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Halifax, October 18
8:17 p.m.
“Whoa,” Audra said. “Lucky girl.”
She gave Allan back the file, and he placed it on the pile.
“How long before they tracked down Strickland?” she asked.
“Days,” Allan said. “Ms. Peyton had managed to remember the make of the car and four digits of the license plate. When officers showed her his picture, she positively identified him.”
“That would’ve given him a lot of time to form an alibi, get rid of evidence.”
“He tried. He’d ditched the black bag that everyone suspected was his prepared rape kit. He got rid of the revolver. Even wiped his car clean of Ms. Peyton. But he forgot one thing...”
“What?”
“His computer. Forensics located pictures of Ashley Decker on it. Uploaded from Strickland’s camera the day after he’d murdered her.”
“Mementos to use later,” Audra said. “Like he’d tried to do with Lisa Peyton.”
Allan nodded. “Part of his signature. Some of the pictures were taken while Ms. Decker knelt in the grass, still alive. Others were taken of her body after Strickland had strangled her.”
Audra asked, “Any of Mary Driscow?”
Allan broke eye contact with her for a second. “None of her, no.”
“Was the revolver registered?”
“Not in his name, if it was.”
“What’d he say about it?”
“Denied even having it.”
“They ever find this camera?”
“They figured he ditched it with the bag. He never revealed where anything was. Clammed up when asked about the pictures on his computer. Didn’t matter; the evidence was enough to charge him with first-degree murder.”
“Deny the crime,” Audra said. “Some of these guys think it’ll prevent them from being arrested.”
Allan said, “When I dug a little deeper into Strickland’s past, I found out he’d lived in Clayton Park for seven months before moving to New Glasgow. Glenforest Drive. Mary Driscow had lived on Hillwood Crescent. A street over from him.”
Audra raised her eyebrows. “Whoa. That’s quite the coincidence.”
Allan pressed his lips into a tight line. “So I thought.”
“I take it he lived there while Mary Driscow did?”
“Yes.”
“He knew that neighborhood. Maybe knew her or saw her around. I can see why you took such an interest in him.”
Allan let out a heavy sigh. “I was excited. I got a warrant for his DNA. You know the rest.” His voice dropped. “Seems like I was always a day late and a dollar short.”
Audra watched him.
He said, “New Glasgow told me they interviewed neighbors of Strickland over there. Turned out that in the weeks leading up to Ms. Decker’s murder, he and his girlfriend had fought often.”
“What’d she say about it?”
“That he was a control freak. Had anger issues. Took fits all the time. That’s why she dumped him.”
Audra considered that. “He probably couldn’t deal with the breakup. So he went out looking for someone to vent his anger on.”
Allan nodded again. “Exactly. You know some of these guys have low resilience. They can’t cope with rejection, or many of life’s problems, for that matter.”
“Add in his anger issues, and you have a ticking time bomb.”
Allan said, “Ashley Decker was known to frequent the Roseland Cabaret. They think Strickland saw her there one night, followed her home, and began watching her place for several days before making his move. Staff at the Roseland recognized him when shown his picture.”
“Did Lisa Peyton have similar habits of going out?”
Allan shook his head. “But she did work as a beautician. And guess who one of her frequent clients was.”
Audra frowned. “Not Strickland?”
“The ex-girlfriend.”
“Okay, I gotcha. And Lisa never recognized him?”
Allan spread his hands. “Maybe they never officially met. Maybe he knew of Ms. Peyton through the girlfriend. Of course, this is all conjecture.”
“But seems to be more than that, doesn’t it?”
“For sure.” Allan checked his watch. “Say, do you want to take these files home and brush up on the Driscow case tonight? We can resume first thing in the morning.”
Audra’s own watch read 8:36 p.m.
As she watched Allan, something bugged her. She’d always known him to work around the clock, obsessively so, in the first days of a murder investigation. Now he wanted to clock out early.
She asked, “Is everything okay?”
Allan ran a hand through his hair, his eyes distant. “There’s something I want to do before it gets too late.”
Audra shrugged. “Sure, Al. Whatever you feel you need to do.”
“Thanks.” He paused on his way to the doorway and looked back at her. “Meet here for six in the morning?”
“Six it is.”
“See you then,” he said and walked out.
