Witness the Dead

by Craig Robertson

  ‘That sounds like a full house if we were playing Mr Grey bingo. Did he give a name?’

  ‘Yes. Scott Duke.’

  ‘Scott Duke? Sounds bollocks. You checked it out?’

  ‘Just about to.’

  ‘Go do it. Good work. And nice haircut, by the way.’

  Later, one of the WPCs, Imelda Couper, got a similar response from a girl named Tracey in a salon on Union Street. She said that one of her regular customers, a guy calling himself Mike Majors, was a bit of a weirdo. Always asking for her, always staring and some uncomfortable fidgeting going on down below while he got his haircut. The description was bang on.

  Before long, they also had a Jason Prince visiting a hairdresser’s on Howard Street and a Ryan Race, who was a regular at a salon on Hope Street. In each case he got his hair cut by arguably the prettiest girl in the place, never let anyone else do it, and was considered a sleazeball by all and sundry. In each case, the hairdresser was alive and accounted for.

  ‘What the hell have we got here?’ exclaimed Narey. ‘A serial killer or a—’

  ‘A serial curler?’ offered Toshney.

  ‘Oh, shut up, Fraser.’ Narey rubbed at her eyes and pulled a hand through her long brown hair, idly trying to remember when she last had it cut. ‘I want this guy in Stewart Street by this time tomorrow. Whoever he is, whatever his game is. Just find him and drag him in here.’

  ‘Bring me the head of Mr Grey,’ sniggered Toshney, grabbing the top of his own hair and holding it up as if he were carrying it. Narey slapped Toshney’s hand away, causing him to yelp.

  ‘Ow. That’s—’

  She raised her eyebrows, inviting him to finish. He changed his mind.

  ‘Um, no. It isn’t.’

  Narey’s exasperation was close to breaking point. ‘Good. Now that’s settled, go bring him in here.’

  Chapter 29

  Wednesday evening

  ‘I swear if that prison officer hadn’t been there, I’d have happily wrung his neck with my bare hands.’

  ‘Not sure that would have done us much good in getting him to talk about the two new killings, Danny.’

  ‘No, I don’t suppose it would, son, but it would have done me a hell of a lot of good. That smug look on his face… I just wanted to smash it, wipe it off his gub with a single punch. Just sitting there, thinking about what he did to all those girls. Thinking about the parents who don’t know what happened to their daughters, don’t know where they’re buried. I wanted to kill him. God forgive me but I actually wanted to kill him.’

  Winter looked at his uncle, the man he’d always respected more than anyone else in his life, his own parents having both died when he was too young to have properly known them, and saw something he’d never seen before. Danny had always been big and strong, rough and wise, but Winter had always thought of him as basically a gentle soul. Sure, he’d seen him put people in their place and on their backside but this was different. Danny meant what he said. Given the chance, he would have ended Archibald Atto’s life.

  They were back in Winter’s flat in Berkeley Street, a beer each already drunk and another in front of them. Both men knew it was going to take more than one to wash away the taste of Blackridge Prison and the man they’d gone to see.

  ‘He revels in it. That’s what gets to me as much as what he’s done. He loves pulling our chains and making us dance through bloody hoops to get anything out of him. He enjoyed what he did and enjoys rubbing our noses in it. All that bollocks about low brain density and paralimbic whatever it was. He’s a cold-blooded killer and I don’t care whether it’s his brain, his mother, his primary-school teacher or whether he was bitten by a rabid dog. He did it and he pays the price. The reason doesn’t make any difference to me.’

  ‘I get that, Dan, but what if it makes a difference to why the two girls were murdered? What if it can help us work out the connection, if there is a connection, between Atto and what happened last weekend?’

  ‘Oh, there is a connection. He said so. And I know he might have been saying it to keep our attention or just to wind us up, but I don’t think so. He said he knows a lot about these new killings. A lot.’

  Winter saw Danny’s fist close over again, the lines on the back of his hand disappearing as his anger emerged anew. ‘Okay, what about the nature-or-nurture stuff he was talking about. He said that was “more relevant” than I might think. What do you reckon that was all about?’

  Danny slugged on his beer, a serious swig that accounted for nearly half the bottle. ‘I don’t know, son. Like I said, I don’t care about the psychobabble of why he’s the crazy murdering bastard that he is. That might have been just one of his games. Or maybe he was hinting at something. But I don’t see how his parents or his upbringing could be relevant to what’s going on now. We need to go back and see him again, though. We can’t leave it at that.’

  Winter mulled over the beer and the thought. Something nagging away at him like a bad tooth.

  ‘He was playing with us. No doubt about that. But I also think he was giving us something.’

  Danny laughed grimly, wiping at his mouth. ‘Giving you something more like. He wouldn’t have pissed on me if I was on fire, but he liked you. Not that I would think that was a good thing if I was you.’

  ‘No, I don’t think it’s a good thing. All that shit about me seeing death and being able to understand him. Made me want to puke. I tell you, Dan, it made me feel like I need a shower after talking to that guy.’

  ‘Yeah? Well you might just have to get used to it because I need to know what it is that he knows, and, if him having some kind of freaky connection with you is what makes it happen, then so be it.’

  ‘Jesus Christ, Danny. The guy is a monster. A proper fucking monster. I don’t know. Even today, he was trying to mess with my head and I don’t know if I want to let him in there.’

  ‘Scared of what he might find?’

  ‘Piss off.’

  Danny’s eyes closed over and his hands covered his face. ‘Sorry, son. Honestly, Tony, I didn’t mean… Jesus. Look, I was just…’

  ‘Forget it. The guy’s messing with your head, too, Uncle Dan. Look, if it means that much to you — and I know it does — then I’ll talk to him again. But I reserve the right to tell him where to go. Okay?’

  ‘Okay.’

  ‘Okay. Now, like I was saying, I think he was giving us something when he started on that nature-and-nurture stuff. It was like some kind of test. The clue was there if we were smart enough to work it out. But I don’t think it has to be what you were saying about his parents or—’

  Before Winter could finish, he was interrupted by a sudden and violent banging on the front door. Four or five loud thumps resonated through to the living room where they sat. The two men looked at each other.

  He got to his feet, noticing that Danny had instinctively done the same, readying himself for any possible confrontation. Winter waved him back into his seat but Danny shook his head and stood his ground.

  The banging continued as Winter got to the front door. ‘Who is it?’

  ‘Police! Open up.’

  The voice… Winter thought and moved in one action, his hand turning the snib and releasing the door catch. As soon as it was unlocked, the door began to swing towards him, the speed of it forcing him to take a step back. Derek Addison strode through the gap, fury on his face and the flat of his hand pushing straight at Winter’s chest and driving him backwards. Behind him was Narey, face set hard and as angry as Addison.

  She threw the door closed behind her as Addison continued to push Winter back, nearly forcing him off his feet as he shoved him back into the living room. Danny had emerged from the room and looked ready to step in and go for Addison, but a near scream from Narey stopped him in his tracks as he wound back an arm.

  ‘Don’t even think about it, Danny. Things are bad enough as they are.’

  Addison disagreed, though, his features curling into a confrontational snarl at D
anny as he pushed Winter back and back until he finally made him tumble into a leather armchair. ‘No, go on, do it. After the shitty day I’ve had it would be the perfect ending if you take a swing and I get to belt you one and then arrest you.’

  Danny’s arm did swing back but he didn’t get the chance to throw a punch as Narey strode between the two men, shoving a hand against the chest of each and forcing her way through till she stood over Winter, who sat in the chair with a look of bewilderment on his face.

  He looked up and saw her face tighten, her mouth draw up and in as she sucked on her teeth, a sure sign of anger. Her eyes burned furiously at him, a look he was used to — but this was a new level of intensity. She looked at him until her lips curled back and she shook her head in an obvious fit of disgust, reaching into her coat pocket and producing a set of handcuffs.

  ‘Anthony Winter, I’m arresting you on suspicion of perverting the course of justice and interfering with a police investigation. You don’t have to say anything but anything you do say will be noted and may be used as evidence. Do you understand?’

  Chapter 30

  Wednesday night

  She’d cuffed him. She’d actually cuffed him. It had all happened in such a whirl that Winter wasn’t sure just what the hell was going on, but he’d looked down at his wrists bound in two circles of steel and black moulded plastic. There was something that looked like tears of frustration forming in the corners of her eyes, and that was never a good sign. From behind her, a raging Addison shouted, ‘What the fuck have you two muppets been up to?’

  Danny’s voice had roared back. ‘This is ridiculous. Look, I don’t know what you think’s happened but you can’t just—’

  ‘Don’t you start, Danny,’ Narey had spun and bawled at him. ‘Don’t you dare start. He’s just an idiot but you should know better!’

  She’d snapped her head back at Winter, daring him to argue, daring him to say anything that would give away their former relationship to Addison. He’d never seen her look at him the way she was doing right now.

  ‘What’s this all about?’

  ‘Good question, wee man.’ Addison’s head had appeared over Narey’s shoulder, his expression no less livid than hers. ‘A very good question. And it’s just what I was about to ask you.’

  He’d bent down so that he was eyeball to eyeball with Winter, his face aggressively up against his friend’s. ‘And you better be clear that, when I ask you that question, I want an honest answer or — pal or no pal — I’m going to rip your head off and stick it up your arse. You’ve been taking me for a mug, Tony. All those questions about the case? I’m not very happy with you. You understand me, wee man?’

  Winter hadn’t exactly been in a position to argue, so had simply nodded. Addison had nodded back, slowly.

  ‘So what have you two idiots got to say for yourselves?’

  Winter and Danny had looked at each other, unspoken messages flying from one to the other. The silent consensus had been to say little or nothing. It had left Addison no choice — they could see that now — but it had seemed like a good idea at the time.

  It didn’t seem quite so clever now. Winter and Danny were in separate interview rooms in Stewart Street and had already been thrown into separate cells, staring at four walls and wondering what the hell was going on.

  Rachel had sat in the front seat of the patrol car that had driven Winter to Cowcaddens, he slung in the back, she staring silently straight ahead, not once catching his eye in the rear-view mirror.

  The look on the booking sergeant’s face had been priceless. Winter got the distinct feeling that all the photographs he’d snatched of cops on duty over the years was fuel to the fire of the sergeant’s pen. He was booked in with some enthusiasm and left to stew.

  Winter’s sullen silence when he was dragged into the interview room was driven by not knowing what Danny was saying when he was sitting before Narey and Addison. His loyalty to his uncle and his determination not to let him down was taking precedence over his ties to the two cops who were interrogating him.

  Maybe that was why, after unsuccessful attempts at interviewing them separately, Winter and Danny found themselves sitting at the same side of a wooden table, Addison and Narey on the other, two uniforms standing by the door.

  ‘I think you must have got your wires crossed, son,’ Danny told Addison sternly. ‘In my day we called this unlawful arrest.’

  Addison laughed bitterly. ‘In your day? In your day cops were allowed to give kids a cuff round the ear and smoke in their panda cars. Must have been great. But times have moved on. And the only thing I’ve got crossed is my fingers that you two aren’t as big a pair of fuck-ups as you seem to be.’

  ‘Piss off.’

  Addison’s face went within an inch of Danny’s. ‘Wrong answer, old man. I want to know what you two have been up to, and I’m not taking any of your shit in the meantime.’

  ‘Don’t know what you’re talking about.’

  ‘Do it the hard way, right? Okay, fair enough. You’re old and probably a wee bit muddled, so you might think that’s a good idea, but young Tony here knows making me even more pissed off than I currently am isn’t the best plan I’ve ever heard. Don’t you, Tony?’

  Winter looked from his pal to his uncle to his ex-girlfriend and knew he couldn’t win. He opted to do what he usually did when he was in a hole: he kept digging. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’

  ‘Let’s just charge them,’ Narey scowled.

  ‘A good idea, DS Narey, but I’m nothing if not famously fair. Right, time for a very quick story. Then I want answers.’

  Danny and Winter sighed, the inevitability of what was coming next settling on them.

  ‘First of all, I have a conversation with DS Andy Teven. He tells me that he had some ex-copper come into the station wanting to talk about the cemetery killings. Says the old boy was up to high doh and said the murders were linked to the Red Silk killings of the seventies. That we should be looking at Archibald Atto. Andy reckoned the old boy had been at the cooking sherry a wee bit early in the day. Sounded like a crank to me, too, but I asked for the ex-cop’s name. Danny Neilson, he says. Well, well, says me. Not only a well-respected former polisman but the uncle of one Anthony Winter of this parish. Interesting, I thought. Particularly interesting that said Anthony Winter, despite being an acquaintance of mine, never thought to mention it. With me so far?’

  The two men said nothing but took a close interest in their shoes.

  ‘So I spoke to DS Narey here. She also thought it a bit odd that Tony hadn’t said anything. She and Tony are, I believe, on good speaking terms and yet he hadn’t mentioned it to her either. So, unlikely as it seemed, what with Archibald Atto having been locked up in prison for the past fourteen years, we thought we’d check it out. Sure enough, he was safely tucked up in his cell. But we also asked if he had had any visitors recently. Funnily enough, he had two just today. Want to guess who?’

  Winter and Danny swapped weary glances but didn’t speak.

  ‘I asked if you wanted to guess,’ Addison roared. ‘And you better make sure it’s a good guess because you only get three lives each.’

  ‘And you’re about to use at least one of them up,’ Narey seethed beside him.

  ‘Jesus, what do you want us to say, Addy? You obviously know we were there.’

  ‘What do I want you to say? Let me think. Maybe what will win the three-thirty at Haydock or why women talk so much without actually saying anything. Or hang on, I know: maybe you could fucking tell me why you were visiting a serial killer who you seem to think is involved with an active murder case?’

  ‘Because he’s involved in your bloody murder case!’

  Danny’s blurted reply brought a smile to Addison’s face and caused Narey’s grimace to deepen.

  ‘Okay, so now we’re getting somewhere. Not anywhere sane but at least it’s a start. Right, Danny, so tell me why you think he’s involved. And how the bloody hell he
can be.’

  Danny sighed and rubbed at his eyes, a rueful frown stealing its way onto his face. He shook his head and sank into his chair.

  ‘I’ve already been through this with your DS Teven. I told him chapter and verse and he wasn’t prepared to listen.’

  ‘Obviously he did listen and obviously he told me. And I’m listening now. But it better be good.’

  ‘No, it isn’t good, son. If I’m right, it’s all bad. These killings stink of the Klass case. Stink to high heaven of it. Jesus Christ, do your computers not tell you that? The way the victims were laid out, the positions they were in? Pure Atto.’

  Addison turned to look at Winter. ‘Aye? And how exactly do you know the positions they were laid out in? If it involves crime-scene photographs, then someone is in deep shit.’

  ‘Never mind that,’ Danny came back at him. ‘The point is they are so similar. The positions of subservience, begging, praying. The killer making out he is all-powerful and taking the piss out of the victim and the cops. The age of the victims. The time-frame between killings, the city-centre locations. It’s either Atto or someone copying him. It’s too pat to be a coincidence.’

  Addison stared at Danny, thoughtfully though, rather than with the angry bemusement of earlier. He turned to Narey and the pair shrugged at each other, too smart to dismiss what the old cop said but too smart to think it could be true.

  ‘Okay, copycat I can just about buy,’ he said finally. ‘That’s worth looking at. But Atto being involved? That’s just nuts.’

  Danny’s eyebrows rose furiously. ‘Son, I’ve already had your DS Teven dismiss me as crazy. I’m not keen on it happening twice.’

  ‘Right, haud your horses. It was a turn of phrase. I know you’re not nuts. But this whole situation is. How the…? How can Atto be involved with this?’

  ‘Because he’s devious. Because he is highly intelligent and twisted beyond belief. Because he’s always had a way of manipulating people to do things that he wants. DI Addison, I don’t know how he’s involved. But I’m sure he is.’