Against a Dark Sky (20 page)

Chapter Forty Three

D
ani made Sam hold the file on his lap for the entire journey back to Ardyle. ‘I’m not sure what you think might happen to it, if we simply placed it on the back seat.’

              Bevan chuckled. ‘I’m not taking any chances. It’s a miracle those papers survived the fire.’

              The DCI had already been on the hands-free to Andy, telling him to watch out for the fax from Crieff and to get Driscoll to phone through to Pitt Street with their request for a warrant, as soon as they received the witness statement from DI Barr.

              ‘I’m just honoured that you entrusted me with it.’ Sam attempted a formal bow, as if he were being presented to royalty.

              ‘Och, stop horsing around, you’ll bend the file!’ Dani said, giggling. ‘Just read the details out to me then and have done with it.’

              Sam put on the latex gloves Dani kept in the glove compartment and gently removed the sheets from their folder. Some of them were burnt in places and discoloured, making the papers extremely delicate to handle.

              ‘Okay, this first sheet is part of a letter. It’s from The Association of Police Counsellors, confirming Judith Sheldon’s membership. It is dated July, 1982.’

              ‘Fine, nothing significant there.’ Dani felt her heart sink with disappointment. She was crazy to have ever got her hopes up in the first place. Dani drove the car parallel to Loch Arklet, which was shimmering in the lowering afternoon sun.

              Sam scanned the next piece of paper in silence.

              ‘What’s that one about?’ Bevan prompted impatiently.

              ‘Hang on. I’m just trying to make some sense of it.’

              Dani sighed with frustration. ‘Well, if you read it aloud I might be able to assist you there.’

              ‘Okay, okay. Does the name Kathleen Harris ring a bell?’

              ‘Yes, she was the student teacher who was with the children on the mountain when they got separated from Jack Ford. She took the other students back to the school. We haven’t been able to trace her current whereabouts, but I’m working on it.’

              ‘Well, these two pages seem to be from Judy Sheldon’s counselling notes, but they’ve been ripped out of a book at some point. She’s put Kathleen’s name at the top of the page. Would Ronnie’s wife have had reason to counsel her?’

              ‘Judy counselled all the parents of the children who died. I suppose she could have seen Kathleen during that period too. The girl would have been pretty traumatised after the tragedy.’

              ‘The comments are hand written, so it’s tricky to read. The weird thing is, they don’t appear to be discussing the Ardyle tragedy at all. The subject of their sessions was babies.’

              Dani glanced across at the American. ‘
Babies?
’

              ‘Yeah, like the pros and cons of adoption versus termination, that kind of thing.’

              ‘Is there a date on those pages anywhere?’

              Sam examined the thinly spaced lines closely. ‘At the beginning of the third sheet, Judy had marked the start of a new session. She’d added the date numerically at the head of the page: 03/05/83 - that’s the 5
th
of March 1983, a month before the Ardyle tragedy.’

              Dani considered this and shook her head. ‘No, in Britain we put the month second, meaning it was the 3
rd
of May;
after
the children had died.’ The detective fell silent, trying to work out the significance of this information.

              Sam continued sifting through the pile. ‘The rest of this data applies to other police cases. Judy must have counselled the families involved in a multiple road traffic accident on the M8 in 1986. There are lots of entries concerned with that. But certainly nothing which could be related to your current investigation.’

              Dani nodded, concentrating on her driving. She said very little else before they reached Ardyle, by which time, it was nearly dark. The two detectives entered the incident room to find DS Driscoll and Andy Calder still hard at work.

              ‘Any news on the warrant?’ Dani asked, removing her coat and laying it on a desk.

              ‘I’ve sent off the statement along with the evidence we’d already gathered on Micky Ford. I’m still waiting to hear back from Head Office,’ Driscoll explained.

              Andy moved forward, perching on the edge of a table. ‘Did you get any more leads from the Ronnie Sheldon investigation?’

              Dani ran through the contents of the papers recovered from Sheldon’s house. ‘If Kathleen Harris was expecting a baby at the time of the Ardyle tragedy, does it have a bearing on the case? I’ve been thinking through the facts in my head on the way back from Crieff. It sounds as if Kathleen was considering adoption or perhaps a termination, so this pregnancy was unwanted. It’s possible the baby was never born.’

              ‘How old was Kathleen at the time?’ Sam asked.

              ‘She was eighteen years old. But Jack Ford and Joy Hutchison both described her as ‘childlike’,’ Dani said.

              ‘Would Ronnie Sheldon have known that Kathleen was pregnant?’ Andy suddenly put in, ‘I mean, what is the protocol in these situations? Did Judy have to keep the subject of her counselling sessions a secret from her husband?’

              Dave Driscoll stepped forward. ‘I’ve been to a training seminar on this. From what I can recall, everything discussed with the police counsellor remains strictly confidential. The same rules apply as in any therapy session. I suppose it complicates matters when the counsellor is married to the chief investigating officer.’

              Dani looked thoughtful. ‘Do we think that Judy told Ronnie what went on in those meetings – off the record, perhaps?’

              Sam nodded. ‘I’d say so, wouldn’t you? Maybe they had an understanding that Ronnie couldn’t use the details gained from her therapy sessions overtly in his investigation, but I can’t believe they never discussed it.’

              ‘So is this the information that Micky Ford wanted to stop us finding out – that Kathleen Harris was expecting a baby at the time of the Ardyle tragedy?’ Dani looked at each of her officers in turn.

              ‘If it was,’ Andy stated. ‘Then the question we should really be asking is who was the father?’

Chapter Forty Four

B
evan’s phone bleeped her awake at 6.30am with the news that the warrant had been granted. She promptly texted the team, hoping they might be able to surprise Micky Ford with an early morning visit. Dani decided to leave Sam out of this one. She didn’t want a wrong move on her part placing a question mark over their use of correct procedure.

              An hour later, she and Andy Calder were on the road, with a couple of squad cars following close behind. It was a sunny morning, but bitterly cold. A hoar frost had welded itself to the windscreens of the police vehicles. It had taken a good ten minutes to scrape off. As the sun rose steadily higher, Dani watched the last of the tiny clusters of ice sliding down the glass into a watery mush.

              ‘Did you have time to produce a search schedule?’ Andy asked.

              ‘Yep, I e-mailed it to the whole team. It’s based on the floor-plans I received from Stirling Council. Micky doesn’t own a dog or a gun licence. There shouldn’t be any nasty surprises waiting for us when we get inside.’

              ‘Has Ford got any deliveries booked in for today?’

              ‘Not until this afternoon, and it’s local. I really hope the van’s there. DI Barr wants it searched too.’

              The journey took them less than an hour, the country roads being fairly empty at this time of day. There would be no way to hide their arrival. Micky’s cottage sat on high ground and the incoming track was visible for miles into the distance. Nevertheless, Andy slowed his speed right down and approached the cottage as inconspicuously as possible.

              Micky Ford’s silver-grey transit was parked in front of a set of dilapidated garages. Dani gestured for the other officers to remain in their vehicles whilst she and Andy advanced towards the front door. Calder knocked loudly. ‘Mr Ford! It’s the police!’

              There was no response for several minutes. Dani began hammering hard on the old panels. ‘We don’t want him disposing of evidence whilst we’re standing on the doorstep for Christ’s sake.’

              Then the door opened. Micky Ford looked as if he had only just got out of bed. ‘What’s going on?’

              Dani held up both the court order and her identification card. ‘We have a warrant to search these premises, Mr Ford. May we come in?’

              Andy was already striding past the man, not waiting to receive a proper reply. Dani turned and gave her colleagues the signal to enter. Micky stumbled backwards into the sitting room, looking shell-shocked. The house vibrated with the pounding onslaught of heavy, police regulation boots.

              ‘Can we have the keys to your van, Mr Ford, and any outhouses that you have access to on the property?’

              Micky walked zombie-like into the dirty kitchen and took a key ring off a hook. ‘This longer one is for the outhouse with the lock on the door. It’s the only building out there that’s serviceable.’

              Dani handed the set of keys to DC Clark and nodded towards the vehicle outside. ‘You aren’t under arrest at this stage, but I would ask if you could provide me with your fingerprints and a swab of your DNA for my records. It would be in your interests to be seen to cooperate with our investigation.’

              Micky rubbed at his eyes, like a toddler waking from a nap, giving himself some thinking time. ‘But I don’t
need
to provide you with that stuff, if you haven’t arrested me?’

              ‘That is correct.’

              ‘Then I’d rather not, until I’ve spoken with a solicitor and found out what my rights are.’

              ‘Fine, it’s your prerogative to decline.’ Inwardly, the DCI was cursing. ‘How long have you lived in this property, Mr Ford?’

              ‘About five years. I was in Ardyle before that.’ Micky looked her straight in the eye. Now he’d got over the shock of their arrival that flash of defiance was back.

              ‘Did you live with your father before?’

              ‘On and off, then he bought his current place and started doing it up. It was time for me to move on. I’ve helped him with some of the work on the house, mind you. I laid the paving stones front and back.’

              ‘Are you close to your father?’ Dani observed the man carefully. He was manipulating the cord of his pyjama trousers with his fingers, as if miming the preparation of a roll-up.

              ‘Of course. I haven’t moved very far away. He knows he can call on me whenever he needs to.’

              ‘Do you remember a girl called Kathleen Harris? She was a student teacher at the primary school in Ardyle, when your father was working there.’

              Micky shook his head slowly. ‘I’m hardly likely to recall the lassie after all these years now, am I?’

              ‘But she was out on the hillside with your dad on the day the schoolchildren died. You may remember her for that reason?’

              ‘I was at the secondary school in Callander back then. I was never home until after dark.’ Micky turned and pottered around the kitchen, filling a filthy kettle with water.

              ‘But perhaps at weekends you might have seen her in the town. Kathleen wasn’t all that much older than you. I’m sure some of your pals would have known her.’

              ‘Why on earth are you so interested in this woman? What’s it got to do with you searching my house? If you want to ask me any more questions, then I want my solicitor present.’ Micky banged the kettle hard on the worktop.

              Dani put up her hands in a conciliatory manner. ‘That’s okay, Mr Ford. You don’t have to talk about anything you don’t want to. I promise not to mention Kathleen again, especially if it’s upsetting for you.’

              Micky’s cheeks flushed red. ‘I didn’t say it was bloody upsetting. I said I didn’t know the lassie, alright?’

              Andy stomped down the stairs, looking for his boss. Dani stepped into the corridor to speak with him. ‘There’s nothing in the house, Ma’am.’

              ‘Go outside and help Clark and Driscoll with the van. It may be our only hope. Whilst you’re there, try all the outhouses and garages.’

              Andy nodded and disappeared through the front door.

              Dani ignored Micky and followed Andy into the front garden. She wandered across the lawn to the side of the house and into the untamed wilderness that lay at the rear of the property. A rusty metal brazier was positioned in one corner of the plot. Dani walked up to it and looked closely at the ash that lay in a heap at the bottom. She found a long stick and poked about in the cinders. This was more than your average bonfire, she thought to herself. The heat had been so intense that whatever had been thrown onto it was reduced to dust. But then she saw something glinting in that fierce autumn sun.

              Dani reached into her pocket and pulled out a pair of plastic gloves and an evidence bag. She squatted down on her haunches and delved into the pile of ashes, lifting out the molten remains of a brilliantly shiny object. Dani dropped it into the bag and set off back to the car, with just the hint of a self-satisfied smile on her face.