The Death Messenger (Matthew Ryan Book 2)(40)
23
Ryan reassured O’Neil that Caroline’s temporary assistance was a good move. Although a lawyer in her own right, his twin had extrasensory skills the CPS had identified and utilized to the full. Being blind, her hearing was so well developed she was able to pick up on tone, pitch, speed and cadence – the unique speech patterns we all possess – so much so, she was given the majority of pre-trial recordings to listen to in her role as a Crown prosecutor. In all but title, she was an expert in voice recognition.
Ryan’s unscheduled appearance at her office further along the Tyne at St Ann’s Quay raised no suspicions. He was a well-known face there, escorting his twin to dinner as often as his work allowed. Despite her curiosity and many questions as to where they were headed, he gave her no explanation, over and above the fact that she’d be among friends.
When Caroline realized it was O’Neil, Grace and Newman that Ryan was taking her to see, she couldn’t have been happier. Greetings dispensed with, the newly formed unit kept their cards close, telling her very little about the investigation before she sat down with the DVDs, affording her the opportunity to make her own judgements and present an unbiased opinion. O’Neil explained that one further recording had been sent to the British Embassy in Denmark they hadn’t yet received, but she’d put in a request for it.
The video copies Caroline would listen to were numbered V1–V4 chronologically in order that she could easily remember them. The originals were under lock and key (minus the one from Denmark), each one bearing an exhibit label with a unique reference number for easy identification, irrelevant for her purposes.
She began with V1 (Kenmore), listening for what seemed like an age to her audience, asking to break off here and there to replay parts of the soundtrack until she’d heard enough.
‘Wow!’ she said. ‘She’s a compelling subject. The pauses I find interesting. They’re her way of underlining what she’s trying to convey without having to repeat or qualify her statements. On the face of it, there’s no vulnerability in her voice. There is awkwardness beneath the confident fa?ade though, don’t you think? An underlying tension there. A need for justification perhaps—’
Grace huffed. ‘Not a psychopath then?’
‘I’m not qualified to say and, with respect, neither are you. Impaired reality might be a better phrase.’ Caroline turned her head towards the retired cop. ‘I’ve never liked labels, Grace. They stigmatize people. Criminality doesn’t always equal emotional disturbance.’
Newman smiled at his wife. ‘Well, that’s put you in your place.’
‘Oh, c’mon!’ Grace said. ‘The woman is psychotic. Delusional. Mental illness, personality disorder – call it what you will – she’s hardly the full shilling, is she? If she’s not off her head in the medical sense, that makes her worse, not better in my book. Either way, she doesn’t seem depressed about how much pain and suffering she causes, does she?’
O’Neil cut her off. ‘Will you stop riding roughshod over this discussion, Grace. You insisted on Caroline’s involvement, now let her speak. You were saying, Caroline.’
‘Underneath what can only be described as callousness, this woman cares a great deal.’
‘No!’ Grace jumped in again. ‘She’s a monster and you’re making her sound like Nanny McPhee!’
Caroline laughed.
They all did.
It was good that they still had a sense of humour.
On the tape, there was a moment when the narrator paused. In that split second, Ryan’s twin heard something the rest of them did not. She’d cocked her head on one side, eyes closed, concentrating hard. ‘There’s background noise here. Could be rushing water. Was the scene isolated?’
Ryan was suddenly in Kenmore on the viewing platform of Maxwell’s folly, a swollen river roaring beneath him, white and foaming where it bubbled over rocks. The sound of his twin asking to see the next video dissolved the image. Ejecting VI, he inserted V2 in its place, the Brighton DVD. He pressed play and waited for the voiceover to stop before pausing it for Caroline to offer an opinion.
She was concentrating hard, fully absorbed in her task. ‘Is she working alone?’
O’Neil wanted to know why she had asked.
‘The narrator has been very careful not to mention anyone else. It might be her way of protecting another person.’
Reminded of O’Neil’s theory, Ryan interrupted. ‘Based on something our controller said, Eloise wondered if the woman might be a stalker. I’m not so sure. If this particular victim had been stalked I’m sure he’d have reported it. There would be evidence: gifts, phone calls, letters. There weren’t any.’
‘I was merely putting forward a suggestion that she might be a bunny-boiler stalking the killer and not the victims, if that makes any sense.’
‘It doesn’t,’ Grace said.
‘Why not?’ Newman asked. ‘Stalking is psychological warfare. Maybe she’s starring in her own fantasy, removing bodies to protect the object of her desire or getting ready to blackmail him. There’s a big difference between being at the scene and going in later. Videoing the kill would add shock value. The fact that we don’t have that suggests she wasn’t there when it took place, which explains why she recorded after the event, not during.’