To meet just one man. Martin McFadden. Who was perhaps casting his eye over her with a view to replacing Tina.
McFadden may have been bringing sex workers to Cairns for some time. Perhaps even the whole twelve years he’d been here. And Tina could have been part of it for that long too. But maybe, up until the arrival of Rita, it had been just that—the sex trafficking. The girls stayed for a while, then went home. Maybe Tina had even been one of them once: he might have taken a fancy to her, and had her stay on. Or maybe he met her in Angeles. At any rate, Tina managed the girls. They didn’t even get to see Martin—but he and his cronies in Angeles, and maybe Sydney, got to make a lot of money.
Then he meets Rita. She’s different. He wants her, and so he moves her to Cairns. He’s very careful. He doesn’t want his wife to know about her. He never visits her in the place he’s arranged for her to live and work. His company owns the unit, so Rita can just move in but at arm’s length from him. He only sees her at the Hilton. He gets her a separate phone, just for calls from him. He lets Rita keep everything she makes—which for her would be a fortune.
Then somehow Tina gets wind of her. She checks out where Rita lives. Watches what time she sees clients. Mostly she parks her car far from Rita’s unit, but once or twice she leaves it closer. She thinks no one will notice. She makes her plans carefully.
And decides to kill Rita.
She’ll do it when Martin has an unbreakable alibi. Because he’ll be an obvious suspect, once the police start looking. And she doesn’t want Martin to go to prison. She’ll punish him enough by taking Rita away from him. He’ll think the killer was a client. He won’t ever think it’s her.
She chooses her time. Somehow, she’s got keys for both units, maybe from Teak Solutions while Martin’s been away. She makes her way to the empty unit. She’s wearing dark clothing and gloves. Maybe there’s a back way in. Didn’t the reports say that the first police who were called to Rita’s house looked in the back window? There was a lane at the back of Ruth Davies’ unit—Cass had seen it the day she’d met Maureen. Cass sat up suddenly and asked: ‘Troy, is there a back way into the unit where Rita was killed?’
‘Cass, I thought you were dreaming!’ Troy said. ‘What’s going on? Yes, there’s a lane, and back gates in all the fences along there.’
Cass sat back and relapsed into her thoughts. So, Tina watches Rita’s from the empty next-door unit. Waiting there in the dark. Through the wall she can hear what’s happening next door. She waits and watches until Rita sees out the last client. Then she makes her way outside into the lane and quietly opens the back gate of Rita’s unit. She can see Rita in the shower. The window is slightly open. Tina knows there is no one with her, that she’s finished work. She sees Rita get out of the shower and go into the bedroom.
Tina opens the back door with the key she’s brought. She has the knife. Probably she already has the pillow. By now Rita is in the bedroom. Tina knows exactly the layout of the unit. Even if she has never been inside, it matches the one next door.
Before Rita has time to cry out, Tina rushes into the bedroom, pushes her down onto the bed and covers her face with the pillow, pressing it down hard so Rita can’t cry out and very quickly starts to suffocate. Maybe Rita didn’t even see who was attacking her.
Then Tina stabs Rita. Again and again, taking care to avoid getting blood on herself as much as possible. When Rita is still, she lifts the pillow off and burns her, hard, with a cigarette she lights, stabbing viciously to disfigure her victim’s face. Maybe she has a jacket or top she’s left in the laneway at the back that she puts on when she goes outside again, because there will definitely be bloodstains on her clothing. She has a bag for the knife. She sees a black mobile phone by the bed. She understands that the police will be most likely to suspect a client and that taking the incriminating mobile is what a client would do. She takes nothing else. She does not know that Rita has two phones.
When she is quite certain Rita is dead, she switches off the lights and leaves the unit, again probably by the back door. She slips around the corner to where she has parked the car. Probably she puts some of her clothing into the bag with the knife, before she gets into the car. She dumps the bag into the council rubbish somewhere far away from the murder site, somewhere she knows will be collected the next day, taken to the council tip and incinerated.
Cass paused. ‘No,’ she said out loud, ‘this woman is tough. I see her taking the knife home, running it through the dishwasher and putting it back in its place in the kitchen, where it probably came from.’
She looked up. Troy and Drew were staring at her in surprise.
‘I think I’ve got it,’ she said. ‘I think Tina McFadden did kill Rita.’ She outlined her thoughts to them.
‘And then,’ she said, ‘I think her nerves got the better of her, some days later. Possibly because she learned from media reports that there must be another mobile. She comes back, and lets herself in again, the time that Rita’s neighbour saw her. We know that’s the classic scenario, the killer who goes back to the scene of the crime.’
Then Drew said, ‘You’ve made a good case, Cass. What about the fact, though, that Tina really does seem terrified of McFadden? Not only from her own account, which may just be self-serving, but according to Maria and Marcie?’
Cass nodded. ‘Yes, I’m thinking of that,’ she said. ‘And what I remember is the complicity of Martin and Tina when I asked them about Rita. I’m sure Martin has known for a long time that his wife killed Rita. Maybe even as soon as he heard of Rita’s death, even if he didn’t say as much to her.’
She thought for a moment longer, then said: ‘The trafficking may have been going on for a long time, under the radar, but the imprisonments and the torture of those young women all seems to have begun after Rita’s death. It’s possible that the two things are connected. In that Martin’s knowing that Tina had committed murder and got away with it gave him even more power over her. Power that he used to make her help him get the other women here, manage them, lure them to the house and keep them there.
‘I would say he’s genuinely a psychopath. But up until Rita died that might have been kept in check by his going to Asian sex spots, abusing women as much as he could, even possibly killing them—if the Angeles cops are right.
‘Once he had power, though, real power, over Tina, not just financial power, but the power to go and turn her in for murder, he could indulge his fantasies much more here in Australia and get away with it. Who would suspect a businessman in Bayview with a stylish wife, a kid at a private school, a family company, a four-wheel drive in the garage, of kidnapping and serial killing?
‘As for Fang—maybe McFadden knew him already as someone with similar tastes to his own. Or maybe he hired him to work in the business then found he had other... skills. And McFadden was willing to share his booty in return for those skills. That will all come out in court. Certainly, there’s no evidence linking Fang directly to Rita, any more than there is to McFadden. We ran DNA and fingerprints on him straight away on Friday morning.’
Cass sat back, satisfied that her theory was plausible.
‘Yes,’ said Drew, ‘that all makes sense. The next thing is to talk to Tina McFadden again.’
Troy put up his hand. ‘Drew, I worked on this case before. I should do that.’
‘Sure,’ said Drew. ‘You and Cass. Tina’s staying at the Hilton with her son and the maid. I have another round to go with McFadden and Fang now, anyway.’
He stood up, then added, ‘Troy, as Cass says, that woman’s tough. Call for backup if you need it.’
***
Troy drove while Cass sat in the passenger seat as they made the two-minute drive to the Hilton. Since the whole Bayview property was a crime scene, Cass explained to Troy, Tina, Braydon and Marianna were staying in the hotel.
Drew had interviewed Tina, but she had been adamant she knew nothing about what had gone on in the building behind the house. Fang, she claimed
, had been responsible for everything—buying, preparing and delivering food and anything else the women needed. She had thought that all the women her husband brought there eventually went off to work in brothels in Sydney. ‘That’s what he told me,’ Tina said. So, no charges had yet been brought against her.
In the first few days some media people had lurked near the Hilton taking photos of the family group, but they lost interest when it was decided neither of the women had known about McFadden and Fang’s activities. The Hilton staff had instructions to keep a discreet eye on the comings and goings of all three but mostly they had stayed in their suite, with Marianna taking Braydon swimming in the hotel’s pool in the late mornings. Marianna also made daily trips to Bayview to take small items from the house, under the surveillance of the uniformed police there; and of much of the world’s media, which was now camped in Holliday Close.
‘So, the Bali trip went well, Troy? You’re a convert to foreign travel, now?’ Cass asked.
‘Yeah, it was really good. And next, we’re thinking about Fiji!’ A wide smile lit up Troy’s otherwise unremarkable features. ‘I’ll tell you a secret,’ he said, ‘if you promise not tell anyone else in the station.’
‘Sure, I promise. Good news, I hope?’
‘Yep, very good. Me and Gemma, we’re getting engaged. And we think we’ll have the honeymoon in Fiji.’
‘Oh, Troy! That’s wonderful!’ Cass was genuine in her reply. This was the second piece of good news she’d had confided in her in just a few days. The world was not all bad.
At the Hilton, Troy parked in the driveway and waited while Cass found the duty manager.
‘Morning! We’ve come to see Mrs McFadden. Umm, it’s possible that when we leave, we may want to take her with us and you’d probably like us to do that discreetly. Is there some kind of staff car park at the back where we can leave the car?’
‘Yes, there is,’ he answered, ‘but I think you’ll find that she and her boy left here about an hour ago in a taxi.’
He checked with the reception staff.
‘Yes,’ he confirmed, ‘Mrs McFadden said they were going to their house in Bayview to collect a few things and they wouldn’t be long.’
‘Hmmm,’ said Cass. ‘Is Marianna here? The housekeeper, nanny, whatever she is?’
‘No, she went shopping a while ago, too.’
‘Right,’ said Cass. ‘Thank you, very much. If they do come back could you give them a message, please? Ask them to contact me, immediately.’ She handed the manager her card.
‘Certainly, Detective.’
Cass ran back to the car.
‘They’ve split,’ she told Troy quickly. ‘All three together, I think. Tina told the hotel they were going to Bayview, better go there first.’
Troy took the faster Portsmith Road and in ten minutes they pulled up beside the house. Crime scene tape surrounded everything. The technicians were still working on collecting evidence from the property. Other men were working me-thodically through the rainforest behind the house although no further graves or human remains had been found.
Cass and Troy went over to talk to the men.
‘Hi Jason! Hi Milt! How’s it going?’
‘Just tidying up now I think, Detective. No sign of any more bodies, thank god! We’ve got enough of those.’
‘Yeah. We’ve just come to have a word with the lady of the house. We thought she might be here?’
‘Nope,’ said Jason. ‘We haven’t seen her. Not the other one either, Marianna. She’s been every day until now, collecting stuff for them, but not today, so far.’
‘Shit!’ said Cass, turning back towards the car.
‘Are you thinking what I’m thinking?’ Troy asked Cass.
‘I’m thinking... that there’s a daily flight to Manila at eleven. They could be on it. I’m thinking that we call Drew and get him to check the passenger list. I’ll do that while you drive us kwiktaim to the airport.’
It wasn’t often these days that Troy got to put on the siren and flash the red and blue lights. So when he did, it was the full display. They sped down the Portsmith Road, along Sheridan Street and onto the airport route. Meanwhile, Cass got on the phone to Drew. In a matter of minutes he had the answer through the airport police.
‘They’re just getting on that flight, now. All three of them. They’re through security and passport control.’
‘Get them to hold the flight,’ said Cass. ‘We’ll be there in less than ten minutes.’
***
Troy screeched to a halt outside the international terminal. Two AFP officers were waiting.
‘Straight up the back way!’ one of the officers said. ‘They’re holding the flight. Your party is in business class, Seat 2A with two other people, a child and another woman adjacent. You want them too?’
‘The child, maybe,’ panted Cass, as they ran up a flight of stairs. ‘But we haven’t got anything on the other woman.’
‘She’s on a Filipino passport,’ said the AFP officer as they ran. ‘The wife and the son both have Australian passports that they had to hand over when the husband was arrested. But it looks as ifs they have Filipino ones as well. That’s what they used just now to get through Immigration.’
They ran down the airbridge towards the open door of the plane. Flight attendants were waiting. Cass and Troy were directed into the business class cabin with the AFP officers close behind. Tina was sitting on the right-hand side in Row 2, with Braydon beside her. Marianna was across the aisle. The other business class passengers stared in amazement as the four police burst in.
As soon as Tina saw Cass, she put up both hands. She took a deep breath and then said calmly: ‘I always figured you were going to catch me some time.’ The boy was silent, his eyes fixed on his mother.
Tina unbuckled her seatbelt, stood up and spoke to Marianna in Tagalog. Marianna looked upset but nodded, without a word.
‘Tina McFadden,’ said Cass, ‘I am arresting you on suspicion of the murder of Rita Gonzalo.’
After listening to Cass’s regulation spiel, Tina said: ‘I presume that my son and Marianna can stay on the flight? Marianna will take Braydon to my parents in the Philippines. They will take care of him. They have enough money to do so.’
She opened her handbag. ‘Here are their passports. I also have a document that authorises Marianna to travel overseas with Braydon.’
Cass passed a piece of paper to one of the AFP men.
‘Can we let the two of them leave?’ she asked. The officer studied the paper. ‘It looks all right,’ she said. ‘Both parents have signed. But Immigration will have to okay it if the kid is going to travel without his parents.’
Tina was rummaging further in her bag.
‘What are you doing?’ Cass asked sharply, her instincts aroused although she knew Tina could have no weapon, having already passed through security. She stepped forward to take the bag from her. But Tina produced an envelope from its depths. She shut the bag and handed it to Cass.
‘This is a letter I wrote last night to my son. I would like him to have it when he is older. I’m giving it to Marianna to keep for him.’
Despite herself Cass was impressed by the dignity of the woman. Tina gave the envelope to Marianna.
‘Where’s your cabin baggage?’ Troy asked Tina. He, too, seemed affected by the calmness of the scene in front of him. He had expected hysteria and resistance.
‘Up there!’ Tina indicated with a lift of her head. Troy moved to take it down. Cass’s attention shifted for a moment. They could leave Braydon and his luggage here while they took his passport to Immigration, Cass thought. The boy himself was still absolutely quiet in his seat, watching his mother.
When she turned to look again at Tina, Cass saw her pop a little white pill into her mouth.
‘What’s that?’ Cass leaned forward and tried to tip Tina’s head back to reach into her mouth. But Tina resisted and swallowed the pill. She shook her head, twisted free of Cass’s grasp,
sat down again in her seat and took the hand of her son, who still said not a word.
‘Get the paramedics,’ Cass snapped at the nearest flight attendant. ‘Whatever medical equipment you’ve got on board. And see if there’s a doctor among the passengers.’
But even as she gave these orders Cass could see that Tina McFadden was slumping down into her seat. Her breathing was rapid, and her face had turned a pale shade of violet.
From behind her she heard a voice.
‘I’m a physician. Can I help? What’s happening here?’
Cass turned to see a young man emerging from Economy with a flight attendant, both looking concerned.
‘Detective Diamond, Cairns Police,’ she said quickly. ‘This woman has just swallowed a tablet, I think, with the aim of suicide.’ As she spoke, she became aware of the smell of something familiar.
The doctor climbed across Braydon and leaned over Tina. He sniffed the air. He stepped back. ‘Almonds,’ he said. ‘She’s taken cyanide. Absolutely nothing we can do for her. But...’
He bent down and carefully removed Braydon’s hand from his mother’s. Still the little boy said nothing, though his eyes clouded over with confusion and a silent tear rolled down his cheek. The doctor picked him up and lifted him bodily out of his seat. Tina now had blue froth at the sides of her mouth and was sighing quietly.
‘Come on, little fellow,’ he said, gently. He looked at the flight attendant.
‘I suggest you take him down the back with my son,’ he said. ‘This is going to take a while to sort out.’ Braydon whimpered and looked towards his mother but she was slumped into her seat. Without another sound, he allowed the flight attendant to lead him down the aisle. Other flight attendants were moving adjacent passengers out onto the airbridge, and from the cockpit the captain had appeared.
The doctor turned back to Tina. He picked up her flaccid hand and felt her pulse.
Blood Sisters Page 26