Cooper sat across from him, and waited until Saulwick joined them before he began. "I'm doing a favour for a friend, and it involves the teenage suicide case you just closed."
"Lachlan Rose," said Saulwick, recalling the name immediately.
That's a good start, thought Cooper. "That's the one. I've just been reviewing the case file."
"Anything wrong?" Davis's shoulders squared defensively.
"No, not at all. Looks like a sound investigation. I was just wondering what your gut told you, that's all. You know, the kind of stuff you don't put in the report. What was your feeling about the case?"
"I felt like the kid hanged himself," Davis replied. He picked up his coffee and took a messy slurp. "I mean, yeah, it's shit. No-one likes to see a young life wasted and all that, but it was a pretty straight-forward case. Why are you asking?"
"Like I said, favour for a friend."
"What friend?" Davis pushed.
There was no reason not to tell them. "The mother is a family friend. I just want to make sure we did our best for her, that's all."
"And you don't think we did?"
"That's not what I said. I told her I'd look into it, give her some piece of mind. That's all I'm trying to do here. I just want to be able to go back to her and say I checked, and the investigation was solid."
"She doesn't believe it was suicide," said Saulwick.
"No, she doesn't. She just wants another pair of eyes over everything, that's all. She knows me, she asked me to take a look."
Davis shrugged his shoulders and stood, slopping even more coffee in the process. "Case is closed, Coop. Kid hung himself, end of story." With that he walked away, leaving his partner to clean up his mess.
"The mother was a tough one on this case, Coop. Jackie, that's her name, right?" Cooper nodded. "Davis took the lead, but I was the one she kept calling. Didn't like his approach, she said. I guess he can be a bit gruff sometimes, but he's a good investigator. I've learnt a lot from him."
"I don't doubt that," Cooper answered. And he didn't. Davis was a good cop, once he left all the bullshit behind and got busy. He was just so damn competitive, that was his problem. Confrontational, as well. "What do you think?" he asked Saulwick.
"About Lachlan? Geez, Coop, it looked like suicide to me. I mean, he went through his morning ritual as if he was going off to school. Yes, the knot was neat, and the rope had been cut. We didn't find the other half, but that doesn't mean he didn't prepare it earlier. If I was going to hang myself, I'd practice getting the knot right. You can find instructions for that on the internet, I checked."
"Yeah, so did I," Cooper agreed.
"So he probably bought the rope sometime beforehand, cut it to the right length, and got rid of the rest somewhere."
"You never found it?"
"No. Probably tied nooses with it and dumped them on the way to school or something like that. Anyway, you'd practice till you got it right, then plan for the big day. You wouldn't want anyone else to be home in case you got interrupted, which is exactly what he did. He made sure he had the place to himself. The only fingerprints we found in the whole garage were his, the other family members, and the neighbour who came to help. No other outsiders. No evidence that anyone else was there."
"And the rest of the family have alibis?"
"Brother and sister were at school, mother was at work."
"Father?"
"They're divorced, but yeah, the father was at work too."
Cooper changed his mind about the coffee, and stood up to make one. Saulwick drained his cup and put it in the dishwasher.
"Can you walk me through the scene?" Cooper asked, as he spooned instant coffee into a mug.
"Sure." Saulwick explained what Cooper had already read, about Ethan finding Lachlan and Jackie screaming enough to bring in a neighbour who'd cut Lachlan down and started CPR.
"What was your feel for the neighbour?" Cooper asked.
"He was pretty cut up, but you could also tell he felt a bit like the knight in shining armour, if you know what I mean. I don't have any reason to doubt his story, though. He said he knew the kid was dead, but Jackie screamed at him to get him down, help him, that sort of thing. So he did."
"How was his recollection of the scene when he first arrived? If neither Ethan nor Jackie touched anything, then he sounds like the witness most likely to give an accurate description before things were disturbed."
"Yeah, I interviewed him pretty thoroughly for that reason. He said the stool was tipped over under Lachlan's feet. He had to right it to get up to reach him. Then he says he got down again to look for something to cut him down with. He found a knife on the workbench, so he used that. The mother got it together enough to stand underneath and help ease Lachlan to the ground. The neighbour didn't remember much more about the scene besides the stool, unfortunately. The body was the centre of attention, nothing else stood out."
Cooper nodded. "Makes sense."
"That all you need?"
"Just one more question. What does your instinct tell you? I mean, ignore the facts, ignore whatever Davis thinks. What do you think happened to Lachlan?"
Saulwick crossed his arms in front of his chest. "I think Lachlan was another kid we failed, Coop. Society, I mean. I've been a cop for more than ten years, and nothing gets to me more than suicide."
"You're sure he did it himself, then?"
Saulwick nodded. "I've seen too many of them. We all have. He couldn't cope, and for whatever reason he felt he couldn't ask for help. He took his own life, and his mother can't accept it. But do you blame her?"
4
Jackie woke with a cracking headache, the pain worsening as she remembered the reason for it. She turned away from the sunlight streaming into the room and curled up in the foetal position, her left hand cradling her throbbing head. What the fuck was she doing to herself? Her mobile phone buzzed somewhere on the floor, and she reached for it but didn't make it in time to answer the call. Not that she wanted to answer: judging by the brightness assaulting her eyes she was incredibly late for work.
Dragging herself into a sitting position, Jackie opened one eye and looked at the phone. Five missed calls. Four were from work, the fifth from Liz's mobile. Shit, they must be worried. She returned Liz's call.
"Where the hell are you?" Liz answered, not bothering with hello.
"Jesus, not so loud."
The sigh on the other end of the line told Jackie that Liz realised at once what had happened. Well, at least the part she needed to know. "I'll tell them you're not coming in then, shall I?"
"That'd be great, thanks." Jackie could picture the look on Liz's face right now. She could almost hear her friend shaking her head. But then Liz said something Jackie wasn't expecting.
"Coop said he'd look into Lachlan's case. He's not making any promises, but he's going to take a look for you."
"That's fantastic. Thanks, Liz."
"What are you doing, Jackie? How much did you have to drink last night?"
Jackie threw her feet over the side of the bed and stepped on the empty bottle. She kicked it aside, and watched as a tiny trail of red droplets formed a line on her cream-coloured carpet.
Shit. "Too much," she replied, and pictured Liz standing outside the entrance to the emergency room shaking her head. "I've got to go," she added, and ended the call as abruptly as it had begun.
The angry red numbers on Jackie's bedside clock said it was after eleven. How had she missed so much of the day? She rubbed her face and tried to pull herself together. She remembered how angry she'd been at Marcus for taking Ethan and Emma yesterday. The empty bottle of wine he'd poured down the sink had sat on top of the recycling bin, mocking her. How dare he, she'd thought, and opened a bottle of red to spite him. But it wasn't Marcus she was hurting as she finished the bottle and opened a second, she thought now as she stared at that second empty bottle on the floor. What had she been thinking?
She hadn't been thinking. She hadn't wanted
to think about anything, not Marcus, not him taking the children away, and especially not about Lachlan.
Lachlan. Jackie picked up the photo she kept beside her bed and held it to her heart. She wept as she remembered the call yesterday, the call that had started it all. Officially ruled a suicide, Detective Davis had said. Those four words tore her heart in two. How could they believe that of her boy, her precious child? They had to have it wrong. Had to.
Jackie placed the photo carefully back on the bedside table and stood. She slowly stripped off her clothes — the ones she'd worn yesterday — and wondered briefly how she'd made it to the bedroom at all last night. Two bottles of red wine, when was the last time she'd drunk that much? Had she ever? Certainly not on her own. She crossed the room and turned on the shower, waiting for it to heat up before stepping into the hot blast. She turned her face straight into the stream, and water mixed with tears as she let out a loud sob and crumpled to the shower floor.
It was the insistent knocking on the front door that finally pulled Jackie to her feet and out of the tangle inside her head. She grabbed a towel and wrapped it around herself, checking out the window to see who it was. Marcus stood there, holding two takeaway coffees in a tray in one hand, and a bag of something greasy in the other.
Jackie opened the door, and Marcus cocked his head to the side at the sight of her in a towel, dripping wet and with red-rimmed eyes. He pushed past her into the kitchen, but not before she caught the small shake of his head.
"What are you doing here?"
"I thought you might need this," he replied, holding out one of the coffees. She didn't take it, indicating her state of undress. "I'll wait," he said.
Jackie sighed and turned towards her bedroom. It was easier not to argue with Marcus. She quickly dressed and threw the towel back in the bathroom. She had to admit the coffee did smell good.
"So," she said, when she was back in the kitchen cradling the hot paper cup, "You didn't come here just to bring me coffee and a danish." She checked the paper bag to see if he'd even brought her one of those, as the one he was hoeing into was almost gone. There was another in the bag. Apricot, her favourite. He wanted something, so Jackie took her chance to confront him about last night.
"You had no right to take Ethan and Emma away from me. It's my week, Marcus."
"You forgot her," he started, a flash of rage sparking in his eyes before he backed off. "Look, I know it's been tough on you these last two months. But it's been tough on all of us. You have two kids who need you, and you're not there for them."
"I am."
"You weren't yesterday."
"That's not fair. Yesterday was tough. Did the police call you?"
"Yes. I know about the coroner's verdict."
Jackie took a sip of hot coffee, felt it ease some of the pain in her head. She waited for Marcus to say more, to agree with her that they couldn't accept the verdict, that they had to fight. But he said nothing.
"I can't deal with it," she finally admitted to him. "Lachlan didn't do this. He couldn't have. He wouldn't leave us." She put the cup down and stared at her ex-husband. He'd been her rock for so long, her strength, her reason to fight. But now he belonged to someone else.
"I have something I need to talk to you about, Jackie."
She continued to stare. "What?"
"I've been offered a job. A good one. It'll mean a lot more for the kids. Better schools. And Charlotte won't have to go back to work after the baby."
"That's good news," said Jackie, but the look on his face told her there was more to come.
"It's in Perth."
"Perth? As in Western Australia? The other side of the bloody country?" A million thoughts raced through Jackie's head. He was making her a single parent. She was already a single parent, but only one week out of two. She could cope with that. But now he was going to up and leave and start a new life with his new family in Perth, and she would have to be a full-time single parent. Could she cope with that? She was barely holding it together as it was.
Their relationship had been volatile, and no-one was surprised when it ended. Jackie had come to terms with it, even relished her role as a single mum. She was over Marcus, she didn't need him anymore. But was she ready for him to move away and leave her fully responsible for the kids?
"It's a fantastic opportunity," he continued. "They want me to lead a new team over there. It'd be years before I get the same chance here in Sydney, if at all. Charlotte and I have discussed it, Jackie. We both want to go. And we want to take Ethan and Emma with us."
Jackie had been with him up until that last sentence. It was a shock, but in the back of her mind she'd already been trying to figure out how to make it work on her own. But… what the fuck?
"How do you think you're going to take them with you? What does that even mean? Their home is here, Marcus. I'm their mother. You can't just take them away. How are you planning to do that?"
"Can we sit down?" He tried to take her arm, but she pulled away.
"No, I don't want to sit down. I want you to tell me how you plan to take my children away from me."
As if to piss her off even more, Marcus calmly pulled a stool out from under the kitchen bench and sat. He pulled a second one out, and indicated for her to join him.
"I said I don't want to bloody well sit down." She swiped at the stool, knocking it over.
"Jackie, calm down. This isn't going to get us anywhere."
She could wring his neck. Instead, she picked up the stool and sat down. "Happy? Now, start talking."
"Charlotte and I—"
"For fuck's sake, Marcus, I couldn't care less about Charlotte and you. Stop saying that. Fuck Charlotte. Ethan and Emma are all I care about. Talk to me about my children."
"Jesus, Jackie. She's my wife. She's about to have my child. I want us to be a family. Charlotte and I, the new baby, and Ethan and Emma. The five of us can make a family, we can make a life together in Perth. They can come back here for school holidays, you can have them for Christmas and Easter every year if you want. But think about them for a minute. You're not holding it together here, Jack. You're not looking after them. Let me do that for you. Let me take the burden."
"Burden? Are you fucking serious? They're my children, Marcus. My flesh and blood. They'll never be a burden, and I'll never let you take them away from me." She threw the paper cup into the sink. The lid popped off, and the remainder of the now-cold coffee splashed around the basin. She picked up the bag with the danish and thrust it at his chest. "What did you think? You'd come in here with coffee and pastries and we'd have a civilised conversation about you ripping my heart out?"
He shrugged. "I'd hoped for the civilised part, yes."
Jackie laughed. "How long were we married? Twelve years? You don't know me at all."
"I know enough." He was still on the kitchen stool, sipping from his own cup. He put it down and reached into the paper bag for the second danish. "You're sure you don't want this?" He didn't wait for an answer, but kept his eyes locked on hers as he sank his teeth into the pastry. "You know, I came here to ask you reasonably to consider this opportunity for our kids. To think about them, for a change. I'm going to leave it with you for a few days. Think it over, Jackie. You don't want to fight me on this."
"What's that supposed to mean? There's nothing for me to think over. The answer's no, end of story."
Marcus smiled the smile she hated. The one where the corner of his mouth turned up and a puff of air came out of his mouth, as if to say 'think what you want, but we'll be doing things my way'. The smile she'd seen countless times in the twelve years she spent married to him.
He screwed up the paper bag and threw it in her bin. "It's not the end, Jack. It's just the beginning."
5
"Just take a seat, sir. The doctor will be with you as soon as possible."
"How long's that going to be? I have to be somewhere, you know."
"I know, sir, but as you can see the emergency room
is very busy today. If you'll just take a seat…" Jackie gave him the well-worn look she reserved for her regular customers. She knew exactly where this one 'had to be', and she quite frankly couldn't care less whether he made it to the TAB to put his bet on in time or not. She knew he was only here to see whether he could convince a doctor to give him narcotics, and she also knew none of them would and she'd have to call security to make sure the man left without too much fuss. It was a regular occurrence, but there was nothing she could do about it. Everyone had a right to be treated, even if their ailment was imaginary.
The man finally took a seat in the waiting room, his stench following him and making a couple of patients nearby curl their noses. One got up and moved, but the other must have decided his position in front of the television was too good to give up. A third was too wrapped up in the pain of her broken arm to even notice.
"You on break yet?" asked Tim, another of the triage nurses.
"Not for another hour. Why?"
"No offence, honey, but you look like shit. I was going to suggest you get some fresh air."
It was a fair comment. Jackie hadn't slept a wink last night after Marcus's little announcement. She'd spent hours online, trying to find out what rights she had to stop him from taking the children away. They'd gone through lawyers when they'd divorced, of course, but as the split was amicable and they'd both readily agreed to shared custody, she hadn't taken much notice of the legalities surrounding disputed custody.
Once she'd calmed down from the initial shock of it all, she'd been reasonably comfortable that Marcus had no right to take the children to another part of the country without her approval. And she certainly wasn't going to approve. But after delving deeper and reading some horror stories from parents in similar situations, she wasn't so sure. She knew she hadn't been mother of the year since Lachlan died, and forgetting Emma the other day was unforgivable. Could Marcus use that stuff against her?
The Dark Series Page 66