23 Cold Cases (The Mac Maguire detective mysteries Book 5)

by Patrick C Walsh

  ‘Sure,’ Kate replied, ‘if I remember right her mother’s still around, at least she was six or seven months ago.’

  ‘Good, I’d be very interested to know why Miss Derbyshere felt she had to leave the country in such a rush. Who knows maybe she was dealing drugs too and she thought it was a better alternative than the one Adeline found. I also asked Martin to see what he could find out about Leah Whyte and that proved even more interesting. Apparently she started training as a nurse just over eighteen months ago at a hospital in North London but she quit the course six months later. I spoke to someone at the hospital and they told me that she’d started off well and was top of the class for a while. However, during the last month, she missed a lot of lectures and turned up several times obviously under the influence of drugs. Since then she hasn’t worked and she’s not drawing benefits either. By coincidence the hospital is right next to the patch that the drugs gang operate out of.’

  ‘Now that does sound interesting. Her father said he wasn’t giving her any money so what’s she living on then?’

  ‘Well you might get a clue from the fact that she was arrested in London along with one of the gang members for dealing class A drugs. He got three years but she got off with a caution as she had no previous offences and the dealer swore that she didn’t know what he was doing. I suppose being from a ‘good’ family might have helped too.’

  Kate asked. ‘Do you think we’ve got enough for a search warrant?’

  ‘I’m not sure but it might be worth a shot especially if you highlight the link with the drugs gang. There’s also something in her original statement that might help.’

  ‘What’s that?’ Kate asked.

  She’d been there when Leah had given her statement but she couldn’t remember exactly what she’d said.

  ‘She said that she knew nothing whatsoever about the drugs gang. We now know that was a lie.’

  She smiled, ‘I think that will do nicely Mac, thanks.’

  Mac was glad to see her smile.

  ‘Okay so tomorrow first thing we’ll need to arrange some observation at Leah’s flat,’ Kate said. ‘I want to make sure that we know who’s there when we smash her door down. Is she still living in St. Peter’s Street?’

  ‘Yes, as far as we know. I had a look on the laptop and discovered that they’re building some new flats almost opposite, they might make a good place to observe from.’

  ‘Sounds good. I’ll have a word with Dan and see if someone can take over for a couple of hours in the evening so we can get some sleep.’

  ‘An early morning raid?’ Mac asked.

  ‘Absolutely, so long as we’re sure she’s there. I’ll get the Support Unit lined up for four the morning after and I’ll confirm with them a couple of hours before we’re scheduled to go. One of us can go and see Mrs. Derbyshere in the morning once we’ve set the observation up.’

  ‘Sounds like a plan then,’ Mac said.

  ‘Okay, I’ll give you a ring tomorrow if we learn anything,’ Kate said.

  ‘Thanks Kate. Is it okay if I have a quick word with Tommy before he drops you back?’

  ‘Sure, I’ll see you at the car Tommy,’ Kate said.

  Mac and Tommy watched her leave.

  When she’d gone Mac said, ‘Bridget rang me, she’d tried to text you but you didn’t reply.’

  Tommy checked his phone.

  ‘Oh bloody hell, I was being interviewed and I forgot I’d put it on silent,’ Tommy exclaimed. ‘What did she say?’

  ‘Don’t look so worried, she just asked me to let you know that she’ll be back a little late tonight, around eight probably. She’s had a couple of urgent cases come in.’

  The look of relief on Tommy’s face was evident.

  ‘Okay, so do want me to keep you company for a while?’

  ‘I’d sooner you kept Kate company. Adeline’s suicide has obviously hit her hard. Take her down the pub and buy her a few drinks and talk to her. To be honest you look like you could probably do with a few yourself.’

  ‘Well you’re right there. What about you?’

  ‘Tim’s coming to keep me company in an hour or so and Amrit said that she’ll wait until he comes, so I’m fine.’

  ‘Okay then, I’ll see you later.’

  Tommy thought that he’d had worse orders before.

  As he drove towards the station Tommy said, ‘Fancy a drink? I’m buying.’

  ‘Was that what the private discussion was about? Buy poor Kate a drink to stop her cracking up?’ Kate said with the same edge in her voice he’d heard at the Smyth-Stortford’s.

  Tommy gave her a surprised look, ‘No, it wasn’t like that at all.’

  Kate immediately regretted her outburst.

  ‘I’m sorry Tommy, I didn’t mean that.’

  ‘That’s okay it’s been a tough day for both of us. Mac just suggested that we should have a few drinks and talk about it, that’s all. It sounded like a good idea to me.’

  ‘It is a good idea, in fact a few drinks sounds like a very good idea indeed.’

  Tommy parked the car at the police station which was luckily situated just a few minutes walk from The Magnets.

  ‘Where’s your girlfriend tonight?’ Kate asked as they walked over the railway bridge.

  ‘Working late, I’ll be meeting her in the pub around eight or so.’

  ‘Oh so I’ll get to meet Mac’s daughter at last. What does she do?’

  ‘She’s a doctor, a paediatrician. She works at the Lister Hospital in Stevenage,’ Tommy replied.

  Kate could see that he was inordinately proud of her and, she supposed, it was something to be proud of.

  ‘How did you two meet?’

  ‘It’s strange but it was a murder that brought us together, well several actually. Did you ever read about the Hart-Tolliver case?’

  ‘Yes I did, he was kidnapping girls from the street and testing drugs on them, wasn’t he?’

  ‘That’s right, well that was the first case ever I worked on with Mac. Anyway Mac had this idea about the hibernation drug that was used on the first girl in the case and he remembered that Bridget knew a researcher at the Royal Free Hospital in London where she worked at the time. So we went down there and I met her and basically that was that.’

  Kate shot him a puzzled look but didn’t say anything.

  When Tommy brought the drinks back there was an awkward silence for a few seconds. Tommy decided that he needed to break the ice.

  ‘You said you have a brother, what does he do?’ Tommy asked.

  He felt he’d asked the right question as it immediately brought a little smile to Kate’s face.

  ‘Magnus? He’s in finance just like my father but, other than that, they’re poles apart. Literally now as he lives in South Africa so I don’t get to see much of him these days.’

  ‘What type of finance does he work in?’

  ‘He’s thankfully not one of those who worship money. He’s an expert in ethical investment, getting people to put their money into projects that actually help others. He also handles a lot of the charity money that’s sent to Africa from abroad. He makes sure that it ends up in the right place and not in some politician’s pocket.’

  ‘Sounds like he’s making a difference,’ Tommy said.

  Kate looked up at Tommy’s words.

  ‘Yes, that’s exactly what he doing, although I can’t help feeling that he’s also trying to make amends somehow.’

  ‘How’s that?’

  Kate was thoughtful for a while.

  ‘Well I don’t suppose it‘ll do any harm telling you, you can go on Wikipedia and find out anyway,’ Kate said.

  ‘Find out what?’

  ‘Ever hear of Sjórinnbanki?’ she asked.

  Tommy gave it some thought.

  ‘Yes, I’m sure I have but I don’t remember why.’

  ‘It’s a bank, well it was a bank. It went bust in 2008 and a lot of people lost a lot of money. Not just in Iceland but here too.’


  ‘Yes I remember now. It was quite a big story at the time but what I really remember is my uncle watching it on the news and getting upset about it all. He had part of his life savings in that bank and lost the lot.’

  ‘Well my father was a director of that bank. You’d have thought they’d have at least thrown him in jail for a few years but no. Of course being a director he saw it coming and made sure that he was okay, I heard he even made money betting that the bank would collapse. Yes he was okay but it changed all our lives forever.’

  Kate paused for a moment and Tommy made sure he kept quiet. He was really interested in hearing what she had to say.

  ‘I’d not long left university and had started doing work experience in chambers in London. At the time I wanted to be a barrister, well if I’m honest my father wanted me to be a barrister, and, like everything else to do with him, I just went along with it. The bank collapse nearly ruined Iceland, it’s only a small country and suddenly every person there was in debt whether they liked it or not. It led to a depression and that hurt a lot of people too. My father’s never been back to Iceland since, I’d guess that he’s still afraid that they might string him up from a lamp post.’

  From her expression Tommy guessed that would be a spectacle that she wouldn’t mind seeing.

  ‘We were ashamed of him, my mother most of all, but he just couldn’t see it. If Magnus and I have any goodness in us it’s because of her. My father’s role in the bank collapse broke her heart and then we found out she was ill. She just gave up Tommy, she just gave up. When my mother died I quit my chambers and joined the police mainly because I knew it would annoy the hell out of him. Magnus went to Africa as soon as he finished university. Neither of us has seen our father since.’

  ‘Do you think he’ll ever come back, Magnus I mean?’ Tommy asked.

  ‘No why should he? He’s happy there, he loves what he’s doing and he’s a married man now. She’s a local girl, a Xhosa, she was running one of the charity projects that Magnus went out to have a look at. He said the minute he saw her he understood why he’d had to come all the way to the tip of Africa. It was just to meet her.’

  ‘Have you met her yourself?’

  ‘Yes I was there at the wedding. She’s a beautiful girl but it was Magnus that surprised me. He was different, he was happy and seeing him like that I cried. Not because of the wedding though, it was because at that moment I couldn’t remember a time when my lovely brother had been really happy before.’

  Tommy saw a single tear go down Kate’s cheek. He hoped he wasn’t opening any sores for her.

  ‘You know you said something similar when we were walking down here, about Bridget,’ Kate said as she wiped the tear away.

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘You said that when you met Bridget for the first time that was that. What was that?’ Kate said with a puzzled look on her face.

  ‘Well I just knew, what exactly I don’t know. I suppose I knew that I’d met someone special, someone that I wanted to know more about. No not want, I don’t think I had any choice in it at all. I desperately needed to know more would be closer to the truth. I just couldn’t stop thinking about her and that’s not changed since the first day I met her.’

  ‘I’ve never felt like that about anyone,’ Kate said sadly. ‘I’ve had lots of boyfriends and even one husband but I never felt that strongly about any of them. Why do you think that is?’

  Tommy shrugged.

  ‘Perhaps you just haven’t met the right person yet, either that or you’re looking in the wrong place. That’s what my mum always says when I can’t find something, she’s usually right too.’ Tommy noticed that Kate’s glass was empty. ‘I’ll get them in.’

  Kate thought about what Tommy had said and for some reason what he said resonated with her.

  Looking in the wrong place? She felt it should mean something but she couldn’t figure out what.

  When Tommy returned Kate changed the subject. She felt it was being unfair to Tommy having to hear her moaning so they talked about films and music and holidays. She enjoyed talking to Tommy but she could have told the time by his face. Around eight he kept glancing out of the window at the street outside. He knew Bridget had arrived when she saw Tommy’s face light up. She knew at that moment that she and the rest of the world just didn’t exist for Tommy. He stood up and waved as Bridget came in the door. Kate saw Tommy’s look reflected in Bridget’s face too.

  She thought Bridget was really pretty and her eyes were quite a strange colour, a sort of blue-green that she hadn’t seen before. Kate immediately felt awkward and surplus to requirements.

  ‘Nice to meet you Bridget, I’ll leave and let the two of you get on with it.’

  ‘Oh Kate, please stay and have a drink,’ Bridget said.

  Kate could see that Bridget was trying to be kind but in truth she suddenly felt deathly tired. She said as much to Bridget and Tommy.

  ‘Okay then, next time,’ Bridget said.

  ‘Yes, next time.’

  She stopped in the street for a few seconds and looked back through the window at them. They sat opposite each other, their hands touching, looking only at each other. She knew then that Bridget was indeed beautiful because she could see it reflected in Tommy’s face.

  She walked slowly towards the train station and wondered why she’d never looked at anyone like that. Was there something missing in her or, was it just as Tommy said, that she just hadn’t met the right person yet? She thought about this as she sat on the empty train and looked out of the window into the darkness.

  She was going back to an empty flat where she’d be alone. She’d go to sleep alone and she’d wake up alone. She decided that she’d had enough of it.

  If the right person really was out there she wished they’d hurry up.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Mac had a bad night and was awake before it was light. He decided to fire up his laptop and do some work to take his mind off his discomfort. He didn’t look at the screen however as his mind raced off in a different direction.

  Here he had a girl with a very well-off father who had gone through a bad time and someone had got her hooked on heroin. Mac had a feeling that if he could find out who had supplied Ashley with heroin in the first place then it might go a long way towards solving the case.

  Was it Adeline, another girl with a well-off father? She admitted that she was dealing so it could have been her. After all if she’d tried to get her own sister hooked she wouldn’t stop at a mere friend. Talking of sisters could it have been Leah who he knew had been taking drugs a matter of months before and who now seemed to be living on fresh air? Or perhaps it was the mysterious stranger at the clinic.

  Oh well, he’d just have to wait until he had more information and the CCTV footage from the clinic might help too. In the meantime he was going to go over everything in the file one more time.

  Kate was glad to be back in the station and amongst other people. Tommy was already there. He was in deep conversation with a young man who had black rimmed spectacles and his hair sticking up in spikes.

  Tommy noticed her arrive and waved at her to come over.

  ‘This is Martin, our computer specialist,’ Tommy said. ‘This is Kate who’s running the Whyte case.’

  They shook hands. Martin looked so young, he made her feel middle-aged somehow.

  ‘Martin’s been showing me something, something that might really help us.’

  ‘Yes this is a fairly new camera I bought when I went snowboarding a few months ago. It’s really cool, I used it as a helmet cam when I was going down the slopes. It can take still shots or video and it all works by remote control,’ Martin said with a proud smile.

  Kate looked at it. It was far smaller than she’d have thought.

  ‘So how can this help us?’ she asked, wondering if this was just a case of boys and their toys.

  ‘Well you’ve got some observation to do, haven’t you?’

  Ka
te nodded.

  ‘Well all you need to do is place this gizmo somewhere where it has a clear view and then leave it,’ Martin said. ‘I’ve done a bit of re-programming so now you can watch the stream live on your computer or phone and it will also securely upload it to the cloud in real time so you’ll have it all on record.’

  Kate looked at it with a bit more respect.

  ‘What about the battery, how long does it last?’ she asked.

  ‘Yes that’s normally the weak point but I’ve put together an auxiliary battery pack that will kick in when the inbuilt battery goes flat. Should last for around thirty six hours or so all told,’ Martin replied.

  Kate gave this some thought. It would certainly save quite a bit of time if they didn’t have to be there and could rely on the camera to do the observing for them.

  ‘Okay sold,’ Kate said, ‘we’ll take it.’

  ‘There’s just one drawback,’ Tommy said.

  ‘What’s that?’ Kate asked.

  ‘If we break it then it’s ours,’ Tommy replied.

  ‘Sorry but it cost me quite a bit. I’ve been trying to get Dan to buy one of these for weeks now. To be honest I was hoping that if you guys could tell him how successful it was for you then maybe he’ll remember when he next works out his budget,’ Martin said.

  ‘Don’t worry, we’ll look after it,’ Kate said, then turning to Tommy, ‘Don’t forget we have the Smyth-Stortford’s coming in at ten thirty. I just hope they’re on time.’

  They were fifteen minutes late and for all that they might not have bothered. Tommy could see the frustration on Kate’s face as they walked towards the car park.