A New Beginning

"That was just a part of what turned out to be something of a disaster. Do you remember me telling you that she creeped me out, well nothing has changed in that area. She started off by getting angry with me for seeing you this morning. That creeped me out let me tell you. Then she told me a whole lot of stuff that I didn't know that Rosie was going through leading up to her death, and now she has virtually accused this guy that was stalking her of murdering her. But the more that I thought about this, the less plausible I found it. There is something not quite right about it, but I can't place my finger on it. What I need to do is to track this guy down and get his side of the story. My big problem is that I won't be able to take any time off work for the next week or so. I wouldn't mind so much if it was something that I liked doing, but believe me, this is one part of my job that I can do without."

"Maybe I can help you, I have a bit of spare time over the next week or two, so if there is anything that I can do to help, don't hesitate to ask."

"There is. Can you come to my office at 2:00 tomorrow afternoon, By then I should have the contents of the safety deposit box and had a chance to look at what is in there. If there is something that you can follow up on, then I can give you the information and you can get on it."

"I'll be there, wherever that is." I gave her the address and told her to speak to the receptionist who'll tell her where my office is.

"How is your campaign going?"

"The girls have already started to send their stuff out and the response is frightening, this is bigger than I thought. I'll fill you in tomorrow morning, shall I?"

"Of course, I'm so bushed that I forgot about our morning meetings. Same time as this morning?"

"Same time, same place? Or shall we make it a different place?"

"Probably a good idea. I'll drop the kids off as usual and then drive to the train station. I'll catch the train to the domestic terminal and meet you at the top of the stairs on the concourse. We can find a cafe somewhere and grab a coffee. How does that sound to you."

"She's got you ducking for cover, hasn't she?"

"It's not me that I'm worried about, I'd hate to think of what she would do to you if she put her mind to it. I'm going to talk to Guthrie tomorrow once I get a peak at what's in the box. If Rosie mentions this guy by name he can probably track him down quicker than we can."

"Thank you for caring. I can take care of myself I'll have you know."

"Against a normal person maybe, but I've got a horrible feeling that she's seriously unhinged. Look, I'd better go, I've just heard Rhianna heading for the bathroom, and she'll come down here to get me to tuck her back into bed. If I'm talking to someone she'll want to know who it is, and I don't want to lie to her, and it's way to soon to spring you on them. 'Bye Love."

"I like that. See you in the morning Darling."

"You work too hard Daddy." Rhianna's voice said from the doorway.

"Daddy has a lot of work to do. Come, give me a hug and I'll tuck you back into bed."

"I love you Daddy." She said sleepily as I tucked her in and gave her a kiss.

"Go to sleep."

"Yes . . Daddy. . . ." It never ceased to amaze me how kids could drop off to sleep just like that.

I varied the usual routine after dropping the kids at school. Instead of driving off in the direction I had been heading, I made a 'U' turn and drove to the train station. I caught a train to the Domestic terminal at the airport and Rachel was waiting for me at the top of the escalators. "Hi, how are you this morning?" She asked just after she had kissed me.

"Fine, really good. We won't have to worry about being seen by you know who."

"Good, I want to tell you what has happened with our campaign. It has gone viral! It is bigger than I anticipated, we are getting feeds from all over the world, especially America where it seems to be the done thing. But the big news is that I'm not the only girl that my particular Prof has been hitting on. With the number of girls claiming to have not only been hit on by him, but have actually had sex with him, I'm surprised that he ever gets any work done. He has a veritable harem happening. It's only a matter of time before the Uni Admin gets wind of this and they'll be forced to take some sort of action."

"It's also a matter of time before the media takes up the campaign. This is the sort of story that they feed on. My concern is that the professors that are named will not take this laying down. They will probably fight back and fight dirty. I don't want you to get hurt by this."

"I don't think that's likely to happen. This has been set up in such a way that it is almost impossible to trace the source. The original post was routed through literally hundreds of servers before it surfaced. And as soon as it was out there the original server was shut down."

"I wish that I knew my way around a computer like you do. We have to use them in HR, doing wages and stuff like that, and keeping track of the hours that staff work, and I can handle that reasonably well, but get me to do something that I'm not used to, and I'd flounder big time."

"Well then, you'd have to call on my expertise, wouldn't you?"

"As if I'd need an excuse to call on you. Getting on to the subject of this afternoon, I don't know what I'll find in the box, so we'll have to play it by ear until we make some sense of it. I won't be able to spend too much time on it, I have my job to do. And it's something that I can't delegate, the decisions are mine to make, and mine alone. If it's okay with you, and it needs immediate attention, I'll leave you in my office to work on it, Judy, she's my Assistant, will look after you if you need anything, coffee, whatever, feel free to ask."

"I will. It will be great to see where you work and what you do, and what people think of you, not that this will affect the way I feel about you." She smiled at me. "You know, I could quite easily be falling in love with you."

"That's good, I feel the same way about you, but we have a lot of hurdles to jump before we can take this anywhere. I have to tell you, I will not be rushed. Any decision that I, we, make will impact on the rest of our lives. I am a cautious man."

"Good. You had better get to work. I'll see you this afternoon." We stood, we kissed, and I walked back down to the train platform to catch a train into the CBD and work.

"Where the fuck did you get to this morning?" Georgia's angry voice screamed at me thirty seconds after I had sat behind my desk. I had been warned. Judy told me as I walked past her desk that she had three phone calls from her already.

"I'll handle her." I said with as much confidence as I could muster. "Oh, were we supposed to meet this morning? I wasn't aware that we had an appointment."

"You know what I fucking mean. You snuck off to see your bit of fluff, didn't you?"

"I didn't sneak anywhere. I had an appointment to keep this morning, so I kept it. I didn't think that I needed your permission to do that."

"I want to see you."

"I don't particularly want to see you. Call me insensitive, but your aggressive manner is a real turn-off for me. I find very little to like about you, so please, I'm asking you nicely, do not call me again, do not follow me again. Is that understood?"

"Patrick, what can I say. I've gotten off on the wrong foot here, haven't I? But I can change, just you wait and see, I can be the perfect woman for you, I want to be your perfect woman. Give me another chance, please, please, don't make me beg. I love you Patrick, I have loved you for a long time but you didn't even know that I existed. Your whole world revolved around Rosie and your kids, I couldn't get a look-in. The number of nights that I cried myself to sleep because you ignored me."

"Good-bye George, I have work to do." I hung up the phone. I pushed the intercom button. "Judy, if she calls again, I'm not here, understood?"

"Yes Boss."

My real work took up the rest of the morning and it was a relief when Judy came in and told me that I had arranged to go to the bank.

I didn't have any problem gaining access to the safety deposit box once I'd established that I was Rosie's husband and reminding the bank that I was Executer of her estate and, as such, had every right to access it. It contained a sealed envelope that I took back to work with me before opening it. To say its contents troubled me would be understating the facts. She had meticulously chronicled the events of the six months prior to her murder. It began with a disturbing phone call from the man, Brendan Carlisle, George's reputed lover, in which he invited Rosie to dinner. She refused, telling him that she was happily married and just going to dinner with him would, in her eyes, constitute a betrayal of her marriage vows. He did not take it well. Several more calls took place, each sounding more desperate than the previous, until she asked reception to take all calls, and only transfer work related calls and those from me.

This put a temporary halt to his harassment, but it began again in a much more subtle way. He took to writing and sending begging emails and text messages to her mobile phone. She blocked his number on her mobile, and listed his email address as spam. His Facebook page claimed that he was in a committed relationship with her, and that they planned to marry once she divorced me. It was forwarded to her by Georgia who was totally pissed off with the whole episode, and very publicly broke off her own relationship with him. Now this is where it got very weird. He claimed that his Facebook account had been hacked and that he had made no such claim about Rosie at all, and that he was still in a committed relationship with Georgia. Rosie took her problem to her boss and he called Brendan into his office for a 'quiet word'. Brendan denied all of this had happened and that he had been set up by someone, he didn't know who, but that it had severely damaged his relationship with Georgia, who he still loved very much.

Tensions in the office ran high. Brendan was ostracised by the other staff to the point that they refused to work with him, did not reply when he spoke to them, and whenever he entered the lunch room they would get up and leave, even throwing perfectly good food into the bin just so that they didn't have to be in the same room.

Brendan went on extended sick leave, he could no longer cope with the treatment that he received from people that he once considered friends. But the cyber-attacks on Rosie continued right up until the time that she went on maternity leave to have Ryan. She never contemplated the return of these attacks until Rhianna started school and she explored the possibility of returning to work. The day after her interview with the General Manager and her being shown around the office to meet the staff that weren't there before she went on leave, they began again.

Rosie began to withdraw into herself. I had noticed subtle differences in her behaviour, but she told me that she was concerned about going back to work after such a long absence. She never got to go back. In the week before she was supposed to return to work she disappeared.

"After I drop the kids off at school, I'm going shopping. I realised, seeing the other women in the office, that my work clothes are totally out of fashion. I have to look good, and make a good first impression."

"You will always look good, and I'm not just saying that to stop you spending all of my money on clothes. Having said that, go ahead, you deserve it."

"I promise not to spend all of your money." She kissed me. There was nothing in that kiss that was a precursor to what was to come.

My first indication that something was wrong was the phone call from the school. "Mr. O'Laughlin, it's Felicity Kensitt from the school. We are a little concerned, Mrs O'Laughlin hasn't picked your children up yet."

"Have you tried to call her at home?"

"Yes, it went straight to message bank. We've tried her mobile and it rings out."

"I'm on my way, call me if she turns up in the mean time. No, don't bother with that, I'll need to talk to her. No, forget that, I'll see you soon." I was confused. This was totally out of character for Rosie. On the few times that she had been delayed for some reason she had contacted either her mother or mine to pick the kids up. Why hadn't she done this? I was beginning to panic, and my panic was not eased when I got to the school to find the kids still there.

I called the police. The person that I spoke to suggested that I go home and wait a while, that she was just delayed. I tried to convince them that this was so out of character that it was certain that something had happened to her. The school suggested that I should go home and wait, probably because having the police there was not a good look as far as the school's image was concerned. Regardless of that, when there was nothing, no sign of her, half an hour later, I called the police again. They reluctantly agreed to dispatch a patrol car.

Sections of the media obviously had ears on police communications, because they arrived before the police. The Interview that set the tone for the police investigation was taking place when they arrived. "Mr O'Laughlin, it is less than an hour since the alarm was first raised, what makes you think that something bad has happened to your wife Rosie?"

"Because this is so totally at odds with her normal behaviour. If this had been a regular occurrence I could understand the police's lack of urgency, but this sort of thing has never happened before. In the past she has contacted either her mother or mine to pick the kids up from school. She did not do this on this occasion, and I'm afraid of what could have prevented her from doing that. Something bad has happened, I know that, I can feel that. I just want her back. If she has been in an accident I want to hear from any hospital that has admitted her, no matter what condition she is in I must see her. If someone has taken her, please, contact me. Spare her life, if not for my sake, think of the children who know, as well as I do, that something is keeping her from them. Whatever you want, I will give it to you. If you want a life, take mine, I will give that to you to spare hers." Yes there were tears. I'm not ashamed of the tears that I shed. The cut-away shot focussed on my face as I wiped the tears from my eyes and cheeks.

"Very impressive, I must say." It was a policeman. "I'm Sergeant Charles, and this is Constable Wenham. Don't you think that you're jumping the gun a little with that impassioned plea?"

"No. Look Sergeant, Charles? I know my wife, and I know that the only way that she would not have been here to pick up the kids, or arranged for one of their grandmothers to pick them up, is that she is somehow being prevented from doing that. If she could have, she would have. What more do I need to tell you?"

"When was the last time that you saw your wife?"

"This morning before I left for work."

"What were her plans for the day?"

"She was dropping the kids to school and then she was going shopping. She is due to return to work next week and was going shopping for new clothes."

"How did you feel about that?"

"How did I feel about what? Her returning to work, or her going shopping?"

"Both. Were you in favour of her returning to work?"

"Yes. Initially it was to be part-time so that she could fit in the kids' school runs, but it would have ultimately returned to being a full-time job, in a year or two. As for the shopping, she needed new clothes, her old clothes were out of fashion, and as the Human Resources Director of the company that I work for, I know the importance of making a good first impression. No I had no problem with her going shopping, in fact if she hadn't planned to do just that I would have suggested it."

"Can you account for your time today?"

"Are you suggesting that I somehow had something to do with this?"

"We need to cover all bases. Now answer the question, can you account for your time today?"

"Not all of it, no. You would have found this out for yourselves so I might as well tell you up front. I had work to do early, but at 9:30 I took my car to the dealership to get it serviced. It was a nice day, and I wasn't in a rush to get back to work, so instead of calling for a cab, I decided to walk. I was back in the office by 10:45. That can be verified by the movements log kept at reception."

"So, we have an hour and fifteen minutes unaccounted for. Time enough for you to have done the deed and gotten back to work."

"I don't believe this. Are you trying to tell me that I could have found my wife when I didn't know which shop she would have been at, killed her and disposed of the body, cleaned up any forensic evidence of my dastardly deed and returned to work in an hour and fifteen minutes, you have to be joking."

"Murder, and that is what you are suggesting took place here, is no joking matter. I think that you should come with us to the station so that we can conduct this interview away from the prying eyes and ears of the media."

"I have no problem with them being here."

"But we do. We will be asking you questions that may not have any direct bearing on what happened, but in the course of our investigation may give us something to go on, some lead as to what actually happened."

I couldn't for the life of me understand this, but went with them. This was the beginning of the unravelling of my life. I had been in the interview room going round in circles as they asked the same questions over and over again. Then an officer came in and handed a file to them and whispered something to Sergeant Charles.

"Your car, Mr O'Laughlin, you say that you left it at the dealership at, let me see, 9:30. When did you pick it up?"

"I didn't. The arrangement was for the dealership to drop it at work when they had finished with it. It was delivered back at 3:00."

"How do you know that?"

"Because the receptionist dropped my keys to me and told me that my car had just been returned."

"That was the arrangement, yes, but we have been informed that it didn't happen that way at all. The job was finished at 12:00, but when they went to return it later on when they could spare the staff, it wasn't there. It had been picked up sometime during the afternoon. Where were you this afternoon?"

"I was in my office all afternoon."

"And you can verify that?"

"Yes, Judy, my assistant was with me all afternoon."

"And this is the assistant that rumours have it you were having an affair?"

"What? What are you talking about, I was not having an affair with Judy, or anyone else for that matter."

"Strange, the information that we have is that you have been putting it about quite freely."

"That's a lie!!" I was getting angry with them. Why weren't they out investigating what actually happened to Rosie, rather than this preposterous line of questioning?

"Is there a way out of your building other than going out the front door and entering details in the Movements Log?"

"Well yes, there is a back entrance that goes directly to the car park. We use that only when leaving after hours when the front door is locked and the receptionist has gone home."

"So, you could have slipped out the back way sometime during the afternoon, asking your assistant to cover for you, gone off and killed your wife, disposed of her body and returned, and the only person that would know about this would be your lover, your assistant. Very clever Mr O'Laughlin."

"You have no evidence of that."

"Not yet but we will get it. In the mean time we will detain you, you are 'assisting us with our inquiries'."

"So I'm not under arrest then?"