Page 82 of One of Us Is Guilty

When the law fails, I have no choice but to do things my way.

‘Any word from Bloch and Lake?’

‘Yep, they’re waiting for us in the office. They had an eventful trip to East Hampton.’

‘How eventful?’

‘Possibly a major break in our case and five men are dead.’

I listened to Lake lay out what had happened yesterday in East Hampton, and all they’d learned from Captain Landry, and more importantly the late Detective Paul Winchester. The South African ex-special forces ops stank of Julian Vanderpool’s right-hand goon, Dekker.

We sat in silence for a time.

‘Can’t we use this to help Vanessa? It’s a hell of a coincidence – two decapitated victims both with relationships to PatrickVanderpool immediately before their deaths? That’s a defense, right?’ asked Lake.

‘We can’t use Patrick’s confession to Vanessa,’ said Harry. ‘But if we can somehow prove Teresa Chase is the unidentified decapitated body that Winchester found then that is a defense. But we’re risking one hell of a firestorm from Julian Vanderpool.’

‘Looks like the fire has already started,’ I said, gazing at my phone.

I passed it to Harry, then Bloch and Lake crowded round him to take a look.

Patrick Vanderpool had issued a statement. He was immediately filing for divorce from his wife due to her alleged involvement in the murder of one of his close political aides.

‘We should talk to Vanessa,’ said Harry.

I rubbed my forehead, then raised my arms above my head and stretched my aching back, forcing my spine to curve until I heard a satisfying click.

‘I need some coffee,’ I said.

Denise appeared with a mug in her hand. I took a drink. It was almost cold, but I didn’t care. I needed the fuel.

‘This case has two suspects. Our client and her now estranged husband. The police haven’t looked at Patrick for a reason. And it’s not just the security camera footage showing Vanessa as the last person to be in that apartment. The same thing that happened in East Hampton is happening right here. The cops are helping steer the investigation away from Patrick Vanderpool. Two women who were having a relationship with him end up dead and decapitated. That’s beginning to look like a pattern. If we can prove it,’ I said.

Bloch and Lake exchanged a look.

‘Why were the bodies decapitated?’ I asked.

Lake sat on a desk, said, ‘There are various psychological factors involved in a deranged murder. Mutilation takes many forms. Decapitation, without other evidence of bodily mutilation, is uncommon.Usually, we only see it in certain extreme religious or cultural murders from certain fundamentalist groups. But I don’t think we’re in that territory. I know that certain serial killers would carry out full dismemberment, so they could scatter the victims remains over a wide area. That’s a dispassionate tactic, designed to help the killer elude detection. The Route 66 Taskforce is dealing with that right now. They might find an arm in one state, and a torso in another. It makes investigation incredibly difficult.’

‘But it’s just the head that’s missing,’ said Harry. ‘That doesn’t . . . Wait . . .’

‘It does make sense,’ I said.

Bloch, who had been sitting in an armchair, listening intently, stood up, a bright look in her eyes.

‘It makes establishing cause of death near impossible,’ said Bloch.

‘What do you mean?’ asked Lake.

Bloch, Harry and I were tugging at a theory, but Lake wasn’t quite there yet.

‘In a criminal case,’ I said, ‘the prosecutor has to prove all of the factual elements of a crime. Think about it. They need to prove how someone died. If these women died from head injuries, then removing the head completely robs the prosecutor of being able to prove the cause of death. They don’t have the skull and the brain to examine. They don’t know if the victim was strangled, pummeled with a hammer or a rock, or a knife, or even shot. All they know is the victim’s head was removed postmortem. It means that even if the cops did find a murder weapon they wouldn’t be able to prove it was used to kill the victim.’

‘That’s really smart, and ice cold,’ said Lake. ‘It also gives us a major problem. Even if we can conjure a miracle to prove that Jane Doe is Teresa Chase, we can’t prove she was killed the same way, or by the same person as Molly Green.’

I said, ‘Not right now, but the decapitation is enough to link Patrick if we can prove the body is Teresa Chase. We’ve a short windowbefore Vanessa’s trial. Julian is still going to pull every big lever he’s got to get this trial on quickly. He wants it over and done with to put time between the verdict and the election. He wants his son in power and nothing is going to stop him.’

‘How are we going to prove any of this?’ asked Bloch.