Chapter Thirty-Nine
It was a mess. Kate sat at her desk and stared into space. Two dead bodies, a missing schoolgirl, a dysfunctional family she desperately wanted to pull in, and no evidence to support it. And where was bloody Bill Murphy? Her first impressions had been right, the man was a walking disaster and nobody ever seemed to know where he was or what he was doing. And if all that wasn’t enough she’d managed to annoy the procurator fiscal, and the super was probably convinced he’d made a mistake appointing her to this job.
She tightened her lips and frowned. Doing things by the book wasn’t working. The longer she sat here twiddling her thumbs, the longer that child remained at risk, wherever she was. At least she could restart the search for her.
Standing up and thrusting her chair back with such force it clattered off the filing cabinets behind her, she strode to her office door.
‘Sue! Who was that inspector in the Greenfield office the one Murphy was working with on the door to doors?’
Sue, who had been looking over Jenny’s shoulder as she scrolled through the computer, looked up. ‘Inspector Mason, ma’am.’
‘Thanks.’
Kate hurried back into her office, checked the list of office numbers, lifted the phone and dialled.
‘Inspector Mason’s not available,’ the voice said. ‘Can I put you through to Sergeant Forbes instead?’
‘Yes.’
‘Detective Inspector Rawlings, it’s Sergeant Forbes here, what can I help you with?’
‘It’s in relation to the incident in your area today. The murder. We have reason to believe the victim abducted a child, Megan Fraser, before he was killed and I need you to organize a search party in your area. We need to find her before she comes to further harm.’
‘Ah, yes. I remember Megan, we’ve had search parties out for her in the past, but she always turns up.’
‘This time it’s different,’ Kate snapped. ‘We have evidence that Paul Carnegie was involved in Megan’s disappearance, and it would appear it’s not the first time this man’s done something like this.’
‘Evidence, you say?’
‘Yes, we’re examining his computer and there’s definitely evidence he was involved.’ Kate crossed her fingers, they hadn’t found the images yet.
‘I’ll get the search organized right away, ma’am.’
Kate detected a note of reluctance in his voice but she didn’t care.
She’d just hung the phone up when Sue popped her head round the door. ‘We’ve found the photos of Megan, ma’am.’
Kate joined her at Jenny’s desk.
‘They took a bit of finding,’ the detective constable said. ‘They were in hidden files buried deep in the computer, and there’s more girls than Megan in the files. I’ve also found a file named Jade. DS Murphy asked me to look out for her name as well.’
‘Let’s concentrate on Megan for the time being.’ Kate’s finger itched to grab the mouse and scroll through the photos faster, but she restrained herself. ‘There’s a lot. He must have been watching her for some time.’
‘Yes, ma’am. But here’s where it gets interesting.’
Kate hissed breath through her lips. These photos were different. They were of a girl lying in the corner of what looked like a shed or outhouse, with her hands tied in front of her. The girl’s eyes were closed and Kate couldn’t decide whether she was looking at a drugged girl, or whether it was a body.
‘Right, that’s it. We need to search Patricia Carnegie’s house and grounds. Get that organized, Sue.’
Sue turned away from the monitor and looked at Kate. ‘I’ve met Patricia Carnegie and I’d think there’s no way she’ll allow us to search her property without a warrant?’
‘Well, we can’t waste any time. You look up the list of sheriffs, and justices of the peace. See who’s on call and I’ll get the forms filled in.’
Kate stamped off to her office. Blasted forms, blasted paperwork. It always got in the way.
* * * *
Sue became increasingly frustrated as she worked through the list of sheriffs, phoning each one in turn. Either there was no answer, or an apologetic voice at the end of the phone explaining why he wasn’t available.
‘Damn,’ said Sue to no one in particular, ‘you’d think at least one sheriff would be available to grant a warrant.’
Blair grinned at her from his position, perched on the edge of her desk. ‘What about the JPs, any of them available?’
‘I’m about to start working down the list,’ Sue snapped. Did he think she was an idiot?
Several phone calls later she manage to locate one justice of the peace who was available and she made arrangements to take the warrant out to her immediately.
The JP, Mrs Barrington, lived in a bungalow in Cairnie Street. Sue parked at the kerb and, followed by Blair, walked up the path to the door. It was opened at her first knock by a little grey-haired lady.
‘Come in, my dears,’ she said. She led them into a living room with chintz-covered chairs. ‘Now sit down and tell me all about it.’
Sue perched on the edge of an armchair, while Blair stood in the doorway.
The woman sat down and smiled at Sue. ‘You are sure I can do this,’ she said, ‘it’s been a few years since I presided over a District Court.’
‘Your name’s on the list of available JPs, ma’am.’ Sue wasn’t entirely sure herself, the woman looked old and not her idea of what a justice of the peace should look like. But her name was on the list of approved JPs.
‘Oh well, I suppose you’d better explain it all to me before I decide whether to sign your warrant.’
Sue explained the case in detail, before saying, ‘You can see how important it is for us to find this girl, and we have reason to suspect she might be hidden on Mrs Carnegie’s estate.’
‘Oh dear,’ Mrs Barrington said, ‘I can quite see that. Let me borrow your pen and I’ll sign the warrant.’
Sue handed her the pen and the form to sign.
‘I do hope you find her,’ Mrs Barrington said as they left.
Sue strode to the car, closely followed by Blair.
‘Are you sure the warrant the old biddy signed will be OK?’ Blair subsided into the passenger seat.
Sue switched on the ignition and pressed hard on the accelerator. ‘I don’t give a damn how old she was or whether or not she’s still practising as a JP. Her name was on the list and that’s all that matters.’
* * * *
Kate breathed a sigh of relief when Sue returned, waving the warrant in the air.
‘Right, Sue, you’re with me. Jenny, you stay here and keep digging into that computer.’ Kate grabbed her jacket and shoulder bag. ‘I’ve got a police search party lined up. They’re waiting for us to serve the warrant and give them the nod to get started. Let’s go.’
The rush hour was over but it still took them 20 minutes to reach Patricia Carnegie’s house. Police cars lined the road outside the gates and Kate swung past them giving a flash of her lights and a toot on the horn when she entered the tree-lined drive. The cars followed her in.
‘This is it,’ she said to Sue as the car crunched to a halt in front of the door and, taking a deep breath to quell the fluttering feeling in her chest, she got out, marched up to the door and raised her hand to knock.
The door opened before her fist struck the wood. Patricia Carnegie peered out at them.
‘I heard you coming,’ she said, her eyes flicking over the line of police cars in the driveway. ‘What’s all this about?’
‘We have a warrant to search your property, ma’am.’ Kate showed her the document.
Patricia Carnegie took it but her eyes didn’t move away from the cars.
‘Why would you want to do that? And what are you looking for?’ She sounded genuinely puzzled.
‘We have reason to believe a child may be hidden on your property.’ Kate kept her voice official with a tone of severity.
‘You won’t find any children here.’ Mrs Carnegie’s voice was strident. ‘What on earth made you think you would?’ She turned away from them and made a vain attempt to close the door.
‘We have the warrant, ma’am.’ Kate’s foot was firmly in place so the door couldn’t close. ‘You are legally bound to allow the search.’
‘Oh, well, if you insist, but you’ll find no child here so you’re wasting your time.’ Patricia Carnegie gave them a thin-lipped smile.
Kate beckoned to the police sergeant who had emerged from the first car. ‘Get two of your men to search the house,’ she said. ‘The rest of them can start with the grounds.’
Patricia Carnegie glared at her. ‘They’d better not make a mess,’ she hissed through clenched teeth. She stamped back into the house.
‘That was easier than I anticipated.’ Sue’s voice was thoughtful.
‘Shouldn’t we be glad of that?’ Kate had been happy about how easy everything had been, but she picked up on the doubt Sue seemed to be feeling.
‘I don’t know. This lady’s a wildcat when it comes to her son. I would have expected her to be kicking and screaming.’
‘Maybe she knows more than she’s saying about what her son got up to.’ Kate left Sue and walked into the house to the gleaming kitchen where Patricia Carnegie was fussing over an espresso machine.
Sue was right, the woman was too calm and accepting of what was going on, despite her initial half-hearted objection.
* * * *
Megan stumbled through the wood, tripping on roots and slipping on dead leaves. Her blouse and skirt were sodden, and her hair clung in wet strands to her neck. She stopped to catch her breath, leaning on a tree trunk, and staring into the darkness. She could no longer see the light from the house at her back and she didn’t know how far she’d come, nor how far the trees stretched. But the trees couldn’t go on for ever. Surely there would be houses, or a road she could follow. There had to be something.
She heard the noise of a car in the distance, but it was coming from the direction of the house, and the woman had said it wasn’t safe there. Her heart thumped in her chest and she shuddered. It meant he had returned and would be looking for her. She had to get further away.
She cast a fearful glance back the way she had come, but all she saw was darkness and trees. And in front of her, more darkness and trees, but that was the way she would have to go, she couldn’t risk staying here in case he caught her again.
Suppressing a sob, she stumbled deeper into the wood where the trees were thicker and darker, and more menacing.
Chapter Forty
‘I don’t know, I couldn’t feel a pulse. I think he might be dead.’ Emma’s hand ached, it was gripping the phone so hard.
She listened to the mechanical voice at the other end of the line.
‘Of course I’m sure it’s an overdose, he had this blasted big needle sticking out of his arm.’
She listened again. ‘I don’t know what he’s taken, all I know is he had a needle in his arm.’ Her voice got higher in pitch, until she was screaming. ‘Just get the damned ambulance here, because if he’s not dead, he soon will be.’
She rammed the phone onto its cradle and leaned against the wall, taking deep breaths until the panic in her chest subsided.
A green and yellow checkered car with a flashing blue light on top screeched to a halt outside the house, and a paramedic carrying a bag, erupted from the passenger side. This was closely followed by a police car which drew up behind the ambulance car. A policeman got out of the passenger side and followed the paramedic to the door.
‘Where’s the ambulance?’ Emma demanded, glaring at the man in the green coverall suit.
‘We’re first responders, love. Now where is he?’
The policeman stood back to allow a second paramedic past.
‘In there.’ Emma pointed down the corridor to the kitchen. ‘He’s in a bad way . . . I don’t know if he’s still alive.’
The paramedics pushed past her. ‘We don’t have time to waste, love.’
They ran down the corridor. Emma followed close behind.
Diane was sitting in a chair in the kitchen. She seemed dazed, but her eyes were fixed on Bill’s prone body.
‘I’ll have to ask you to leave, we need room to work,’ the first paramedic said to her, while feeling Bill’s neck with his fingers.
‘Might be a flicker there. We need to get the Naloxone into him right away if he’s to have any chance.’
Emma stood in the doorway, feeling helpless. She wanted to reach out to her mother, who still sat immobile on the kitchen chair, but to do that she’d have to step over the paramedic’s legs, and he’d already indicated he needed room to work.
The paramedic rummaged in his bag until he found what he was looking for, an oblong shaped pack. He twisted the ends off the pack and produced a syringe. Looking up, he spotted the policeman. ‘Can you get them out of here. I’m going to have to get this into him and get him into the recovery position. I’ll need room to do it.’
‘You heard the man,’ the policeman said, ‘he wants you all out of the way so he can work.’
Emma glanced despairingly at Diane who gave no indication of having heard. She wanted to move away but not without her mother.
‘I said everyone out, and I meant it. So get out now.’
Emma backed away but didn’t take her eyes off Diane.
‘Now,’ he snapped, ‘I’m not going to say it again.’
At last Diane looked up, and Emma beckoned to her. ‘Come on, Mum. We can’t do anything here, and we need to get out of the way.’
Diane followed her down the passage and into the lounge, where she slumped onto the settee and looked blankly at the door.
Emma sat down beside her and put her arm round Diane’s shoulders. ‘It’ll be all right, Mum.’
But she didn’t think it would be all right, and thoughts scurried round her brain.
What was the detective doing here anyway? And how come he chose their kitchen to take an overdose? And why didn’t Ryan see him when he came home? Too many questions and no answers.
****
Patricia Carnegie ignored Kate and lifted the cup of Espresso to her lips while she stared out of the kitchen window to where lights bobbed and flickered, indicating the start of the search.
‘They won’t find anything, you know.’ She sounded smug.
‘Nevertheless, we have to search, when it concerns a missing child.’ The smell of the coffee annoyed Kate. She hadn’t eaten anything since lunch time, and she didn’t know when she would get the opportunity to grab a bite.
One of the policemen entered the kitchen. ‘Nothing here, ma’am.’
Kate nodded. ‘You’d better join the search outside.’
‘Yes, ma’am.’
‘I hate to say it, but I told you so.’ Patricia Carnegie took a sip of her coffee and turned her gaze back to the window.
‘We’re not finished yet. Don’t go anywhere.’ Kate resisted the temptation to whack the woman across her smug face, and marched to the door. What was it about this case that had her emotions getting out of hand? She was usually better at controlling herself than this.
The rain was heavier now, and she didn’t have a waterproof. She was tempted to sit in the car, but that wouldn’t look good to the men doing the searching. If they could put up with the rain, so could she.
She looked around for Sue, but the policewoman was nowhere to be seen. She must have joined the search.
Sighing, Kate trudged to the edge of the wood, listening to the men moving forward in a line searching the undergrowth.
‘Ma’am.’ Sue appeared at her side. ‘We’ve found a shed, they’re cutting the lock off now. I thought you might want to be there when it’s opened.’
‘Thanks, Sue.’ Kate followed her into the wood.
The shed door gaped open, and one of the men was shining his torch inside. ‘Nothing here, ma’am. But it looks as if someone has been here.’ He picked up a length of rope. ‘This has been cut, looks like it was used to tie something up.’
‘I think this is the place in the photos.’ Sue’s voice was hushed.
‘What’s in the wooden chest over there?’ Kate’s pulse raced, surely the girl couldn’t be inside, but it was big enough to contain her.
‘It’s padlocked, ma’am, but we’ll soon get that off.’
Kate held her breath when the padlock bounced off and hit the ground. If the girl was inside, there was no way she’d still be alive.
‘Oh, shit.’ The constable turned away from the chest, clamping his hand over his mouth.
Kate closed her eyes. Her head swam and she didn’t feel good. They’d found her, and they were too late.
‘Ma’am.’ Sue’s voice penetrated the fog in her brain. ‘It’s not Megan. It’s something a lot older than that.’
Kate forced her eyes open and walked over to the chest to look. She didn’t know what she’d been expecting, but certainly not a skeleton lying on an ancient velvet cushion.
****
A faint rumble of voices from the kitchen seeped up the corridor and into the lounge like sibilant whispers. Emma strained to hear but could distinguish nothing. Diane sat beside her on the settee, her fingers restlessly stroking and picking at the arm of the chair. Other than that, she seemed oblivious to what was going on. Ryan was nowhere to be seen. Did that mean he had something to do with what had happened? Emma’s mind was too confused to try and work it out.
A siren, announcing the arrival of the ambulance, jolted her out of her thoughts. It parked at the kerbside behind the paramedics green and yellow checkered car. The ambulance driver and another paramedic got out and hurried up the path to the house, their feet thumping on the hallway floor, as they rushed to join their colleagues in the kitchen. The sound of voices increased but nothing else happened, making her wonder what they were doing.
At last, after what seemed a lifetime to Emma, two of them stretchered Bill’s body down the hallway. Rising from her seat to look out the window, she watched as they loaded Bill into the ambulance.
‘Is he going to be all right?’ She turned to face the policeman entering the room. A policewoman stood guard at the door.
‘We don’t know, miss. He’s being taken to the hospital now. But in the meantime I need to ask you some questions.’
Emma returned to the settee and grasped Diane’s hand.
‘First of all I need all your names, dates of birth, that kind of thing. We’ll get that out of the way first.’
Emma supplied the information, although she wondered what it had to do with anything. But the policeman had said it was procedure so she thought she’d better not argue.
The door opened and Ryan entered fully clad.
‘And you are, sir?’
Ryan collapsed into an armchair. ‘Ryan Carnegie,’ he said. ‘I live here.’
‘Right.’ The policeman scribbled in his pad as Ryan gave him all his details. ‘Now we’ll get on with what happened here tonight. First of all I want to know who our overdose victim is.’
Emma shrugged. ‘He’s a detective who has been investigating my sister’s disappearance.’
The policeman looked up. ‘Have you got a name for this detective?’
Emma looked over at Diane. ‘Mum, you know more about him than me.’
Diane’s fingers stopped rubbing the chair arm. ‘His name’s Detective Sergeant Bill Murphy, and he’s with the CID.’ Her voice was flat, as if she were reciting from a book.
The policeman looked over to his colleague.
‘Get on to HQ and check it out.’
The policewoman reached for her airwave set, nodded and left the room. No doubt to report in without the family hearing.
‘Tell me about your sister and her disappearance.’
Emma sighed. ‘It’s old news. She vanished five years ago, but they’ve reopened the case.’
‘I see.’
‘What was DS Murphy doing here, and how come he’s overdosed in your kitchen?’
Emma shrugged. ‘None of us know the answer to that. We’d only just come in and there he was.’
‘I don’t think he was a drug user.’ Diane’s voice was quiet, but penetrating. ‘He was a nice man who was trying to help.’
The policewoman came back into the room. ‘I got through to CID, they’re sending someone over and we’ve to protect the scene until they get here.’
The policeman tucked his notebook into his pocket. ‘We’d better leave the rest of the questioning to them.’ Turning to the family he said, ‘I want you all to stay here. Nobody is to leave the room.’