Page 76 of One Left Alive
Ben sat down and leant forward, putting his head in his hands. ‘This whole thing is a mess, it’s far too complicated for my poor brain.’
Amy threw him a Snickers.
He held his hand up. ‘If you say anything.’
‘I’m not, I wouldn’t. But you’re not yourself when you’re hungry.’
‘Amy.’
‘Sorry, couldn’t help it. So, what’s what and who’s who?’
‘I wish I knew; I think Barker has the motive, and he’s definitely angry enough. I’ve never seen so much hostility come off a man who’s supposed to be a pillar of the community. He’s like a man possessed.’
‘Maybe he needs a Snickers too.’ Amy laughed at her own joke. Ben shook his head. Morgan stood by the whiteboard, uncapping a pen. She wrote three headings: Potters, Stone and O’Briens; underneath she wrote the families’ names. Underneath Potters and O’Briens she wrote ‘Gregory Barker’.
‘What connections did Barker have with Stone?’
‘He would have known him. He never admitted anything when I asked him just now though. I can’t see how the mayor and the editor of the paper wouldn’t be acquainted. We need it confirming. Write an action under Stone’s name to speak to other councillors and staff at the paper, see if they knew each other.’
Morgan did. ‘Harrison Wright, he knew the Potters. He’s far too young to have known the O’Briens though. However, I think he did know about them. I’m pretty sure it was him who went to the library to research their murders. Why was he interested in them? Also we don’t know if Bronte had a role in this. If she was with him it could have been the both of them and somehow it all went wrong.’
‘We need to speak to him. I want him bringing back in for questioning ASAP. Have response officers located him yet? Write that down as an action, and when Bronte wakes up we’ll question her to see if she remembers anything, but my focus would be Harrison.’
‘What about Stan Brookes?’
Ben looked at her, but she didn’t make eye contact with him and continued.
‘Well he was the last person to see the Potters and he knew the O’Briens. He’s the right age, so I don’t think he can be totally discounted. I spoke to him this morning, though. I don’t think he’s the killer, but…’
‘Put his name on the board, but somehow I don’t see Stan as a viable suspect. For one thing I get the impression he hasn’t got the balls and there’s another.’
‘What?’
‘He likes to drink. The Potters’ murders wasn’t some unorganised spur-of-the-moment killing. It was an organised killing. Whoever did it planned it out; we know that because of the tox results. There were traces of GHB in their systems. They didn’t drug themselves and it’s not the kind of thing I think Stan would be into. This killer took their time in researching and planning. Why did they hang Olivia, though? She didn’t have the head injuries the others did.’
There was a knock on the door and Declan walked in. ‘Hope I’m not disturbing anything?’
Ben shook his head.
Morgan turned away, relieved. As much as she disliked Stan, he was still her dad. Although she owed him no loyalty, after their little chat this morning she had found the block of ice beginning to thaw whenever she thought about him. It would have been hard to come to terms with it if Ben thought he was the killer.
‘I can tell you why Olivia didn’t have her brains smashed in. She was already dead. The killer had given her a fatal dose of GHB; the levels in her results were much higher than the others.’
‘Then why hang her if she was already dead?’
‘Maybe whoever it was didn’t want to think they’d killed her. It made them feel better if they remembered her hanging; they couldn’t force themselves to beat her like the rest. Just a theory, by the way, but might as well throw it in there.’
Morgan was writing everything down. ‘Why feel guilty about her and not the others? I don’t get it. Or why not give them all a fatal dose?’
‘To be honest I can’t tell you that. What I can tell you is each victim had a different dosage of the drug in their system, which tells me that I don’t think the person who administered it had a bloody clue what they were doing. It was hit and miss.’
‘Maybe whoever it was had a burning hatred of Saul and Beatrix, yet not Olivia? And where does Bronte come into this? They didn’t hit her as hard as the other two; she survived.’
Morgan shrugged. ‘I think whoever did this loved Olivia far more than the others, which brings it back around to Barker. He was having an affair with her.’
Ben looked up. ‘Oh, he was definitely having an affair with her. I think that CCTV footage Morgan secured proved that beyond reasonable doubt. He admitted that before he clammed up and went “no comment”. Said why would he kill the woman he loved and her family. Taskforce are on the way to his house to search it and his car; hopefully they find something of forensic value.’
Declan sat on a desk next to Amy and they were whispering about something. Morgan looked away, her paranoia getting the better of her.
