Hold Hands in the Dark (18 page)

Chapter 45

A
ndy was jogging back to his car whilst talking to the boss on his mobile phone. They’d arranged to meet at Nancy McRae’s house in Partick as soon as they could, with a squad car for back-up.

              Dani was the first one to reach the property. She sat and waited for a couple of minutes, drumming her fingers on the steering wheel. ‘Sod this,’ she declared, climbing out and approaching the front door, knocking loudly when she reached it.

              Nancy McRae opened up. ‘Ah, visitors, visitors, please come in.’

              Dani held up her warrant card. ‘DCI Dani Bevan, Mrs McRae. I believe you’ve spoken with several members of my team.’

              ‘Yes, that’s right. Is DC Clifton not with you?’ The woman peered over Dani’s shoulder in mock expectation. ‘That’s who I’m usually fobbed off with.’

              ‘It’s just me today. Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?’

              ‘Not at all.’ Nancy led the way into a formal front sitting room. Dani sensed it wasn’t used very often.

              As the woman sat down and pulled up her sleeves, Dani noticed a series of faint needle scars spidering down Nancy’s arms.              

              ‘It’s a rather delicate matter, I’m afraid. Relating to something that happened in your past.’

              Nancy’s expression remained blank.

              ‘Is it true that during the second half of 1974, when you were fifteen years old, you had a boyfriend called Joe Faulkner? He was considerably older than you.’

              Nancy blinked several times. ‘Well, I’m hardly likely to forget, am I? Joe was my first love – my
only
love if I’m being perfectly honest. Nobody ever compared to him afterwards.’

              ‘How did you meet?’

              ‘My father liked to have political meetings in our house. In the early days they involved dozens of sweaty, earnest young men squashed into our tiny front room. Joe was one of those men. I thought he was the most beautiful human being I’d ever set eyes on. It will be difficult to imagine now, but back then I was beautiful too. Although I was only fifteen, I had an intellect far beyond my years. Joe and I would debate issues for hours on end. He said I’d wind up being the Prime Minister.’

              ‘Mr Duff didn’t know about the relationship?’

              ‘Not at first. But we intended to tell him, once I’d turned sixteen.’ Nancy gave a hollow laugh. ‘You may not believe it, but we planned to get married then.’

              ‘This was before Joe went missing, in the December of that year?’

              She nodded. ‘The last time I ever saw him, we made love in his flat. It was coming up to Christmas. Joe told me he was going to his brother’s farm in Portencross to spend it with them. He said by the following year I’d be going there with him, as his wife.’

              ‘What did you think had happened to him?’

              ‘Well, I knew for certain that Joe wasn’t killed on the night of the 19
th
.’

              ‘How did you know?’

              ‘Because I spoke to him after that date. He called me from a phonebox down the road from Crosbie Farm. That’s how I know now they must have killed him. Because they always denied he’d ever been there that December.’ She beat a fist against her chest. ‘I know for definite he was.’

              ‘Why didn’t you tell the police this?’

              Nancy smiled unpleasantly. ‘I was fifteen years old. A schoolgirl. For starters, I knew they wouldn’t take me seriously and if my parents found out I’d been sleeping with Joe then if he wasn’t dead already Dad would have finished the job. But I still hoped he’d come back, you see? For those first few years I was longing for him to turn up on my doorstep. He could be unpredictable, have a roving eye. I thought he might be enjoying one last fling before settling down with me. If I admitted there’d been a sexual relationship between us, Joe would have gone straight to prison when he showed up.’

              ‘But the months and years went past and he never did return.’

              ‘No and I didn’t handle it very well. I was a mess. I couldn’t face school and played truant with some kids who got me into drugs. It helped me to deal with the pain. I actually don’t think I could have got through those years without the heroin. But the stuff I had to do in order to get a fix I could’ve done without.’

              ‘And Joe? Did you try to find him?’

              Nancy cackled. ‘The state I was in? But yes, in the early months I hung about at the Faulkners’ place a lot. I knew Joe had been there and that they’d been lying about it. I kept banging on the door and shouting questions through the letterbox. Joe had told me he and his brother, Magnus, kept arguing. That Magnus wasn’t prepared to help the strikers any more. It really hurt Joe. He felt like it was a betrayal. I started to suspect they’d done something to him. Then, one day in the height of summer, I got the bus out to the farm. I wasn’t high or anything. I was quite clear-headed. The place was deserted. I asked in the village shop where they’d gone. The woman told me the family had emigrated. Just like that. I knew then that they’d killed my Joe. Why else take off without telling anyone where they were heading?’

              ‘How long were you an addict, Nancy?’

              ‘My dad finally got me into a rehabilitation unit in 1980. I was there just over a year. It saved my life, I suppose.’ Nancy raised her eyes from her lap. ‘That’s how the American detective found me. Somebody showed him my records. He said my age fitted the person he was looking for.’

              Dani had risen slowly to her feet. ‘What do you mean?’ Her heart was starting to pump hard.

              ‘He got here about an hour before you did. He was just making routine enquiries. The man didn’t realise what he’d stumbled into.’

              Dani made for the hallway, putting her hands out to touch the walls, navigating her way to the kitchen, like a blind person in an unfamiliar place. ‘
Sam
? Where are you,
Sam
?’

              The silence was almost unbearable. Then she saw him on the floor by the back door. A pool of blood had seeped out onto the stone tiles from his upper body.

              Dani fell to her knees beside him. ‘Oh, God. Please be alive.
Please
.’ She put a hand to his neck, desperately seeking out a pulse.

              There was a movement in the doorway behind her. Dani turned, the tears staining her cheeks.

              Nancy was standing absolutely still, holding a large knife in her hand. ‘Don’t worry, you’ll soon be joining him. I will make it quick, though. I promise.’

Chapter 46

B
efore Nancy could take another step, Dani heard the noise of the flimsy front door being knocked off its hinges. The woman had time to turn briefly before the stream of heavy boots reached the kitchen and DC Calder flattened her to the ground, the knife she was holding falling with a clatter to one side of her prone form.

              ‘Radio for an ambulance! Right Now!’ Dani twisted back to Sam. She shuffled forward on her knees, feeling the cool blood seeping through her trousers.

              Dani turned him over, trying to assess the extent of his injuries. She identified stab wounds across his chest, with some cuts having reached as high as his neck. She placed her hands over the areas where the bleeding seemed to be worse. ‘Sam, can you hear me? The ambulance is coming. I’m here, my love, it’s Dani. Please stay with me.’

              Suddenly Andy was by her side. She watched him put his face up to the American’s mouth and nose to listen for signs of breathing. Dani buried her head into Sam’s chest whilst her friend and colleague performed some more basic medical checks, already knowing in her heart the stark words that were bound to follow.

              ‘He’s gone, Dani. I’m so sorry, but he’s gone.’

*

DS Andy Calder’s expression was a mask of concentration as he glared at a page which was densely packed with hand-written notes.

              DS Alice Mann walked across the office floor to join him. ‘Are you ready?’

              ‘Aye, just give me a second. I want to make sure I’m thoroughly prepared.’

              These were words she never thought she’d hear from Andy Calder. ‘Come on, you’ve done enough. It’s time.’              He stood up squarely. ‘You’re probably right. Let’s go.’

              The pair didn’t exchange a single word until they reached the interview room. Then Alice turned to her colleague and said, ‘You take the lead. She’s all yours.’

              Nancy McRae was seated on the opposite side of the table with a female solicitor beside her and a half-drunk cup of tea resting in one hand.

              ‘Good afternoon, Mrs McRae,’ Andy began courteously. ‘I hope you’ve been well taken care of by the duty staff?’

              Nancy kept her eyes levelled at the blank wall behind her interrogators. ‘Yes, well enough.’

              ‘Good. Now, just a few wee questions to begin with.’ He slid a pile of photographs towards his interviewee. ‘Here’s some shots of Sergeant Sam Sharpe of the Virginia Police Department, father of two, who’d given over thirty years of service to his country - after
you’d
had done with him.’ Andy tapped the graphic images menacingly. ‘Multiple stab wounds to the chest and stomach, defence wounds to both hands and arms. Our pathologist reckons you took him completely by surprise. He had no warning of the attack.’

              Alice could tell that her colleague was finding it difficult to control his emotions. She didn’t intervene. She’d take over if necessary, but not yet.

              ‘Detective Sharpe bled to death on your grubby, cold kitchen floor, thousands of miles from home. My only wish is that it was DCI Bevan’s voice he heard in his ear before he slipped away and not
your
evil words.’

              ‘Have you actually got a question, DS Calder?’ The solicitor asked half-heartedly.

              ‘We’ve got the knife that was used to butcher Detective Sharpe in our labs. Your fingerprints are all over it. Right now, my DCS is liaising with the Governor of Virginia. He’s arranging for your extradition.’

              Nancy slowly shifted her gaze. For the first time, her blank expression displayed a flicker of concern.

              ‘Oh, had you not considered that possibility, Mrs McRae? Perhaps you also don’t know that the State of Virginia has the death penalty for murder. And what they
really
don’t like, over there in that beautiful part of the world, are people who carve up their law enforcement officers.’

              ‘I’m still waiting for that question.’ The solicitor folded her arms over her ample chest, looking as if she were going through the motions.

              ‘Oh, it’s coming, don’t you worry. Now, I happen to know that you’re responsible for the deaths of more people than just Detective Sharpe. So I’m going to make you an offer. Give me all the details of your other crimes and I might be able to organise for you to spend the rest of your miserable days rotting in a Scottish prison. Tell me nothing, and we’ll let you taste justice American style. Did you know that in Virginia you can choose your own execution method? Lethal injection or the electric chair. Life’s full of choices these days, isn’t it?’

              ‘I’ll talk,’ Nancy mumbled under her breath.

              ‘Sorry, Mrs McRae, I didn’t quite catch that?’

              ‘I said,
I’ll talk
.’              

              ‘Fair enough.’ Andy turned to Alice. ‘DS Mann, would you very kindly switch on the tape?’

Chapter 47

P
rofessor Rhodri Morgan opened the front door of his second floor tenement flat. ‘Good evening Detective, please come inside.’

              ‘Is she okay to have visitors?’ Andy stepped tentatively over the threshold. ‘I can come back another time?’

              ‘She’s a little better. The doctor gave her a sedative but it’s wearing off.’

              Andy followed the professor into his grand sitting room, where the sun could be seen through the bay window, setting majestically over Kelvingrove Park. Dani was curled up in a blanket in one of the room’s large armchairs, a mug of coffee cradled in her hands.

              ‘Hi there,’ Andy said softly, taking the chair opposite.

              ‘Hi,’ she replied, managing a glimmer of a smile.

              ‘I can sling my hook if you want. Just say the word.’

              ‘No, I want you to be here.’

              Rhodri entered with a mug of coffee for Andy. He placed it on a side table and slipped out again.

              ‘We’ve been interviewing solidly for the last two days.’

              ‘Did she talk?’

              Andy nodded solemnly. ‘Yes, she talked.’

              ‘I want to know everything.’

              ‘Are you sure? This can wait until you’re feeling better, more recovered.’

              Dani shook her head vigorously. ‘No, it can’t. I
need
to know.’

              Andy took a deep breath and picked up his mug. ‘When she got out of rehab, Nancy tried to rebuild her life. Her father got her an admin job at the union offices and things seemed back on track for a while. Then the Ferris Brewer workers went out on strike in ’82. Alec Duff visited the front line to offer his support.’

              ‘And one of his own union members shot him in the head.’

              ‘Yeah, I reckon that was when Nancy really lost the plot. She married Tony McRae a few years later and the two of them bought their place in Partick. The pair lived a normal existence on the surface. But Nancy was obsessed with finding out what happened to Joe Faulkner. Her father was dead and buried, but there was still a faint hope that she could be reunited with Joe once more.

              She knew the family had moved abroad. Nancy isn’t stupid, she assumed wherever it was must be English-speaking. She figured the US or Australia. That was her only starting point. Like the inhabitants of Portencross, Nancy had no idea that Vicki had stayed behind in Scotland. The woman didn’t have access to any police reports or travel records, so she’d not a great deal to go on.’

              ‘It was an impossible task, surely?’

              ‘For a good number of years it really was. Then the internet came along and Nancy’s job got a little bit easier.’

              Dani shuffled up with interest.

              ‘She figured that at some point, one of the Faulkners, or their descendants, would need to have some kind of contact with Portencross again, whether it was to go to a funeral, or simply satisfy their curiosity. Nancy judged that after a certain number of years had passed, one of them might slip up and try to come back.’

              ‘It was a smart theory.’

              ‘So Nancy joined a series of online communities that were related to Portencross and the surrounding area - these included book clubs, travel blogs and genealogy sites. That’s how she came across the McNeils. John was constantly posting stuff about his research into the McNeils of Portencross. Then, about two years ago, John shared his excitement at discovering there was
another
prominent Scottish family, interconnected to his own and with members living right there in his hometown of Richmond, Virginia.’

              ‘The Faulkners.’

              ‘As soon as Nancy saw the name, she knew she’d found them. She immediately got in contact with McNeil through the discussion forum and claimed she was one of the McNeil clan, keen to hear further updates. Of course, John had absolutely no idea that these requests were bogus, why should he? You can pretend to be anyone you want on these sites. Nobody checks.’

              ‘Bloody internet.’

              ‘Nancy got hold of the McNeils’ address in Richmond from these conversations. But most crucially, John McNeil told her about Detective Dale Faulkner and how they all might be able to play happy families in the future.’

              ‘So when Dale killed the McNeils, thinking that was the end of anyone rooting around into his past in Scotland, Nancy had already found out his whereabouts.’

              ‘Yep. But Nancy had a problem. Back in 2014, she was diagnosed with cancer. The recovery process was invasive and tough. Tony insisted she have every treatment available. She was out of action for the best part of eighteen months. When she was finally able to get back on her computer and find out what was going on with the McNeils, she encountered radio silence. The guy hadn’t posted a thing for the whole time she’d been ill.’

              ‘That’s because he was dead.’

              ‘Aye, but Nancy didn’t know that. When she felt recovered enough, Mrs McRae took a trip. She told Tony she needed to recuperate in the sun for a few weeks. By this point she was tutoring freelance from home, having given up her lecturing job for her treatment. There was nothing to stop her finally completing her mission. She had the McNeils’ address and knew that Dale was a cop, but that was it.’

              ‘She travelled to Richmond.’

              ‘Nancy went straight to the McNeils’ house. She found the place boarded up and abandoned but easy enough to get inside. This was when she started to get suspicious about what might have happened to the pair. Nancy found the chained up freezer in the basement and got a bad feeling. The woman already believed the Faulkners were murderers, so it wasn’t any great leap to assume that Dale had got rid of the old couple.’

              ‘Is that when she contacted Dale?’

              Andy nodded. ‘She sent him a few anonymous letters, just to rattle him up. They suggested he may have left a couple of corpses on ice.’

              ‘Dale must have panicked. That was when he shifted the bodies and buried them?’

              ‘But Nancy wanted to find out what had become of Joe, she wasn’t interested in bringing Dale to justice for the murders of John and Rita. She also wanted to get this information without ending up in a Virginian prison cell.’

              ‘So she came up with the idea of the 911 call from the McNeils’ place?’

              ‘Nancy’s father had some old contacts in Pittsburgh, going back decades. One of these contacts was a businessman of the shadier variety. He got hold of a gun for her. All Nancy wanted at this stage was to make Dale talk. She needed a weapon to threaten him with. The intention was to have a discussion. She’d even set out some candles in bottles, to make the scene more conducive. But when she’d lured Dale to that house, set eyes on him for the first time in all those years, Nancy was overcome with rage. She forced Dale to sit at the table and asked him repeatedly where his uncle was, what had happened to him. Dale wouldn’t tell her and the clock was ticking, so she shot him.’

              ‘That was her first kill. It must have felt good. Justice for Joe after all those years.’

              ‘Yes, but she still didn’t know the truth. Nancy wanted more. Before she fled from the house and dumped the gun in the James River, Nancy went through Dale’s wallet. Inside, she found a folded up flyer for a classical music concert in New York City from the previous year. It was showcasing a solo performance by the famous Scottish pianist, Vicki Kendrick. She’d never made the connection before. Now the pieces had slotted into place.’

              ‘Nancy had found Dale’s sister. So it wasn’t Sam who led her to Vicki. That’s some comfort at least.’

              ‘It was time for Nancy to come home.’

              Dani screwed up her face. ‘It mustn’t have been long after his wife got back from the US that Tony McRae had his accident. That can’t be a coincidence?’

              ‘Oh, it isn’t. Nancy returned a few days before she was expected. Tony was in their bed with one of the secretaries from the shipyard. He’d been shagging her since Nancy had been diagnosed with cancer. She’d always known he was a useless piece of crap, but Nancy decided he might finally be able to serve a purpose. That Thursday evening, when he’d gone into work late, to check his team’s handiwork on the order that was approaching its deadline, Nancy followed him.’

              ‘And shoved her husband off the platform onto the ship’s steel hull, 120 feet below. I suppose now she’d already killed a man, it was becoming easy.’

              ‘Nancy used her husband’s death to launch a campaign against Hemingway Shipyard for negligence.’

              ‘So what about Vicki?’

              ‘Nancy said that befriending Vicki was fairly straightforward. She hung about the bars around St Mungo’s college and struck up a conversation with her. Vicki was lonely and possessed a pathological fear of being left on her own in the dark. Nancy went to Vicki’s place quite often and they drank together, sometimes they made love. Vicki thought that was the price she had to pay for the company. She believed that was why Nancy had picked her up in the first place. Vicki didn’t want the neighbours to know she had a female lover, so Nancy came in through the back.’

              ‘What happened on the afternoon Vicki was killed?’

              ‘Nancy was due to come over for a drink before Vicki’s performance. She said it was easy. Vicki was as light as a feather. Nancy let her drink the best part of a bottle of wine before she strung her up to the light fitting in the sitting room, inviting the woman to tell her exactly what they’d done with Joseph Faulkner. Every time she refused to do so, Nancy stabbed her with a kitchen knife.’

              ‘And did Vicki confess?’

              ‘Partially. She admitted he was dead and that they’d buried his body somewhere on the farm. But the woman bled out before Nancy could get the whole story. She’d nicked the carotid artery by mistake. After that, Vicki was a goner.’

              Dani sighed deeply. ‘Five people dead, all to keep that family’s secret.’ The tears started to leak out again onto her pale cheeks.

              Andy put his cup down and knelt in front of his boss, taking her hands. ‘I could call James. Get him to come back right now. I know he would. He loves you.’

              ‘I can’t let him see me like this, it wouldn’t be fair. It would break his heart. I just need some more time, that’s all.’

              ‘Okay, but promise me you won’t push him away. You haven’t lost everything, please remember that.’

              ‘Then why does it feel as if I have?’ Dani crumpled into sobs.

              Andy leant forward and took her in his arms. ‘You’ve got to be strong, Ma’am. In time, it will get better.’