When all is dark, p.20
When All Is Dark, page 20
Todd was standing a couple of feet away from the young man. “I promise you this is the truth! I want to get justice for you and your sister. Everything we have done is for you! Me and Billi Star, we’ve been taking direct action on your behalf. She’s not been answering my calls the last few days, but the police have finally flushed her out, thanks to me. I’m sure she wants to see this thing through as much as I do, she’s just had a touch of cold feet. We need to explain everything, for the sake of you and your sister!”
Justin was backing away from the older man, his face creased in confusion. “I don’t know what you’re talking about! I don’t even have a sister! My older brother lives in Fife. My parents live in Helensburgh. My name is Justin Porter.”
Todd shook his head in frustration. “Justin Sam Porter is the name you were given after your adoption. But your birth name is Sam Turner! You were taken from your family by social services on the 20th February 2002. But they never should have taken you away. The family did nothing wrong. I tried to tell my superiors what was happening, but nobody listened. In the end, the inspectors who led the inquiry into the debacle shook my hand for the information I’d given them, but what use was that to me? My bosses knew I’d given evidence against them and my life at work was a misery. I had to leave the job I loved. But worse than that, I had to live with the knowledge I’d failed you and your sister, and all the others they questioned in those little rooms. I sat there whilst the most awful things were being suggested to you. I did nothing!”
Justin was shaking his head, “I don’t understand what you’re talking about, Mr McCleary. Please just let me go!”
“I don’t want to hurt you. That’s the last thing I want. But I need to tell you the truth! I’ve punished them for you, the ones who took you away. The woman who dragged you out of your mother’s arms – I made sure she suffered appropriately, dragged beneath the wheels of a fast vehicle, feeling her flesh being ripped from her bones! And the one who pulled your sister from the bathroom, where she’d desperately clung on to the sink – I drowned her in the bath. I would have done it in the sink but she was a big woman, she’d struggled too hard. The basin would’ve come away before I was finished.”
Justin’s eyes were wide with disbelief. “What are you telling me? Have you killed people?”
Todd reached out and grabbed the young man’s arm. “I just need you to listen, that’s all!”
Sharon and Dermot had heard enough. The DI made a sprint for the older man, wrestling him to the ground and tugging his hands behind his back. “Todd McCleary. I am arresting you for the murders of Mabel Flett and Irene Vickers. You do not have to say anything. But, it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence.”
Whilst Dermot read McCleary his rights, Sharon approached Justin and pulled him aside. “Are you okay, did he hurt you?”
The young man shook his mop of blond hair. “No, I’m fine. But those things he was saying? Please tell me it was all bullshit? Surely the man is just a lunatic?”
Sharon sighed heavily. “I’m sorry Justin, but some of the things he said were very probably the truth. We will be taking you back to our headquarters in Glasgow, if you agree? We will want you to make a statement about what you just heard. Someone there will be able to explain it all properly. We’ll make sure you have your parents and a counsellor with you.”
Chapter 57
All three interview rooms were full. Dani Bevan had been watching the footage from each on the bank of monitors in the media suite. Finally, a break had been called and Dani could exit the stuffy room and return to the open-plan office floor.
Andy got up from his desk to meet her. “Can I make you a cuppa? How is it going?”
“Yes please.” She dropped into the swivel chair Dan usually occupied, rubbing her face with her hands, closing her eyes for a moment.
Andy came back from the trolley with a mug of coffee, straight from the machine.
“Thanks, I need this.” She took a long sip, the drink was lukewarm but still welcome. “Justin Porter has finished making his statement. Fortunately, his recall of what McCleary told him was very good. It matches the recording we have from Dermot’s phone.”
“Good, but that recording was very faint from what I heard. Will it be allowed in court?” Andy frowned.
“We’re getting a transcript written up. Alongside Justin’s testimony, we should be able to use it. Although, McCleary is certainly not confessing now. He’s denied the two charges of murder and his brief has recommended a ‘no comment’ interview.”
“We still need some forensic evidence then?”
Dani nodded. “A swab has been taken from both McCleary and Billi Star for a DNA analysis. We have both their fingerprints. They are being checked against the fingerprint on the teddy bear in Inverness as we speak.”
“What do we have on Billi Star?”
“Sharon is interviewing her. She claims Todd McCleary is just a friend who lets her stay in his house in Glasgow from time to time. It was pointed out that it is something of a coincidence he also happened to be the social worker who blew the whistle on her father, Mabel Flett and Irene Vickers twenty years ago. She just smiled.” Dani felt her chest tighten at the memory of the woman’s smug face.
“Everything we’ve got against Billi Star is circumstantial. Do you really think she’s involved in the murders?”
Before Dani had a chance to answer, Klara Laska approached them. “I hope you don’t mind, but as my contract has a few more hours to run, I thought I would continue to do some research into Todd McCleary.”
The DCI put down her mug. “Great, what have you got?”
Klara leant her weight on the edge of the desk. “The name of the whistle-blower in the child abuse scandal on North Dorga was never mentioned in the crown investigation report to protect their identity. But I can see from their personnel records, seized by Highlands and Islands police this afternoon, that Todd McCleary was a junior social worker for Caithness and South Orkney Council from 1999-2003. He worked in the Golspie offices, alongside Flett and Vickers. He resigned in October 2003.”
“We don’t have any proof McCleary was the one who gave evidence against his colleagues, but his employment records certainly indicate he was there at the time and if we add that to what he said to Justin Porter in the forest, I think we can be sure it was him.”
Klara nodded. “It seems that after he left the job in Golspie, he performed some voluntary work for a while, before getting his first job at Woodland Scotland in the Bilbster Forest, Caithness. He started out as a guide, but got promoted to managing one of the visitors centres in 2010. He moved to the job at the Argyll Forest five years ago. There is a small bungalow in the grounds that the manager lives in rent free. So, at some point he was able to buy a property in Glasgow. With a bit more digging, I can find out when.”
“This is excellent work, Klara. We can connect him to both the eastern Highlands and to Glasgow, where all our murders were committed. But what we really need to know, is how McCleary and Billi Star met one another. How did they get so close Billi could use his house as her own. Did they plan this entire programme of revenge between them?” Dani sighed.
Dan Clifton approached his colleagues from the lift, his shift just starting. “I can give Ian Lester a call, Ma’am? Find out if he knows anything else about his sister’s movements in the last few years, maybe call the mother too. They might just tell us something new?”
“Yes please, Dan. Find out everything, even the most trivial detail. The lives of these two must have overlapped at some point. Now,” she got to her feet. “I need to get back to the media room to observe these interviews. Let’s hope Sharon and Dermot can get us something we can use against them.”
Chapter 58
Andy watched his boss leave the department, deep in his own thoughts. As the lift doors slid closed, he turned to Klara on the next desk. “This ‘Woodland Scotland’ that McCleary works for, you’d describe it as an environmental charity, wouldn’t you?”
Klara glanced up from her screen. “Yes, although is also gets government funding. That’s mentioned on it’s website.”
Andy rolled his chair in closer. “Then wouldn’t they be sending delegates to COP26? I mean, if a charity protecting Scotland’s woodland wasn’t represented at the climate conference, it would be a bit of an oversight, wouldn’t it?”
Klara’s mouth dropped open. She didn’t reply, but went onto the COP26 official website and performed a quick search. “Well I’ll be damned. Woodland Scotland certainly did have a delegate present at the conference this year. He attended a series of lectures and discussion groups at the SEC on the third day.”
“That’s the day Quentin Lester was murdered.”
Klara swivelled ninety degrees to face him. “And guess who their delegate was for that day?”
“Todd McCleary.”
*
Dermot had been called out of the interview room just before lunch. If he was honest, he’d needed a break. Much as he wanted to be the one to drum the truth out of McCleary, the man was proving a tough nut to crack. His solicitor was obviously good and he’d got nothing from him but a barrage of ‘no comments’, for the previous few hours.
As he reached the serious crime floor, he was surprised to see a group of his colleagues waiting eagerly for his arrival. “What’s all this?”
Andy stepped forward. “Sorry to interrupt your interview, but we thought you’d want to hear this piece of information.”
Klara got up from her desk. “I’ve just been speaking with the security team at the SEC. They have forwarded me all the attendance records for the 1st November.”
“The day Lester was killed?” Dermot added.
Klara nodded. “On that day, Todd McCleary attended every single lecture and a couple of focus group meetings as the delegate of Woodland Scotland. One of the security officers down there is checking CCTV right now for any images of him that day. In fact, he was in one of the same seminar groups as Quentin Lester during that morning.”
Dermot’s eyes widened. “Holy Smoke. We can place McCleary in the same building as Lester on the day he was killed!”
Andy raised his hand, as if to lessen his colleague’s expectations. “Yes, we can, especially with CCTV footage. But the registers show McCleary was present in an afternoon seminar straight after lunch. Looking at the timeframe of the murder, it doesn’t seem possible McCleary could have gone back to Lester’s hotel room, committed the crime and got back for his meeting at 12.45pm.”
Dermot felt the sudden urge to scream. “It’s all bloody circumstantial!”
Dan put down the phone on his desk and came to join them. “I’ve just been speaking with Lester’s ex-wife. She claims that when she found out her husband’s role in the North Dorga child abuse scandal, back in 2001, she was disgusted. She’s been ashamed about it ever since and never mentions it to anyone. Fiona Lester, now Black, filed for divorce within weeks. She moved away with their two children. She claims she tried to protect them from the worst of the details, but Elinor was nearly thirteen at the time and the internet was just getting started. According to her, Elinor Lester, now calling herself Billi Star, became obsessed with the case her father had been involved in. She collected newspaper reports and constantly searched online for updates. At one point, Fiona took her daughter to a child psychologist, but it didn’t seem to do much good.”
“So, Billi Star knew all about the fate of the Turner family, the role of her father in the sorry affair, and that of Mabel Flett and Irene Vickers,” Dermot said. “She would also have known there was a whistle-blower, but not their name probably, as it wasn’t in the public domain.”
“In the end, Fiona became sick of it. She wanted to leave her ex-husband in the past and any memory of what he did. She said Ian was interested in the events, but only up to a point. Her daughter, on the other hand, went completely off the rails. She failed her Highers and dropped out of school. Fiona lost track of her soon after. She was living in Colinton then with her new husband and says her daughter drops by every so often, or calls, but that’s it.”
“It’s desperately sad, really,” Klara noted.
Dan continued. “It got me thinking. If Billi Star was so obsessed with the child abuse case, maybe she joined some online forums and stuff? That’s where these people fixated on real crime hang out, isn’t it? I think we should do an Internet search, see what turns up?”
“It’s certainly worth a try, we’ve got McCleary’s phone and laptop and Billi’s phone for the time being. The techies are trawling them as we speak,” Dermot said despondently. “We’ve nothing else solid to go on until the forensic results come back. I’ve applied for an extension to hold McCleary for another thirty six hours, which we should be granted as we’re looking at a multiple murder charge. Billi however, will be set free at 4pm. We’ve not got enough to charge her with anything right now.”
“Then we’ll need to get a bloody move on, won’t we?” Dan dropped into his chair and pulled a laptop towards him. The others did the same.
Chapter 59
The street was busy with parked cars. Andy eventually found a space several houses along. He let out a laugh as Sharon tried to clamber out of the passenger seat with a huge bouquet of flowers in her arms.
“Don’t just stand there laughing, give me a bloody hand, would you?”
Andy took the bouquet as his friend stepped onto the pavement and adjusted her top.
They walked together in silence up to the front door of the ground floor flat. Andy pressed the bell, just hoping they would be welcome visitors.
He decided he needn’t have worried. Alice answered the door with a beaming smile on her face and Charlie sitting contentedly on her hip.
“Hey, there! Do come in. I just put the kettle on for you.”
“Music to our ears,” Sharon said cheerily, following her colleague inside.
“Wow, what a lovely flat. Really full of character!” Andy said genuinely.
Alice placed her son on the thick rug in the centre of the living room floor. Wooden toys were placed all around him. She stood up and took the flowers from Andy. “They’re gorgeous, thank you.”
“It a gift from the whole department. It’s not much, just a little token.” Andy looked embarrassed.
“I’m really grateful. Fergus will love them too. It’s good to know our friends are thinking of us.”
Sharon went out to find a vase.
“Is Fergus back at work?” Andy asked.
“Yep, he couldn’t stay away much longer without having to hand over his case to another lawyer. To be honest, I wanted to get Charlie back into his old routine as soon as possible. He has no clue what happened to him, so I don’t want to impose my worries onto the little guy. He really needs to go back to nursery soon, but I don’t think I could ever set foot in his old place. Just the thought brings me out in a sweat.”
“I can totally understand that.” Andy reached into his pocket and handed her a crisp business card. “Carol asked me to give you this. It’s the details for the nursery she works at. I know it’s a bit further away from here, but it’s actually not that far from Pitt Street. It’s a busy place but really well run and Carol says if Charlie was to go there, she’d keep a special eye on him. There’s no way he’d be picked up by anyone other than you or Fergus, that’s for sure.”
Alice took the card, suddenly finding there were tears running down her cheeks. “God, I’m really sorry. It’s just that this is such a wonderful relief. To think Charlie could attend a nursery where someone as lovely as Carol would be looking after him.” She fished a tissue from her pocket and dabbed her eyes.
“No need to apologise. I totally understand. Amy went to the same nursery where Carol worked because we were so worried about her being away from us that young. We’re all the same when it comes to our kiddies.”
Sharon re-entered the room with a tray full of coffees, she set them down on the low table. “Your flowers are in a vase by the sink. You can choose where to put them later.” She noticed Alice’s damp face and the balled up tissue in her hand. “Has Andy been upsetting you? I can take him home again if you like?”
Alice laughed. “No, you’re okay. He’s grand.”
They all took a seat. Andy handed out the mugs.
“Now,” Alice said eagerly. “You must tell me how the investigation is going. It’s been killing me not knowing what’s happening.”
It was Sharon who answered. “You will know that Kirsty Turner has been detained in a psychiatric hospital for the time being?” She eyed her colleague cautiously, unsure what her reaction would be to this news.
“Yes, I was told. I know she’ll probably stay there for the foreseeable future. The woman is ill, she needs treatment. Of course I’m angry with her, but I can recognise that. What about her father? Has he made contact?”
“I believe he’s visited her a few times. It’s going to take a long time to rebuild their relationship, but it’s a start. Social services confirmed that Justin Porter was indeed the youngest Turner child. He was formally adopted in 2003 and received a new name. He genuinely has no memory of his birth family, even though he was eight when he was removed from them.”
“A bet it’s a reaction to the trauma. The poor kid probably blanked it out of his mind. How is he taking the news now?”
“He’s seeing a counsellor. There’s been some talk of him meeting his father at some point in the future, but they’re not sure the lad is quite ready yet,” Andy sipped his drink thoughtfully.
“But he’s probably less damaged than Kirsty,” Alice noted. “Because he had such a stable upbringing. She was the one who remembered it all and was shifted from pillar to post during her childhood.”
