A New Beginning

"No, you are merely assisting us with our inquiries."

"So I don't need to call my Lawyer then"

"You may need to in the morning. But you can safely leave it for now." He turned to Constable Wenham, "Take him down to the Presidential Suite and make sure that he has a comfortable night's sleep, will you Constable." The Presidential Suite was a room with no view whatever. It was a cold grey cell with a bunk bed on which was an excuse for a mattress and a blanket, no pillow. The only other item of furniture was a stainless steel toilet pan.

I did not sleep well at all. What had gone through my head all through the night was now just a blur. I was tired, I was dishevelled, I was unshaven, I was a walking mug shot as they led me into the court. I had only been allowed a brief consultation with my Lawyer before the hearing, not enough to review the evidence that the police would present. "They haven't made it easy for us." Guthrie said as we sat and waited for the Magistrate. "They claim that they have evidence of motive and opportunity, the only one of the big three that they don't have is the method. At best what they have is circumstantial and speculative, not concrete. We have to hope that the Magistrate sees this for the lack of evidence that it is." He was interrupted by the arrival of the Magistrate.

The case was called and Sergeant Charles took the stand. The police Prosecutor began the examination of the witness. "Would you tell this court Sergeant Charles, what evidence do you have that Patrick O'Laughlin murdered his wife Rosie?"

"We have motive and opportunity, and we are confident that we will shortly have evidence of the means. The prisoner has claimed that he was in his office all yesterday afternoon. The only person who can corroborate his alibi is Judith Robinson, his assistant, and his lover. This gives us the motive, to eliminate his wife so that he can be with his lover, and the opportunity that he needed to carry out this crime. We have found forensic evidence that places the deceased in the boot of his car at some time. Blood taken from the boot carpet matches the blood type of the deceased, DNA testing will confirm that it is her blood. Our investigations will find where he has disposed of the body, and that will be enough to provide the means used to carry out the heinous crime."

"How does the defendant respond to these allegations?"

"My client vigorously denies any involvement in this crime, if in fact a crime has taken place. We do not know if Rosie O'Laughlin is in fact deceased. She, it would seem, has been under some stress due to the fact of her returning to work. She could just be taking a time out to get her head around this event. There is no evidence that a crime has in fact taken place."

"If a crime has not taken place." Sergeant Charles said. "How does the defendant explain why his wife has acted against her previous character and either picked up his children from school, or arranged someone else to pick them up? He himself could not explain the reason for that other than to claim that something bad had happened to her. He knew that something bad had happened because he did that bad thing. He murdered his wife. We demand that he be remanded in custody. We will oppose any bail application based on the fact that he travels extensively overseas, has a current passport, so would be considered to be a flight risk."

"It would seem that there exists a prima face case of murder. I rule that the defendant be remanded in custody pending his trial on these charges."

"Your honour, the defendant applies for bail in this instance. He is not a flight risk, he has two children who depend on him for their care and well-being. They are very confused at this time, wondering where their parents are, unable to come to terms with the fact that their mother is missing and that they may never see her a gain, and now that their father who loves them and who they love, is somehow responsible for their mother being missing. There is no irrefutable evidence of my client's involvement in her disappearance. His family needs him at this time. If necessary he will surrender his passport. Allow him to go home to those who depend on him."

"Application denied."

I sat in stunned silence. How could this be? Guthrie came with me to the remand centre and tried hard to lift my spirits. It didn't work. "Hang in there Patrick. I'll get my best man onto it straight away and we'll see what we can find out. In the mean time I will talk to your parents and let them know exactly what has happened. They have gone to my offices and are waiting for me."

I was back in court. This time I was clean shaven, scrubbed clean and wearing freshly pressed clean clothes. "They have nothing more than they had before, no body, and the people that they have questioned about your relationship with Rosie have all supported you. We, on the other hand, have evidence that shoots their theory out of the water. Prepare yourself for some fireworks. Let the battle be joined."

The preliminaries over the Prosecutor called on Sergeant Charles to give his evidence. It was merely a rehash of the evidence that he gave at the preliminary hearing. The best that he could do was to state that investigations were ongoing and that a breakthrough was imminent."

It was Guthrie's turn to ask the questions. "Sergeant Charles, you have just given evidence that you claim substantiates your theory, and it is nothing more than that, a theory, that the defendant Patrick O'Laughlin did in fact murder his wife Rosie O'Laughlin. In this evidence you claim that the defendant left his office by a rear door and proceeded to carry out this crime, and that he was aided and abetted in this by his assistant Judith Robinson. Did you at any time check the CCTV footage from the camera that covered the rear exit to the building?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"We were told that there was no CCTV coverage."

"You were told that there was no coverage. Who did you ask?"

"I don't remember his name."

"Would you like to consult your notes to jog your memory?"

"Maybe I didn't write it down."

"Maybe you didn't write it down" Guthrie said slowly, drawing it out ready to lower the boom. "You didn't write it down because you didn't ask anyone, we did. And you didn't check it out for yourself because you knew that it would not support your theory that my client was guilty. We have checked it out, we ran the footage for the entire afternoon and at no time did the defendant leave the building by that doorway. If you want to see it for yourself then we are quite happy to show it. " Sergeant Charles muttered something. "What was that? Did you just say that it would not be necessary?"

"Yes."

"What we also checked out was the phone logs from the defendant's office phone and his mobile. We found several phone calls from his office phone and followed up by contacting those people that he talked to. I have here several Statutory Declarations from these people, all stating that they did talk to the defendant at the times indicated by those call logs. Are all of these people lying Sergeant Charles, have they all perjured themselves for this man? You wouldn't know because you never checked that vital piece of evidence, did you Sergeant Charles?"

"No."

"Now the other part of this fantasy of yours, the non-existent liaison between the defendant and Judith Robinson. When you asked her about this she denied it, is this not correct?"

"Yes."

"Did you ask any of the other staff about this?"

"Yes."

"Did any of them support your theory?"

"No."

"So, you made these allegations based on what? You based this on the fact that Judith Robinson supported the defendant's story. Not only that, but she also stated that she thought that he could never have committed this act, because he loved his wife too much. Is this not true Sergeant Charles?"

"Yes."

"In fact, all of the police investigation was based on your interpretation of statistics that have shown that most murders of this kind, and we assume that this is a murder, although this is yet to be proven, were carried out by a close family member, and that often it is the person making the heartfelt plea for the safe return of the missing person. The defendant did nothing more in this case, than make just such a heartfelt plea for the safe return of his wife, his much loved wife and the mother of his two children. Is this not true Sergeant Charles? You acted on nothing more than a hunch, is this also not true?"

"Yes."

"Your Honour, I move that due to the lack of any credible evidence in support of the police theory, all charges against the defendant be dropped and that he be allowed to leave this court a free man."

"I so rule."

I was free. I was able to return home to my family, my kids, who, when Guthrie told my parents that he was supremely confident of an acquittal, were allowed to stay at home and wait for my return. I have not been this happy since this whole mess began.

But it took a long time for my life to get back to normal. By the end of my first week back at work my boss took me aside and told me to go home and seek help to sort my life out. I was suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and that took time to treat. I was helped by my family and Rosie's, all of whom rallied around me in my time of need. I owed them a lot, believe me.

This brings me to the here and now. I was still pouring over the papers when Judy came in. "There's a young lady wanting to see you, she doesn't seem to have an appointment."

"Send her in. Her name is Rachel by the way."

"She's a very nice young lady this Rachel of yours."

"What do you mean by that remark?"

"She's not just any young lady, she's someone special. Don't look at me like that, mother knows." She said tapping the side of her nose.

"Don't be silly, and send her in."

"It's about time." She said as a parting shot at me.

Rachel breezed in. "That lady out there looked at me funny."

"Yeah, she's of the opinion that we are an item."

"Are we?"

"You could say that."

"I also say that we should confirm it." She didn't give me any chance to differ, launching herself at me she kissed me, just as Judith walked in with a huge smile on her face.

"You should never argue with mother, she is always right."

"You were spying."

"Of course. What do you expect, a very attractive young lady arrives unannounced and without an appointment, I just had to find out more. It's about time I say. It takes the pressure off me after all of those nasty things that dumb cop said about us at your trial, he had some people convinced that you and I were having some sort of torrid, sordid affair. As if. Now I can spread the word that our Patrick has found himself a girl. He has found himself one, hasn't he?"

"Will you be quiet, we have work to do. Go file your talons and use them on someone else." I told her.

"No I will not. If you two have work to do I can only assume that it is something to do with Rosie's disappearance and I want to help."

"But you and I have work type work to do.'

"That can wait another half a day, this sounds like more fun."

"You could be right there, I wasn't looking forward to it. Okay, let's look at what's in this lot of papers, shall we?"

They each took several pages and began to read through them.

"Brendan Carlisle, who is he and where does he fit into this picture?" Rachel looked up from the page that she was reading.

"He was the bloke that was harassing Rosie. I think that he was being treated for some mental illness."

"It says here that he was admitted to a Mental Health facility and is still there, still protesting that he never did any of the things that he was accused of. The prognosis is that until he acknowledges his guilt, he will never be able to move on from this. It looks as if he could be in for the duration."

"I'm beginning to suspect that he could just be right. If he was madly in love with Rosie, as had been suggested, why would he kill her? I should have been the target."

"Maybe someone who wanted Rosie out of the way so that she could get her fangs into you wanted to kill two birds with one stone. Get rid of her clinging boyfriend and the wife of the man that she fancied, and to make it look as if it was a deranged man who killed her because he couldn't have her." Rachel said.

"That lady that was ringing you up, what was her name?"

"Georgia. She has shown herself to be insanely jealous of Rachel, even though we aren't even lovers."

"And why is that? Judy asked.

"Judy! How could you say such a thing?" I asked. I noticed Rachel smile and not say anything. "We have only just met and I want to get to know her and be very sure of my feelings toward her, and probably even introduce her to the kids before I make any commitment along those lines."

"Chicken." Rachel said. "Actually I agree with you. I do not want you to feel pressured into making a hasty decision. I want you to be comfortable in yourself before we consummate our relationship, however long that takes." She smiled at me and reached for my hand. "But it had better not take too long. Now where were we?"

"I think that Georgia is emerging as a likely candidate. She may not have done it herself, but I wouldn't put it past her to hire someone. I think that I'll give Guthrie a ring and run this past him to see what he says."

I made the call. "Guthrie, it's Patrick."

"Patrick, are you psychic or what? I was just about to call you. We have gone over the police evidence and we have a likely suspect, and you'll never guess who it is."

"Georgia."

"Wow, you should take your psychic act on stage, you'd make a fortune. How did you come to that conclusion?"

"A couple of things have surfaced, not the least of which is that she has shown, in the way that she has been stalking me and making weird phone calls, that she can be insanely jealous, border-line psychotic, and capable of doing just about anything. Then there was the fact that Rosie was being harassed by, we were supposed to believe, Brendan Carlisle, a co-worker, and supposed lover of Georgia. He denied any of this, but lost the plot and was committed to a psychiatric facility, where he still resides, still protesting his innocence. We are inclined to believe that he might be innocent. The fact that the harassment continued after he was committed led us to believe that here was another person involved, a person whose vested interest was in getting rid of Rosie and having Brendan blamed for it, someone who wanted me. Georgia has made no secret of the fact that she was interested in me when I first contacted her for information about Rosie's behaviour immediately before her death."

"You keep saying 'we', who is the other part of this first person twosome?"

"A very nice. . . " Rachel mouthed 'very nice' in a questioning manner. I held up my hand to silence her. "young lady who I have taken a fancy to . . " I got the thumbs up gesture from her this time. "Guthrie, say hello to Rachel."

"Hello Rachel. I'm sure that you are a ravishingly beautiful young lady, but because this tight-arse won't lash out and have a video-cam fitted to his phone I have to rely on my imagination."

"Hello Guthrie, I have heard a lot about you, all of it good."

"A lady of great perception Patrick. Now back to the matter at hand. We have been checking up on the police evidence surrounding your car. Two things stand out that were not followed up on. Firstly, it was picked up from the dealership hours before it was delivered to your office. The person picking it up told the dealer's receptionist that you had sent her to pick it up, she even paid for it. The person that delivered it to your office was wearing a jacket that identified her as an employee of the dealership. We showed your receptionist photographs of all of the dealer's female employees, she was not one of them. We then showed her a photo of the woman that we suspected was involved with the dealer uniform jacket photo-shopped onto it. Bingo! We then went back to the dealership with the same photo, this time without the jacket. Bingo again! It was Georgia."

"So she had the opportunity, and I guess her paranoid jealousy would provide the motive, what about means? How can we tie her into that?"

"We are working on that. We have looked at the forensic report on the blood in the boot of your car. The pathologist identified the sample as blood with some brain matter bone fragments and cerebral fluid, a couple of hairs, but, and here is where it gets interesting, the pattern and location, and the fact that there was no evidence of drag marks, was inconsistent with it having come from a body being placed in the boot of your car. It was placed there to look as if the body was transported in your car boot. When the body is found it will confirm that death was caused by blunt force trauma, she was hit over the head with sufficient force to cause a depressed fracture of the skull and fatal brain damage."

"So where do we go from here?"

"We need to convince the police to re-open the case and get a warrant to examine Georgia's car. This could prove difficult."

"You don't think that they'll go for it?"

"No, I think that they'll have no alternative. But she has sold her SUV, and tracking its new owner could prove difficult."

"The police can do that, can't they?"

"Yes. Now, to more immediate matters, when am I going to meet this Rachel person?"

"Soon, I promise. There are a few obstacles that I need to overcome first."

"The kids huh?"

"Yeah, I have some groundwork to do before she meets them."

"It sounds serious, is it?"

"It's getting to be, let's leave it at that."

"Okay. I can't keep chatting to you, I have work to do." He hung up. 'So do I'. I thought.

"I think that we've done about as much as we can here today. Can I drive you home?" I asked Rachel.

"Yes, I'd appreciate that."

We packed up and Rachel and I left. We had only gone a couple of hundred metres when a familiar car pulled onto the road four cars behind us. "My friend has arrived."

"What are you going to do about it?"

I handed her my mobile phone. "Guthrie is on speed-dial 4, call him and get him to arrange for police interception of that vehicle. Tell him that I will drive around in circles for ten minutes or however long it will take for them to set up near Waverley Police Station. I will drive into the car park and when she sees what I have done she will probably leg it. They can stop her and charge her with stalking. She's driving a red Hyundai i30, I can't read the rego number, but they'll know which one it is. Guthrie knows the make and model of my car and the rego number, so when they see it pull into the car park, they'll recognise her."

She relayed the details while I did a couple of figure '8's and returned to the main road. The phone rang, it was Guthrie. "It took some convincing, but they are ready." I headed for the Police Station.

The phone rang again. "Let it ring out and go to voice mail." I told Rachel.

"What the fuck are you playing at, you bastard. If you think that driving around in circles is going to shake me off, you've got another think coming. And you can tell your bitch that I'll rip her tits off when I catch her."

"That will make interesting listening to when I replay it for the police." I pulled into the car park and the fun began.

The policeman that stepped into her path with his hand up suffered severe leg injuries as he tried to jump out of her path. His partner called in 'Officer Down' as he gunned the car and took off after her. The chase was about to be called off because it was getting too dangerous, when she lost control and slammed into a parked car. Airbags and seat belts saved her life but she was pretty badly banged up. She was taken to hospital where she remained under police guard.