A small weeping lab-2

by Alex Gray

  Rowena smiled to herself. The new patient had shaken her hand as if she was a proper grownup, not some silly wee schoolgirl. She recalled his grave eyes and that tired, kindly smile. She’d maybe ask him to come for a wee walk up the road with the dog after dinner, though Dad liked his guests, as he called them, to have complete rest after they arrived. Still, this one was only here for a long weekend.

  Funny about the other man, though. They’d waited for him yesterday with a placard that said Failte in bold lettering, but nobody from the Glasgow flight had acknowledged them. Dad had phoned Mrs Baillie who had shrugged it off but there was always a worry that somehow a patient would simply slip past them and roam about the island, unsupervised. it hadn’t happened yet, but there was always a first time, Mum had warned them. Still, they had another new one now.

  Rowena settled back to enjoy her thoughts. She’d rehearse what to say before they went out. Then maybe she’d be able to slip in questions about that Dr Brightman. Had they met at the Grange? Was he married? Her fantasy continued down towards the house, the passing landscape a familiar blur of greens and blues.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  ‘You want what?’ Superintendent Mitchison’s voice rose in a squeak that might have been funny in other circumstances.

  ‘Complete freedom to carry out a surveillance operation. I’ve spoken to the patient and she has agreed to my suggestions.’

  Mitchison sat silent for a while, his face showing the struggle within. Lorimer could almost hear the cogs turning. Would the cost of the operation, never mind its risks, be outweighed by the capture of the second killer? Mitchison had railed long and hard against Lorimer’s decision not to charge Docherty with all four murders. But the DNA results were pretty conclusive. Whoever had killed Brenda and Kirsty, it was not now likely to be the prisoner currently undergoing psychiatric testing. Which left them with a huge problem. Lorimer had sat down with Solly to confess his innermost fears; someone on the team was involved. Mitchison had been reluctant at first to have them all DNA-tested but it made sense for the purposes of elimination as well as to restore some kind of peace in the ranks. This weekend all his men and women would be in for their tests, whether they liked it or not. Lorimer and Solly would be there too.

  Undergoing the test would give the team a sense of solidarity as well as letting him observe their various reactions. Staff and patients at the Grange had already been tested by the police doctor, giving Rosie’s lot plenty to keep them busy.

  At last the Superintendent looked up. ‘I don’t like your ways, Lorimer, but that’s neither here nor there. A surveillance operation like the one you are suggesting carries a high risk. Not just for the patient, but a risk of failure. And I don’t need to tell you how much the Chief Constable abhors a waste of time and money.’

  ‘We really need to try, sir. It’s almost certain that we have another killer on the loose and that he has something to do with the clinic.’ Lorimer paused. Should he reveal his disquiet about the Grange’s financial affairs or would that muddy the waters at this stage? No. He’d beaver away at that problem on his own, for now.

  ‘Give me a complete breakdown of all the personnel you would need and the timescale, then,’ Mitchison decided. ‘And,’ he paused and drew a hand across his brow, ‘take care of that poor woman, won’t you?’

  Lorimer was taken aback. Concern for Phyllis was not what he’d have expected from the Super. Maybe the man had a heart after all.

  ‘Mind if I come into your room, missus?’ The man in white overalls carrying a cantilevered toolbox stood uncertainly at Phyllis’s door. Phyllis eyed him with curiosity. That new nurse said that someone would be arriving today. To fix the television set. A wave of the old frustration swept over her. She couldn’t explain she didn’t watch the thing. It was pointless to do anything to a set that hadn’t been used in years. Why not dismantle the whole thing and take it away?

  As she watched him there were other questions that digested themselves in her brain until Phyllis had produced a satisfactory answer; questions that were explained by the repairman’s unusual activities. She didn’t know the first thing about televisions but she didn’t think the set would function in its normal way with all its innards removed and replaced by what seemed to be a smallish camera.

  They were watching her. perhaps she should be relieved that those secret eyes were looking after her but all she could feel was a sense of intrusion into a world that was already far too confined.

  Lorimer swung round in his chair to face the window, the solicitor’s words still singing in his brain. There had been a lengthy delay in responding to his query about the woman’s will. He glanced down at the figure on his notepad as if to check that it was correct. Phyllis Logan’s estate was estimated to be in the region of three and a half million pounds. What would his team make of this? One thing was certain, they’d have to be especially careful of the sick woman now.

  Lorimer looked back at the solicitor’s report. The main beneficiary of the woman’s estate was the clinic itself, wrapped up in a trust fund. There were several provisions made to help patients who could not otherwise afford the fees, that money coming from interest in share capital. Lorimer frowned. With the collapse of so much on the stock market in recent years, just what were these shares worth? But it was the other beneficiary that caught his attention. To the director of the Grange, Mrs Maureen Baillie, Phyllis Logan had left? 250,000. A sweet quarter of a million!

  Recalling the woman’s spartan living quarters and the suspicion that all was not well with the clinic’s finances, Lorimer felt a niggle of worry. People had been murdered before for a lot less than that. But why would Kirsty and Brenda have been killed over a financial scam? it didn’t make sense, unless they knew something that made their continued existence a danger to somebody. You’ve got a dirty mind, Lorimer, he told himself. Still, he’d keep digging this particular seam until he hit gold.

  Why would Kirsty have been killed that night? Phyllis had been so vulnerable to the killer’s hands. it would have been so easy just to have dispatched her there and then. If that was the underlying motive. He gnawed his fingernail until he felt it split under his teeth. There was something there, but what?

  A bird flying past his window made him glance up and catch sight of the clock on his wall. Time to go. They’d all be waiting for him.

  They were all in the muster room. Lorimer walked in to face the semicircle of officers who sat on steel chairs. He noticed that Jo Grant had chosen to perch on the wide windowsill that overlooked the car park.

  ‘Right. We’ve got the go-ahead. I want to introduce you to two of our undercover officers from D. Division, Patricia Crossan and Marion Warbrick.’ He turned towards two young women who were sitting at the edge of the circle. One, a blonde girl hugging a stone-coloured raincoat around herself, was slouched into her chair. She gave a perfunctory nod. The other girl raked back her seat and stood up. Her black leather jacket and short cropped hair showed drops of water from the recent rain shower.

  ‘Hi there,’ she smiled at the other officers. ‘I’m Pat and this is Marion.’ There were murmurs of acknowledgement from the rest of the room. As she sat down again, all eyes turned towards Lorimer.

  ‘Next time you see Pat she’ll be on duty at the Grange. Marion has come in specially to meet you before she hits the sack.’ The blonde girl managed a watery grin as Lorimer continued. ‘Erica, the third of our undercover officers, is keeping an eye on Phyllis Logan right now and Pat will be doing the next shift later on. I don’t need to tell you how important it is that you treat all of these officers as if they were perfect strangers. As far as you are concerned they are agency nurses who are helping out at the clinic, OK? The one thing we don’t want to do is to arouse anyone’s suspicions. And I’m talking about staff, patients, visitors, anybody who comes through their doors on a regular basis.’

  Lorimer let his gaze travel over every officer’s face as he went on. ‘If their cover’s blown the w
hole operation could be scuppered. As far as the people in the clinic are concerned they’re simply three new pairs of hands. Luckily, each of them has bona fide nursing experience. Guess the glamour of police work lured you away from your last jobs, eh, girls?’

  There were snorts of derisive laughter from several directions, including, he noticed, Jo Grant tucked into her windowsill.

  ‘There’s been no suspicion at all at the clinic, has there?’ Lorimer addressed Pat.

  ‘They’ve accepted us without question, sir. Frankly, they’re all relieved to have some agency nurses,’ she replied.

  ‘Yes. There’s been a bit of an exodus amongst the staff since Kirsty and Brenda’s deaths,’ Lorimer agreed.

  ‘So, ladies and gentlemen, we now have a round-the-clock presence at the Grange.’ He measured each word carefully as he continued, letting his blue gaze fall on each officer in the room as he spoke. ‘Now, here’s the risky bit. We’ve let it be known to the nursing staff that Phyllis Logan has information about the night of Kirsty’s murder.’ He paused to let his words sink in.

  ‘We’ve not said in so many words that she actually saw the killer but the implication is there all the same. Pat, Marion and Erica have been asking both staff and patients all about the murders like the rookies they’re supposed to be,’ he told them. ‘One way or another we’ve made sure that word has spread. Not too difficult in a small community like that. The patients will no doubt pass on the gossip to their nearest and dearest. I just hope to God the Press don’t get wind of it.’

  He tapped his thigh as if considering what to say. Sometimes stating the obvious helped to concentrate the mind.

  ‘The murders of those two nurses took place exactly one week apart. OK, the loci were entirely different but each of them took place on a Monday night. Now that may have absolutely no significance but it’s never something that can be ruled out of an equation, as you all well know. So this coming Monday is our choice. We’ve got the weekend to let the rumour factory do its worst, then we move in.’

  Lorimer heard their sounds of approval with a sense of satisfaction. There had been some voices of dissent when Solly had dropped his bombshell but now it seemed that they had come round to respect his opinion.

  ‘We set up surveillance over the weekend and then wait to see if Phyllis Logan has any unexpected visitors.’

  ‘What if nothing happens, sir?’ Niall Cameron was red in the face but he seemed determined to risk the question nonetheless.

  ‘I expect Superintendent Mitchison will send us to the salt mines for wasting public money, Cameron,’ Lorimer growled at him.

  ‘We’ve laid our bait in the trap. With her full cooperation, remember. Now we have to watch and wait. You’re all experienced enough to know that’s the hardest bit in any operation. You’ll be on duty from just after nine o’clock right through till I say when.’

  He turned to the board behind him. A large-scale plan of the Grange had been fixed to the board with pieces of masking tape at each corner. Lorimer pointed to each area as he spoke.

  ‘We’ll have officers in unmarked cars all along the road to the front. There’s waste ground at the rear. Alistair, you and Davie will take up positions between the basement door and the shrubbery. The gardeners have been given a holiday that week,’ he grinned. ‘You’ll cover that exit. The patients will all be receiving visits from Health Board ‘officials’ in the shape of Eddie and Vince,’ he indicated two of his detective constables, ‘since neither of you have been out at the clinic. The story is that you’re there for a routine check. We’ve done the homework on it and it’s a normal procedure. There should be nothing to create suspicion. The camera’s in place and it’ll be monitored from our British Telecom van out in the street. That’s where I’ll be with Dr Brightman and DC Cameron. We’ll be out of sight but in constant contact with all units. Erica and Pat will alert us to anyone coming into or going out of Phyllis’s room. She’s a target but remember she’s also our main witness. Right?’

  He turned to the board again and drew aside a fresh sheet of paper. ‘And,’ he added, ‘there’s this.’ Taking a marker pen, Lorimer wrote down the figures he’d obtained from Phyllis Logan’s solicitor and a brief note of her will.

  He heard an incredulous whistle as he faced them again. ‘So now we have even more reason to look after our witness. And keep an eye on certain members of staff. OK?’

  There were murmurs of assent as the team prepared to leave the muster room. Lorimer found that he was surprisingly calm. Cameron’s question had been quite valid, even if unwelcome. What if nothing did happen? He was gambling with the hope that the killer would take action, believing Phyllis to be a real threat. But what if the information so carefully dropped simply made him take to the hills? Was there any reason to suppose that the killer was still around anyway? Solly firmly believed that he was, and right now that was enough for Lorimer.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Niall Cameron was sweating. Lorimer had chosen to take him personally under his wing. What could that mean? Did the DCI have doubts about his ability? Did he feel that as the relative newcomer to the job he needed to be supervised? Or was there another reason?

  As he walked along Bothwell Street, the young man kept looking out for the clocks that signified the Standard Life building. That was where he was to meet the guy. Lorimer had indicated that the Grange’s accountant had been trawling through the clinic’s books with a fine-tooth comb and that he wanted to discuss certain things with Strathclyde Police. Cameron had been dispatched for this particular duty, and right now he was feeling more like an office boy sent on a simple errand than an officer involved in a murder case.

  There they were, great gilt clocks high up at either end of the building. Automatically he checked their time against his watch to see if the time was correct. It was. Cameron stepped into a vast lobby flanked by elevators on each side and a list of names indicating the firms that occupied the building. A quick glance told him the third floor was his destination.

  Minutes later he was shaking the hand of a man not too much his senior who introduced himself as Tommy Stirling.

  ‘Fancy a coffee? The drinks machine’s not bad,’ Stirling told him.

  Cameron shook his head. ‘No thanks.’ The idea of coffee in a polystyrene cup didn’t appeal. He’d be bound to spill it and make a fool of himself in this plush office with its matching blue carpet and padded chairs.

  ‘Right, then, the Grange’s account has only recently come into our hands. It’s the sort of bread and butter thing we do all the time, really. There was nothing to show that this was an unusual client until those murders happened.’

  ‘The clinic’s accounts were all in order, then?’

  ‘Well, the last audit had been done by our predecessors fairly recently so we weren’t due to check the books as soon as this. But of course you folk made us look a bit closer.’

  ‘And?’

  ‘And there are discrepancies in the accounting. It took a while for me to spot them but I can show you,’ Stirling handed over a sheaf of papers folded back at a particular page. A turquoise highlighter pen marked several figures in a column.

  ‘What do they indicate?’ Cameron wanted to know.

  ‘Unauthorised withdrawals from the main account.’

  Cameron frowned. ‘How could that happen?’

  ‘Any withdrawals above a certain amount require two signatures. These only show one.’

  ‘Ah,’ Cameron nodded, understanding what the accountant meant. Against each of the turquoise figures was the name of the person who had taken several large sums of money from the clinic’s account. Cameron flicked over the sheets of paper, seeing the same name again and again. It was Mrs Maureen Baillie.

  ‘What exactly does this mean, then?’ he asked. ‘Mrs Baillie is the Director of the clinic.’

  ‘She’s one of the Directors,’ Stirling replied firmly. ‘And unless the other Directors are aware of her taking out these sums of mone
y then there’s only one conclusion we can come to, I’m afraid.’

  ‘What’s that?’

  ‘Embezzlement.’

  ‘How did you find out?’

  ‘It showed up in the accounts.’

  Mrs Baillie gave a resigned sigh. ‘So you know, then?’

  ‘We know that you misappropriated funds for your own use, yes. But we don’t exactly know why. Care to enlighten me?’

  For the first time since he had met her, Lorimer saw a tremble in the woman’s face as if she might actually begin to cry. He could see her swallowing and heard her breaths coming in short gasps as she tried to regain some control.

  ‘I needed the money,’ she began. ‘I had debts to repay.’

  ‘Uhhuh. And just who were your creditors?’

  ‘Oh,’ the woman’s eyes flew to meet his suddenly. ‘Just one. A man called Joseph Harridan.’ She smiled a bitter little smile. ‘Perhaps you’ve heard of him?’ Lorimer had. Harrigan was a notorious bookmaker in Glasgow who had come to the attention of the fraud squad on more than one occasion.

  ‘What on earth were you doing mixed up with someone like that?’

  Mrs Baillie straightened herself up and looked Lorimer straight in the eye. ‘I gamble,’ she said. Lorimer saw the steady way she regarded him as if waiting for some condemnation. She wouldn’t get any from him. Other people’s weaknesses were not something he despised but pitied.

  ‘Ironic, isn’t it?’ she continued. ‘I run a clinic for patients who have various disorders and I can’t even help myself.’ Lorimer nodded. Those bare rooms at the Grange made sense now. She’d whittled down her possessions as she’d gambled their worth away.

  ‘There is the matter of a legacy in Phyllis Logan’s will that I was hoping you would explain to me,’ he told her. Suddenly the woman’s face changed. Her smile was wistful as she shook her head.