Authors: Katherine Pathak
Tags: #International Mystery & Crime, #Mystery, #Thriller & Suspense, #Police Procedurals
*
Tony Lomond was delivering a lecture. Alice waited outside until all the participants had left the theatre. They appeared to be predominantly overseas students. Teaching had become an all-year round profession these days. She approached Lomond at the front desk, where he was carefully gathering together his notes.
‘Back for one of our pleasant little chats, DC Mann?’ He barely looked up.
‘Another person has gone missing. He’s a good friend of mine.’
‘Well, as you can see, I am going about my normal business, not kidnapping and murdering people.’
Alice felt her anger bubbling up. She reached forward with her arm, brushing his notes, files and books onto the floor. Lomond turn to stare at her in amazement. ‘What the hell are you doing?’
‘A clever, brave young woman was knocked down last night, trying to save my friend from being abducted. She’s in hospital in a critical condition.’
For the first time, Alice thought she saw a flicker of concern in Tony’s eyes. ‘What can I do? I’m not responsible.’
‘We went to see your parents in Inverkip. They’ve got a lovely place there. Your mum was very hospitable. But for some reason, I don’t think your dad was very pleased to see us.’
‘Did you tell them about my connection to Nathan McLaren?’ His face was ashen.
‘Yes, but we didn’t go into any great detail. Don’t worry, your secret’s still perfectly safe. For now, that is. But with this new development, a man being missing and in danger, I’m afraid that all bets are off. We’ll probably have to question your father again. This time, we won’t be treading on eggshells.’
Tony ran a hand through his hair. ‘What do you want to know?’
‘There’s a connection between you and both Douglas Ross and Nathan McLaren. I don’t believe you murdered them, but there’s something here you’re not telling me. I believe it’s to do with your dad. He didn’t like me asking questions. Why is that?’
The man sighed heavily and led Alice over to the rows of seating that stretched up towards the roof of the lecture theatre. They sat side by side.
‘My life started out rather differently,’ he began, staring down into his lap. ‘Until I was four years old, I lived with my mother. She was called Orla O’Driscoll. She told people’s fortunes at the travelling fairground that had been run by her family for decades. We had a caravan at a showmen’s camp near Rutherglen. The families had lived on the site for generations. I stayed with Orla and my older brother, Liam. I still remember it well.’
‘So how come you ended up with the Lomonds?’
‘Michael is my father. He met Orla when she worked the fairgrounds out along the Clyde coast. The O’Driscoll’s would set up in various seaside towns out there for the entire season. One summer in ’83, my dad saw Orla at her stall near the seafront at Wemyss Bay. She was a very beautiful woman. Dad started an affair with her. I’m certain he gave her money, even back then, so I’m not sure how the relationship would be defined.’
‘And Rosemary didn’t know about it?’
Tony shook his head. Not in ‘83. ‘After I was born, Orla informed my father he needed to support me financially, which he did for those first four years. Then something changed. Michael and Rosemary had been trying for a baby of their own for decades. I believe there’d been several miscarriages. The doctors told her they shouldn’t try any more. Another pregnancy would kill Rosemary and the baby.’
‘So your dad turned his attention to you.’ Alice almost felt sorry for him.
‘I think he told Rosemary about my existence then, and dad brought her to the travellers’ camp to see me. Apparently, I looked just like Michael and it melted her heart – that’s the story, anyway. Dad told Orla that he would give me a wonderful life; I’d go to a private school and have every opportunity I could possibly dream of. What mother would turn an offer like that down?’
‘And your brother, he remained with Orla?’
‘Liam? Oh aye, he was only my half-brother anyway. His father was long off the scene. Liam was a good decade older than me. He worked the rides at the fairground and helped support my mother. There was something about his real father that they never discussed. Orla had actually been married to him and Liam kept his surname, although my mother refused to use it and reverted back to O’Driscoll quick enough.’
‘What was the name?’
‘Hadley, Liam Hadley he’s called.’
‘Are you still in contact with Orla and Liam?’
Tony sucked in air through his teeth. ‘I’m not supposed to be. It was part of the arrangement that Dad would pay them a lump sum and they’d never see me again. But of course Dad couldn’t really enforce that. My birth mother knew where we lived. She always had the threat of tipping off Dad’s bosses about my real parentage hanging over him. Dad and Rosemary don’t have many family or friends. That’s why it was easy for me to fit into their lives. I started at Wemyss College Preparatory School as soon as I went to live with them.’
‘So you
did
still see Orla?’
‘She turned up at the house every so often, sometimes with Liam and occasionally without him. Liam still contacts me from time to time. He
is
my brother after all.’
‘Did Orla or Liam ever meet Mr Ross?’ Alice tried to keep the urgency out of her voice.
Tony appeared surprised by the question. ‘Why would they have?’ Then he paused for a moment, as an unbidden memory played itself out silently across his features. ‘Wait a second. There
was
a day when Liam came to see me at Wemyss Bay. It was fortunate, because Mr Ross had taken us for a fossil hunt down on the beach, otherwise I might not have seen him. Liam walked straight up to our group and started chatting to me. Mr Ross came over and asked who he was. He didn’t want some stranger talking to one of his pupils, I suppose. I explained he was my brother and it was okay. But Ross lingered for a while, he seemed mesmerized by Liam. When he finally went away, I joked with my brother that Ross probably fancied him, because that was the talk of the boys’ dorms back then. My brother was really good looking, you see, although he’s not gay, like me. We’ve never discussed it, but I can just tell.’
Alice had stopped listening by this stage. ‘I need the most recent address you have for Liam Hadley, and Orla O’Driscoll.’
Tony was lost now in the recollections of his sad life that Alice’s questions had prompted. ‘They all had to move away, after the motorway extension was built. Some tried to stay on in their caravans, where they’d lived all their lives and given birth to their babies. But there was a terrible fire, destroying everything they owned. That was an end to their way of life. Liam always claimed it was deliberate - the bastard developers trying to force them out. Well if it was, it worked. The community got broken up, completely dispersed. Liam and my mum ended up on a council estate near Priesthill. If you hold on here a second, I’ll find you the address.’
Chapter 54
T
he pain surging through his lower back was getting worse. Calder didn’t know if it was best to remain as still as possible or to try and shift about a bit. Despite the number of hours he’d been down in this place he didn’t need the toilet, probably because he was dehydrated.
Then came the moment he’d been half praying for and half dreading. The door at the top of the steps creaked open. A narrow shaft of light swept out across the area below, revealing the full extent of the basement for the first time. There were barrels lined up in one corner and those green plastic crates you got in pubs, full of tiny bottles of fruit juice. Calder even thought he’d caught a glimpse of something beyond the door, a long corridor with a garishly patterned carpet. Within a few seconds, the source of light was extinguished.
Andy imagined that whoever it was had gone away again. Then he felt a blast of sour breath tickle his cheek.
‘Are you comfortable?’
The voice was a woman’s. Calder wasn’t expecting that. He shook his head. No point in lying.
‘But you can stay like that for a wee while longer?’
Andy nodded. He’d rather be uncomfortable than dead, that was for sure.
‘Good, because I’m still busy upstairs. We’ve had a late rush on. Do you need the toilet?’
He shook his head again, vigorously.
‘Right then, you’ll keep.’
Calder unconsciously shuffled further into the shadows, as the woman moved away from him and disappeared back into the darkness.
*
The street was very quiet for such a warm day. A few kiddies were out on their bikes in the middle of the road, riding round in circles, with one hand on the handlebar and the other on a bottle of pop.
Bevan hammered on the door once more. She lifted the letterbox and hollered, ‘Mrs O’Driscoll! Mr Hadley!’
There was no response.
They’d come mob handed. Dani glanced down the road at the rest of her colleagues who were knocking on every door. One of the neighbours seemed to be at home, so the DCI stepped over the low hedge and joined DS Boag on the step.
‘I’ve not seen either of them for a couple of days,’ the young woman was explaining.
‘Are they out at work during the day?’ Phil asked.
‘Mrs O’Driscoll is, but I’m not sure about her son. He comes and goes at all hours.’
Bevan could tell this was a bone of contention. ‘Do you know where Mrs O’Driscoll works? It’s a matter of some urgency.’
The neighbour screwed up her face. ‘She’s a barmaid at that big old pub down on the green. I can’t remember what it’s called. It’s the kind of place you’d never dream of going into unless you were a total hard case, if you know what I mean.’
Dani glanced at Phil. ‘We passed it on the way here.’ They jogged towards the car. ‘Thanks very much!’ The DCI called over her shoulder, but the woman was already inside.
With the handful of local kids scattered to the pavements, leaving battered bikes on their sides in the gutter, the procession of police vehicles accelerated fast out of the estate.
Dani got on the radio and called for all available cars in the area to congregate at Neilston Green. Up until this point, Bevan hadn’t been allowing herself to contemplate what they might find. But now, several nightmarish images were forcing their way into her mind. The DCI opened the passenger door and jumped out, before Phil had even brought the car to a proper standstill. ‘You go round the front,’ she commanded.
As she kicked open a door leading into the back of the run-down building, Bevan saw DCs Clifton and Mann sprinting across the grass to join her. She didn’t stop to wait. With a hand on her baton, Dani stalked along a narrow corridor. It was fitted with a thick, brightly patterned carpet which masked her approach perfectly.
She was coming up to the bar area from the rear. A rowdy group of men were leaning on it, waving notes and waiting impatiently to be served. Bevan could only make out one person on her side of the counter. The barmaid was smallish, with a mass of unnaturally dark curls. Dani assumed this was Orla, which meant that Liam could be anywhere nearby.
A noise made Bevan turn her head. She noticed a door slightly ajar halfway along a corridor running at right angles to the one she was in. Dani unsheathed her baton and strode towards it. By this time, Alice and Dan were by her side. The DCI paused for a moment and then indicated to the others that she was going in.
There wasn’t much light. Dani assumed they were in the cellar. She stumbled down the last few steps, having to right herself when she reached the bottom. ‘Andy?’ She called out gently.
It took several minutes for their eyes to adjust to the darkness. It was DC Clifton who reacted first. He’d seen the outline of a large figure in the far corner of the basement, bending over an unidentifiable bundle on the floor. The detective bolted, landing a blow from his baton on the back of the man’s head. Hadley pitched sideways, falling almost as if in slow motion, like a felled tree.
‘Get some cuffs on him!’ Dani yelled, heading straight for the lifeless figure lying on the cold ground. She skidded towards Calder on her knees, desperately ripping the tape away from his mouth and feeling his wrist for a pulse. ‘His vitals are weak, but he’s alive. Get the sodding paramedics down here pronto and arrest that bloody woman at the bar. No one leaves this godforsaken shit hole until I say so!’
Chapter 55
O
rla O’Driscoll was in the interview room with the duty solicitor. Her son was still being treated at the infirmary. Liam Hadley was suffering from a suspected concussion.
DCI Bevan knew the PACE clock was ticking but she wanted the SOCOs to lift as much evidence as they could from the basement before she spoke with either of them.
Phil had stayed at the pub. Dani’s phone started to buzz in her pocket. When she saw it was him, she picked up immediately. ‘What have you got?’
‘The pub cellar is definitely our murder site, for one of the victims at least. According to the brewery who own the place, Orla’s been the acting manageress for over six months. She’s had the run of the dump. They barely have enough clientele to justify any more staff than her and her son.’ Phil cleared his throat. ‘There are traces of blood all over that corner where Andy was kept and not all of it is fresh. The SOCOs also found some, err, instruments. Handles of garden tools that the techies reckon were used to penetrate McLaren.’