Lucifer's Apostles

Lucifer's Apostles Episode 29

Tank had woken early and had been long gone before Katie awoke. He was in the briefing room before anybody else had arrived. Overnight highway patrol had stopped a car owned by Nigel Tarver heading down the motorway coming back from Newcastle. He had been brought back to the station and was now in an interview room waiting to be questioned. When Tank had been woken at 4:30 this morning with the news, he could not go back to sleep.

Marty Davies was the first in. He was keen to return to work, even if he could only do desk duties until tomorrow. Mary Kidd and Lisa Blythe were next, followed by Deng Lee and last in was Owen O’Donnell, who looked like he had slept in the same clothes he had been wearing the day before. When Tank went near him, he reeked of alcohol. Tank knew the signs being displayed by the other detective exceptionally well.

Tank told everybody about the apprehension of Tarver in the early hours of this morning. He also told them that the Satanic Bible was among the items retrieved from Lucas Brady’s house, besides the various amounts of drug paraphernalia.

“A Satanic bible does not prove anything. The only way it can is to find more evidence linking it to something else. Let’s look for anything that may link Satanism to the other suspects. Marty is a desk jockey today. Did you find anything on Satanic cults or the like in the area?” Tank asked.

“The usual complaints about missing sheep and goats as well as fires through the winter months. There has been nothing tangible in any of those complaints. Around eight months ago, a young man, Percy Moore, 23, reported that he was in a Satanic cult operating in some elderly man’s shed in his backyard at South Docks”.

“The man was paralytic drunk and was put in lockup overnight before making the allegations. Moore recanted his account the morning after, saying he could not recall saying anything. He was reported missing six months ago tomorrow. He has never been located. According to the missing person’s report, his parents believed he had fallen in with the wrong crowd. He was still living with them when he went missing and would play ‘God awful music that they could not understand a word of’. If he had taken off somewhere, he left a good-paying job driving an interstate rig and over twelve hundred dollars in his bank account. A credit card in his name and his mobile phone have never been used. Missing persons believe he has met with foul play”, Mary finished.

“Owen, I want you to comb through Percy Moore’s file again, find out if he had any close friends that might know more about his disappearance”, Tank said, looking at him directly. Owen looked up from his desk, nodded, and then looked back down again. Tank thought, ‘You are about as helpful as a weathervane in a tornado’. “Alright, Deng and Mary can have the first shot at Tarver unless he asks for a solicitor. Tag-team him until he cracks. Marty, firstly, I want you to get hold of Louise and Ned, ask if Louise is any closer to her new profile and ask Ned to look at the social networks to find out anything he can about Percy Moore. Give him the details of the missing person’s report. Lisa, see if the DNA results are back from Destinee Brady’s fingernail samples. If they’re not, ask them why not. I’m going to call Inspector Clements to update him”, Tank said, leaving the room.

When Tank rang Bill, he was pleased with the progress. He told him it would be too big of a job to go door to door in South Docks in the hope of finding a shed that may have held a satanic cult. Tank agreed. He wondered if getting a helicopter to do a flyover and pinpoint some addresses was possible. Bill said he would have to run it by Joe Hawkins. He also told Tank he would have to update Joe on the rest of the case. He was still willing to forget about the DNA today, although it would have to become known tomorrow.

Next, Tank rang Kypoira to see if she had thought of a trap that could be set. She said that she already had. She sent an email to everybody on the task force, bar Ned. She could access their accounts the second anybody forwarded it. In her email, she said a DNA trace had been found at the school yesterday, and the results came back with a name. She had sent it to everyone except Ned because he would know as soon as he saw the email that it was bogus. Tank told her that under no circumstances could she do anything illegal. He just needed the name of any person who forwarded it.

Katie rang and asked if he would like her to bring him something for lunch when she came in to help. He said that would be good. He filled her in with what was happening in the case before she told him if Lisa had problems getting the DNA results this morning to ring her immediately. He turned the monitor on in his office to see how Deng and Mary were progressing in the interview room with Tarver. He was not expecting a murder confession. This case would not be easy. If Tarver thought he might be charged with murder, he might tell them who the perpetrators were. Just as he logged into his computer to watch, he received a phone call saying Nadine Kerr, aged twenty-nine, had been abducted four blocks from Maria Vardalos’s residence.

He contacted Marty before saying, “Swap out with Mary and tell her to take Lisa and find out what happened”. He rang Tom Williams and asked him to examine the park where she had last been seen. Tank then phoned Louise and asked her to come in with Ned.

***

Snake had left Tipsy in bed and slept in his room. He deemed it unnecessary to watch the women through the night. None of them were going anywhere. He had left Sally’s room at 4 a.m., turned the recorder back on, and slept the rest of the night. Krishna woke Snake at 7:30. He had thought he would be gone for good.

“I’m so sorry I took off last night. I felt scared and useless. I couldn’t pull her off. Is Melissa alive, or is she dead?” Krishna asked.

“Listen, mate, she was gone before we entered the room. You did the right thing coming to get us. She might have strangled you as well. Adrenalin does strange things to people. I’m surprised you’re back. I thought that would be it for you. I wouldn’t have blamed you”, Snake said in a softer voice than usual.

“Everything for our saviour”, Krishna said.

“I don’t believe in that crap, Krishna, so keep it to yourself. Can you do me a favour and go and wake Tipsy up and then start breakfast for the women? Don’t go near Maria. Jacko will be looking after her for the day”, Snake ordered. “Can you ask Tipsy to turn the camera off in Maria’s room? We won’t need it today”.

“Okay, thank you for not being mad at me”, he uttered on his way to wake Tipsy up. Snake rang Ruby and told her that Krishna had returned for his shift. Tommy should be here directly, so he would send Tipsy home. He did not tell her that Tipsy had slept all night or, at the very least, rested. He asked what to do with Melissa’s body, and she told him Carl Donovan would bury her with Lucas Brady and Samuel Beckett. Snake thought they should have buried Debbie Roberts in a better spot. He hoped that Carl had learned from that mistake.

He went in and woke Jacko. Snake asked if he wanted breakfast, and Jacko ordered three bacon and egg rolls. Snake told him he would be back with his order plus coffee. Driving into Pacific Palms, Snake stopped at the takeaway where he first saw Sally. He did not mind going the extra distance because the coffee was divine. He walked in, and there she was, the woman walking the rottweiler behind the counter. It was like he was looking at Sally with darker hair. They had to be twins. He was not a regular, although he had been in the shop a few times previously and had never seen her.