Deception (31 page)

‘It’s certainly made people angry,’ said Eve. ‘But why do that?’

‘Maybe Trish can tell us that,’ said Steven. ‘This may all be academic anyway. Sci-Med will tell us about the chemicals as soon as the lab comes back with a report.’

‘So all we need is patience,’ said Eve.

‘Quite. Are you planning to see Trish again?’

‘I said I’d phone her tomorrow.’

‘Good. Stay in touch. You never know when she might feel like getting it off her chest.’

Steven drove Eve home to Blackbridge. They saw that the lights were on in the Binnie house as they passed. ‘Poor Ann,’ said Eve. ‘I’ll pop in and see her tomorrow.’

They drew up outside Eve’s parents’ house and Eve said, ‘Mum and Dad are still away at Jean’s. Would you like some coffee?’

Steven said that he would and followed Eve up the path leading to a grimy semi-detached council villa while Eve searched in her handbag for her keys. He saw the curtain move at an upstairs window next door and said so to Eve.

‘The McNabs,’ said Eve. ‘They don’t miss much. I think I’ve just become the scarlet whore of Babylon.’

‘Sorry about that.’

‘Don’t be. They don’t matter. No one matters in this godforsaken place.’

As the door clicked shut and they stood in the darkness of the hall, Eve turned to Steven and said, ‘Well, are we going to go through the ritual coffee business or go straight upstairs and do to each other what we’ve been wanting to do all evening?’

‘Sometimes I feel very old,’ said Steven, but he had to admit that the nearness of Eve in the darkness excited him.

‘But I suspect, my dear doctor, that you also feel very randy?’ Eve came right up close to Steven, filling his senses with her perfume and brushing his cheek with her hair. He found it irresistible. He brought his mouth down hard on Eve’s and hungrily explored the inside of it with his tongue.

‘There now,’ said Eve when they broke apart. ‘Was I right or was I right?’ She took his hand and led the way upstairs to her bedroom where they undressed each other as fast as was humanly possible while still trying to kiss at the same time. They fell on to Eve’s bed and made love with a passion that Steven had almost forgotten. He was entirely possessed by the need to take Eve there and then and foreplay and due consideration just didn’t get a look in. When he climaxed he felt as if the world had suddenly become a better place and inner peace flooded through him like a warm glow.

‘Well, ‘gasped Eve. ‘Talk about, wham, bam, thank you ma’am.’

‘I’m sorry,’ murmured Steven. ‘Christ, I just wanted you so bad.’

‘Don’t be,’ said Eve. ‘It certainly beats the parading of inner angst I usually get and not a trace of guilt there either. Good boy! ’

Steven rolled over on to his front and looked at Eve ‘I predict for you a life free from stomach ulcers and the need for psychotherapy,’ he said with a smile.

‘What makes you say that?

‘Your honesty. You say what you think and demand the same of others. Makes for a stress free environment.’

‘But will I be happy . . . will I be rich?’

‘Que sera, sera,’ smiled Steven.

‘Maybe I’m just a shameless hussy.’

‘I don’t think so,’ murmured Steven, nuzzling Eve’s neck and moving his lips round to find her mouth and explore it at a more leisurely pace.’

Eve sighed appreciatively as he moved down to suck her nipples and tease them with his teeth while his hand explored the flat of her belly and the firmness of her thighs.

‘What are the neighbours going to say, Dr Dunbar?’ whispered Eve as she arched her back in pleasure.

‘Good morning?’ suggested Steven from a distance.

‘Don’t you have a nation to save?’ asked Eve from the bedroom doorway.

Steven blinked his eyes at the sunlight and came to his senses. ‘God, what time is it?’

‘It’s gone nine but you looked so peaceful I thought the nation could wait for a bit.’

‘My God, I feel good,’ said Steven, stretching his arms in the air and relaxing again with a stupid grin all over his face.

What would you like for breakfast?’

‘We don’t make our own these days then?’ smiled Steven.

‘Any more shit like that and we will,’ retorted Eve.

‘You are incorrigible!’ exclaimed Steven.

‘I’m very corrigible, given the right man,’ murmured Eve, coming to sit on the edge of the bed. ‘Cereal, eggs or both?’

‘Eggs.’

Eve turned as she got to the door and said, ‘Careful with the shower. My dad installed it. It’s designed to wet everything within a two-mile radius with the exception of the body standing under it. You know what dads are like.’

‘I’m one myself,’ said Steven.

The smile faded from Eve’s face. ‘You didn’t say that,’ she said quietly.

‘I have a daughter, Jenny. She’s coming up for four. Is something wrong?’

‘No, of course not,’ said Eve, recovering her composure. ‘I just didn’t realise. I suppose it never occurred to me that you might be somebody’s daddy. You did say eggs, didn’t you?’

Steven nodded.

Steven did battle with the shower, settled for an honourable draw, mopped up in the bathroom, got dressed and came downstairs to join Eve at the kitchen table. ‘Are you working today?’ he asked.

‘From eleven,’ replied Eve. ‘You?’

‘There’s not much I can do until Sci-Med comes back with the results of the lab tests but I’ve got some shopping to do. I’m going down to see Jenny tomorrow. She lives with my sister in law and her family down in Dumfriesshire.’

‘That’ll be nice,’ said Eve. ‘What’ll you do?’

‘Go to the park or the beach if the weather’s fine, eat ice cream, play games, all the things an absentee father does with his kid on fortnightly visits.’

‘Is that what it feels like?’

‘
That’s what it
is
like,’ insisted Steven. ‘I come in and out of her life like the phases of the moon. She knows the moon’s there and it’s reliable but it’s not as important as the sun or the rain. It doesn’t seem to affect anything.’

‘And that bothers you?’

‘Of course.’

‘You could always give up the Milk Tray job and do something more mundane like a nice little nine ‘til five number. You could get yourself a housekeeper and then Jenny could stay with you all the time.’

‘I’ve thought about that,’ said Steven.

‘No go, huh?’

‘Fraid not.’

‘Well then, you can’t really blame the job, can you?’

‘No, I can’t,’ admitted Steven.

‘And that’s what bothers you really, isn’t it?’

‘You got it.’

‘
Ever read,
The Selfish Gene
?’

‘
Touché
,’ said Steven.

‘I wasn’t trying to get at you, honest,’ said Eve. ‘I was just making the point that we are what we are and it’s nothing to be ashamed of. More coffee?’

Steven declined and said that he’d best be on his way. Eve saw him to the door and he noticed the curtains stir next door. ‘They’ll tell your parents,’ he said.

‘Mum and Dad haven’t spoken to them in fifteen years,’ replied Eve. ‘Not since Mr McNab poured weed killer on some of Dad’s leeks out back. He said it was an accident but Dad never believed him. He insisted it was to stop him getting the prize at the village show. McNab’s son won it with a giant turnip.’

‘Life can be a bitch,’ said Steven. ‘I’ll let you know as soon as I get the lab report and . . .’

‘If you say, thank you for last night, I’ll drop you where you stand,’ warned Eve.

Steven shrugged his shoulders. ‘See you around?’ he said.

‘You will if you want to.’

‘I want to,’ said Steven clicking shut the garden gate.

He set out for the city but slowed when he was passing the slip road to Crawhill Farm when he caught sight of DCI Brewer talking to two officers beside their patrol car. He seemed to be giving them a dressing down. Steven pulled into the side and waited until the patrol car had moved off before getting out and walking back. Brewer was about to get into his own unmarked Rover when he caught sight of Steven and waited, leaning on top of the door.

‘Trouble?’ Steven asked.

‘We let the dog slip through our fingers,’ said Brewer. ‘Or should I say, I did as I’ll be carrying the can.’

‘You’re talking about Khan?’

‘I thought the dog had been taken away for forensic examination with the two bodies but apparently not and now it’s too late. The damned thing’s been cremated.’

‘Childs and Leadbetter?’

‘Yes. Leadbetter has just told me they didn’t know what to do with it when everyone had gone so they decided just to get rid of it. They didn’t realise they were doing anything wrong.’

Steven looked at Brewer but didn’t say anything. He suspected that Childs and Leadbetter had known perfectly well that they had been destroying evidence but he was wondering about their motives. Was there something to know about Khan that they didn’t want anyone else to find out or was that just his imagination working overtime?

EIGHTEEN

On the way back to the city, Steven found himself wondering about the destruction of Khan’s body. Brewer had seen it as an embarrassing loss of evidence, but little more than that. It was a technical loss, not one that would affect the outcome of his report to the Procurator Fiscal in any way. There was no doubt about how James Binnie and Thomas Rafferty had met their deaths and none at all that Khan, a vicious dog with a bad reputation, had been responsible. But if Childs and Leadbetter had seen fit to burn the body, that was worth thinking through.

He saw a parallel in the fact that these two must have been responsible for pressure being put on Sweeney at the vet school to keep quiet about the rat examination. Could they have cremated the dog for the same reason? Had they been anxious to avoid the outcome of an autopsy on Khan’s body too? Was it even conceivable that Khan been suffering from the same problem as the rat population? Had Khan been subject to some kind of poisoning too?

The more he thought about it, the more Steven saw that it made a lot of sense. Khan had by all accounts been a mean, vicious dog that had become even more aggressive over the past few months. It seemed entirely possible that he had undergone a behavioural change just like the rats. In his book, this just strengthened the link between Thomas Rafferty and the rat problem. He was impatient for the lab report to come back.

He decided to have some coffee before going shopping for bits and pieces to take down to Dumfries in the morning and something for Jenny and Sue’s kids. He thought perhaps that he might take them books this time instead of toys. He was looking forward to being away from Blackbridge, even if it was just for the weekend.

He stopped in the village of Juniper Green on the western outskirts of the city and went into the local coffee shop, asking the woman who served him for a double espresso. Almost immediately his mobile phone went off, attracting black looks and tuts from the other, exclusively female, customers. Steven smiled apologetically to the ladies of the morning and went outside to take the call.

His good humour departed as he heard a woman’s voice sobbing, ‘Steven?’

‘
Hello, who is this?’

‘
Steven . . . it’s Sue . . . Jenny’s missing.’

Steven felt the blood drain from his face and pins and needles run up his spine. ‘Calm down, Sue and tell me exactly what’s happened,’ he said like an automaton.

‘
The three of them were playing with a ball in the park this morning. Robin kicked it into the bushes at some point and Jenny went to get it . . . she just didn’t come back.’

Steven had to swallow against the progressive tightening in his throat. ‘I don’t understand, Sue. What exactly do you mean, she didn’t come back?’

‘
When my two went to see why she was taking so long they found the ball but there was no sign of Jenny, she’d gone, disappeared, completely vanished. They looked everywhere but there was no sign of her. They ran home and told me and I rushed up there and looked everywhere again but I couldn’t find any sign of her either so I called the police.’

The woman from the coffee shop came outside and said, ‘Your coffee’s on the table.’ Steven waved her away. ‘But how could she just disappear?’

‘
I don’t know, Steven. I just don’t know,’ sobbed Sue. ‘The police are here and the men in the village are all out looking for her. Luckily it’s Saturday and they’re not all at work.’

The woman from the coffee shop appeared again and said, ‘It’s getting cold.’

Steven waved her away again and said to Sue, ‘I’m on my way.’

He took two one-pound coins from his pocket and quickly entered the shop to throw them down on the table, attracting more shakes of the head and black looks before rushing out and getting into his car. Right now, Jenny was the only thing in the world that mattered: her safety took precedence over absolutely everything else. He started heading towards town but just as far as the nearest turn off to the outer city bypass. He then raced round the dual carriageway to the Lothianburn exit of the bypass and then joined the main road leading to the southwest.

He was thankful for the power of the police vehicle he was driving when it enabled him to accelerate past slow moving traffic with comparative ease on a road that was not amenable to overtaking at the best of times. Even so, he still attracted a deal of angry horn blowing when he forced the issue on a number of occasions, causing on-coming traffic to brake or take avoiding action. After thirty miles or so he was able to leave the twisting trunk road and join the main dual carriageway south. He was topping a hundred and ten miles an hour when a police patrol car latched on to his tail and turned on its lights. Steven maintained his speed and the police car dropped away as the officers got the result of their computer check on the vehicle’s ownership.