A Rush of Blood

Sixty-nine

‘I’m surprised we can get a mobile signal out of here,’ said Jack McGurk. ‘Alex Skinner wasn’t kidding when she told us this place was in the back of beyond.’

‘You’re in, though?’ Neil McIlhenney asked.

‘Oh yes, no problem about that. There’s just the one key, for a Chubb five-lever lock; not hard to match from the lot we took from Green’s office.’

‘What’s the place like?’

‘It’s quite a nice wee place. It’s called Moor Cottage. There’s a letter box on the road at the start of the drive that leads up to it, otherwise you’d never know it was here. The original building has two bedrooms, kitchen, bathroom and a living area, with a conservatory on the back, but he’s built it out at the back, with another bedroom, en suite. . complete with mirrored wardrobes, and a steam room, would you believe. . and an office. That’s where we are just now.’

‘Have you found what you’re looking for?’

‘Not so far. We’ve been though his desk, but there’s nothing of interest there, apart from a photograph we found tucked away in a drawer of Green with a bird.’

‘Ex-wife?’

‘It’s not Marianne, that’s for sure. Can’t say about the second Mrs G. Sauce thinks it might be his receptionist, but it’s a pretty bad image.’

‘Bring it back with you anyway. Did he have a computer there?’

‘No, but there is a broadband connection, so maybe he had a laptop that he used when he was out here.’

‘It wasn’t in his car,’ said the superintendent. ‘I’ve seen the inventory. It could be in his Edinburgh house, I suppose.’

‘No,’ McGurk replied. ‘I spent a good chunk of my Sunday going through that. I’d have found one if it was there.’

‘Well, what else have you got?’

‘Old technology,’ the detective sergeant told him. ‘There’s a four-drawer filing cabinet, stuffed with papers, sorted in a way that might have made sense to Green but makes none to us. Sauce is still going through it, for the second time, but so far he’s found nothing that relates to Lituania SAFI, or to Zaliukas.’ He chuckled. ‘It is a fucking treasure trove, though. We’ve found some very interesting names in there. It’s like a who’s who of Edinburgh criminal society, and more than that. He’s been involved with other people, names you’d recognise but wouldn’t imagine associating with Ken Green. From the quick look we’ve had, offshore companies in out-of-the-way locations seem to have been a specialty of his. I can almost smell the laundered money.’

‘But there’s nothing on Zaliukas’s company,’ McIlhenney repeated.

‘No, sir, not yet.’

‘Even though there must be. Jack, are there any signs of forced entry?’

‘Not that I can see. The first thing we did was check the security of the place. The front door was a double locked when we opened it, most of the original windows are painted shut and everything at the back’s fairly modern and looks pretty much burglar-proof.’

‘Somebody’s been in there, though. I can feel it. Have you looked in any of the other rooms yet?’

‘Sure. We eliminated everything else before we started here. We’ve found his coat, his condoms, a vibrator, some ladies items, including exotic underwear, and two pairs of wellies, size ten and ladies size thirty-seven. All the business stuff is in the office.’

‘Are there any outbuildings?’

‘There’s a wooden shed. There’s nothing in it but folding garden chairs, a lawnmower, electric trimmer and some other implements.’

‘Take another look, there and outside. An uncle of mine had a place like that, away up in Ullapool, miles from anywhere. He had a fixation about getting there and finding that he’d forgotten the key, so he planked one in the garden. You might find that Green did the same thing. From what you say, everything in the shed’s summer stuff, so look for signs for something having been moved recently that shouldn’t have been, there and around the house.’

‘I’ll do that, sir, while Sauce finishes going though the filing cabinet.’ He paused. ‘What about these other papers? Can we take these with us?’

‘Are they evidence of crime?’

‘I suppose they could be. But we won’t know until we’ve studied them, will we?’

‘No,’ McIlhenney conceded. ‘In that case I’m not sure that we’ve got a legal right to remove them. I’ll need to take advice on that.’

As he held his phone to his ear, a broad smile spread across McGurk’s face. ‘No, you don’t,’ he said. ‘We do have the right. Marianne McKean, Green’s executor, told us we could clear his stuff out of the cottage. She said we’d be doing her a favour.’

‘In that case. .’ McIlhenney exclaimed. ‘But just to be certain, give her a call and get her to say it again. If she gives you the all clear, shove the lot in your car and bring it back. We can look at it at our leisure. You’re right, we might have got ourselves a bonus. It’s still second prize, though, behind something to identify Tomas Zaliukas’s partner in the massage parlour business.’

As he listened, McGurk was aware of hand signals along aside him. ‘That’s Sauce finished now,’ he said. ‘There’s nothing.’

‘Bugger!’ the superintendent swore. ‘Still. . even that tells us something. There should have been a file on Lituania SAFI, but there isn’t. Somebody has beaten you to it, I’m certain. Jack, I want the two of you to wait there. Dorward’s going to love this, but I’m going to ask him to send a team out there. I want that place gone over. If there’s even a single trace there, and we can match it. .’