The Triumph of Katie Byrne

The ambulance left with Carly, and Katie took hold of Niall’s hand, held it tightly in hers. He looked at her quickly, and asked, ‘Did you call Mom?’

‘Yes. I told her what’s happened. She was distraught. I think I’d better go home now, Niall. I told her I would, once Carly was on the way to the hospital.’

‘You’ll have to stay here with me, Katie. The state trooper needs to talk to us when he gets back from looking at Denise’s body –’ Niall paused, listened. ‘Sounds like sirens again. More state troopers arriving, I guess.’

Katie seemed uncomprehending for a moment.

Niall stared back at her, his eyes narrowing. ‘Denise has been murdered,’ he said, sorrow echoing in his voice. ‘This place is going to be teeming with police in the next half hour.’

Chapter Seven

This was the type of crime he detested. Defenceless young girls mercilessly beaten and murdered. Easy prey, innocent prey, Mac MacDonald thought bleakly as he sidestepped the yellow police tape two state troopers were placing around the wood, to cordon off the crime scene and safeguard it.

John ‘Mac’ MacDonald, commander of the Major Crime Squad of the Connecticut State Police out of Litchfield, had long ago discovered that crimes of this nature inevitably turned him into a raging bull inside. But he knew better than to unleash his fury. He had schooled himself for years to exercise total self-control and discipline. But that didn’t mean he held the rage in check all the time. Most weekends found him hitting a punching bag in his basement exercise room, imagining who the recipients of his intense pummelling might possibly be. It was a release of a kind for him, yet he was aware it did nothing to stop the senseless murder and rape of young women. He had two teenage daughters himself, and he worried about them constantly, drilled them relentlessly about being street-smart and careful. Images of their lovely young faces leapt into his head, but he pushed them away. He could not afford to be distracted. He needed total concentration. He must think about one thing only: solving this case quickly.

Mac paused to speak to one of the state troopers handling the yellow tape. ‘You were the first here, weren’t you,’ he stated, his manner chatty, friendly.

The state trooper nodded. ‘Yeah, I was, Lieutenant. I made certain the crime scene wasn’t contaminated in any way, and the medics were careful, they didn’t destroy its integrity either. They went straight in, got the injured girl and came straight out. One, two, three, just like that.’

‘And the other girl was dead when you arrived.’ This was again a statement, not a question.

‘Yeah. Poor kid.’ The trooper shook his head and his eyes were suddenly sad. ‘What a lousy thing!’ he muttered and half grimaced, turned away.

Mac sighed under his breath as he moved on towards the wood. He knew how the trooper felt. He also knew that as long as he lived he would always react strongly to violence against women. It made him want to teach the cowards who perpetrated these outrages a lesson they would never forget. Some son of a bitch had done a really foul job on two young women earlier, and the fury Mac felt brought a hard glint to his grey eyes, and his expression was grim and as cold as steel. He never let any other emotion show on his narrow, craggy face; that’s why they called him Mac the Knife behind his back.

Adopting a brisker pace, Mac walked down the narrow path that led to the middle of the wood where he knew a seventeen-year-old girl lay dead.

He was also well aware that Doctor Allegra Marsh, the Medical Examiner, was already on the scene. She had arrived a short while before he had, according to two of his detectives who were in the barn. Also, her dark-green Cherokee jeep was parked next to the black van he knew came from her office.

Mac liked Allegra Marsh, admired her. For one thing, there was no bullshit about her. She always called it the way she saw it at a crime scene, and she was very forthright in every other way. They had worked on countless cases together, and she had gone the distance for him, gone beyond the call of duty, in a sense.

All of this aside, she was the most brilliant forensic scientist and pathologist he had ever known and worked with. In her own way, she was also a detective, just as he was; they simply used different methods. They were good friends, but it stopped there, even though he was long widowed and she was single. With Allegra there were certain boundaries, ones which he knew not to cross, although sometimes…Well, that was another story.

Even if he hadn’t been told she was here, the intense beams of light from her battery-operated spotlights announced her formidable presence in the wood.

When he was about five feet away, Mac came to a standstill, and said, ‘Not a happy night, Allegra.’

The Medical Examiner was kneeling on the ground with one of the forensic team, and she glanced up at him and shook her blonde head. ‘Hi, Mac. And you’re right, not happy at all.’ She sighed and added, ‘It was some angry man who paid a visit here earlier tonight, no doubt about that.’

‘What’ve you found?’

‘Death by strangulation. Manual strangulation. Her larynx is crushed. Very intense bruising around the neck area. A violent attack. And she was raped, but you most likely know that from your team.’

‘Yeah, I do.’ He was staring down at the body, and he muttered, ‘Oh God, she was so young…’

‘And a virgin,’ Allegra said.

‘She was?’

‘Yes, I believe so. Obviously, I’ll know for certain once I do the autopsy. But there was blood mixed in with the seminal fluid. I have a number of DNA samples from her body. Semen, blood, which I believe to be hers, hair follicles. Skin and flesh from underneath her fingernails. More hair. Different hair. And this.’

Allegra showed him the large tweezers in her right hand, which she generally used to lift off DNA samples from a body. They now held a cigarette stub. ‘We just found this beauty partially hidden under her body.’ She placed it carefully in the glassine envelope her assistant was now holding, and went on, ‘I’m certain the girl was not sitting around here smoking, Mac. She was running for her life. This was an oversight on the assailant’s part. He tossed it away and forgot it.’ She sat back on her heels. ‘Saliva, Mac, the perp’s saliva. I hope.’ Her dark eyes sparkled at this thought.

He nodded. ‘Any idea yet of what time she died?’

‘In the vicinity of six, six-fifteen. I’ll be able to place the time more accurately, pinpoint it, after the post-mortem. But it wasn’t much later than six-twenty, I’m fairly sure.’ As she was speaking, Allegra was putting items away in one of the two metal medical cases she favoured. Then turning to her assistant, she said, ‘Let’s get her into the body bag, Ken.’

‘Right away,’ he responded and reached for the bag nearby. He knelt closer to Allegra and they lifted and manipulated the body until it was inside the bag, and then Ken zipped it. They both rose at the same time; together they picked up the bag and put it on the stretcher.

Allegra said, ‘Thanks, Ken, I’ll send Cody to help you bring the body out. Afterwards you can dismantle the lights.’

‘I will,’ he said, and began to pack his own medical bag.

Allegra rolled off her latex gloves, balled them and put them in one of her metal cases, which she then picked up. Mac grabbed the other one, and the two of them walked away from the crime scene, hurrying down the path in single file.

Mac said, ‘Not a very good crime scene for us…’

‘I’ve seen better, Mac, but it’s not that bad. The medics didn’t disturb anything, and we’ve been scrupulous.’

‘I know you have. Let’s face it, though, a wood is not the easiest place to find clues to a brutal murder.’

‘True. And the ground is very hard at the moment. There’ll be no footprints. Have you spoken to the brother and sister in the barn?’

‘Yeah, I did, but only briefly. I got here after you did, Allegra. The girl is shell-shocked, yet despite that she’s very precise, clear about things. There’s not much she or her brother can tell us about the attack, since they arrived here after it happened.’

They did not speak for a few seconds, just ploughed on through the wood until they came to the area in front of the barn. It was crowded with cars and police, and they dodged around them, walked over to Allegra’s jeep at a brisk pace.

Mac suddenly said, ‘Katie told me that she caught a flash of something dark when she was leaving this afternoon. It was about ten to five and already dusk. She was going up that hill over there, thought she saw something and stopped, looked over at the clump of rhododendron bushes. She says she wondered what she had almost seen. Then she decided it had to be an animal, a deer most likely, and she didn’t bother to investigate further. But I’ve got one of my men and a state trooper up there now, looking around.’

Allegra stopped, turned to Mac, and frowned as she exclaimed, ‘It’s just as well she didn’t go over to the bushes, because it could have been the perp loitering. And he might well have beaten her up also.’

‘Yes, you’re right about that. I’m hoping that when Carly Smith recovers consciousness she’ll be able to tell us what happened here today, and who it was. She’s an eye witness, our only eye witness, and we’re obviously banking on her.’

Allegra stared at him.

Noticing at once the concern spreading across her face, he asked quickly, ‘What’s wrong?’

The Medical Examiner was silent, then finally she said in a low voice, ‘From what I understand, that poor girl took some terrible blows to the head. I’m praying for her recovery, but those head injuries could prove to be extremely serious.’

‘What are you getting at, Allegra? Are you saying she might die?’ Mac asked, his voice rising.

Allegra hesitated fractionally, then said, ‘No, not that necessarily. But she could be left in a coma.’

‘Oh shit!’

‘Let’s hope for the best, especially for the girl’s sake,’ Allegra murmured, and put her metal case in the back of the jeep.

Chapter Eight

Michael Byrne drove at breakneck speed up Route 7, his foot pressed hard on the accelerator. He was filled with tension and anxiety, and these feelings showed in his taut face and worried eyes, which were intent on the road ahead.

How he regretted now that he had been caught up with a client, going over extensive plans for a house he was currently remodelling. His appointment with Bill Turnbull had become not only involved but interminable. It had dragged on and on, had made him arrive home much later than usual, to be greeted on the back doorstep by Maureen, who had obviously been waiting anxiously for him.

He had known at once that she was distraught, and as she blurted out the story through her tears he had turned ice-cold inside. He could not stand the thought that his daughter might have been at risk, in harm’s way.

The moment Maureen had finished speaking, he had told her to go inside and lock the door. And then he had rushed over to his jeep, shouting over his shoulder that he was going to the barn to get Katie and Niall.

The only thing he could think of, as he had pulled out, was that Katie was safe. Not injured. Not dead. But safe. It was a miracle of sorts. She was always at the barn rehearsing and if she hadn’t left early today, to go home to help her mother, she would more than likely have been a victim too. That did not bear thinking about. An involuntary shudder ran through him.

Now all he wanted was to get to his daughter, to satisfy himself that she was really all right, and to bring her home with him. His Katie. He loved his sons Niall and Finian very much, but Katie was extra special to him, the light of his life, and had been since the day she was born.

In all truth, she reminded him of his sister Cecily who had died of meningitis when he was fifteen and she was only twelve; his young heart had broken with her dying. He had loved and protected that child all through her sweet short life; after her death it would often strike him that perhaps unconsciously he had somehow known she was not long for this world.

Cecily had been a redheaded leggy colt, just as Katie was, although there the physical resemblance between them stopped, since Katie was the spitting image of her mother. But in other ways he saw Cecily in his daughter…the feyness, the gaiety, the openness, and the warm personality. There was very little, if any, guile in Katie, and she had a pureness, an innocence that he had only ever seen in Cecily. And like her long-dead aunt, whom she had never known, Katie truly was a free spirit.

He was thankful Niall was with Katie at the barn; that was a most comforting thought to him. His mind instantly veered to Denise’s family. There would certainly be no comfort for Peter and Lois Matthews, and none for Ted either, who was a widower and childless and adoring of his only niece.

Michael shuddered again at the thought of Denise’s awful fate. He had known her since she was a child, and Carly, too, for that matter, but Carly was alive, thank God. He hoped her injuries were not too severe. Suddenly, thoughts of her mother, Janet, intruded. As a widow all alone she had striven hard to do her very best for Carly, after her husband had died. Barry Smith had been a good friend of his for a number of years, and like everyone he and Maureen had been shocked when Barry had died of lymphatic cancer. He had been far too young for the grave. After his tragic death it had been a struggle, an uphill battle for Janet, and she had been faced with so many difficulties. Maureen had often wondered aloud to him how she managed.

Bad days ahead for those two families, he thought, his mouth grimly set, but he and Maureen would do the best they could to help them through this painful and shocking ordeal. He sighed and his hands gripped the steering wheel that much tighter…burying a child was something he could not imagine, or contemplate. A murdered child, at that…

Michael slowed when he came to the entrance to the dirt road which rolled down the hill to the barn. He eased the car in gently and found his way instantly blocked by a state trooper’s patrol car.

As he opened his window another state trooper suddenly appeared as if from nowhere, and was already peering in at him.

‘Can I help you, sir?’

‘I have to pass through here, trooper.’

‘Sorry, sir, but you cannot. Not tonight.’

‘But I must. My two kids are down there at the barn. They were the ones who discovered the bodies of their friends, Denise Matthews and Carly Smith.’

‘What’s your name, sir?’

‘Michael Byrne. I live in Malvern.’ Michael pulled out his driver’s licence and showed it to him.

Once the state trooper had scanned it and was seemingly satisfied, he nodded. ‘It’s okay, you can go on down to the barn. Ask for the detective in charge, Lieutenant MacDonald.’

‘As in Mac the Knife?’ Michael asked, a dark brow lifting.

The state trooper grinned at him. ‘So you know the lieutenant, do you?’

‘I sure do. I went to school with him.’

As he drove slowly down the hill, Michael immediately became aware of the activity below him in front of the barn. There were five patrol cars, along with several unmarked vans, and a number of men both in and out of uniform.

He recognized at once that this was a major crime scene, and he felt cold chills running down his back because his children were involved, however inadvertently. But naturally it was a big deal if Mac MacDonald was here. His old pal was in charge of the Connecticut State Police Major Crime Unit in the Litchfield area, and known to be one hell of a tough cop. They hadn’t seen each other lately, not for several years in fact, but he had read about Mac in the local newspapers, and noted his climb to success and fame in law enforcement. Michael was relieved to know that Mac was in charge, because the investigation would be handled with great skill and professionalism.

After he parked, Michael got out of the jeep and slammed the door. He could see Mac a few yards away, talking to a good-looking blonde who was leaning against a Cherokee. When Mac happened to glance across and spotted him, Michael raised a hand in greeting, then walked around the front of his jeep.

A moment later the two of them were shaking hands and slapping each other on the back. Once they had pulled away from each other Michael said, ‘My kids are here, Mac. I’ve come to get them.’

‘They’re fine, Mike, and they’re ready to leave. They’ve been giving their statements in the barn.’

‘What’s taken so long?’ Mike asked, frowning, staring into Mac’s cool silver eyes, lots of questions reflected in his own.

‘My fault, Mike, I got here late. My guys wanted me to have a couple of words with them.’ Mac turned quickly as Allegra Marsh approached them.

‘Sorry to interrupt, Mac, but I have to be going. I just wanted to say goodnight.’

‘Allegra, this is Mike Byrne, my old buddy from school. Katie and Niall are his kids. Mike, meet Allegra Marsh. The Medical Examiner.’

Stretching out her hand, Allegra shook Michael’s and said hello.

Michael nodded, cleared his throat and muttered, ‘I can’t believe something like this happened here. It’s always been a sleepy sort of place. Never any problems, at least not this kind, anyway.’

Allegra gave him a long look through compassionate brown eyes. ‘I know what you mean. Tragedies such as this are always a dreadful shock, and heartbreaking.’

She sounded sorrowful and concerned, and Michael looked at her closely, saw a sympathetic woman in her forties who happened to be beautiful in a cool, restrained way.

Mac interjected, ‘This is the worst kind of crime, Mike. Such a lousy thing to deal with. Allegra’s right, it’s heartbreaking, they were only young girls…’ He cut himself off, remembering what a narrow and lucky escape Katie had probably had.

As if he was reading his thoughts, Michael remarked, ‘My Katie left early today, and I can only say thank God she did.’ He first eyed Allegra, and then Mac. ‘Any idea who could have done it?’

‘No,’ Mac said laconically and took hold of his arm. ‘Let’s go and get your kids, so that you can take them home. It’s been a rotten few hours for them, all considered. But they’ve held up well, Mike. Very well indeed.’

Allegra murmured, ‘Goodnight,’ and stepped away from the two men. Then she suddenly spun around, and added, ‘I’ll call you first thing in the morning, Mac, and just let’s hope these golden hours really do turn out to be golden.’

‘I’m praying they are,’ Mac answered. ‘Praying damned hard, I might add.’

‘What does she mean by golden hours?’ Michael asked as he and Mac walked over to the barn.

‘We call the first seventy-two hours the golden hours, because that’s when we really can determine if the crime is going to be solved quickly. If a crime is not solved within those two and a half days…well…’ Mac shrugged.

Michael caught hold of his sleeve. ‘Are you saying that if you don’t solve this crime by Monday it won’t get solved at all?’

‘Yes, that’s what I’m saying,’ Mac answered. His face was bleak.

Stunned, Michael stared at him speechlessly. Recovering, he exclaimed, ‘Seventy-two hours and then you give up?’

‘No, we never give up,’ Mac assured him. ‘But if we haven’t solved it in that time, we know we’ve got a bad crime scene. That means no evidence, no real clues, no leads…a hard job ahead of us. But, let me repeat it again, Mike, we never give up.’

Chapter Nine

The only thing Michael Byrne saw when he went into the barn was Katie’s face. Everything else was a blur. His daughter looked pale and drawn, and her eyes held a haunted look. Her appearance made him draw in his breath, and as he stepped forward he noticed how taut she was in the chair, her tenseness and anxiety obvious. He hurried to her, concerned.

When Katie saw her father with Mac MacDonald her face changed and her blue eyes lit up. Instantly she leapt to her feet and ran across to him.

Michael held her close, his arms wound tightly around her, as if never to let her go. How could he let her go? How could he let her out of his sight ever again? The world out there was full of maniacs and criminals, and she was a sweet, innocent girl who was unprotected and defenceless when she was alone.

He looked at Niall, who was walking towards him. Michael’s relief that he had both of his children in his sight was reflected in his green eyes, so like Niall’s.

Draping an arm around Niall, Michael pulled his son closer, drew him into the circle of his embrace with Katie, and the three of them clung together without saying a word. Finally they broke away from each other and stood huddled together, looking at the detectives in the barn.

Mac spoke first: ‘Thanks, Katie, and thanks to you too, Niall. You’ve both been very helpful.’

‘What happens next?’ Niall asked, his eyes on the commander.

‘We keep going with the investigation, with the gathering of evidence. We’ve got police everywhere, scouring the area, looking for anyone who might be behaving in a suspicious way. We’ve even put up some roadblocks for the same reason,’ Mac explained. ‘And early tomorrow morning we’ll be back here checking every inch of the terrain again. After you leave, we’ll be blocking off this whole area and posting guards to protect the crime scene.’

‘Denise was strangled, wasn’t she?’ Katie spoke softly and her shaking voice betrayed her raw emotions.

Mac nodded, his eyes softening briefly as he looked at the girl. ‘We’ll know more about her death tomorrow, once I’ve spoken to Doctor Marsh, the Medical Examiner. And I’ll also have the reports from the forensics techs who were here. Every bit of evidence, however small, will help us to solve this crime, and find Denise’s killer, Katie.’

Katie nodded and exhaled. A deep sigh of sorrow and anguish rippled through her, and although she tried hard to be totally controlled, her eyes filled with tears as she thought of Denise and Carly. She leaned against her father, striving to get a hold of herself, wanting to be strong and brave.

Niall said to Mac, ‘Can we take Katie’s school bag with us when we leave, Lieutenant?’

Mac MacDonald answered, ‘Of course you can,’ and then he looked across at Dave Groome. ‘I’m presuming that’s okay, Dave. The techs have taken fingerprints?’

‘Sure have, Mac. From all the school bags. And we’ve finished with Katie’s.’ As the detective spoke he lifted her bag full of books off the table and took it to her, gave her a friendly nod as he handed it over.

‘Thanks,’ Katie murmured and glanced at the bag she was holding, and frowned. ‘I’ve just remembered something,’ she began and then paused.

Dave Groome stared at her. He trusted this girl, was prepared to listen to anything she had to say. He had taken her statement earlier, and he had been impressed with the way she had handled herself. She had been calm and very precise in the details she had given him; she was an articulate, intelligent young woman, and he felt a certain admiration for her. ‘What is it, Katie? What’ve you remembered?’ Dave probed.

Katie shook her head, still frowning, and taking a deep breath, she murmured, ‘Well, it might not be anything really, but –’ She stopped and stared across at the far wall where a row of hooks had been hammered into place for their coats. The two coats which had hung there previously had now been taken away by the police, and all the hooks were empty. A lump came into her throat, and tears welled.

After a split second, she went on in as steady a voice as she could muster, ‘It’s about my bag of books, Detective Groome. At home, earlier, when I realized I’d left the bag behind, I tried to think where I’d put it in the barn. I just couldn’t remember. Then later, when Niall and I arrived, I saw my bag immediately. It was over there, against that wall, with Denise’s bag and Carly’s, all three standing on the floor underneath their coats. Except there was no coat above mine, since I was wearing it. The bags were neatly placed, and I thought, oh, three bags in a row, like that old nursery rhyme…three pretty maids all in a row. Then I suddenly remembered that I hadn’t put it there, I’d thrown it down in the dressing area behind the curtain.’ She indicated the curtain in the corner, and finished, ‘And I couldn’t help thinking…how odd. Who moved my bag? And who arranged all three of them like that, in such a neat row?’