CHAPTER 4: BIRD OF PREY
Next morning he took a man and went to look at the area where Full bright was found. The missing wallet had made him curious and he wondered if the wallet retrieved from the bin could be the same. Probably not but then you never knew. A search turned up nothing new around the site except two brown bird feathers. All he needed now was bird to match them to. He knew that was impossible. As they drove out he stopped the car at the old shack and walked around it. Nothing caught his eye except dirt and cobwebs and animal droppings. Not to mention pigeon poo. As he went to walk around the front again, he saw three cigarette butts in long grass. A smile came across his face. More diligent searching rewarded something even better. Blown by the wind it had escaped immediate attention before and would have now, except it was a piece of packaging. Small and with no identifying marks. But he knew exactly what to match it to. Then a soiled tissue that had blown under a small log and was quite dry. Just rubbish but who knows. He would run out of evidence bags if he was not careful.
When the messages back at headquarters were read, he sat back and relaxed his mind.
“You look like the cat who swallowed the canary, Peter.”
He turned to the station duty officer.
“Indeed. The canary has had its day so to speak. I knew Simmons was involved but just didn’t knowhow. That wild card of talking to the Federal Police has also paid off. Mind you a few gaps but I think in two days, all will be revealed. Simmons comes back from the States then and we will be there to arrest him for murder.”
“Deep breaths and memory pills are what you need. Simmons was over seas when Full bright was topped.”
“I know. Smart bloke but not smart enough.”
Just then a constable came in and gave him some photo copies.
“I checkedthelocal motels and the like and bingo. He recognised Robinson’s facefromthephotos and the date fits.”
The duty officer just shook his head.
“Who is this Robinson?”
“A man who also will land from the States in a couple of days time.”
The duty officer just shook his head and walked out. The next morning Bradshaw and his off sider drove to the outskirts of Sydney and up the driveway of a property that was bordered by pine trees. The brick house at the end was surrounded by greville a trees in bloom and sat on about a hectare of land. They could just see the neighbour’s roof. Peter rang the bell
on the off chance but he knew no one would be home. They walked around the back and found a couple of sheds and some empty aviaries. They appeared not to have been used for some time, except for the large one that still had water in the containers and lots of white bird droppings. Whilst the assistant was instructed to ‘by pass the padlock’ and obtain some samples, the inspector produced some highly illegal keys from his pocket and tried the backdoor. It finally yielded and that tense moment when one could expect a warning siren, passed and he decided that the place was not alarmed, or if back to base, he could fabricate something. A quick glance didn’t yield an obvious alarm system, but still you never knew.
He wasn’t sure what he might find in the house. In the room that was obviously the office and study he looked over the papers and in the drawers, trying to leave these as he found them. Nothing of interest came to his eye. In the bookcase he noted that the small shelf held only what appeared to be fiction with the extensive reference section taking up the three longer shelves. Amongst the stack of magazines and other brochures on the floor next to the case, he saw some catalogues including one from some company in the USA. What was interesting was what had caused his eye to hover on it. The same logo as on the little piece of packaging in the bin that he was foraging into recently. It meant nothing but he still smiled inwardly.
On the desk was a photo in a frame. Kaye Broane looked eloquent even in black and white. He thought about their brief meeting and the body in the swim suit. Obviously Simmons thought about her too. He moved his eyes on. A phone number scribbled on the outside of the telephone book. He knew that number because he had cause to use it earlier this year and the numerals were the same as his birthday. That was why he remembered it. Looking back at the bookcase, he saw the reference shelves were a mixture of bird related stuff and a few other scientific topics but something else caught his eye that he didn’t see the first time. Two books at the end. It was the title on one that made him look twice. ‘Master of Falcon hurst’. A classic from his teenage days. Next to it was ‘Black Arrow’. Peter remembered reading that as well when he was younger. Picking up the latter he saw a couple of folded sheets that had been downloaded from the internet. It was a paper on bird and animal thought processes from a study done by some Swedish doctor. It meant nothing but seeing the small fax machine in the corner, he copied the sheets and replaced the originals back in the book. May be they could mean something later. Maybe nothing at all. What was more interesting to him now, was why two works of fiction were not down on the bottom shelf in this well ordered room. Particularly those two.
Any further thoughts were swept away when he heard a loud yelling from outside. He recognized the sergeant’s voice and sensed the urgency in it. He quickly left and exited the back door. The assistant was standing with a large lever in his hand outside one of the two sheds and pointing to the window. Bradshaw ran down to him.
“What?”
“In there sir,”
pointing through the dirty pane,
“a body. I was just putting this back after opening the cage when I looked through the glass and saw him. Or her. Can only make out the legs and lower part. A cupboard is hiding the rest.”
The inspector peered through the window and as his eyes adjusted to the gloom, he focussed on what had just been related to him.
“ Use that thing in your hand sergeant, and get this door open.”
Suddenly he had a funny feeling in his stomach. Not because there was a body inside, but that his perception of the Full bright affair had been thrown out the window. The door was jemmied and they walked slowly in. There was an absence of noise. He had expected flies but they were absent. Cautiously he advanced around the she living so as not to disturb any evidence and stood still as he looked at the form on the floor. He was dead of course but then he had never been alive. It was a tailor’s dummy dressed in trousers and top. The adrenalin had stopped flowing and they both laughed lightly at their own mistake.
“Looked the real thing from out there,” said the sergeant.
“I would agree. What is interesting is the head.” The sergeant knelt to take a closer look.
“It’s been mutilated. Knife or something. Who ever did this was a psycho.”
As instructed, he took a couple of photos and then they left. Nothing could be done about the door lock but the house door was closed and they left, hoping they were not seen.
‘What do you make of all that sir?”
The inspector sat back.
“Light. Light at the end of the tunnel,” and smiled. Back at the station another note of interest. All it said was: ‘Need to go out on job but the Pines had a match. Jamieson.’ It was drawing to a close.