A Dark Shadow Falls (5 page)

              ‘Can I make you a brew?’ The man asked.

              ‘I’ll come and help you,’ Dani replied, thinking it might be a good idea for Mr Wheelan to busy himself with a task. When they entered the bright kitchen extension she said, ‘is your wife at home?’

              Rob sighed heavily. ‘Pat’s having a lie down. I’ll fetch her if you really want?’                

             
Dani shook her head gently. ‘There’s no need. We’ve only got a couple of questions for you. We want to ensure that the case is watertight when it comes to trial.’

              The cups clattered together and one fell onto its side as Peggy’s father brought the china clumsily out of a cupboard. Dani set them upright again, proceeding to drop teabags into each one.

              ‘Thank you,’ he said. ‘I’m jittery at the thought of the trial. Pat and I are very worried about it. We don’t know quite what to expect.’

              Dani knew that with Fisher pleading not guilty the trial would be an ordeal for the Wheelans. Every single detail of their daughter and grandchildren’s lives would be dredged up by the defence. Sally Irving-Bryant pulled no punches. ‘When my mother died, under difficult circumstances, my dad never went to the inquest. I was too young to go anyway. He used that as a reason to stay at home. In reality, he simply couldn’t bear to hear all the terrible details. He knew it wouldn’t change anything.’

              Rob looked at her in surprise. ‘I thought we
had
to go. I didn’t think we had a choice.’

              Dani rested her hand on his arm. ‘Of course you have a choice. It’s about you and your wife now.’

              Tears sprang to the man’s eyes. ‘It’s going to sound awful, but we’ve been trying to focus our attention on our other daughters – Gracie has two little ones and so has Liz. We want to be strong for them. My wife and I want to get past this so we can see them grow up.’

              ‘You shouldn’t be ashamed to think like that. It’s perfectly natural and the only way through this nightmare.’

              Dani took over making the teas and found a tray to carry them into the lounge. When the pair entered, Andy was examining the photographs on the window sill. He swiftly returned to his seat.

              Once Mr Wheelan was settled into an armchair with his drink Dani said, ‘Rob, if it isn’t too painful, could you tell us a little about Peggy?’

              ‘Yes. I’d like that. Since this whole thing happened no one has really been interested in our daughter. All the questions have been about Eric. What would you like to know?’

              ‘Just tell us what Peggy was like as a person – what were her interests and passions?’

              Rob’s lower lip began to tremble again but he took a deep breath and composed himself. ‘Peggy always loved dancing and singing when she was wee. She was such a pretty girl and for a while we thought Peggy might choose to go to stage school. She wasn’t quite tall enough for modelling. She studied for her Highers and got a decent set of grades. It was the humanities subjects that she enjoyed. Before Peggy had the twins, she was working at the Arts Centre in the town, doing the admin and answering phones, but she’d also started to get involved with the classes. Then she fell pregnant and the job stopped when the girls came along.’ Rob swallowed back a sob. ‘I suppose Peggy might have gone off to college if she hadn’t met Eric, but it was never part of the plan. It’s not like their relationship held her back, which is what the police inspector was suggesting. Peggy wanted to get married and have children. She was upset that it took them so long to have more kiddies after Callum. Then two came along – that’s the way it goes sometimes, isn’t it?’

              Dani nodded and smiled, not wishing to interrupt his flow.

              ‘When the girls started at pre-school, Peggy got a job at the travel agency in town. She really enjoyed it, especially meeting all the clients. Peggy was a really sociable lass. But it’s tough with twins. I reckon Eric did his best to help but he’d had a lot of work on. The man needed to pay the bills – that’s what I told our Peggy when she complained about him being away from home so much.’

              ‘So Eric Fisher had a lot of building jobs on in the weeks leading up to the tragedy?’ Andy shuffled forward a fraction.

              Rob nodded. ‘There’s a new estate just been built over near Eskbank. Eric was fitting them out – with new kitchens and the like. There are getting on for two hundred houses going up. Eric was really busy. He’d even taken on a young lad to help him.’

              ‘You don’t happen to know the name of this lad, do you?’ Andy asked casually.

              Rob screwed up his face. ‘He’s the son of one of Eric’s mates. I can’t quite recall his name – Carl, maybe?’

              ‘That’s fine. We can check it out for ourselves,’ Andy replied.

              Dani placed her cup carefully on the coffee table. ‘Why do you think Eric might have killed your daughter?’

              Rob blinked his eyes vigorously. ‘I don’t know. Gracie keeps telling us that it was bound to happen and we should have taken action sooner. She says Eric was too possessive of Peggy. But Pat and I didn’t see it that way. To us, Eric was an old-fashioned kind of husband. He didn’t want Peggy tottering about the town at night in short skirts and high heels with her mates. Gracie’s Keith doesn’t appear to mind in the slightest where she goes and what state she’s in when she comes back. I wouldn’t have let my Pat go out that way and have other blokes ogling her. Eric was a working man – a decent father. None of this makes any sense to me.’ Rob shook his head sadly.

              ‘Thank you so much for your time Mr Wheelan.’ Dani put the empty cups back on the tray and carried them into the kitchen, intending to wash up the dirty crockery before they left.

Chapter 8

‘E
ric must have been working cash-in-hand on those new builds,’ Andy commented. The detectives had stopped for lunch in a café on the outskirts of Dalkeith. ‘There was no evidence of the money having been deposited into his bank account or being reported to the Revenue.’

              ‘So where is the cash now?’ Dani bit into her bacon sandwich, the warm rasher making the sliced bread soggy and difficult to handle. ‘I wonder if Fisher told Sally Irving-Bryant about his illegal working practices.’

              ‘Was there any mention in the police files of this young lad Fisher was employing?’

              ‘No, I don’t recall reading anything about him. It would be worth having a talk with the boy though, to see how lucrative the job was. If Eric had a good income stream after all, it undermines our theory that economic strain had pushed him to commit the murders.’

              ‘Aye, but the lad’s not going to come forward willingly, not if the arrangement wasn’t legit.’

              ‘But this is a multiple murder inquiry. Surely the boy would know we’re not interested in his petty tax evasion.’ Dani shook her head in frustration. ‘Why didn’t the original investigating team work this lead more rigorously?’

              ‘Maybe they didn’t ask the right questions in the first place. Rob Wheelan really opened up to you. He’s even asked if he can contact you before the trial starts, to give them some advice on how to proceed.’

              Bevan shrugged this off. ‘Possibly, but the man is a cooperative witness, he certainly doesn’t appear to be biased against his son-in-law. The SIO should have got more out of the Wheelans at the time they were first interviewed. Their laxness may have created the chance of a ‘not guilty’ verdict, or the grounds for a later appeal. DCS Nicholson won’t be happy.’

              Andy wiped the remaining traces of tomato ketchup from his lips with a paper napkin. ‘It wasn’t what the team wanted to hear. They had Eric firmly in the frame. The questions they asked would have followed on from that assumption. He probably
is
guilty you know.’

              ‘
Probably
isn’t good enough in a court of law. That’s the equivalent of a ‘not proven’ verdict.’ Dani shook another miniature packet of sugar into her tea. ‘I reckon it would be worth going to visit this building site in Eskbank and see what the folk there remember.’

              ‘Aye,’ Andy responded brightly. ‘That’s a good plan.’

*

Eskbank was an upmarket suburb on the western edge of Dalkeith. The River View Estate looked close to completion. Narrow roads filled with almost identically designed executive new-builds spread out before the detectives, ending at tall fences beyond which lay nothing but wasteland. Andy parked in front of the show home and sales office.

              A man with a closely shaven head, sporting a shiny suit showed them into an office which smelt of new carpet. ‘What can I do for you?’ He asked warily, gesturing for the police officers to take a seat.

              Dani placed a photograph of Eric Fisher on the desk between them. ‘Is it correct that this man did some building work for you from the November of 2013 up until the summer of last year?’

              The man nodded. ‘Aye, Eric did the internal carpentry and fitted the kitchens. He had all the correct qualifications and insurance.’

              ‘How was he paid?’ Andy enquired bluntly.

              The man shifted about in his seat. ‘Mr Fisher preferred to be paid in cash. Our finance officer said this wasn’t a problem. It was up to our contractors to declare their own taxable earnings. It wasn’t our responsibility.’

              ‘Were you questioned by the police when Eric Fisher was arrested for the murder of his family last year?’

              He shook his head. ‘I heard about it obviously. I assumed it must have been some kind of domestic dispute. We were trying to sell the final few plots here when the story broke. To be honest, we weren’t keen at the time to have our association with Fisher made public.’

              ‘So you never approached the police yourself, to inform them that Fisher had been working for you?’

              ‘No.’ The man had the good grace to look embarrassed.

              ‘Do you recall Fisher having any associates working alongside him?’ Andy fixed the salesman with a steely glare.

              ‘There was a young lad, looked about sixteen years old. He did all the shifting and carrying.’

              ‘What was his name?’ Dani asked.

              ‘I think it was Craig.’

              ‘Could you provide us with a description of this boy?’ Andy pressed, with barely contained irritation.

              ‘Of course, anything I can do to help.’

*

‘All of Eric Fisher’s friends and family will have to be re-interviewed to determine who this lad is.’ Dani stared out at the metal grey clouds and sighed. ‘DCI Carmichael is going to be mightily pissed off.’

              ‘What? Because we’ve done their job for them?’

              ‘This evidence may prove to be irrelevant to the question of Fisher’s guilt.’

              ‘But it proves the investigation wasn’t thorough enough, which is what your lawyer friend suspected from the start. Are you going to tell her about this new evidence?’

              Dani winced, her loyalties torn between her colleagues on the police force and the desire for Eric Fisher to receive a fair trial. ‘Once we’ve passed the information to City and Borders, they are required to disclose it to the defence team.’ She lowered her voice. ‘But I’m inclined to tell Sally everything now, then she’d have time to question Eric properly about it and mount a decent case. I just keep recalling the last time I withheld evidence because I
thought
it was for the greater good. I don’t have the right to do that. The jury should be made aware of absolutely everything, even if it means a guilty man walks free.’

              ‘You shouldn’t let what happened with Karlsen affect your judgement, Ma’am. The guy was a manipulator and a crook.’

              ‘I know that. But I can at least learn some lessons from the whole sorry episode.’

              Andy said no more and drove them in silence back to Edinburgh.

Chapter 9

T
his meeting had the potential to be awkward for the DCI. Dani Bevan hadn’t seen James Irving for over a year, not since she’d investigated the Ardyle case. Back then, it looked as if their friendship might develop into something more. But it never did.

              They met for a coffee in an incredibly ornate café just outside the walls of Edinburgh Castle. Dani was surprised to see that James was dressed casually, in a red polo shirt and jeans. The last time she’d set eyes on him he’d been lying in a hospital bed at the Infirmary, his face badly bruised. The man looked entirely recovered. His handsome face was now lightly tanned and his expression contented.

              ‘Wow, you must get a lot more sun here in the east than we do.’ Dani greeted him warmly, depositing a kiss on his cheek.

              James cracked a wide smile. ‘I’ve just got back from a ski trip to France. It was sunny, but bloody cold.’

              Dani sat down at the table, ordering a cappuccino and some pastries. ‘Did Sally tell you why I’m here in Edinburgh?’

              He nodded. ‘I’m never seen my sister so shaken up by a brief. Sally is usually the epitome of professional detachment. To be honest, I think this Fisher guy freaks her out.’

              ‘I haven’t met him yet, only seen the mug shots and read the testimonies.’

              Knowing they wouldn’t be able to discuss the details any further, Irving changed the subject. ‘I suppose Sally informed you that I’ve moved back to the motherland on a permanent basis?’

              ‘Yes. How is your mum now?’ Dani smiled at the waitress as she set down her order.