Hour Of Darkness

Seventeen

‘Thanks, mate,’ Sammy Pye said as he took the mug offered to him by his sergeant. ‘I need caffeine at the arse end of the day, especially a day like this one.’

‘Come on, boss,’ Sauce Haddock cajoled him. ‘We’ve made progress.’

‘Tell me how, please.’

‘For a start, we know who owns Bella Watson’s flat, and pays the bills and everything.’

‘Sure, but it turns out that he’s a lifer. Not only that, I’ve just been told by the ACC not even to think about interviewing him.’

‘Mmm,’ the young DS murmured. ‘I wonder why that was, and I wonder why it was him that gave us the message. Detective Superintendent Mackenzie’s our line manager.’

‘Two good questions, but all they do is add to my confusion about this whole fucking business. I’ve been trying to raise Mackenzie all afternoon, to update him, but he isn’t answering either of his phones, landline or mobile.’

‘How did Mr McGuire sound when he spoke to you? Was he in “or else” mode, or just his normal self.’

‘No, he was reasonably relaxed,’ the DI told him. ‘He didn’t bite me once! When I said we should go and see Plenderleith, he said that the guy isn’t detained within our force area, and that he doesn’t want to piss off Strathclyde, so he’s made separate arrangements for a statement to be taken from him.’

‘Would it really piss off Strathclyde if we went into a prison on their patch?’ Haddock wondered.

‘I wouldn’t have thought so, but I wasn’t about to argue the point. Also, when he told me that the guy shouldn’t be regarded as a suspect without direct evidence that he might be, I didn’t get the impression that was open for debate either.’

‘Who is he anyway, this man? Did he tell you that much?’

‘No, but I Googled him.’ Pye grinned. ‘It works a lot quicker than the national computer database. “Leonard Plenderleith, aged forty-five, former associate of the late Anthony Manson, allegedly a major figure in the Edinburgh criminal underworld …” I’m quoting here, mind. Tony Manson was more than an alleged villain, just never convicted.’ He winked at the DS. ‘Just like your bidey-in’s grandpa.

‘Anyway,’ he continued, heading off a riposte, ‘Plenderleith was Manson’s enforcer. He did time for serious assault and wasn’t out long before he was arrested for two murders. The victims were his wife, and a lawyer called Richard Cocozza. There was a third murder charge originally, but the Crown Office dropped that because of lack of evidence. Plus he was convicted of another, in Spain, in his absence. The Spanish agreed that he’d serve his sentence here, concurrently.’

‘He sounds like a real psycho,’ Haddock said.

‘You could say that.’

‘Then why is he off limits to our inquiry?’

‘His alibi’s pretty good, if a prison governor can vouch for his whereabouts,’ the DI observed.

‘I suppose. But even if he isn’t a suspect, if he knew the dead woman, he might be able to help us identify this so-called sister and her family.’

‘I made that point to the ACC,’ Pye said. ‘All he said was that he’d note it. I didn’t push that any further either. I know I said earlier that he was relaxed, but I sensed an edge to him.’

‘That leaves us sitting on our hands,’ the DS complained. ‘We have no leads to those people, and asking through the media for them to come forward would make us look daft. We don’t have a single line of inquiry.’

‘I know.’ He took a swig from his mug. ‘Now you understand why I need caffeine!’