When all is dark, p.10
When All Is Dark, page 10
Suddenly, Sharon was by her side. “Did you see her? It was a woman with red hair, she had on one of those green smocks they wear. She was pushing her way out of the crowd, desperate to get away.”
“Which way did she go?” Alice had reached the station concourse, scanning the area intently.
Sharon jogged towards the platforms, asking one of the station guards if they’d seen a woman with red hair enter the station. He shook his head.
Alice reached for her phone to call in the sighting. If it was Billi Star who had caught wind someone was asking for her amongst the people in the crowd and made a run for it, her image would’ve been captured on one of the many CCTV cameras that were trained on George Square and positioned in the station itself. If the woman had got on a train, they should be able to trace exactly where she was going.
Chapter 26
Tyler had never seen mud like it. The continuous rainfall had created a slick of peaty sludge that was creeping down the steep hillside towards a free-flowing, over-filled burn.
The Sinclairs’ bull had clearly lost its footing as the ground became saturated and its considerable weight had caused it to slide down into the cold waters of the burn below, which were now lapping up to its flank. Eddie and the vet wasted no time in wading through the torrent to reach the stranded animal. Tracey Harvey shouted instructions from the waterlogged slope.
Dan and Tyler observed from the bank as the men secured a rope around the bull’s neck and front legs and gently but firmly, led the impressive beast through the gushing waters. After a few metres, they reached a bank with a lesser gradient than the one the animal had slid down.
It then took the might of all four officers, plus Stevie Sinclair and Ian Lester, to guide the bull up the path and into a small barn on the edge of the field. There were moments when Tyler thought they might give up, when the bull, naturally frightened and cold, had reared up and resisted the pull of its handlers. But the farmers calmly persisted, patting and cajoling their animal until it gradually followed them towards safety.
When the bull was securely in the barn, under the care of the vet, Tyler stood on the edge of the field, staring up at the steel grey sky, with freezing rain running down the neck of his jacket and mud smeared over his trousers and caking his boots. He was shivering with both the exertion and the cold, a mixture of sweat and mud dripping down his face.
Stevie clapped him on the back. “You’d best come to the farmhouse,” he declared. “You’ll need to warm up too, just like Gordie.”
Tyler imagined Gordie was the bull, who was hopefully none the worse for his dunking in the burn. Eddie volunteered to stay with the vet and give him any assistance he required, Tracey wanted to check on the remainder of the herd. but the two officers didn’t object when Stevie and Ian led them down towards the farmhouse and the promise of shelter from the merciless weather.
*
Maggie Sinclair had lit the fire in the front sitting room again. She insisted the two officers take a warm shower and dress in some spare clothes of her sons’. Dan didn’t object, he knew his clothing was ruined and just hoped the coat could be salvaged, otherwise he’d have no protection against the conditions they were currently enduring. He’d certainly not noticed any sign of an outdoor shop in St Martin where he could buy a new one.
Dan came down the stairs twenty minutes later, towel drying his hair, wishing he had some of his usual products with him. He found Tyler seated on the sofa, wearing a fair isle jumper and jogging bottoms, cradling a mug of tea, his buzz cut not requiring much maintenance.
“Yours is on the table,” the young detective commented.
“Thanks.” Dan dropped onto the seat beside him and reached for the mug eagerly. “I hope Eddie’s okay out there. He and the vet went in the water, they’ll be soaked to the skin.”
“He seems more used to the conditions than we are.” Tyler took a sip of the scalding tea, grateful for the heat it provided as it slipped down his throat. “Besides, Roy Sinclair came back from his deliveries. He’s gone over to help them.”
Maggie came to stand in the doorway. “I’ve put your clothes in the machine, I hope you don’t mind. I’m used to doing the lads’ muddy work gear, so it makes no odds to have a few more.”
“Thank you very much, Mrs Sinclair. You’ve been very generous,” Dan answered sincerely.
Maggie shook her head. “Stevie said it took all of you to get Gordie back up that hill. We couldn’t have shifted him without your help. He seems to be doing okay now. The vet’s giving him some antibiotics in case he’s caught a chill, but he’s warm enough where he is.”
“Good,” Tyler said with feeling, surprised how interested he was in the welfare of the animal.
“Gordie is our top bull,” Maggie continued. “He has bred all of our best calves for the last few years. If something happens to him, he would be a fortune to replace. I don’t think the business would survive it.”
Dan nodded, beginning to understand the precarious nature of farming in such a remote location. “Well, I’m just relieved we got him to safety.”
“Eddie is a great help to us, and Tracey too. They do far more than just police this island.”
“I’m starting to realise that,” Dan said with a wry grin.
Maggie perched on the arm of a chair. “The winters here can be very tough. The ferry often can’t sail and the hours of daylight are short. We need to be able to pull together as a community, to trust one another. If we aren’t able to do that, the entire island suffers.”
Dan somehow felt as if the woman were speaking from experience. He was about to ask her more, when Ian emerged from the hallway, dressed from head to foot in waterproofs. “I’m taking the Land Rover up to the point, to check on old Hugh. His place is always freezing, even without this wind.”
Maggie nodded. “Okay, Ian. But don’t be too long, now. Roy will need your help getting the entire herd into the barns. This weather is only set to get worse.”
“Aye, I won’t be long, I promise.”
The young man rushed from the room.
Maggie shook her head, forming her mouth into a tolerant smile. “He’s too soft for his own good, that one.”
Dan placed his empty mug on the table. “You mentioned that the forecast was bad. Does that mean there won’t be a ferry again tomorrow?”
Maggie was about to reply when she was interrupted by the noise of people entering through the kitchen door. She got to her feet. “That will be the others back. I’d best get a brew on for them too, they’ll be cold and wet.” With that, she bustled out of the room, leaving the detectives alone to exchange loaded glances. Both suspecting they weren’t getting off the island any time soon.
Chapter 27
“If you’re trying to be inconspicuous, it isn’t a great idea to dye your hair that colour.” Dermot was examining the CCTV footage that Alice had requested from Scotrail and Glasgow City Council.
“We are lucky that security is set to its highest level in the city right now, otherwise we may not have got this footage sent to us so quickly.” Alice turned the screen so that her colleagues could get a good view of the images.
Dani sighed. “We don’t want to have to rely too much on luck in this case. It has a nasty habit of running out.”
Alice continued, unperturbed. “You can see our suspect here, breaking away from the crowd of Earth’s Saviours demonstrators. She then heads toward the entrance to Queen Street Station.”
“Yes, the red hair is really quite distinctive.” Dani furrowed her brow. “Are we certain this woman is Elinor Lester, now calling herself, Billi Star?”
Sharon answered. “We were asking for Billi Star amongst the other protestors, I reckon people were talking about it in the crowd and the news reached her before we did. If she wasn’t Billi, why would she run like that?”
“We won’t know until we find her,” Dermot added levelly.
“Which leads us on to the next image we have,” Alice forwarded the recording. “The suspect proceeds straight to platform six. The 14.09 train to Balloch is about to depart and she gets on it.”
Dermot nods. “Yep, I see that.”
Alice clicked on a different file. “And there she is, getting off the train at the platform of Garscadden Station at 14.24pm. I’ve sent a couple of DCs over there to take a look. If she lives around there and needs to go to the shops or back to the station she won’t be hard to spot.”
“But we don’t actually know she lives there?” Dani said. “If she knew she was being followed, she may have got off at Garscadden to throw you off the scent?”
Alice knew this question was coming. “Well, we don’t have anything on our records relating to a Billi Star, or Elinor Lester; no tax information or DVLA licence. It seems to be as her brother said, she moves from place to place, probably working for cash-in-hand. I’ve checked the CCTV at the station for the next couple of hours to see if she got back on a train. There’s no sign of her. I also checked the bus stops. No sign of her there either. She doesn’t drive, so I reckon she’s staying with someone local to that area.”
Dani nodded. “Okay, that’s a reasonable assumption. But the woman looks young and fit from these images, she could have walked a reasonable distance from there to get to wherever she calls home.”
“I know it’s a long shot, Ma’am. But at least we know what she looks like now, and we know she doesn’t want to be found, which means she’s got something to hide.”
Dani wasn’t sure that was always the reason why people didn’t want to be found. Sometimes they were frightened of officials, or had bad experiences with the police in their pasts, but she had to concede that Alice and Sharon had got the closest to identifying Quentin Lester’s daughter. “Okay, keep me posted on what the DCs report back. Dermot, can I have a word in my office?”
The DI followed his boss across the floor to her corner office, closing the door gently behind him.
Dani gestured for him to take a seat. “Did you receive the case notes from Highlands and Islands?”
“Yes, Ma’am. They were sent this morning. I’ve had a brief read through them.” Dermot summoned up the documents on his tablet.
“I’ve no idea if this case has any bearing on ours so I didn’t see any point in tying up the rest of the team with it.”
“I agree. But the files are certainly intriguing. Mabel and Eric Flett lived in a semi-detached house in the Janetstown area of Wick, Caithness. Mabel was an administrator for the council and Eric had retired. They had two adult children who lived within a few miles of them and three grandchildren.”
“The grandchildren were mentioned in the analyst’s report.”
“The murder took place on Monday 10th April 2017. It was Mabel’s day off and Eric had gone to play golf with a friend who was also retired. There are witnesses who swear they were with him the entire day. The PM suggested the time of death was around noon. The immediate neighbours were out at work and nobody else on the street noticed anyone approaching or leaving the house.”
“It was the middle of the day, on a suburban street. You’d think someone would’ve seen something?” Dani shook her head.
“The house backed onto fields, the garden ended in a low fence, so the killer could have approached that way, according to the detectives running the case. But there was no sign of a break-in.”
“Mrs Flett let this person into her house. Would you open the door to someone who came round the back of your property?” Dani frowned.
“It would depend on who it was.”
“True. It suggests perhaps she knew her killer?”
“Or they had an appointment? A tradesman maybe? Although, Mr Flett insists they weren’t expecting anyone and didn’t need any work doing on the house.”
“So, someone arrived at the house late morning, and Mrs Flett let them in?”
“There were no unidentified fingerprints in the property. No real signs of a struggle, except in the bathroom itself. It seems the killer forced Mrs Flett upstairs, bound her hands, ran the bath and then held her head under the water until she drowned. They were either wearing gloves the entire time, or did a good job of wiping down surfaces afterwards, although the tech reports showed Mr and Mrs Flett’s prints everywhere; on doors and handles, so that seems unlikely.”
“The killer must have had a weapon, to be able to overpower his victim like that, make her go upstairs without a fuss and wait whilst he ran a bath. Was Flett a small woman?”
“Not particularly, she was five foot five and slightly overweight, but no health conditions. I reckon she could have put up a fight.”
“She struggled during the drowning itself, hence the gouge marks on the wrists and the water on the floor.”
“I expect that’s an automatic response, to struggle when you are drowning, trying to lift your head out of the water.”
Dani shuddered, trying not to think about the woman’s final moments. “What about the teddy bear? Did the husband recognise it?”
Dermot shook his head. “I specifically asked the officers at Highlands and Islands about this. Eric Flett was insistent he’d never seen the teddy before and the children confirmed it didn’t belong to any of the grandchildren. The team wondered if Mrs Flett had bought it that morning and was going to give it to one of her grandchildren at a later date. But there’s no evidence she went out, or even where she bought it. Online perhaps? But then a delivery driver might have come forward, which they never did. There would be payment records on her account.” Dermot scratched his head, “and another thing was strange. Although it was sitting right near the bath, underneath the basin, the teddy was bone dry.”
Dani felt a jolt of unease. “It was placed there after Mrs Flett had been killed, otherwise, it would have been soaked in the bathwater that was dislodged during the struggle.”
“Yep, I think we can definitely say it was positioned there by the killer. But the question is why?”
“Why, indeed.” Dani considered this for a moment. “And the palm cross which was used to bind the victim’s hands? Where did that come from?”
“It had been Easter Sunday the day before. Mr and Mrs Flett had both been to a service at the local church where the crosses had been given out. There had been a couple in a jar by the kitchen door. One was missing.”
“So, the teddy was brought by the killer, but the cross was opportunistic?” Dani sighed. “That doesn’t help us. The cross is the only connection to our murder.”
Dermot leant forward in his seat. “I think there must be more to the use of the cross. I mean, there are better ways to bind someone’s hands, surely? Even a scarf or a belt would’ve been more effective. But with the cross the killer had to unravel the weave, it must have taken time. It was an added risk. No, I’m sure the cross was significant to the murderer.”
Dani nodded slowly. “But nobody was ever arrested for the crime, no suspects even?”
“Nothing was taken from the house, so it didn’t seem like a robbery, there were no signs of sexual assault. Mrs Flett was a well-regarded grandmother. No motive to want her dead. The husband had an alibi and so had the family. The investigating team assumed it had to be an intruder unknown to the victim, but never got close to identifying who. There were no forensic clues and no witnesses.”
“There must have been a motive. For a crime so carefully staged and pre-prepared.”
“You could say exactly the same about the murder of Quentin Lester. We don’t have a motive for that yet, either.”
“No, and something tells me that when we do find out what it was, we might know why someone killed Mabel Flett, too.”
Chapter 28
Alice pressed the buzzer hard on the entry panel of the office building where the Earth’s Saviours had their Glasgow headquarters. They heard the latch unclick within seconds. Macy McAdams knew they were coming.
The detectives took the lift to the top floor, this time knowing exactly where they were going. The open-plan loft space was even busier than when they had last paid a visit. People were milling about the vast space; constructing banners and having loud discussions.
When Macy approached them, she appeared stressed. “Follow me to the meditation space,” she shouted above the noise. “It’s just about the only place to get any peace.”
The detectives followed, this time they didn’t take a seat and Macy herself remained standing.
Alice pulled a file out of her bag. She found one of the stills they’d taken from the CCTV footage and showed it to the group leader. “We believe this woman is calling herself, Billi Star. She was standing amongst the Earth’s Saviours protestors yesterday in George Square. We are keen to question her in connection with our investigation. Have you seen her before?”
Macy took the sheet and examined it closely. “I can’t really see her face properly. I don’t think I could say for sure.”
“But look at the colour of her hair,” Sharon exclaimed. “Surely you’d remember that?”
Macy gave a weary smile, gesturing around her. “We have a rainbow of colours to choose from in this very room. Many of our members have dyed their hair specifically for the duration of the conference, to show solidarity with the cause. I’m afraid it’s not the distinguishing feature you think it is. Not in these circles anyway. If she’s trying to evade you guys, I expect it’s a different colour by now anyway.”
Alice felt her heart sink. The woman was probably right. “But the name doesn’t ring any bells? Or the name, Elinor Lester?”
“As I told you already, neither of those names appear on our members’ register. But as you can see, our numbers have swelled considerably since the conference began. I didn’t recognise half of the people who joined us at the protest yesterday.” She raised her hands in frustration. “We want to encourage as many people as possible to join the cause. It’s the point of this entire exercise!”
