Stranglehold

by Rena George

  McLeod was dabbing at his eyes with a white linen hankie he'd taken from his pocket. 'Just give me a moment,' he said.

  'I'm sorry but this has to be official.' Drummond stepped forward. 'Is this your stepdaughter?'

  The man still had his back to him. He lifted his head and squared his shoulders. 'Yes. This is my stepdaughter, Emily Ross.' He spun round to face Drummond. 'I'd like to take my wife away from here now, if that's all right with you, Inspector.'

  'Of course,' Drummond said. 'There are a few preliminaries we need to clear up before you go. Perhaps we could all go back to the police station. I promise not to keep you longer than we need.' He made an attempt at a smile. 'We have a very nice canteen that produces very passible coffee.'

  'We don't drink coffee,' Angus said. 'But if you have more questions then let's get them over with as quickly as possible.'

  They were moving out of the mortuary and into the corridor. Rachel rose from her chair as they emerged from the door, her eyes bore into her husband's face, willing him to say it wasn't Emily. Drummond could see she'd been clinging to the last unlikely hope that the body on the trolley back there was some other girl. But her face fell as her husband approached. 'It's her, my love,' he said at last, putting his arms around Rachel and patting her back. 'It's Emily.'

  Drummond and Gail exchanged a look as the couple stood there embracing. And then Rachel pulled away, swiping angrily at her tears with the flat of her hands. 'Why Glasgow?' she demanded. 'Why did Emily come here? It's not as if she knew anyone here.'

  'We don't know, Mrs McLeod,' Gail said. 'We're still investigating everything.'

  'She had no money, so how was she managing to support herself?' She turned to Drummond. 'And where was she staying? Somebody must have been helping her.'

  Drummond didn't like where this was going. He could see his career flying out the window. There was so much more he could tell this woman, but would that give her any more comfort? He doubted it. Or maybe he was just protecting himself? Whatever it was, it would have to wait until later. There was only one focus on his mind now. He had to find Emily Ross's killer.

  Gail rang ahead to warn staff at the station to make sure an interview room was free, and they were shown straight there when they arrived. 'I'll find us some coffees,' she said.

  'As I've already told your boss, we don't drink coffee,' Angus McLeod said. 'Can we have water?'

  'I'd like coffee, please,' Rachel said. 'White and sweet.'

  Angus shot her a look, but Rachel had averted her eyes.

  Once again Drummond sensed the friction between the two of them or perhaps, he was misinterpreting the normal reactions of a grieving couple.

  Rachel had pulled out her mobile phone. 'Is it all right if I check up on the children? We left them with our neighbour, Mandy.'

  Drummond nodded. 'Of course,' he said.

  They all fell silent as Rachel made the call. Her eyes lit up at her friend's assurance the children were fine. For a few brief seconds she had escaped from the living nightmare that was Emily's brutal death. Her eyes were on her husband. 'Thanks, Mandy. I knew they'd be fine with you. We should be back in a few hours. I'll keep in touch.' The call ended, but the light in her eyes remained.

  'Everything OK?' Drummond asked, giving the woman his kindest smile.

  'Mandy says they're fine.'

  'Will this take long?' Angus cut in. 'We need to get back to our children.'

  'Just a few questions,' Drummond said, addressing his comments to Rachel. 'We promise not to keep you longer than we have to.'

  'Where was Emily found?' Rachel asked, her eyes challenging.

  'We don't need to go into this now, Rachel. The officers will give us all this information when they complete their investigations.'

  But Rachel persisted. 'I need to know the truth.'

  Drummond and Gail exchanged a look. He was weighing up how much to say. He didn't want to distress the woman any more than he had to.

  'Emily's body was found outside one of the city centre pubs,' he said. No need to mention the poor girl's body had been dumped amongst the rubbish in a dismal alley.

  Rachel kept her eyes down, so he had no idea how she responded to this. He waited a second before going on. 'Can you remember the last time you saw your daughter, Mrs McLeod?'

  'Of course. I think of little else. I was in the kitchen up to my elbows in flour when Emily came in that day.' Rachel touched her face. 'She said she was off to meet her friend, Iona.' A wistful smile crossed her face. 'She gave me a peck on the cheek. I didn't even turn around. Archie was in his pram and had started to cry. I went to wash my hands to pick him up.' Her head was shaking sadly. 'I didn't even say goodbye to Emily.'

  'When did you realize she'd gone?' Drummond asked gently.

  'Later that evening,' Rachel said. 'It was the middle of the week and Emily knew we didn't like her staying out late.' She glanced at her husband, who appeared to be struggling to control the tremble in his bottom lip. 'When it got to 10.30, we started to worry. We gave it another hour and then I rang Iona. She was in bed. She said she knew nothing about meeting Emily that evening.'

  'We sat up all night ringing everyone we could think of,' Angus McLeod said.

  'But we knew it was hopeless,' Rachel interrupted. 'Emily had taken most of her clothes. She must have had a rucksack hidden in the hall or something when she came in to say goodbye…' Her voice tailed off.

  'Did she contact you at all?' Gail asked.

  'I got a text the next day. Emily said she was fine and not to worry about her. She said she needed to get away for a while and would appreciate if we didn't try to find her.'

  Drummond watched Gail scribble notes as the woman spoke. 'The friend you mentioned, did Emily get in touch with her?'

  Rachel frowned. 'She said not, and to be honest she looked as shocked about Emily going off like that as the rest of us.'

  'What's the friend's surname?' Drummond asked.

  'Grant, Iona Grant'

  'But she'll be no help,' Angus McLeod said. 'I don't know what Emily saw in the girl. I warned her she was trouble, but you couldn't tell Emily anything.'

  Their drinks arrived, but no one picked them up.

  'Was Emily raped?' Rachel's stark words hung in the air.

  Angus shot his wife a shocked look.

  Drummond shook his head. 'We don't believe so.' He saw Rachel swallowing hard.

  'Who found her?'

  'Oh, for pity's sake, Rachel. We don't need to know this. We should go and let these people get on with their business.'

  'Emily is their business,' Rachel burst out angrily. 'She's my daughter and I want to know everything.' Her voice wavered. 'I want to know why she died. I want to know who killed her.'

  Gail stretched out a hand to her, glancing at Drummond.

  He cleared his throat, not sure if the anger he was feeling was on Rachel's behalf or his own. 'We'll find him. We'll find who killed your daughter. I promise you.' He was aware of Gail's frown, but he'd meant what he said. If he couldn't catch this murdering bastard, then he was done with this job.

  Angus was on his feet. 'I'm taking my wife home now.' He put an arm around her. 'If that's all right with you, Inspector.'

  There was a scraping of chairs on the floor as they all got to their feet. 'Thank you both for your co-operation. We'll keep in touch.' He accompanied them out to the car park and watched as they crossed to their vehicle. There was a defeated look about the slump of Rachel's shoulders, but her husband walked tall, with only the slightest hint of a limp.

  Drummond didn't wait to see them drive off. As he turned for the incident room, he knew he would soon be following them back to Inverness.

  Nineteen

  'It's Jack Drummond, Nick. I'd like to take you up on that offer of help.'

  'DI Drummond.' He sounded pleased to hear from him. 'Sure, what can I do?'

  'Can we meet?'

  'You're back in Inverness?'

  Drummond adjusted his
mirror to watch a uniformed PC approaching. 'I'm down here in your car park.'

  There was a second's hesitation and then, 'I'll come down.'

  The PC was now beside him, indicating he should roll down the window no doubt to inform him he couldn't park there. Drummond produced his ID and raised an eyebrow. The young officer looked embarrassed. 'Sorry, sir, just checking.'

  Nick Rougvie arrived as the PC was walking away. 'I see you've met Police Scotland's finest. You'll have to overlook our Sandy's enthusiasm. If it moves, he'll try to arrest it.'

  'No worries.' Drummond grinned, opening the car door for Rougvie to get in beside him.

  Nick glanced at his watch. 'I haven't got long. What's this help you need?'

  'I'd like you to accompany me to interview a couple of people.'

  Rougvie glanced out across the car park as another police vehicle drove in. He gave the two officers a wave. 'I'm happy to go with it, but this time we need to make it official. You'll have to run this past my governor.'

  Drummond frowned. He'd been hoping to avoid that.

  Rougvie laughed. 'DCI Fraser's not so bad. I'm sure he'll spare me if he can.' He started to get out of the car. 'Come on, I'll introduce you.'

  Detective Chief Inspector Gavin Fraser's dark pinstriped suit would have looked completely out of place in the backstreets of Glasgow that Drummond frequented. He was reminded more of the superior, snotty-nosed advocates he knew so well from the city's High Court. But appearances weren't everything. Maybe the man wasn't as much of a dandy as he looked.

  Drummond met his assessing stare as Nick Rougvie introduced him and explained why he was there.

  They shook hands under DCI Fraser's continued scrutiny. 'How long will you need the services of my officer, Inspector?'

  'Couple of hours tops, sir,' Drummond assured him. 'I need someone with local knowledge and since I already know DS Rougvie…' He let the sentence trail off.

  'Has this been cleared with your own superior officers in Glasgow?' Fraser asked.

  Drummond tried not to shuffle his feet. 'I wanted to clear it with you first, sir, but there won't be a problem. My governor will be on board with it.'

  Fraser's silent stare was making Drummond uncomfortable, but then the man nodded. 'OK, Nick. 'You can go with the inspector, but don't disappear. I expect to be kept in the loop.'

  Rougvie smiled. 'Absolutely, guv. I'll keep in touch.'

  He waited until he was out of Fraser's hearing before saying, 'We can take one of the pool cars.' Drummond raised no objections.

  Down in the car park Drummond briefed Rougvie about the previous day's meeting with Angus and Rachel McLeod.

  'Poor devils,' he said. 'Can't have been easy to identify their dead daughter.'

  'Emily was Rachel's daughter,' Drummond said. 'She didn't marry Angus until much later.'

  Rougvie blew out his cheeks. 'I didn't know that. I tried to do a bit of checking into their backgrounds to see if I could find out any more about Emily.'

  Drummond raised an eyebrow at him. 'Did you now.'

  'Well, I was interested.'

  'So, what did you dig up?'

  'Not a lot, but I do have an account at the Alba Bank in the centre of town where Angus McLeod is the manager. I know a member of the staff, so I asked a few discreet questions. It turns out the man isn't exactly popular. He runs the bank with rigid efficiency. I've seen for myself how he orders everybody about.'

  Drummond sighed. 'He's a bank manager.'

  'That's no excuse for being offensive. The man has no people skills.'

  'What else did you find out?'

  'Not much, apart from the fact that McLeod is fiercely protective of his family's privacy.'

  Hmm, Drummond thought, why didn't that surprise him? On the two occasions he'd met the man he hadn't exactly been friendly.

  'I'd like to interview the couple's neighbour,' Drummond said. 'She's a childminder who seems to come and go as she pleases at the McLeod house, at least when Angus isn't there.' He pulled out a tattered notebook and flicked through the pages. 'Emily had a friend, Iona Grant, and she's another witness I want to meet. We might also have a word with Rachel.'

  'Not Angus?' Rougvie asked.

  'We'll get around to him all in good time,' Drummond said.

  Ten minutes later the detectives were outside Mandy Stranger's front door. 'It's very quiet in there,' Rougvie said, listening. 'Maybe she's out.'

  Drummond pointed to a notice telling callers not ring the bell between 11 a.m. and noon, but he did anyway. It was answered immediately by a slightly annoyed-looking Mandy Stranger. Her expression flashed surprise when she recognized him. She glanced quickly back into her house. 'I've just got the children down for their nap.' She pointed to the card and put a finger to her mouth indicating they should be quiet. 'I suppose you'd better come in.'

  They followed her into a busy-looking kitchen where a young woman was washing plastic beakers and plates at the sink. 'This is Shona,' Mandy said. 'She helps me. Could you check the children please, Shona, while I have a word with these gentlemen?'

  The girl gave a shy nod, drying her hands on a towel as she left the room.

  Mandy turned to them. 'Take a seat,' she said. 'I suppose this is about Emily. Rachel told me about yesterday.' She shook her head. 'How do you cope with seeing your child lying dead in a mortuary?'

  Drummond glanced at Rougvie as he fished his notebook from his jacket pocket and took out his pen. 'It was Mr McLeod who identified his daughter.'

  'Emily was Rachel's daughter, not Angus's, although you wouldn't have thought so from the way he treated her. Talk about ruling with an iron rod. If it had been up to him Emily wouldn't have left the house. He disapproved of almost everything she did and every friend she had. I wasn't surprised when she ran away.'

  Drummond frowned. 'Is this what Rachel told you?'

  'Rachel? No, she didn't have to. Angus made no secret of his strict regime with the family. I've had Emily in tears in this very room at the way she was treated at home.'

  'You said you weren't surprised that she left. Did Emily tell you she was planning to go?'

  Mandy shook her head. 'I don't think she told anyone. She just took off. Rachel was distraught.'

  'How did Angus take it?' Drummond asked.

  'He was furious. He doesn't seem to consider that any of it is his fault. Rachel doesn't seem to blame him either. He rules the roost over that family, and she lets him. Angus's overbearing behaviour might not frustrate her, but it sure as hell makes my blood boil.'

  She looked from one to the other. 'Do you know he objects to Rachel leaving the house without his permission? She isn't allowed to go shopping unless he agrees to everything on her list. I'm talking here about groceries, not even personal things.

  'And then there's the twins. Angus isn't happy about me looking after them for a couple of hours a week. He says Rachel is their mother and taking care of them is her job.'

  'And yet he relented?' Drummond said. 'How did that come about?'

  Mandy gave a slight frown. 'Rachel is my friend, but it's been one baby after another since she married that man and now, she's pregnant again. She needed a rest.

  'It all came to a head about six weeks ago when Rachel fainted in the kitchen and banged her head on the edge of the table. I found her on the floor with Archie and the twins. They were all screaming their heads off.

  'I called for an ambulance and then rang Angus. The paramedics wanted to take Rachel to hospital for a check over, but she refused to go and when Angus arrived, he backed her decision.' She began to assemble the nursery beakers on a tray and took a jug of orange juice from the fridge. 'That's when I suggested again that the twins should come to me. Angus wasn't happy but I stood my ground. I hated seeing how tired and stressed out Rachel always seemed to be. I'm a registered child minder and trained nanny. The twins know me and anyway, they were only going to be next door. Eventually Angus saw sense and agreed.'

  Nick Rougvie had b
een sitting quietly, taking all of this in, but now he had questions too. 'Do you know who Emily's real father is?'

  'You'll have to ask Rachel that. We didn't know each other back then.' But her response came too quickly to be believed.

  Rougvie smiled. 'It's fine. I just wondered because you seem so fond of Rachel.'

  Mandy poured juice into the assembled beakers. 'She's had a bad time. It's not easy being a single parent. Perhaps that's why she turned to the church.'

  'Rachel's religious?' Drummond asked.

  Mandy shrugged. 'She's not devout if that's what you mean. I guess she was looking for support.'

  Rougvie leaned forward. 'Well that was a good thing, wasn't it?'

  Mandy spun round and met his eyes. 'It was the Free Presbyterian Church.'

  'The Wee Frees,' Rougvie said, shooting Drummond a glance. 'You sound disapproving.'

  'They have some strange ideas,' Mandy said, stopping what she was doing. 'We used to live in a village up north. There was a Free Church right on the beach. That strange psalm chanting thing they do used to give me the creeps. I was only little back then, but it scared me. No music, just the voices of the congregation resonating out across the sand.'

  Drummond and Rougvie exchanged a look. Mandy was back in her childhood and for the first time sounded vulnerable. Drummond cleared his throat. 'What kind of strange ideas?'

  Mandy's brow creased. 'Well, for a start they don't recognize Christmas or Easter or approve of working on the Sabbath.'

  'That's not so strange, is it?' Rougvie cut in.

  'Perhaps not, but some of them take it to extremes. They won't even take a bus to their church services because the public transport runs on Sundays. Oh, don't get me started on that lot.' She looked at Drummond. 'They treat their women like second-class citizens, you know. They're not allowed to preach in church or be office bearers, or even to wear trousers. And they make women cover their heads in church.'

  Mandy Stranger clearly had no time for the Free Church or its people. Drummond wondered if she had shared these feelings with her friend next door.