Wrongful Death (40 page)

‘That’s my adopted mom’s, she’s mad about him.’

‘Yeah, right,’ Anna said, and they both laughed.

‘Go ahead, put it on. I fancy a bit of nostalgia,’ Blane said.

Anna put the disc in the player and the first track opened with a slow, rolling piano intro that she recognized right away as the tune that Jack Brennan had been playing as she left the church. Reaching for the CD cover she saw that the song was called ‘Mandy’. It was rather eerie as she listened closely to the words of the opening verse, but she told herself she was just being silly. Then came the chorus and the references to Mandy, who came and gave without taking; he sent her away but still needed her today.

Anna, settling herself on the sofa, wondered if she was just imagining things but remembered Jack telling her ‘it will never be the same again without her’. Something made her suspect that the song was more than a fond memory to the young man. She glanced over at Don, who was still washing up, wanting to tell him about the song but anxious he’d think she was just imagining things, as he seemed to have a soft spot for Jack. She was equally keen to examine Jack’s original statement now that she knew that it might be vital, and so made an excuse to Don that her headache had returned and she didn’t feel so good, so she thought she’d lie down. She felt bad as Don blamed himself, fearing it was his cooking or the wine that had made her feel unwell.

Anna assured him it wasn’t and kissed him gently on the cheek before starting to go upstairs. Before she was midway up, he asked if she minded him changing the CD as it was getting on his nerves, to which she laughed and by the time she reached her bedroom the strains of Mozart drifted up. Yet, Mr Manilow’s rendition of ‘Mandy’ continued playing in her mind.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

It was after midnight as Anna sat cross-legged on the bed, with statements and documents from the case file strewn all over it and the floor. She still felt bad about deceiving Don into believing she had a headache, and her dilemma now was whether or not she should go downstairs and wake him up, or wait until the morning to tell him what she had uncovered. If she was right, about where the camera key ring, birthday card and, vitally, Mandy’s body could be, the Andersons might have some closure. ‘Well,’ she thought, ‘I won’t get a wink of sleep and Don wants this resolved even more than I do . . .’ but first, she wanted to get her scribbled notes in order, and gather the documents from the file so she could fully explain her reasoning, which pointed to not one but two suspects being involved in Mandy Anderson’s abduction and murder.

The vital information Anna had found came firstly from looking at Jack Brennan’s statement. It contained the same points he had spoken about at the church, but in slightly more detail, along with his family background. His mother had left when he was very young and he was an only child who now lived with his father, the local Chief Ranger. He knew Mandy through school and the church; she was kind to him and helped him with the piano. Jack’s account of his movements for the afternoon that Mandy went missing was that his father had taken him out on a long driving lesson and they had returned home late evening.

Thanks to Jack’s alibi, Anna had at first thought she was wrong about the Barry Manilow song having a deeper significance for the young man, but what she discovered next convinced her otherwise. Jack Brennan’s personal details showed his date of birth as 21 May 1996, meaning he was sixteen on the day that Mandy disappeared. Anna wondered if he was the recipient of the camera key ring and card, but more worrying was that if that were true, his alibi had been a lie. There was no statement in the file made by a Mr Brennan, but Anna thought it impossible that he wouldn’t have been asked to confirm his son’s movements on the day in question. She had recalled Blane saying that as the local Chief Ranger, Jack’s father had led the woodland searches for Mandy Anderson, so she had looked through the case file for the search map and accompanying report to find his name.

On discovering the Chief Ranger was called Carl Brennan, Anna realized that this must have been the very same ‘Carl’ that Don had been talking to on the phone earlier in the evening. It made sense that Jack would have told his father about meeting Anna at the church, but she couldn’t understand why Jack would suggest that she had been in any way aggressive. She appreciated, due to Jack’s ADHD and his being bullied, that Carl might be an overprotective father, but why threaten to make a complaint to the Director of the Academy? It could just have been an idle threat – but what if it was actually more than that, some sort of nervous reaction in fear of being found out? If Jack Brennan had abducted or killed Mandy and, as Anna suspected, Carl Brennan had alibied his son then they were both lying.

She had been about to tidy up the mess on the bed when she noticed the pile of Mandy’s birthday cards and decided to look through them, checking them properly this time. It felt strange reading them, as the contents of the cards wished the girl a happy sixteenth, yet she had probably died before she even reached that age. Stranger still was the card Anna opened next, which was signed, ‘Love always, Jack xxx’, and in which the word ‘always’ was written in a slightly different-coloured pen, as if added as an afterthought.

This anomaly made her recall Jack’s comment that things would never be the same without Mandy. She sighed, everything buzzing around in her head, when suddenly the unexpected memory popped up of Dewar saying that the Josh Reynolds’ suicide note was fake because its wording suggested it was written by someone who already knew he was dead. Anna scratched her head to ruffle up her hair. Could Dewar’s theory also apply to the birthday card?

She looked again at the card from Jack and felt almost sure it was written as if he knew there was some sort of permanence about Mandy’s disappearance.

‘Okay, okay, now just sit back on this for a second,’ she muttered to herself and then began to piece it together slowly. If Jack killed Mandy then Carl Brennan must have lied about his son’s movements on that day, and he must also know where Mandy’s body was.

She grabbed the search record and spread the map out over the bedroom floor. Checking the report, she could see that it had been compiled by Carl Brennan, who also co-ordinated the efforts of the Park Rangers, Sheriff ’s officers, US Marines and members of the public in the woodland searches.

Anna decided the best thing to do was to write down, on bits of paper, the names of the teams, including the date and time they had searched each gridded area of woodland. Having laid them out on the corresponding areas of the map, nothing struck her as out of the ordinary.

She was beginning to gather up the bits of paper from the map when she noticed something odd about the searches on 25 May. Carl Brennan had led a team of eight people searching an area of woodland in Prince William Forest at eleven a.m. Ten other searches, in different areas, had taken place at the same time on that day, but what made Carl’s team stand out to Anna was that one member, a Mr J Knox, appeared to be in two places at the same time. At first, she thought that it could have been chance, someone with the same surname and initial, a relative perhaps, but as she looked closer she could see that the same thing re-occurred with the whole of Carl Brennan’s team. Each member listed on his team was also listed at another site at the same time. She was certain she was right – Carl Brennan must have made up a team using real names and there could only be one reason. Mandy Anderson’s body was buried in this section of woodland.

It was nearly two a.m. by the time Anna had put her notes in chronological order. Nevertheless, she pulled on a jumper over her pyjamas, went downstairs and before waking Blane laid out the statements and search map on the dining table, along with her notepad. She hesitated in his bedroom doorway, worried about upsetting him with her revelations. He was sound asleep, looking completely at peace, but her mind was made up; she wouldn’t be able to sleep herself as she was far too keen to run her thoughts by him.

Anna gently touched his shoulder. ‘Don, it’s me,’ she whispered. ‘I’m sorry to wake you but I really need to speak to you.’

Don, still half asleep and not really taking in what was happening, said nothing as he moved over to one side of the bed and pulled back the quilt, inviting her to join him.

‘No, it’s not that, Don.’

She didn’t feel affronted – had it been under different circumstances she would probably have slipped into bed with him, but now she switched on his bedside lamp. He squinted as his eyes adjusted to the light.

‘I think I may have uncovered what happened to Mandy and where she’s buried,’ Anna said softly.

He went bright red, flipped the quilt back over the bed and scooted out the other side, grabbing his dressing gown from the end of the bed.

‘I’m sorry, Anna, forgot I was buck-naked. I was half asleep and didn’t mean to offend . . .’

‘I’m not offended at all. I’m the one who should be apologizing for waking you at this time in the morning,’ she admitted sheepishly.

Blane joined Anna, having had a quick wash and put on a track-suit, sitting down beside her on the sofa. She decided to get straight to the point.

‘At first, I wasn’t sure and I thought I might be imagining things, but I’ve been going over and over the case since I went upstairs. I’ve laid everything out for you to look at,’ she said and pointed to the map and case file papers covering the dining table. ‘Okay, here we go – are you ready?’

He smiled, nodding his head. There was something so girlish about her excitement, and he leaned back as she clapped her hands.

‘Right, I think that Jack Brennan killed Mandy Anderson, and his father Carl, having found out, either helped him dispose of the body or deliberately made sure the area where she is concealed was not searched.’

Don looked at Anna with surprise, yet he knew from her tone of voice and demeanour that she was being serious, as she seemed calmer and focused. He was certain she would not be making such a bold statement if she hadn’t found evidence to back it up.

‘You won’t believe this, but it was the song “Mandy” on the CD player. Jack was playing the same tune on the piano when I left him at the church. Something was niggling me about it, but I thought I was being silly and imagining things. I had to be sure before I said anything to you,’ Anna said, embarrassed, feeling she had let him down by not confiding in him at the time.

He sensed the unease in her voice.

‘Whatever your reasons were, I don’t care. All that matters is we trust each other. Never be frightened to tell me your thoughts,’ he said.

‘All right, well I might as well be honest about everything. I also overheard your conversation with Carl Brennan, but I didn’t know at the time who you were speaking to.’

‘I knew you had heard, the floorboards creak at the slightest movement so I knew you were up. I didn’t tell you that Carl was having a moan and overreacting because I didn’t want you to worry. He hugged her before continuing. ‘I have to say you were very good at not giving yourself away, you must have been very curious to know who I was talking to.’

Anna slowly eased back from his embrace, thinking that it was good that he could joke about her antics, but at the same time she needed to finish what she had started.

‘I think Carl’s reaction was a nervous one, plus he may have been fishing for information,’ Anna said as Blane put his arm around her shoulders, and asked her to tell him everything that had raised her suspicions about Jack and Carl. She dived back to the table to fetch her notepad, and then rejoined him beside the fire, taking a deep breath before taking her time to explain what she thought might have happened. She said that it was Jack Brennan’s birthday on the day Mandy disappeared and she suspected that the camera key ring and birthday card Mandy bought at the mall were for him. Not wanting to be ridiculed about the present, or associating with Jack, Mandy lied about choir practice as a cover to secretly visit him on her way home.

‘I mean, I know all this is just supposition, and I could be wrong, but it sort of makes sense, do you agree?’

‘Yeah, in a way. Do you think there was anything sexual going on between the two of them?’ he asked.

‘I don’t know for certain, but I think Jack’s feelings for Mandy may have been stronger, possibly an infatuation.’

‘And hers for him?’ Blane pressed.

‘Well, more sort of friendly, platonic even – she respected him in some ways, like his ability on the piano, but also felt sorry for him.’

‘He may not have interpreted it that way,’ Blane added.

‘Exactly, and that’s why I believe something may have happened at his house, not premeditated but something that caused a spur-of-the-moment reaction and ended in her death.’

Blane thought about what Anna said and nodded in agreement.

‘So if Mandy did die in the Brennan house then Jack and Carl are lying about being out on a driving lesson all afternoon,’ he said quietly.

‘Yes. Carl’s involvement is where I really doubted my thoughts. I even considered that he might have abducted Mandy and persuaded or duped Jack into creating an alibi for him.’

‘There’s nothing wrong with that, you’re right to consider every possibility.’

‘Thank you,’ she said, more than ever aware of what a different creature he was to Langton, prepared to listen and not constantly challenge her views or suspicions.

Anna took hold of his hand and led him over to the dining table. She pointed to the underlined names of the people apparently searching different areas at the same time. He picked up on it straight away.

‘Unless these people have clones of themselves this is impossible.’

‘I think Carl Brennan knew that Mandy was buried in that section of woodland and deliberately falsified the search report so she wouldn’t be found,’ Anna said.

‘So Carl may have returned home to find Mandy’s body and then moved her to the woods.’

She nodded. ‘Or Jack buried her in the woods, and then told his father what had happened. Either way, Carl had to falsify the search records to conceal the crime.’