Ice Cold Blood

by David W. Millar

  We were always competitive, Eamon and me. I was smarter than him and usually won any verbal jousts. But that afternoon he scored a victory that I knew I could never match. When I slept with his fiancée I thought I had the perfect riposte, the antidote to my pain and a triumph to match his all those years ago. But Lysette begged me to say nothing and I gave her my word. She was worried he’d use it against her and maybe post stuff on Facebook. And you know my word is something I would always keep. Even when they broke up, I couldn’t say anything to him. It was just another defeat.

  Take care my love!

  Ellie

  He put her last letter back in the envelope and took out his mobile. He had the number in his contacts and the phone rang twice before the desk sergeant answered.

  ‘Fort William Police Station. Sergeant Watson speaking. How can I help you?’

  He asked to speak to DCI Tosh only to be told the chief inspector was in Aberdeen and could she take a message. Then he saw the police car pull into his drive and DS McIntyre appear from the driver’s door. He looked for Tosh, but it became clear he was not in the car.

  ‘There’s no message,’ he replied. ‘One of your boys is here.’

  Chapter 51

  Tosh decided to go in person. It was a rare occasion as a policeman that he was the bearer of good news. Once, years ago when on the beat, he had found a young girl who had been missing for over eight hours and got the job of returning her to her parents. The girl had run off in anger after a row at home, but the mother had been so relieved her daughter had been found she burst into tears of relief when she opened the door. Then she had almost dragged Tosh into the house and demanded he have a cup of tea. The look on the mother’s face had made the job worthwhile.

  Tosh was pleased to see a car in the driveway, indicating the likelihood of Serafini being at home. He must have seen him arrive from the window for the front door opened as Tosh got out of the car.

  ‘How lovely to have a visitor this evening. My wife is away on a course for a few days and I have been quite lonely.’

  Tosh could see the pain and tiredness in Serafini’s eyes. His face was drawn, and he had suffered significant weight loss. ‘I thought it better to come in person and deliver the news.’

  Serafini scanned Tosh’s face for clues before pushing the door open as a signal for him to enter.

  ‘Is this good news for me then?’

  ‘Can I sit down?’

  ‘Indeed, I’ll make some coffee. Please, take a seat.’

  When he was in the kitchen Tosh felt his phone buzz with an incoming text. It was Shona asking how he was and whether this Saturday was ok for them to visit her mother. He sighed and shoved the phone back into his pocket as Serafini arrived with the coffee.

  ‘So, you have some news?’

  ‘You will not be charged with the murder of Ellie Saunders. Your passport will be returned to you as soon as possible.’

  Tosh was completely unprepared for Serafini’s reaction. He gave a soft moan, his body crumpled, and he sank back into his seat. He buried his face in his hands and sobbed uncontrollably. It took several minutes before he was able to speak.

  ‘Thank you.’

  ‘I’m sorry for what you’ve had to go through.’

  ‘I wish Katie was here, my children, all my friends who believed in me and knew I couldn’t kill anyone.’

  Tosh nodded and said nothing.

  ‘These last few weeks have been hell for me and my family,’ he looked over at Tosh. ‘But now for some reason I am a free man.’

  ‘I’ll go now and let you contact your wife and family with the good news.’

  ‘No you won’t,’ Serafini shouted, making Tosh jump. ‘You’ll stay here and tell me why, after weeks of investigation, you suddenly turn up at my door to tell me I didn’t kill Ellie Saunders.’

  ‘I’ll tell you what I can.’

  ‘Don’t you think I deserve to know everything?’

  Tosh hesitated for a moment. ‘Yes, you deserve to know what happened. I got some simple policework wrong.’

  ‘So it was Hunter then. He was the only credible suspect who had a reason to kill Ellie.’

  ‘Mr Hunter was certainly involved in what has happened.’

  ‘Involved? Don’t go all cryptic on me. Did he kill her?’

  ‘No.’

  The reply shook Serafini and he gave Tosh a confused stare. ‘If it wasn’t Euan Hunter, then who?’

  ‘John,’ Tosh said softly. ‘I’m still trying to fully understand what happened and Euan Hunter is not fully co-operating yet. Maybe the best thing is for me to ask you a few questions about Ellie in the lead up to her death.’

  Serafini frowned but eventually nodded.

  ‘The pathologist report indicated that Ellie had drunk a fair amount of whisky and was close to hypothermia when she was struck. There were also traces of sleeping pills in her bloodstream. The marks on her torso indicated she might have been tied up before she died. The ice axe belonged to her father, Alan Saunders who also identified the large spring as possibly coming from a chest expander he had made for Ellie’s brother Eamon.’

  ‘Are you saying it was her father or her brother who killed her?’ he asked incredulously.

  ‘No Mr Serafini, no one killed her. Ellie Saunders committed suicide.’

  ‘That’s ridiculous,’ Serafini declared. ‘You can’t hammer an ice axe into your own head.’

  ‘You can if you’re as inventive as Ellie Saunders was. Apparently, she set up some sort of mechanical device where the ice axe was connected to a series of springs that were strapped tight to her body. There were ratchets in place to put extreme tension on the springs which, when released, drove the axe into her head. It appears she used a timing mechanism to release the springs and it maybe went off before she had died from hypothermia,’ he paused. ‘But things are still a bit sketchy.’

  Serafini looked at Tosh and shook his head slowly in disbelief. ‘Surely you’d have found her with all the springs on her body.’

  Tosh saw the look of horror on his face. ‘Jesus, Euan Hunter!’

  ‘I made an error in not checking the registration of his company van against the car registration data from the cameras in Fort William for that evening.’

  ‘He took away all the evidence for the suicide so it would look like I killed her. That’s why the rucksack was missing. That bastard wanted me to spend the rest of my life in prison because he believed Ellie loved me and not him. He’s put me and my family through hell just so he could get some sort of perverted revenge. How could anyone do that?’

  ‘I’ve interviewed Hunter and there’s more to come out. Then there’s the obvious trauma that her parents will feel knowing their daughter committed suicide in such a violent fashion and using equipment from her father’s workshop.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘I think that using her father’s ice axe and the springs from her brother’s chest expanders were to show her anger at them. They were symbolic and designed to cause them as much angst as possible.’

  ‘Oh God! That will be awful for them. They came to see me a couple of days ago and were supportive saying they knew I hadn’t killed Ellie. They even had letters they’d found hidden in her flat and read them out to me.’

  ‘Right,’ Tosh replied hesitantly. ‘They really shouldn’t have done that, and you should have reported it.’

  ‘Well I appreciated it. They gave me hope for the future. I’ve been stuck here with thoughts of an eternity in prison with no visits from my wife, children or friends. I’ve endured thoughts of being beaten or raped by fellow prisoners. I’ve needed sleeping pills at night, struggling to eat and have been drinking heavily. Any visitor was welcome - even Euan Hunter.’

  ‘Hunter, Euan Hunter came here?’

  ‘Yes, he came here before Ellie’s
parents. He did a bit of gloating, but he also told me he knew I didn’t kill Ellie. I photographed him getting into his car and my advocate was planning to use all that in court.’

  ‘Jesus, this just gets worse and worse.’

  ‘Well try and think how I’ve been feeling.’

  ‘I can only imagine what you’ve been through for the past month, but I want to ask you a favour. This is pretty bizarre and somewhat irregular, but I think it would help the situation.’

  ‘What do you want me to do?’

  ‘The media will get hold of this soon and have a field day. I have to speak to Ellie’s parents before this all gets out. I know they’re staying with their son Eamon in Edinburgh. I wondered if you’d come with me when I break the sad news to them.’

  ---oOo---

  ‘She sent me a text,’ Hunter explained. ‘We had special phones we only used for contacting each other. It wasn’t unique to me. She had a mobile phone she only used for Serafini. I found the number for it.’

  ‘Whose idea was that?’ Annabel frowned.

  ‘It was Ellie’s. She said she wanted to be able to text me on a phone that no one had any access to. We would have special phones like the Washington and the Kremlin hotline.’

  ‘And you agreed?’

  ‘I didn’t see anything sinister in it. Just thought it was Ellie being Ellie. Things weren’t bad between us and I usually agreed to most things she asked,’ he sighed. ‘I think she had been planning this for months.’

  There were shouts from outside in the corridor and the sound of a door banging. A man swore loudly from the adjoining cell before there was quiet again. There was an unpleasant smell that permeated the place. She wondered how he could be so calm.

  ‘And she texted you to meet her in the snow-hole early the following morning after she had…’

  ‘Yes, but I went up around four in the morning when it was still dark. I wanted to surprise her. I had powerful headtorches and knew where the snow-hole would be because we’d tried to dig one there a few years ago but failed because the snow wasn’t stable enough. I didn’t know Serafini had been with her.’

  ‘She wanted you to find her…’

  Hunter nodded and swallowed hard. ‘It was awful - an ice axe sticking out of her head.’

  ‘So why did you…’

  ‘I sat with her for almost an hour just holding her hand. Then I read the letters she’d left; one for Eamon, one for her dad and one for the man she said she loved.’

  ‘Serafini?’

  ‘There was no name on the letter; maybe so no one could trace him and tell his wife.’ He looked at Annabel and choked. ‘It just said to the man I loved.’

  ‘What did you do with…’

  ‘I burned them when I got back.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Some things are better left unsaid. There’s no point in causing even more pain.’ His voice was firm brooking no further discussion.

  Annabel nodded while looking around the small cell. ‘Eilidh sends her love.’

  Euan nodded but said nothing.

  ‘What will they charge you with?’

  ‘Wasting police time, tampering with a crime scene, withholding evidence. I think there might be a long list. Chief Inspector Tosh was mad, and his interviewing technique bordered on verbal abuse. My solicitor had to warn him a couple of times that he would terminate the meeting if it continued. He even threatened me with assisted suicide, but my solicitor doubts they could make that stick.’

  ‘What else did your solicitor say?’

  ‘He doubts I’ll go to prison; might be community service and/or a big fine. He appreciates Chief Inspector Tosh is a bit mad since it doesn’t look that great for him but says things will calm down. There’s going to be a lot of publicity on this. In legal terms I don’t think there’s much in the way of precedent for all this so I don’t really know how the courts will look at it.’

  ‘Euan, I understand destroying the letters - but making it look like he murdered her?’

  ‘He left her there to die. He deserved what he got.’

  ‘I doubt he knew she was going to kill herself Euan.’

  ‘When you climb with someone you never leave them. You stay with them until everyone’s safely down. Ellie wouldn’t have left him there. And, she didn’t have her car to get back for God’s sake.’

  ‘She can be pretty persuasive Euan.’

  ‘You don’t leave someone alone in a snow-hole when they’ve been drinking and could well freeze to death through the night. Counsellors are supposed to look after the people they’re with.’

  ‘You wouldn’t have let him go to prison.’

  ‘No.’

  Annabel nodded but said nothing

  ‘He had a responsibility to look after her,’ Euan continued hitting the table with his knuckles in frustration. ‘They had a tent with them; he could’ve pitched that outside the snow-hole and waited. She was vulnerable.’

  There was an awkward silence for a few moments before Annabel spoke. ‘So you took away all the springs and stuff and just walked back in the dark?’

  ‘I also took photos before I touched anything, and I’ve shown them to the police. I think they’ve accepted that I didn’t kill her.’

  ‘So what happens now?’

  Hunter shrugged his shoulders. ‘If I get charged and go to court it depends on what the judge and jury make of it all.’

  A uniformed police officer opened the cell door and told Annabel her time was up.

  ‘Anything you want me to do?’

  ‘Yes, tell Eilidh how much I love her and I’ll see her soon.’

  Chapter 52

  The party was in full swing when Tosh arrived. The driveway was packed with cars as was the adjacent street. He could hear the music as he got out of the car recognising it as The Eagles. Good music if a bit before his time.

  Serafini had called the station and personally asked him to come to the party to celebrate. He could bring Shona, but she was working nights, and in any case Tosh wanted to go alone. There was a bed for the night if he needed one and while Tosh had declined the offer politely at the time, he had an overnight bag in the boot. He might well need more than the one drink.

  ‘Chief Inspector,’ Serafini exclaimed on opening the door, a glass of wine in his hand. ‘I wasn’t sure if you’d come.’

  Tosh could see the man was already slightly drunk. ‘It’s Bill from now on,’ Tosh smiled, extending his hand.

  He was used to estimating the number of people in a room or a bar - sometimes your safety depended on it. He reckoned well over 30 and there might be others in the garden.

  ‘There’s over 40 so far and more to come,’ Serafini laughed, aware of his guest’s mental arithmetic. ‘You must meet my wife, Katie.’

  Tosh caught Serafini’s arm before he could move on. ‘Why did you invite me here, John? I was partly responsible for nearly sending you to prison.’

  ‘You never believed I killed her. That meant a lot to me.’

  ‘I cocked up the investigation. I should have checked for Hunter’s company van on the camera footage.’

  ‘And if I’d come forward like I should’ve done at the beginning then maybe things would have worked out better for me. The point is we all make mistakes,’ he paused and smiled knowingly at Tosh. ‘And anyway, the more important question is why you accepted my invitation?’

  Before he could answer Serafini’s wife appeared and Tosh was introduced. The doorbell rang and Serafini apologised before taking his leave to answer the door.

  ‘Is this a first then Chief Inspector?’

  ‘A first?’

  ‘Attending a party thrown by a man you thought was a murderer?’

  ‘I think it is, but please call me Bill. It seems once you’re a chief inspector then that’s how you’ll alwa
ys be known.’

  ‘Well tradition has it that a surgeon is called Mister or in my case Missus, though I’m usually referred to as Doctor.’

  He liked her. She was attractive, confident and intelligent.

  ‘You must be so relieved and happy that your husband is a free man.’

  ‘It’s been hellish, the last few weeks,’ she acknowledged. ‘But we’ve found out a few things about each other we didn’t know.’

  Tosh raised his eyebrows in question, but she just smiled and continued. ‘We’re going to Italy in a few days to get away from it all.’

  Serafini reappeared by his side. ‘You need a drink.’

  It was decision time. If he started any serious drinking, he wouldn’t be able to drive. Serafini read his mind.

  ‘Maybe a small beer, then soft drinks if you need to drive back?’

  Tosh nodded in agreement.

  The doorbell rang again, Katie insisting on answering it this time.

  ‘Come on,’ Serafini chuckled. ‘My solicitor and my advocate are here.’

  ‘Will I have to be cross-examined?’

  ‘Maybe…’

  ‘Dad!’ The shout made Serafini turn in surprise.

  ‘Patrick!’

  Serafini ran to his son and hugged him tightly. ‘You came, thank you.’

  ‘I always knew you were innocent dad.’

  ‘Is Emma coming?’

  ‘I spoke to her this morning. She’s relieved like me,’ he paused. ‘She said she can’t make it tonight, but she’ll come soon.’

  The whole place was silent, watching the unfolding scene.

  ‘She told me to tell you she loves you.’

  ‘Thank you. Right I’ll get you a drink and we can catch up on your news. We can talk for a few minutes in the garden.’

  He led his son into the kitchen and Tosh sighed. It was clear Patrick’s appearance was unexpected. It would be better not to be here; better that no one was here so Serafini could talk to his son in peace.

  Sensing his discomfort Katie came across. ‘I didn’t think he’d come. It will make John’s day. Please don’t go. John’s so pleased you came.’