The Witness, page 21
‘Not true,’ Molly said.
Angie thought about her words and everything that had happened to Molly. ‘Sorry, that was insensitive. You’re right. Still the offer is there.’
‘I think that’s a good idea,’ Jack agreed.
Angie glanced back to Jack. She could almost hear the imaginary clock ticking while Molly made up her mind.
But it didn’t take long before Molly nodded. ‘Thanks, Angie, that’s very kind of you. I’d like that.’
‘Right, let’s head off,’ Jack said, standing. He let Molly go in front of him, then the two police officers walked out together. Jack leaned his head close to Angie’s ear. ‘Make sure you keep an eye on her. I’ll pull an all-nighter and see what I can find.’
‘Be careful,’ she said. ‘The system might have flags on some of the people you’re going to be looking at.’
CHAPTER 26
‘Tim! What are you doing here this late?’ Jack put his cup on the desk and sat down across from his colleague.
‘I had an idea and wanted to check it out,’ Tim said. ‘So far, I haven’t found what I’m looking for.’
‘And what’s that?’
‘The route the rental car took when it was driven back to Perth. We know it was returned, but there’s no footage of it on the highway. I’ve been back through about four hours’ worth of footage from cameras on the highway, and there’s no sign of it.’
‘There’s only one way back.’
‘Well, if you want to take the quickest way, that’s true. But there are others. Back roads. For at least half the journey,’
Jack leaned back in his chair. ‘So where are you looking?’
‘I’m about to start looking south. There’s the BP on the edge of town and then there are cameras along the highway. If I can track the vehicle to Norseman then we know she’s gone to Esperance and back to Perth that way. If I track her to that roadhouse near the turn-off to Kalgoorlie, she might have taken the dirt road through to Hyden and back that way. And I don’t know about you’ – he tapped his pen on the desk – ‘but I would find it slightly suspicious if she’s taken a sedan on a backtrack dirt road.’
Jack grunted. ‘What about all the tourists we have to rescue who go on roads they shouldn’t?’
Tim laughed. ‘True. There’s something else on my mind, though. I’ve gone back to check the Southern Cross service station footage again and the rental car leaves before Eric and Iris. So maybe . . .’ He paused and rubbed his eyes. ‘Maybe it’s got nothing to do with them at all. But I can’t help feeling this is all connected. I think this woman knew what she was doing.’
Jack put his feet on his desk, nodding. ‘Okay.’ He paused, then lowered his voice. ‘This might be an odd question, but what do you know about Martin?’
Tim looked up from the video he was watching, then paused it. ‘I guess there’s a reason for that question. Good cop, he’s been here for a long time. Fair as a boss. All round good bloke. Why do you ask, Grasshopper?’
‘Well, if this is to be believed – and we have to verify that it’s genuine’ – he held up the photocopied pages of the notebook – ‘then it appears he was one of the first constables on the scene of Sammi Walker’s murder.’
‘Sammi Walk— As in Molly’s mother?’
‘The one and only. This diary belonged to one of the detectives.’
‘Where the hell did you get that?’
‘Molly gave it to me. It sounds like this Jase Miller contacted Eric Bennett to let him know that he knew who murdered Sammi and was encouraging him to reinvestigate Sammi’s death. The guy posted it to him and Molly read it today.’
‘But Sammi Walker was murdered in New South Wales.’
‘Yes, she was.’
‘So Martin worked over east?’
‘He went to the academy over there.’
‘Nah, must be someone else with the same name,’ Tim said. ‘Martin would have told us if he was there. He knows we’re investigating Eric’s and Iris’s deaths.’
‘Only if he wanted us to know. He’s got a photo in his office of his class graduating from the academy and I have to say, in hindsight, when I first arrived in Kalgoorlie he was very interested in why I was shifting over, which makes sense because he knows how difficult it is to swap from state to state inside the force. All the extra training and everything. He knows through personal experience.’
Tim let out a low whistle.
Jack tapped at his keyboard. ‘If we couple this piece of information with the licence going missing from the Kal evidence room, and the tampering of evidence that Sammi Walker supposedly did, well . . .’ He shrugged. ‘Everything we’re talking about has to be kept under your hat.’
‘You’d better ring the super,’ Tim said. ‘She needs to come and get Molly and put her somewhere safe.’
‘Yeah, I will. But I want a bit more information before I do that.’
‘So, you’re sure Eric’s and Iris’s deaths are linked to Sammi’s?’
‘I don’t have any evidence yet, but yes, I think it’s safe to say that the deaths of Eric and Iris weren’t an accident. We have a person following very close behind them: someone who disabled the GPS of a rental car, gave a false driver’s licence and credit card, and now you can’t find her leaving Kal, or at least not going back down the highway. Disabling the GPS is more than suspicious. Then there are a lot of other coincidences . . . My old boss Dave Burrows always said there was nothing coincidental about anything. Then on Sammi’s side, her file is clearly missing information from the forensics report; anything related to the weapon used.’ He sighed. ‘And now there’s Martin at the scene.’ He tapped the file on the desk. ‘I’ll finish reading through this tonight and see what other surprises it holds. Hopefully none.’
‘And the super. She was there too.’
‘Yeah, and the superintendent, who is Molly’s godmother.’ He smiled. ‘Thank god she’s got Molly’s back. Because when we need to move on this, she’ll shift heaven and earth to make it happen yesterday. Have you heard anything about the photo that was going to be run through that AI program?’
‘Not yet. It’s so freaking annoying knowing the answer could be right there.’
‘What about the cameras from the rental place? Did they come through?’
‘Oh, that’s right, we were expecting them. No, I don’t think they have. Better ring them first thing in the morning.’
‘The guy I spoke to was going on holidays so it might’ve slipped through the cracks. And what happened with the officers who went to the smash repair place? That was happening today, wasn’t it?’
‘I had a call from them. They took a fingerprint kit and went over it, just in case. The inside of the car was clean, except for a few prints on the steering wheel. Probably from the detailing staff. They fingerprinted the employees so as to eliminate them. The car had already been cleaned and had the panels taken off so really it’s probably a waste of time, but who knows. After talking to the officers who went to look at the car, I sent them back to ask what was in the vehicle, if anything had been left behind. The bloke apparently said he’d never seen a returned car as clean as that one. Usually there’s dirt in the footwell, or crumbs from where people have eaten. There was nothing. He even commented to one of his colleagues that it was if it had been detailed before she brought it in.’
‘No receipts?’ Jack asked hopefully.
‘Now you’re dreaming while you’re awake,’ Tim said with a grin. ‘Have some more coffee.’
Jack scratched his head as he thought. ‘So why didn’t they go in and get the footage while they were there?’
‘Never mentioned it to them. I thought it was being emailed.’
‘Hmm. Send them back to get it and ask them to fingerprint the door handle on the driver’s side while they’re there. The underneath of it. I had a print there that broke a case open a few years ago.’ He flicked open the file in front of him and started to read, then looked up. ‘And while we’re at it, let’s see what we can find out about Martin’s work history.’
‘Clever. Leave it with me,’ Tim said, tapping at his keyboard.
Jack drew his own keyboard in closer, typed Martin’s name into the search engine and waited. ‘Ha, there’s a criminal in England with the same name. Killed five people over ten years.’
‘Be very unlikely for anyone not to have the same name as someone else!’
Jack didn’t answer and he continued to scroll, looking for a link to the Martin who was in their police station. A few minutes later he sighed. ‘Yeah, I’ll leave it with you. Nothing on Google that’s quick to see.’ He went back to Sammi’s file and leafed through it, looking for Molly’s statement.
‘It’s not surprising that they couldn’t find any sign of another person at the scene,’ Jack said after a while.
‘Why?’ Tim didn’t look up from his computer.
‘Well, according to Molly’s statement at the time, the killer only came a few feet inside the room. They didn’t say anything, just indicated for Sammi to get on the ground, shot her and left. Even closed the door afterwards. So . . .’ He got up and went to the door that led into their office. ‘Come here and pretend to be Sammi.’
Tim paused the footage he was watching and got up.
‘So . . .’ Jack took a photo from the file and looked at where Sammi’s body was in relation to the door. ‘She answered the door.’ He indicated for Tim to open the door. ‘And if the murderer came inside, then she would have stepped back.’
Tim took a step back and Jack stood in the doorway, pretending to be the intruder. ‘Molly said the person was holding something in their hand, which presumably was the gun, so perhaps they stood about . . . here. You agree?’
Tim nodded.
‘So then, Sammi is made to get on her knees – so she’s hardly away from the door. She’s shot . . . And really, the murderer has only been maybe two or three feet inside the door. If Molly’s statement is correct, they left straight afterwards. No wonder there’s no DNA or fingerprints. We have to look elsewhere. The neighbours, were they interviewed? How come no one heard anything?’
‘A suppressor,’ Tim suggested.
‘Yeah, and even though a suppressor would still make a bit of a noise, people might not realise what it was until later. After something like, you know, finding a body.’
‘When was she shot?’
‘Middle of the morning.’
‘Neighbours might be at work.’
‘Which would also mean no one would really see the killer come and go. Good. I’ll get back to the file.’
Tim sat at his desk and hit play again. ‘This really is like watching paint dry,’ he said.
‘Until you find what you’re looking for, then you get the adrenalin rush,’ Jack replied as he flipped through the photos of the crime scene. He stopped at one and brought it in closer. ‘Huh. There you go. Just like this.’ He handed the photo over to Tim.
‘Holy shit, is that . . . It is. That’s a young Martin.’
‘I think so.’
They looked at each other as the potential ramification of their finding stretched out between them. They could see the dominos falling.
‘Okay.’ Jack got back to business. ‘So that’s confirmation he was there, but I still want to talk to this detective and get Martin’s history.’
Tim turned back to his computer, while Jack took a sip of coffee and stretched. He could feel momentum beginning to build. They still needed more pieces of the jigsaw puzzle, but he was starting to see the picture. He put the photo of Martin on his desk and assessed it again. A fresh-faced man with an easy smile. The years and work in the force had hardened Martin, that was clear. He left the photo out to the side then flipped to the next page and started to read again.
‘Jack.’ Tim’s tone had changed. ‘Jack, I’ve found the car. Fucking finally. Heading south. Look here. It’s at Widgiemooltha. That little roadhouse. She’s turned off to the west. There’s definitely something dodgy going on to be heading that way.’
‘Pictures of the driver?’
‘No, just numberplate. Although I can see the hands on the steering wheel. Female. This is from the stationary cameras on the road. Just let me pull up Hyden’s now.’ He fiddled around and flicked back through days and found the right time. ‘Give it half an hour’s grace, I suppose,’ he muttered. ‘Maybe an hour if the road was rough.’ The road stayed empty.
‘Not surprised,’ Jack said. ‘It is a back road. Probably doesn’t get a lot of traffic.’
‘Wait up, wait up. She’s coming, I’m sure . . . Here we are. You little freaking beauty!’ Tim jumped up and punched the air. ‘I just found a needle in a haystack,’ he said. ‘Here it is.’
Swinging the computer screen around, Jack saw the numberplate clearly. One hand on the wheel and then it was gone. ‘Good job,’ he said. ‘Can you see any damage on the car?’
‘I’ll have to find the servo cameras for that, if she stopped. But that’s how she went back to Perth.’
‘If I was a defence lawyer, I’d say that was purely coincidence and she didn’t have to take the highway back to Perth. Scenic tour. Perhaps she was looking for wildflowers.’
‘Well, thank god you’re not one of those,’ Tim said. ‘But I hear you.’
Jack started to pace the room. ‘Look, I think we need to get Molly out of Kalgoorlie. I’m probably overreacting, but if we are going to keep pushing here – whoever this woman is, and whatever Martin’s connection is – we need to make sure Molly doesn’t get in the firing line.’
‘I agree.’
Jack looked at his watch. ‘I’m going to call the super in the morning and get her to put Molly in protection.’
‘How do you think Molly is going to like that?’ Tim asked.
‘Hopefully a whole lot better than being dead.’
CHAPTER 27
Angie couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something wrong. She’d woken up and instantly flown into Charlie’s room to check on him, but he was sleeping soundly, his mouth sucking in and out. The noises from the kitchen were the new normal sounds since her father had come to stay. She bumped into Molly in the doorway.
‘I need to go back home and feed Life this morning,’ Molly said, dressed in a borrowed T-shirt and shorts.
‘Who’s Life?’ Todd asked as he poured hot water from the kettle into a mug and stirred in some milk, before handing the coffee to Molly.
‘Mum’s rescue crow. She saved him from the side of the road. We were never sure what happened to him, but he had a broken wing. Mum nursed him back to health and then he wouldn’t leave.’
‘Smart bird,’ Todd said with a grin.
Angie heard Charlie cry out and she went to pick him up. If everything was so normal, why did she feel so edgy?
‘If we go back to your place,’ she said as she came back to the kitchen and sat down to feed Charlie, ‘then we can pack you a bag. You never know, you might need it. It’s always nicer to have your own things, don’t you think?’
‘Why do I need a bag?’
‘Just in case you stay here another night. Or maybe a couple. When I was working in Perth, I always kept a bag with some changes of clothes in it because we never knew where we were going to end up. We might have been called to Kal or Broome or anywhere, and often at a moment’s notice. Usually, it was “Quick! We’ve booked your ticket and the plane’s waiting!’” She kept her tone calm, as she reasoned with herself there was nothing to be anxious about.
Charlie started to fuss at her breast, so she detached him and put him over her shoulder, patting his back gently.
‘You must’ve had a really exciting life,’ Molly said.
‘Here, love, come and sit down. Don’t hold the doorway up,’ Todd said, pulling out a chair and indicating for Molly to sit.
‘Thanks.’
‘Yeah,’ Angie said reflectively. ‘It was exciting, but we were always so focused on what we had to do, I don’t know that I ever realised that when I was in the midst of it all.’
‘You love what you do.’ Molly smiled at Angie. ‘I can tell. Your face comes alive when you talk about being a detective.’
‘It’s one of my favourite things in the whole world. Who was it who said you’ll never work a day if you love your job? Well, that’s me.’
‘I feel like that about nursing. Especially being a midwife. I tried lots of other spots in the hospital when I was doing my general nursing, but none of them ever suited me like delivering babies. It’s a special thing to be involved in. When I realised that, I did my midwifery training and I’ve never looked back.’
Todd reached over Angie’s shoulder and took Charlie. ‘Go and have a shower, so you can take Molly back to her place,’ he said. ‘Look, it’s nine already. Rowdy and I have a date with the pram. We’re going to see that nice little puppy dog that lives on the corner of the street. Bit yappy, but Junior here always laughs when he sees it.’ He looked at her, indicating he knew something was amiss but that he wouldn’t ask about it in front of Molly.
‘Thanks, Dad.’ She nodded to let him know she was okay. ‘You’re fine with the plan, Molly?’
Molly nodded, taking another sip of coffee. She looked like she was trying hard not to cry. Todd’s gentleness and compassion probably reminded her of Eric.
Angie touched Molly’s shoulder on the way out of the room.
On her dressing table, she found a pile of neatly folded clean clothes and gave thanks to whoever was listening for the day her father had appeared at her door.
Ten minutes later, she was showered and dressed for work.
‘I’m not sure when I’ll be back,’ she told Todd, leaning down to kiss Charlie’s head. ‘There’s milk in the freezer.’
‘I’ve already taken some out to defrost. We’ll be here when you find your way home,’ he said. ‘Don’t stress.’
Angie lingered over Charlie for an extra second, resting her cheek against his head, letting him wrap his tiny fingers around one of hers. The pressure was beautiful. ‘Okay,’ Angie said, straightening up. ‘Let’s get this show on the road.’
