Private Oz (Private 7)

“She was infertile?”

“Totally. Her life fell apart. She was already living on the breadline in Sandsville. Her boyfriend, Bruce Frimmel, left her. She killed him. It gave her the taste for doing it some more, I guess. And it was all made worse because of where she worked. In her scrapbook she refers to the Bellevue Hill women as ‘whores’. She thought they were little more than prostitutes – leading lavish lives thanks to rich husbands.”

“That would explain the money inserted in the victims – a symbolic gesture.”

“Not just money, Craig. Fake money … for what she saw as fake women, fake wives.”

“Isn’t it amazing though?” I said. “The killer takes it out on other women. She didn’t try to kill the person who caused all the trouble in the first place, Dr. Granger.”

“Seen it before. O’Connor displaced the blame. That’s why I said earlier it was exaggerated by the place she worked in. Deep down, repressed for years, she was envious of the women she saw each day in Bellevue Hill. Being messed up by Granger pushed her over the edge.”

“We’ll probably never know what the original spark could have been.”

“Actually, we do. That girl of yours, Darlene, is shit hot. She found out Julie was traumatized in childhood. There was a file on her at St. Joseph’s Psychiatric Hospital. Julie spent some time there almost ten years ago – she’d been living on the streets, raped, mugged. According to the reports, she claimed her mother had tortured her as a child. The authorities tried to check the story but the woman, Sheila O’Connor, had moved abroad.”

“So she was seeking some twisted revenge?”

“I guess.”

I took a deep breath and gazed across to the window. “And Cameron Granger got away with it.”

“Well, not altogether. He lost his wife.”

I nodded, sighed heavily.

“And,” Mark went on, “one of my sergeants – Howard Tindle … a good kid – he sniffed a rat.”

I raised an eyebrow.

“The hospital Granger works in closed ranks, protected the bastard. They covered up his malpractice with O’Connor. They assumed she was too naive and too dumb to do anything about it. And, in a way, she was. But the truth will come out now. Granger’s finished.”

“Good,” I said with genuine feeling.

Chapter 141

IN A WAY, history was repeating itself.

It was the day after I was released from hospital. I was in my car taking Justine to the airport, driving along the same road I’d traveled three years ago. There was a beautiful woman beside me, but no child in the back. And I was a very different person.

The airport was packed. Justine checked in and I walked with her to the Departure Zone, the scanners and security guys just a few feet away.

“It’s been eventful,” I said.

“Can’t deny that, Craig.”

“You’ve been a great help. If ever you feel like a break from the LA office …”

“I might seriously consider that.”

“Wish Jack my best, yeah?”

“I will.”

She walked through passport control. I watched her turn and wave and I thought … “Jack Morgan, you are one lucky guy.”

Chapter 142

I WALKED INTO the conference room at Private HQ and the team applauded me. Hadn’t expected that.