A Dark Shadow Falls (14 page)

              ‘By forgiving Tim Flannigan, Diane released herself from some of the bitterness and anger.’ Dani took a sip of her wine. ‘Despite Diane’s progressive approach to rehabilitating criminals, she said something strange to me this afternoon. It reminded me of a phrase that Sally used when she first spoke about the Fisher case.’

              James raised an eyebrow quizzically.

              ‘Diane suggested that there was some kind of wickedness at work in those violent break-ins, that people were allowing evil to enter their homes.’

              ‘I’m surprised that
Sally
would ever use such a biblical term about one of her briefs. She’s usually so rational.’

              ‘Sally sensed a terrible evil present in the Fisher case. It’s why she asked for my help in the first place.’

              ‘Well, the killing of that poor woman and her children is the worst kind of crime. I’d be surprised if my sister weren’t deeply affected by it. I don’t think you should read any more into it than that.’ James stood up, leaning forward to rest his hand on Dani’s shoulder. ‘Come on,’ he said gently. ‘Let’s sit up and eat.’

*

Dani spent the night in James’ bed, whilst he took the sofa. The DCI got up at the same time as her host and was out of the flat nice and early. She headed straight for the police headquarters in Fettes. Bevan requested some desk space and a computer, finding herself sharing a workstation with DC Alec Webber.

              ‘How was Di?’ He asked amiably.

              ‘Very well,’ Dani replied. ‘She’s a remarkable lady.’

              ‘I knew that from the very first moment I met her, at the house, after her father had called us. Diane wanted to provide a statement straight away. She was incredibly brave.’ Webber lowered his voice. ‘In those days, the force weren’t so good at dealing with cases of sexual assault. We had no female officer on the scene.’ His expression became sheepish. ‘I was living with my mum and three older sisters back then. I like to hope I looked after Diane okay in those first few hours.’

              ‘I’m sure you did,’ Dani replied firmly. ‘That’s why she’s friends with you now.’

              Bevan turned her attention back to the computer screen. She was performing a Google search on Peggy Fisher, to see if the woman had received any publicity in the months leading up to her death. Most local papers had an online version these days, so there should have been a record of any articles that Peggy was featured in. Dani could find nothing.               Then she tried Eric. He’d had some adverts placed in local online directories for his business, but there was nothing else relating to him before his family were killed, although there was plenty afterwards. The salacious assertions of his guilt in the tabloid press were enough to fill fifty search pages. After reading some of the vile stuff that was written about him she made a mental note never to Google herself.

              Dani sat back in her seat and sighed. The Fisher family were fairly anonymous before the majority of them were butchered in their own home, which catapulted them to front page news across the UK. There was Peggy’s job at the travel agency, however. That could have placed her within some creep’s radar.

              Bevan had a thought. Sitting forward again, she tried another search. This time, there was a result. Callum Fisher had been the captain of one of Dalkeith’s under 15s football squads. A month before the family were killed, Callum’s team won the league. The story was featured by a number of local news outlets.

              In one of the pieces, there was a picture of Callum holding the trophy, with his dad and grandad - Eric Fisher and Rob Wheelan, on either side of the boy. It seemed that the Fishers’ eldest son had scored the last minute goal which decided the match. All three were named in the text and Eric was quoted as saying how proud he was of his boy.

              Bevan printed off this particular article. She knew that Diane Beattie’s patterns were purely hypothetical and certainly didn’t prove anything, but Dani still found it strange that it appeared to fit the Fisher case too. The DCI wasn’t entirely sure what it meant, but her first course of action would be to call DI Alexander in Dundee and encourage him to try the same trick out on Morna and Lyle Murphy.

Chapter 24

D
I Gordon Alexander appeared pleased to see her. They’d arranged to meet up in a park to the west of the city centre. Alexander led Dani up Balgay Hill to Mills Observatory, where the views were impressive. It was cold, but Bevan was glad of the exercise.

              The pair strolled around the austere sandstone structure, with the detective inspector pointing out the huge dome which had white shutters designed to pull back and reveal the telescope.

              ‘I used to come here with my family,’ he commented affably. ‘My daughter loved the planetarium.’

              Dani didn’t quite know what to say to this, so she remained quiet.

              ‘The forensic results came back on Tommy Galt.’

              ‘Oh yes?’ She was more comfortable with this line of conversation.

              ‘We couldn’t get a positive match on the DNA, the only traces we found in the house were Lyle and Morna’s, but we identified his fingerprints on the door frame of the bedroom.’

              ‘Is it possible they were left there when Galt and Morna were still in a relationship?’

              ‘Apparently not. The techs mentioned something about gland secretions still being evident in the prints they lifted. Basically, they were fresh.’ Alexander seemed very satisfied with this fact.

              ‘Is it enough to charge him – have any witnesses come forward?’

              The DI shook his head. ‘We’ve got the neighbour’s testimony sighting an unfamiliar van parked on the street that day, but no outright identification of Galt’s vehicle, which is actually very distinctive. However, the guy has no alibi for the afternoon and evening of the murder. His girlfriend was visiting her family in Dublin.’

              ‘What about the items stolen from the house, any sign of them?’

              ‘Galt works out of an electrical appliances warehouse. We’re assuming that’s where the TV and stereo system ended up being fenced. Unfortunately, it’s very difficult to trace stolen goods once they’ve been shipped out.’

              ‘So, was the robbery the main motive do you think, or was it getting even with Morna?’

              ‘I suspect that the robbery was always the primary objective, but Galt’s relationship with Mrs Murphy complicated matters. Confronting her in that house may not have been part of the plan. He simply lost control. The Fiscal gave us the go-ahead to raise an arrest warrant. I couldn’t have found him without your advice Dani, thank you.’

              Bevan shrugged off his gratitude. ‘Did you look into the possibility that the Murphys had been in the news recently?’

              ‘Yes I did. I couldn’t find any reference to Morna, but Lyle is in the local paper a lot. His department send out press releases on a regular basis setting out what he’s doing to further the cause of affordable, social housing in Dundee. Lyle is also a frequent contributor to the letters page, where he challenges his detractors. The man
is
a councillor. You would expect him to have a reasonably high public profile. I couldn’t identify anything that would have caused him to be more conspicuous than normal over these past few months. I took your suggestion very seriously.’ Alexander placed his hand between Dani’s shoulder blades, gently leading her back down the slope, in the direction of a cafeteria based in a small wooden hut near to an old band stand.

              As the sun disappeared behind the clouds, it became noticeably chillier. Bevan was relieved to enter the building, where the heating was on full blast. She took off her padded jacket and fleece.

              ‘What would you like? They do a mean ice-cream in this place, although it’s hardly the season for it.’ Alexander smiled.

              ‘I’d love a hot chocolate, please.’

              Dani sat at a table by the steamed up window and watched Gordon Alexander place the order. She suddenly imagined him lining up to buy his children an ice-cream cone on a sunny day, after they’d been playing in the park. The thought made her eyes fill up with tears. Bevan had to battle hard to regain her composure.

              When he returned, the DI placed a couple of mugs on the scratched Formica surface between them. ‘At least they don’t add marshmallows here. I’ve always thought that was a blatant Americanism, quite out of place in a café like this one.’

              ‘I agree,’ Dani smiled. ‘Although I suspect that most children love having a packet of sweets sprinkled on top of their drink.’

              ‘Yes, they certainly do.’ Gordon Alexander took a sip of coffee and looked at his companion closely. ‘If you don’t mind me saying DCI Bevan, I would have expected somebody like you to have a husband and a couple of kids by now.’

              Dani was surprised by his candour. ‘Well, you know what it’s like on the force, especially for a woman. But that’s not really the explanation.’ She took a deep breath. ‘My mother was very ill after she had me and didn’t ever recover. The truth is that I was always frightened of the same thing happening to me.’

              Gordon nodded, his deep-set brown eyes full of sadness. ‘I can understand that. You were protecting yourself. All I can say, Dani, is that we never quite know what life is going to throw at us, but I would not have been without those few precious years I spent with my wife and children. You shouldn’t hold back from having what you really want because you’re frightened of losing it. That’s no way to live your life.’

              Dani knew the man’s words were heartfelt and well intentioned. She couldn’t possibly take offence. Instead, she reached her hand across the table and laid it over his, giving his large, rough palm a gentle and reassuring squeeze.

*

The Keenes’ new extension was progressing well. The foundations were in place and Louise could get a sense of what the finished space would look like. The upheaval caused by the knocking out of the exterior wall was long past and the rest of the house had returned to some semblance of normal.

              Col had taken the van to collect some extra supplies from the warehouse, leaving Davy to continue working on the structure of the building. Louise crept out of the kitchen door with a mug of sweet tea. She placed it down on a pile of bricks.

              Davy turned his tanned face towards her and smiled. He slipped an arm around her waist and pinned her against the back wall of the house, depositing kisses on her neck and burying his face into the soft contours of her ample breasts.

              ‘Steady on!’ She giggled, ‘one of the neighbours might see us.’

              Without replying Davy scooped Louise up, so that her legs were wrapped tightly around his body and his arm was hooked under her bottom. He carried her into the house. With a determined and slightly intense look on his face, he continued straight up the stairs to the bedroom.              

Chapter 25

A
s Dani approached DCI Carmichael’s office, she could tell that something was going on. There was a palpable buzz of excitement rippling across the incident room. Before she reached the door, DC Webber intercepted her path.

              ‘DCI Bevan, we’ve had a development.’ The younger man led Dani towards his workstation, where several other officers were gathered, including DI Mike Tait. ‘I spoke with Rob Wheelan this morning. He told me that eighteen months ago, he and his wife had an extension added to their kitchen.’

              Dani immediately recalled the bright, newly fitted area that she’d stood in with Peggy’s dad whilst he prepared them tea. She cursed herself for not making the connection sooner.

              ‘It was a local firm who carried out the work,’ Webber continued, gesturing towards the screen of his monitor. ‘They are a father and son operation. The owner is Gus Bannerman and his son is called Mark.’

              One of the officers whistled.

              ‘Did Rob say that Peggy ever came into contact with these men?’ Dani enquired, careful that they shouldn’t jump the gun.

              ‘Peggy’s father claims that she and the twins were always at their house, especially during the pre-school holidays. If they’d had an unsettled night Pat used to give the girls lunch whilst Peggy had a rest. The Wheelans’ place was like a second home to Peggy Fisher.’

              ‘Has anyone paid Mark Bannerman a visit yet?’

              ‘No Ma’am, we were waiting for DCI Carmichael to come back from her meeting.’

              Dani considered this for a moment. ‘I don’t think your DCI would want you to hold back on the lead. DI Tait, can you take us there?’

              The man hoisted up his bulky frame and nodded. ‘Aye, let’s make sure we don’t miss the boat this time around.’

*

The Bannerman property was a semi-detached ex-council house on the end of a terrace. A make-shift garage dominated the large side plot and various pieces of rusty equipment were stored beneath an ill-fitting sheet of tarpaulin on the long driveway.

              Dani stood well back and allowed Tait and Webber to lead the operation. After banging on the door for several minutes, a small woman with a heavily lined face opened up.

              DI Tait held aloft his warrant card. ‘Mrs Bannerman? We’d like a word with your son.’

              She stood back and allowed them all to enter. The house was dark and the corridor narrow. Bevan found it difficult to imagine how those capable of producing a light and airy extension were prepared to live in such squalor.