. That’s all we can get so we assume she left the house after that.’

  Adams took up the narration. ‘Now we are really into the realm of high speculation. The first autopsy report tells us nothing unusual apart from the bump on the head. Death was from drowning and a time of death is mentioned. Fortunately no one has claimed the body so we were able to order a full post-mortem. I believe that is underway now.’

  He turned to his intercom. ‘Mrs Halifax, could you contact the morgue, please, and see if there is any word on Solomon Levinsky.’

  They sat and looked at the video as it played again. ‘Sir, that’s a big strong woman. Do you think it could have been a man in drag?’

  ‘Trouble with you, Goldy, you’re not used to our big healthy Aussie womenfolk,’ said DI Trevor Warren. ‘My wife could toss you over her shoulder and run up three flights of steps.’

  They all laughed at that, a relief from the inevitable gloom that had built up.

  Adams continued, ‘We have Professor Morgenstein’s statement, that every Wednesday night Levinsky was visited by an escort. We now know she came from Blue Angels, a private club, of which he was a member. He rotated three girls, all very similar … the club manager had referred to them as pocket Venuses.

  ‘Pictures, please. Thank you. The victim is the one in the middle, quite a beauty. As you can see, all blondes, about average height but extremely voluptuous.’

  A light sigh emanated from the men as they looked at the photos.

  ‘As I was saying, Professor Morgenstein saw a woman being admitted to Levinsky’s house about eight o’clock on Wednesday. He was quite sure it was a woman. She had …’ he referred to his notes, ‘She had womanly hips, he said, very long legs, tight skirt, high heels. He mentioned later that she seemed to be taller than the man. Oh, and she was blonde, long blonde hair. He also heard voices, his quite loud. In hindsight Levinsky was probably complaining, expecting one of his usual ladies.’

  ‘What about the young woman who he was expecting? Anything more on her?’

  ‘Sienna Starr … employed by the club as a dancer, took on occasional escort duties as well. Real name Sienna Stark, age twenty-four. Very selective and very popular. She could pick and choose her clients and charged top dollar, somewhere in the region of $3,000 for a minimum two hours.’

  ‘Whew, I’m obviously in the wrong profession,’ said Donna Price.

  ‘The manager said she saw Levinsky once every three weeks. She had two other clients on the same roster. Let me see, mmm, no, nothing more, but I got the impression that she kept to herself, had no close friends amongst the other girls. Not stand-offish, just quiet. We have the ME’s report on her. Just read it from your units. Nasty, and I think unnecessarily so...’

  ‘Anyway, Donna, I don’t think your husband would be too pleased if you changed careers, regardless of the money. And now I think we could all do with a break. Twenty minutes then back here.’

  On that they broke off with a bit of good natured ribbing, heading for the coffee machine. Donna Price asked Goldy who was gulping coffee, ‘Why the nasty overkill, d’you think? This woman, whoever she was, was so careful to make Lev
insky look like an accident but made this one, Sienna Starr, the young escort, very nasty.’

  ‘She must have she had a partner and it was the partner who killed Starr. I mean if she’s got herself up to meet a client, even if she was planning to kill him, she’d hardly be splattering herself with blood … and from what we’ve seen there’d be plenty of it.’

  ‘Of course, of course.’

  Nicholas had spoken to Verity about being a consultant. She felt guilty about palming the disks and thought if she translated the rest of them she could just slip the ones she’d purloined in with them.

  ‘What do you want me to do?’

  ‘The best thing would be if you can bring your PeeWee to one of our secure rooms and work on them here. The department would pay you for your time, of course.’ He named the standard rate.

  She snorted at that. ‘Do you know how much an hour I get as a consultant?’

  ‘Don’t tell me—I’d faint. Anyway, I thought you offered to help.’

  ‘Of course I’ll do it and no fee required. I’m on my way home now so I’ll dig it out of the storeroom and I’ll be there in about an hour.’

  ‘I’ll get a security guard to meet you at the car park; call me when you leave home. Oh, and Verity, bring the disks you palmed too.’ He rang off with a grin.

  His second call brought a smile of satisfaction.

  Adams went back to the conference room. The numbers had swelled and he could also see Jet Blanchard. He caught his eye and gestured him over.

  ‘Sir, you wanted to see me?’

  ‘Well, actually I just wanted a word. No need for you to come up.’

  ‘Commander, I wanted to tell you I knew that girl, the one who was murdered.’

  ‘Sienna Starr, the escort. When you say, knew …’

  ‘No, not like that, sir. She lived in my apartment block and she just seemed a nice friendly country girl, actually. She was doing a part time science degree, and she eventually told me this was the only way she could get enough money to pay the fees. We were friends, nothing more. She sure didn’t deserve that, so I’d like to help find who killed her, sir.’

  ‘I’ll see. Have a seat while I get this lot sorted.’ He raised his voice slightly. ‘Places everyone, please.’ He waited till they had all settled themselves then said, ‘In the safe we discovered this morning there was a will, Levinsky’s will. I just had a word with his lawyer and I can reveal the contents to you. It was very clear who was to receive what … mostly art galleries and museums. The only odd item was to do with his computer. He left it to Professor Morgenstein, with a proviso. He emphasised that it was booby-trapped—electronically that is, and asked specifically for Dr Verity Burne to be the one to unravel its secrets.’

  A few murmurs went around the table. ‘Questions later, please. Some of you know her. She is very reluctant to have anything to do with that computer so I’m asking for DS Blanchard from CECI to take it on. If he’s agreeable, that is.’ He looked at the c-tec.

  ‘Sir, it would be a very great privilege. If Dr Burne is okay with that.’

  ‘I have other work for Ms Burne, who, by the way, rarely uses her title.’ He gave a quick grin. ‘She says she got sick of people buttonholing her for free diagnoses. Now, also in the safe were a number of small disks … like this.’ He held one up then handed it to Fraser who was next to him to pass around. ‘Anyone here know what it is?’

  Gold said, ‘Yes, I remember seeing these somewhere before. Part of some sort of spy gizmo, weren’t they? D’you remember when we arrested that bloke, that fence, Filthy Philpott, and he had a couple of them, complete with disks? That’d be at least ten years ago now. He didn’t have a clue what they were … now what were they called?’

  ‘That was before my time, Goldy,’ said DS York. ‘Never heard of them.’

  Donna Price said she’d read about the system many years ago, but had never actually seen one. ‘I know, it was called a PeeWee. For the amateur spy or something.’

  ‘Right. Now as it happens our labs don’t have one of these machines but Ms Burne does. To that end I’ve requested her expertise in translating these disks in the hopes that something may shed a light on his murder. There has to be a reason they were kept.

  ‘Blanchard, I’m assigning you to set up one of the spare offices on this floor for her … she’s bringing the PeeWee here. Use an internal room—no windows, and I want full security for the whole floor and a guard assigned specifically for the room … on the door at all times. Fraser, you can organise that, please … liaise with Mrs Halifax. Levinsky’s computer is being brought up here too, into the same room. You’ll be working there. If Ms Burne needs assistance you will give it to her. Better get on to that now. She’ll be here soon.’

  DS Blanchard looked delighted at the thought of working with Ms Burne, or at least in the same room, and the three officers left to get things organised.

  Adams continued, ‘We mustn’t forget we have two other murders on the books. And we still need to keep monitoring the crime inputs. DCI Thomas is looking after that but I’ll want summaries … after lunch is time enough for reports. Kane, Price and Gold, make sure Thomas has your summaries by then.’

  ‘Tomorrow we’ll be heading to the scene of the fig tree murders, weather permitting. We’ll go over that one also after lunch and I hope we might have something on the Daintree body by then too.’

  ‘Have you heard something, sir?’

  ‘Maybe. I’m just waiting for confirmation.’ He glanced at his watch.

  As he spoke Mrs Halifax buzzed. ‘Lab and ME reports, sir, on Levinsky. I’ve just sent them through to your computer. And a message from Mr Jacobsen … he’s on his way, sorry to be delayed, but he had some urgent matters to attend to.’

  ‘Thanks, send him in when he gets here.’ Nick brought up the reports, skimmed through them quickly then sent a copy to each computer. ‘Confirmed. A powerful fast-acting anaesthetic, usually only available in hospitals. Only minute traces left, but enough to identify it … somebody check around, see if any hospitals are missing any of this. He didn’t drown, the bump on the head was superficial. It was another drug that killed him, not identified yet. They found the injection site in his armpit.’

  ‘Why did she go to so much trouble to make it look like an accident? And why wasn’t a full autopsy carried out? I suspect Mostyn’s slimy fingers have been in there,’ Price said.

  ‘You could have something there. Goldy, contact Chief Super Greene some time today. Ask him if there was anyone from the ME’s office on Mostyn’s list, maybe an orderly, anyone really. Or better still ask him if we can get a copy of all the stuff they found in Mostyn’s records.

  ‘As to why, I don’t know. Could it be to make it look as different as possible from another murder?’ At their incredulous looks, he held up his hands, ‘I know, I know, sounds silly, but let’s look and see if there any links with any other murders. Anyone?’

  ‘Sir, the Richardsons and Levinsky were all on RAZZ!. But …’

  ‘Quite right, Yorky. Anything else?

  ‘We don’t know who they really are,’ said Price. ‘Hell’s bells, are we really on to something here? All those passports in Levinsky’s safe, Roberta Richardson isn’t really coloured, fingerprints don’t match anything on record.’ She looked at him, head to one side. ‘Yes, I think they may be linked though it seems crazy.’

  Some looked doubtful but the buzz of chatter swelled as neighbours around the table discussed and argued.

  Adams let them go on for a minute or so while he read another report that had arrived at the same time. He called for silence then dropped a bombshell. ‘How would you feel if I suggested our Daintree case was also linked?’

  ‘That’s a big stretch, sir. Next thing you know, we’ll have … Wait, have you got something new on him.’

  ‘Report just came through. From the resort register he was first ID’d as Neil Laker, an English tourist, but no record of entry into Australia. There is a record
of a Neville Lake, however, who fits the description. Microchipped as required, which was either deliberately removed by the murderer or destroyed by predators.

  Thomas said, ‘Bloody awful sight I can tell you.’ He winced at the memory of the photos of the scene. ‘Poor chap, there wasn’t much flesh left. There was evidence that his hands had been burned so we wouldn’t have found prints anyway. DNA’s been sent to WorldReg but unless he has a criminal record we don’t expect to hear anything other than to confirm his ID or not as the case may be. They also have a massive backlog so it could be weeks for a result.’

  Someone muttered, ‘It’s about time everyone had their DNA on record.’ The room went quiet for a beat. There was no response as everyone knew government policy—it was voluntary for all older than ten but most people registered and accepted it. Suddenly everyone was busy with their computers and a couple of unnecessarily loud conversations started.

  ‘Right, boys and girls. Have lunch, have a think, get your reports ready. Everyone back here by one-thirty. Yes, Mrs Halifax?’

  ‘Ms Burne is here, sir. And also Mr Jacobsen. Shall I …’

  ‘Hold it, you lot. Mrs H, ask them to come in. I want her to meet everyone.’

  Verity came in looking very cool in jeans and a soft yellow shirt, a slight smile on her lips. Nicholas had expected her to be nervous but she met them all with aplomb and exchanged a few words with most of them, looking quite relaxed. Then he remembered she had had years of addressing meetings and seminars. She had also lectured at universities in the USA and here … this had all shown up in the low level search he had conducted on her.

  ‘Commander, I’m here to work. Where do I go?’

  ‘No rush. They’re all going to lunch so we should do the same. We can go down to the staff canteen, though I don’t recommend it, or have sandwiches in my office.’ He added, ‘The blinds are all closed.’

  ‘Sandwiches are fine, but I’d like to dump these where I’ll be working first.’ She indicated a briefcase and a handbag.