Deadly Obsession

by Karen M. Davis

  ‘Yes. That is apparently why they broke up. Bream likes to share his love around and Dani caught him out. Bream was intimate with our victim and he was the admitting doctor the last time Jenna was taken to hospital.’

  Brad explained that Bream had lied to them about knowing the victim and that he was not answering their calls.

  ‘Look, we don’t have that much right now but we have enough to look into all of this further.’

  There was an extended pause while Brad let his words sink in.

  ‘Bream also came back to visit Jenna regularly when she was in the psychiatric ward.’

  Josh had never really taken to Rod Bream. He had met him a few times. Dani and Rod, he and Lexie, had gone on a few double dates, but the guy was way too smooth for his liking and the way he looked at Lexie . . . He wouldn’t trust him to lie straight in bed.

  ‘I’m trying to make sense of what you are saying but, mate, we all know Jenna had problems. It was not the first time she had attempted suicide, you know.’

  ‘I do know that. Though Lexie tells me she had previously always cut her wrists. Is that right?’

  Josh thought about it for a second.

  ‘Yes, that is right.’

  ‘Well, I know stranger things have happened but don’t you think it’s a bit odd that Jenna took an overdose of drugs when she had never done that before?’

  Josh was starting to feel sick.

  ‘Maybe she was serious about it this time?’ he suggested as he gulped down a mouthful of water from the bottle next to him. ‘She would never inject herself, though. Especially not in the neck, that’s too weird.’

  Brad was relentless. He kept firing questions at Josh.

  ‘Didn’t you tell me Jenna was doing really well? That she told you she’d met someone and was in love?’

  ‘Yes, but that could have been a load of shit. For all I know it could have been all in her head.’

  ‘Lexie spoke to her doctor. She thought Jenna was improving dramatically. That’s why she allowed her to be released.’

  Josh didn’t know what to say. He had lost his power of speech.

  ‘Look, I know it is all very circumstantial at this point but Lexie thinks—’

  ‘Have you spoken to Bream?’ Josh interrupted.

  ‘At the moment he’s missing in action. We are trying to locate him.’

  ‘Oh . . . that is weird. Did Lexie tell you to call me?’

  Josh felt the slightest hint of hope.

  Brad’s sarcastic laugh wiped it away in an instant.

  ‘No. I can promise you Lexie did not. This was all my idea to call you. Now, I suggest it’s time for you to snap out of your self-imposed seclusion and get your arse on the next plane back to reality. We want to look at Jenna’s unit tomorrow. If you catch the red-eye you can be here in time to let us in.’

  ‘Are you for real?’ Josh felt his hackles rise. ‘You can’t just go into my sister’s flat and rifle through her belongings.’

  ‘Would you rather me contact your mother, Josh? I didn’t think she needed any more grief but—’

  Josh’s throat felt constricted.

  ‘Brad, I’m starting to get pissed off here.’

  ‘So am I, Josh. I’ve indulged your despair. I’ve felt more than sorry for your loss. I’ve watched Lexie, who has had to deal with her own shit, struggle to come to terms with you deserting her. And up until now I’ve kept my mouth shut. But there comes a time when something has to be said. It’s fucked. You’re fucked.’

  Josh was stunned speechless. He could hear Brad panting. He was getting himself worked up.

  ‘Don’t you want to find out exactly how Jenna died? Whether she really did kill herself?’

  ‘Of course but . . .’

  Josh was getting confused, his head was spinning. He took another gulp of water. Jenna’s death had been ruled as a suicide. He hadn’t even considered it could be anything else. Who would want to kill Jenna?

  ‘Oh, and did I mention, the best thing that has ever happened to you is going out to dinner with this Steve James tonight? Get your arse back here, Josh, before the damage you’ve done is irreversible. Don’t disappoint me.’

  With that Brad hung up. Josh was left with the dial tone humming in his ear.

  Shocked, his heart pounded violently in his chest. Could there be any truth to what Brad had told him? It was almost too much to fathom. And Lexie; going out to dinner with another man? The thought was sickening.

  What did you expect?

  It was the cruncher. Josh knew exactly what he had to do and strangely the decision was easy. He could no longer hide. It was time to man up and deal with things. If he booked himself on a flight tonight he would be home by morning. In less than twenty-four hours he could be looking into the beautiful face of Lexie Rogers.

  Did he still stand a chance? Would she ever forgive him?

  There was only one way to find out.

  CHAPTER 22

  Lexie let out a frustrated groan. She had just scrolled through the call charge records on Melissa McDermott’s mobile and found not one call to or from Rod Bream’s phone number.

  ‘What’s with the sad face?’ asked Batman, as he perched on the edge of her desk.

  Lexie shrugged.

  ‘I was hoping for a phone link, something substantial between the victim and Doctor Bream, but no such luck.’

  ‘Well, if it was a pash-and-dash, end-of-the night, too-many-drinks type of situation there would be no follow-up. It would be purely and simply a one night stand.’

  ‘Hmm, you sound like you know all about it.’

  He gave her a cheeky grin.

  ‘Not at all, it’s obvious. I’ve read her diary. That’s what she was into.’

  Lexie pushed the phone records aside and shook her mouse to reactivate it. It was time to conduct an RTA licence check on Rod Bream’s mother. She typed in Tina Bream’s name and jotted down the Mosman address and phone number the data-base supplied.

  Batman was watching her silently, waiting for her to ask how he had fared at Rod Bream’s home address at Coogee. Lexie already knew the answer because if he had been in luck Bream would be standing before her right now. She asked anyway.

  ‘So, how did you go?’

  ‘Bream wasn’t home. Neither was his neighbour on one side. The other neighbour opposite hadn’t seen him for a while; he said that’s not unusual because Bream keeps to himself.’

  ‘I kind of expected that. Thanks anyway. You haven’t seen Marty Wells, have you? I was just wondering how he was getting on with the profile on Bream.’

  ‘I’ll tell you what,’ Batman said, with a wink, ‘I’ll track him down under one condition. You have dinner with me tonight.’

  Lexie smiled.

  ‘I already have dinner plans. Besides, you know I have a rule about dating people I work with.’

  Lexie gave him a meaningful look.

  Batman leaned in closer.

  ‘It didn’t stop you and Harrison—’

  Lexie whacked him in the arm.

  ‘That’s exactly why I now have a rule about it.’

  ‘Don’t get me confused with Harrison. I’m going to keep asking and one day you are going to surprise me and say yes.’

  ‘You think?’ Lexie laughed.

  She had to admit Batman was good for her ego – which was pretty bruised and battered at the moment.

  ‘I live in hope.’

  Batman jumped off the end of her desk and headed towards the door.

  ‘I’ll go find Marty for you, Boss.’

  Lexie knew that, like a lot of police, Batman was a serial flirt. But she liked that he knew not to push too far. He understood there was a line he shouldn’t cross, and he didn’t; though he sometimes hovered very close to the perimeter.

  The chair opposite her cried out in protest as Brad fell into it.

  ‘Where did you disappear to?’ Lexie asked him, suspiciously. ‘You weren’t eating again were you?’ Or smoking?
/>   Brad feigned a wounded expression.

  ‘I was making an important phone call and printing this out.’

  He held up a document and smiled.

  ‘See, I’ve still got it. My girlfriend at the morgue came through for me. This is Jenna Harrison’s autopsy report. I’ve had a quick read and it is just as the doctor told us. The injection site is in almost exactly the same position as Melissa McDermott’s.’

  ‘So Jenna could have been given a hot-shot?’

  Lexie could feel her heart rate increase as a burst of adrenaline shot around her body.

  ‘Do you still think it’s unrelated; just a coincidence?’

  ‘No, I don’t actually,’ Brad told her, seriously. ‘It’s killing me to admit that your gut might be right. I think you are on to something.’

  He gave her a wicked grin. ‘Oh man, that was hard to say . . .’

  Lexie started to laugh.

  ‘Never doubt the gut instinct,’ she teased.

  ‘It’s yet to be proved, young lady, so don’t go getting all cocky on me,’ Brad shot back. ‘Believing, or even knowing something to be true, as opposed to proving it, are two different things.’

  ‘Okay, whatever you say. Now, I’ve got the address and phone number for Rod Bream’s parents. I thought I might give them a call; see if they know of their son’s whereabouts. What do you think?’

  Brad put it back on her.

  ‘What do you think?’

  Lexie sighed. Brad knew how much it irritated her when he did the rhetorical question routine. ‘I think I should call them but keep it casual,’ Lexie replied. ‘I don’t want to spook him.’

  ‘I agree,’ Brad said. ‘Rod Bream has a promising medical career before him. He’s not going to run away from that. Not when he’s unaware we are even looking at him as a possible person of interest. I think he will contact us – eventually.’

  Just then Marty Wells strolled into the office with Batman hot on his heels.

  ‘Found him for you, Lex,’ Batman exclaimed, proudly.

  ‘Funny, I thought I found you,’ Marty replied in a monotone.

  Dragging an empty chair across to where Lexie and Brad sat, he placed it at the junction between their desks and dropped into it.

  Batman went to sit on the edge of Lexie’s desk but Brad shooed him away.

  ‘Get a chair, will you?’

  Batman did as he was told.

  Brad spoke first, directing his question to Marty.

  ‘We were wondering how the profile on Rod Bream is coming along. I know you’ve just started working on it, but have you found anything of interest yet?’

  Marty raised his eyebrows.

  ‘I have, actually. The first thing I did was Google Doctor Rod Bream. It came up with this.’

  He held up a photocopy of a newspaper article.

  Lexie took the paper Marty held out to her. She read the heading aloud: ‘Young intern’s girlfriend . . . oh, my God . . . found dead.’

  They all stared at each other, eyes wide in astonishment.

  ‘Keep reading, Lex,’ said Brad.

  Lexie glanced down at the words in front of her and took a deep breath. Her heart was racing as she read aloud.

  ‘Rachel West, a young nurse at Wagga Wagga Base Hospital, has tragically taken her own life by injecting herself with a lethal amount of prescription medication it appears she stole from the hospital. She was found in her apartment by her devastated boyfriend, Resident Doctor Rod Bream.’

  There was more, but Lexie stopped reading and looked up. Three sets of eyes were staring at her. No one spoke for a moment while the implications sunk in.

  Marty, who had clearly read the article more than once, found his voice first.

  ‘Maybe we should start calling Bream Doctor Death.’

  No one laughed.

  ‘Not funny? Okay . . . Sorry, just a bit of black humour,’ Marty apologised.

  Lexie had a thought.

  ‘I wonder if it says which prescription medication she overdosed on?’

  She rapidly scanned the article.

  ‘Don’t bother searching for something that’s not there, Lexie. I haven’t been able to find that out yet, but I’ll chase it up. Leave it with me,’ Marty said.

  Lexie jolted forward in her chair, her brain jumping into gear.

  ‘I wonder if Dani’s unit being broken into is related to all this? It seems all the girls Bream becomes involved with or has dealings with, get hurt.’

  Brad rolled his eyes to the ceiling.

  ‘Let’s not get carried away. We don’t know all the girls he’s been involved with, so you can’t say that.’

  ‘Okay, I’ll re-word that statement. Some of the girls he’s known, had relationships with or dealings of some kind − this Rachel, Jenna and Melissa − end up dead.’

  ‘We don’t know he was anything other than Jenna’s admitting doctor as yet—’

  ‘I’ll bet he was more than that,’ Lexie muttered under her breath.

  ‘Being a doctor, he also has easy access to prescription drugs,’ Batman added. ‘Still, why would he want to hurt the girls he becomes involved with, if that’s what is happening?’

  ‘Who knows?’ said Lexie. ‘Maybe he’s a sicko serial killer in a nice package.’

  Brad raised his eyebrows.

  ‘Is that all you women are after – a nice package?’

  Lexie shrugged.

  ‘Doesn’t hurt to have a nice package.’

  Marty, Brad and Batman all stared at Lexie, eyes bulging out of their sockets.

  Brad asked, ‘What kind of package are we talking about here?’

  Lexie laughed at the expression on their faces and felt her body relax. It was nice to break the tension. It was a bad habit of hers, of many cops, to make light of even the worst situations. Psychiatrists called it a coping mechanism.

  ‘Just playing with you . . . sorry. I got us off the subject. So, what now?’

  ‘I say we step up the search for this guy. Make it a priority to bring Bream in,’ Brad said.

  Everyone murmured words of agreement.

  Marty stood up, eager to get back to his office.

  ‘I’ll keep working on Bream. See if I can find out what drug his girlfriend overdosed on.’

  Marty paused.

  ‘Though before I go, I want you to tell me how good I am.’

  Batman, Lexie and Brad all groaned simultaneously. Marty Wells was a funny guy. He had a dry sense of humour and a straight, serious face. The combination could be hysterical, but right now Lexie just wanted to get to work.

  ‘Say it, say it. Say, “You are the best, Marty.” If you want to know what else I found out . . .’

  Lexie took charge. He had her curiosity.

  ‘Okay, one, two three . . .’ The others joined in. ‘You are the best, Marty.’

  Marty jumped up and did a little bow.

  ‘Thank you. I thought you all might find it interesting to know that this nurse who committed suicide, Bream’s ex-girlfriend, was found clutching a red rose. Sound familiar?’

  CHAPTER 23

  Lexie glanced around at the tired faces of her colleagues as she began yet another update.

  She caught Fester stifling a yawn and Patch looked asleep with his eyes open. Continuous meetings and updates were necessary, but they were also tedious.

  ‘I’m sorry, guys, I know most of you are exhausted, but we’ve had some developments. I’ll keep it as short and sweet as I can.’

  Before the briefing, Lexie had collated all the new information into dot point notes. Taking a deep breath, she advised the team on all relevant information regarding Rod Bream.

  ‘I’ve spoken to Tina Bream not long ago, Doctor Rod Bream’s mother. She informed me she has not heard from her son for over a week, which is not unusual. Mrs Bream supplied me with the address of the family’s holiday house in Sussex Inlet. The local cops are going to check if he’s there for us.’

  Lexie then covered relev
ant information regarding the victim’s diary and the photographs, taken by an anonymous photographer, of Zack Rogers in the pub.

  ‘I have requested Jenna Harrison’s phone records and I need some volunteers to put together a telephone intercept warrant application for Zack Rogers’s and Rod Bream’s phones. We want the telephone intercepts ready for the morning. Who wants more overtime?’

  Batman and Lurch shot their arms into the air.

  ‘Thanks, guys.’

  Lexie glanced at her notes again. She spoke about that morning’s media release, which unfortunately had failed to provide any legitimate lines of inquiry to follow. Then, when she had read out each person of interest and witness who had been interviewed, and those who were yet to be interviewed, Lexie sighed deeply. She was relieved to have completed the briefing without anyone starting to snore.

  ‘Anyone got anything to add?’ Lexie asked.

  There were a few heartbeats of silence where everyone glared around the room at each other, silently willing no one to prolong the torture.

  ‘Okay, thanks for your attention. Those not working back, go home and get a good night’s sleep,’ Lexie instructed.

  A few detectives, who had clearly been counting down the seconds until dismissal, were out the door so fast they left nothing but a breeze in their wake.

  Lexie sat down at her desk and looked at Brad.

  ‘Are you okay if I go?’

  She wanted to get home to get ready for her dinner with Detective Steve James.

  Clearing her desk, as Lexie routinely did at the end of every shift, she placed her paperwork in files and trays, then locked them in her desk drawers. The clear desk policy was not compulsory at the moment – it was like yo-yos or hula hoops – a fad that came and went with the changing of management. Not that it concerned Lexie, either way. She was unable to help but keep things clean and tidy. Spraying the surface of her desk with disinfectant and using a sheet of paper towel, Lexie quickly wiped it clean.

  She glanced up to find Brad regarding her with fascination.

  ‘You are a freak. Go home and get ready for your hot date. No hanky-panky, okay?’

  Lexie laughed.

  ‘Yes, Dad.’

  Gathering her bag, she was almost at the door when Brad called her back.