'That's really helpful, Professor Mendelssohn,' said Jill when he turned to face them again. She meant it. She'd been to lectures on this topic, of course, but to have these motivations spelled out while they were working through the case was opening her mind to fresh thinking.
'As you know,' she continued, 'we have evidence that all of the deceased were involved in paedophilia, and were possibly part of an organised network of pederasts. We have been thinking of this as probably a revenge thing: one of the child victims grown up and getting payback. It sounds like you think this could be more motivated by power than revenge?'
'Please understand that your hypothesis may still be correct. Profiling a killer is not an exact science,' said the professor. 'Indeed, the ferocity of the bashing of the face in the most recent killing displays a great deal of hate, and the killer might indeed have been a victim of these men in the past.' He paused and read his notes. 'The knife attack upon this last victim also represents some escalation from the previous murders, and stabbing could be considered a form of penetration. There may well be a sexual motive.
'However,' he continued, 'one might have expected to see some genital mutilation or possibly amputation if our killer had been sexually abused by these men. Sometimes, there's a deliberate attempt to take out the eyes, for what they have seen. Still,' he said, 'I would not discount either position, given the pattern at the present time.'
The professor began packing his briefcase.
'Right, well, we've lined up a couple of interviews with past victims,' Jardine told the group. Professor Mendelssohn was standing, obviously ready to go.
'I apologise for having to leave so soon. As I explained earlier, a lecture, you see,' he said.
'Thank you for your time, Professor. It's been invaluable.' Jardine shook the older man's hand. 'We will be in touch again soon.' The others were standing now too.
'Thank you, and good luck. I would be pleased to assist in any way I can as more information becomes available.'
When they left the lecture room, a mist of rain hung in the air. The taskforce agreed to meet back at Central, and they headed back to their vehicles. Jill watched a few young students slope across the quadrangle, shoulders hunched in the damp.
She jogged to her car.
39
It was coffee all round when they got back to Central, with the exception of Elvis, who stirred what looked like a fizzing antacid drink.
'Okay, interviews this afternoon,' Harris began their meeting. 'Hutchinson and Jackson: we've got you guys in Room 1 with Travis O'Hare.' Jill saw Elvis smirking behind his cup. She recognised the name. O'Hare had briefly been one of Mercy's patients. She'd spoken to his older brother when she'd first begun investigating possible links between the dead men.
'He's twenty-three I believe,' Harris was looking at his notes. 'He made a statement against Manzi in 2001. Claims Manzi sexually assaulted him when he was ten. Happened in a caravan at the back of his mate's place. Says Manzi gave him some pot, then tied him up and raped him. Says here Manzi later threatened him with a gun, said he'd kill him if he reported it. He didn't come forward until he was eighteen. Cops out at Castle Hill took a look at it, but the kid was pretty unreliable. Wouldn't show up for interviews, had a few assault charges just before and after he made the statements. Then cops got called out to his parents' home in Baulkham Hills. He'd threatened his brother with a knife and assaulted his father. They got out there and he was off his nut – claimed ASIO had implanted a computer chip in his brain and his brother was in on it all. He was scheduled to Cumberland for forty- eight hours.'
Scotty sighed. Harris continued.
'Since then, he's done six months in Junee for dealing ice, and six out at John Moroney in Windsor for assault. He's also made a couple more trips to Cumberland and Bungaribee House in Blacktown. Says here he's got paranoid schizophrenia.'
'What happened with the investigation?' Jill asked.
'Castle Hill cops talked to Manzi,' answered Harris, still looking down at the file. 'Said he never heard of the kid. When O'Hare started skitzing out, they had to move on. He could never have testified.'
'So Manzi just got away with it.' Jill was disgusted.
'Well, he did until someone caved his head in with a claw hammer,' said Harris.
'Because O'Hare's got a violent past, we thought we'd better bring him in.' Jardine spoke for the first time on the matter.
'Someone with schizophrenia is going to be too disorganised to commit all these crimes,' said Jill. 'It can't be him.'
'Yeah, well, he's medicated most of the time, so who knows. Anyway, we've gotta cover all bases. And you're up,' said Jardine. 'Room 1. Take the file. He's not due in until two. His father's bringing him down.'
Jill and Scotty made their way to the interview room and started reading the file on O'Hare. The rape he had reported had been especially brutal and had extended over a couple of hours. According to the report, Manzi had inserted a bottle into O'Hare's anus.
At 1.15 a PA came in and told them that O'Hare was waiting for them, early and alone. They made their way out to the reception area and saw a huge young man in a suit coat and jeans, his body folded into one of the plastic chairs bolted to the floor. Jill and Scotty looked at one another. This guy's shoe size was going to be at least thirteen – nothing like the size eight prints found at the crime scenes.
'Mr O'Hare, thanks very much for coming in.' Jill made her way over to his seat. He stood, and Jill had to tilt her head right back.
'Sorry about the suit,' Travis O'Hare said, looking down at her. 'I've got court later on.'
'What's that for, Travis?' asked Scotty; even he had to look up a little.
'Um, assault. It's all bullshit though. My lawyer said there's no worries. Just another attempt to entrap me, but I've got all shields closed.'
'That's good then.' Jill led them into the interview room.
From the first question, Jill knew this interview would go nowhere. O'Hare's answers to even direct questions were confused and disjointed. His eyes glittered and stared through her. His hands were huge, and for such a big man, at times he made sudden, unexpected movements, quickly shifting position, at one time standing, causing Scotty to tense beside her.
Although she knew this was not the killer, Jill asked him anyway whether he'd seen Manzi recently. She later wished she hadn't.
'He'll never garden again.' O'Hare wasn't really looking at anyone.
'What do you mean, Travis?'
'Satan and his organised followers designed a time machine to take me there, but they didn't know I had recorded it all. The numbers took care of all that.'
'What are you talking about, Travis?' Scotty used an authoritative tone. The interview room seemed suddenly very small.
'Oh, I've made sure he'll never cut me up again. There's no chance of that now. It's all recorded. We can play it back anytime we want. It's beautiful. It's been designed with the gardens and the numbers.' O'Hare was smiling now, laughing and mumbling.
'Did you take your medication this morning, Travis?' asked Jill, moving her chair a little further from the huge man.
'That's all been cooked by Satan. They've tried too many times to poison me.'
Without warning, he was on his feet, and within one step had crossed the floor to reach Jill. She saw his huge fist coming towards her face, before Scotty crashed into him, knocking him off balance. It took both of them to even begin to restrain him, and the room was trashed by the time two other officers arrived to help.
In handcuffs and howling incoherently, Scotty and Jill led O'Hare through the squad room out to await an
