by Owen Mullen
‘When did you last see your brother?’
‘Yesterday. He left the house in the afternoon.’
‘Did he say where he was going?’
‘I assumed he was going to the City Chambers.’
‘Was he worried or depressed? How did he seem to you?’
‘No. He was fine. Heard him whistling in the bathroom. Tony always whistled when he shaved. It’s my birthday soon. He told me he was going to surprise me.’
Daly had certainly delivered on that.
‘So he was all right? No health worries? Money worries? Nothing like that?’
‘He was a councillor so we did okay financially. I don’t understand why he would kill himself. He was happy.’
‘Your brother wasn’t married. Did he have a girlfriend?’
She shook her head. ‘He wasn’t interested in women. Not since the divorce.’
‘He was divorced? When?’
‘Twenty years. More.’
‘Any children?’
‘Weren’t together long enough. It was a mistake from the start. I don’t see how this helps.’
‘Was Tony a heavy drinker?’
The vagueness of the response told the DS what he already knew.
‘He liked a drink; he wouldn’t deny it.’
‘We expect the post mortem to show your brother had been drinking heavily at the time of his death. That’s why I asked if he had something on his mind.’
‘He was fine. Just his usual. Easy-going. Playing his music.’
‘What music did he listen to?’
‘Country and Western. Real music, he called it.’
‘Who were his friends?’
Cissie struggled to explain the dynamics of her brother’s life. ‘The council kept him too busy for friends. Sometimes meetings go on to all hours. Tony said it was a young man’s game.’
‘There must have been some. Other councillors?’
‘He was pals with Lachie Thompson. Mentioned him a lot. Apart from that there was nobody. Except me. We looked after each other.’
She spoke to the constable. ‘I’d like to go home now if that’s all right.’
Geddes sympathised. Cissie was holding up well but it wouldn’t last. He’d seen it before – a period of almost unnatural calm then grief arrived like a storm and blew the facade of normality away.
‘Have you someone you could call?’
‘Tony was all I had.’
Geddes didn’t voice what he was thinking. An FLO – Family Liaison Officer – was only assigned when a murder had been committed. DI Barr was convinced Daly killed himself so his sister would have to depend on the kindness of a neighbour. Otherwise she’d be spending the longest night of her life alone.
‘Okay. Give us fifteen minutes to get this typed-up then you can sign it and we’ll organise a car for you. You’ve got my card?’
‘Yes.’
‘You might remember something about Tony. If you do, call me.’
Lawson took the woman’s arm and led her to the door. Cissie straightened her back and held her head high in an effort to salvage some dignity. It was a good try.
The constable said, ‘I’ll wait with her ’til the statement is ready and see her home, if that’s all right, sir. Get her settled.’
DS Geddes nodded and pulled Lawson aside. ‘The wine. Put it back.’
-------
The drive back from the borders was uneventful. Late afternoon. I had the road to myself. On the horizon, dark clouds heavy with more rain scudded towards me. With luck I’d be in Glasgow before they arrived.
Meeting McMillan had been interesting. At one point, the bitterness he had to be feeling came through. Otherwise I’d found him remarkably candid. So far, the people I’d spoken to were either for Gavin Law or against him. McMillan struck me as being neither. Praise and criticism were offered in equal measure: Law was a pretty fair surgeon with a less than wholesome reputation as a womaniser that wasn’t a secret.
Before I left, in almost the same breath, he’d made two suggestions: the rape allegation could be something James Hambley had invented to keep Law from causing trouble for his beloved Francis Fallon. Or, Law was guilty and had gone into hiding leaving the Coopers high and dry.
I liked Colin McMillan though I wouldn’t want to be him. Whatever he told himself, he was drinking too much and, in the rain, on the banks of the Tweed, it was clear the man was dying of loneliness.
My mobile rang and a voice with an accent that wasn’t from north of Hadrian’s Wall said, ‘Charlie?’
‘Yeah.’
‘It’s Alile. Do you remember me?’
She couldn’t be serious. It wasn’t every day you met a goddess.
‘I’ve been asking people around here about Gavin if you’re still interested.’
In her, yes. In Gavin Law, not so much. This woman from Africa could be a movie star. I pretended my mind was on the case and tried to be cool. ‘Sure. I can use anything you can tell me.’
‘Good. Are you around? I’m finishing at four. Fancy a coffee?’
The clock on the dashboard told me it was three-forty-five. The city was thirty minutes away and rush hour traffic would swallow me up.
‘Great idea. Where do you want to meet?’
‘Was thinking of Sonny and Vito’s in Park Road.’
‘What time?’
‘Four-thirty sound all right?’
‘Perfect.’
‘Okay.’
For the rest of the journey, my foot was hard on the accelerator while my brain processed images of a beautiful Malawian female who wanted to have coffee with me. At ten past the hour, I arrived at Newhouse and joined the motorway and the stream of cars heading into the city. The rainclouds I’d seen in the distance had taken a different direction – the sky was a brilliant blue – and I almost persuaded myself I was going to make it. Then I hit Junction 16 and crawled my way past the Necropolis, the Royal Infirmary and on to Charing Cross, cursing my stupidity.
I could have suggested five o’clock. What difference would it have made? Instead, I’d chosen to make it difficult for myself and race like a madman across the country.
Alile was leaving Sonny and Vito’s just as I turned into Park Road. When she saw me she smiled. ‘They’re throwing me out. They close at five.’
‘Are you hungry?’
‘I am a bit.’
‘There’s an Italian deli on the corner. Want to give it a go?’
‘Why not? I thought you weren’t going to show up.’
‘Traffic.’
Inside Eusebi, a waitress took our coats and gave us menus.
Alile said, ‘What do you recommend?’
‘Everything’s good here. If you like pasta, try the Yesterday’s Lasagna.’
We ordered a bottle of Gran Passione Veneto Rosso to wash it down and launched into conversation that had nothing to do with missing obstetricians and everything to do with chemistry. Alile was the most beautiful creature I had ever seen: her dark eyes looked deep inside me and her smile made me want to kiss her and not stop. Eventually, with most of the red wine gone, the reason for meeting finally got mentioned. Not by me.
Alile ran a finger up and down the stem of her glass. ‘I told you I’d checked Gavin out before I agreed to go with him to his sister’s on Hogmanay. Some of the girls were against it. Said it was a bad idea. He had a reputation for being a bastard with women.’
‘Yes. You thought he was brave because he’d made an official complaint against a colleague.’
‘Did I say that?’ She laughed a laugh that had more than a touch of Gran Passione about it.
‘You did.’
‘Then I suppose I must’ve felt it. But I hadn’t heard about the rape allegation. After you left I asked a couple of nurses. None of them knew what I was talking about.’
‘And what do you take from that?’
She turned her palms towards me. ‘I think it’s strange. You’d have to work in a female environment to get
it. Everybody knows or wants to know everybody else’s business.’
‘It isn’t just women who gossip. Men do, too.’
‘But some women are on a mission. Secrets are almost impossible, and a secret like that… With the best will in the world, not a chance. Especially if a doctor was involved.’
‘You’re suggesting what?’
Alile shrugged. ‘It would be a scandal. We’d have newspapers outside the main door and people queuing to sell the story. Even if they don’t know anything they’d make it up because money was involved. That isn’t happening.’
‘So, in your opinion…’
She interrupted me. ‘I don’t believe it.’
-------
Andrew Geddes was reading Cissie Daly’s statement for the second time when DI Barr stuck his head round the door. The inspector flashed a smile which the DS assumed was an attempt at friendly. Geddes didn’t return it.
‘Just staying in touch with the troops. That go okay, did it?’
‘As well as you’d expect. The poor woman’s in shock. Doesn’t know what’s hit her. It’ll be a few days before reality sinks in. Then she’ll go to pieces. Seen it too often.’
‘And – don’t tell me – Anthony was a saint, am I right?’
Barr’s cynicism annoyed his sergeant.
‘Sinner or saint, he was her brother. The only relative she had in the world.’
Empathy wasn’t Adam Barr’s thing.
‘By the smell off him and the look of her I’d say they were boozing buddies. So of course he’ll be missed.’
‘She loved him if that’s what you mean.’
The rebuke bounced off.
‘Wasn’t worried about anything as far as she knew. Can’t believe he’d take his own life. No relationship dramas. No money troubles.’
‘’Course not. He was a councillor. Up to his ears in brown envelopes.’
‘She claims he wasn’t a morbid drunk. Her brother was a happy guy.’
‘Yeah. We saw him. Did he look happy to you? There’s a line when the high becomes a low. Just how low depends on the individual and the amount, and that guy had had a skinful.’
‘His sister knew him better than anybody. She could be well wrong but something about Tony Daly’s death rings false.’
‘Listen, Geddes. Happy people don’t jump off bridges with a rope round their neck. This is simple. Write the report and move on.’
The door closed. The DS stared at it. Somewhere along the line Barr had skipped the class on the importance of considering alternative points of view. His mind was made up and had been from the moment he’d stepped out of the car on the Queen Margaret Bridge. The DI had the confidence of a man who didn’t know what he didn’t know. Barr was on a mission. Unfortunately for Cissie Daly, finding out what had happened to her brother in the early hours of a freezing morning, wasn’t part of it.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Caroline Law was due feedback from me. But what did I have to tell her? Opinion on the missing doctor was mixed and none of it matched her vision of the brother she had raised and clearly idolised. Even Alile, the Malawian nurse who was prepared to go out with Law because she thought standing up to the hospital was brave, admitted he had a reputation for being a creep.
A creep with a conscience. An attractive combo, apparently.
Colin McMillan saw his colleague differently and wasn’t a fan. In the Cross Keys, he’d been at pains to stress his complaint about Wallace Maitland’s competency was made independently. It seemed important to him. He’d been irritated when I’d suggested otherwise. Later, I understood why. While he was prepared to concede Law was a good enough professional, even admiring – at least initially – the stand he’d taken after Margaret Cooper’s surgery went wrong, he hadn’t liked him and said so. Chalk and cheese. Two very different characters arriving at the same conclusion about a reckless colleague.
Andrew Geddes hadn’t come back on the credit cards used in London. I assumed because there was no new financial activity to report. And I’d fared no better on the seventh floor of Francis Fallon where James Hambley had been guarded and superior and told me little about Law but plenty about himself.
All in all, it boiled down to a whole lot of nothing.
Caroline Law wasn’t a woman who let the grass grow under her feet; she’d proved it before and did again now. The door opened and in she came with Dean as usual lurking in the background. Whatever her weaknesses, lack of assertiveness wasn’t one of them.
‘I’m disappointed. I expected to hear from you.’
No apology for barging in. No ‘Mr Cameron’. We were past that.
‘Take a seat. I was just about to call.’
I may as well have said the cheque was in the post.
‘We judge ourselves by our intentions. Unfortunately, the world judges by our actions. Are you any closer to knowing what has happened to my brother?’
‘I wish I had better news. Any news even. But Gavin seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth.’
I brought her up to speed on everything I’d done, leaving out the criticisms she wouldn’t want to hear. It wasn’t enough to satisfy her. She wanted more and there wasn’t more.
‘So that’s it? That’s the end of it?’
‘No, I’m still working.’
‘The woman who accused him of raping her, who is she?’
‘Francis Fallon won’t comment.’
‘And you accepted that? Surely I’m entitled to be told?’
‘And you will be if it becomes a police case. We should be grateful it hasn’t gone that far.’
Caroline was a difficult lady to please. ‘Nevertheless, I’d prefer to know.’
We were off the point. I’d seen her in tears before; she was heading there again. Dean gently massaged her shoulders and whispered reassurance. Caroline couldn’t see his face. Just as well.
‘So what am I supposed to do? Pretend Gavin never existed? Forget about him?’
‘I’ll keep going. He might turn up. People do.’
‘And in the meantime?’
I didn’t have an answer for her.
She put her hand in her bag and threw something onto the desk.
‘What’s this?’
‘The key to the flat. Got it from the cleaner.’
‘I’ve already been there. We went together.’
‘Go again. I’ll come with you.’ Caroline was back in the land of crazy expectations.
‘Ms Law…Caroline…I don’t think you understand.’
She wasn’t listening. ‘It’s simple. Start again. From the beginning.’
‘Look. I said I’d keep going. But…’
She didn’t let me finish. ‘This may be just another case for you. For me it’s my whole life.’
Dean hadn’t contributed a word to the conversation. I wouldn’t be getting any help from that direction. It didn’t stop me trying.
‘Dean. Speak to her.’
He shook his head. I was on my own.
‘If it’s money, don’t worry. We’ll pay whatever it costs.’
‘It isn’t. It’s about false hope. I’m not done with the case. There are still a couple of avenues left to explore. You have to accept I can’t find what isn’t there. I’m not a magician.’
‘Yes, but…
‘Gavin might not want to be found. Or he’s on the run because the allegation against him is true. Maybe he did it. Are you ready for that? Ready to accept he’s a rapist?’
I was trying to shock her and succeeded. Dean nodded approval. I was doing them both a favour and he knew it.
I lifted the key. ‘Okay, but you’re not coming with me. And I’m warning you to prepare yourself. Your brother may just show up or I might find him. Either way it could be the beginning of a new nightmare. What he’s accused of is very serious and disappearing doesn’t look like the action of an innocent man, does it?’
At that moment, though she was getting what she wanted, Caroline Law hated
me.
‘The hospital will protect its reputation at all costs. Don’t forget, Gavin’s the main witness for the Coopers against it and Maitland. Without him, the case will fail.’
Dean said, ‘Do you think Francis Fallon has something to do with this?’
‘Anything’s possible. I’m pointing out how complicated it is, and – however it turns out – there might not be a happy ending.’
Caroline’s expression wouldn’t have been out of place on Easter Island. Suggesting her darling brother was less than perfect marked me as an enemy. ‘I’m not a child. Please don’t treat me like one.’ She stood. ‘Dean, take me home.’
At the door, she fired a final question, dipped in acid. ‘Will I have to chase you for an update or will you let me know this time?’
‘I’ll be in touch.’
Two minutes later Pat Logue arrived. ‘That the sister? Her face could curdle milk.’ He drew air in through his teeth. ‘Be a brave man who’d take a broken pay packet home to her. Bring her tea wallah with her, did she?’
‘Partner.’
‘Yeah. Junior partner by the look of him.’
He sat down and drummed his fingers on his knee, obviously ill at ease. Pat Logue wasn’t backward at coming forward. I was used to these visits. Usually they involved money. An advance, as he liked to call it. This was a different Patrick.
‘I need to speak to you. Got a problem.’
My guess was he’d tossed a coin – and I’d lost. ‘Speak away.’
‘It’s personal. Man to man.’ He hesitated, reaching for the words and not finding them. ‘I’m havin’ trouble.’
‘Kind of trouble?’
‘With…the one-eyed snake.’
At first I didn’t understand what he was telling me. Then I did and held my hands up to stop him giving details that might scar a more sensitive mind. ‘Hold it! When you said personal I thought you meant it was a secret.’
‘It is.’
‘Patrick, I’m not qualified to help with this. You need to see a doctor. You and Gail have been married a long time, involve her. She’ll be sympathetic.’
‘Gail doesn’t know.’
I wasn’t following. ‘So if Gail doesn’t know how is it a problem?’
‘It’s in the early stages.’
Very early, if his wife hadn’t noticed.
