Twisted Justice

Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Detective Inspector Carl West stood on the platform at Morton Sands with the crowd waiting to catch the seven-ten train into the city. He and Nina had moved to Morton Sands a few months after the birth of their daughter, Sophie, trading their near-city apartment for a family home with a yard in the popular seaside suburb.

It had taken Carl several weeks to get used to the forty-minute train ride to work every morning, which was quite a change from the ten-minute drive he’d been accustomed to for years. But, now that it had become part of his morning routine, he took advantage of his commute to prepare for the day ahead, except for those mornings when he struggled to keep his eyes open after a night of disturbed sleep.

He watched the city bound train pull into the station and come to a halt. Then, like everyone else on the platform, he entered the nearest carriage, swiped his travel card on the ticket machine, and found himself a seat. When the train started moving, he took his iPad out of his briefcase and scrolled through his emails to get an idea of what the day had in store for him. Nothing stood out. His inbox was full of the routine administrative tasks that came with managing a team of detectives. The excitement for the day looked like being Harry Fuller’s return to work from his honeymoon.

Carl wondered how Harry and Jessika had enjoyed their ten days in Hawaii, and smiled as he thought about his own honeymoon there with Nina. They had certainly enjoyed themselves after Nina’s close encounter with death. In fact, they’d had such a good time he’d been tempted to turn in his badge and stay, but tourists could only stay so long, so they had come home. Besides, Nina had reminded him he wouldn’t know what to do with himself if he left the force.

It all seemed like a long time ago now that they were the parents of an energetic one-year-old, and Nina had decided to resign from the force to be a full-time mother.

Things had been relatively quiet while Harry was on leave. The team was still working on the same stolen cars case they’d started in the days before Harry’s wedding, and didn’t seem to be getting anywhere. Expensive cars were vanishing into thin air, much to the disappointment of their owners, their insurers, and the team. Carl hoped a fresh insight from Harry might help them crack the case.

He put the iPad back into his briefcase and spent the rest of the ride into the city reading the morning’s paper.

At seven-fifty, Carl disembarked at City Station and set off on the ten-minute walk that took him through the city to Police Headquarters.

Carl dropped into the coffee shop next door to Police Headquarters and bought himself a coffee, before making his way up to his office on the third floor.

The team was standing around Harry’s desk drinking coffee and catching up on his holiday news.

‘Morning, all,’ said Carl.

The banter of jovial voices stopped.

‘Morning, Inspector.’

‘How was Hawaii?’

‘As good as you said it would be, Boss,’ said Harry.

‘Well, I’m glad you had a good time, then.’ Carl smiled. ‘Team meeting in ten, folks.’ He left them to talk and went into his office to log on and start his work day.

At eight twenty, Carl called the team together around the whiteboard on the wall outside his office.

‘Okay, Wayne, let’s bring DS Fuller up to date on where we’re at with these cars.’

‘Still going?’ said Harry. ‘Thought you’d have that one wrapped up by now.’

Carl shook his head. ‘No such luck, I’m afraid, Harry. Wayne?’

DC Paterson took out his notebook. ‘We’ve got fifteen cars that fit the pattern. Expensive, near new, all with remote keyless entry, and taken from driveways while their owners were asleep inside. And, the owners still have their remote key fobs, so the thieves have managed to disengage the onboard security and somehow start the cars.’

‘How are they doing that?’ said Harry. ‘Thought those cars were supposed to be theft-proof.’

‘We’re not sure, Sarge. Those remotes send some sort of shortwave radio signal to the computer in the car that controls the locks and the ignition,’ said DC Paterson, ‘and, you have to be close to the car, like five to ten metres, to unlock the doors and start the engine.’

‘So, how are they doing it?’ said Harry.

‘Even if you had a duplicate key to open the door, you’d have to hot-wire the ignition if you could get past the security lock on the steering. Those cars don’t have anywhere to insert a key to start them,’ said DC Beard, ‘and, nobody makes duplicate remotes. You have to get them from the manufacturers.’

‘Any word on the street?’ said Carl.

‘Not even a rumour as to who might be involved or where the cars are going,’ said Wayne.

‘Any luck with those parts dealers you spoke to yesterday, Nigel?’ said Carl.

‘They reckon the parts for those fancy cars have serial numbers on them these days,’ said DC Beard. ‘The bloke I spoke to yesterday told me legitimate dealers wouldn’t touch second hand parts for expensive foreign cars like these without verifying the serial numbers.’

‘Maybe the resale market is interstate,’ said Harry.

‘Or offshore,’ said DC Templar, ‘in places where they can’t import parts or vehicles thanks to sanctions.’

Carl’s mobile phone rang. He looked at the display. The call was from Operations. He held up his hand for silence.

‘DI West.’

‘We have a body in the car park off Grant Lane, Inspector. Patrol says it looks like a homicide. We’re looking for a man on a bicycle seen leaving the area about fifteen minutes ago.’

‘Okay, I’m on my way.’

Carl slipped his mobile back into his pocket.

‘Looks like we have a homicide. Harry, you come with me. I want everybody else on standby until we know the full details.’

‘Where?’ said DC Paterson.

‘Grant Lane, down by City Hospital,’ said Carl.

The entrance to Grant Lane was blocked by a patrol car with flashing blue lights. Carl produced his ID and the constable controlling access let them into the lane. When Harry had parked the car, they slipped into their crime scene suits and walked to the pedestrian entrance to the car park, where a second constable stood controlling access to the crime scene.

Carl signed the control sheet.

‘You’ll need to go up the ramp to level one, Inspector. The stairs open into the crime scene.’

‘Who found the body?’ said Carl.

‘A nurse from the hospital,’ said the constable. ‘She’s pretty upset.’ He pointed to the patrol car parked a short distance from where they stood. ‘She’s given us a statement.’

‘Okay, we’ll speak to her after we’ve had a look at the crime scene,’ said Carl.

When they reached level one, they found the area immediately outside the stairwell door roped off with crime scene tape. Sgt Dean Lang and his crime scene investigators were still unpacking equipment from their vehicle, which was parked in the opposite corner away from the white Toyota Corolla inside the crime scene.

As they approached the line of tape, Carl spotted Dr Mike Jonas, the police pathologist, kneeling beside a body on the floor between the car and the wall holding the stairwell door.

‘Morning, Mike.’

Dr Jonas stood. ‘Definitely not accidental, Carl. Poor girl’s been garrotted.’

‘Do we know who she is?’

‘We’ll have to wait for Dean’s people to take their photographs before we go through her things, but she’s obviously a nurse from City Hospital.’

Carl thought he should have asked the nurse downstairs before coming up to take a look.

They stood next to the crime scene tape while the body and its surroundings were photographed.

‘How was Hawaii, Harry?’ said Mike.

‘A lot warmer than this.’

‘Was it as good as Carl reckons?’

‘It was great. You should go,’ said Harry. ‘Scenery is fantastic. You’d come back with a thousand photos.’

‘You might not come back at all,’ said Carl. ‘I was tempted to stay.’

‘Be nice to be somewhere warm,’ said Mike.

‘It’s even warm when it rains over there,’ said Harry. ‘Not like here.’

‘How’s that girl of yours, Carl? She walking yet?’ said Mike.

‘Won’t be long now,’ said Carl. ‘She’s pulling herself up on the armchairs.’

Mike laughed and slapped Carl on the back. ‘Fun’s about to begin, mate.’

‘All yours, Doc,’ said the photographer.

They pulled on their latex gloves and stepped inside the cordoned off area with Mike.

‘The body is still warm,’ said Mike.

‘How warm?’ said Carl.

‘This girl was alive less than an hour ago,’ said Mike.

Carl picked up her handbag and looked inside. It held a mobile phone, a ring of keys, a wallet containing several plastic cards and fifty-five dollars in notes, and a driver’s licence in the name of Kelly Ann Palmer of Unit 3, 15 Dune Avenue, Morton Sands.

He handed the licence to Harry, who photographed it with his phone, and pressed the unlock button on the car key. The lights of the Corolla flashed.

‘Looks like robbery wasn’t the motive, then’ said Harry, handing back the licence.

Carl put the handbag back on the floor next to the body for one of the CSI officers to bag.

Mike pointed out the purple line embedded in the victim’s neck. ‘Some sort of ligature, probably a rope.’

‘Bastard has a nerve,’ said Carl, ‘killing her here at this time of day.’

‘Must have been waiting for her,’ said Harry. ‘I wonder if the woman that found the body is the person who saw the man on the bike.’

‘I’ll see you at the post mortem, Mike,’ said Carl.

‘I’ll let you know if I find anything else here,’ said Mike.

They stepped over the crime scene tape back into the public domain.

‘Anything, Dean?’

‘Nothing obvious, Inspector. This door is covered in prints, but you’ll need to catch him first if they’re to be of any use.’

Carl and Harry walked back down the ramp to the front of the car park.

‘Does this place have CCTV, Constable?’ said Carl.

‘I don’t think so, Inspector. I haven’t seen any cameras.’

‘Is there an attendant?’

‘No. This place is monthly parkers only. You need a four-digit code to open the barrier to get in or out.’

‘Check for CCTV with the operators, Harry. You never know your luck,’ said Carl, as they walked over to the patrol car.

‘Right, Boss.’

Carl introduced himself to the constable standing next to the patrol car parked outside the car park.

‘How is she?’

‘A bit shaken up, Inspector.’

‘Did she see anyone?’

‘A man on a bicycle. I put out an alert as soon as she told me.’

‘Good work, Constable. Let’s hope we find him,’ said Carl. ‘Did she get a look at him?’

‘Not really, Inspector. She said a man rode past her going towards the hospital as she was walking down the lane to the car park, but she didn’t take that much notice.’

That made sense to Carl. He probably wouldn’t have taken much notice of a man on a bike either as he was walking towards the railway station thinking about home.

‘What’s her name?’

‘Mary Howe. She’s a nurse at the hospital, Inspector. She knows the victim.’

Carl opened the back door of the patrol car and slid in beside Mary Howe.

‘I’m Inspector West,’ said Carl. ‘We won’t keep you much longer, Ms Howe. Do you want me to arrange for someone to take you home?’

Mary Howe turned to face Carl. ‘I think I’ll be alright to drive by the time they’re finished in there.’

‘How well did you know Kelly?’ said Carl.

‘We’d worked together a few times.’

‘Where’s your car?’ said Carl.

‘It’s on the same floor as Kelly’s. I found her when I opened the door from the stairs.’

She’s a nurse, thought Carl. She would have tried to help someone lying on the floor.

‘Did you touch the body?’

‘I checked for a pulse. I thought she must have fainted or something. Then I saw her neck. No way we can bring people back from that.’ Mary blew her nose in the tissues she held in her hand.

Carl waited. He felt her discomfort but needed to ask his questions while things were still fresh in her mind.

‘What time was it when you found her?’ said Carl.

‘I left the hospital at ten past eight, so I guess around a quarter past.’

‘Any idea what time Kelly left the hospital?’

‘Couldn’t have been much before I did. The shift ends at eight.’

Carl realized the killer had taken a calculated risk and decided he’d probably watched Kelly to work out the timing of her morning routine.

‘Do you always leave at ten past eight?’ said Carl.

‘Most mornings. It usually takes me that long to get out of the building. I work in the West Wing.’

‘What do you remember about the man on the bicycle?’ said Carl.

Mary Howe looked at her hands. ‘I’m sorry, but I really didn’t take any notice of him.’

‘Any colors come to mind?’

‘Black. He was wearing black. It was all fairly quick.’

‘Did you see where he came from?’ said Carl.

‘No. I didn’t see him until he was going past, and I only saw him out of the corner of my eye. To be honest, I hardly saw him at all. I was looking at my phone.’

‘One last question, Ms Howe. Did you seen anyone hanging about the car park on any other morning this week?’

‘No, but this morning’s the first time I’ve ever seen anybody on a bike in this lane, Inspector, and I’ve been parking here for years.’

Carl wished Mary Howe had been a few years older and less attached to the screen of her mobile phone, but realized they were lucky she’d noticed the man on the bike at all.

‘Thank you, Ms Howe. The constable will let you know when you can retrieve your car.’

Carl got out of the car and closed the door. He looked up and down Grant Lane. The entrance to the car park was the only opening in the narrow canyon of bricks formed by the blank walls of the warehouses that lined either side of the lane. He pointed at the windowless walls. ‘Easy to see why he chose this spot.’

Harry rubbed his chin and looked down the lane towards the hospital. ‘I’m pretty sure there’s a traffic camera at that intersection down there in front of the hospital.’

‘Let’s hope it was working this morning,’ said Carl. ‘It might be our only window into what went on here.’