by Val Penny
“When did you see him last?”
“Yesterday he was a guest at Lord Buchanan’s table. Haven’t seen either of them for a while before that. Rumour has it Lord Buchanan’s been in rehab, but we’re not meant to know. They went over to talk to the folk at Dr Myerscough’s table, but it was clear their company wasn’t wanted. The maître d’ had to intervene and show the Buchanans to their table. That’s how I ended up serving him. I wasn’t meant to, but we put them as far away from Dr Myerscough as we could. I thought the big blond man with her was going to land one on Sir Felix, and I didn’t fancy his chances of getting back up again.”
“Sir Felix likes to wine and dine the ladies here, does he?” Colin asked.
“I doubt many of them are ladies, but he tries to impress by bringing them here.”
“Who paid last night?”
“Lord Buchanan. Paid by card, but left a decent enough cash tip. He’s alright, Lord Buchanan. But Sir Felix is an arse.”
Nadia felt like chancing her luck. “Does this man ever eat here?” She showed him a photo of Mansoor.
“Not recently, love. He’s in the big house. Has been for years. Not sure he’s the kind of clientele they’re looking for as patrons here.” Marco laughed. “Is that all? I better get back to work.”
Colin and Nadia thanked him for his help and reminded him to phone Nadia if he remembered anything else that might be useful to them.
“Shall we go and take another look at the hotel’s CCTV from the evening of Eileen’s attack?” Nadia said.
“I was thinking the same, but I thought you’d bite my head off.”
It took them a while to find the part of the tape they wanted to look at. There was just a glimpse of part of the man’s face. But it was around the time that Eileen and Frederick were dining. He was helping a woman to the lifts.
“That could be Frederick and Eileen. It’s the right time. It’s a pity it’s black and white. Look, that’s the bit.” Nadia paused the film. “Blast, it’s gone just too far.”
“Run it backwards, frame by frame. I saw it too. There. Stop. Bugger. Forward, one more. Yes.”
It was only for a moment, it was only a partial face, but the man did look at the camera.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Hunter looked around the room. Rachael was missing. She would be with Eileen. She’d be a big loss to the team, but he couldn’t, in all conscience, hold her back.
Where was Oskar? Just at that moment the DI entered the room. He explained there had been bad traffic on the Forth Road Bridge across from Fife. Now that he had as full a complement as he was going to get, Hunter called the room to order. Nothing happened. He banged his folder on the desk and shouted at the team to be quiet.
Bear, Mel, and Tim continued munching on bacon rolls in silence while Colin peeled a mandarin. Its scent competed with Hunter’s coffee and Bear’s bacon.
“Please tell me we have made progress,” Hunter said.
“I don’t know if it’s progress, but we have news,” Colin said. “Sir Felix Buchanan has admitted to taking cocaine and falling into debt to Mansoor’s crowd. When he couldn’t pay them back, he was made to take drugs into his gigs for Mansoor’s suppliers, and took the money they made to the Morrisons’ house in West Mains Road.”
“Why not just take it straight to Mrs Mansoor at Mansoor’s flat?” Tim said.
“Firstly, does Mansoor ever do anything the easy way? Secondly, he probably didn’t want his wife knowing exactly how much money was involved or Morrison was due a cut of some kind,” Colin said.
Tim agreed. “At least we’ll get Felix for that.”
“He’ll probably get a slap on the wrists and a spell in rehab. But that’s not our problem. Finding Eileen’s attacker is. Who’s next?” Hunter asked.
“Mansoor’s flat was interesting,” Nadia said. We found several envelopes of cash with initials on them at the bottom of his child’s toy box, along with a black metal box that we couldn’t get open.”
“The boffins have got it open now. You won’t believe what was in it,” Hunter said. He looked around the room and said, “bottles of fluid for the preservation of bodies and three bottles containing very well-preserved pairs of eyes.”
Mel grabbed Colin’s bin and vomited her bacon roll into it. “Sorry, boss. I’ve got to…”
“Go and clean yourself up, Mel.”
“Yes, we’ve found the eyes that have been removed from our three victims, one pair of bright blue eyes, one light green and the other Eileen’s violet eyes.”
“Where did the box come from?” Tim asked.
“Jamie Thomson saw boxes and bottles being moved from the Morrisons’ home and followed the van to Mansoor’s flat. But we’ll need to check for fingerprints and DNA. We can’t be sure this is one of the same boxes,” Hunter said.
Mel came back into the room.
“You okay now?” Bear asked.
“Good as I’m going to be with that vision in my head.”
“Some good news on the horizon is that the charity, Guide Dogs for the Blind, has received an anonymous donation of one million pounds.” Hunter waited while a gasp went round the room. “The only condition was that Eileen be given the next guide dog to become available, even if she wasn’t top of the list. Does anybody here know anything about the donation?” He stared straight at Tim.
“How can we, boss? It was anonymous,” Bear said.
“Yes, anonymous,” commented Mel.
“Tim?” Hunter asked.
“Anonymous, boss.”
“Aye, right. So it was. And we all know better than to tamper with things that are none of our business, don’t we?”
“No tampering, boss,” Tim said, smiling. “While we’re chatting, could I get a few hours off to take Gillian to the airport? She leaves for Kiev soon.”
“That should be fine, as long as I don’t get any information that would lead me to believe you had been tampering, young Myerscough.”
“I certainly will not give any such information, boss.”
“How did you and Nadia get on at the Waldorf Astoria, Colin?”
“Better than we expected. Felix was identified as having been at the Pompadour yesterday evening. We were told he made a bit of a pest of himself at a table hosted by your sister, Tim, and a big blond man looked like he was going to sock it to Felix.”
“But not tamper,” Tim said.
“No, that’s right. The word tamper was never used. Felix was there with Lucky, but Lucky paid on a credit card. The waiter we spoke to recognised Felix as someone who came into the restaurant under a variety of aliases and usually paid cash.”
“The interesting thing was that the waiter recognised Mr Morrison and Hector too. Said Hector had been to the pompadour with a fellow who looked like a fat version of himself,” Nadia said.
“John,” The team chorused.
“Where did he know Mr Morrison from?” Hunter asked.
“He was moonlighting yesterday with the firm that did his house removal. But he said he knew him from somewhere else and just couldn’t place him.”
“Well tell him to try a bit harder. I need to know.”
“He eventually remembered that Morrison works in the optician’s shop near his new flat.”
“That holds together. He’s an optician,” Hunter said.
“Yes, boss. We also went back to the night of Eileen’s attack and looked again at the CCTV. We found this that we missed before.” Nadia handed the picture from the CCTV footage to Hunter.
“Well I’ll be damned.”
Chapter Forty
Hunter asked Tim and Bear to come through to his room. He knew they had both known Lucky and Felix since their high school days, and hoped they could help him with some background information.
“Take a seat. I’ve been thinking about the drugs charge we’ve got on Sir Felix Buchanan, and I want to know why the warrant for his arrest wasn’t put out by the Spanish police. Do either of you know?”
“I don’t know, boss,” Tim said. “But Felix said that if he hadn’t left the island double quick the Spaniards would have pursued him. He told me there was a misunderstanding with a Spanish girl and some coke was found at his gig and the Spanish police believed he was responsible.”
“But it was all a misunderstanding. He just didn’t take any chances, in case he couldn’t make himself understood,” Bear said. “Although my guess is that someone in the Spanish police force on Ibiza speaks English.”
“I agree. Could Lucky have bribed someone to drop this?”
“Unlikely. Lucky is a tight wad at the best of times, and he has a lot of land and a big house, but not too much ready cash.”
“I agree with Bear.”
“Does Felix have money?”
“I don’t know, he was a year or so younger than Bear and me and of course they went to Fettes, we were at Merchiston Castle.”
“Yes, but for God’s sake, the ambassador’s son and the chief constable’s boy who’s a wealthy heir, you all mixed in the same circles.”
“I know Felix’s family has money. They run art galleries in London and all the world cities, so if someone was paid to ignore Felix’s indiscretions, the family could have arranged that.”
“Let me phone the Spaniards while you’re here. I want to find out if Felix displayed violence towards that woman while he was in Ibiza, and whether he was known to have been under the influence of cocaine, or any other substance, at the time.
Chapter Forty-One
“You would think that when someone moves house they would take all their stuff with them, wouldn’t you, Frankie?”
“Why should I think that? You didn’t. You tried to nick me dining room chairs, me comfy recliners and me kettle but left all your crappy DVDs, and your toaster that doesn’t work. If you’ve got to hire a skip to get rid of the Morrisons’ rubbish, that’s karma, cuz. Pure karma. Oh, and I’ve put your toaster in there just in case you were wondering.”
“Are you going to stop moaning long enough to give me a hand?”
“Aye, all right. Where do you want me to start?”
“You start in the garage, and I’ll start in the kitchen.”
Frankie wandered over to the garage and opened the door. “Fucksake, Jamie. It’s rammed. What do you want me to throw?”
“All of it, every last bit.”
Frankie rolled up his sleeves and began the long process of clearing the space. There were half used tins of paint, bits of wood, rusted tools and a bicycle with one wheel and no handlebars. He just kept going, moving a little further into the space every time he got rid of something.
After a couple of hours, he went into the house for a pee and a drink and found Jamie tearing the old-fashion kitchen units off the walls.
“I’m stopping for a drink and a bag of crisps. Want anything?”
“Aye, a beer and any flavour but salt and vinegar.”
“We don’t have any salt and vinegar.”
“Good. I don’t like them. How you getting on?”
“Can’t believe they thought the place was empty with all that stuff in there.”
“Wait till you see the attic.”
“At least they took their bits and pieces out of the kitchen and you can get to clearing it. Who you getting to put the new one in?”
“Perfectly Good Kitchens and Bathrooms.”
“I hope they’re right or we’ll get them under the trades descriptions. We’ll not get all this done today, Jamie. I hope you know that.”
“Luckily there are two days in the weekend, and I’ve closed the showroom on Monday.”
“I hope your pop doesn’t hear about that.”
“Are you going to tell him?”
“Not a fucking chance, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he finds out anyway. I’ve got another couple of hours in the garage, then I’m stopping for lunch.”
“Lunch?”
“Donna’s made some sandwiches. Looks like she did enough for both of us.”
“Good woman. Let’s meet back here in two hours.”
“You make it sound like we’re James Bond or something, no’ just two cousins sitting on your living room carpet. See you then.”
Frankie went back to the garage, there were bottles of turpentine, that he emptied onto the ground before throwing the bottles onto the skip, Hard, old paint brushes matted with different colours and gardening tools, all of which had seen better days.
Then he finally made it to the shelf at the back of the garage. There was a large box of books that was bloody heavy. He decided to take them out and throw them into the skip in small bundles. There was no point in asking Jamie if he wanted any of them, he’d never read a book in his life and was unlikely to start now.
First there were bundles of Mills and Boon romances. He thought that Linda might like them but realised she had enough to worry about with Eileen. He’d just toss them. Then there were a set of westerns. He thought that they looked quite exciting, but would go the way of the romances anyway.
The next pile were classics reprinted with modern covers. Frankie noticed none of them looked as if they had ever been opened. He couldn’t blame the Morrisons for that. They’d be right boring: Bleak House, Barnaby Rudge and Hard Times. Ye gods.
At the bottom of the box lay heavier books. Frankie took them out one at a time. They looked like textbooks: The Physiology of the Eye, The Anatomy of the Head, The Eye Surgeon’s Handbook. He wondered if he should throw them out like he hadn’t seen them, or show Jamie.
The decision was taken out of his hands when Jamie walked into the garage. “Where are these sandwiches, then, Frankie Boy? What’s that? What the fuck?”
Jamie stared at the books, his mouth wide open. He flicked through one of them, then put it back on the shelf.
“We can’t unsee it, can we?” Frankie asked.
“No, we bloody can’t. But I want to have lunch while we work out what to do next.”
***
“You don’t want me to throw these out, then?”
“No, keep the eye books, but don’t leave them where Linda’ll see them.”
“I’ll leave them in the box in the garage. They might just be old Morrison’s books from when he was studying to become an optician, you know.”
“They might. You going up into the attic after lunch?”
“Aye. You done in the kitchen?”
“Yep. I’m going to rip up the carpets next. That should be fun.”
“You need to get out more.”
“Not much chance of that. Linda wants this place sorted jig time. Any more to eat? I’m ravenous.”
“A couple of apples and a packet of Jaffa Cakes. You can have the apples.”
“That’ll happen.”
***
After lunch, Jamie set to work on the carpets and floor coverings. He wondered how many valuables the Morrisons had. He found a safe under the floor in the kitchen, and another under the dining room. He was pondering this when the doorbell rang.
“Imran, Perfectly Good Kitchens and Bathrooms,” the man said.
“I thought you weren’t starting till tomorrow.”
“We have it down for installation starting tomorrow. I’m here to take everything out today.”
“Great, but I’ve already got all the cupboards out of the kitchen.”
“Good, then this should be quick. You’re not living here, are you?” Imran asked.
Jamie laughed. “You’re joking, right?”
“You’d be surprised. I have to ask before I turn off the water and disconnect the loo.”
“I’d offer you a cuppa, but I’ve got no electricity on right now.”
“No worries. I’ll finish off the kitchen, then strip out the bathroom suite. I won’t take me long because you’ve done so much.”
“Jamie, look what I’ve found.”
He saw a mummified mouse whirl to the ground. “What the fuck, Frankie?”
“What’s that?” Imr
an asked.
“I’ve found a whole load of stuffed dead animals up here. They’re gross. But some of them are huge. There’s a fox as well as a badger. I can’t carry them down the ladder. I’ll need to throw them down,” Frankie called out.
“No you bloody won’t. I don’t want them splitting and the stuffing going all over the floor. I’ll come up. You can hand them to me one by one,” Jamie shouted back.
“I’ll leave you to it. I’ll be in the kitchen if you need me,” Imran said.
Jamie helped Frankie remove all the stuffed animals. Each one appeared to be more grotesque than the last. There was a ginger cat, a magpie, a fish that hadn’t taken properly, and was manky as well as the animals Frankie had identified earlier. They found another box of books, too, mainly about taxidermy and the preservation of dead bodies, and a chest of old clothes, an old bedframe that the woodworms had enjoyed, and two suitcases that were so old, they didn’t have wheels.
The two men threw everything into the skip and came back in to finish pulling up the flooring.
“Is it safe for me to start on the bathroom? You’re not going to throw any more dead animals about, are you?” Imran asked Frankie.
“No, sorry mate. I didn’t know you were here. Just thought I’d shake Jamie up a bit.”
“I think you managed that for both of us,” he said. He bounded up the stairs and was soon started work on removing the sink.
“There’s a whole bottle of solution in the cupboard under the sink. It says it’s embalming fluid,” Imran said. “Do you need that, Jamie?”
“Yuck, no.”
“Or maybe, yes,” Frankie said.
“I’m phoning Tim. This is getting creepy.”
Chapter Forty-Two
“DC Grant. As I live and breathe. You just won’t give up, will you, Mel? Me and Linda are tight, and you’re just going to have to get used to that.”
“You’re a funny man, Jamie. But perhaps you’ve found something left in your new house by the previous owners that’s not so humorous.”
