Robbing the Dead (Inspector Jim Carruthers Book 1)

by Tana Collins

  Carruthers wondered how many deaths would have been avoided on both sides had the march been allowed to be just a march. And what now? What purpose would it serve to charge these former soldiers with murder? Would it be a positive step towards justice or would Northern Ireland face the peril of dredging up the past, thus jeopardising their fragile peace? More questions he didn’t know the answer to.

  Switching off his computer, he took off his glasses, placed them on the top of his head and once more rubbed his eyes. He found it hard to switch off from what he’d just read. He sat back and his thoughts turned to Holdaway once more. The man Holdaway had become wasn’t matching up to the soldier Holdaway had once been. Holdaway had claimed to be a man who had unsuccessfully attempted for forty-five years to put the past behind him. He had told Carruthers he liked the quiet life of academia. However, bringing out a controversial book on the death of Welsh nationalism and taking part in impassioned radio shows weren’t the actions of a man wanting the quiet life. He frowned. Was it possible Holdaway wanted to be found out? That he was deliberately courting danger? There was a knock on the door. A young PC put her head round the door. ‘That file you requested is in.’ He thanked her as she handed over the buff file to him.

  ‘Thanks, Louise.’

  Before absorbing himself in the information from Welsh Intelligence on Ewan Williams he decided to get himself a strong coffee. Bringing the coffee back to his office, he sat down. He risked a sip. It was too hot to drink, so he placed it to the side as he found himself absorbed in the Williams’ file. His mobile rang startling him. He was surprised to see that the caller ID was Fletcher.

  ‘Andie?’

  ‘Jim?’

  ‘What the hell are you doing ringing me from the hospital? I take it that you’re still there?’

  ‘They’re keeping me in for observation.’

  ‘How are you feeling?’

  ‘A lot better.’

  ‘I hear the baby’s going to be OK, too.’

  ‘Yes, thank God.’

  ‘So why are you ringing when you should be resting?’

  ‘Well, I’ve got a bit of news,’ she said. ‘I’ve decided to keep the baby. This scare, it made me realise what I could have lost.’

  ‘That’s great news. It must be a huge relief to have made the decision.’

  ‘Yes, it is. But Jim,’ she said, ‘I just want you to know that I’ll be returning to work after the baby’s born. I need to work. Will there still be a place for me?’

  ‘Of course there will. We aren’t allowed to get rid of officers because they get pregnant. You know that. But you’ll be back at the office in a few days. Why are we talking about this now?’

  ‘Just wanted to check. Also, while I’m on the phone I was wondering if there’d been any developments since I came in? Now I know we’re both going to be OK, I feel I can relax.’

  ‘You’ve only been in a few hours.’

  ‘I know, but I just wanted to be brought up to speed.’

  Carruthers found himself telling her all about the visit to Charlene Todd’s. He heard a whoop when he told her about the blood-stained find under the sink.

  ‘Have you got that information on Ewan Williams from the South Wales Police yet?’ she asked.

  Carruthers took a sip of his coffee. It still burnt his lips. ‘I was just reading it through when you phoned.’

  ‘What does it say?’ asked Fletcher eagerly.

  ‘Are you sure you’re up to this?’

  ‘Definitely.’

  ‘Well, if you don’t feel well, just let me know. I don’t want you to set your recovery back.’

  ‘The file? Do they know where Ewan Williams is at the moment?’

  ‘Bingham’s spoken to South Wales Police and corroborated what McGhee has told us. Ewan Williams, Mal Thomas and John Edwards are definitely not in Wales, but there’s no record of them leaving the UK.’

  ‘So they are most likely up in Scotland. What do we know of Williams himself?’ said Fletcher.

  ‘As expected, it’s a pretty big file. So far it makes for pretty depressing reading.’ As Carruthers skim-read the file himself, he read out salient bits to Fletcher. ‘Says here Williams had come from a family of six kids. Looks like his father had been in and out of prison for various crimes, mostly burglary.’ As Carruthers turned over the page he tutted. ‘That’s not good.’

  ‘What?’ said Fletcher.

  ‘Says that his mother, an alcoholic, had died giving birth when Williams was just sixteen, to the last of Williams’ five brothers. She had six children in total. Five boys and a girl.’

  ‘Shit. How awful. Having six kids would’ve been a handful in itself.’

  ‘And imagine not having a mother around and a dad in and out of prison. Must have been really tough on the kids. Poor little sods.’

  ‘What else does the file say?’

  ‘Williams left school at sixteen. No qualifications.’

  ‘So he left school the same year his mother died?’

  ‘Seems so. Looks like he was the oldest too. Most probably left to look after the other siblings. Not uncommon, though, I’d imagine. Lots of kids would have left school at sixteen back then. Different time, Andie.’

  ‘Still a long way from becoming a terrorist, though,’

  ‘True. He was picked up twice in 1967 for vandalism. In 1968 and 1969 he was arrested for theft.’

  ‘How old would he have been then?’ asked Fletcher.

  ‘Late teens.’

  ‘What happened after that?’

  ‘Charges get more serious as he enters his twenties. He got charged with assault in January 1971 and again in July the same year. More serious charges were levied against him as the decade progresses. That’s really strange.’

  ‘What is?’

  Carruthers frowned. ‘Looks like some pages are missing. They’ve been ripped out of the file. We’re missing information for the years 1971 to 1973. How odd.’ Searched his desk in case they’d dropped out and he hadn’t noticed. They weren’t there. ‘In 1975 Williams was arrested for stabbing a nightclub owner who was himself a known criminal. Hmm. That’s odd.’

  ‘What, what?’

  ‘Looks like the charge was dropped.’

  ‘In all that time he’s never been given a prison sentence?’

  ‘No. Looks like he never even went to court: all charges were dropped before legal proceedings.’

  ‘All charges dropped?’

  Carruthers flicked through the notes. ‘Looks like.’

  ‘I wonder why. So, it looks as if petty misdemeanours in Williams’ teens led to a life of organised crime by the time he was in his mid-twenties,’ said Fletcher.

  Carruthers smiled to the empty office. Fletcher might not be in the office, but this chat was nearly as good. At least it assured him that she was already feeling better. ‘Yes, and it only got worse by the looks of things from this file. His name had been linked to both money laundering and drugs by the time he was in his thirties. He’s never had a charge brought against him, though.’

  ‘Any evidence he was a drug user himself?’

  Carruthers flicked through the file. Shook his head, then realised the stupidity of that during a phone conversation. ‘No, nothing on file. Although saying that, he’s been arrested twice for possession. Never charged.’

  ‘So looks like he sold drugs but never used them. Never charged. How did he keep getting away with it?’

  Carruthers shut the file before answering. ‘I’ve no idea. He sounds very clever – and if he’s that clever then he’s dangerous. Definitely not to be underestimated.’

  ‘So it looks as if his being a big-time criminal is a front for his terrorist activities?’ said Fletcher.

  ‘Yes and let’s face it, if they’re a terrorist outfit that needed access to bomb-making equipment, they would have to get their hands on a hell of a lot of money. More money than comes from mere donations and party subscriptions.’

  ‘In that case both
money laundering and dealing drugs would have been perfect. They wouldn’t be the only terrorist outfit to be funded that way.’

  Carruthers was just about to say something else when he heard Fletcher speaking to someone away from the phone.

  ‘Sorry Jim, that’s the nurse. She’s asked me to finish the call and rest.’

  ‘Well, you’d better listen to her. I wouldn’t want you to get on the wrong side of the nursing staff.’

  ‘What plans now?’ said Fletcher. ‘When are you interviewing Dave Roberts’ parents?’

  ‘Tomorrow morning. They’ve asked to see their son’s room.’

  Carruthers suddenly heard an argument breaking out on the other end of the phone. He took it as a good sign. If she was strong enough to carry on a conversation with him and start a row with the nurse, she must be feeling better. ‘I take it that’s your cue for departure, Andie?’

  ‘Yes, I have to go. Apparently, the doctor’s doing his rounds and wants to talk to me. Hopefully I’ll be out of here soon.’

  ‘Well, just make sure you listen to the medical staff. We don’t want you coming out too soon and having a relapse.’

  ‘You’ll ring me if there are any significant developments, won’t you Jim?’

  ‘Yes, Andie, if it makes you feel better. Now talk to the doctor and then get some rest.’

  Carruthers said his goodbyes and hung up. He resumed reading. Something caught his eye. In terms of personality traits, he read that Williams was considered to be a charmer, excellent at manipulation and ruthless. Also, the police had written that there was evidence to link him, but not implicate him, to the murders of at least two other known criminals.

  There was no information on Williams having been a drug user. Carruthers was surprised by that. And what had happened to his brothers? Three of the brothers had gone on to a life of petty crime. Hardly surprising. One brother appeared to have no criminal record, and the only sister, Meg, had left home at nineteen. No further information had been given on her in the file. But, of course, Carruthers knew what had happened to her. She’d moved to Northern Ireland to be with her boyfriend. Being in the wrong place at the wrong time had changed her life forever – and the lives of those close to her.

  As he was contemplating the Williams’ family, Bingham walked in.

  ‘Fletcher’s going to be OK, sir. I’ve just heard from her at the hospital. Food poisoning. She’ll need a few days off though.’

  ‘Damn. Of course, it’s good news she’ll be OK,’ replied Bingham quickly. ‘Baby alright too?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘What else is going on?’

  ‘We’ve got a bit of news,’ said Carruthers. ‘Harris and myself have been over to Charlene Todd’s. We found a T-shirt in a bag under the sink soaked in blood. We’ve taken it away for forensic testing.’

  ‘Good work, Jim. Looks like we might have Rhys Evans’ killer. Keep me posted. Anything else?’

  ‘I’ve been reading the Williams’ file. It’s all a bit odd.’

  ‘What is?’

  ‘He’s never been charged with anything. Looks like the South Wales Police would have had enough to charge him on a number of occasions. A couple of times, he was initially charged, but those charges appear to have been dropped.’

  ‘Hmm.’

  ‘The other thing is, there’s been a number of pages torn out of his file. Pages that relate to the years 1971 to 1973. Of course, we now know he was most likely in Northern Ireland in early ’72. It’s very odd. He was obviously on South Wales Police’s radar. He seems to have been a very busy boy, especially in his youth, and there’s got to be some incidents in those years.’

  ‘Yes, it does look a bit odd –, but paperwork goes missing, especially over such a long period of time. It was over forty years ago,’

  ‘I realise that, sir, but if paperwork was going to go missing, you would expect the whole file to be missing. Not individual pages deliberately torn out.’

  ‘I can’t answer that. You’d have to phone the South Wales Police. Don’t expect them to be able to throw light on it though.’ Bingham drew himself up to his five feet ten. ‘Right, I’ve got a meeting with Superintendent McGhee. Am I right in thinking you’re interviewing Roberts’ parents tomorrow in Castletown?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Good. Excellent. Keep me informed. What are you doing at the moment?’

  ‘Just following up on a lead, then heading home, with a bit of luck.’

  ‘Anything I should know about?’

  ‘Not yet – and it might turn out to be nothing.’

  ‘OK. It’s good news about Fletcher.’

  ‘Yes, it is.’

  ‘What about you, Jim? Anyone special at the moment? You know, since you and,’ Bingham coughed, ‘Mairi, was it, split?’

  Carruthers glanced at his watch. Wondered what excuse he could invent to end the awkward conversation. It was very unlike Superintendent Bingham to be showing an interest in his personal life. He wondered if McGhee had been gossiping about him.

  ‘Nobody at the moment. No.’

  ‘Good. I mean, probably for the best. Big case going on. Don’t want to be distracted.’

  ‘No,’ said Carruthers feeling a moment’s loneliness and thinking he’d quite like to be a bit distracted from time to time. There was only one person he’d recently met that he wouldn’t have minded being distracted with: Siobhan Mathews. And she was off limits. He wondered if he’d been too harsh on her at the station. His gut instinct was that she was innocent of any involvement in Evans’ murder. He also couldn’t imagine her involved in any part in the car bomb. It was obvious she had just shown bad judgment in sleeping with Roberts then getting involved with Evans. Now that was messy, especially as there had seemed to be no love lost between those two men. His mind wandered to the photograph of Siobhan and Roberts. He’d felt all sorts of emotions when he’d first seen that photo. Jealousy and disappointment were just two of them. Stupid when he hardly knew her.

  He thought of her now and wondered what she was doing. She’d seemed genuinely horrified at the news of Roberts’ death, and terrified when he told her she might be in danger. He wasn’t sure if Siobhan was in danger or not, but he wished he’d played it down and hoped that her flatmate was at home with her that evening.

  SEVENTEEN

  TUESDAY MORNING, 5th JUNE

  Carruthers was in work at eight the next morning. The first thing he did was to fix himself a double espresso. Too much caffeine, but at least it wasn’t alcohol. There hadn’t been a repeat of that awful night where he’d passed out in his chair.

  He decided to ring the South Wales Police before interviewing Mr and Mrs Roberts. The missing information was playing on his mind. However, first he would ring Dr Mackie. He knew Mackie was an early bird.

  ‘No forensics back on the T-shirt yet, Jim. I know you’re champing at the bit. I’ll call you when they come in.’

  Damn. Most likely won’t have the forensics back before interviewing the Roberts’.

  He set about ringing PC Rachael Turner of South Wales Police, and readied himself for a fight. ‘PC Turner, I believe you forwarded the Ewan Williams file to me. There’s a bit of a problem: some pages are missing. Particularly those relating to the years between 1971 and 1974. They’ve been ripped out. Any idea where they might be?’

  ‘I couldn’t tell you, sir. To be honest, I didn’t notice anything when I had it sent over but then you were in such a hurry for the file I just bundled it into the post.’

  ‘Could the pages be mislaid in someone else’s file?’

  ‘I’m afraid we don’t have the manpower to spend our time looking through archived files.’

  ‘We’ve got a very serious situation on our hands here. We know Ewan Williams is fronting the terrorist organisation Bryn Glas 1402 and we believe he’s currently operating here in Scotland. You might have seen on the news about a car bomb here in Castletown?’ The inarticulate noise she made seemed to be agreement. ‘We bel
ieve he was responsible. I want to know why those pages could have been ripped out of his file.’

  ‘I’m sorry. I can’t help you. We have nobody in the station who worked here forty years ago.’

  Carruthers tersely thanked her and slammed down the phone. ‘Christ, they’re unhelpful in that bloody police station.’

  ‘Which police station?’

  Sergeant Brown was just passing Carruthers’ office holding a can of Irn-Bru. He poked his head round.

  ‘I’ve just been speaking to the police in South Wales. Pages are missing from Williams’ file relating to his activities in the early 70s.’

  ‘Early 70s did you say? That rings a bell… Oh aye, that’ll be it. I had an Uncle through marriage who was in the Swansea Police Force sometime back. I remember him talking about the Cardiff lot. I’m not surprised they’re no’ forthcoming. Don’t you remember? There was a massive police bribery and corruption case relating to the Cardiff Police around then. It was found that a couple of high-ranking officers were in the pockets of local gangsters. Several senior officers got pensioned off. If it had happened at your station, it’s not something that you would want to be reminded of. Mind, it was a long time ago now. You’ll probably find there’s not enough staff, and not enough interest.’

  Exactly as PC Turner had said, although he did wonder just how old Brown thought he was, expecting him to remember corruption charges in the 1970s. But this was a useful detail. ‘So it’s possible that detectives in Cardiff could have been in Williams’ pocket in the early 70s?’ said Carruthers.

  Brown was standing leaning against the office door. ‘Anything’s possible. Did it actually happen? That’s another question.’ And with that, he left.

  ‘Right, I had better get cracking too.’ Carruthers said to nobody in particular. He checked his watch, hastily gulped back the black coffee and disposed of the paper cup in the bin. He picked up his notebook, car keys and jacket and left the office to set off for the bed and breakfast where he was to meet Dave Roberts’ parents.