Aftermath (17 page)

"
M
y bandmates are all here
tonight. Josh’s teammates are all here tonight, feels like the whole of
Ireland
is here tonight, for Josh.

It's a beautiful thing, looking at all these people.

Wow, there's like what, tens of thousands? Filling the whole stadium. All these candles. Josh is a symbol, you know. He represents that part of us that never gives up. That just keeps on going. All of us together, celebrating a dedication to life. He always pushed, hard. He was always larger than life, out here on the pitch, wasn’t he Brian?”

"Yeah, that's it, Bono. I remember as a kid watching him play, and I'd be thinking, I want to
be
that guy. He’s not just tough, but he's got this grace too. The way he plays, it was almost like scoring tries is what he was put on this earth to do.”

"Yeah, breaks my heart man, him lying in the hospital tonight. But all of us are here to support him. We have our candles, and our songs and our prayers, and tonight we're urging our friend, our neighbor, our
hero
to get better. Josh, buddy, this one’s for you.”

I
t was
quiet in the GFU when they go back to the lab.

Reilly could hardly believe another day was coming to a close. Half of the building seem to have taken off to the Morrison vigil, though.

Jack Gorman had popped his head in earlier and told her O’Brien had ordered him to show his face, represent the GFU.

It was ridiculous. Expecting law enforcement to go down there with celebrities, rugby players and Bono, sit and hold hands and sing kumbaya?

Fat lot of good that would do Josh Morrison.

But luckily, her team was as studious as ever, as she’d set them to uncover what, if any significance, a car accident that had happened two decades ago might have in the context of their current investigation.

They went to work on the accident photo; Lucy and Gary sitting close together, arms touching, examining the photo of the crash, and talking about vectors, trajectories and other mathematical scenarios, trying to piece together the specifics.

Rory had disappeared into the archives to find the original case files from twenty years ago. Julius was deep in glass shards, analyzing every last piece, trying to isolate that tiny piece of evidence that might prove somebody other than a random burglar, was at the Morrison house on Friday night.

“Any thoughts?" she asked Lucy.

"Well, it was a head-on collision, that part's clear. Looks like the driver just rammed straight into a wall."

"Do we know exactly where in Killiney this was?” Gary asked. "The paper just mentioned it wasn’t far from the Morrison house."

"And remember it was twenty years ago," said Lucy. "Who knows what’s changed since then?”

"I'm sure the specifics will be in the case file. Let's hope Rory can find it."

Lucy pointed to the windscreen on the picture. “I do think something looks a bit off there, but I can’t say for sure until we get a better look. Seems to me a bit like the fracture starts on the passenger side? But that wouldn't make sense, would it?"

"I can't tell," said Gary. “Pic’s too grainy."

Just then, Rory arrived with a file box containing Road Traffic Accident reports from within the timeframe.

They split the files up, and everyone thumbed through them until Lucy found the one they wanted.

“Photos, here we go,” she squeaked and laid them out on the table.

Reilly grabbed one and looked closer at the windscreen to see what Lucy had been talking about.

The younger girl pointed. "Yeah, look. The impact definitely started there; the glass break fanned from here. The deceased was launched out through the windscreen all right, but he was in the passenger seat.”

Reilly sat down and studied the photograph taken at the scene of the crash, comparing it with the specifics on the report. It was plain as day that something was off here.

The deceased, Josh’s Leinster teammate Ian Cross, was drunk driving, no seat-belt, and Josh the passenger, was mercifully buckled in. That's what the paper said, anyway. He survived only because he was buckled in.

And - ever the hero - was able to drag himself out of the car.

But the break pattern on the windscreen suggested this was not what had happened at all…

Reilly immediately started digging through the rest of the file, looking for more crime scene photos, and stumbled upon another of the victim. It was shocking in its gore.

The guy had been thrown against a stone wall at high velocity, smashing his skull and most of his upper torso. The bloody mess that was left over was barely identifiable as human.

“This is awful," she said. "No wonder the accident made the papers."

"A miracle Josh survived at all,” said Gary.

"Miracle, or plan …” Reilly mumbled distractedly. Her mind was doing cartwheels.

"What do you think happened?"

“Not sure, but something’s up, whatever it is. Find the transcripts. We need to know the entire story."

Rory thumbed through a file and tossed out a stapled stack of paper, "Witness interviews," he said.

Reilly snatched them and began reading, her heart sinking as she started to jump into another case. This would either explain everything or send her down a rabbit hole.

Possibly both.

D
onner
: Were you at the party last night?

S. Ward: Yeah.

Donner: Did you see Ian Cross and Josh Morrison present at the party?

S. Ward: Yeah, it was Josh's party, at his house.

Donner: How many were present at the party?

S. Ward: I don't know, ten, twenty maybe?

Donner: Did you see Ian Cross drinking?

S. Ward: Oh yeah, he had way too much. He and Annabel got into a fight.

Donner: Annabel Morrison?

S. Ward: Yeah. She wasn't happy.

Donner: What was the fight about?

S. Ward: Who knows? Knowing Ian, he probably grabbed her arse or something.

Donner: He was inebriated during this time?

S. Ward: Yeah, Josh took him out front, said he was going to get him some air.

Donner: That's when they left the house in Josh's car?

S. Ward: Must have been, we didn't realize they were driving off anywhere. Assumed they just went to the chipper or something.

Donner: Was Josh Morrison inebriated?

S. Ward: Yeah, probably.

S
he read
through several more witness transcripts; they all had basically the same story.

Ian and Annabel got into an argument over something, and Josh took his mate out to get some air. Everyone seemed equally surprised they'd gone off in the car. It was a good story.

But a little too good.

Not one detailed account over what the fight was about? The investigation, lead by Detective Larry Donner, interviewed twelve people who were at that party. All twelve gave pretty much the same story.

Reilly had heard of Donner, he was a bit of legend throughout the force, and considered as a thorough and meticulous detective. There were a few detectives that had been personally mentored by him, and they were some of the best.

Even Chris would tone it down or notch or two when dealing with one of detectives who worked with Donner.

According to the investigation summary, the RTA involving Josh Morrison and Ian Cross, happened sometime around 1:30am. The cops arrived at the Morrison home at 2:20 am. The party would have certainly dwindled by then. Donner did put together a list of others who’d attended, collected from the twelve interviews. It was an incomplete list, and he didn't have full names for every witness. Additionally, he likely had enough supporting eyewitness accounts to avoid having to go through the pain of searching out any more.

Things were a little easier these days. Now the force had networked databases like PULSE, and sophisticated search engines. She brought the list to Rory.

"Cross reference these names and see if you can get any matches in the system. I don't care about criminal histories so much, just want to check connections to Josh or Annabel. Or Ian Cross."

Rory took the report and started thinking, eyes glazing over.

"Will that be a problem?" she asked.

"No, just figuring out search queries. I can run a script to match … never mind, just give me a few minutes."

“Thanks."

Reilly went back to a lab where Lucy and Gary were reviewing enhanced photo projections.

"The trajectory is interesting," commented Lucy when she saw Reilly.

"How do you mean?”

"Look, the car is evenly smashed across the front. Consistent with a direct head-on collision."

Gary nodded, "Right, not typical, is it? A drunk driver driving head-on into a wall.”

"I suppose it depends on the circumstances. Look for tire marks in the old photos, that'll help figure out trajectory and speed," she said.

"Yeah there are some here, I think," said Gary distractedly.

Reilly went back to her office and opened the RTA report again, flipping through it for anything that might grab her. It was always difficult looking through older cases. There were things the GFU automatically looked for, were accustomed to collecting, that another team wouldn't be.

Back then, there was no GFU at all, and would have been a very different team, with different ideas, agendas, leadership and technologies.

The climate would have been different too.

She tried to put herself back there at the centre of that incident.

Given Josh and his teammate’s stature as Leinster Rugby players, it would have been high profile like this one, but a tragic road accident that left a man dead was a very different dynamic to finding a bad guy.

Not that investigators all thought that way of course, but the distinction did exist.

The core reason this current investigation was such a problem was because no one was willing to consider anything much beyond Annabel Morrison’s story about a robbery gone wrong.

But Reilly’s early suspicions, coupled with some of what they were finding now, definitely made a suggestion to the contrary.

The only way at this point to bypass that obstacle, was to find stronger evidence or testimony that brought such suspicion to another level.

Forensics was built for that. It was the objective, cold, hard truth of science that defense solicitors could not easily rebuke.

The frustrating part was that they had the forensics, but it was increasingly looking like the top brass did not have the patience to let things play out. For starters, it seemed Josh Morrison was going to survive, and that once awake could either identify his attacker, or give an account that would either corroborate his wife’s story or contradict it.

Of course, by then, the attacker could be in Texas or Timbuckto or some other damned place, far from their reach. It had already taken far too long as it was.

So she was taking unusual measures.

And she didn't want Chris in on this yet, because she truly thought he would shut the whole thing down and send her back to ground zero with nothing.

The folder also contained pictures of Ian Cross. First were the accident scene photos, and it made no difference how accustomed she was to seeing these, this one was particularly gruesome.

The guy had careered head-first through the windscreen, into the broken stone wall, his head buried underneath stone debris.

The coroner's photos were even worse. His face was crushed under the stones, leaving little. Much of his skull had caved in and the features left were distorted and buckled.

The autopsy notes were grisly and difficult to read. Major points were consistent with the scene.

Cross had several lacerations from the windshield glass and contusions from his impact with the wall. The impact caused an avulsion of the cranium and several depressed skull fractures.

There was no doubt, according to the coroner, that the crash killed him. BAC was at .27. He was completely intoxicated, a stumbling drunk at that level.

Another report showed that Josh hadn’t been too far behind.

Gary came in, interrupting her thoughts. He spilled a pile of photos on her desk showing prints of the wall, maps of the road on which the accident took place and tire tracks.

"I did the math."

"Good for you."

He twirled a top-down print out of the road.

"To have impacted that wall head-on after ricocheting out of control, and glancing off something else first, the car would have had to be doing over a hundred kilometers."

She squinted at the street. "On that road?

"It's possible," he said with a shrug. “But. There would be tire marks. A turn at that speed and at that quick of an action--there would be tire marks."

"Aren't there?" she asked pointing to another photo.

“Yes. But those marks are not in the middle of the road, indicating a sharp turn. These tire marks are straight ahead and diagonal.”

"I don't follow."

"The only way the car could have made these marks is if it was speeding at the wall from across the way."

She dropped her pen and closer examined the photos.

“Wait, are you saying Cross
aimed
the car at the wall, backed up to the far side of the street and drove straight at it?"

"That's my guess."

It was unbelievable. The evidence was suggesting Josh had to be driving. And it was suggesting he had deliberately directed the car at the wall.

His best friend was launched out through the windscreen, and into the wall. And by the time the cops came, he'd dragged himself out of the wreckage.

No one thought to check the windscreen break pattern or the tire tracks, because why would they? Who in the hell would do something like this?

It might never even have entered their consciousness. The only reason the team had spotted it today, was because they were
looking
for something inconsistent.

And more to the point, Reilly reminded herself it wasn't a criminal investigation, it was an RTA. A road traffic
accident.
Involving two of Leinster rugby’s star players.

But looking at the same evidence, over twenty years later through a new lens revealed much.

It revealed things Donner should have seen.

The thought suddenly occurred to Reilly that being a crime scene investigator wasn't just about the evidence. It was about being able to see the woods from the trees.

About detaching yourself from the events and the narrative, and focus entirely on what the scene was telling you.

Easy to do in hindsight, and she couldn't say with any amount of certainty she would have seen anything in Donner’s situation either.

So, even if it turned out they’d uncovered something insinuating Josh Morrison of being a murderer at worst, or of manslaughter at best, that didn't really help them much now.

The guy didn't stab himself.

Certainly he would have to answer some hard questions when he regained consciousness … but what about this case?

Was it related in some way? Could this incident be the thing Annabel wanted kept quiet in the separation documentation?

But why?

If anything, Josh would be the one to want to hide it— if it was something Annabel had found out about, and was holding over his head.

But it seemed all backwards now.

She found herself pounding the table in frustration.

“What?" Gary asked. "I thought you'd happy about this."

“Well, if we were trying to solve a twenty-year old RTA puzzle, then yes. But we aren't."

Rory appeared then, holding some papers, "I was able to find a few people who might have been at the party that night."

"Well, that is very good news," she said, raising a smile.

"And I have their phone numbers."

“Even better."