by Anne Bone
Marcus made his way through to the back of the club where the offices were situated. Terry Lawson, the club’s manager, was sitting with his feet up on the desk, the phone receiver held to his ear, while smoking one of the Cafe Creme cigars that he favoured. He was surprised to see Marcus enter the room, and told whoever he was speaking to that he needed to go and would call them back. Marcus suspected it was one of the many young women Terry was chasing.
‘Marcus, this is a surprise, I didn’t know that you were back.’ He immediately took his feet from the desk and sat up to greet the proprietor of the club, his boss, who he knew would leave him to run the club as he wanted, as long as there was no trouble and the customers spent their hard-earned money.
‘Got back earlier today. I need to speak to you Terry, and I need your help.’
‘Of course, Marcus, that goes without saying.’ Terry stood up and moved towards the cabinet in the corner of the small cluttered office, from where he extracted a large bottle of Scotch. ‘You want one?’ Marcus nodded and watched as Terry poured a two finger measure into a glass and pass it to him.
Marcus sat on the couch that occupied the side of the wall, a couch that no doubt had seen action by Terry on numerous occasions. Marcus never asked questions of Terry, who had been his manager in the club for the past five years. He had been recruited from Glasgow, and had come with a background that while wasn’t squeaky clean, hadn’t included any convictions. He was a good manager and kept the club and other parts of the business that were less public running like clockwork, unlike his previous manager who had been a disappointment to Marcus, someone who he had trusted over many years, yet had decided to dip his hands in the till. His hands were less than able now, after Marcus had arranged for them to be broken.
‘Terry, you’ll have no doubt heard of the missing child, Mary Dinnet?’ Terry nodded. ‘What you don’t know, and this is something that needs to remain totally confidential, is that Mary is my kid. Jenni, her mother, and I have been an item for years. We have kept my relationship to Mary a secret, even she doesn’t realise I’m her dad.’
‘Fuck, Marcus I had no idea. Christ, yeah, I’ve seen all the stuff on the news and in the papers, everyone’s talking about it. I had no fucking clue she had anything to do with you.’
‘As I said it has been a very discreet arrangement, and one which I am keen to keep as a discreet arrangement. However, the police need to speak to me, as they are aware of the details. Christ, Terry, no one seems to know where Mary is, and I need you to put out some feelers to see if any of your associates have any info. I know they might be able to get under the radar, find out who is out there but wouldn’t necessarily come forward, so I need to get someone out there to dig around. Can you arrange that?’
‘No sweat, I will have some words in a few ears right away.’
Shortly after ensuring that Terry would do as requested, and he had drained his glass, Marcus felt an overwhelming sense of exhaustion. He didn’t often recognise this feeling, as although he was in his early fifties, he was fit. He supposed that today had brought with it a whole new set of challenges. He bid goodnight to Terry and made his way through the club, which was beginning to fill up, and was pleased to get into his car to drive home.
While he was driving he began to consider the excuses he would make. First, as tomorrow was Saturday and he tried to relax over weekends, he would need to make an excuse to Veronica as to why he needed to be at the office for most of the day. More difficult was that he would have to ‘disappear’ for a few nights as of Sunday. He was tired and there was a small part of him that would just like to come clean with Veronica, to tell her exactly where he would be, but that wasn’t his style. His style was to fabricate a cover story one which by the time he reached home he would have no doubt come up with.
Veronica was in front of the television, watching a film. She didn’t react when he came into the room, and he made his way directly to the drinks cabinet where he poured himself a large Scotch. Veronica did notice he looked pale and weary, but she continued to keep her silence. She would not do what she normally would, being the first one to make the move to smooth over an atmosphere. Not this time. She waited.
Marcus sat in his favourite armchair and sipped his drink. He looked at Veronica and her body language left him in no doubt that she was seriously pissed off, and ready to tell him so. He only had to light the blue touch paper, which he decided he would do, for no other reason than to get it over with.
‘Sorry, darling, that I had to go out. Something needed to be sorted and it hasn’t yet been resolved, so I will be out most of the day tomorrow, and the next few days.’ He took another sip of the amber liquid, swallowed it and continued. ‘Maybe I will stay at the flat for a few nights, then I won’t disturb you.’ He watched and waited and it didn’t take long at all.
The blue touch paper flared. ‘Oh, that is so considerate of you, as if I believed the crap that you feed me. Honestly Marcus, who do you think I am? I haven’t just come up the Dee on a banana boat you know.’ Her voice became louder and her face was twisted into a ball of fury. ‘We have just spent a few days away, and do you know, I had allowed myself the thought that we might just come home and continue to spend a few days chilling before you got sucked into the bloody business.’ She stopped to take a swig of her gin and tonic, and as it was her third, her mouth was liberated and she resumed her attack. ‘For God’s sake Marcus, Tom was upset when he realised that the excuse we had given Kim’s parents was a load of bollocks. He wanted me to go on my own, but that’s not my style is it? No, I have spent twenty-six bloody years making sure that to everyone in the outside world we are the happy couple.’
She found a tear formulating in the corner of her eye, and this was followed by several others. She didn’t usually cry, but she was just so bloody mad. ‘Now you come up with a story that you will be busy for the next few days. Do you know, I don’t fucking care! Just you go out and play with whatever scheme you are involved in now. Go and fucking enjoy whatever it is. Stay away however long you like. And, why don’t you sleep in the spare room, then you won’t disturb me at all!’
With those final words reverberating in the ether she stood up and glared at him before leaving the room to stomp up the stairs, where he heard the bedroom door slam.
Marcus continued to sip his Scotch, and reached over to grab the remote where he flicked through the channels to find Match of the Day. He wasn’t that interested in football, but he left it on and couldn’t help thinking that his perceived problem of trying to establish excuses for why he wouldn’t be home much for the next few days had been solved. Veronica had solved it for him by getting pissed off. She would no doubt realise in a couple of days that he wasn’t going to play her game.
Chapter 12
Saturday 15th September -Police Headquarters Aberdeen
The morning briefing in the incident room had been delivered with an air of discomfort. The whole team were down, and while it should have been Dave‘s role to inspire the team, he found it hard to do so. He was feeling as apprehensive as the rest of them: they were no closer to finding Mary, and he was well aware that if they didn’t find a missing child within the first twenty-four hours, then each day it became less likely that they would find her alive.
Jane and Dave were now chewing over what they had discussed. Jane was equally frustrated that there were no leads, apart from the sighting in Stirling which still hadn’t produced the man or the child. They had undertaken another search of the park yesterday, just to go over the area to see whether anything had been missed. On Monday they were planning a reconstruction, and this would, they hoped, trigger someone’s memory. At least they would feel as though they were doing something; the press had been helpful and both BBC and Grampian were due to cover the reconstruction story.
‘I can’t understand it Dave,’ exclaimed Jane. ‘I don’t think I have ever been on a job where there have been so few leads; it’s just as though she has disappeared.
I could even consider her being abducted by aliens if I believed in UFOs. It is just not right, someone must have seen something. Let’s review again. Are we sure we have cleared all of the family?’
‘Apart from Marcus Davidson, who we will be speaking to this morning, although to be fair he has a cast iron alibi given he was in Spain on Monday. As far as the mother is concerned, we have undertaken all the background checks. She is a young woman who has had no police interest, no one in the community has a bad word to say about her. Quiet living, apart from the neighbours noticing a man who calls on a regular basis, but we know who he is. She and the child are considered to be model citizens, all reports indicate that they are close, seen out together a lot and, just as Jenni told us, Mary is not a child who is left to roam.’ He looked down at the notes he held in his hand and continued.
‘Grandparents, don’t feature. Jenni’s story about them not being involved checks out. Christine and Alex Dinnet are seen as pleasant, law abiding people. Neither has ever come to police attention. The local cops in Blairgowrie have made some enquiries. Alex is on the religious side and is an elder at the local church. So given that, even his rejection of his daughter when she became pregnant wasn’t a surprise, topped with the fact she is having an extramarital affair with Marcus, you can get him. According to the local minister, they were both devastated when Jenni had got pregnant and incredibly disappointed that she had let them down. They had had great hopes for her, and had gone to some lengths to support her to go to Aberdeen to study; she had been considered as having real talent. That all went down the tubes when she got pregnant and, of course, once Mary was born Alex couldn’t bring himself to compromise and welcome the child into the family. It was Christine who did so and again, according to local information, she worked hard at chipping away at her husband until he relented and permitted Jenni and Mary to visit. While he didn’t support Jenni, there is no reason to believe he would do any harm to either of them. In fact, when they were informed of Mary’s disappearance, he was upset and didn’t argue with Christine when she immediately agreed to come to Aberdeen, so there isn’t anything there that would raise any concerns.’
‘And there are no other relatives?’ asked Jane.
‘Jenni has a brother, Alexander, who’s two years older, but is down in London working. Apparently, according to the local Blairgowrie boys, there is some speculation that he might bat for the other side. So he rarely comes home, which would make perfect sense because if Jenni was denied her parents’ support at a time she needed it, then you can only imagine what Alex’s reaction would be if he knew his son was batting for the other side.’ Dave stopped to check his notes again, taking the opportunity of the break to take a drink from his coffee mug.
‘There are a couple of extended family members about. Alex has a brother, living in Blairgowrie, Christine has a sister and brother living in the Dundee area, and all have a couple of kids. But none are close, seems that they find Alex’s bigotry hard to accept, although, to be fair, none of them has seemed to go out of their way to support Jenni.’
‘And what about Jenni’s grandparents, where are they?’
‘Christine’s father is in a residential home in Dundee, her mother is long dead, as is Alex’s parents. Both of his died young, so, no, Jenni seemed to be on her own after she got involved with Marcus Davidson.’
The phone on Jane’s desk began to ring, its tones shaking them out of their thoughts. She answered and told the caller that she would be down in a couple of minutes. On replacing the receiver she told Dave that Marcus had arrived and she asked whether he would like to join her to speak to him.
‘I couldn’t be more willing,’ came the reply, ‘although I would have preferred to be interviewing him in other circumstances. I would love to be a fly on his office wall, just to find out what he gets up to.’
Jane opened the door by the front office and welcomed Marcus with a firm handshake. She asked him to follow her along the corridor until they came to an interview room. The room was stark and unwelcoming, a table and four chairs was all it held apart from a tape recorder. The windows were just small panes? high up and covered with bars. The only real light came from the fluorescent strip that provided a harsh glaring brightness. Jane introduced Dave and indicated to Marcus to sit on one of the hard chairs, while both she and Dave sat opposite him.
It was not what Marcus was expecting as he had thought he would have been taken to one of their offices, not an interview room. He felt himself immediately on the defensive, but counselled himself to settle down; this wasn’t about him, this was about his child.
Jane started off the interview by acknowledging how sorry she was for the circumstances and how concerned they were about Mary.
‘Yes, as I am,’ stated Marcus, ‘I hope you can give me the details of what you are actually doing to find her as it would seem to me that your enquiries are not producing any worthwhile information.’
Jane shifted in her chair, and was well aware that Dave’s body language had also shifted, as he moved forward. She answered before he had chance to. ‘We are still undertaking searches, and you may be aware that we have organised a reconstruction for Monday. We are as frustrated as you are Mr Davidson that enquiries have produced so very few leads. The only serious sighting is the one in Stirling and our colleagues in Central are still trying to locate them.’
‘You mean to tell me that there has only been one reported sighting. I thought these sorts of incidents meant that there would be lots of so-called sightings.’
‘Yes, well,’ replied Jane, ‘we have had calls of possible sightings, but when we have followed them up they were quickly eliminated from the inquiry. We have undertaken several searches in the area, as well, of course, of conducting door to door enquiries, where nothing, I am afraid, has been identified.’
‘Surely there must have been someone who saw something: this happened in the middle of Aberdeen, and during day light.’ Marcus tried hard to keep the accusation that he was feeling out of his voice, that the police seemed to be verging on the edge of incompetence.
Dave replied then, ‘As the Chief Inspector has already said, we are all frustrated and disturbed that no one has come forward with any useful information. It might be helpful if you could perhaps give us your version of your relationship with Mary.’
Marcus braced himself, he knew this was why he was there, to be asked questions about his personal life, an area he was not comfortable with. ‘Well, you are already aware, that Mary is my daughter.’
Dave went on, ‘We got that information from Jenni, but we understand that very few people are aware of that, including Mary. Why is that, Mr Davidson?’
Marcus glared at the younger man; he didn’t like him or his attitude towards him. His retort, however, was tempered by remaining calm and not biting back. ‘You are already aware that Jenni and I have been in a relationship for a number of years; an affair, if that describes it better. Mary’s the product of our affair, and like most extramarital affairs it is a discreet relationship.’
‘So discreet that you haven’t even acknowledged your own daughter. I understand she refers to you as “Uncle Marcus”?’
‘That is correct. It was what Jenni and I agreed when Mary was born. We spoke about the role that I would take and while, of course, I have always been concerned for Mary, because of the circumstances I was never going to be able to take “a hands-on” father’s role.’ He didn’t like the way in which this line of questioning was going; he was being judged and he didn’t like this at all.
‘So we understand. You have continued with your “affair” though. It would appear from our view that you have had the best of both worlds. A young pretty woman like Jenni, much younger than you, in fact, twenty-four years younger to be precise, not bad going.’
Marcus bristled, ‘I didn’t realise that I was coming here to be judged this morning, but as you say Detective Inspector, yes, I am a very fortunate man to have fallen in love with a woman twent
y-four years my junior and have that love reciprocated. Jenni is a wonderful young woman who I have total respect for, and if circumstances were different then we would be married and living together.’
‘So it’s your wife that prevents this from happening. People get divorced and remarry, can I ask whether your wife is aware of your, let’s see…’ he glanced down at the papers before him even though he was well aware of what they stated before he looked directly at Marcus, ‘at least ten-year affair.’
‘My wife is not aware, as I have already explained. Jenni and I are very discreet and the reason is to protect my wife. Detective Inspector, I have been married to my wife for twenty- six years and as you no doubt know we have two sons together. My marriage is a good one, but I, like many others, have found that I can manage two relationships.’ He stopped and adjusted his tie, and couldn’t help thinking that if anyone had been party to the atmosphere in his house this morning at breakfast, they wouldn’t be able to describe it as a happy marriage. He went on, ‘Jenni knew exactly what she was getting into when we first got together, and she always knew that I would never leave my wife. She has been happy to settle for that, and we have organised our lives in such a way it has met our needs.’
Jane couldn’t help herself and interjected at this point, ‘Are you absolutely sure about that Mr Davidson? Jenni could have done with your support on Monday, but she had to go through a terrible trauma on her own. I understand that she was noticeably uncomfortable about revealing who Mary’s father was, even under the circumstances. Surely a young mother should feel secure enough to know that it was okay to share who her child’s father was.’
‘Jenni has always been very protective of me; it’s just how we are. She doesn’t want my wife to be hurt. If you have any knowledge at all of Jenni then you would know that she is such a sweet-natured woman.’
Jane realised that they were not getting anywhere and, indeed, Marcus’s and Jenni’s relationship was unconventional. She wasn’t there to judge that, but they had to ask nevertheless. ‘Who does know about the relationship Mr Davidson? After ten years there must be some people close to you who know?’