Castle Killings: A DCI Keane Scottish Crime Thriller (Deadly Highlands Book 4)

by Oliver Davies

  “It was only midnight, and none of us had to work the next day. We were all a bit tipsy and having a really good time, so why not? We went in, and Monica and Anthony made drinks for everyone, and Julie put some music on. Everything was fine for a while. Monica was happily chatting to Anthony, and Julie had made it pretty clear by then that she’d decided she was going to invite Kaj to stay over. She was all over him. Nick and I were quite happy to leave them all to it and entertain ourselves.” I got the distinct impression at that point that Meghan and Nick were occasionally more than just good friends.

  “And then Julie jumped up again, sounding alarmed. Kaj was looking really unwell and seemed to be on the verge of passing out. I guess he couldn’t hold his drink as well as we’d all thought he could because he did pass out after another couple of minutes, and none of us could get two clear words together out of him after that. It certainly killed the mood.” Anthony had proved to be a godsend at that point. “He offered to drive Kaj home to sleep it off and went to fetch his car. He was back in under ten minutes, then he and Nick managed to get him up between them and support him out. That was quite a relief. None of us liked the idea of leaving Kaj sleeping in the living room all night. I mean, you never know, do you? He seemed nice enough, but we didn’t know him, and he’d obviously had a lot more to drink that night than we’d thought he had. If nothing else, he might have thrown up all over the place during the night. Who wants to face that sort of mess in the morning?”

  “How did Anthony know where Mr Visser lived?” I asked.

  “I don’t know.” Meghan frowned slightly. “I guess I just assumed that the fresh air had brought Kaj around enough to tell him. I hadn’t really thought about it. Anyway, Anthony called Nick fifteen minutes later to say he’d got him home alright, so none of us thought any more about it. Not until we saw the article in the paper, anyway.”

  “And it didn’t occur to any of you to come forward at that point?”

  “No, it didn’t.” She gave me a belligerent look. “Why would it? There was no mention of the death being anything but an accident. We all thought that Kaj must have recovered enough to decide to go out again, drunk or not. It did seem a bit odd that he’d end up near the castle like that, but we didn’t know who else he might have bumped into or what he may have taken it into his head to do. You can’t expect people who are that drunk to behave sensibly. But then Nick called us last Tuesday and told us he’d seen the article too. He was worried about the police maybe asking questions, especially if they found out he was with us that night.

  “Because of the incident with his sister?”

  She nodded. “Yes. Exactly. Look, I know you’re not from here, but you have no idea how difficult your lot made things for him four years ago.”

  Shay’s last update had briefed me on what had happened here back then. Nick’s sister, Chloe Albert, had been nineteen at the time, and he’d been twenty-two. He’d brought her to the station himself after she’d called him, begging to be picked up from the hotel she’d been visiting. Chloe claimed she’d been raped, and the three uniformed officers who had first handled the incident had done so in the worst possible manner. Chloe had freely admitted to drinking, taking MDMA, and willingly going back to her date’s hotel room with him. They’d had entirely consensual sex before she’d fallen asleep, but she’d later woken up to discover a different man in mid-act with her, one she had not consented to have sex with. Her own ‘date’ had been quietly snoring in the other bed by then, and her attempts to fight his late returning friend off had proved futile. He’d been determined to finish what he’d started. Only after he was done and had fallen into a drunken stupor himself did she manage to extricate herself and flee the room.

  Joining the police didn’t magically make people perfect. Victims like Chloe Albert were supposed to be treated with ‘dignity, empathy and respect,’ and that had certainly not been the case for her. The uniformed officers who’d first spoken with Chloe and Nicholas had asked her far too many probing questions and done their best to bully her out of wanting to make an official statement when what they ought to have done was call in the SOLO officer to take over immediately. Only specially trained officers were supposed to go into the kind of detailed questioning those three had with the victim of a sexual crime, and Nicholas’s formal complaints had been very specific about their entirely unsympathetic attitude.

  Chloe was wasting everyone’s time, she was told. There was no chance they’d ever get a conviction with a story like that, even if they could build enough of a case to get it to court. She’d admitted she was drunk and under the influence of an illegal, Class A substance. Who was to say she hadn’t said yes to both of those men? Could she even be absolutely sure she hadn’t?

  The girl had shown a lot of courage and determination in insisting on her right to make a statement. By the time she left the station, several hours after coming here, I could just imagine what sort of state she must have been in. Twice as traumatised as before and wishing she’d never said anything. Nicholas had been absolutely furious. He’d made repeated, official complaints, demanding that disciplinary action be taken against the officers involved, and managed to cause quite a stink.

  Those officers had been right about one thing. The case never went to court. Of the small percentage of rapes that were actually reported to the police, most never did due to a lack of clear evidence. Of those ‘better chances’ that did get prosecuted, less than half resulted in an actual conviction. In Chloe’s case, it was the word of two men with no criminal records against that of a girl who’d admitted to being drunk, taking an illegal drug and, in their version of events, more than willing to have sex with both of them.

  Thanks to Nicholas’s complaints, the officers involved had been reprimanded and forced to attend mandatory retraining sessions, but that had been the total extent of any disciplinary action taken.

  Over the following months, Nicholas had been pulled over whilst driving seven times and arrested twice. He’d been held here for hours, both times, without any charges being made. Coincidence or petty, vengeful harassment? I knew which I thought was the most likely. Luckily, Nick had refrained from foolishly losing his temper and managed to avoid landing himself in real trouble by reacting unwisely to the repeated provocation.

  I couldn’t really blame him for wanting to avoid the attention of the local police after all of that.

  “What time did Nicholas leave your house that Friday night?” I asked.

  “He didn’t,” Meghan told me. “He ended up sleeping over and only left after breakfast. About half-past ten, I think.”

  “Can anyone else confirm that?”

  “Yes, both Monica and Julie can.” If true, that gave him a decent alibi, at least. I thought Meghan was telling us the truth, now, as best she could. Could Nick have slipped out during the night and gone back? Unlikely but not impossible. I had only one more question to ask her for now.

  “When did you all decide to lie about what happened if you were ever asked about it?”

  “After Nick called us on Tuesday evening. We didn’t see why an awful accident like that should be allowed to give the police any excuse to start harassing him again. Then, when you turned up at the house earlier, I suppose we must have both stuck to what we’d agreed to say. It was an awful shock to hear that Kaj had actually been murdered, but you didn’t really give us a chance to process that information before you questioned us.”

  I supposed not, but this could have all been a lot less unpleasant for them both if they’d had the sense, to be honest in the first place. I gave Caitlin a nod.

  “Interview terminated at twelve fifty,” she said and turned the recorder off.

  “Alright, Miss Brooks, Sergeant Murray will take you down to holding now, and we’ll see about getting you something to eat if you’re hungry?”

  “I can’t go home yet?” She looked dismayed to hear it.

  “I’m afraid we’ll need you to wait until we’ve talked to Mi
ss MacAdam first, but we should have you out of here within the hour, all being well.” I got up and went to ask Collins to join Caitlin so they could take Meghan away and bring me Julie.

  “What do you think?” I asked Shay when I got back to our office.

  He shrugged. “I didn’t see or hear any indication that she was lying. I’d say she believed every word she said, but who knows? Maybe she’s just a really good liar. Nicholas Albert’s still at home if that’s what you popped in to ask. Or at least his phone is. What about Monica Jamieson, though? Weren’t you going to send someone to pick her up?”

  “She can wait until I’ve finished with Julie MacAdam. I want to send Philips and Mills off to talk to Albert now, and I need the others here.” Those two could drive up to Thurso in under half an hour. “Anything on Julie’s phone I need to know about before I talk to her?”

  “Nothing yet, but Julie’s messages show that Nick changed his mind about where they were all going to meet that night at the last minute if that’s at all significant.”

  I sent Philips and Mills on their way, made myself a quick coffee and then went back to the interview room for round two.

  Nineteen

  Half an hour with Julie gave us exactly the same story as we’d got from Meghan, with a few new details added in here and there. She also confirmed what her friend had told us about who had made the drinks for everyone after they’d reached the house.

  “I don’t know how much whisky they put into that last coke of Kaj’s, but it must have been pretty strong. He was fine for a while after he drank it, but then he started to sound very slurred and look a little ill. Soon after that, he passed out, so I guess that was his ‘one too many’ for the night. We did try calling him the next day to check up on him, but his phone was off.”

  “You had his number?” I asked.

  “Yes. We’d exchanged numbers earlier, at Harpers.”

  She also confirmed what Meghan had told us about Anthony switching to alcohol-free beer after his first pint with them because he’d planned to drive later that night. No, Julie didn’t know how long Nick had known him, and the subject of how they’d met hadn’t come up. Their descriptions of the mysterious Anthony also matched well. About my height, well built, like he either worked out or had a physically demanding job. Short, straight, light brown hair, brown eyes. No remarkable features except that both girls mentioned a slightly gap-toothed smile. Quiet, perhaps shy, but then again, four of the group were old friends, and he hadn’t met any of them before, except Nick. Plus, he was sober.

  It astonished me, at first, that neither of the girls had found Kaj passing out so suddenly more suspicious. Further thought made me reconsider that. They’d all had quite a lot to drink that night, and you had to accept the possibility that both girls had personal experience of similar things happening to them. How many people knew what it was like to wake up with blanks in their memory after overindulging? Almost everyone overdid it at some point.

  Had that last whisky and coke of Visser’s been laced with the ketamine that had been found in his system? It seemed reasonably likely. Whether or not Anthony had also been covertly spiking Kaj’s drinks with methanol all night, whenever he could, was another question. I didn’t think either Meghan or Julie had known anything about it if he had. Given the fact that it was Anthony who’d then driven off with Kaj Visser, he certainly seemed like the most likely culprit at this point. I very much doubted he’d actually driven his passenger home.

  “You were planning to meet Nick that night?” I asked Julie, and she nodded.

  “Yes. He’d called on Thursday to let us know he was definitely coming down for the weekend. Originally, we were going to meet up at The Camps Bar, our usual hangout, but then he said he was meeting another friend at Harpers, so we went there instead.” She’d received that message about ten minutes before the girls had left the house that night.

  We wrapped up that second interview at one thirty-five, and I sent Caitlin to get Collins and bring Meghan back up. Both girls looked suitably relieved to hear that we were going to release them without pressing any charges.

  “We may need to talk to you again at some point and, if we discover that you haven’t been entirely honest with us here today, you could still find yourselves in some serious trouble,” I informed them once we were all gathered in the main office. That got me two half-offended, half-anxious looks, but they had more sense than to say anything. I left Caitlin and Collins to deal with the release forms and went back into my office. Caitlin would let me know when they were all done.

  “Philips called in a few minutes ago,” Shay told me once I’d shut the door. “I told him you were still tied up with Julie. No answer at Nicholas Albert’s place but his car’s there, and his phone hasn’t moved. Philips said they’d sit on the place until you said otherwise.”

  “Alright, I’ll call him back. Thanks. Anything else?”

  “Monica’s been trying to reach Julie and Meghan. I expect she’s wondering why neither of them picked up.” He glanced at me as I sat down. “You’re letting those two go for now?”

  “Yeah. We’ll drive them home as soon as they’re processed out. With any luck, we can get Monica’s statement while we’re there.” Hopefully, without having to go through any more time-wasting nonsense or needing to arrest her too. “Do you need to keep hold of their phones a bit longer?”

  “No, there wasn’t anything useful on either of them.” He didn’t sound unduly disappointed about it, but it was a pity neither of the girls had taken any pictures that night.

  Philips, when I called him, reported no sign of movement at Nicholas’s house. He and Mills were sitting parked up outside, but they’d made a circuit of the place after not getting any response by ringing the doorbell.

  “No sign of him in there,” Philips told me. “And no way of telling how long he’ll be out for.” Just because Albert’s car was there didn’t mean he hadn’t gone far or wouldn’t be long. He could be out with friends all day, for all we knew. Leaving his phone behind might just have been accidental.

  “Alright, you two might as well go and grab some lunch then. I’ll see about having a local car put on the place for the afternoon. If they’re already there when you go back after your break, you can leave a card with a call back request and head back here.” If that phone moved in the meantime, Shay would let me know.

  “Will do,” he agreed, and I hung up. I should really see about the rest of us taking a lunch break soon, but we ought to deal with Monica Jamieson first if they could last a bit longer. Shay wouldn’t be a problem. He’d be perfectly happy munching on some nuts or skipping lunch altogether. Apparently, intermittent fasting, like a lot of his other regular activities, ‘stimulated neurogenesis in the hippocampus,’ along with all the other health benefits he claimed to be gaining. Entertaining as his enthusiasm about the idea of sprouting as many new neurons as possible was, I couldn’t say it was likely to tempt anyone else into adopting his habits.

  I sent an email request to Munro before leaving again, asking him to arrange for the Thurso station to send a car to keep an eye on Albert’s place for us and let us know if he turned up.

  Monica Jamieson didn’t have much to add to what we’d already learned from her housemates. Caitlin and I drove Julie and Meghan back to the house and banished them to the kitchen as soon as it had been made clear to Monica that they’d already told us everything they knew and that she should do the same.

  Yes, she’d talked with Anthony more than the others had, but he’d been more interested in finding out about her than talking about himself. No, he hadn’t known Nick long. He’d said they’d met through a mutual friend who worked with Nick but hadn’t gone into any details about when or where that had happened. What did Anthony do for a living? She wasn’t sure. Some sort of boring office job that took him away from home a lot. He hadn’t seemed very enthusiastic about it.

  It soon became clear to me, as I questioned her, that the man had skilfull
y diverted all attempts to draw him out, redirecting the conversation with questions of his own whenever she’d prodded for information. Monica didn’t come across as particularly bright, so it wasn’t surprising that she hadn’t noticed. She seemed like a nice enough girl, but it was easy to see how you could set her off onto a new topic of meaningless chatter with only the slightest nudge.

  After we’d finished with Monica, we got all three girls together in the living room again. Could any of them remember what sort of car Anthony had been driving? No. Julie had gone to the door to watch the two men help Visser into the car, but all she could remember was that it had been a dark blue colour and had rear passenger doors, which eliminated cars of other colours, and three-door hatchbacks, but wasn’t very useful. If we wanted to identify Anthony as quickly and easily as possible, we needed to talk to Nicholas.

  We stopped off on the way back to the station to pick up the lunch order Shay had phoned in to our cafe for us. Cold sandwiches all round, but enough of them to keep even Collins happy.

  Munro had replied to my email by then, telling me the Thurso lot were sending someone to watch Nicholas Albert’s house, as requested. It was reassuring to find that he was willing to be fully cooperative with reasonable requests like that. He might not be thrilled to have us here, but that didn’t mean the Area Commander was prepared to behave unprofessionally and deliberately hamper our efforts.

  Philips and Mills got back a little after three. There had been no sign of Nicholas when they’d tried the doorbell again, so they’d done as I asked and put a card through the letterbox before driving back here.

  I decided it might be a good time to go and see if Kaj Visser’s downstairs neighbour was at home. We might as well get that job out of the way while we had the chance. Caitlin bounced the transcriptions she’d been working on over to Mills to finish, and we headed out.