Hour Of Darkness

Forty-Eight

‘Boss, I’ve been thinking,’ Haddock said.

‘Glad to hear it,’ Sammy Pye retorted. ‘Sometimes I wonder. Did it produce a pearl of wisdom?’

‘Up yours. . with respect, of course. I’d love us to be able to put Alafair Drysalter in Bella Watson’s kitchen and find a strand of her hair stuck in the blood, but I don’t believe it’s going to happen. She’s a spoiled selfish woman, and she has that dim sod of a husband on a string, but I don’t see her with a knife in her hand.’

‘Me neither,’ the DI admitted. ‘I only did the test out of thoroughness, not expectation. . and to rile her a wee bit as well. I’m quite convinced we hit the nail on the head over her father’s death, and it’s possible she could have paid people to do the job on Bella Watson, but the timing’s wrong for me.

‘We know from the feedback from the ACC that Hastie McGrew picked up a clue to where she was living while he was still in prison. If they were that desperate to get rid of her, would they have waited until Hastie was released? I don’t see that.

‘To be honest, I got the impression that if Alafair ever knew of Bella’s existence, she’d forgotten about her, and the same may well have been true of Hastie. Which reminds me, did the hospital confirm his condition?’

‘I spoke to his probation officer,’ Sauce replied, ‘and she was able to fill me in. She’s entitled to know, since he’s a lifer on parole. She’s been advised by the hospital that he has not one, but two brain tumours, and that surgery isn’t an option. Nothing’s an option really; they could try radiation but he’d almost certainly wind up like his father, and even then not for long. As it is, the probation officer says he has motor difficulties and his speech is starting to go. They’re about to move him into a specialist nursing home.’

‘Poor bastard.’

‘Huh!’ Haddock snorted. ‘That poor bastard murdered two men in Edinburgh, and there were three more in Tyneside that the CPS knew he did but never charged him with because there was a one in four chance of an acquittal. If ever there’s a case of poetic justice, it’s him.’

‘Would you feel that way if it was Cheeky’s grandpa with the tumour?’ Pye asked, quietly.

‘Probably, but I’d keep it to myself.’ Sauce paused. ‘In a roundabout way that leads me back to Perry Holmes. What are we going to do about his death and Gayle’s evidence, that Alafair paid him to go away?’

‘Us? We’re going to report it to the fiscal’s office and that’s all. I spoke to the DCS and that’s what she says.’

‘What if they kick it back to us?’

‘She won’t let them. She’ll send it to the cold case unit. But it won’t come to that, Sauce; we’re pretty sure what happened, but pretty soon, when Hastie goes, Alafair will be the only one of them left alive. There’s nobody to incriminate her; even the fiscal will work that one out.’ He frowned. ‘Let’s not get sidetracked on that any longer. Mary Chambers is keen to know how we’re getting on with her bright idea, looking for Spanish plated vans near Caledonian Crescent around the time of the murder.’

‘I was afraid she would be,’ Haddock said. ‘I’ve got the City Council’s monitoring department on to it. You can guess how pleased they were when I asked them. So far, nothing; I’ll stir them if you like, but they know already that it comes from the boss.’

‘It’s all right, I’ll tell her. It was a shot in the dark and Mary knows it.’ He was in the act of reaching for his phone when it rang.

‘DI Pye,’ a bright female voice sang on the other end of the line, ‘this is Anna Jacobowski from the Forensic Service. I’ve got something rather intriguing for you on your murder inquiry.’

‘Just intriguing? Not case-breaking?’

‘That’s down to you guys, isn’t it?’ she chuckled. ‘We’ve just analysed one of the dozens of DNA samples from Caledonian Crescent. It’s different from all the rest; it demonstrates a second generation familial relationship with the dead woman.’

‘What does that mean, in plain Scottish?’

‘It means it’s her grandson.’

‘Her grandson?’ Pye repeated, switching the phone to speaker mode. ‘You’re on broadcast, Anna. DS Haddock is with me.’

‘That’s very interesting,’ Sauce remarked. ‘Jack McGurk and Karen Neville interviewed Marlon Junior yesterday and he denied even knowing that he had a Granny Watson. I think you and I need to talk to this lad ourselves, boss.’

‘Maybe you do,’ the scientist intervened, ‘but I haven’t got to the really interesting part yet. I’ve tested the Marlon Hicks swab that I received from your two colleagues, and from the very first analysis I can tell you that the other one isn’t his. Bella Watson had two grandsons, gentlemen. . at least two.’

‘How?’ Pye gasped.

‘How many ways are there, Inspector?’ Jacobowski laughed. ‘I’ll send you a written report by email.’

‘There’s IVF,’ Haddock observed, as she hung up, ‘but somehow I can’t see Marlon Senior leaving any frozen sperm behind him.’

Pye frowned, looking up from his chair at the ceiling. ‘Could Lulu and Marlon have had another son, one we never knew about?’

‘No. If they were brothers, Anna would have said.’

‘Of course, but Bella had another son, remember. He died when he was fifteen, but I suppose, in theory. .’

‘I’ll get on to the General Registers Office; see if Ryan is named on any birth record. . other than his own. Any son of his would be pushing thirty by now, so I’ll know where to look.’

‘Get Jackie to do that, Sauce, I’ve got another task for us. We know from Marlon Hicks that Lulu’s mother’s still around. Let’s find her, and ask her how much she knows about the Watson family.’