“Thinks he’s caught a whiff of nepotism there, does he? Promotion due to connection rather than merit?”
She just shrugged. “I suppose that’s possible. If so, he’s been careful not to suggest it. I got the impression that he’s just curious, pure and simple. Why? Would it bother you?”
“No. Philips can think whatever he likes. There’s nothing we can do about that, anyway. As long as he does his job and leaves Shay alone, I won’t have a problem with him.”
“Mmm.” She pulled a face. “The man who killed the man who killed Jackie? I’m not sure he’ll be able to resist the temptation to try to get some answers out of your cousin if he gets the chance. From the way he’s been talking, I think he’s been listening to the recordings of Shay’s statement. A lot. He may even have a prepared list of questions he’d like to spring on him.”
Again, I didn’t see any cause for concern there. In Philips’ position, I’d probably feel the same way.
“Shay can handle the situation if it arises, which it shouldn’t. He’s booked us separate places to stay. One for you lot, one for us. He’s not planning to socialise.”
She smiled a little sadly, staring down and across to where he was poking through pebbles, looking for good stones to skip.
“No, I didn’t think he would be.” She took another drink of her coffee. “You’re not ever going to talk about it with me, are you?”
It was my turn to shrug. “That’s not how this works, Caitlin,” I told her bluntly. “You and I are friends, but you’re just someone he knows, and he’s a very private person.” I straightened up. “We should think about getting going again soon. Give the others a five-minute warning, will you?”
Shay released one of his finds with a perfectly angled flick of his wrist, and it bounced its way downstream. I whistled, holding up my spread hand when he turned. He nodded acknowledgement and sent Caitlin a friendly little wave. She returned it before giving me a pointedly disapproving look.
“You know perfectly well that’s not what I meant. He’s not the one I’ve been worried about, Conall.” Then she went inside to deliver my message.
The place that Shay had found for us was only a couple of miles west of Wick. A converted farmhouse with an attached, self-contained apartment for my cousin and me. There was even a handy interconnecting door, but that could be locked. Shay had called ahead with our arrival time, so the agent was waiting for us with the keys when we got there. Unloading our bags from the cars was a quick enough job, and we were back on the road and heading into town again by ten-fifteen.
The police station was just south of the Wick River, across the road from the train station, with Caithness General Hospital just around the corner. The new police station was a large brick and glass construction that had been completed in 2003, fitted out with top of the range communications equipment and pretty much brand new everything at the time. A high roof sloped down towards the front, but there was more of the building hidden behind that, as well as a decent walled yard with garages and outbuildings. We didn’t have any trouble finding parking spaces out front. There were half a dozen empty spots when we got there.
Area Commander Rory Munro came down to the reception area to greet us himself once the desk sergeant had called his office to inform him of our arrival. Munro was a tall, heavily muscled fifty-one, a man who took care to keep in very good shape. His flaming red hair was cut severely short, and he had a heavyset, liberally freckled face. I’d say he was about six feet one, but he seemed to loom larger because of his bulk.
“DCI Keane? We’ve been expecting you.” He shook my hand briefly. His grip was firm but not testing. “And DI Philips?” Another cursory handshake. Munro’s gaze swept the rest of our little group before he turned to the desk sergeant.
“You have their pass keys ready, Sergeant Malcolm?”
“Aye, Sir, they’re right here.” The sergeant produced an open plastic container, and Munro handed out the solid feeling, electronically chipped cards to us all. We’d all strung our warrant cards around our necks on police issue lanyards before walking in, as required, and he frowned at Shay’s unusual ID before handing him his. We weren’t allowed to wear dark glasses for official photographs, and that one must have appeared like an unconventional flouting of the rules to him. We weren’t permitted fringes that reached beyond the top of the eyeline either, but he could hardly tell a civilian to get his hair cut. Well, those glasses could have been medically prescribed. For all Munro knew, Shay may have been suffering from a light-sensitive condition.
“Your passkeys have been programmed for the entrance doors and for your own offices. Here.” He handed me a physical key on a ring. “That’s for the inner office, Inspector. We don’t have an electronic lock in place on that. This station’s public hours are from eight until six, seven days a week, but you can come and go as you please with these.”
“Thank you for having these ready for us,” I said gratefully, and he acknowledged that with a little grunt.
“If you’ll follow me, I’ll show you the space we’ve cleared for your team. I hope you’ll find it adequate. Chief Superintendent Anderson was quite specific about your requirements.”
So, we’d become an unwelcome inconvenience before we’d even got here. That wasn’t a promising start to our relations with the locals. As we followed Munro through the station, I found myself wondering who had been temporarily displaced to make room for us.
Our host stopped outside a glass-windowed door in a tucked-away corner to the rear of the building, and I presented my plastic passkey to the sensor to click the lock. From the musty air in the main office, I guessed that the answer to that question was nobody. They might have just been using these rooms as storage space up until yesterday. Now, the main office was fitted out with four fully equipped desks. There were a couple of filing cabinets against one wall, two printers and a table with chairs tucked away at the end of the room. That held a kettle and a supply of mugs and spoons.
“There’s a fridge in the break room three doors back that you can use if you like. Just label anything you put in there,” Munro said as we all trooped past him. “You have two toilets just across the hall, and the interview room next door has also been reserved for your use.” He pointed back up the corridor then moved past me to walk away up the centre of the room to where the inner door was.
Again, he waited for me to produce the key he’d given me and unlock it. The room was slightly larger than my office in Inverness, with a window looking out onto the yard. One nice long desk, computer, monitor, three chairs, a printer and a desk phone.
“I understand that your consultant prefers to work exclusively on his own laptop?”
“He does,” I affirmed. “This will do very nicely. Thank you. I hope arranging all of this for us didn’t put your people to a lot of trouble.”
“It used up a few man-hours that could have been better spent. Your taking the Visser case off our hands should more than compensate for that, though.” He was keeping his tone polite, but we weren’t being given what I’d call a warm welcome. “You’ll find our local contacts list in your inbox, Inspector Keane. If you need anything else, just call the duty desk. You’re the first outside team we’ve had since I transferred here, so I’m afraid we might not be quite as efficient at dealing with any unusual requests as we ideally should be.”
“I doubt there’ll be any of those. Just the usual run-of-the-mill things, stationery supplies and things like that, if we need any.”
That got another grunt. “You’ll find hard copies of all the relevant reports to date in the In tray on your desk there. I think that just about covers everything.” He gave me a searching look. “Would you mind calling Mr Keane in here to join us for a minute? I’d like a private word with you both before I leave you to settle in.”
“Certainly.” I stepped back to the doorway and caught Shay’s eye. Once he’d joined us, I closed the door. Munro leaned against the desk, arms folded and stared at
us both.
“Alright, boys, here’s the deal,” he said calmly. “Whatever this peculiar setup you two have going is and whatever sort of rule-bending antics you’re used to getting away with, let’s get one thing straight right now, shall we? While you’re in my territory, I expect you to play things by the book. You’ve piled up enough dead bodies between you and put enough suspects in the hospital over the last thirteen months to give me cause for some serious concerns. As for that insane stunt you pulled a few weeks back, Mr Keane, I don’t know what Bernard Anderson’s thinking, allowing you anywhere near another case again after that. There’s no place for that kind of maverick behaviour in the middle of a major police investigation. Not on my patch, anyway.”
Shay just gave him a mildly surprised and affronted look. “Chief Inspector Munro, I can assure you that I’m only here to carry out the specific tasks that are requested of me. As for the rest of it, if you are suggesting that defending ourselves and others from armed and dangerous criminals is unlawful or inappropriate conduct, then please, do elaborate. Because what you just said sounded very close to being a slanderous allegation.”
“I’m afraid I have to agree,” I added, frowning, “and I don’t appreciate the implication that I don’t know how to do my job properly. If, by the book, you mean following all the correct procedures, then perhaps you would like to point out where I have ever failed to do so.”
Munro just smiled at us and shook his head sadly.
“I believe we understand each other perfectly, gentlemen. A good guest is a well-behaved guest. I hope you enjoy an uneventful and successful stay in Wick. Any hint of anything odd going on, and there will be consequences to face. I’ll make sure of that. Well,” he stood up again, “now that’s been cleared up, I have a lot of work waiting for me. Do remember to let me know when you’re done here, Inspector Keane, but please, don’t feel any need to send me updates on your progress in the meantime unless you need something. The Visser case is all yours, whatever untidy mess you seem likely to make of it. Good day to you both.”
I opened the door for him and moved aside so he could get past me. My team were already at their chosen desks out there, computers up and running, and I saw Munro stop to exchange pleasantries with Philips on his way out.
Shay and I exchanged a speculative look. Yeah, that had been interesting. My cousin pulled a digital recorder from his pocket and turned it off
“Anderson was right. He’s not at all like Trish Morrison, is he? I think I rather like his direct approach to things, though. Cards on the table, territory thoroughly scent marked, and we’ve only been here a few minutes. That’s very efficient going.”
“Isn’t it just?”
Anderson could have been a little more specific with his hints. He must have been expecting something like that. Rory Munro appeared to be one of the old school traditionalists and had made it perfectly clear that he didn’t approve of our unconventional little arrangement with his boss. Perhaps Anderson was even having second thoughts about the advisability of allowing it to continue himself? Either way, we were here, and we had a job to do. There was no point in wasting time worrying about any of that.
“Don’t bother setting up just yet,” I told Shay as he put his pack down on the desk. “We’ll be heading out again soon.”
I went over our initial action plan with everyone yesterday. First stop, Castle Sinclair Girnigoe. I wanted a look at the crime scene before we got stuck into the interviews down at the VOW offices.
Six
There was a stiff wind blowing when we all reached the car park up near the ruin of the old Sinclair stronghold. The Sinclairs, during their long tenures as Earls of Caithness and of Orkney, had possessed several castles and holdings, but this one may have been the most impressive of them in its heyday. I hadn’t been here myself before, and we wouldn’t be poking around in there today. Kaj Visser’s body had been found to the east of the headland on which the ruin stood, in a spot where a bit of a steep scramble allowed access down to the shore without the need to navigate the cliffs.
The land surrounding the desolate little parking area was flat and bleak. Short grass in every direction, scattered with a few hardy wildflowers, and not much to look at except the sight of the Noss Head lighthouse rising up a few hundred metres to the east and a distant view of the last cluster of cottages we’d driven past to the west. There were a couple of picnic tables in a little fenced-off area and an ugly, low concrete shed nearby. I could see a part of the ruin of the castle itself poking up against the backdrop of the sea to the north too. No other cars around this morning. There weren’t even any sheep in sight. The place had a forlorn, deserted air to it.
We passed the information signs welcoming visitors to Castle Sinclair Girnigoe and began our walk along the well-trodden path towards the sea.
“Think someone carried Visser along here?” Caitlin asked as we walked.
“Possibly. Or two people could have supported him between them. He wouldn’t have been in any condition to walk. Whoever brought him out here must have been familiar with the area, though. It seems like an odd place to pick. Not what you’d call convenient.”
“Nice and private, though. It has that.” From my other side, Shay waved a vague arm around. “I don’t see any shortage of places where you could find some privacy around here at night, Sergeant Murray. Still, this is a well-known spot. Like Con said, familiarity must have influenced their choice of location. I can’t see anyone who didn’t know the place well feeling comfortable about getting him down to the sea in the dark.” We were approaching the top of the bluffs by then and soon reached a spot where we could stare directly down to the water.
Kaj Visser’s body had been discovered where the high sea stacks followed the shoreline only a few metres out. A single pointing finger and its much bulkier neighbour rose about thirty metres from the water out there. The intervening rock that must have once joined them to the peninsula had long since worn away. A steep, grassy slope led down to the facing shelf of rock, our destination.
“Two choices for getting down there without a climb.” Shay pointed off to our left. “Either they went down that slope to that narrow, flattish area below the castle, or they scrambled down just there to that wider shelf of rock opposite the big stack.”
Philips, Collins and Mills had joined us near the edge by then.
“I wouldn’t fancy my footing trying to carry, or support, anyone down either way,” Philips commented. “They both look pretty steep.”
“The second option’s shorter and easier. Look there.” I pointed at the route I would have chosen. “If one person jumped down from that flat bit of rock or scrambled around it, another could lower Visser down to him. That drop’s only about eight feet high, and the rest of it looks easy after that. See, the stones below it are naturally stepped.” I picked my way towards the flat rock, careful of my footing on the slope, and the others followed me down. The damp grass was slippery, and the buffeting wind wasn’t helping.
“Stay up here,” I said and worked my way around the rock platform until I could stand looking up at them. “Shay, you be Visser. You’re about the right size and weight.” My cousin removed his pack and his precious jacket and handed them to Caitlin before obligingly flopping down bonelessly on the edge. “Alright, Mills, grab him under the arms and see how hard it is to lower him down.”
It wasn’t at all difficult, even with Shay playing the unconscious, awkward cargo. Once Mills had come to join me, we had no trouble navigating the rest of the way down with our burden slung between us, feet dragging. Soon, we were all down on the rocky shelf by the water. Shay took his things back from Caitlin with a polite thank you.
“Easy enough, but it would be trickier at night,” he said, brushing absently at a bit of damp on his trousers. “Even with a decent amount of moonlight, like last Friday. Mind you, nobody would see torches flashing around down here. So,” he moved a few paces away to eye the short drop to the water from the e
dge of the shelf we were standing on, “we’re satisfied that we’re looking for at least two people then?” I was, now that I’d seen what kind of effort would have been required to get Visser here. And they had certainly done that. No other option matched his injuries. “They bring him here, beat the crap out of him, and chuck him into the sea. Then the body spends the next few hours being bumped and scraped on the rocks until it’s recovered on Saturday morning.”
We all knew his thoughts on the way Kaj Visser had died. It didn’t make sense to him. Not if Visser had been drugged and poisoned by the same people who had then brought him here to finish him off. Then again, expecting rational behaviour from anyone angry enough to want to dose Visser up with something as vile as methanol wasn’t exactly realistic either. If his killers were confident that they’d covered their tracks well enough to get away with it, then what did it matter? Plus, the whole ‘drunken fall from the cliff top’ scenario would certainly have worked for them if the pathologist hadn’t been so conscientiously thorough.
“Alright, we might as well have a proper look around while we’re all here,” I told everyone. “It’s not likely the local CID missed anything, and it’s been almost a week since the murder, but we should check for ourselves, anyway.”
Wind, rain and sea spray had done their jobs thoroughly. There was no sign of any blood anywhere, and we didn’t find any helpful little items wedged into cracks in the rock either. After we’d checked everywhere down there, Shay suggested going up and around to the narrow stretch below the castle to see if anything had washed up over there. I sent the other four to start checking over the route back to the car park whilst he and I went down there for a look.
“The sea’s too shallow here, with that rock shelf just under the surface, to have got him into the water this way without getting their legs wet,” Shay said once we were down at the edge of the sea again. “I don’t think they’d have liked that idea. I think you were right about how and where they got him down.”
Castle Killings: A DCI Keane Scottish Crime Thriller (Deadly Highlands Book 4) Page 5
