Thrown Down (20 page)

The briefing seemed to be going well. Jeff Barton seemed to have a good hand on his team and they seemed to respect him. Adrian and Joe had said that was the case and she hadn’t seen anything to contradict their assertion. DI Ollie Wright looked frightening intelligent and was probably very focused on his career. He was friendly and nice like the others though. She’d also worked out that he was gay even before Joe Alexander had told her because Ollie was the only male member of the team not to have focused any momentary attention on her breasts. By her own admission she’d gone a bid mad after her husband left her and ended up getting what she called her pancake chest inflated. All her friends in the sisterhood had shaken their heads and expressed their disappointment in her but she wasn’t in much of a listening mood at the time. They could all joke about it now and everyone called them a ‘triumph of Swedish engineering’. Well she’d never been anywhere near Sweden but her surgeon had come down from Stockholm to back pack across Australia twenty years ago and he’d ended up staying after meeting an Aussie girl. Collette had found Bjorn to be a really nice man who’d been one of the few to understand what she’d been going through at the time. But then again he was being paid to understand so it was perhaps not that surprising. She’d never had a pancake chest. She just felt better with bigger tits.  

She liked the way Jeff Barton was managing everything. He was commanding without throwing his weight around. He didn’t have to do that because his presence was enough to make people sit tight and listen to what was going on. He was so different to her boss Burnsey back home whose briefings often descended into slanging match chaos with nobody respecting him. How he’d got away with it for all these years she’ll just never know.

‘Tabitha Murphy has been formerly charged with conspiracy to murder her husband Barry Murphy’ said DI Ollie Wright. ‘She’s admitted to helping Chris O’Neill with planning the murder although she thought it was just a straight forward case, if you can call it that, of killing the husband to get the wife. She also knew about O’Neill’s intention to murder Padraig O’Connell but she swears she didn’t know any further details. She also swears that she doesn’t know O’Neill’s true identity and she doesn’t know why he wanted to kill O’Connell’.

‘And do we believe her?’ asked DS Joe Alexander.

‘Yes, I think we do’ said DSI Jeff Barton. ‘She’s terrified of being in prison and I’m sure she’d tell us anything to make a deal that would keep her out. But so far there’s no deal’.

‘Quite right too in my opinion, sir’ said Joe.

‘If she knew something more than she’s already told us she’d be telling us with a desperate enthusiasm’ said Jeff. ‘I’m certain of that’.

‘So now we come to her sister Jade Matheson who has absconded with Chris O’Neill’ Ollie went on.

‘That’s some betrayal’ said DI Adrian Bradshaw. ‘Letting your sister think she’s met the love of her life and then secretly planning to steal him off her. These girls spell red for danger’.   

‘They so do, DI Bradshaw’ Ollie concurred. ‘There’s been no sighting of O’Neill or Jade Matheson now for forty-eight hours. Miss Matheson was last seen by her staff in the hairdressing salon she owns in Wilmslow on Tuesday afternoon. She told the salon manager Diane Wentworth that she was going away for a few days and leaving Wentworth in charge. Wentworth didn’t think this was unusual since Matheson often apparently took off for a couple of days here and there, often taking her niece Georgina Murphy with her during the school holidays’.

‘So she thought no more of it’ said Adrian.

‘No’ said Ollie. ‘She didn’t. There was no reason for her to think anything of it’.

‘What do the parents of Jade and Tabitha think about all this?’ Adrian asked. ‘They must be at their wit’s end although the family dynamic suggests that there was no love lost between the sisters and from what we can gather there wasn’t much lost between the parents either’. He shook his head. ‘All that luck and good fortune and yet they just couldn’t get on with each other’.

‘Until they came to bury the hatchet in each other’s neck’ said Ollie. ‘Like you say Adrian, all that glitters isn’t gold. But I don’t think we should spend any more time on these families now. The same with the Murphy’s and the O’Connell’s. There’s absolutely nothing to connect any of them with the two murders and I think we should just concentrate on going after O’Neill and Matheson’.

‘That has to be our sole focus’ Jeff agreed. ‘Because I do think everything else will flow from there and we’ve got two funerals to get through, the first in three days time, and they’re both making me nervous’.

‘O’Neill could surface at one of them’ Ollie Wright went on. ‘In fact I think it’s more or less guaranteed’.

‘Absolutely’ said Jeff. ‘Now all the usual security arrangements will be in place balanced with the need to show sensitivities to the families of the two men. I want to keep them all on our side if it’s possible’.

‘The presence of Patricia Knight could cause a flash point’ said Adrian.

‘Which brings me very nicely to introducing Detective Constable Collette Ryan of the Victoria state police who’s come all this way to help us’ said Barton.

All the usual greetings were made to bring Collette into the fold and then she got down to business. She hadn’t quite known what to wear for today so she settled for a dark blue trouser suit with a white shirt that sported a big, wide collar and a pair of short black boots. She hadn’t tied her back and instead she let it hang loose just below her shoulders, brushed back and off her face. She could see from the way he looked at her from time to time that her attraction for Barton was mutual. But she was sure as hell that she wasn’t going to pursue it.                                               

‘This is Patricia Knight’ Collette announced after Jeff had asked her to contribute to the briefing. She pinned a picture of Patricia Knight to the white board. ‘Formerly Patricia O’Connell. She’s arriving in this country this afternoon and as you know her brother Padraig O’Connell’s funeral is the day after tomorrow. Her record in Australia is spotless but I wouldn’t be here as part of your team if it wasn’t suspected that her presence might cause strife of some kind. Her husband Dennis seems intent on standing by her despite what the past has revealed about her former lifestyle and is coming with her.’

‘Our understanding from special branch is that her presense will flush out some members of dissident republican groups who they’d like to talk to’ said Ollie.

‘Well I have to say that’s the only thing that makes sense, sir’ said Collette.

‘You don’t believe she could’ve been involved with anything to do with republican groups since living in Australia?’

‘No, I seriously don’t, sir. We’ve checked mobile phone statements, bank records, we’ve even been into all of her husband’s business dealings and he retired from running his own business a couple of years ago. We found nothing, absolutely nothing to suggest anything untoward. If I may say so, I believe that it’s the capture of Chris O’Neill that we should be concentrating on. Anything else is just a fruitless diversion’.   

Collette had hit upon the general consensus amongst Jeff and his team that the only line of investigation should lead to the apprehension of Chris O’Neill, or whoever he is, plus Jade Matheson who has clearly absconded with him. Their photographs had been distributed everywhere and every possible sighting was being followed up again and then again in case something had been missed. They were the two most wanted people in Britain. They couldn’t stay out of sight for long.

‘The other thing to mention though’ said DS Adrian Bradshaw. ‘Is that there’s no official trace of Patricia O’Connell being granted a visa to stay in Australia back in the seventies’.

‘She must’ve had something’ said Collette. ‘Or she wouldn’t have been able to marry Dennis. She’d have needed to show some form of identification’.

‘And she did’ said Adrian who’d been checking up on Patricia Knight. ‘But it was added to the official record several months after she’d arrived in Victoria. That strikes me as being rather odd’.

‘And me too’ Collette agreed. ‘But it also shows me that for part of this investigation someone somewhere who is supposed to be on the same side as us is actually leading us a bit of a merry dance. It wouldn’t surprise me if we ultimately found that Patricia O’Connell was shifted out of the country at the convenience of someone higher up the pay grade from us’.  

‘But for what reason?’

‘Well that could be something we’ll never find out’.

‘Well done’ said Jeff once he was in his office with Collette. Apart from the fact that she sounded like a bloody good police officer he’d also noticed her in another way. He liked her thick dark hair. He liked the way her mouth widened back and forth as she talked. ‘You talked a lot of sense in there’.

‘Thank you, sir’ said Collette. ‘But you’ve already got a very good team of officers from what I can see’.

‘Yeah, I’m pretty lucky in that respect’ Jeff agreed. ‘Look Collette, I’m sorry I only called you last night at the hotel to see if you were settling in. I should’ve come round and taken you out for something to eat or even just a drink’.

‘I don’t need baby sitting, sir’.

‘I’m sure you don’t, in fact I can well see that you don’t’ said Jeff. ‘But still you’ve come all this way to assist us and be part of our team. As head of that team I should’ve reached out better than I did’.

‘There’s really no need to apologise, sir’ said Collette. God, why did he have to be so bloody attractive and so bloody nice? ‘I’ll go out to the airport this afternoon with DS Bradshaw to meet Patricia Knight and her husband. We’ll make sure they get settled into their hotel and I’ll read the security riot act at them’.

‘Do you think someone from the past might have a go at Patricia?’

‘I think it’s a strong possibility, sir’.

‘You do come highly recommended, Detective Constable’.

‘I do?’

‘Detective Inspector Ed Burns couldn’t have been higher in his praise for you in the email he sent me’.

Collette threw her head back and laughed. You could never be sure what Old Burnsey might be up to. ‘Is that right, sir?’

‘Why don’t you think it would be?’

‘We don’t get on, sir, Ed Burns and me’ said Collette who then started to get embarrassed. She’d already said more than she should do. It was highly unprofessional of her to dig the knife into Burns in front of a foreign officer, no matter how true it was that she despised him because of his abhorrent behavior towards her. ‘I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that’.  

Jeff smiled. ‘Forget about it’.

‘Thank you, sir’ said Collette who so liked the look of this man with his dark blond hair.

‘We should have a drink tonight’ Jeff blurted out. ‘That’s if I’m not treading on any toes?’

‘If you mean whether I’m single or not the answer is yes, I am single’ said Collette. ‘But I can see from the wedding ring that you’re not’.

‘I’m a widower’.

‘What?’

‘My wife died almost three years ago’ said Jeff. ‘I have a son called Toby who is the centre of my world but I don’t have a girlfriend at present’.

‘Oh Jeez I’m sorry, sir’ said Collette who felt like she wanted the ground to swallow her at that moment. ‘I should’ve noticed from the photographs on your desk that you’ve got one of the little bloke but not of your wife’.

‘It’s alright’ said Jeff. ‘You weren’t to know. I like you, Collette. I’d like to spend some time with you away from here’.

‘No argument from me there, Jeff’.

‘Good’ said Jeff who couldn’t believe he’d just asked a woman out on a date for the first time in three years. Forget all the messing about he did with Rebecca Stockton. This felt so much more like the right thing. ‘Well we’ll see how we go this afternoon but after I put my little bloke to bed I’ll head back into town and meet you’.

‘Will you be able to get someone to sit with him at this short notice?’

‘We’ve got a live in housekeeper and nanny. His name is Brendan’.

‘You’ve got a male nanny? That’s very modern’.

‘I’m a very modern sort of bloke, Collette’.

‘So it would seem’.

‘And Brendan is top notch. We couldn’t do without him to tell you the truth’.

‘Okay, well I’ll look forward to it’

‘Me too’.

‘I haven’t brought much to wear with me for a night out’.

‘I’m interested in you, not what you’re wearing’.

Collette blushed. ‘The short leather skirt it is then’.

THROWN DOWN FOURTEEN

The next morning Jeff woke up early. He wasn’t used to not sleeping in his own bed. He wasn’t used to not sleeping with Toby coming into his room at some point during the night. He suddenly felt guilty. What if Toby had needed him during the night? It was okay that Brendan was there but what would Toby make of it if he came into Jeff’s room and found it empty?

He looked across at Collette. She looked like she was sleeping pretty soundly. Then he turned his head the other way and looked at his watch which was on the bedside table. It was just coming up to half past five. Time to go home. He shuffled his feet from under the duvet and placed them as quietly as he could on the floor. He stopped for a moment and smiled to himself. He and Collette had enjoyed each other’s company so much in the bar on Piccadilly Gardens where they’d gone for a drink or two, laughing and carrying on with each other, talking a little bit about Lillie Mae and about Collette’s ex-husband. It had almost seemed inevitable that they would end up in her room together. He looked down at his cock and his balls flapping about between his legs. Last night they’d seen some serious action and were definitely back in business. Collette was a wonderful girl and she’d finally ignited that flame inside him again.