Mersey Murder Mysteries Collection

Chapter 27

“That was it, Inspector Ross” said Ronnie Doyle with a look of intense sadness on his face. “The police did virtually sod all to try and find Marie or Brendan for that matter.”

“Are you telling me you never heard from the police again after the visit from Sergeant Carson?” Ross asked Ronnie.

“Well, we did get another visit a few weeks later. Sergeant Carson came to the house one morning. Me and Mickey were at work and Dad was out, I can"t remember where. Me Mam told us later that Carson had done a routine follow-up on our report of Marie"s disappearance and that there"d been no word from any of the flyers he"d sent to other forces and there"d also been no reports of any "victims of violence" as he put it, being found anywhere in the country. That was his nice way of saying murder, I reckon, and not wanting to upset me Mam. He told her he"d checked with the airports and docks and found no reference to either Brendan or Marie attempting to leave the country. I think, by that time, me Mam had resigned herself to Marie not coming back, but I remember her sitting crying very quietly to herself that night. I left her to her own thoughts, because I didn"t want to upset her even more and to be honest, I wouldn"t have known what to say to her, Inspector. She cried a lot after that, usually when she thought no one could hear her, but we did, often.”

Andy Ross sat, deep in thought for a few seconds after Ronnie finished his story. He could understand why the Doyles felt less than satisfied with the response of the old Liverpool City Police in nineteen sixty-six, but knew that Sergeant Carson, by all accounts, though not sounding like the most dynamic officer he"d ever experienced, had probably done his best under the circumstances. In addition, Carson was only human and his reaction to James Doyle"s outburst of blatant religious bigotry had probably been entirely justified, bearing in mind his own personal circumstances. Favouritism was frowned upon in the police service but no one could be blamed for not being entirely sympathetic to someone like the elder Doyle. Without doing his best to make some attempt to look into the investigation that took place at the time of Marie"s original disappearance, he certainly wasn"t going to buy into the Doyle brothers" account of the rights or wrong of the way the police handled their complaint at the time, or make any criticism of Carson or anyone else involved. Based on what they"d just told him, Ross knew something the brothers weren"t aware of, something that might add a little sensitivity to the way he approached his research into the past, but now wasn"t the right time to mention it. He needed to try and communicate that to them in a way that wouldn"t alienate his best, in fact his only witnesses to the final days of Brendan Kane. He quickly decided on his next move and after allowing Ronnie a brief respite, Ross said,

“Look, Ronnie, you too Mickey. It"s been a long interview and you"ve both been very helpful. I know today hasn"t gone exactly as you expected when you walked into the station earlier but you really have given me a lot to work with. We now know with reasonable certainty that the remains found at Coles" Wharf are those of your friend, Brendan Kane and thanks to you, we now know about the disappearance of your sister, which I assure you, I"m going to follow up on, as I feel both cases are closely connected. We"ll speak to everyone we can find from those days, Phil Oxley, Clemmy De Souza and whoever has a good recollection of either of the two. I forgot to ask if your mother and father are still alive?”

“Yes, they are,” Ronnie replied. “Dad is eighty now, but still fit as a fiddle, Inspector. Hardly had a day"s illness in his life. Our Mother is only about a year behind him but not as well as she was. She has severe arthritis and has coronary heart disease, but still lives in hope that one day she"ll find out just what happened to our Marie.”

“Okay, that"s good to know. I will of course need to speak to both your parents in due course. I hope their powers of recollection are as good as yours.”

“I wouldn"t count on it, Inspector. They are getting on a bit, you know, said Mickey. “I know they"re great for their age, but Mam especially is a bit forgetful these days.”

“Understood,” Ross replied, “but whatever they can remember may prove useful. Please make sure you give Sergeant Drake both of your telephone numbers and that of your parents before you leave, so we can get in touch with you quickly if we need to.”

Both men provided Izzie Drake with the required numbers and Izzie herself showed the Doyles from the premises a few minutes later, then returning to Ross"s office where the inspector and his sergeant sat quietly and began to confer on the events and the information they"d received in what had been a rather long two hour interview with the brothers.

“Wow, that was a bit of a marathon session, sir,” Drake commented.

“It was indeed, Izzie,” Ross replied, “and totally unexpected. Who"d have expected those two to walk in off the streets and give us the vital link we needed to identify our victim?”

“You"re sure the remains are those of Brendan Kane, then, sir?”

“Everything they told us seems to fit with what we already have, which admittedly wasn"t much up until now.”

“But what about the missing sister, sir? Where do we go with that one?”

“I must say, Izzie, I"m not too sure at the moment. It adds another, highly sinister element to the case we already have. I"m going to have to talk to the boss. D.C.I Porteous will have to allow us a little extra manpower I think. I want a few uniforms available to help us with the footwork that I envisage we"ll need to go deeper into the affairs of nineteen sixty-six.”

“Do you believe everything the brothers told us, sir?”

“They came here believing we may have found the remains of their sister. They had no reason to lie to us and I believe they were genuinely shocked when we suggested the bones could be those of their friend. I think they both firmly believe Marie is dead, and in light of what they"ve told us, I must admit I tend to subscribe to that theory too.”

“But why, sir? Why would anyone want to murder a young couple who, as far as we can ascertain, hurt no-one and whose only fault appears to have been the fact they fell in love and wanted to start a new life somewhere else?”

“Well, according to the brothers, their father was certainly bigoted enough to want Brendan Kane out of the way, but, would he have harboured sufficient hatred to murder his own daughter too? Somehow, I just don"t see that happening. He seems to have been a hundred percent family orientated, though we"ll know more about him when we interview the man. Plus, if Marie Doyle was murdered at the same time as her boyfriend, how come her body has never been found?”

“It"s taken over thirty years for Brendan"s remains to turn up, with all due respect sir.”

“Yes, of course it has, Izzie. Thanks for reminding me.” Ross smiled at Drake as he accepted his sergeant"s mild rebuke. “It"s always possible they were killed together and Marie"s body simply got carried away by the tide, and ended up as fish food somewhere between Liverpool and the Irish Sea.”

As the two detectives continued bouncing ideas back and forth between them, the afternoon began to grow darker, as the overhead storm clouds grew in intensity and the view outside Ross"s window became even more depressing than it had been during the visit of the Doyle brothers. Ross stood, pushed his chair back and walked to the window, peering out into the sheets of almost horizontal rain that were lashing down, presenting a grim picture of the world outside to go with the grim task he and Drake were involved in.

He walked across the room and flicked the light switch. A few clicks from overhead heralded the coming of the light from the long fluorescent tubes, which burst into full life after a few hesitant seconds of flickering. Andy Ross re-took his seat, and just as he was about to continue his discourse with Izzie Drake, the telephone on his desk began ringing. Ross lifted the receiver.

“D.I. Ross,” he announced to the caller, and then, “McLennan, why are you phoning me from the other end of the office?” He listened to the young detective constable for a few seconds, and then with an amused look on his face, he replied, “Oh yes, right, I see, the door was closed and you thought it best not to disturb me by knocking on my door, so I presume you thought it best to disturb me by phoning me instead?”

Before Derek McLennan could say any more, Ross said, “If you have news for us, better get yourself in here now, McLennan. Don"t keep me waiting, there"s a good lad.”

“You can be a cruel sod, sir, if you don"t mind me saying so. He"s a good lad, and trying to impress you whenever he can, you know?”

“I know, Izzie. Can"t help winding the lad up sometimes. In a way he reminds me of me at his age, intense and doing everything by the book, trying to please the boss, until one day I realized the way to get on was just to be myself, do my best and sod the consequences. He"ll get there one day. He"s got the makings of a first class detective and…”

A knock on the door interrupted Ross"s words and as the door opened, Derek McLennan strode into the room, a very big smile on his face, and a sheet of A4 paper in his hand.

“From the look on your face, I"d say you come bearing tidings of great joy, Constable McLennan”, said Ross, returning the smile.

“Yes sir, very good news, I"d say. We have a positive I.D on the dental records of our skeletal remains. A firm of dentists in town, Ledger and Crowe, they"ve been in business for donkey"s years, and the current Mr. Ledger is the grandson of the original owner. Seems dentistry runs in the family and anyway, they were able to put a name to the remains from the photographs Doctor Nugent and his people gave us.”

Ross couldn"t stop himself.

“Brendan Kane, unless I"m very much mistaken, eh, young Derek?”

McLennan"s jaw dropped, surprise clearly evident on his face at Ross"s apparent wizardry in coming out with the name on his sheet of paper.

“Well, yes, that"s right, sir, but how the heck did you know that? I"ve only had the confirmation myself for ten minutes.”

“Don"t fret yourself, lad. Believe it or not, Sergeant Drake and I have just finished a grueling two hour interview with two brothers who gave us the name in connection with the disappearance of their sister around the same time. I took a chance on asking if their friend had broken his leg as a boy, they said yes, and the rest just fell into place.”

“Oh, I see, sir. That"s great then, isn"t it?”

“Yes, and well done on tracking the dental records down too. I"m not stealing your thunder, because if the Doyle brothers hadn"t come in to see me today, the dental evidence would be the only identifying evidence we have, which in reality it still is. You"ve done well.”

“Thank you, sir,” said McLennan, holding out the sheet of paper and passing it to the D.I. Here"s the faxed confirmation from Ledger and Crowe, absolute one hundred percent certainty that the teeth are those of Brendan Kane.”

“Right then, here"s what I want you to do next. Sergeant Drake has some things to check while I go and have a word with the D.C.I. In the meantime, I"d like you to run a criminal records check on these two men,” and he passed a piece of paper bearing the names and addresses of the two Doyle brothers to McLennan. “It doesn"t hurt to be thorough, and this case has just expanded greatly, so I want to be sure our two witnesses are all they appear to be.”

McLennan grasped the piece of paper and was gone in a few seconds, eager to play his part in the gathering intensity of the case.

“Er, before we go our separate ways, sir, just one question, if I may?” said Drake after they were alone again.

“Go on, Izzie, what"s on your mind?”

“You said there was something you"d tell me later, sir, when we were with the brothers. Well, is this "later" enough?”

“Oh yes,” Ross smiled at her. “You remember the Doyles mentioned an inspector, Sergeant Carson"s boss by all accounts?”

Quickly flicking back through her notes, Drake replied,

“Inspector Ledden; that was the name, sir.”

“Yes, that"s right. I didn"t want to appear too hasty in any condemnation of the previous investigation into Marie Doyle"s disappearance, because, if I"m right, the Inspector Ledden they were speaking of is now Detective Chief Superintendent Bernard Ledden, head of the Regional Drug Squad. If so, I don"t want to go treading on toes that can be avoided if you know what I mean, at least, not at this stage of our investigation.”

Drake nodded her head in agreement.

“Oh yes, sir, I see very well indeed. I"d best be getting on with looking for these addresses for now then hadn"t I?”

“Yes, you do that, Izzie. I"ll be with the boss for a while, please fix up a mini-conference for the two of us, McLennan and Paul Ferris for eight o"clock in the morning. Then tell them to finish what they"re doing and go home. I won"t be out of the boss"s office for at least an hour, so we can"t do much more today, but I want everyone bright and fresh in the morning. We"re going to have a lot of work to do in the next few days. We can then discuss where we go from here after I"ve spoken with the D.C.I. See you when I get back,” and with that, he rushed out of the office to report the new developments to D.C.I. Porteous. Izzie tidied Ross"s desk, and left to do her own assigned tasks before talking to the team and leaving for home. Tomorrow promised to be an interesting day.