by Lin Anderson
‘Why don’t you accompany me, Dr MacLeod? I have a couple of forensic questions I’d like to ask you. About fathers and sons.’
Rhona realized she too wasn’t averse to that look of his, which was now turned on her.
‘Just go,’ Janice told her. ‘It’s sometimes easier to fulfil an occasional wish. Oh,’ she went on, ‘and while I remember, our dinner party can now be scheduled for Friday evening. D’you think you and Sean might be able to join us?’
Rhona smiled her thanks. ‘I’ll check with his music timetable and get back to you.’
‘Time to call Ellie, McNab,’ Janice reminded him. ‘Eight o’clock at our place. No excuses.’
‘What is it you need to forensically know about?’ Rhona said as she and McNab made their way to the cafeteria.
‘Did you do anything with the information I fed you last night about Cleverly possibly having a son in Glasgow?’
‘I did,’ she told him.
He was waiting to hear what exactly it was.
‘Cleverly’s DNA is on NDNAD as a police officer for elimination purposes,’ she reminded him. ‘So I ran a familial check on the semen sample taken from the dead girl.’
When McNab looked slightly puzzled, she expanded, ‘I’m checking to see if Cleverly and Joe Hill are related.’
He gave her a big, satisfied grin. ‘Anything back as yet?’
‘If I can get back to my lab, I could find that out.’
‘You, Dr MacLeod, can take away two iced doughnuts with sprinkles. The second, of course, being for my namesake’s wonderful mum.’
84
McNab, watching as Rhona left with her doughnut bag, was aware that report writing wasn’t the only job he should be doing.
The one he had delayed for even longer now seemed verging on the impossible.
When in doubt, do nothing, a small voice told him.
In his job, he wasn’t known for procrastination. His personal life was a different matter.
The situation with Ellie had freaked him so much, he wondered now if he wanted to be back in it again. Plus there was the question of sharing her with someone else. Even if Baldy was eventually cast aside, there would likely be someone to replace him.
He’d had his own one-night – or half-night – stand on the train south, and didn’t feel guilty about it, he tried to tell himself. There had also been the skirmish with Mary. Maybe that was the way to go. See Ellie on her terms and do what he liked as well.
None of these thoughts made him feel any better.
It was pretty obvious, even to him, that he got his main kicks from the job, and the messier it was, the better.
He suspected Dr MacLeod suffered from much the same condition.
His work partner, Janice, not so much. She apparently knew how to balance home life and work, and looked very happy on it.
Plus Sean Maguire was laid-back enough to make a good fit for Rhona, he had to admit that if only to himself.
Jeez, even Ollie had found a match with Maria. Despite the fact she had him on a diet, he still appeared happy.
With that thought, he set off for IT, really as a further displacement activity, but ostensibly to discover if Ollie had anything further of interest to report.
As it turned out, it was a wise move.
Ollie appeared very pleased to see him, which, he thought, wasn’t only about the paper bag he was carrying.
‘I’ve been checking out Joe Hill. A swab taken after he was lifted had no direct match on the database, so our Joe Hill hasn’t as yet been convicted of a crime in Scotland. However, that doesn’t mean he didn’t leave a trail behind him somewhere else. I went back to the gamers on the dark web and located him there, under a pseudonym. From where I pieced together more about him: date of birth, mother’s name Sheila Hill, father not named on the birth certificate. Looks like he went into care at fourteen, when his mother died.’
‘Any obvious relationship with Cleverly?’
‘That I haven’t established yet.’
When McNab looked disappointed, Ollie said, ‘That’ll be down to Dr MacLeod, I think.’
Just then, McNab’s mobile buzzed with his partner’s name on the screen. Indicating his thanks to Ollie, he took himself outside the room to answer the call.
He had started to say he was on his way back when Janice interrupted him. ‘Jimmy Donaldson’s been on the phone asking for you, but fortunately he agreed to talk to your partner, the lassie.’
‘And?’
‘He wants you over there. Seems he’s found what he believes is a piece of evidence.’
‘Did he say what?’
‘No. He wants to reveal that to you.’
‘So you don’t want to come along?’ McNab tried.
‘Have my reports to write. Oh, and remember you promised him a blanket to replace the one he used to put out the fire.’
McNab had a sudden thought. ‘Can you send the mugshots of Joe Hill and Steven Willis through to my phone?’
‘Sure thing. Where do you plan to get the blanket?’ she said sweetly.
McNab had no idea, but didn’t like to expose his inadequacy.
‘Check with the custody suite,’ she offered. ‘I’m sure they can spare you one.’
Suitably supplied with blanket and photos, McNab drew up outside the infamous close where this had all begun.
A little net curtain twitching suggested Jimmy had been on the lookout for him via his front window. The main question now was whether Lucifer was at home too.
He had barely banged the knocker when the door was opened.
‘Come away in, son. I’ve been hoping you got my message. The nice lassie police officer said she would pass it on.’ At this point he spotted the plastic bag McNab was carrying.
McNab handed it to him. ‘As promised, Jimmy, a replacement blanket for the one you lost.’
‘Oh my, that’s kind of you, son. With the summer almost here I won’t be needing it for a couple of months, but I thank you all the same.’ He smiled as they entered the back room. ‘Good for a mug of coffee, son?’
McNab had hoped to be there and away again, but it appeared that Jimmy had other plans.
‘That’d be good, thanks, Jimmy.’
He’d already checked the window ledge for Lucifer and, thankfully, had found it empty. He didn’t regret not having those yellow eyes watching his every move, just waiting to pounce and scratch his own eyes out.
Jimmy brought in the pair of Old Firm mugs and handed McNab the Celtic one with a smile. He didn’t seem in a hurry to tell McNab why he’d been asked to come here, so he decided to show him the photos on the off-chance Jimmy had taken note of either men in the close.
Jimmy seemed mightily glad to be asked to give his opinion, and studied the images diligently.
‘Right,’ he finally said, pointing to Steven Willis. ‘I’ve definitely seen this bloke. Remember I said I thought the place might be an Airbnb? He was up and down the stairs a fair bit, so I guessed he had something to do with the place. The other bloke, though. What height is he?’
‘Same as me, but stockier.’
‘It’s the beard. I don’t recognize the beard,’ Jimmy said, as though he seriously wanted to.
‘No worries,’ McNab said. ‘What about this evidence you wanted to show me?’
Jimmy looked awkward and, for a moment, McNab thought he’d been brought there on false pretences.
‘It’s just that the cat has this habit of bringing back stuff. He’s a hoarder. It’s weird, but there it is. He pisses on the stairs and brings back stuff. Thinks he’s a dog.’
McNab found himself unsurprised by this new aspect of the devil cat.
‘I thought he was outside or up peeing on the stairs, so I went looking for him. Couldn’t find him, so came back and discovered him under my bed with his wee stash. A dead bird, a half-eaten mouse, a sock and this.’ He handed McNab a plastic bag. Inside was a cheap throwaway lighter.
‘It’s not mine,’ Jimmy
immediately said. ‘I don’t smoke and the cooker and fire are electric.’ He stared at McNab, wide-eyed. ‘You lot were looking for a lighter out there, weren’t you? D’you think that’s it?’
A couple of thoughts ran through McNab’s head, one of which was that Jimmy had had the lighter from the beginning. The second was that he’d picked it up off the street as a way of enticing the police to visit again.
Looking at the old man’s apologetic face, he tried not to show his suspicions.
‘Don’t clean under your bed very often, Jimmy?’
‘Once a month, Sergeant, without fail. Wish I’d done it sooner though, if it’s any help to you.’
‘Right. I’ll take this in and have forensic take a look. Did you handle it yourself?’
‘No, sir. I swept the stuff out with the floor brush. Lucifer was fair spitting at me for doing that. I already had on my Marigolds. I don’t like touching the dead stuff he brings in.’
‘The cat could have picked it up out front on the road.’
‘Maybe, but unlikely. Lucifer’s patch is the close and the back court, including the bins. He doesn’t like the cars on the road and the main door’s mostly closed anyway. He tried out front once when he was younger and got stuck there. You should have heard the racket he made. Would have wakened the dead. That’s why I ended up calling him Lucifer.’
‘Thanks, Jimmy.’
‘Nae bother, son, hope it’s what you think and you get the bastard that burned the lassie.’
McNab could have told him there and then that they believed they already had the killer, but thought he would save it for another day. If the lighter did turn out to be evidence in the case, that would be a better story for Jimmy to tell.
‘Maybe you’d come back and let me know if it’s useful, son?’ Jimmy said as he let McNab out.
Getting back in the car, McNab spotted Jimmy’s face at the window, watching him leave. Thinking on the lonely old man inside, and how he might end up like that one day, prompted McNab to finally make the long-postponed call.
When Ellie answered, he realized how sweet it was to hear her voice.
He explained about Friday in a tentative manner. ‘We’re meeting at the jazz club around seven and getting a joint taxi from there. If you still fancy coming,’ he added.
There was a short pause, which worried him, before she said, ‘Great. See you then.’
85
Cross-border turf wars weren’t uncommon. The lawyers and the cops could insist, or resist, all they liked. At the end of the day, it was the prosecuting authorities who decided, DI Wilson told his assembled team.
In general, the jurisdiction of the most serious crime would prevail. Since Police Scotland had video evidence of a double murder being executed on board the MV Orlova and had apprehended the perpetrator while he was on Scottish soil, they should have precedence.
However, politics also played a role in all of this. Radcliff had been apprehended here in Glasgow because the Met had given them their intel that he was coming here.
‘Plus they believe they have evidence which links him to the death of Mark Sylvester.’
‘So he’s headed south?’ McNab asked the question they all wanted the answer to.
DI Wilson indicated that that would be the case.
‘Both Joe Hill and Steven Willis, however, will stand trial here in Glasgow,’ he told them. ‘And the most recent forensic evidence from Dr MacLeod and her team is, I believe, sufficient to have them both charged with kidnapping, assault and, in Joe Hill’s case, rape and murder.’
Janice was the one who now asked about Cleverly.
The news of his death, currently unsubstantiated, had been running through the station like wildfire since early that morning.
‘As you’re all aware, DI Cleverly had been picked up and was in custody pending an investigation into his conduct. After a call south by DCI Sutherland, I can now confirm that former DI Cleverly was found dead in his cell at 1.30 a.m. The cause of his death is as yet unknown.’
McNab wasn’t surprised by Cleverly’s demise. After all, if he’d reached court, his trial would have been damaging to the reputation of the Met, as well as anything he would have to say about those who’d made use of Go Wild.
Neither Nadia’s testimony nor Ava’s exposé held the same danger for the organization as the bent cop, who’d been working with them . . . for how long?
Thinking back to the Kalinin case, McNab wondered if Cleverly had been in the Russians’ pay even back then.
‘You were right about Cleverly all along,’ Janice said as they settled at their desks. ‘Sorry I didn’t believe you. I assume someone will tell Joe Hill about his father?’
That had been the really weird thing about the recorded interviews with Hill. He hadn’t seemed to have a clue about his link with the police inspector. Claimed never to have known his father.
McNab recalled his own feelings during the initial interview. Thinking how, when you finally got to meet a killer, it was always a let-down. Simply because the person who’d invaded your thoughts for so long invariably turned out to be ordinary.
Joe Hill had fallen into that mould.
Dark-haired, with a beard covering most of his face, only his eyes had been truly noticeable. McNab had tried to find Cleverly somewhere in those eyes . . . and couldn’t.
Yet Cleverly had sired the man who’d sat opposite McNab and, despite the apparent fact that he’d had nothing to do with him from birth until now, had attempted to cover up his crime.
Had Cleverly just been worried that any DNA left at the scene might find a familial link with himself?
‘If Cleverly hadn’t come up here that time,’ Janice broke in on his thoughts, ‘we may never have discovered the connection.’
In the end, McNab decided his money was on the two men being aware of one another. Which one had made the first move, they were unlikely ever to find out. Especially now that Cleverly was dead.
‘Did you ever try to find your father?’ Janice suddenly said.
‘Never,’ McNab said. ‘My mother insinuated he was dead. Maybe she did that to make me feel better about never meeting him.’
‘Would you have liked to meet him?’
‘Sadly,’ McNab said, honestly, ‘I fear he would be too much like me.’
86
‘So tonight’s the big night?’ Chrissy said.
‘I wouldn’t call it big. More like – interesting,’ Rhona said.
‘God, I’d love to be a fly on the wall at this one. Could you record the proceedings for me?’ Chrissy asked with an innocent air.
‘No photos, no videos. You’ll just have to rely on what I tell you, or what Janice does. What about your plans for the weekend?’
‘Well, Mum and her man are staying in, so I can go out.’ Chrissy smiled. ‘Go on, ask me who with?’
Normally Rhona couldn’t really keep up with Chrissy’s string of boyfriends, but recently things had been slower, with the absence of a babysitter. She decided to take a wild guess. ‘What about the helicopter guy. Is it him?’
Chrissy’s face fell. ‘How did you know?’ she said, mystified.
‘He spent a lot of time up in the air talking about you, which kept my mind off the fact that I was actually up in the air.’
‘His name’s Angus Neil and I don’t know where we’re going or what we’re doing.’ She looked quite happy about that.
‘I have a feeling your evening will be more relaxing than mine,’ Rhona said.
Drinks after work with colleagues was fine, when you could always find a reason to head for home. Couples-themed dinner parties could be harder work, depending on how the couples were actually getting along.
Paula and Janice were okay, she thought. She and Sean could be all right, depending on the topic of conversation. McNab and Ellie . . . well, she had no idea how that would go.
At this point in her thoughts, Chrissy came back in.
‘The three of you will end up talking
about work and piss off Paula, Ellie and Sean.’
Sean hadn’t looked too keen when she’d told him about the invite. ‘Won’t it be all shop talk?’ had been his exact words.
Rhona had responded with ‘You and McNab have been doing quite a lot of that yourselves recently.’
‘Not any more,’ Sean had said.
‘Are you going to tell me what it was all about?’
Sean had given her a thoughtful look. ‘Are you really interested?’
‘About as interested as you are in my shop talk.’
‘That’s why we go so well together,’ he’d said. ‘If it puts your mind at rest, McNab checked out a guy who was giving me grief about a loan I took out on the club. Turns out he’s not bona fide. McNab had a word with him regarding harassment. So all is well.’
Chrissy broke into Rhona’s thoughts once more. ‘Shall we take bets on whether McNab and Ellie will be a couple again by the end of tonight?’
Rhona shook her head. ‘There’s no winning that one.’
Recalling that conversation as she gazed around the dinner table, Rhona was a little surprised at how well it was going. Maybe it was the excellent food and the copious amount of wine that was being drunk, but she was actually enjoying herself.
Then began a brief foray into work topics, which Paula allowed. One of which was McNab’s tale of Lucifer the devil cat, and the surprise discovery of the lighter used to start the fire.
‘The lighter Dr MacLeod forensically linked to the perpetrator,’ he said with a congratulatory look at Rhona.
At that point the amusing aspects of the story – the cat as hoarder, the dead mouse, the bird, the sock and the lighter stashed under an old man’s bed – suddenly ceased to be amusing because they all led inevitably to what the lighter had been used to do.
As silence fell like a stone and Rhona caught the shadow crossing McNab’s face, she registered again what she’d always known.
It wasn’t what a detective did in a case. It was what the case did to them.
Seeing Ellie’s expression at this point showed just how hard it would be for her to stick with McNab. She wanted to, Rhona thought, but probably couldn’t.