Karen would never forget Mary Auld’s reaction to the revelations about her husband. Karen had insisted on being the person to tell her. ‘It’s my responsibility,’ she said. ‘I’m the person she’ll want to lash out at.’ But Mary hadn’t lashed out. She hadn’t even tried denial. She’d simply crumpled before Karen’s words, her face seeming to collapse in on itself. Karen didn’t know how you would even begin to recover from such a seismic upheaval of all you had believed to be true. ‘Is she even still technically married to him?’ she’d asked Hamish as they’d lain in bed together the night after she’d come back from Omagh. ‘That poor woman. Everything she thought she knew, shattered into pieces.’
Hamish had sighed. ‘I can’t comprehend how he could do that. You said they were married for years, happily by all accounts. So how the actual fuck could he tear up all those years? It’s magical thinking, isn’t it? He set a time-bomb down in the middle of her life and kidded himself it would never go off.’
‘That’s a good way of putting it. He never intended her to find out. But that doesn’t excuse it. He says he was mad with love. But that doesn’t excuse it either.’
‘He wanted the thrill. He wanted to be a bad boy and get away with it.’ Hamish sighed. ‘I’ve known guys like that. They were lucky enough to avoid hooking up with one of the genuine bad boys like David fucking Greig.’
It had taken weeks for Karen, Daisy and Jason to complete the detailed reports that the prosecution needed. Latterly, it had been a race against time. The virus that had been a whisper on the wind when they’d been running around assorted jurisdictions had taken firm root in Scotland and they’d been warned that in the morning, lockdown was scheduled to begin. They’d be working from home, whatever that meant in practice.
So today they were clearing their desks, making sure everything they needed was on their laptops or accessible on the cloud. Karen had earmarked for review half a dozen cases whose notes, photographs and reports had all been previously digitised. ‘We’ll take another detailed look at them,’ she’d explained. ‘And see whether we can tease out any new possibilities.’
‘What about lab work, if we need it?’ Daisy asked.
Jason laughed. ‘I bet Tamsin will bring in her sleeping bag and go into lockdown in the lab.’
‘I wouldn’t put it past her,’ Karen said. ‘River’s heading back to Cumbria, though. She’s been planning to write a book for ages. A mash-up of the scientific stuff and her own case experiences. She’s looking forward to hanging out with Ewan for a few weeks.’
Now they’d taken the giant step of becoming affianced, Jason and Eilidh had decided to do lockdown in his flat at the bottom of Leith Walk. ‘Lucky you,’ Karen had said. ‘Lockdown with a hairdresser. At the end of all this, you’ll be the only well-groomed polis in Edinburgh.’
Hamish had decided he needed to lockdown in his croft in Wester Ross. ‘The coffee shops are shut, there’s nothing I can do in Edinburgh, and there’s always work needs doing on the land. Come with me. There’s no reason for you to stay in Edinburgh.’
Karen had been tempted. But she knew she didn’t have the right to escape to a community that wasn’t her own, whose scarce resources would be stretched thin if this pandemic turned out anything like the worst-case scenario. ‘I can’t do it,’ she said. ‘I need to show solidarity with my neighbours. And my colleagues. If this gets really bad, HCU is going to be a luxury Police Scotland will have to put on the back burner. Like the Met’s Art Squad after Grenfell. I might have to go back to front-line policing with a stab vest and a baton.’ She’d made a joke of it, but she knew it was a very real possibility.
That left Daisy. The obvious solution was for her to go back to her flat in Fife and lockdown on her own. Karen knew her sergeant was dreading the isolation. Unlike Karen, who revelled in her own company, Daisy was a social creature. Karen had considered inviting her to hunker down with her, but while her waterfront flat was perfect for one, it would be intolerable with two, one of whom needed space. She’d voiced her concerns to Hamish, and he’d immediately proposed a solution.
‘I’m going to be in Clashstronach, Karen. My place will be empty. It’s way big enough for two. And I’ve got keys for the private gardens in the square.’ He was right, of course. His flat at the top of the New Town had two bedrooms, a study, a big living room and a dining kitchen with a table that sat eight. And its private roof garden had views over the Georgian rooftops across the Forth to Fife, so she couldn’t even complain about losing her sea view. It was seven minutes’ walk from her office, should she be called back in. Karen loved Hamish’s flat in the detached way one can afford to love a place that will never be within one’s own budget.
It was a generous offer. But was it a devious way of trying to get her to move in with him? He’d shown a capacity for manipulation before. And the business with Merrick Shand was still fresh in her memory.
In the end, she’d accepted his offer, as much for Daisy as for herself. Hamish had left for Clashstronach two days previously, and Karen and Daisy had moved in the evening before. Karen had no idea how it was going to work. But she was slowly learning that change wasn’t always something to chafe against. And she was one of the fortunate ones. A roof over her head. Access to healthcare if the worst came to her door. And a secure job – because people would always need the polis – and even in a pandemic, murder should never go unprosecuted.
She’d deal with the survivor guilt later. Right now, what mattered was survival.
Acknowledgements
Writers never fly solo. The more I do this, the more I understand all the contributions that make a book. Many of them go unnoticed, especially by the author, but there are others I am well aware of.
I owe grateful thanks to Patrice Hoffman of my French publisher, Flammarion, for his help with French policing arrangements. The bits I’ve got wrong are literary licence!
Closer to home, Dorothy Bain QC, Sheriff Norman McFadyen and Sheriff Tom Welsh clarified legal process and the administration of European Arrest Warrants for me.
Liz Nugent offered excellent location suggestions; in these constrained times, I wasn’t able to go and scout them for myself!
As always, I lean on the generosity and patience of forensic scientists who happily share their expertise and their experience. In these days of lockdown, they don’t even get cake in exchange … Thanks to Professor Wolfram Meier-Augenstein for information on stable isotope analysis and to Dame Professor Sue Black for the Coco Pops, among other things.
Thanks too to James Auld and David Greig whose generous charitable donations to Breast Cancer Now, the Homeless World Cup Foundation and Raith Rovers FC have been rewarded by their questionable appearances in these pages. Your kindness, forbearance and good nature are appreciated by all who know you!
Most of this book was written and all the editorial work was carried out in the strange half-world of lockdown. Like most of the writers I know, I found sustained concentration very difficult. Throughout the process, my support team at Little, Brown have been patient, dedicated and immensely competent in spite of their other responsibilities. Hats off to all of you, and thanks for always being cheery on the screen! Lucy Malagoni and Laura Sherlock at LB and the indomitable Jane Gregory at DHA kept me going through the difficult days.
What saved me in lockdown was sharing it with my partner Jo Sharp. She discovered new skills as a video producer (Check out Cooking the Books – Val McDermid on YouTube), a hairdresser, and a gardener. Through it all she’s made me laugh, made me think and made me believe in myself. Jo, I couldn’t have done it without you. You are my Wonder Woman.
Table of Contents
About the Author
By Val McDermid
Copyright
Contents
Dedication
Epigraph
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Acknowledgements
Still Life - Karen Pirie Series 06 (2020) Page 37
