Deception

SEVENTEEN

Steven drove back to Edinburgh feeling low after telling Ann Binnie of her husband’s death and the circumstances surrounding it. It had been a harrowing experience and although Brewer had been prepared to do it — seeing it as an unpleasant but necessary part of his job — Steven had insisted, saying that he wanted to complete what he had set out to do on Ann’s behalf — find her husband.

Brewer had however, sent along a policewoman to accompany him and he had been glad of her support: he didn’t know Ann well and women in general were better at offering emotional support than men, whatever the politically correct might have to say about that. Ann and James had obviously been very close but they had had no children so there was no immediate family for her to turn to. The policewoman had managed to elicit from Ann the names of a couple of women in the village that she was friendly with and they were now offering her comfort and support.

Steven reflected that one small flat stone and a loose fuse holder were telling him that the stakes had been raised dramatically by Sigma 5 but it was hard to see why. He had the unnerving feeling that he was still missing something important in all of this. If Sigma 5 were prepared to commit murder in order to keep the secret of the rats why weren’t they doing anything effective about the problem itself? True, they had instigated the rat cull but that fell more into the public relations or grand gesture category than anything really positive.

Steven concluded reluctantly that Sigma 5 must be working to some alternative set of priorities but right now, he couldn’t see what they were. One conclusion he could reach however, was that, if Rafferty and James Binnie had been murdered as he strongly suspected they had, then the music box in his car had been no idle threat. He might well be the next serious target. He would have to be even more careful in future. The thought made him subconsciously check on the presence of the gun under his left arm. It felt cold, hard and, although he was loathe to admit it, reassuring.

But Steven could see that he wasn’t the only one at risk. He had already identified the Raffertys as the weak link in the Sigma 5 operation, the one that he and Jamie Brown were planning to concentrate on. Thomas was now dead but Trish was still alive. She would currently be hearing of her husband’s death from a police officer knocking on her door. Steven wondered if this would make it more or less likely that she might spill the beans about what had been going on in Blackbridge. He felt guilty about even thinking it but this might be a very good time for Eve to appear on the scene to offer sympathy and a shoulder to cry on to Trish Rafferty. It might also be a very good idea if he were to ask DCI Brewer to mount a discreet police guard on Trish, who was now the sole owner of Crawhill Farm. Considering that Childs and Leadbetter were the opposition, a discreet, armed guard might be even better.

Steven correctly anticipated that Eve would be at home: he remembered that she had afternoons off from the hotel — the gap between lunch and dinner. He called her to tell her what had happened but she already knew. ‘It’s all around the village,’ she said. ‘And poor James Binnie too, he was such a nice man. It’s so unfair. Everyone knew that Khan should have been put down ages ago. Poor Ann, I don’t know what she’ll do without him. They were everything to each other.’

Steven agreed with the sentiments then asked, ‘Are you working at the hotel tonight?’

‘Yes, you just caught me going out the door. Why?’

‘I thought Trish might need to see a friendly face.’

‘I did consider that,’ said Trish. ‘I actually phoned her yesterday and we arranged to meet next week for a pizza on my night off but maybe you’re right. Perhaps I should go round and see her. I don’t think she has anyone else.’

‘Just a thought,’ said Steven.

‘You’re all heart,’ said Eve, seeing what was behind the suggestion.

‘All right, I know it sounds callous,’ agreed Steven. ‘But I need all the help I can get right now and Trish is a potential source of information, I’m sure of it.’ Things are starting to heat up.’

‘What makes you say that?’

‘Not over the phone,’ said Steven. ‘Do you think you can manage to see Trish?’

‘In the circumstances I can probably get one of the other girls to cover for me tonight,’ said Eve.

‘Meet me after you’ve seen her? Suggested Steven.’

‘All right.’

‘Call me on the mobile and I’ll come and collect you.’

It occurred to Steven that it had been a while since he had heard from Jamie Brown. He thought he would re-establish contact and at the same time tell him about the deaths out at Blackbridge. Brown would be grateful for the tip off and keeping on the right side of the press was always a good idea. Knowing what they were up to was an even better one.

‘Sorry I haven’t been in touch,’ said Brown. ‘I’ve been having a go at the Scottish Executive but I’ve just run into one brick wall after another. It’s strange. It’s not the usual case of people keeping their mouths shut because they don’t want the press involved. I get the impression that they genuinely don’t know what’s going on. They’re more embarrassed than obstructive. I can’t even find out who authorised the use of the army for Christ’s sake! All I’ve been getting is, “There’s a job to be done and it’s being done.” End of story.

Steven sympathised and agreed that they’d have to accept that no official channels were open to them. He pointed out that Trish Rafferty was now their only hope of getting some inside information.’

‘Maybe I should go see her,’ suggested Brown. ‘Sympathise with her over the loss of her husband and ask about her plans for Crawhill now that Thomas is dead.’

‘That’s in hand,’ said Steven. ‘Maybe you could leave it for a couple of days?’

‘The Clarion won’t,’ said Brown.

‘The Clarion doesn’t know that Trish is mixed up in anything,’ said Steven. ‘They’ll just be covering a horrific story involving a killer dog and ruing the fact that they didn’t get any pictures to splash over their front page with their usual impeccable good taste. They’ll see her as the estranged wife of the deceased: they’ll be looking for a “My Agony” piece.

‘True but they might ask her about her future plans for Crawhill and that could be very relevant to the legal battle. It would be a bit of a blow to Pentangle and the opposition in general to the GM crop at Peat Ridge if she decided to pull out of the organic farm plan, wouldn’t it?’

‘Somehow I don’t think Trish will be pulling the strings at Crawhill any more than Thomas was,’ said Steven.

‘So you think that Childs and Leadbetter are running the show?’

‘Yes. I just wish I had a clearer idea what “the show” was and what kind of hold that pair had over Thomas Rafferty.’

‘So it wasn’t just that he wanted his wife back that made Rafferty come up with this organic farm business?’ said Brown.

‘No, Childs and Leadbetter were behind it from the beginning,’ admitted Steven. ‘He was scared of them.’

‘With their background, so am I,’ said Brown.

‘Maybe Gus Watson knows more that he’s letting on,’ said Steven. ‘I hear he’s out of hospital. It wasn’t as bad as we all first thought. He was dead lucky to get away with no real muscle damage.’

‘Want me to give him a try?’

‘Nothing to lose,’ said Steven. ‘You’ll be covering the story of Rafferty’s death so it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for you to interview the man who worked for him. Find out if he knows anything about Childs and Rafferty that we don’t.’

‘I’ll give it a go,’ said Brown. ‘And thanks for the tip off.’

Eve called at eleven and said that she’d just left Trish’s flat. Steven picked her up at the junction of Dorset Place with Merchiston Avenue. At that time the streets were quiet so they sat and talked for a while.

‘There’s a policeman on the door,’ was the first thing Trish said when she got in the car.

‘Good,’ said Steven.

Eve looked at him sideways.

‘It’ll give her a bit of peace from reporters, tonight at least,’ said Steven, deciding not to say anything about his fears for Trish for the moment. ‘How was she?’

‘Full of remorse,’ said Eve. ‘She feels responsible.’

‘For the dog attacking them?’

‘No, she had no more time for Khan than anyone else, but she seems to think that she might have been able to persuade Tom to have him put down if she’d still been with him.’

‘So she’s a heartbroken wife?’

‘I wouldn’t say that exactly,’ replied Eve cautiously. ‘I got the impression that she felt worse about James Binnie’s death than she did about Tom’s. She didn’t actually say that of course, but reading between the lines, that’s what I picked up.’

‘Interesting.’

‘And you were right; it was something more than Tom’s drinking that made her leave him,’ said Eve. ‘I got the feeling that it was that — whatever it was — rather than the fact that he was a piss-artist with the brain of a ferret that was stopping her grieving too deeply for Tom.’

‘But you didn’t get any inkling what it was?’

‘God help me, I did try winkling it out of her,’ said Eve. ‘See what you’ve turned me into?’

‘You’ve nothing to ashamed about,’ Steven assured her.

‘I thought I would say something nice about Tom, as you feel obliged to do at such times, but I really wanted to see how she’d react. I tried telling Trish that, despite all his drinking and being a bit lazy, Tom was basically a nice bloke. She looked at me strangely and said, “You don’t know what the bastard did.” I tried asking her what she meant but she changed the subject.’

‘Now that’s worth knowing,’ said Steven. ‘It fits in with what she said when I talked to her. She said that she had told ‘them’ everything in exchange for some kind of agreement where she’d be left alone and ‘he’ wouldn’t get into trouble.’

‘Sounds like she shopped her husband in return for some kind of assurance?’

‘That’s what we’ve been thinking all along’ agreed Steven. ‘But she managed to do a deal. Jesus!’

‘What does that tell you?’ asked Eve, puzzled at Steven’s reaction.

‘If Trish Rafferty managed to do a deal with government over whatever Tom was mixed up in, we are talking something big and we are talking embarrassing on a mega scale. It’s that that they’re trying to cover up, not a problem stemming from the GM crop itself. It was something that Tom did but there has to be a connection with the GM crop and the rats’ behaviour at Blackbridge; there just has to be. What could Rafferty have done that was so bloody awful?’

‘Maybe he interfered with Ronald Lane’s crop in some way? Sabotaged it?’ suggested Eve.

‘Now that’s a good idea,’ agreed Steven. ‘But how would he go about doing that?’

‘Maybe he sprayed some kind of poison on it and it’s that that’s affecting the rats in the canal?’

‘Right,’ said Steven. ‘But he couldn’t do that in any kind of systematic way. I mean he could hardly jump in a tractor and trundle up and down Peat Ridge Farm, spraying poison over the entire crop.’

‘I guess not,’ said Eve.

‘But maybe he interfered in some way with what Lane himself was spraying on the crop at Peat Ridge!’ exclaimed Steven, excited at the thought. ‘That would make much more sense. If he managed to tamper with the herbicides that they were using on Peat Ridge in some way, that might explain a lot!’

‘How would you go about proving that?’ asked Eve.

‘I think I just have,’ said Steven. He told her about his nocturnal visit to Peat Ridge Farm and of the chemical samples that he’d taken and sent off for analysis. ‘You see, I thought that maybe Agrigene were using unlicensed weedkillers. It could be that Tom Rafferty interfered with them.’

‘You didn’t ever work for Cadbury’s Milk Tray, did you?’ asked Eve.

Steven came back down to earth with a bump when he saw the one thing that didn’t fit. ‘But why would the government cover it up?’ he exclaimed. ‘That bit just doesn’t make sense. They wouldn’t have made a deal with Trish over something like that. They would have handed the whole thing over to the police.’

‘You’re right,’ agreed Eve. ‘It would just have been a case of one farmer doing the dirty on his neighbour… unless what he did was so awful that the government just couldn’t allow it to become public?’

‘Now what would come in to that category…?’ Steven wondered out loud.

‘Nerve gas? Radioactive material? Viruses? Killer bugs? Some awful carcinogenic compound that might affect the whole community?’ suggested Eve.

‘But where would someone like Rafferty get his hands on anything like that?’

‘You’re right,’ conceded Eve. ‘It’s not as if he used any kind of chemicals on his farm. He’s not grown anything for donkeys’ years. Apart from that, no one in their right mind would have trusted him with a tube of Smarties on his own, let alone a dangerous substance.’

‘I suppose he might have managed to get his hands on something in some kind of a behind-the-scenes black market deal,’ said Steven.

‘Possible I suppose,’ agreed Eve. ‘They say you can get your hands on anything you want if you know the right people.’

‘But why would they just leave the contaminated crop in the field?’ wondered Steven out loud.

‘Because the law has stopped them doing anything else?’ ventured Eve.

‘The law wouldn’t have got a look in if it had really been anything to do with any of the agents you mentioned,’ said Steven. ‘The whole area would have been sealed off and a massive decontamination exercise initiated. Instead we have the GM crop standing in the field, looking as pretty as a picture and guard patrols walking slowly round it. It’s almost as if Sigma 5 didn’t want the GM crop destroyed. They’d rather it was slowly discredited with rumour and innuendo…and all the time it sits there in the fields, waving gently, like a red rag to a bull, angering the community, the smell of it everywhere…’

‘It’s certainly made people angry,’ said Eve. ‘But why do that?’

‘Maybe Trish can tell us that,’ said Steven. ‘This may all be academic anyway. Sci-Med will tell us about the chemicals as soon as the lab comes back with a report.’

‘So all we need is patience,’ said Eve.

‘Quite. Are you planning to see Trish again?’

‘I said I’d phone her tomorrow.’

‘Good. Stay in touch. You never know when she might feel like getting it off her chest.’

Steven drove Eve home to Blackbridge. They saw that the lights were on in the Binnie house as they passed. ‘Poor Ann,’ said Eve. ‘I’ll pop in and see her tomorrow.’

They drew up outside Eve’s parents’ house and Eve said, ‘Mum and Dad are still away at Jean’s. Would you like some coffee?’

Steven said that he would and followed Eve up the path leading to a grimy semi-detached council villa while Eve searched in her handbag for her keys. He saw the curtain move at an upstairs window next door and said so to Eve.

‘The McNabs,’ said Eve. ‘They don’t miss much. I think I’ve just become the scarlet whore of Babylon.’

‘Sorry about that.’

‘Don’t be. They don’t matter. No one matters in this godforsaken place.’

As the door clicked shut and they stood in the darkness of the hall, Eve turned to Steven and said, ‘Well, are we going to go through the ritual coffee business or go straight upstairs and do to each other what we’ve been wanting to do all evening?’

‘Sometimes I feel very old,’ said Steven, but he had to admit that the nearness of Eve in the darkness excited him.

‘But I suspect, my dear doctor, that you also feel very randy?’ Eve came right up close to Steven, filling his senses with her perfume and brushing his cheek with her hair. He found it irresistible. He brought his mouth down hard on Eve’s and hungrily explored the inside of it with his tongue.

‘There now,’ said Eve when they broke apart. ‘Was I right or was I right?’ She took his hand and led the way upstairs to her bedroom where they undressed each other as fast as was humanly possible while still trying to kiss at the same time. They fell on to Eve’s bed and made love with a passion that Steven had almost forgotten. He was entirely possessed by the need to take Eve there and then and foreplay and due consideration just didn’t get a look in. When he climaxed he felt as if the world had suddenly become a better place and inner peace flooded through him like a warm glow.

‘Well, ‘gasped Eve. ‘Talk about, wham, bam, thank you ma’am.’

‘I’m sorry,’ murmured Steven. ‘Christ, I just wanted you so bad.’

‘Don’t be,’ said Eve. ‘It certainly beats the parading of inner angst I usually get and not a trace of guilt there either. Good boy! ’

Steven rolled over on to his front and looked at Eve ‘I predict for you a life free from stomach ulcers and the need for psychotherapy,’ he said with a smile.

‘What makes you say that?

‘Your honesty. You say what you think and demand the same of others. Makes for a stress free environment.’

‘But will I be happy… will I be rich?’

‘Que sera, sera,’ smiled Steven.

‘Maybe I’m just a shameless hussy.’

‘I don’t think so,’ murmured Steven, nuzzling Eve’s neck and moving his lips round to find her mouth and explore it at a more leisurely pace.’

Eve sighed appreciatively as he moved down to suck her nipples and tease them with his teeth while his hand explored the flat of her belly and the firmness of her thighs.

‘What are the neighbours going to say, Dr Dunbar?’ whispered Eve as she arched her back in pleasure.

‘Good morning?’ suggested Steven from a distance.

‘Don’t you have a nation to save?’ asked Eve from the bedroom doorway.

Steven blinked his eyes at the sunlight and came to his senses. ‘God, what time is it?’

‘It’s gone nine but you looked so peaceful I thought the nation could wait for a bit.’

‘My God, I feel good,’ said Steven, stretching his arms in the air and relaxing again with a stupid grin all over his face.

What would you like for breakfast?’

‘We don’t make our own these days then?’ smiled Steven.

‘Any more shit like that and we will,’ retorted Eve.

‘You are incorrigible!’ exclaimed Steven.

‘I’m very corrigible, given the right man,’ murmured Eve, coming to sit on the edge of the bed. ‘Cereal, eggs or both?’

‘Eggs.’

Eve turned as she got to the door and said, ‘Careful with the shower. My dad installed it. It’s designed to wet everything within a two-mile radius with the exception of the body standing under it. You know what dads are like.’

‘I’m one myself,’ said Steven.

The smile faded from Eve’s face. ‘You didn’t say that,’ she said quietly.

‘I have a daughter, Jenny. She’s coming up for four. Is something wrong?’

‘No, of course not,’ said Eve, recovering her composure. ‘I just didn’t realise. I suppose it never occurred to me that you might be somebody’s daddy. You did say eggs, didn’t you?’

Steven nodded.

Steven did battle with the shower, settled for an honourable draw, mopped up in the bathroom, got dressed and came downstairs to join Eve at the kitchen table. ‘Are you working today?’ he asked.

‘From eleven,’ replied Eve. ‘You?’

‘There’s not much I can do until Sci-Med comes back with the results of the lab tests but I’ve got some shopping to do. I’m going down to see Jenny tomorrow. She lives with my sister in law and her family down in Dumfriesshire.’

‘That’ll be nice,’ said Eve. ‘What’ll you do?’

‘Go to the park or the beach if the weather’s fine, eat ice cream, play games, all the things an absentee father does with his kid on fortnightly visits.’

‘Is that what it feels like?’

‘That’s what it is like,’ insisted Steven. ‘I come in and out of her life like the phases of the moon. She knows the moon’s there and it’s reliable but it’s not as important as the sun or the rain. It doesn’t seem to affect anything.’

‘And that bothers you?’

‘Of course.’

‘You could always give up the Milk Tray job and do something more mundane like a nice little nine ‘til five number. You could get yourself a housekeeper and then Jenny could stay with you all the time.’

‘I’ve thought about that,’ said Steven.

‘No go, huh?’

‘Fraid not.’

‘Well then, you can’t really blame the job, can you?’

‘No, I can’t,’ admitted Steven.

‘And that’s what bothers you really, isn’t it?’

‘You got it.’

‘Ever read, The Selfish Gene?’

‘Touché,’ said Steven.

‘I wasn’t trying to get at you, honest,’ said Eve. ‘I was just making the point that we are what we are and it’s nothing to be ashamed of. More coffee?’

Steven declined and said that he’d best be on his way. Eve saw him to the door and he noticed the curtains stir next door. ‘They’ll tell your parents,’ he said.

‘Mum and Dad haven’t spoken to them in fifteen years,’ replied Eve. ‘Not since Mr McNab poured weed killer on some of Dad’s leeks out back. He said it was an accident but Dad never believed him. He insisted it was to stop him getting the prize at the village show. McNab’s son won it with a giant turnip.’

‘Life can be a bitch,’ said Steven. ‘I’ll let you know as soon as I get the lab report and…’

‘If you say, thank you for last night, I’ll drop you where you stand,’ warned Eve.

Steven shrugged his shoulders. ‘See you around?’ he said.

‘You will if you want to.’

‘I want to,’ said Steven clicking shut the garden gate.

He set out for the city but slowed when he was passing the slip road to Crawhill Farm when he caught sight of DCI Brewer talking to two officers beside their patrol car. He seemed to be giving them a dressing down. Steven pulled into the side and waited until the patrol car had moved off before getting out and walking back. Brewer was about to get into his own unmarked Rover when he caught sight of Steven and waited, leaning on top of the door.

‘Trouble?’ Steven asked.

‘We let the dog slip through our fingers,’ said Brewer. ‘Or should I say, I did as I’ll be carrying the can.’

‘You’re talking about Khan?’

‘I thought the dog had been taken away for forensic examination with the two bodies but apparently not and now it’s too late. The damned thing’s been cremated.’

‘Childs and Leadbetter?’

‘Yes. Leadbetter has just told me they didn’t know what to do with it when everyone had gone so they decided just to get rid of it. They didn’t realise they were doing anything wrong.’

Steven looked at Brewer but didn’t say anything. He suspected that Childs and Leadbetter had known perfectly well that they had been destroying evidence but he was wondering about their motives. Was there something to know about Khan that they didn’t want anyone else to find out or was that just his imagination working overtime?