Mersey Murder Mysteries Collection

Chapter 28

Although he"d told Izzie Drake to arrange the operational conference for eight a.m. Andy Ross made sure he arrived at the station a half hour earlier. The two reasons for his early arrival followed him into the conference room soon after, and were closely followed by Drake, Ferris and McLennan, who may have been surprised to see two new faces in their midst, but waited for Ross to explain. After inviting all those present to be seated, Ross took up a position at the head of the grandly sounding, but actually quite functional and cheap wooden conference table, this being the city of Liverpool after all, not a gentlemen"s club in Mayfair. Various nods and quiet hellos were spoken and then, Ross gave a polite cough to catch everyone"s attention before speaking.

“Good morning, everyone,” he began. “As you can see, we have two new faces with us this morning. After my meeting with D.C.I. Porteous yesterday afternoon, and after he agreed that, as the local bad boys are not giving us too hard a time at present, he generously allotted us a little extra manpower. Let me introduce you to Detective Constables Nick Dodds and Samantha Gable.”

Another series of more formal welcomes and hellos followed and as silence fell once more, Ross continued.

“Nick comes to us from the burglary squad, and Sam has just completed a year working the vice squad. Both are experienced officers and I have to stress that, following my talk with the gaffer yesterday, he agrees there is more depth to this case than the original discovery of the skeletal remains suggested.”

Ross gave a brief resumé of the initial discovery of the remains at the wharf, mostly for the benefit of the newcomers, followed by a detailed run through on the interview he and Drake had conducted with Mickey and Ronnie Drake the previous day, ending with the confirmation of Brendan Kane"s identity from his dental records, miraculously still available after over thirty years, a lucky break if ever they needed one.

A soft knock at the conference room door followed, and the door opened to admit a well-dressed man in a grey pin-stripe suit, sporting a blue silk tie, aged somewhere in his forties. The man issued a brief apology for being late, and Ross quickly introduced the newcomer.

“Ah yes, no problem, George. Everyone, I"d like you all to meet George Thompson. George is the Headquarters" Press Liaison Officer. D.C.I. Porteous wants us to keep George in the loop on the case, now that it"s expanded beyond its original parameters. Seems there"s likely to be a fair bit of local interest in this one, with young Brendan Kane having been something of a relatively minor local celebrity among the growing rock and pop music fraternity in the early days of the sixties. Add in a young girl, his sweetheart, missing for over thirty years, and the boss wants George to be able to keep any press interest on track and avoid the force coming under any unduly harsh criticism for its handling of the case either then or now. Anything you"d like to add, George?”

Clearing his throat, George Thompson moved round the table to sit at the opposite end of the table to Ross.

“Just that it"s good to meet you all. I promise you that despite what you may hear sometimes, as PLO I"m here to act as a back up to the work you do, not to do anything that might hinder your investigation. I want to portray the force in a good light of course, but I also want to make sure that I can help the case wherever possible by passing sound bites or articles to the local and if necessary, the national press that might assist in your inquiries. Any appeals you guys want out there, I"ll be happy to put them together in a way that they look and sound good and reach the target audience. So please, don"t see me as a hindrance, but rather, use me and my expertise in my field as a useable asset in your approach to solving the case. As D.I. Ross just said, there is likely to be some media interest and it"s my job to deal with it, and to protect your backs from any mud slinging that might begin when the facts of the case come out. I"ll be putting out a press release in the next day or two, detailing the identification of Kane"s remains and the connection with the long-forgotten disappearance of a girl called Marie Doyle. Hopefully, it might jog a few memories and maybe bring in one or two pieces of useful information. That"s all for now, everyone, and thanks for listening to me.”

Ross in turn thanked Thompson for his time and invited him to remain in the meeting until its conclusion, so he could understand just what Ross and his team was initially trying to achieve. George Thompson sat listening as Ross brought the team planning conference towards its conclusion.

“There"s one other thing that arose as a result of the visit by the Doyle brothers yesterday. They still feel the police at the time of their original complaint failed to take the disappearance of Marie Doyle seriously enough and didn"t do enough to find her, and it would appear the officer in charge at the time was an Inspector Bernard Ledden, who just happens to still be with the force and is now a Detective Chief Superintendent, in charge of the Regional Drug Squad.”

After a few murmurs from those around the table, Ross continued.

“Yes, a potentially sensitive issue, as I"m sure you can appreciate. I can"t exactly go marching in to the office of a D.C.S and accuse him of failing in his duty thirty three years ago. The D.C.I has given me the go ahead to go and talk to Ledden, with the proviso I tread carefully and avoid making any unsubstantiated allegations of dereliction of duty towards him or his team at the time. I phoned yesterday and I"ve an appointment with D.C.S. Ledden later this morning. In the meantime, Sergeant Drake has obtained certain addresses of those people I need interviewing in connection with the two cases, which I now want us to regard as part and parcel of one, wider reaching case. I agree that coincidences happen, but the fact that Marie Doyle and Brendan Kane disappeared from sight at the same time all those years ago is just stretching coincidence too far. Ferris, you"re a good man on computers so I want you to be our case coordinator and collator, any and all information you all obtain comes back to Ferris who will keep me updated at all times. Spend an hour or so this morning setting up your case files while we"re out, okay?”

Nods of agreement from Ferris and the others followed and Ross then proceeded to hand out individual assignments.

“Sergeant Drake will visit Phillip Oxley this morning. Sam, I"d like to you visit the last known address we have for Marie"s former best friend, Clemency De Souza, and Nick, I want you to accompany Sergeant Drake and after interviewing Oxley, I want you to pay a call on James and Connie Doyle. I"d like to meet this old man myself but at present, it"s important we move swiftly to try and get a handle on exactly what we"re dealing with. If these two young people were simply a pair of runaways, I fail to see how Brendan Kane ended up with two bullet wounds in his knees and his head bashed in, and then, what the hell happened to Marie? We have questions that require answers, and I don"t care how long ago this all took place, as far as I"m concerned it"s an open murder inquiry, and we"re going to work hard at finding those answers. Everybody got that?”

Everyone gave more nods and words of agreement as Ross brought the case conference to a close. After sending his now expanded team off to deal with their allotted tasks, Ross made his way to conduct his interview with Detective Chief Constable Ledden.

“Detective Inspector Ross, pleased to meet you,” said D.C.S. Bernard Ledden, rising from behind his large, highly polished mahogany desk after Ross had been shown in to his office by Claire, his secretary. He offered an outstretched hand as he reached across his desk and the two men shook hands. Ross was impressed by his first impressions of the man. Tall, just over six feet, his uniform immaculately pressed and a face that seemed to exude a look of confidence born of many years experience in the job. There appeared to be no pomposity about the man, something Ross had seen in all too many officers of senior rank over the years.

“Please, sit,” said Ledden, gesturing to a large, comfortable looking leather upholstered chair to the left of his desk. Ross sat as requested, and realized the layout of the office; the positioning of the chair he sat in was intended not to intimidate Ledden"s visitors, but to put them more at ease with man. Sitting directly opposite from the Chief Superintendent would have increased any junior officer"s tension at such a meeting. As it was, Ledden was making Ross feel welcome, on a more equal footing than he actually occupied.

“D.C.I. Porteous spoke very highly of you when he phoned me yesterday. Apparently you have some questions to put to me about a case I may have been involved in back in my days as an inspector?”

“That"s correct, sir. It"s about a missing persons case from thirty three years ago, one that we"ve only just tied to the murder of a young man whose remains were recently discovered in a dried up part of the river bed beside an old wharf undergoing redevelopment.”

“Ah, yes, I saw something about that case in the Echo, and then caught something about it in a recent newsletter that landed on my desk. Please, tell me how you believe I can be of help in your investigation.”

With Porteous"s words about being diplomatic and non-confrontational ringing in his ears, Ross first passed the Chief Superintendent a file containing the pertinent facts of both cases and then tried, in the best way he could, to lay out the case before the D.C.S as briefly as possible, knowing that senior officers such as Ledden appreciated brevity and keeping to the point. When he"d finished, he breathed a sigh a relief and waited as Ledden assimilated the information Ross had presented to him, both verbally and in print.

After what felt like an age, but was only about a minute, during which Ross barely drew a breath, Chief Superintendent Ledden looked up, closed the file on his desk, and delivered his reply.

“Well, you"ve certainly painted quite a picture here, Inspector. From a pile of old bones barely two weeks ago to an unsolved murder, an identified victim and a girl missing for over thirty years, really quite something. You and your team have done well.”

“Thank you sir. My team will be pleased to hear that.”

“It"s true. A lot of officers wouldn"t have put such effort into a case like this and would have left it on the unsolved pile rather than go digging like this, but that shows what a diligent police officer you are. Now, as for the Marie Doyle case, there"s not a lot I can really tell you. Yes, Bob Carson was a sergeant under my command, and he was a good man in his younger days, though he did kind of let things slide a bit as he moved towards retirement, as I recall. He was tenacious in his own way though, and from what these two brothers have told you, he appears to have ticked all the boxes, without going too far beyond the basics. I won"t knock him for that, Inspector, as I don"t honestly recall the case, but if he"d thought there was a case to investigate at the time, and he"d recommended further investigation to me, I would have given the go-ahead, I can assure you. My God, there were so many cases that fell under my purview in those days, and if I had any knowledge of this Marie Doyle, I"d share it with you, please have no doubt about that, but thirty three years is a long time, Inspector.”

“Yes, sir, I do understand that. I wasn"t expecting miracles but I hope you understand why I needed to at least ask if you had any memory of the case?”

“Of course, and credit to you for making the effort. Anything else I can help you with, while you"re here, Inspector?”

“One question, sir. Would you happen to know if Sergeant Carson is still alive? It might help if I could talk to him, maybe jog his memory and see if he can remember something that might help me.”

Ledden slowly shook his head and a grave look crossed his face before he replied.

“I"m sorry, Ross, but Carson died about three years after he retired. Bloody tragic. Just beginning to enjoy some quality time with his wife and they took a holiday in Thailand, I think it was and he picked up some heinous tropical disease. Poor chap died within two weeks of returning to the UK. I attended his funeral. Poor Emma, his wife was totally devastated I can tell you.”

“Well, sir, thank you for being honest with me and for giving up your time. I know you"re a very busy man.”

“Not a problem, Inspector Ross. Listen, let me tell you something. I"ve been a police officer in this city almost all my working life. I joined the old Liverpool City Police as a probationary constable when I was twenty years old, and by the time the force was amalgamated with the Bootle Borough Police in nineteen sixty-seven, I"d made it to Inspector. Liverpool and Bootle didn"t last long, Ross, and in nineteen seventy-four, the powers that be decided to change things again, and took large slices of the old Cheshire and Lancashire Constabularies to form what we have now, under this grand title we have of Merseyside Police. You probably know the history of the force from your own time with the force, but my point is that over all those years, and through all the reorganizations and amalgamations, I"ve seen a lot of good coppers come and go and known a few bent ones in my time. I have never allowed a bent copper to escape if it was in my power to do something about it and the same thing goes for any officer who didn"t apply due diligence and professionalism to any inquiry. Bob Carson was neither bent, nor unprofessional, despite what these two brothers have intimated in their statement. The worst accusation you could have made against him was that he slowed down a little as retirement approached, and that is something that applies to many long-serving uniformed officers, as I"m sure you"re aware. Now, having said that, I"m only sorry I couldn"t be of more help to you, but I do wish you good luck in your efforts to try and solve this one. It would be quite a feather in your cap if you could solve a thirty-three year old murder and disappearance at the same time. I"ll keep a watching brief on your progress, and wish you the best of luck.”

Knowing the meeting had reached its natural ending, Ross stood and prepared to leave the Chief Superintendent"s office. Ledden also stood and walked around the large mahogany desk, and stood facing Ross as he first shook his hand warmly and then passed the file Ross had brought, back to him, adding a few parting words before allowing Ross to depart.

“I know you probably thought you"d find evidence of a failed or botched investigation, Ross, but believe me, Bob Carson might not have been "Columbo", but he wouldn"t have let the case of a missing girl slip past him if he"d thought there was anything sinister going on. He was a husband and father himself you know, and he must have genuinely believed this girl had simply run off with her boyfriend. Have you found anything that suggests otherwise in your new investigation, so far?”

"Columbo"“No, sir, we haven"t, and I wasn"t insinuating anything untoward had taken place in the original investigation. But, I did want to know if everything that could have been done, was done. I hope you understand my reasoning.”

“I do, Inspector, and I appreciate you being candid with me. Your honesty is refreshing. There are too many "yes men" around nowadays. Now, go catch yourself a murderer, if you can after all this time, and if you do find what happened to the girl, as it was my case once upon a time, please do me the courtesy of letting me know.”

“I will, sir, and thanks again for seeing me,” said Ross as he took his leave of the Detective Chief Superintendent.

A sense of relief washed over Andy Ross as he sat behind his desk, back in his own office once again. Being in the rarefied atmosphere of the office of one of the upper echelon of the city"s senior officers had made Ross slightly uncomfortable. D.C.S. Ledden had come across as far more "human" than Ross had expected and had seemed to be open and honest with him. Yes, it had been over thirty years since the Marie Doyle investigation, and it was true that Ledden must have overseen thousands of cases in his years on the force, so Ross agreed in his mind that it had been impractical to expect the man to remember each and every one that landed on his desk. However, he did feel that more could have been done on the original inquiry and that Ledden himself, as the inspector in charge at the time, could have pushed Carson to take his inquiries further. Perhaps, he surmised, they had other, more pressing cases on their books at the time, cases with identifiable victims and perpetrators, or with more at stake either personally or financially for those involved. Whether that excused a slight lack of application to the Doyle case, he couldn"t truly decide. After all, he"d have had to be there at the time to make such a judgement. For now, he knew he had to accept Ledden"s word for things, and press on with his own inquiry.

Knowing his own ineptitude at remembering important family dates, he immediately picked up the phone, making a call to Maria"s favourite restaurant and reserving a table for two for the night of her special day. A second call to the florists also ensured a delivery of red roses in the late afternoon of her birthday. He"d already checked and knew she"d be working the early shift at the surgery that day. The similarity in Christian names drew his thoughts back to Marie Doyle. Somehow, the two Doyle brothers and their story had touched Ross in a way he"d never have expected. Over thirty years had passed and yet her brothers had never given up hope of finding out what had happened to their little sister. Such loyalty, Ross had inwardly decided, deserved rewarding and if he hadn"t already done so, he now made himself a mental promise that, one way or another, he"d do everything possible to achieve a result, to find not only the murderer of the young Brendan Kane, but also to discover exactly what fate had befallen Marie Doyle.

His reverie was interrupted by a knock on his half open door, followed by the appearance of the Press Liaison Officer, George Thompson, who entered the office, briefcase in hand.

“Got a minute, Andy?” Thompson asked.

“Sure, George. What can I do for you?” Ross replied.

“I"ve composed a new press release, and wanted to let you read and comment on it and suggest any changes you feel may be appropriate before I let it out to the newshounds,”

Having worked with Thompson on a couple of previous occasions, one of the things Ross liked about the man was that, unlike some P.L.Os, George Thompson never lost sight of the fact he was part of a team, and whatever he did could have a major bearing on the results of any inquiry he became involved with. The man was devoid of what Ross saw as the curse of many a Press Officer, that being a sense of self-importance that could lead to conflict with the investigating officers. In short, he rather liked the man.

“Thanks, George. I appreciate that. Let"s see what you"ve got for me then.”

George Thompson opened his slim leather briefcase, slowly removed a sheet of A4 sized paper and passed the printed, proposed Press Release to Ross.

“Sit down for a minute, won"t you, while I read through it, George?”

Thompson sat in the chair in front of Ross"s desk and remained silent as Ross read:

"Skeleton Identified, - Police Seek Missing Woman!"

Skeleton Identified, - Police Seek Missing Woman!Following the recent discovery of the skeletal remains of a young man in the river bed adjacent to a dried up, disused warehouse in the old docklands area of the city, Merseyside Police have now been able to positively identify the remains as being those of twenty one year old Brendan Kane, a one-time musician and book store worker in the city. It is known that Mr. Kane, once the lead singer and a guitarist with the early sixties pop group, Brendan Kane and the Planets, had planned to leave the city together with his girlfriend, twenty year old Marie Doyle, in the summer or autumn of nineteen sixty-six. Pathologists have determined that Mr. Kane was the victim of a vicious attack prior to his body being deposited in what, at the time would have been a watery grave in the Mersey, close to the disused Coles" Wharf, in the old docklands area of the city. Miss Doyle is reported as having disappeared either simultaneously with the murder of Mr. Kane or at some time close to his death and has not been seen or heard from since that time. Anyone with information they feel might assist the police in this inquiry should contact Merseyside Police on… (phone numbers).

Following the recent discovery of the skeletal remains of a young man in the river bed adjacent to a dried up, disused warehouse in the old docklands area of the city, Merseyside Police have now been able to positively identify the remains as being those of twenty one year old Brendan Kane, a one-time musician and book store worker in the city. It is known that Mr. Kane, once the lead singer and a guitarist with the early sixties pop group, Brendan Kane and the Planets, had planned to leave the city together with his girlfriend, twenty year old Marie Doyle, in the summer or autumn of nineteen sixty-six. Pathologists have determined that Mr. Kane was the victim of a vicious attack prior to his body being deposited in what, at the time would have been a watery grave in the Mersey, close to the disused Coles" Wharf, in the old docklands area of the city. Miss Doyle is reported as having disappeared either simultaneously with the murder of Mr. Kane or at some time close to his death and has not been seen or heard from since that time. Anyone with information they feel might assist the police in this inquiry should contact Merseyside Police on… (phone numbers).“Looks good to me, George,” said Ross. “One small point though. Shouldn"t we be a little more specific regarding approximate dates and times etc? You know, try to get people to focus on what they were doing right about the time both people disappeared?”

“In my experience, Andy, it"s usually best not to be too date-specific with this type of appeal. If you try to pin people down to, for example, "between the dates of 10th-20th August, you tend to find they will mentally ignore anything that might have occurred before or after that time, but that may still be relevant to the inquiry. Better to be deliberately vague so that anyone who thinks they might have seen or heard something prior to, or after the time of the double disappearance, won"t be put off contacting us because they fear their information may not be relevant or important.”

“I see what you mean, George,” Ross replied, impressed with the Press Officer"s thought processes. “I"d never have thought of it like that. I"m glad we"ve got a real professional on the job.”

Thompson accepted the compliment gracefully.

“Just doing my job, Andy. I only hope it produces results for you and your team, though, after over thirty years, I wouldn"t be too optimistic. A lot of folks who may have been around then with any knowledge of your case could well be dead and buried by now.”

Ross nodded his head slowly, almost ruefully.

“I know,” he said. “That"s my biggest fear, too. We could be chasing ghosts in this case, people who just aren"t around any longer to help us.”

“Well, good luck with it, anyway. I"ll get this to The Echo today, and copy it to all the nationals by tomorrow. It might help to have full coverage in the dailies as well as the local press. People move around a lot more these days. We may find witnesses in other areas who lived here way back when.”

The Echo“Thanks again, George,” said Ross as Thompson closed his briefcase and got up to leave, the copy of the press release left on the desk for Ross to show to his team later.

“My pleasure, Andy,” said Thompson, who closed the door quietly as he left, leaving Ross alone with his thoughts once more.