O’Connell jumps slightly in his chair, it responds with an old, tired squeak. His telephone is ringing. He sighs, dropping the pen clutched in his right hand and reaches towards the black receiver.
‘O’Connell.’ He says monotonously.
‘Detective Peter O’Connell from Sydney?’ A young male voice chants.
‘Yes ...’ O’Connell raises his eyebrows.
‘Do you know Jennifer Parson … ahh … I mean Barns?’ The voice asks.
‘Who is this?’ O’Connell’s voice raises half an octave.
‘Do you know Jennifer Barns?’ The voice repeats.
‘Yes ...’
‘Did you visit her last week?’
‘Yes ...’ O’Connell plays along, shifting back in his chair.
‘Are you from Scotland?’
‘Wha … Who is this?’ O’Connell presses.
‘Are you?’ The voice is persistent.
‘Do I sound like I’m from Scotland?
‘Yes.’
‘Look, would you please tell me who you are?’ He leans back towards his desk and places his left elbow firmly on top of it.
‘Hey, I’m Dave.’ The voice greets, as though the previous interrogation never happened.
‘Hi ...’
‘I’m a patient at Grove Hospital.’ O’Connell sits up tall in his chair. ‘I’m calling on behalf of Jenny, she’s not allowed to use the phone.’ Dave explains.
‘Right ...?’
‘She needs your help. She says that if you come down here she’ll agree to do what you want her to.’ O’Connell’s eyes light up.
‘My help? What’s happened?’ O’Connell leans his free arm onto his desk once more.
‘Well, that’s where I come into play.’
‘Yes ...’ O’Connell is eager.
‘Last night I was in the medical ward because I was ... um ... ah ... sick. And I overheard two guards talking.’ He pauses.
‘Keep going ...’ O’Connell listens intently.
‘Well one of the guards told the other that he just got a phone call from their boss who told him that he’d changed the plan. And then this guard said the boss wanted to kill her instead. So the other guard asked him what they had to do and the first guard said that they didn’t have to do anything, the boss was coming himself. Then the second guard got annoyed and said that would be impossible because he, the boss that is, would never be able to get close enough to her and even if he did he wouldn’t have a weapon to kill her with. Then the first guard told him that they have to sneak him in through security in the middle of the night so he can do it.’ Dave stopped, gulping a huge breath.
‘Um ... Dave was it?’ O’Connell takes advantage of the silence.
‘Yeah.’
‘I don’t think I follow you exactly.’ O’Connell’s eyes are squinted.
‘Oh ... sorry, I’m not very good at explaining things.’
‘Why don’t you just wrap up the story in simple terms?’
‘Okay, I can do that. Well, basically ... guards working for some guy are going to sedate all of the other guards and take control of the security system so their boss can sneak into the hospital tonight at midnight and kill Jenny.’
‘WHAT! Kill her? Tonight? Are you sure? This better not be some prank call.’ O’Connell threatens.
‘No no no no! – I’m dead serious. Jenny wanted to talk to you herself but the old bat at the phone desk wouldn’t let her use the phone. She’s desperate for you to help.’
‘Okay ...’ O’Connell stops briefly to think. ‘Do you have a pen and paper?’
‘Yes.’
‘Good, I want you to write this down and give it to Jennifer.’ O’Connell waits a moment. ‘One, remain calm.’ He pauses for a second. ‘Two, don’t tell anyone else. Underline that point. Three, act normal.’ He waits while Dave the instructions down.
‘Anything else?’
‘Yes, tell her to go to her room after dinner and stay there. And ... tell her not to worry, I’ll take care of everything.’ He clutches his free hand to his head, running it through his tangled curls.
‘Okay.’
‘Thank you so much Dave, you’ve no idea what you’ve just done.’ He takes in a long breath.
‘Wow. You’re welcome.’ Dave says, taken back by O’Connell’s praise.
‘Take care.’
‘You too.’ O’Connell hangs up the phone, letting out a huge gust of air, his heart is racing.
He sits in thought, drumming his fingers across his wooden desk. Only his eyes show glimpses of emotion. Fear, concern, exasperation, worry, anger. His fingers cease drumming and start tapping short staccato notes, they stop unexpectedly. He re-collects the phone and dials. It rings, unanswered. O’Connell is about to hang up when a disgruntled feminine voice breaks through the ear piece.
‘Mrs Holmes?’ The words erupt from his mouth.
‘Yes, who is this?’
‘Peter O’Connell, I work with your husband. I was wondering if I could speak with him.’
‘Is it urgent? We were just about to go out, he’s sitting in the car waiting for me.’
‘Well, I’m afraid it is rather urgent. I mean, I really have to speak to him. I’ve just found out something very important about a case.’
‘That doesn’t sound terribly urgent. My husband really does hate to be disturbed by minor work matters when he’s not on duty.’ She drawls.
‘I’m well aware of that Mrs Holmes, which is why I only call if it’s urgent. Please, I really do mean it when I say it’s urgent.’ He presses, leaning into his desk.
‘Oh, alright, I’ll get him.’ A loud noise thunders out of the earpiece when she clunks the phone down. A few minutes pass before O’Connell hears Holmes’ voice.
‘O’Connell?’ Holmes bursts through the phone.
‘Yes sir.’
‘What is it? And whatever it is it better be important.’ He threatens.
‘Oh, it’s important.’
‘Well ...?’
‘I just had a phone call from Grove Hospital.’ O’Connell bites his lip.
‘Jesus Christ! O’Connell ... What are you doing?’ He splutters. ‘I should’ve known you wouldn’t just drop this case. You better have a damn good reason for calling me about this if you want to have a job on Monday.’ He shouts. O’Connell moves the phone a few inches away from his ear, returning it when it is his turn to speak.
‘Some guards were overheard talking last night at the hospital. Guards who are working for Verdad.’ O’Connell spills into the receiver before Holmes has time to react.
‘Guards who are working for Verdad? And you know all of this because your little nut case told you this. Is that right?’
‘Will you just listen! This is not some stupid game, this is serious. Verdad does have men working at the hospital and he is keeping an eye on Jenny.’
‘How can you be sure of that?’ Holmes is more than doubtful.
‘Um ... I sent someone in there under cover.’ O’Connell whispers into the phone. There is a brief silence on Holmes’ end of the line.
‘O’Connell, you did not just say that. You did not just say that! Urgh! What are you doing, I told you not to do that, in fact I demanded that you not do it. You’ve never gone against my orders before. What is wrong with you?’ He shouts.
‘I know, I’m sorry, but ... I had a feeling, and, I was right! Verdad has guards there undercover.’ He jams his head towards his desk out of frustration.
‘Who did you send in behind my back?’ The words poisonous.
‘Uh ... No one associated with the police ... a private investigator. I’ve known him for years. He ... owed me a favour.’
‘What’s his name?’ Holmes asks slowly.
‘Colin Jones.’ O’Connell sounds sheepish.
‘That idiot! Jesus. Last year he was responsible for an innocent man being sent to gaol.’ Holmes yells.
‘I know, that wasn’t his fault.’ O’Connell defends.
‘Wasn’t h
is fault? He was the one who gathered the evidence against him. O’Connell, you’re losing your touch.’
‘No I’m not! Just listen.’ He cupped his forehead with his free hand.
‘You’ve got two minutes.’
‘Okay. Verdad has decided it’s finally time for him to get rid of Jennifer. The guards were overheard saying he will be going to the hospital tonight to kill her.’
‘Kill her? Why? We’re not after him anymore and she doesn’t even want to testify. What reason does he have for just abruptly deciding to go and kill her?’
O’Connell hesitates. ‘Uh ... I’m not really sure.’
‘Yes you are.’ Holmes says with a slow contempt. ‘Come on, out with it.’
‘Well,’ O’Connell pauses, ‘I’m not saying this is the reason why but it could have set him off, angered him.’ O’Connell stops again.
‘Go on.’ Holmes is short.
‘I sort of ran into him last night. Had a bit of a chat, you know.’ He began tapping his fingers on the desk slowly.
‘God, what did you say to him?’
‘Nothing much ... I just told him that Jennifer was going to testify against him, but he didn’t believe me. That was it. I was just trying to get him to slip up.’ O’Connell collapses back into his chair.
‘There must be more to it than that if he’s decided to do away with her.’ He sings.
‘Well, we did get into a slight argument but it wasn’t about the case.’
‘What was it about?’ Holmes sounds un-impressed.
‘... Jennifer.’
‘Of course it was.’ Holmes sighs. ‘Well, it must have been a pretty big argument if he wants to kill her now.’
‘It’s personal, I’d really rather not talk about it.’ O’Connell barely articulates.
‘O’Connell, your job is on the line, forget personal and tell me now.’
He grimaces. ‘He got annoyed, said the only reason I was after him was because I was in love with Jennifer and that I wanted to get him out of the way so I could have her.’
‘And what did you say?’
‘Well ... I guess I didn’t deny it.’ He blushes.
‘Then what happened?’
‘He said ... he said that ... if he couldn’t have her ... then neither could I.’ O’Connell’s chokes back a tear, remembering Verdad’s words.
‘So now he’s going to kill her?’
‘Yes.’ O’Connell manages to whisper.
‘Tonight? And you’re absolutely sure?’ Holmes presses.
‘Yes, that’s what I was told.’ O’Connell repeats.
‘Why would he go? Couldn’t he just get his men to kill her? That would be easier.’
‘Of course it would be easier but I’m sure Verdad would get more satisfaction out of doing it himself.’ Hatred contorts his face.
‘Yes, well, if he’s done all of the things you say he has that doesn’t surprise me. But, what are you ringing me for?’ He returns the conversation back to business.
‘I want your permission to get a small team of officers together to go down there and stop him.’ Holmes begins to protest, however, O’Connell overrides him. ‘I want to set up a trap. Verdad doesn’t know we know about this. If we’re careful we can catch him trying to kill her, that way we could definitely get him and we would still have Jennifer as a witness later on if we needed her.’
Holmes thinks silently. ‘Okay.’ He says after a moment. ‘Do what you have to to get this bastard.’
‘Thank you sir.’ O’Connell sits back in his chair, relieved.
‘But, if I were you O’Connell, I’d be praying this works in your favour, because if it doesn’t, you’ll be better off back in Scotland on Monday morning.’ He threatens.
‘I know sir. Don’t worry, I haven’t been waiting seven years for this moment to stuff it up.’
‘I wish I could believe you. Good luck.’ He says.
‘Thank you sir. I’ll speak to you tomorrow, I hope, when this is all over.’
‘Only if you’re still alive.’
‘Oh, I will be. Goodbye sir.’ He breathes quietly.
‘Goodbye.’
O’Connell hangs up the phone, his blood flowing like a strong current. He launches out of his chair, the excess force of the movement sends it flying back into the wall. Galloping to the door, he thrusts the handle down and springs out of his office. He thunders down the hallway until he reaches a vacant tidy desk. A name plate on the front reads ‘Jeff Rogers’.
‘Where’s Rogers?’ He directs to a young officer behind him.
‘Ah ... photocopy room I think.’ The officer replies.
O’Connell continues his hurried pace down the hall and turns left through a door marked ‘PHOTOCOPY’. Rogers is standing next to the fax machine gazing into the wall as a large piece of paper coils out of the machine, brushing against the floor. He looks up when O’Connell bursts into the room. One look at O’Connell’s face is enough to alert Rogers.
‘O’Connell?’ He frowns.
‘This is it. Verdad’s going to kill her. Tonight.’ O’Connell runs towards a large steel filing cabinet shoved against the right wall and kicks it; a bang resonates throughout the room.
‘Jesus, O’Connell … calm down!’
‘Why have I been acting like such an idiot? Why did I have to go and tell Verdad that Jennifer was going to testify? Why did I have to piss him off? What’s wrong with me?’ He cups his head with his hands.
‘Calm down. Look, what happened? I thought this case was on the back burner. You haven’t still been following Verdad around have you?’ He faces him, surprised.
‘You were right. I’ve been letting my feelings cloud my judgement. I went and saw Verdad last night. We had an argument over Jennifer and now he’s going to kill her to spite me.’ He rests his forehead on top of the cabinet.
‘What? Kill her? How could you possibly know that?’ Rogers bends down to pick up the fax.
‘I got a tip off. Someone close to Jennifer overheard Verdad’s men talking about it last night.’
‘Verdad’s men? So, he does have men working inside the hospital?’
‘Yes.’ O’Connell starts repeatedly kicking the filing cabinet.
‘O’Connell! O’Connell! Stop!’ Rogers runs over to him and yanks him away from the wall, holding him tightly around the shoulders. ‘You have to stop beating yourself up about all of this. It’s done. We just have to do what we can to fix it.’ O’Connell looks into Rogers’ brown eyes and nods sporadically; his heart beat begins to slow.
‘You’re right. I need to stay calm, for Jennifer.’
‘Yeah ... for Jennifer.’ Rogers’ rolls his eyes.
‘Holmes has given me permission to put a team together.’ O’Connell tells him. ‘We’re going to the hospital tonight to catch Verdad.
‘Go and get Hudson, Finlay and Young and meet me in the conference room in one hour. I have to call Jones.’
‘Who’s Jones?’ Rogers’ eyes crease.
‘Our inside man.’ Rogers’ nods slightly perplexed while O’Connell pushes past him and leaves the room quickly.
ONE HOUR LATER
O’Connell and his men are congregated around a grey oval table in the middle of a large room. It could easily seat twenty, but with the party of five, it is vacant and hollow. There are whiteboards splayed spaciously around the wood panelled room littered with odd sentences and diagrams; a large flat screen television hangs off the back wall accompanied with a mediocre surround sound system. O’Connell sits at the head of the grey table at the end furthest from the door. Rogers and Hudson sit to his left, Finlay and Young sit to his right.
Rogers’ dark complexion stands out amongst the others; his thick frame and jaw make him appear the strongest of the five. His curly hair is messier than O’Connell’s waves and he sits silently, his dark eyes darting around the room nervously.
Hudson’s red hair reflects the mid-morning sun shining in through the window, his pale skin lit
up. He sits still, a confused expression taped on his face.
Finlay and Young; the rookies. Finlay with his boyish blonde features stands out as much as Young’s substantially noticeable stomach. The four of them remain silent, staring at O’Connell, waiting for him to speak.
‘Okay guys,’ O’Connell looks around the table at them, ‘you’ve all been informed by Rogers about what’s going on.’ He says. ‘Now this is how it will work.
‘I’ve got us booked on a flight to Hobart leaving at six o’clock. We should be there around eight which will give us enough time to drive from the airport to the hospital. Now, I've just learned that Verdad has already left which means he’s probably rented out a hotel room or something near the area to stay in until he feels the time is right for him to head into the hospital. This means he’ll be very prepared so we have to be on our guard.’ He gives them all a stern stare.
‘Finlay and Young,’ he continues, ‘I was thinking you two could be lookouts. I want you to stay outside the hospital until Verdad gets there.’ The two officers glance at each other, their faces mirroring their disappointment. ‘I’ve just found out there are actually two entrances – a visitor’s entrance and an employee entrance. I think we’re safe to assume he’ll being going in through the employee entrance and so will we. It grants easier access to the main part of the hospital and it’s more secluded. However I want one of you at either entrance just in case.’ He stares at the two young officers scribbling their orders down on a sheet of paper in front of them. ‘We’ll communicate via the radios. When Verdad arrives I want whoever sees him to notify everyone as soon as they feel safe enough to do so, then I want you two to follow him in, unseen of course.’ Finlay nudges Young in the ribs with a smile, glad with this new development. O’Connell ignores them.
‘I don’t see Verdad wanting to muck around, he’ll probably want to find Jennifer as soon as possible. I’ve told her to stay in her room after dinner. Now, in order to get Verdad properly we need to make sure we catch him with a gun or whatever weapon he’s got, preferably while he’s using it against us or her, if it comes to that.’ He added. ‘However we are trying to prevent that course of action. He’s probably going to go straight to her room. I’ll be hiding in there waiting for him to come.
‘Rogers, Hudson,’ He stares at the other side of the table,’ I want you two hiding somewhere on the same floor as backup. Watch out for Verdad, when you see him enter the room start heading towards the door, that way you can jump on him.’ They nod in unison.
‘O’Connell,’ Rogers’ wakes up, ‘Won’t he have backup as well? His guards might follow him to the room.’
‘Yes, I know, that’s something we have to be aware of the whole time as well. I don’t think Verdad usually likes his men to watch him, less witnesses that way, but he may need help finding the room so most likely he will have escorts. If that is the case then take them out first, with minimal force of course.’
‘Okay.’ Rogers nods. ‘Don’t worry, we’ll play it as it comes.’
‘Good. I have faith in you guys.’ O’Connell stares at each officer individually.
‘Finlay, Young,’ he turns back to the two young officers, ‘when you come in, head straight up to Jennifer’s room as well. We’re going to need full man power, especially if Verdad has men with him. Hopefully this goes the way we want it to and we get him, finally.’ The officers nod.
‘What about the other guards, the ones who aren’t working for Verdad?’ Hudson asks.
O’Connell turns to face him. ‘Verdad has ordered his men to sedate the other guards before he gets there. Which is good for us because there won’t be any one there trying to stop us from entering. If you do see a guard walking around, you can bet they’ll be working for him.
‘Colin Jones is our inside man.’ He stops, stares at a collection of papers in front of him and searches for four pages with the same photograph. He hands one to each of his men. ‘This is him. He will be patrolling around doing his normal shift. I’m assuming they’ll try to sedate him, after all they’ll think he’s just a regular guard. I don’t know what they intend to use to knock the guards out but Jones has been notified and he is going to be extra careful.’ Finlay and Young study Jones’ photograph with extra attention.
‘He’s told me that usually at night they have two guards patrolling each floor,’ O’Connell continues, ‘one patrolling the outside grounds and one in the main security office keeping an eye on the monitors and security system. Jones will be patrolling the fourth floor, which is one floor above Jennifer’s. Verdad’s men, the two guards that were overheard talking, patrol the fifth floor. There are seven floors including the ground level, which make sixteen guards in total when you include the one outside and the one in the security office. One is ours and at least two are his, which leaves thirteen unaccounted for.’ O’Connell leans back.
‘Jones will be keeping an eye on the other guards. My thoughts are that Verdad’s men will try to use a very strong sedative which may mean they might be out of action all night. I’ve asked Jones to do whatever he can in order to prevent getting himself in trouble without raising suspicion. I’ll be keeping in contact with him throughout the evening. If I lose contact then I’ll assume they’ve gotten to him.’ He pauses. ‘One thing we don’t know is when these guards are going to attack. But, we’re going to have to wait until the guards have been sedated before going in there otherwise we’ll be easily seen and stopped.’ O’Connell finally stops, letting his officers digest the plan.
‘Hang on, isn’t Jones going to let us in? If he gets sedated how can he?’ Finlay asks, concerned.
‘He should be contacting me any minute now to give me the security codes to all of the doors. The guards usually use swipe cards but there are also key pads on the doors as well so you can manually punch in a code in case the card system fails. We’ll all have a copy of the codes along with a map, that way we can let ourselves in.’
‘Verdad will probably have them too.’ Young adds.
‘Undoubtedly, this makes us even in that field.’ He takes in a slow breath. ‘So you’ve got a few hours to prepare. I’ll meet you back here at two o’clock and we’ll take the van out to the airport.’
Slowly, the four officers pull out of their chairs and walk out of the room chatting to one another. O’Connell remains behind, sitting silently in thought for some minutes. He jumps when his mobile phone rings. Pulling it out of his pocket he answers swiftly, ‘O’Connell.’
‘Hi, it’s me.’ The voice on the other end is slow.
‘You’ve got the codes?’
‘Yeah, I’ll need to fax them to you. Are you at the station?’
‘Yes.’
‘Okay, I’ll send a fax through now.’ He breathes heavily.
‘Did you manage to get all of the codes?’ O’Connell asks eagerly.
‘Yeah, it was a little tricky but I got ‘em.’ Jones drags. ‘Each floor has a different set of codes, see. I’ve only got limited access to the first four floors but I managed to talk a legit guy into letting me borrow his card so I could get into the main office and print out the security details while the watchman was on a break.’
‘Good job Jones! I owe you one now.’ O’Connell sighs back into his chair.
‘Are the plans for tonight still the same?’ He asks.
‘Yeah. Just ... be careful, okay.’ O’Connell frowns.
‘Don’t worry, I’ve done this kind of thing plenty ... of times.’
‘Are you okay?’ O’Connell’s face concerned, he leans further into his chair.
‘Yeah, just a little sleepy. Did a double shift to try to get these codes for you, been up all night.’ He shrugs off the concern.
‘Okay, well, just keep in mind that Verdad is a dangerous man.’
‘I know, I’m not scared. They can do what they want to me, so long as I don’t get killed and Verdad gets captured.’ He laughs nervously.
‘Okay then.’ O’Connell says. ‘You’
ve got more guts than most men. Good luck.’
‘I think you need more luck than me mate. See you soon.’
‘Yeah, goodbye.’ O’Connell hangs up, frowning. He leaves the room quietly, heading to the photocopy room, arriving just as the fax starts coiling out of the machine. He collects it before it hits the ground.
#23 Murder