They grabbed a quick sandwich then busied themselves with the rest of the files for the next hour, Cooper spending much of the time thinking about Oscar. Shoplifting, carrying a knife. Cooper thought back to his own childhood. Bullying had certainly existed back then; kids who were different always copped a fair bit of flack. He couldn't remember being a victim himself, but at least he wasn't a perpetrator. In hindsight he did turn a blind eye, though, so maybe that made him no better than the bullies themselves.
Was there a bullying angle to this crime? Or was it just coincidence that two of the victims were bullies, and Cooper's suspect was a bullying victim? They didn't have enough to be able to answer that. Not yet.
Flynn Anderson and Meg Baxter finally came back from conducting interviews at Preston High, so Cooper called the tech team up for an informal afternoon briefing. They arranged themselves around the big conference table kept in the middle of the open-plan office, and got Max on speakerphone. Cooper stood at the head of the table next to the whiteboard he'd wheeled over from beside his desk.
"Where's Zach?" he asked, seeing that only Nora had come up from downstairs.
"He's in the middle of something, says it might be important. He'll be up as soon as he can," replied Nora.
Cooper nodded, then started the briefing by explaining what he'd found on Oscar White. "Did you get anything on him from the school?" he asked Flynn and Meg.
"Nora emailed me the list of Michelle Medler's favourite kids to pick on, and he was one of them," said Meg. "We interviewed him, but didn't get much out of him. Same with the rest of the kids. Although she didn't go to their school, a lot of them were aware of Michelle. They all knew she was Jensen Morris's cousin. A few felt sorry for her because of that, or at least they said they did initially. But when she started lashing out at other kids, even her friends by some reports, she alienated herself pretty quickly."
"So we can confirm she was a bully," said Cooper. He underlined the word next to her picture on the whiteboard. "What about Lachlan Rose? What did the kids have to say about him?"
"He's a different story," said Flynn. "Couldn't find anyone with a bad word to say about him. Everyone's favourite kid, apparently. Even the teachers were full of praise. Good student, happy, well-adjusted, friends with everyone."
"Sounds a bit too good to be true," said Nora.
"Yeah, maybe," agreed Quinn.
"I don't think so," said Meg. "Everyone seemed genuinely upset that he was gone. There were more than a few tears. Teachers included."
Cooper picked up the whiteboard marker again and wrote the words 'well liked' underneath Lachlan's picture. "Anything else? Any of the other kids on Michelle's hate list jump out at you?"
"There were only a couple from Preston High. Most were from Haberfield, where she went," said Flynn. "But we spoke to them all over the last couple of days, Coop, and I gotta tell you I don't think any of them had anything to do with this."
"We did get something useful from the teachers, though," added Meg. "There's a possible connection between a local football coach and all three victims."
This was interesting. "Go on," said Cooper.
"This guy, his name's Rod Kelsey, he's an assistant coach and part-time talent scout for the Rangers rugby league team. He'd apparently been courting both Lachlan Rose and Jamie Brennan, wanting them to join the junior squad."
"What about Michelle? Where does she fit in?"
"Michelle Medler's math teacher told us she'd been seeing a tutor to help get her grades up. The tutor's name is Rebecca Kelsey. We thought it was an unusual enough surname so we checked it out, and sure enough, Rebecca is Rod's daughter. Michelle went to his house for the tutoring sessions, so there's a big chance he knew her as well."
20
Jackie searched the shit drawer in the kitchen for a bus timetable. Marcus had agreed to have lunch with her, and parking in the city was a nightmare. She didn't feel up to driving today anyway, and besides, she found the process of working out the bus routes and times and finding her way on public transport was a decent distraction. She forced herself to spend the time on the bus as she used to when it was her regular commuting method: scrutinising the faces of her fellow travellers and trying to fill in their backstory, to work out who they were, or who they could be. Her heart wasn't really in it, though, and she kept coming back to Lachlan.
She'd been right, Charlie said. Lachlan didn't kill himself. He didn't leave them. He didn't climb up on that stool and hang a noose around his own neck. Someone had done it for him. Jackie had thought about it these past eight weeks, ever since Ethan had found him like that. Even though she didn't believe it — couldn't believe it — part of her had wondered what had gone through Lachlan's head as he prepared to do it. What was he thinking when he climbed up there, when he put the rope around his neck? Now that she knew he hadn't done it, a whole new set of questions begged to be answered.
How? How had someone managed to overpower her strapping lad enough to get him up there? They'd forced him to do it, obviously. But how? And what had been going through his mind? Her poor son, her baby, with everything to live for, and someone doing something so horrible to him to make him get up there and do that. Tears made their way silently down her cheeks.
Jackie fished a tissue out of her bag and wiped her eyes, her public transport face now firmly in place as she stared out the window of the bus. Her stop approached and she reached up to push the button. The man beside her stood to let her out, trying not to look her in the eye as he did so lest he suddenly found himself having to comfort a total stranger.
It was five minutes past their scheduled meeting time when Jackie reached the cafe near his work, and Marcus was already seated.
"Do you know what you want?" he asked, handing her the menu before calling a waitress over.
"I'll just have a Caesar salad. I'm not very hungry."
"One Caesar salad, and I'll have your burger, thanks. Just on its own, no chips." Jackie noticed he subconsciously patted his stomach as he handed the menu to the waitress. "Also a Peroni, and…" he waited for Jackie to choose a drink.
"Water, please." She didn't want to drink in front of Marcus, but then again, how else was she going to get through this lunch? "Actually, can you bring me a glass of white wine? A Sav Blanc will do." She didn't miss the half smile cross Marcus's lips.
"So, what's this about? I've only got half an hour before I'm due in a meeting."
"It's about Lachlan, Marcus." She came straight out with it. "I was right."
The waitress came over and delivered their drinks, placing cutlery and napkins on the table. When she left, Marcus started fiddling with a knife, not looking at her.
"What do you mean, you were right? Right about what?"
"Jesus, do you ever listen to anything I say? Lachlan was murdered. I've been trying to tell you for two months that he didn't kill himself. And I was right. The police have evidence. Lachlan was murdered."
Marcus put the knife down, carefully lining both it and his fork up so they were exactly perpendicular to the edge of the table. He still wouldn't look at her. "What evidence?"
Jackie explained her two meetings with Charlie Cooper last night and this morning, telling Marcus everything he'd told her. She described the toy butterfly.
"You didn't give that to Emma, did you?"
"No, I don't remember ever seeing anything like that." He rested an elbow on the table and rubbed his hand across his forehead, finally dropping his eyes to hers. "Are they really sure? Murder?"
"Charlie seems sure. They're investigating now, following up leads. He wouldn't tell me what."
"Jesus."
They sat in silence until the food arrived, and then neither of them was interested in eating. Jackie took a sip of her wine, and left her hand resting around the stem of the glass. She fingered the cool condensation running down the outside.
"How do we deal with something like this, Marcus?" she finally asked.
He picked up his k
nife and cut the burger in half. "We let the police do their jobs, I suppose." He picked up one half of the burger and took a big bite. Beetroot juice ran down his little finger, and Jackie watched it track its way to his sleeve. In another life she'd have picked up a napkin and stopped it from ruining his shirt, knowing how much he hated stains, but today all she could do was watch.
"Shit," he said, when he finally noticed and grabbed a napkin. He was too late, though, and the red colour seeped into his shirt sleeve.
"It'll come out," she said, as if it mattered.
He put down the burger and swilled the last of his beer. "Have you given any thought to what we discussed the other day?" he asked.
"What?" She wasn't sure what he meant.
"Perth."
"Are you serious? I just told you Lachlan was murdered, and all you can think about is taking the two children I have left away from me?" She couldn't believe how callous he was.
"The timing's bad, I know," he said, picking up the bloody burger again. "But Lachlan's gone, and this isn't something I can put off for much longer. I need to tell them whether I want to go or not in the next few weeks. I really want this, Jackie. So does Charlotte."
"And what about what I want? Where do I fit into your little equation, there?"
He took another bite and spoke with his mouth half full. "I told you, you can have them every school holidays."
"So you practically get full custody, except for when they're home from school and it doesn't suit you to have them around. I'd be your school holiday babysitter, is that it?"
"That's not what I meant."
"It's exactly what you meant. You have no idea what I'm going through, Marcus. If you did you couldn't possibly be considering going anywhere. Don't you want to know what happened to Lachlan? Don't you care that someone is out there killing our kids?"
"Kids? I thought we were just talking about Lachlan?"
Isn't that enough? "No. There's more." She told him about the other two victims, including Jan Brennan's son. She told him how Jan wasn't very happy to hear what she had to say.
"I can't really say I blame her, Jackie."
What do you mean?"
"Well, she had this picture of what happened to her son, this reality, however bad it was. It was terrible, but it was her truth, and she'd spent four months dealing with it. Then you come along and try to tell her she's wrong, that everything she knows about the son she loved is wrong. It's only natural she's going to get defensive about that."
Jackie couldn't understand. She picked up her wine glass but it was empty.
"Do you want another one?" Marcus asked.
"I thought you had a meeting to rush off to."
"I think this is more important." He signalled the waitress for two more drinks, not waiting for Jackie to answer. Then he pulled his phone out of his pocket and asked his secretary to delay the meeting. "There, now we've got more time."
"It's always the same with you," she said. "You just pick up your phone and fix it. Well you can't fix this, Marcus. Lachlan is dead."
He reached a hand across the table, but she pulled away from him. Their drinks arrived, and she wrapped both hands around her glass and took a large gulp of wine.
"That's not going to help, either," he said.
"What? I didn't drive. And besides, you just ordered it for me without waiting to see if I wanted it."
"I didn't have to."
Jackie remembered the kids. She took out her own phone and sent a text to Ethan, telling him to pick Emma up from school and take her home. She wasn't going to be able to pick them up as she'd promised, and Emma was going to be upset. But it couldn't be helped. She obviously needed to sort things out with Marcus. She tried again.
"How are you going to see this thing with Lachlan through if you're on the other side of the country?" she asked.
"We have phones, Jackie. Internet. I can keep up with it all from over there just as easily as I can from here. It's the kids I'm worried about. Don't you think they'd be better off out of it? This is going to be a very public case once word gets out that the police are looking for a serial killer. Do you really think that's the best environment for Ethan and Emma? Constantly reminded of their brother's death? Of the fact that someone killed him?"
He had a point. But still, she couldn't just let him take them away. "They're smart kids, Marcus. They'll cope. They'll know about it anyway, Perth's not that far away."
"It's far enough that they won't have to worry about seeing it on the news every night of the week." He finished off the last mouthful of burger, washing it down with more beer. "I don't know if you're aware, but Ethan's been having some trouble at school." He wiped his hands and face on a fresh napkin and then folded it neatly on his plate. He looked up at her, challenging her, wanting to know if she really knew everything that was going on with her son.
"I'm aware of his problems," she said. "We spoke about it the other night. He's going to speak to the teachers at school."
"And what about this Oscar kid? I think he's a bad influence."
Jackie hadn't told Marcus about the shoplifting. She'd been going to, but now she was worried that he'd turn it around and use it against her in court, if it came to that. She wouldn't put it past him to use anything to prove she was a bad mother.
"I'm working on that. I don't necessarily think Oscar's a bad influence. I just think he's been having trouble adjusting to his new environment. His parents are pretty absent, which doesn't help. I think Ethan's a good influence on him, which is good for Ethan as well."
"Well I don't agree." Marcus signalled to the waitress for the bill. "Listen, Jackie, you should know that Charlotte and I are serious about Perth, and we're serious about taking Ethan and Emma with us. You can either agree and see them every school holidays, or you can fight us in court. Either way, this is happening, and it's happening soon."
The waitress brought the bill, and Marcus left enough money on the table to cover it. "I'm sorry about Lachlan. I can't believe this has happened. But my responsibility now is to Ethan and Emma. They're the ones I want to protect, Jackie. Surely you can understand that?"
She watched him walk away before calling the waitress over and ordering another glass of wine.
21
Cooper swung by the technical lab on the way to his own desk. He found Zach with three laptops lined up in front of him.
"You got anything?" Cooper asked as he approached.
"One cyber bully, one very active gamer, and one not so active gamer. That's the summary, Coop."
"Let me guess — Michelle was the bully, Jamie the active gamer, and Lachlan the part-timer."
"You got it."
"And there's nothing else their online presence can tell me that might help with the case?" Cooper was frustrated.
"I've printed out lists of all their associates so you can cross-reference them, see if there's anyone in common. I gave Anderson and Baxter the list of Michelle's bullying victims. I believe they've gone back to Haberfield High today to talk specifically to the kids on the list there. None of the three bought much online, kids their age don't tend to have credit cards. They use their devices for socialising and doing school work."
Cooper pulled up a stool and perched himself on it. "So did they do their school work?"
"It seems so. Michelle was a good student, by the looks of it, despite her nastiness. So was Lachlan. Jamie spent more time gaming than studying, but that's not unusual for a kid his age."
"Have you sent a summary to Max?"
"Yeah, and we had a chat about it last night. He wants you to give him a call."
Cooper nodded, and slapped Zach gently on the back. "Thanks," he said, getting off the stool and heading up to Homicide.
Saunders caught him as he walked past the senior sergeant's office. "Coop, you got a minute?"
Cooper went in and closed the door. "What's up?"
"I haven't been briefed on the suicides case yet. Where are you up to?"
&nbs
p; "We've got a couple of leads. There's a football coach who had ties to all three victims, so we're going to check him out today. There's also a bunch of other possible victims. We've got interviews lined up with the parents over the next couple of days. The most interesting is Sia Longhurst. We've got an appointment to speak to her father in about an hour." Cooper looked at his watch as he said this.
"That all?"
"There is one more thing. It seems two of the three victims were bullies. We're looking into whether that might be a motive for someone. Anderson and Baxter are covering the victims. One of them is a kid with a record and a history of being bullied. He's friends with the third victim's brother. Might be he had enough of being picked on."
"Okay, sounds good. Keep me informed. I don't want to have to ask next time."
Cooper rolled his eyes as he turned around to leave.
"One more thing — how's Quinn working out for you?"
Cooper shrugged. "He's fine, no problems."
"As good as Stockton?"
Cooper stiffened at the name of his old partner. "What's that got to do with anything?" Saunders was a prick for bringing up Stocky, and the smile on his face told Cooper he knew exactly what he was doing.
"Just wondering. Stockton was a good guy."
"He still is. That all?"
"For now." Cooper turned to leave again. "Keep me in the loop."
Cooper was seething by the time he got to his own desk. Saunders had no right to even mention Russell Stockton, not after what had happened.
"Everything okay, boss?" Quinn placed a takeaway coffee in front of his partner.
"Yeah, all good. Thanks for this." Cooper took the lid off and sipped at the hot liquid. "Did you check into the toy butterfly? Find out where they're sold?"
The Dark Series Page 75