CHAPTER 6: BIRD OF PREY
Inspector Bradshaw and a colleague from Central CID, Charley Brawn, were sitting in a shaded area at the back of the hotel, away from most of the other patrons. It was the wind down time. The hearing would not be immediately and the time to have his holiday was nigh. Charley Brawn went back along way. Almost to the academy days. All knew that his name did not preclude him from not having a searching and enquiring brain as well.
“I missed all the discussions, being in Adelaide, so I know little about the case. Want to tell me what put you on to him?” As the inspector was drawing his first taste of the beer, his mobile phone rang and he just shrugged and pulled it out.
“The Station.” He listened and raised his eyebrows.
“Interesting. I’m at the Imperial. Yes.”
“What?” offered Charley.
“Don’t tell me that fellow Simmons has confessed or something. I know, topped himself in a fit of remorse. No, unlikely in custody.”
“No. The woman who got under his skin is here in town and wants to see me. I interviewed her earlier on. Grab that chair. Melville is bringing her over.”
“What can you tell her? Rather what should you tell her?” Bradshaw thought about it for a second.
“Most I would say. She sort of deserves it seeing that it was her boyfriend that was bumped off. Nice looker too.” They sat for five minutes or so then the bobbing head of the constable appeared and with him was Kaye Broane. She hadn’t changed. That smile and poise remained but he felt inside, she was probably still grieving a little.
Introductions were made and after the constable had left and drinks procured, he asked what he could do for her.
“To be frank, I wondered if you could tell me how John Simmons did it. If you can.”
“If you would like, I can. The evidence is now a matter of record and now his attorney has it, very public I would dare say. The why, you probably can guess. I think he is a very obsessive person. The distinction between what is acceptable in society and what is not, just did not apply to him. He saw something and he wanted it.”
“Why me?”
“I don’t think you were the first woman he wanted, whatever the consequences, but he blurred the edges and didn’t know when to stop, in you’re case. Sadly Gerald was in his way.” Brawn put up his finger.
“What put you on to him anyway.”
“Like all crimes we need motive; opportunity and evidence. Who had the motive? Obviously Simmons fitted that bill. There could have been others not in the frame, but I started with him and tried the other two factors. Opportunity was masked by him supposed to be overseas, but I wondered about that. I spoke to the bird society secretary here, and she came back to say that he had not gone to the American conference but was resting. I thought that interesting and worked on a theory that maybe he had slipped back some how.”
“You guessed right, in a way,” offered Charley.
“Not straight away but once we had the family involved, it slowly came to us. Then there was evidence. Evidence is the most important thing. Without it you don’t get convictions. So working on the presumption that we had a prime suspect with motive and opportunity, I started on the evidence trail.” Kaye finished her drink and Charley held up his hand to attract a waiter who came to clear glasses. Kaye was pensive for a moment then asked him.
“How did he do it?”
“Well, I would think this was not done on the spur of the moment because a lot of pre planning was needed, and preparation. It would have started to formulate in his mind soon after a so called rejection, and he bided his time. He needed a murder weapon and since he doesn’t appear to be a hands on assailant, despite his attitude, he needed to hire one, so to speak. He actually used a peregrine hawk to do the killing.”
“How? I mean small birds don’t kill humans. Do they?” She was looking puzzled.
“Not normally. No they don’t, but this one had a reason to. You know Simmons was really clever when you think about it. Lucky too. Sorry, I digress but this was a quite unique crime. He acquired a bird that was capable of inflicting serious damage and an electronic transmitter that was available in the United States originally to bring animals and birds back to base with a gentle homing signal. But it could be adapted with higher frequencies to confuse or upset the animal, and make it quite agro. Studies had been done that found if a receiver was fitted to an animal at certain frequencies, the animal or bird would focus on following the ever increasing transmission to its source in an effort to stop the effect.” Charlie butted in.
“Much like a loud ringing in the brain that drives you silly or better still, a radio that is not tuned in properly and is so loud it causes you to go bananas until you can get to it and turn it off.”
“Something like that. Apparently the American army was experimenting with the idea of using it to get messages and data back to base, but abandoned it in the 1980s and it was then used commercially for enhancing pigeon racing and so on. Not very legal. Anyway he needed to attach the receiver to his bird, easy, and the transmitter to Gerald. Not so easy.
“Why not an eagle? It is a bigger predator and seems to me a better choice.” Peter smiled.
“A bird man from the museum told me if you had a choice between handling a wedge tail and a falcon, he knew what he would not even attempt to do. Eagles are just too aggressive and big. On the other hand, falcons were trained hundreds of years ago to be handled and with a bit of 21st century technology, it would be ideal. I found books on the subject at his house, including a couple of classics written a long time ago on falconery.”
“So what did he do?” Kaye was itching to know. For that matter so was Charlie.
“Never rush a good story.” He took a long sip to jokingly emphasize his point.
“When Simmons got hold of his hawk he could put his plan into action. He took it to his brother’s place where he experimented with the device. You should have seen the dummy he used. Nothing left of the face. Then he went to near where Gerald lived and booked into a motel, as Robinson of course, and knowing Gerald’s passion for bird watching most days, he followed him the next day and found the spot to carry out his plan. We are not sure of the details but he must have gone to Gerald’s house when he had gone to the shops or something, and planted the small transmitter in the collar of his jacket. We found a piece of it at the murder site but not all of it. The next day Simmons was ahead of the unfortunate man, waiting at a shack nearby. When Gerald walked past him, he released the bird. It was a wonder no one heard the screams but that is the luck of the game I suppose.”
“And the bird caused so much injury that Gerald would die?” Charlie was in trigued.
“Simmons would have known that from his testing. He was at the body afterwards, probably to make sure but also for something else.”
“What?” Bradshaw nodded slightly.
“The wallet. Something I guessed when I searched Simmons’s house. A professional card. They all had them for the various conferences and so on.” Kaye rummaged in her purse and produced a folder. As she extracted the contents she gave a gasp. She held up one from Simmons.
“I forgot about these.” Her eyes lingered a second over another one and the inspector gathered it was Gerald’s.
“Something he may have remembered at the last moment or had no opportunity to remove.”
“But why take it? Everyone has them.” Kaye was curious.
“Removing himself from the picture. He had gone to a lot of trouble to make sure his name did not come up and this was a loose end he did not want. It was
really not incriminating as it was quite normal, but then Simmons was not normal.”
“But you need evidence. You said so yourself. ‘Evidence is the most important thing in proving a case.’ Where is the bird? It seems without it, this could be very difficult to prove.” Charlie was thinking like a policeman now.
“True,” Peter replied,
“but given time all will come to pass. Simmons would not kill the bird I feel but probably just let it go. And if my museum friend is right, one day it will find its way back to where it came from.”
“Not Simmons’s house?”
“No. It originally came from a bird handler, Blake, up in Coffs Harbor. We have impressed upon him that we need to know if it ever does. Hinted that not telling us would implicate him in Gerald’s murder. I think he got the message. A reward was also an incentive. No, he was never involved. When the falcons he had, got him into strife locally, they were taken to the local fauna park. They couldn’t accommodate one so they advertised in whatever you advertise in and that is where Simmons saw his opportunity. Using his brother’s name and license, he offered to take it and took it to Robinson’s place. The rest you know. The alibi of swapping identities was clever, I have to admit. Could have worked if not for the DUI.” But Charlie was persistent.
“The evidence? What did you have?”
“Bits and pieces but they all fitted once we tied him to Robinson. In the garbage from Robinsons we had an invoice and packaging from the States and the wallet. Cigarette butts with his DNA on them. Bird poop which we can match to other droppings at the crime scene. Identification that he hired a car and stayed in a motel near the scene at that time. More cigarette butt sand packaging at the cabin. Did you know that Blake had an extensive feather display? We were able to match feathers from his bird with feathers found both at Robinson’s place and the actual crime scene. Not to mention the cabin.”
“Can you do that with feathers?”
“They tell me yes. Also at the scene I found a used tissue with his DNA and bird lanolin. The same type of lanolin as found on the body and at Robinsons.” Kaye flexed her fingers.
“They get stiff. I think arthritis. Anyway I never knew about this DNA stuff with bird droppings.” Peter smiled.
“Well to be honest, neither do I. Oh I imagine it will come but it sure as hell frightened Simmons. Of course if the bird ever comes home to roost we won’t need to wait for that scientific breakthrough.”
“You can’t be serious?” Charlie was a bit incredulous.
“You told Simmon sand the court you had evidence you don’t have.”
“No. I told them I had bird poop. Not a word about matching it. Imagination did the rest.” Kaye was laughing.
“You are a sly old fox, if I may use the phrase. What happens if the actual evidence is not enough in court. It sounds enough but without the bird?”
“We have his DNA at the site. It should be enough. If he gets off, he gets off. We will keep tabs on him and one day we will get him. He knows that.” She stood up.
“I must not keep you. Thanks for everything.” The extended hand was taken. She said goodbye to Charlie then started to walk off. Then she turned her head back.
“I hope he goes sunbaking in the raw again before the peregrine is found.” Peter and she laughed at the irony and then with a gesture she was gone.
“What was that about?” Charlie looked mystified.
“Another time old friend. Time for my holiday before that bird does come home to roost.”