Criminally Insane by Conrad Jones

to hope that the child is still alive.”
    “It doesn’t help that we don’t know who we’re looking for,” Will added.
    “Until we identify the woman, we’re shooting in the dark,” Alec agreed.
    “Have you thought about going public yet?” The chief looked troubled. “An appeal could yield something to work with.”
    “We’re searching for a needle in a haystack as it is.” Alec shook his head to disagree. “An appeal would throw up so many distractions that we’d be looking for a needle in a mountain of needles.”
    “I agree with the super, chief,” Will said. “Until forensics come back, we should keep the investigation under wraps. If the kid is alive, then we could spook the killers into disposing of them.”
    “You are guessing that those footprints belong to a living child, not another victim?” The chief’s face darkened.
    “We have to,” Alec said vehemently. “We know two people were tied to those chairs and we know there was a child in there. We also know that the kid left the footprints getting into a vehicle, not getting out of one. We have to assume the child is alive until we have evidence to prove otherwise.”
    “It will be hard to keep this from the press, Alec,” the chief commented. “The entire staff at the hotel will know about that hand by now.”
    “We’ve kept the murder concealed from the press but it won’t stay that way for long,” Alec agreed. “We cannot make an appeal based on what we know now, it’s a shambles.”
    “What the hell is going on?” Will shook his head as he ended his call to Smithy.
    “We might have found a link to our killers but I can’t see what it is yet,” Alec said.
    “Maybe it is a breakthrough, but we aren’t out of the starting blocks until we get the forensics back,” Will sighed. The case was a mystery.
    “God knows why they would leave a severed hand in a hotel room, something happened there,” Alec repeated and sighed. “I believe you have a conundrum of your own, chief. What happened at the nightclub downtown?”
    “It’s a mess, Alec.” The chief looked tired and the weight of his investigations seemed to be grinding him down. “We have reports of an explosion and gunshots. One witness said he saw one of the bouncers firing a shotgun at the doors leading into the back of the club before the explosion happened. Then there was a fire and that’s about all we have, except the owner lost the top of his ears somewhere along the way and none of the CCTV tapes have shown anything from that room.”
    “Is the manager Jessie James?” Alec was familiar with his name from previous investigations into the club.
    “That’s him,” the chief confirmed. “The hospital said his ears were cut off with scissors or something similar but he’s saying nothing. He alleges that he’s having trouble remembering.”
    “I bet he’s not hearing well either,” Will said sourly, but it got a smile from his superiors. “Jessie and his cronies play poker in that back room sometimes, don’t they?”
    “Yes.” The chief nodded. “There were more villains there that night than on Crime Watch. We found them searching the alleyway behind the club for something but none of them will elaborate about what happened to the place or Jessie’s ears.”
    “What about the CCTV tapes?” Will asked. “Don’t they show
anything
?”
    “Not the ones from the back room of the club. They’ve mysteriously disappeared, I’m afraid,” the chief replied with a shake of the head.
    “It sounds like you’ve done all you can with that one then,” Alec said. He couldn’t connect it to their investigation.
    “Gangsters with missing ears points to a row over drugs or money in my mind.”
    “I agree,” Will said. “Jessie must have pissed off the wrong person and if he won’t report it, then there is no crime to investigate.”
    “Leave them to it,” Alec added. “It’s been pretty quiet since we nailed the Nelson brothers’ killer, but it