Mersey Murder Mysteries Collection

Chapter 35

D.C. Paul Ferris, having added all the latest information to the white board in the squad"s small conference room, and having heard Ross"s plan for surveillance on James Doyle, took advantage of Ross"s “Any questions?” to ask,

“So you really do think James Doyle is our man, sir, especially in the murder of Brendan Kane?”

“I certainly think he"s involved, yes,” Ross replied. “At the very least, even if he didn"t pull the trigger, or bludgeon Kane about the head, I"m pretty sure Doyle was, in some way, complicit in the murder.”

Sam Gable produced the next question.

“But what about Marie, sir? Do you really think James Doyle would have been so foolish or so filled with sectarian hatred that he"d put his own daughter at risk, or, worse still, do something to harm her?”

“That"s the part of the puzzle that"s evading me. He seemed genuinely affronted that I"d had the temerity to suggest he may have had something to with his daughter"s disappearance. That"s the problem with mysteries, I"m afraid, especially one this old. I have to be honest and say we"ve all done bloody well so far to piece together what we"ve achieved so far, with no real evidence, witnesses or solid clues to go on. Did your fishing expedition with Marie"s old friends throw up anything of interest?” he asked as he finished his speech, knowing in advance the probable answer. If Sam Gable had found anything relevant, she"d have reported it to him by now, he was certain.

“No, sir. I"m sorry. Those I was able to trace and speak to mostly came up with the same kind of answers, you know the sort of things I mean, “I can"t remember back that far,” or “I didn"t know her that well”, and “Wasn"t it a shame? Have you found her then?” If you ask me, most of Marie"s so-called friends probably forgot all about the poor girl about a month after she"d gone. Apart from Clemency De Souza, no-one really admitted to being that close to her.”

I can"t remember back that far,I didn"t know her that wellWasn"t it a shame? Have you found her then?“Nothing less than I expected, but thanks for trying,” said Ross. “I want to let James Doyle stew for a day or two before we have another c***k at him. I"m hoping his wife puts a heap of pressure on him to come clean about whatever he"s hiding, and I"m certain he is hiding something.”

is“So, what do we do in the meantime, sir?” Drake asked.

“We still have to do what we can to try and discover what became of Marie Doyle. If, as he insists, James Doyle had nothing to do with his daughter"s disappearance, it leaves us still pretty much in the dark where she"s concerned. We need to push for information on Marie. Sam has done her best, but while we wait to interview Doyle senior, I want us to try and tap in to the only other sources of information we have on the girl. Dodds and McLennan, I"d like you to go and talk to each of the Doyle brothers, individually and see if they can give us something, anything that they may have forgotten previously. Can they suggest a favourite place, for example, where she might have felt safe if she did escape the same fate as her boyfriend? We need a trail to follow, but unless we can come up with a starting point, we"re just running around chasing our tails, and getting nowhere. Sam, I"d like you to go and do the same with Clemmy Oxley and her husband. Perhaps, Clemmy, of all people might know if Marie had, or maybe the two of them shared a secret place, or dreamed of visiting a place, like, oh, I don"t know, like London, or the wilds of Cornwall. You"d probably know more about the way young girls and women think and you might be able to jog some sort of memory from Clemmy.”

With the team briefed, they sat down with Paul Ferris, who, as collator had worked out just how they could fit their new assignments in with the task of shadowing James Doyle over the next couple of days. As he pointed out, the interviews of the Doyle brothers and Clemmy and Phil Oxley wouldn"t take too long so could be fitted in around the surveillance operation. As the detectives left the room, Ross turned to Ferris. He had something else in mind for his collator. Ross had come to realize over the last few days just how much he valued the quiet, but highly intelligent D.C. Ferris. If anyone could be counted on to give maximum attention to a particular problem, it was Ferris. Ross appreciated how much strain the young detective must be under at home, with the worry about the health of his son always lurking at the back of his mind. Ross found himself sincerely hoping it wouldn"t be long before the health service found a kidney donor for the lad. His wife, Maria, had told Ross just how difficult it was to find donors for a patient so young, and she"d expressed her own admiration for the medical staff who worked on such cases, where quite often the end result could have tragic consequences for a family. She was glad she was, as she put it, "just an ordinary doctor" and not one specializing in such a high risk area. For now, though, Ross put such thoughts aside and stood in front of the white board as Paul Ferris updated it with the latest assignments and information, such as it was.

“When you did that check on Patrick Bryce, you said he"d dropped off the R.U.C"s radar a while ago, but, I"m guessing that whoever you spoke to was only looking into known or suspected criminal activity, right?

“Yes, that"s right, sir,” Ferris replied.

“Okay, here"s what I want you to do. Get back in touch with our friends in the R.U.C. and ask them to look for Bryce"s last known address, and also try and see if they can find any legitimate references to him. He"ll be getting on in years too, now, like Doyle, so maybe he really is legit these days. He may appear on an electoral register somewhere, or even had or still has a business of some kind. Somebody, somewhere in bloody Northern Ireland must know where Patrick Bryce is. Wherever he is, I want to speak with him, sooner rather than later.”

“Right sir. I"ll contact the R.U.C. but there may be an easier route.”

“Go on, I"m listening,” said Ross.

“If he"s over sixty-five, there"s a good chance the guy is drawing his old-age pension sir. If he is, the pensions people will have him on record, his address, where he collects his pension and so on. Could be just a matter of calling them and seeing if he"s registered for his pension, sir.”

Ross smiled a broad expansive smile.

“You"re a genius, Ferris. Go to it, lad. See what you can dig up for me.”

“Consider it done, sir,” Ferris replied, as he began tapping keys on his computer keyboard.

Confident that he was close to a solution to the case, and that solving the murder of Brendan Kane would lead to the solution of the mystery surrounding Marie Doyle"s disappearance, he left Ferris to his task as he made his way to the office of D.C.I. Porteous. It was time to update the boss.