‘It could provide a motive,’ said Banks. ‘First we’ll have to find out who the father was. I’ll put DC Masterson on it.’
Glendenning managed a thin smile. ‘Well, I doubt it was an immaculate conception, though I’m afraid even my advanced pathological skills don’t stretch to that kind of judgement.’ He paused. ‘Alan, you know I’m no great fan of this psychological gobbledygook, but don’t you think you might benefit from a bit of this counselling yourself?’
‘I’ll be all right,’ said Banks. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. ‘It’s just that I noticed her specifically, that’s all. You know how they say it’s hard to relate to the deaths of thousands in a flood or on a battlefield, but if there’s just one, it tends to stay with you. Katie Shea was the one. Out of the whole massacre, it was seeing her that stuck in my mind the most. She reminded me of someone I once knew. And now...’
‘Aye,’ said Glendenning. ‘Well, she would have been a bonny lass when she was alive, that’s for certain.’
‘I never knew her.’ Wearily, Banks got to his feet. ‘Thanks, doc,’ he said. ‘If you come up with anything else, you know my number.’
‘I do. And think about that counselling gobbledygook.’
Banks turned at the door, nodded briefly and left.
‘And don’t forget the pills and whisky, either,’ Glendenning called after him.
‘I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news,’ said Gerry Masterson at the opening of the briefing later that Monday morning, ‘but I just heard that Benjamin Kemp died during the night. Along with Katie Shea, that makes murder victims four and five.’ As she spoke, Gerry was uncomfortably aware of some of the male detectives undressing her with their eyes. She had dressed conservatively for work in maroon cords and a pale green jacket buttoned up over her white polo-neck top. She had even tied her long hair in a ponytail as she usually did at work. Still they undressed her. No matter what she did, there was no escaping the fact that she was an attractive young woman, and some men were going to ogle her rather than listen to what she had to say.
Gerry loathed standing in front of an audience like this, but she could hardly say no when Detective Superintendent Banks had asked her to, not if she valued her career prospects. It would be good experience, he had said. An experience in terror, more like, she thought, aware of her hands trembling and her neck stiffening as she tried to stop her head from shaking, too.
Banks was sitting in the front row, but she didn’t feel that he was undressing her. She was aware of her face flushing, but she carried on, casting her gaze to the people at the back of the room, doing her best to concentrate on what she was saying. What made everything worse was the news Banks had given her about Katie Shea. Gerry would never forget witnessing her agony, her courage. All for nothing. And now the baby, too.
Banks had tried to persuade Gerry to go for counselling, but she didn’t feel that she needed it. Besides, however much things had improved over the years, there was still a stigma attached to cops seeing shrinks. Many male officers thought it was a sign of weakness, and it meant you weren’t up to the job. As a woman, she didn’t want or need to invite that kind of attention. She could handle this herself. Yes, she was upset and unnerved by what had happened — who wouldn’t be? — but she could function. She hadn’t slept last night, but she’d had a lot on her mind.
Gerry shuffled her papers. ‘First, a few nuggets we’ve dug up so far, mostly from some of the survivors of the shootings who were able and willing to talk yesterday. Laura Tindall and Benjamin Kemp had known each other for two years and had been engaged for the last six months. They had recently bought a house near Lyndgarth, and Laura was planning to live there with Benjamin after the wedding. Laura’s father Robert is a retired banker, so there’s always a possibility we’re after someone who had a thing against bankers. But, I mean, who doesn’t?’
Gerry was surprised but pleased by the murmur of polite laughter.
‘Maureen Tindall, the mother of the bride, grew up in Leeds, but the family moved down south to Aylesbury when she was in her mid-teens. She trained and worked as a nurse until she met Robert in 1982 when he came in for a routine X-ray after a minor car crash. She married him in 1984, gave up nursing and devoted herself to keeping the house and later to taking care of Laura, their only child, born in 1985. The only interesting fact I’ve been able to dig up about her so far is that her best friend Wendy Vincent was murdered in Leeds when they were both only fifteen years old. That was over fifty years ago, however, and the killer recently died in jail, so I doubt it’s very relevant, but it might account to some extent for her poor psychological state. We won’t be able to talk to her for a while yet.
‘Laura briefly attended the University of Manchester from 2003 to 2005, but gave up her history degree for a modelling career at the end of her second year. Eventually, she decided to retire from that life, and for the last three years she’s been involved in recruiting and training for a West End modelling agency. She planned to keep on working after her marriage, mostly from home. She met Benjamin Kemp at a party in St John’s Wood thrown while he was in town on business for his father’s company. Ben and Laura hit it off, and the rest, as they say, is history, or would have been had it not been for Saturday’s shootings. Benjamin Kemp worked for his father’s software development company just outside Northallerton, where the Kemp family has lived for over twenty years. He also planned on continuing with this work after the wedding.’
Gerry noticed someone near the back raise her hand in the air. ‘Yes?’
‘Are you saying there may be a rational motive somewhere in all this? Revenge, for example?’
‘I’m saying it has to be considered, however outlandish it may seem. In the same vein, it’s important to remember that we’re dealing with some very young victims, and there are ex-boyfriends and ex-girlfriends out there. None of them has exhibited any odd or violent behaviour as far as we know, but they need to be checked out. Laura Tindall did have a cyber-stalker a few years back, but he’s in New Zealand and there’s no way he could have been in Fortford last Saturday. We’ll be looking into him, anyway. I’ve already asked the Auckland police for their help. Other than that, she didn’t seem to have any obsessively jealous lovers that we know of, but that’s an avenue we will also have to pursue further as the inquiry continues. She was in the public eye, so it’s quite possible that there could have been someone who had active fantasies about her of which she knew nothing. She could even have been stalked without her knowledge. We’ll have to carry out a thorough examination of her computer and see where that leads us. But let’s also remember, this wasn’t a sex crime.’
‘So are you saying there’s no specific line of inquiry yet?’ the speaker asked.
Gerry began to feel flustered. She wished she could pass the briefing over to Superintendent Banks or DI Cabbot, but she struggled on, determined not to show weakness. ‘I’m saying that we need to keep an open mind. I’m sure our profiler Dr Fuller will have more to say about all this when she produces her report. We’re certainly not ruling out the military connection, even though it was three years since Benjamin Kemp’s last tour of duty in Afghanistan. Kemp also had a steady girlfriend until two and a half years ago, when they split up. It sounds as if he might have taken up with Laura quickly afterwards. The girlfriend will need to be interviewed, along with any other exes of Ben, Laura and the rest of the victims.’