by Marie Rowan
Mackinfauld was quickly removed and Joe Jacobstein tried furiously to stem the blood as it poured from Dolina’s wrists and onto the pristine linoleum. Pollock watched it seep out from under the counter, seeped from a small waste bin that Mackinfauld had knocked over as he had tried to help his friend. The local doctor arrived quickly but Dolina McMurtrie was already dead and Jacobstein stunned with grief. A family firm, right enough, thought Ben Pollock, his boss. Uncle Avram was already flat out on one of his best carpets being revived by his wife, Auntie Zena. Pollock felt none too great himself.
“Don’t take on so, Jake,” he said, “she was heading for an asylum anyway and that really is a fate worse than death these days.”
“She was always really kind to me, Ben, really good. The same with young Mackinfauld.”
“And all of you thought the world of her. That’s why Mackinfauld stood behind that counter while she bent low as she slit her wrists, the blood flowing into that bin so as not to muck up the floor. That fooled us into not looking there. Miss McMurtrie had asked him to do it and he did it just for her. Kept his head valiantly till he looked behind him and saw what she’d done.”
“Boys Brigade First Aid badge,” said Jacobstein sadly, “just wasn’t enough and he knew it. She was too far gone to help.”
“Your Uncle Avram should move him up a grade, Jake,” said the ever-practical Pollock.
“Probably will.” Jacobstein was quite obviously suffering.
“I’m going back to the office now and the clever guys with their science and cameras can take over. I’ll write out a draft report and find Ned Bell. You and Noel can get started making the popadoms while Gordon reheats the curry.”
Epilogue.
The desk had been cleared and laid with plates, forks, five mugs with JAE printed on them, and some beer. Pollock and Bell shared a silence of old as Jake and Noel made popadoms, while Gordon saw to the curry.
“Old times, Inspector Bell?”
“Times past, Ben. I can tell you I’m looking forward to this meal. Time to relax, time to reflect.”
“Reflect upon when you got it right and I got it wrong?”
“Not at all, not at all. You were almost there. It’s experience and I had a head start, that’s all. At first I wanted to be the one to find the killer and bring that person to justice. I pushed you as far from the case as much as I could without knocking you off course completely. To your eternal credit, it didn’t work. Actually, you went off-course all by yourself. But you were just about to recognise that it didn’t all quite fit, but by then I couldn’t wait any longer.”
“And so you told me the murderer’s name,” said Pollock sheepishly.
“I knew all along who had killed little Meg. I knew the look in her eyes that told me straight off she had done it. But, no name and no proof at the beginning.”
“So, tell me, give me another lesson from the master,” Pollock suggested without a trace of rancour in his voice. He knew he was now talking to the Ned Bell of old and that recent spate of aggravation had been an act to divert Pollock himself from his focus on Meg’s murder and to concentrate on the drugs business. Bell had wanted to collar the killer himself and Pollock wanted to know why.
“John Gordon, our illustrious curry cook, was right when he said Meg had been at the same table as Roberts. But she wasn’t there to see the coal king, she was waiting to see me.” Pollock’s face registered his complete surprise.
“To see you?” he repeated. Bell nodded.
“That’s right, me, only I was not aware of it. Or of Meg herself, actually. We’d met, she told me, when Jake and I were investigating that Campbell case the month before I had the breakdown. We interviewed the locals in the vicinity and, it seems, two of them were Meg Hughes and Lena Dolan. Jake was speaking to some men outside The Clay Pipe and I was doing the same on the other side of the street. Some ladies were suggesting culprits among other things, but I suddenly noticed another woman looking at the two younger ones in the group beside me who were eyeing Jake. The look in her eyes positively screamed hatred. Then she just walked quickly away. I remembered what she was wearing, but not her face, try as I might. She was wearing a dark green skirt and a purple blouse.”
“A JAE employee?” Bill nodded.
“But which one? That was the problem and, of course, there was the small matter of evidence. Anyway, it could really have been just jealousy and nothing more. That’s what I thought. But to get back to Meg, it seems my penchant for the Parisian Café was known to her and she decided to try and meet me there. I duly turned up and she told me she was being pestered by that lout Farrell and would I please have a semi-official word with him. I admit I was flattered to be needed by someone since I’d been on my own, nobody even to fix a tap for. I said I’d have a quiet word with him when I was back on the job. She said that she was desperate and could I make it that evening.”
“A girl pretending to be helpless in the fog. Meg was looking for a man who could look after her, make her feel wanted and give her a secure billet for life, Inspector Bell.”
“So I’ve been told. Believe it or not, Ben, that didn’t even cross my mind. I’m not in the market for romance, not for many a year, if ever. She said he was due to meet her cousin down by the river. Well, you probably know or guess the rest. I turned up, she didn’t, or so I thought. Everything I’ve done these past few days has been fuelled by guilt, no more, no less.”
“You also picked up all the clues, I didn’t.”
“Yes, you did, only you had too many deaths at the same time. My mind was totally on one. I saw the clues and interpreted them correctly because I had a one-track mind. The moment I saw Meg’s hat, I knew it. Everything fell into place. That hat had been ripped apart by an unbridled, vicious jealousy and I remembered that look again. It was a woman who was in love with Jacobstein, idolised him and worked in his family’s department store. That was backed up by the cleaning and placing of the JAE mug in Costello’s howf. That was a very special item to her. Who would know where Meg was going that evening? Yes, the one who sold her those ribbons, who’d confided the conversation she’d had with her to her friend and fellow assistant, Miss McMurtrie, the soul of discretion. And who were the two girls in the street that day we were interviewing? One was Meg and the other was Lena.”
“Two wasted lives,” said Pollock wistfully.
“And the rustling the secretary, Miss Malone, heard was Dolina’s skirt. She was still in the yard. Am I right in thinking Roberts was there for a meeting with his gambling or drug-dealing friends, went in to get Costello to open the side-door and inadvertently stumbled across the body?” Pollock sighed as Bell spoke.
“I expect that will be his final version of it, Inspector Bell, as no girl came screaming out of that yard.”
“I was worried about Lena Dolan but judged that she was safe during daylight hours as she worked in The Dalmarnock Weaving Factory.” Pollock shook his head.
“They sacked her. Bad time-keeping, but in reality, it was for stealing,” Pollock explained.
“So I was left with no-one who could say who the JAE assistant had been that day. By the way, the one and one meant the clasp and JAE’s colours, one in the bag and one on the table.”
“The scarf Tommy MacNamee found was too expensive for Meg. It was silk, too far beyond Meg’s purse.” But Bell explained as the man of the world.
“You must remember, Ben, that although JAE is located in the East End, it’s clientele is very much city-wide. As Jake will tell you, it’s all about price and quality. Uncle Avram’s buyers are very astute. We’ve no proof but I think that the colours, red and green, were used to lure Meg into the yard. The usual patter. ‘I hoped I would see you, says Dolina. Look at this scarf. A perfect match for the ribbons. Come in here. Better light to see the scarf with.’ That sort of thing, Ben. She’d probably just borrowed it from the store.”
“So how exactly did you finally manage to identify Dolina McMurtrie?” Bell laughed.
“Mackinfauld Cholmondley. He was the one who’d brought the message according to Lena Dolan. Dolina had mentioned to him that a customer had asked her to pass it on.”
“It’s all too sad for words, Inspector Bell. In a way I’m glad poor, besotted Miss McMurtrie didn’t live to come to trial.” Bell agreed.
“It seems that jealousy had driven all vestiges of civilisation from her mind. Still, it’s over and done with now and I’m starving.” The aroma that was tempting both men was becoming stronger.
“I suppose I should thank you again for giving me Roberts on a plate.” But Ned Bell shook his head decisively at Pollock’s words.
“Don’t thank me, thank Miss Malone.” Pollock smiled in agreement.
“That young woman would make a great detective, sir.”
“My thoughts exactly. My resignation is in the post, Ben.”
“What!”
“And my new life will revolve round Bell’s Discreet Enquiries. Great name for a confidential business, I reckon.”
“What!”
“One owner and two operatives namely Miss Euphemia Malone and Mr Noel Flett. His resignation’s in the post, too, and don’t say ‘What!’. Miss Malone has already resigned from the King of the Coal-Yard’s firm.”
“I know,” said Pollock still in shock, “Jake and I were there when she did it.”
“Actually, Ben, she’s already working for me. She stopped off at a secret rendezvous for five minutes to report what Roberts had been up to in his coal -yard that evening. A potential drugs case we might just be working on. No thoughts of murder then.”
“Well, I’m damned, Inspector Bell!”
“No, you’ve probably just been made permanent, Inspector Pollock, for your handling of a very slippery case. And the name’s Ned.”
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Camlachie Nights Trilogy
Book 2 - Vengeance is Mine
Book 3 - Came a Stranger
DUE OUT 12 JAN 2021
Other series by Marie Rowan published by Moira Brown:
Mitchell Memoranda Series
The Ranks of Death (Book 1)
The Realms of Death (Book 2)
The Rites of Death (Book 3)
Gorbals Chronicles Series
Once Upon a Murder (Book1)
Death is Murder (Book 2)
Pure Dead Murder (Book 3)
Dom Broadley Series (Young Adult)
Don’t Go There! (Book 1)
Tell me the Secret (Book 2)
Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9