Page 79 of M for Murder

Unfortunately, the process of taking the prints was going to run over several days, which allowed the killer plenty of time to pick off another victim.

Following the discovery of Rufus Lind’s body, the beach entrance of the sewer had been put under twenty-four-hour surveillance, in the hope that the killer might return to the scene of his original crime. There were two other main sewer entrances, though, not to mention the myriad manholes throughout the city, and he had been smart enough to change location each time. He had also been smart enough to know how to get his victims, which fuelled the theory that each of them had probably already known him.

Catherine Maloney’s alleged date, Aidan Reilly, had a solid alibi and claimed to know nothing about their supposed rendezvous. If he was telling the truth, and after having spoken to him at length, Joel didn’t doubt he was, then who had Catherine been going to meet the night she was murdered? Had she planned a date with the killer? It was the same pattern as with Emma Keeley, who had also been killed after she’d gone out claiming she had to meet somebody.

Had Catherine and Emma arranged to meet the same person?

Both girls had received a sharp blow to the head with a blunt instrument before they were killed. The pattern was consistent between the male students as well: Scott Jagger, Rufus Lind and Kevin North had all been drugged with a concoction of vodka and sleeping pills. Had they believed they were sharing an innocent drink with a friend, not realising the bottle had been laced with narcotics?

Rodney Boone had liked to feed off his victims’ fear. He had enjoyed watching them suffer as he choked the life out of them. This killer, until he murdered Justine Orton, had seemed to want to spare his victims the agony of dying, preferring instead to render them unconscious first.

Why had he chosen to differ from Boone? And why had he now decided to change his pattern?

It was close to midnight when Joel and Angell finally wrapped things up at the college, and still they didn’t have an answer to any of these questions.

They walked to their car in silence. Angell looked tired and Joel had too much on his mind to want to argue. Between them they had managed to interview all twenty-eight of the students who lived in Justine Orton’s dorm, and had spent the evening asking the same questions and receiving the same answers.

Joel toyed briefly with the idea of asking Angell if she wanted to stop off for a drink. They could both use one, and it would give them the opportunity to talk over the evening’s events. Remembering Saturday night, he rejected the idea. It had been a dumb move going to her apartment, especially after he had already warned himself to stay away from her. She had known what was going on in his mind. It had been obvious from the look in her eyes and he strongly suspected that had he made a move she would have reciprocated.

He hated to think how they would have coped working with each other had they ended up in bed together. There was no way he wanted any more than a one-night stand and, while it wouldn’t surprise him to find that she didn’t want or expect anything more either, it would have still made things unnecessarily awkward between them. Rebecca Angell’s opinion of him was already not particularly high and although, after the way he had treated her, Joel guessed he deserved it, he didn’t need her thinking any worse of him. If he could just keep his mind on the job, they would hopefully catch their killer and then he wouldn’t have to see her again.

Hopefully, though with the lack of leads they had at the moment, he didn’t think so.

30

TUESDAY 6TH MAY 1997

Y esterday had been breaking point. Seeing the man from the grocery store standing outside her classroom had pretty much ripped what was left of Kylan’s nerves to shreds and was proof enough that she was definitely being followed. She didn’t know why and didn’t want to know why. All she did know was that this man had scared the hell out of her and, considering the circumstances, she didn’t think anyone could blame her for her reaction.

She had considered going to the police and telling them about him, but soon realised it would be futile. After all, what would they be able to do? They could hardly arrest the guy for being in the same place as her on a handful of occasions and, even if they could, they would have to find him first and she wouldn’t have any idea to tell them where to look.

It was no good. The police couldn’t help her, and she wasn’t about to risk putting herself in any kind of danger. What she needed to do was get out of town for a while. She needed to go somewhere quiet where she could relieve the pressure building up inside her head. She wondered if she should call Dr Slevin. Maybe she could go back for a session and he would be able to help her. He would want to know that she was still taking her medication, though, and then what would she tell him?

No, what she needed was somewhere where she could be alone. Somewhere where she could regroup and somewhere where she would feel safe.

Glancing at her half empty closet and checking that she had everything that she needed, Kylan Parker picked her case up from the floor and made her way out of the bedroom.

Lawrence Parker was being uncooperative.

Not that it particularly mattered. He had been arrested late Tuesday afternoon and Joel had taken great pleasure in entering his classroom and reading him his rights in front of the class full of students.

It was very likely he would be charged with Justine Orton’s murder. Not only had they found his prints all over the black and green tie that had been used to strangle her, but the tie actually belonged to him. Sloppy, Joel thought, and tried to push the niggling doubt to the back of his mind as to why Parker would leave such an obvious clue and also openly admit that the tie was his.

Right now, the most important thing was getting him to confess, not only to Justine’s murder, but also to the murders of Scott Jagger, Emma Keeley, Rufus Lind, Catherine Maloney and Kevin North.

Of course, they still had the mystery print on the vodka bottle found at the crime scene of Scott Jagger’s murder, but the evidence found in Justine Orton’s room was so overwhelming it was easier to believe that the print had belonged to someone completely unrelated to the killings than the idea that Lawrence Parker had been set up.

There was other evidence that also pointed to Parker. All six dead students had taken his English class. The police already had the letter that Emma Keeley had sent to him, and Parker himself had admitted that his relationship with Emma was more than just student–professor. Going through Justine Orton’s room suggested that she too had a ‘special’ relationship with him. There was no hard proof of this, but the drawings in her books and the picture of him cut from a student paper went a long way to confirm their suspicions.

Never one to forget a face, Joel could remember seeing Justine Orton in the classroom the day he had first met Lawrence Parker. He had come to the conclusion back then that she’d had a crush on him. Had Parker returned her advances? Or perhaps, knowing how she felt, had he used his charms to get himself invited into her room?

Parker wasn’t as forthcoming about Justine as he was about Emma, claiming that he had never had anything to do with her outside of class. Joel guessed he was just being difficult because he knew they had him cornered. If he and Max both kept putting the pressure on him, he would eventually start to crack.

Staring coldly into Parker’s eyes, he asked for the fifth time, ‘So, if you didn’t kill Justine Orton, how did your tie get in her room?’

Parker glared back. ‘The answer is still the same as the last time you asked, Agent Hickok. I don’t know.’

Although he’d been in the interview room for nearly two hours, his posture hadn’t changed at all. Normally, by the second hour, suspects would start to crumble, become restless and lose their cool. Not Lawrence Parker. He was still sitting relaxed in his chair, legs crossed, eyes shifting from Joel to Max as each of them asked questions, answering them calmly and only raising his voice when he wanted to stress a point. Right now his attention was focused on Joel. ‘Have you decided if you’re going to charge me yet, Agent Hickok?’