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

by Oliver Davies

  Caitlin removed a swab kit from her pocket and unsealed it before standing up and moving around the table.

  “Please tilt your head back slightly and open your mouth as wide as you can for me, Mr Michaelson,” she requested briskly. Michaelson looked to Donaldson, who shook his head slightly.

  “They are entitled to take a sample. I’d advise you not to cause a scene.” His client reluctantly complied, and Caitlin ran the end of the swab stick around the inside of his cheek before sealing it into the tube.

  “I am now labelling the sample that has just been collected from Andrew Michaelson,” she stated for the record, making sure that the camera could see her doing so.

  “Interview terminated at eleven thirty-eight,” I announced and reached out to stop the recording. “Ask Collins to step back in please, sergeant, and tell Mills to come and join us so that they can escort Mr Michaelson back to his cell. We’ll see about arranging a room for him to consult with his solicitor again as soon as we can.” I gave Donaldson an apologetic shrug as she went out. “I’m afraid we’ll have to wait until one’s free to ensure that you can conduct your consultation in the privacy you require.”

  Donaldson was looking at me a lot more thoughtfully than he had earlier. “Of course, Inspector. Whatever you can do to expedite matters would be much appreciated.” We all stood up as Mills appeared. “I’ll see you again soon, Andrew,” he assured his client. “In the meantime, please think very carefully about what you may wish to tell me when I do.” He hovered in the doorway, staring after him as Mills and Collins walked him away down the corridor. I gave him a few seconds before uttering a polite ‘excuse me’ so that he’d get out of my way.

  “About that room?” he asked as he moved out into the corridor, which allowed Caitlin and I to do so too.

  “Twelve o’clock?” I offered. “I’ll make sure one’s available for you then.”

  “That’s very kind of you, Inspector, but I’d like to step outside to make a phone call before you schedule that in for me. I may find a later slot more convenient, depending on how that goes.” I frowned.

  “Surely you’re not suggesting that we should leave your client waiting any longer than is strictly necessary?”

  “Mr Michaelson is not my only client, Inspector, and I have a professional duty to someone else that I need to deal with before I can offer him any more of my time.” Well, that could hardly be called unethical.

  “In that case, by all means, make your call. You can find me in my office, through the next door there, when you’re done with that.”

  I’d only been back at my desk for about fifteen minutes when a call came through on the desk phone. Internal, according to the screen. Munro?

  “Inspector Keane speaking,” I announced, hitting the speakerphone button as I did so.

  “Sir? It’s Philips. I have a Mr Charlie Soames on hold asking to speak with you. Shall I put him through?” That was enough to make Shay look over at me, probably as surprised as I was.

  “Please do,” I agreed. This was an interesting development. Neither of us had been expecting anything like that.

  Twenty-Eight

  “Mel’s problem,” Charlie Soames said cheerfully, “is that she wants to have her cake and eat it. Only she can’t enjoy it properly when she does because she’s so scared of losing everything. The prenup she signed is very clear on all points. If I successfully file for divorce on the grounds of adultery, she gets the agreed monthly payments and not a penny more. Ain’t that right, Norrie?”

  The fussy little solicitor, Norman Donaldson, nodded his agreement. Why Charlie wanted his solicitor sitting in on this voluntary interview, I wasn’t sure, but he was perfectly entitled to have him here.

  “Mr Soames is quite correct. The pre-marital agreement that I drew up for him is solidly incontestable, on any grounds. Melissa wouldn’t have a leg to stand on.”

  Whatever his sins, Charlie Soames was a larger than life, intriguingly deceptive looking character. Cheerfully running to fat, his round face was creased with laughter lines around the eyes and mouth but otherwise unwrinkled, as yet. He looked positively jolly, a perfect candidate to dress up as Santa for the kiddies at Christmas. You wouldn’t think, to look at him, that he had a mean bone in his generously padded body.

  From the photographs I’d seen of Melissa Soames, in contrast, she looked like the kind of woman who was obsessed with her own appearance. The sort who’d waste hours every day fussing over her hair and make-up. Regular spa days, skincare regimens, at least one personal trainer to help her stay in shape for purely cosmetic purposes. Give her another few years, and it would be Botox injections and plastic surgery next. Anything to fight off the inevitable march of time. She was a beautiful woman, by any standards, and I supposed it was only natural that she’d want to look after her looks if she believed them to be her most valuable asset.

  “How much would she get?” I asked curiously.

  “Now?” Donaldson looked uncertain. “The contract allows for annual inflation rates, so I couldn’t say precisely. Her annual net income from the alimony payments would probably be between sixteen and seventeen thousand a year until or unless she remarried. Certainly enough to live more comfortably than a lot of people on low incomes do. Of course, that’s considerably less than she’s become used to having at her disposal. Melissa has expensive tastes.”

  It was unlikely, I thought, that Melissa Soames would willingly abandon her luxurious, pampered lifestyle.

  “If she sold her jewellery, she could even put down a very substantial deposit on a nice little place instead of throwing money away on rent.” Charlie seemed to find that idea amusing. “That would be the sensible thing to do. Ten years of paying off a modest mortgage, and she’d be much better off. Plus, she could get a job if the alimony payments weren’t enough to satisfy her. Mind you, Mel hasn’t shown any interest in pursuing any sort of a career since the day I married her, so that’s not very likely. I’ve repeatedly offered to pay for any courses she’d like to take too.” The way he shook his head at that point was more indulgently amused than disapproving.

  Interesting as that little digression was, I had specific questions I wanted to ask her husband.

  “According to his neighbour, you went looking for Mr Visser at his flat a few weeks ago, Mr Soames. Would you care to tell us why?”

  “I wanted a word. He wasn’t in, but I left him a note. He had the decency to call me when he got it too. We met up for coffee, had a little chat.”

  “You knew that he was sleeping with your wife?”

  “I doubt they were doing much sleeping,” Soames said with a self-deprecating little sniff. “He was just the sort she likes best. Young, fit, easy on the eye.” The way he said that strongly implied that there had been others.

  “Is your wife habitually unfaithful, to your knowledge?” Charlie leaned back, resting his folded arms on his belly.

  “I wouldn’t say habitually. If she ever acted on the impulse before her thirty-fifth birthday, she kept it down to little holiday flings on trips abroad with her girl pals. Nothing I needed to know about or that could cause any local scandal. I think the idea of being closer to forty than thirty really got to her, though. As if she won’t still be turning heads ten years from now!” He shrugged. “Visser was her fifth, since then, that I’m sure about, but there may have been a couple of others. She was very discreet about arranging her little assignations.”

  “If you don’t mind me saying so, you seem remarkably undisturbed by that,” Caitlin put in. “Didn’t it bother you?”

  “Not really, Sergeant. Just so long as she’s careful and doesn’t publicly embarrass me, I’m quite happy to let my wife have a bit of fun now and then. If anything, it makes things a lot more pleasant for me at home. Mel always goes out of her way to be extra nice to me when she’s got something to be recently guilty about. Besides,” he added with an even wider smile, “just between you and me, I can’t claim to be innocent of a little in
fidelity here and there myself. Fair’s fair, don’t you think?” He didn’t actually wink at her, but he might as well have.

  “So you arranged to meet Mr Visser for a chat,” I prompted, getting back on track. “Was that to warn him off?”

  “Hardly.” Charlie returned his attention to me. “I offered him a very generous sum to end things between them and told him what continuing the relationship would cost her. You see, Mel was getting too attached there for my liking. She usually only saw a bloke once or twice, and that was the end of it. And she’d always picked men who were only visiting the area before, not anyone who actually lived here. I didn’t like him being so easily available. She’d seen him four times in seven weeks by then.” He shook his head disapprovingly. “Visser surprised me, though. He was nothing like I’d expected him to be after what I’d heard, a very polite young man, nice manners. He wasn’t at all happy to find out that she was married. She’d told him she was divorced. I don’t think he appreciated being lied to like that.”

  “How did he react to your offer?” I asked.

  “I think he found the idea of being paid off distasteful. He turned out to be surprisingly decent, in some ways. Said he’d see her one more time, to break things off, and that would be the end of it. That was the only time we ever met.”

  I wasn’t sure what to make of that. I couldn’t tell if he was telling the truth or lying to us. Charlie was proving to be extremely hard to read. If this was the man who’d put Will McLaren in the hospital and sent thugs round to persuade his difficult tenants to move out, there was no sign of that side of his character on display here today. He set the briefcase he’d brought with him on the table and opened it up.

  “Anyway,” he said, “after Norrie called me to tell me you’d arrested Andrew and why I brought everything I thought you might want from me in for you. A copy of all the footage from the security system at my house for the last month, all the material I’ve managed to put together on Mel’s little flings, and a copy of our prenup.” He placed a hard drive and two large envelopes on the table one by one as he spoke.

  “I’ve also brought this,” he added, pulling out a slender folder. “That’s a record of my movements on the fifth of April and a list of the people who can confirm my whereabouts that night. You’re welcome to it, for what it’s worth.” He returned the emptied briefcase to its place by his feet. “I’ll be happy to come back in if you want to talk to me again after you’ve looked at it all, Inspector, but perhaps you could just tell me whatever else you’d like to know for now, and we can wrap this up for today. I’ve got a round booked in at the golf club this afternoon, and they can get very disagreeable about people not turning up to tee off on time.”

  Charlie Soames was either perfectly confident that we couldn’t touch him, or he really must have been totally innocent of any part in Visser’s abduction and subsequent murder.

  “Your cooperation is very much appreciated,” I told him with perfect sincerity. “I’m sure that will all be very helpful. I do have just a couple more questions, for now, if you don’t mind.”

  “Fire away,” he said agreeably.

  “Who else knew about your wife’s affair with Kaj Visser?”

  “Visser told me he hadn’t spoken of it to anyone, and he really didn’t seem the type to brag to his mates about that sort of thing,” Charlie said, after a little thought. “Apart from that, unless Melissa told someone herself, I doubt anyone else knew about it. Like I said, she was very discreet about those things. She had a very good reason to be.”

  “Do you think she’d have told Mr Michaelson about it?”

  “Andrew? Unlikely. I mean, he’s always fancied Mel, and she does like being fawned over and flattered, but she’s never paid much attention to him. It’s not like they’re really close friends or anything. If she was going to tell anyone, it would be more likely to be one of her gal pals. I doubt she’d risk it, though.”

  I indicated the envelope he’d said contained evidence of his wife’s previous meetings with other men. “You say this contains material concerning your wife’s indiscretions. Did you hire someone to follow her?”

  “Only when I knew she’d arranged a meeting with someone she’d taken a liking to. There’s nothing conclusive in there if that’s what you’re wondering. Names, places, dates, photos of Mel and her beaus going into various rented holiday places, never at the same time, and always emerging separately later. Not so much as an innocent kiss on the cheek in public caught on camera. Smiling conversations in cafes and bars, yes, but no touching of any kind. I told you she was careful.”

  “So you have no proof that she was actually engaging in any form of sexual activity with any of them?”

  “I didn’t say that, Inspector. I said there was nothing conclusive in that envelope.” Had he installed illegal Spyware on her phone and computer? I wouldn’t surprise me. His hired snoop might also have taken illegal ‘peeping tom’ shots of the couples, not that Charlie could use anything like that in a divorce court. It didn’t matter. He clearly had no desire to divorce his occasionally straying wife. The man seemed perfectly content to secretly allow Melissa a little leeway, so long as she didn’t spend too much time with any other man. Whether or not he had conspired to kill her latest lover was another matter entirely and yet to be determined.

  After Charlie had left and Donaldson had gone to give Michaelson the delayed private consultation that he’d promised him, Caitlin and I took Charlie’s offerings back to our office to look over.

  The pre-marital contract was too bulky a piece of headache-inducing legalese to be worth looking at just now, if ever, so I put that to one side, handed the hard drive over to Shay and went to sit down with Caitlin and Philips to look through the contents of the other envelope. As Charlie had said, there was nothing conclusive in there, but any decent divorce attorney could make a solid case for adultery out of the accumulated evidence. After all, what possible explanation could Melissa Soames give for meeting five different handsome young men on eleven separate occasions and spending several hours alone in a rented country cottage with them? Visser’s predecessors were all named in the reports that Charlie had received from his hired snoop.

  “All I really want to know, as quickly as possible, is if any of them have suffered any suspicious injuries or been threatened since then,” I told Philips. “There are four of them and four of you, so take one each. If you can contact them directly, that would be best. See if their home addresses and workplaces have changed since those reports were made and track down their current contact numbers. Also, don’t mention Melissa Soames by name. She might not have given any of them her real one.”

  Back at my own desk, I read through the list of names Charlie had provided to vouch for his alibi. Over two dozen people had been at the private party that he and his wife had attended in Thurso that Friday. Not that it mattered if he’d been present or not when Visser was killed. The only question was whether or not he’d arranged and paid for it.

  Charlie had four outdoor cameras installed at his house. Gate, doorbell, back door and the parking area to the side of the house, in front of the double garage. Motion sensors triggered all of them. The footage from the fifth confirmed the times he and his wife left for their party and returned from it. They’d used a chauffeured hire car that night.

  The only thing of interest on there, after Shay had sifted through it all, was a clip from last Thursday night. At ten twenty-six, the gate camera had picked up a car coming around the nearest bend and slowing, as if it intended to stop there, but it pulled into the side of the road beyond the gates, with only the glow of its rear lights showing briefly before they were turned off. Pausing the footage as the car approached showed us a clear view of the plates, if not the driver. It was Andrew Michaelson’s car. Shay fast-forwarded a little. At ten thirty-five, the lights came on again, and he drove off.

  “The car was parked there for nine minutes, during which time that last, unrecorded phone call to
Anthony was made,” he informed me.

  Anthony had been suspiciously selective about which calls he wanted us to hear. We didn’t have recordings of any of the three made between him and Michaelson that day, although Michaelson wasn’t yet aware of that yet.

  “Anyone who managed to track those calls would see they’d come from the vicinity of that house. Bit of an odd thing for Michaelson to do, don’t you think?” Shay added.

  He was right. We’d thought the call had been made from the house itself until then. A mobile phone location from a GPS signal was only dependably accurate to within thirty metres.

  We knew that Michaelson had been informed that there was going to be a murder investigation on Thursday afternoon because he’d already informed Anthony Tait about it several hours earlier. What he couldn’t have known was that Anthony would leave us those incriminating recordings with his voice on them.

  Michaelson had been Anthony’s only contact with his client here. Why would he park outside Charlie’s house to make that call if he’d been working on Charlie’s orders?

  “Melissa is looking as strong a suspect as her husband at this point,” I suggested. “We still don’t know why Visser took those pictures or what was said when he broke things off with her. Maybe he even threatened to give the photos to her husband? Charlie said Visser wasn’t happy when he found out she was married.”

  “And, from the looks of things, he also indulged in a parting session with her so he’d have a chance to take those photos. Maybe he only wanted those to threaten her with? Leave me alone, or these go to your husband? I bet that would have really pissed her off. She’s got a lot to lose, financially, if Charlie divorces her.” He was frowning thoughtfully, though. “The thing is, just because Anthony told us that Michaelson claimed to be acting on behalf of an angry husband, that doesn’t mean it’s true.”