The Doll's House

‘The force is full of them, Kate, but, yes, I agree. I think young Lynch has great possibilities.’


‘Does he remind you of yourself? When you were young and enthusiastic?’ Kate couldn’t help but allow some friendly banter into her voice.

‘I’m always enthusiastic, Kate. I’ve just learned to hide it a little better, that’s all.’

Was it her imagination or had O’Connor changed? He was always a workhorse. A cop with a strong moral base who probably cared too little about promotion and too much about solving crimes than was likely to be good for him. She had noticed the dark shadows under his eyes earlier, but it was more than that. His posture, his body language, even the way he spoke to her, had an extra edge to it, as if she had wronged him in some way. But he didn’t look like a man in the mood for sharing his inner thoughts with her or anyone else.

‘Were you up late last night, Detective Inspector?’

‘What?’

‘Those black shadows under your eyes.’

‘Tired is all, Kate.’

‘I see. Well, spread some of your permanent enthusiasm by telling me what Hanley has on the tyre markings.’

O’Connor seemed relieved to switch the attention from him to the investigation. ‘Grace Power, in her statement, said she thought the car was speeding when it drove away.’

‘Go on.’

‘It looks like the car drove through the blood markings on the road. Hanley’s photographing what he thinks are pretty good tyre impressions, standard ninety-degree-angle stuff.’

‘I’m listening.’

‘With the low level of traffic at that time of the morning, and the speed at which the emergency call was acted upon, the tread markings are clean, but it’s always a race against time before blood deposits deteriorate.’

‘Does Hanley think there’s enough to get a match?’

‘He thinks so. A good tyre impression will give us tyre size, tread design, even manufacturer, if we’re lucky. Of course, there’s no guarantee they’re the originally fitted tyres.’

‘Important if you find the car.’

‘My guess is it will turn up burned out, or not at all.’

‘Rather pessimistic.’

‘I’ve learned to be that way, Kate. Unlike you, I don’t have a degree in criminal psychology, but even without it, some things come naturally.’

Again Kate detected the edge in his voice. ‘Glad to hear it.’ She wondered if the aggression was the result of work pressure, but she had seen him under that kind of pressure before. This was different. Perhaps the expression on her face gave away her thoughts because he was quick to respond.

‘Don’t get me wrong, Kate. If Hanley has something, it’s a good place to start, and the way this case is shaping up, a start is at least somewhere.’

‘I hear you have a hotel receipt.’

‘We do. Too early to determine the relevance, but I’ll have answers soon.’ O’Connor stared straight ahead of him. ‘You know, Kate, there are enough possible motives in this case to cover half a dozen homicides – a crazed fan, a hate crime based on that damn stupid show of his, even a disgruntled ex-lover. The guy was a known player, not to mention his well-aired bloody opinions, and God knows there was no end of those. But for what it’s worth, it doesn’t seem like the motive was money – at least, not instant money. Every one of the victim’s credit cards, along with a substantial amount of cash, was left on him.’

‘You say he was a ladies’ man?’

‘So it would seem. Not that I go in for all that celebrity gossip, but those in the know have already said as much. Officially, at this point, everything is on the table.’

Turning away from O’Connor, Kate took in the surroundings once more. ‘Well, even ignoring why the killer chose drowning over stabbing to finish off the victim, the location is always important.’ ‘Tell me something I don’t know.’

‘Statistically most offenders live close to the scene of their crime. When a vehicle is involved, the offender is likely to have travelled six times on average further than those on foot.’

‘You’re really cheering me up. This case is a bloody resource nightmare.’

‘Still, O’Connor, drowning a near-dead victim in a public place puts some interesting slants on the reasons behind the killing.’

‘You’ve already formed possible scenarios, then?’

‘Like everything else at this early stage, it’s too soon for absolutes, but the way the victim was killed, and the location chosen, suggests that avoiding being caught wasn’t uppermost in the killer’s mind. Perhaps the stabbing was simply a means of weakening the victim. Keith Jenkins was well built. He wouldn’t have been an easy man to drown – assuming drowning was the preferred means of killing. I’ll need those images from earlier. The ones taken before the body was removed.’