Girls Of The Dark (18 page)

Chapter 45

S
haring a flat did have its advantages Alice thought, as she dropped her briefcase in the hallway. The lights were on in the living room and the place was warm and cheerful.

              She popped her head around the door. Her flatmate, Meera was lying on the sofa with her boyfriend, watching TV. ‘Hi Alice! Do you want us to shift up?’

              ‘No, not at all. I’m going to take a shower. You guys go ahead, enjoy the film.’

              ‘There’s wine open in the fridge, help yourself!’               Alice smiled as Meera’s words followed her up the stairs to her room.

              The detective threw herself onto the bed, kicking off her shoes. They were very close to identifying their man. She and Andy had examined the employee records of every single company that Duncan Gillespie had driven Mr Swinton to since 1995. Only one name had cropped up in them all. It had positively jumped out at them, in fact.

              Andy was also trying to track down the physical evidence from the trial of Calvin Suter in October 1975. At first, the records department said they couldn’t find it. Then a manager came back off his lunchbreak and claimed to know where the stuff may be. When she left the department, Calder was still waiting to lay his hands on it.

              Alice was very nearly asleep when the phone began buzzing by her side. It took a moment for her to shake her thoughts back to reality and answer it.

              ‘DS Mann? This is the Oncology Department at the Glasgow Infirmary. We had your details on file regarding an inquiry into the health of Ms Lisa Abbot?’

              ‘Yes, that’s correct.’ Alice was immediately alert.

              ‘I’m sorry to bother you, Sergeant. Your number was literally all we had in relation to this patient. There are no surviving family or friends.’

              ‘Has something happened?’

              ‘Ms Abbot was rushed into the ICU this afternoon. Her condition has seriously worsened. We believe the cancer may have reached her respiratory system. We don’t think she has very long.’

              ‘I’ll be there in half an hour. Thank you for calling.’

*

Alice had dressed casually. She didn’t want this visit to appear official. One of the specialists accompanied the sergeant to the room where Lisa was occupying a bed, connected to a respirator.

              ‘Can she still talk?’ Alice tried to keep the alarm out of her voice.

              ‘Yes, the breathing tube is just a precaution, to make her feel more comfortable. Lisa has been given morphine to manage the pain. She’s drifting in and out of consciousness.’

              ‘How long do you think she’s got?’

              ‘We can never tell in these situations. Hours possibly, a few days perhaps. No longer than that.’

              ‘Lisa was banking on being able to go to America, to try this new drug that they’ve developed over there. It’s a shame she hasn’t managed to hold out long enough to make the trip.’

              The doctor smiled wistfully. ‘It’s a blessing, Sergeant. The drug that Lisa had found out about on the internet was in the early stages of its trials on patients. There were some astonishing initial results, but this can often be put down to other factors. It would have been a long and painful road for her. In my opinion, she was simply delaying the inevitable and would have died in a foreign land, far away from everything she knew and loved.’

              Alice doubted whether Lisa Abbot loved anything or anyone. ‘Can I go in?’

              ‘You aren’t going to upset her?’ The doctor suddenly looked worried.

              ‘No, of course not. I’ve been watching her for so long that I’ve come to feel as if I know her well. Do you understand what I mean?’

              He nodded, smiling. ‘In the end, our common humanity will always unite us.’

              Alice shook his hand warmly before entering the overheated room. She shrugged off her cardigan and sat by the bedside. ‘Lisa, can you hear me?’

              The woman turned her pale face. A flicker of recognition showed in her eyes. Lisa lifted her hand, as if she were trying to tug at the tube.

              ‘Would you like to speak?’

              She nodded weakly.

              Alice gently pulled the mask from the woman’s mouth, waiting for her breathing to become regular again. ‘How are you feeling?’

              ‘What are you doing here?’ Lisa rasped.

              ‘The doctors called me. Mine was the only number they had. Don’t you have any family, Lisa? Can I contact someone to be here with you?’

              ‘No. There’s nobody.’

              ‘What about from the time when you were still Sara White? That is your
real
name, isn’t it? Where are your parents, your siblings?’

              Her body stiffened and her breathing became more ragged. Alice glanced worriedly at the monitors. She didn’t want the doctors rushing in. ‘Okay. We don’t need to talk about that. Tell me something else instead. There was a picture of you in your flat. It was very sunny and you were with a young man. It seemed like a happy time.’

              Lisa’s body relaxed. ‘It was.’

              ‘Where were you both? It looked tropical.’

              ‘Fiji. We stayed there for a year.’

              ‘Who was with you? He seemed nice. Handsome.’

              ‘That’s Matt. He was my boyfriend.’

              ‘But not any longer?’

              ‘He hates me now.’

              Alice touched her arm, shocked by how cold the skin was. ‘I’m sure that can’t be true. I could call him? Ask him to come?’

              ‘No, it’s too late.’

              ‘Did you meet Matt when you were working for the Tulloch family?’

              Lisa nodded her head and coughed. ‘Matt’s mum thought he was too young for me, so they sent me away. She was angry, called me awful things.’

              ‘But Matt followed you?’

              A tear slid down the woman’s cheek. ‘When he turned sixteen, he came to join me. We took a flight to the South Pacific and I supported us, by working in bars and hotels. It was the happiest time of my whole life.’

              ‘What went wrong?’

              ‘Matt got bored. He was just a little rich boy all along. By the time his Dad tracked us down in our little beach house in Fiji, he was ready to go home. The game was over.’

              ‘I’m sorry. But why does Matt hate you, shouldn’t it be the other way around if he was the one who left?’

              Lisa shifted her head to one side. ‘I know things.’

              Alice felt her heart beat faster. ‘What do you know, Lisa?’

              The woman turned slowly back to face her visitor. ‘I can tell you things, terrible things, but I want something in return.’

              ‘What do you want?’ Alice wondered what this dying woman could possibly need or desire with so little time left in this world.

              ‘I want to see my daughter.’

Chapter 46

D
CS Douglas looked oddly out of place in dark chino trousers and an open-necked shirt. He was deep in conversation with Brian Tulloch in the waiting area of the Oncology Department. For the first time, Dani was mightily thankful she wasn’t a member of senior management.

             
‘Jeez
, I wouldn’t like to be in Douglas’s shoes.’ Andy whistled through his teeth.

              ‘He’s definitely taking one for the team there.’ Dani glanced towards the window of the hospital room, where Glenda and Ellie Tulloch were seated by Lisa’s bedside. The scene appeared amicable enough.

              Alice returned from the machine with their coffees. ‘I honestly didn’t think they’d come.’

              ‘The woman is dying. I suspect that swung it for Glenda Tulloch. When we broke the news to her at the house earlier, about Lisa’s terminal cancer, I could see how relieved she was. All this time they’ve been worried that Lisa would take Ellie back. That’s what she’s been holding over them for the last thirteen years. Abbot had the power to make the Tullochs do anything she pleased.’

              ‘Do you believe that’s why she had the baby in the first place?’ Andy asked.

              ‘I don’t think so,’ Alice replied. ‘Sara – as she was then, discovered she was pregnant when they were hiding out in Fiji. Brian Tulloch found Matt, Sara and Ellie living together on the beach. It was a pretty squalid existence. Matt had had enough of his little adventure by then and wanted to go home. There was never any question that Ellie would go with them. Matt was only fourteen when Sara began a sexual relationship with him. She was working as Fran’s au pair at the time. As far as the Tullochs were concerned, the girl was a child molester. They didn’t want the shame of the whole pitiful episode coming out, nor the risk that their grandchild would stay in her care.’

              ‘Did Sara object to them taking Ellie?’

              ‘No, they offered her money, lots of it. Sara was to disappear and allow the Tulloch’s to raise Ellie as their daughter. She
was
their own flesh and blood after all.’

              ‘Sara changed her name to Lisa Abbot, using the two identities to extort money from people.’

              ‘But she maintained her hold over the Tullochs. Lisa thought it would be useful to be able to drive Glenda’s car from time to time. So she demanded that her name go on the insurance.’

              ‘No wonder Mrs Tulloch was so determined to take the rap for the vehicle offences. She was desperate not to lose her little girl.’

              ‘Lisa was squeezing what she could out of the Tullochs until the very last moment. I saw her receiving money from Matt again the other day in town,’ Alice added. ‘She’d tried to hide the fact she was ill. I don’t think he had a clue.’

              ‘Did you feel sorry for Lisa? Is that why we’ve granted her this final wish?’

              The corner of Alice’s lip curled up. ‘Not at all. That woman has got information. I want to know exactly who’s responsible for the deaths of Raymond and Janet Kerr. I want to hear her admit that she killed poor Kath Nevin. I never dreamed I’d get something like this to use as leverage with her - not a dying woman with nothing to lose.’

              ‘Who knew Lisa Abbot actually had feelings for the daughter she sold to her in-laws and had no proper contact with for the following thirteen years.’

              ‘I don’t think she knew herself, Andy. Not until the woman realised she was about to kick the bucket.’

Chapter 47

A
lice stood in the doorway and motioned for the visitors to leave.

              ‘No! I want them to stay longer. I want to see Ellie on her own!’ Lisa’s face was amazingly defiant, considering how weak she was.

              ‘I’ll see what I can do. But we need to have a chat first.’ Alice waited for Glenda and Ellie to reach the corridor before she pulled the door shut. ‘Now, Lisa. I’ve done what you asked. It’s time to tell me what you know. It will make you feel better to talk, make the passing easier, I promise.’

              Lisa relaxed back against the pillows, her breaths coming slow and regular. ‘I needed the money for my treatment in the States. Ray was always happy to help out, but he didn’t have much. Really, I needed more. It was Janet’s savings and compensation money that I wanted.’

              ‘How did you plan to get it?’

              Lisa let out a humourless laugh. ‘I made a mistake. I decided to tell the truth, for the first time in my bloody life! I called Ray on the Wednesday night and told him I had cancer. That he needed to ask his mum for the money to pay for my treatment. I knew she had it in her account. But Ray became distressed and incoherent. I thought maybe he didn’t understand what I was telling him, how serious it was. So I asked a friend to visit them both on the following evening. He was to pretend to be my doctor, tell them how I didn’t have long to live without the treatment. That was all.’

              ‘Who was this friend?’

              ‘Nick McKenna. He wasn’t prepared to give me the money, so I told him he had to do this little job for me instead. Nick swears that when he left the Kerrs’ place, they were upset but still alive.’

              ‘He never told us this.’

              ‘No, he asked me to sort it. He’d get his wife to release the money if I made sure that nobody ever knew he visited the house in Anniesland on the night they died.’

              ‘Then we got the statement from Kath Nevin.’

              ‘I’ve got contacts on that street. I heard about the police asking questions, producing an E-fit, for Christ’s sake. Without the witness, there could be no further action taken. I knew Mrs Nevin’s little habits. You could’ve set your watch by her. It was easy enough to follow the old bag to the bus stop. She wasn’t very careful when she crossed that busy road.’

              Alice stood up. ‘And no one to your knowledge returned to the Kerrs’ property on that night?’

              ‘No, that was it. Nick was the only one there.’

              ‘Thank you Lisa, that’s all I needed to know.’ 

              ‘What about Ellie – is she coming back in?’

              Alice snorted incredulously. ‘Goodbye Ms Abbot.’

              ‘Wait.’ She grabbed Alice’s sleeve. ‘There’s something else. We always went sailing a lot.’

              ‘Who did?’

              ‘When I worked for the Tullochs. Brian was running the yacht club at Tighnabruaich in those days. We went there most weekends during the summer.’

              ‘Why is this of any conceivable interest to me?’ Alice wanted to shake the woman’s hand off her shirt.

              ‘Brian had lots of business friends. Every weekend there was some new guy on the yacht. They all looked at me like they wanted to rip my clothes off. But one man was different. I think he noticed something in me. He spoke to me like I was his equal. I liked him.’

              ‘What was his name?’

              ‘Gregory.’

              Alice’s body stiffened. She lowered herself back into the chair. ‘Tell me about him.’

              ‘One Saturday afternoon it was very hot. The sun was beating down onto the deck of the boat. The Tullochs had been drinking all day with their guests. Gregory asked me to sit next to him. I don’t think Brian minded much. He wanted to keep his clients happy and I was nothing to him. Gregory was a bit old for me, he was in his fifties. I don’t reckon he fancied me, just wanted to talk. It seemed to give him a thrill to whisper all these terrible, horrific things to me.’

              ‘What did he say?’

              ‘Gregory told me about that stretch of coastline. How it contained dozens of little caves and caverns. He said that some of them stretched for miles into the hillsides. He liked to visit them by boat, that way you could discover a tiny headland that maybe nobody else even knew existed. I said that was bullshit. It was Scotland, not bloody darkest Africa. So he said, if it was bullshit, how come nobody knew about the cave where he’d hidden the bodies?’

              Alice took in a sharp breath. ‘What bodies?’ Her voiced sounded weaker than Lisa’s.

              ‘Of all the women he’d tortured and killed. Gregory had money and connections. He said it was easy enough to find girls. They spilled out of clubs and pubs every night of the week. Sometimes he borrowed a taxi cab to pick them up, other times he chatted them up in a bar. Whichever took his fancy. Then he lured them into his car and drove them out to the coast. He drugged them and sailed them to his little cave in a boat. It was perfect, he said. Nobody could interrupt him. He was like Neptune. Out there amongst the waves where his power was absolute.’

              ‘Would you be able to show us on a map where this place is, Lisa?’ Alice knew how frantic she sounded. They had to know that location, before it was too late.

              ‘It was a long time ago.’

              ‘But can you please try? I could organise for Ellie to come in again. We could leave you alone this time?’

              Lisa made a monumental effort to lift her head up from the pillow. There was a triumphant look on her face. ‘I knew this information was good. The best I’ve ever had. But there wasn’t very much I could do with it until now. It’s a shame there was never any money to be made out of it.’

              Alice had to breathe in deeply and count to ten, otherwise she was likely to reach forward and throttle the woman, deathbed or not. ‘I’m going to get my DCI. We’ll come back in a wee while with a map of the Argyle and Bute coastline. I want you to pinpoint where Gregory told you this cave was situated. Then you can see Ellie.’

              Lisa lay back down and pouted. ‘Okay, you win.’