Challis - 03 - Snapshot (13 page)

Sir.

Good, McQuarrie said briskly. Now,
my daughter-in-law. Sergeant Destry?

Ellen flashed McQuarrie an alert,
humourless smile. Sir?

You spoke to Janines work
colleagues this morning, I believe?

Sir.

And?

Challis, unseen by McQuarrie, made a
fleeting axe-murderer face at Ellen, who composed herself and reported that the
office staff and other therapists at Bayside Counselling Services had alibis
and were clearly baffled by Janines murder. Meanwhile, we still dont know
who she was meeting this morning or why she was on Lofty Ridge Road. A note
scribbled on her desk calendar simply says Penzance North, 9.30.

Keep looking. What about
disgruntled clients? Weird clients?

Were still looking into that, sir,
but client confidentiality comes into it.

How closely did you look at her
work colleagues? For all you know there could be simmering resentments,
jealousies, that type of thing.

Not that we could see on a
preliminary visit.

Keep looking. She was at the top of
her profession, you know. Bright girl.

Sir, Ellen said, wanting to tell
the super what shed told Challis in the car that afternoon, that husband and
wife had been made for each other.

Constable Sutton, anything to add?

Scobie nodded. I spoke to Mrs
Humphreys, and

Who?

She owns the house where Janine was
murdered.

And?

Shes elderly, currently in
hospital recovering from a hip operation.

McQuarrie semaphored with his arms. What
about her?

She has a goddaughter, Christina
Traynor, who stayed with her for three weeks in April.

The room went very still. McQuarrie
cocked his head. Do we know anything about her?

Not yet.

Get onto it.

Sir.

Challis uncoiled from the wall and
sat at the table next to Ellen. He knew that McQuarrie would be leaving soon. Sir,
thirty minutes ago I had a call from Janines sister, Meg. She said something
that might have a bearing on all this.

McQuarrie looked put out. Such as?

Were you aware that Janine hated
driving?

McQuarrie looked puzzled. I fail to
see

In particular, she had a
pathological fear of making right turns, of turning against oncoming traffic,
and so whenever she had to drive anywhere shed map out routes that involved
mainly left turns, meaning that she often drove far out of her way to travel
short distances. You werent aware of that? Robert didnt tell you?

I think he mentioned something
about it, McQuarrie said evasively. Then he brightened. But dont you see?
Everything points to one thing: Janine was the wrong person in the wrong place
at the wrong time.

But theres no indication that Mrs
Humphreys was the right person or that her house was the right house, Challis
said.

And Janine might have been
followed, Ellen said.

McQuarrie said, Keep an open mind,
thats all I ask. Any joy on the weapon?

No ejected shells were found,
Challis said, but ballistics confirm that the shooter used a 9mm automatic

The report had just come in. The
usual kind of detail, two 9mm slugs, the lands and degrees of twist possibly
indicating a Browning. If our shooter was a pro, he went on, and it seems he
was, hed have used gloves and got rid of gun, gloves and outer clothing as
soon as possible.

Not necessarily, McQuarrie said
briskly. Were probably not dealing with rocket scientists here.

Challis gazed at his boss for a
couple of beats. Quite right, sir.

Have you spoken to everybody yet?

You never reach everybody, Challis
thought. We will eventually.

No time to lose, McQuarrie said,
getting to his feet and making for the door in a faint eddy of aftershave. I
want to be informed of everything of importance the moment it happens.
Meanwhile I think our most promising course of action is to look closely at the
woman next door and the goddaughter.

When McQuarrie was gone, Challis
stood by the window to watch and wait. After a couple of minutes, McQuarrie
strode across the carpark to his personal car, a Mercedes, finding time to
reprimand two constables on their way to a divisional van. One, Challis noted,
gave McQuarrie the finger afterwards.

The world restored a little, he
returned to the conference table, saying, That mans been like a father to me.

Then he waited. Would they think his
remark in bad taste? But they grinned. This jobs expanding before our eyes,
boss, Scobie said.

Challis nodded. And were going to
be stepping on sensitive and powerful toes, so we do everything by the book.
The super is going to stick his oar in at all stages, hes going to want to
steer the investigation, and hell try to protect his family. At one level, were
going to let him do that. Well listen to him, well follow up the lines of
inquiry he suggests, for theyll probably be those weve already thought of,
and generally let him think hes the driving force. At the moment hes not
calling for a full-scale task force. If things get too unmanageable, Ill do
something about it. Just dont let him waste your time, okay?

Ellen gathered her notes into a
folder. Are we ruling out Janine McQuarrie as the intended victim?

No, Challis said bluntly, no
matter what the super thinks.

He saw Ellen sneaking a look at her
watch. Go home, he said. Ill run Christina Traynor through the data bases;
Scobie, I want you to keep checking for stolen cars, particularly older ones,
pale in colour, but cast a state-wide net.

Boss.

Ellen continued to pack up her
notes. Did Janines sister say anything else?

Challis could read Ellen by now, and
shot her a look. You think shes trying to divert our attention away from
Janines love life, he said.

Ellen shrugged. I dont think she
gave us the full picture this afternoon.

Challis nodded his agreement, just
as one of the phones rang. It was the switchboard, looking for him. They had a
man on the line who claimed to have information about the shooting of Janine
McQuarrie. Challis told them to record and trace the call and put the caller
through to him. He switched to speaker mode and said, Inspector Challis.

The voice emerged like a mouse from
a hole. Are you the guy in charge of the murder of Janine McQuarrie? The one
on the news?

Challis leaned forward, listening
hard to the voice, the background noise and everything in between. It was hard
to pinpoint the age. Slurred, which meant hed been drinking or was stoned.
Suspicious and wary: owing to the situation, or because hed had dealings with
the police before? No extraneous traffic or other sounds.

He said carefully, Do you have
something to tell the police?

It was important to stay low-key: no
hectoring, pushing or leading. It was also necessary to establish if the caller
was a hoaxer or a sad character after a bit of attention.

In a rush the man said, What if
something happened you didnt think was going to happen?

Challis said gently, Were not in
the business of blaming people for things they didnt do.

I didnt think hed go this far.

Is this person a friend of yours?
Are you afraid of him? We can offer protection.

There was silence and the seconds
ticked away and then the caller said, as if betrayed, I bet youre tracing
this, and hung up.

Well? Challis said, glancing
around at the others.

He wasnt on long enough for a
trace, Scobie said.

What was your impression of him?

Genuine, boss.

Ellen?

Genuine.

Challis said, Right, we need it to
go out on the evening news and in the papers tomorrow. Reporters are already
swarming over this, so we wont need to persuade them. The usual thing: Police
are anxious to speak again to the anonymous caller who phoned with information
regarding the murder of Janine McQuarrie. Who knows, it might shake something
loose.

* * * *

19

In
Challiss experience, very few criminals returned to the scene of the crimenot
unless they were stupid, retrieving incriminating evidence, or actively seeking
capture and punishment. But police officers often did, and on his way home that
Tuesday evening, Challis called in at 283 Lofty Ridge Road, and stood for a
while in the waning light.

The lowering sky was dripping and
close around him. The crime-scene tape thrummed in the wind and the sounds of
engines and tyres on the road above him were disembodied and distorted. His old
Triumph ticked as the motor cooled. It had been a bugger to start, drawing
amused glances in the carpark at Waterloo, but hed booked it in for a service
and tune tomorrow.

He shook that off and began to think
himself into the minds and bodies of this mornings victims and killers. This
was a natural condition: Challis did it automatically at every murder scene. In
that way he was able to understood the impulse and the circumstances. Very
little surprised himwhich is not to say that he condoned or forgave,
necessarily.

But this time his skin crept. All of
his senses were resonating with another shooting, in another place, with other
culprits and victims.

Hed been younger then, a detective
sergeant based in a large town on the endless wheat plains in the west of the
state. He was married, and had thought that he was happily married, but what he
didnt know was that his wife was deeply unhappy. She started sleeping with one
of his colleagues, a married senior constable. Their affair grew in hothouse
circumstances and turned obsessive. In their minds, the only way out was to
shoot Challis dead, so they lured him to a lonely place and ambushed him under
a moonless evening sky. But Challiss senses had begun to tell him that
something was wrong, and he half turned to fish out his service .38, an action
that saved his life. The bullet plucked at his sleeve, putting a hole through
his jacket and ploughing through the flesh of his upper arm. Alerted now, hed
circled around, shot his wifes lover in the shoulder and disarmed the man. He
was currently serving twelve years. Angela Challis got ten years, but
imprisonment had thrown her off course, and shed killed herself in the prison
infirmary last year.

Challis knew that hed not have
liked Janine McQuarrie if hed met her, but had she been set up, too? Had
her
spouse wanted her out of the way? Ellen and Scobie had uncovered evidence
that shed been a poor therapist and a pain to work with: perhaps her bad
judgment calls, contempt and secrecy were symptoms of a deep unhappiness,
brought on by marriage to Robert McQuarrie and scrutiny by his awful family.

He stood there, knowing that he was
missing something and hoping the scene would tell him what it was. He saw, in
his minds eye, the driver and the shooter. Why had the shooter needed a
driver? Had they worked together before? From Georgia McQuarries account of
the killing, the two men had not brought equal degrees of professionalism to
the job. He could see her dialling 000, and made a mental note to check the
records for Janines car phone. Speaking of which, how had the killer got his
instructions?assuming that hed been hired and didnt have a personal stake in
the outcome.

This led Challis by degrees to the
anonymous caller. Was he the driver? An acquaintance whod supplied the gun or
the car? Someone whod hired others to throw a scare into Janine, only to see
it all go wrong?

His bones were aching, the chilly
dampness creeping into his core. He stamped his feet and began to move, pacing
across the driveway to a muddy path along one side of the house. He peered up
and saw smears of khaki-coloured mould, for the sun never, penetrated here, and
he envisioned Joy Humphreyss life of solitude, poverty and neglect.

He circled the house, wondering if
love or desire, and their perverted forms, had had any role in the murder of
Janine McQuarrie. Had she been an obstacle to love or desire, or inspired them?
Challis thought of the women in loveless marriages: many endured, some walked
out and a handful looked for drastic solutions.

As did husbands.

He tried to think of Janine
McQuarries husband then, but Ellen Destrys took form in his minds eye. The
guy; was paranoid, obsessive, authoritarian. He was wound so tight, and
harboured so many grievances, that hed snap one day, and maybe harm her.

It caught Challis like a blow then,
an unbidden image of Ellen at the wheel of the CIU Falcon this afternoon, her
fine jaw uptilted determinedly, and his wanting to touch her. He examined that
desire, in his orderly way. It was more than friendship and less than knight-in-shining-armour.
It was desire, plain and simpleand it probably wouldnt do.

He rounded the final corner, and
came again to the parking circle where Janine had tried to dodge her killer.
Visualising that was enough to make an ordinary persons skin crawl and pulse
race, but the McQuarrie men, son and father, had been strangely unmoved.
Challis didnt think they were numbed, but, if they were not involved in the killing,
what were they hiding?