Girls Of The Dark (10 page)

Chapter 24

D
ani hadn’t said much throughout dinner. She let James do all the talking, about his tour of the Shankill Road and the Victorian architecture of the city.

              ‘You know, the place actually reminds me a lot of Edinburgh,’ he continued, pouring more wine into their glasses.

              ‘But that ever present legacy of
the troubles
reminds me more of Glasgow,’ his companion put in, sipping the Merlot with relish.

              ‘Ah, so you
have
been listening.’ James grinned.

              ‘Of course, darling.’ Dani smiled back. ‘I’ve just been thinking about Ed Callan and Sarah Martin, that’s all.’

              ‘I know. I’ve been thinking about them too. It’s very sad. You wonder what would have happened to the couple if the poor girl hadn’t been taken. They may have been the ones to get hitched and have kids and grandkids. There’s a whole alternative history there that never got the chance to be played out.’

              Dani gripped her wine glass. ‘I think Ed was overplaying things a little. In the wedding picture of him and Bridget they looked very much in love. I get the feeling he would have broken things off with Sarah eventually, which doesn’t make her disappearance any less heart-breaking. There was still a life for her she never got to live.’

              ‘Could Callan have come back that morning, on the 24
th
April, and killed Sarah? Say he found out she’d spent the night with another man? Just because
he
was being unfaithful, it doesn’t mean the guy would be happy for her to do the same.’

              Dani shook her head. ‘There wasn’t time. I checked the investigation files again. It took Callan just over an hour from reaching the flat in Fenwick to calling the local police station to report Sarah missing. That wouldn’t have given him the opportunity to do anything, let alone dispose of a woman’s body so that it was completely untraceable for forty years.’

              ‘So the man she was seen with at the bar on the evening of the 23rd is the most likely suspect? How on earth can you identify him now – after all these years have passed?’

              ‘Well, I can’t. I know I made a promise to Ed, but without a body we’ve got nothing. I’ll go back over the witness statements again. I’m not really sure what else I can possibly do.’

*

Alice Mann turned the screen round so that Calder could view the image. ‘Here, at 1.47pm, the camera at the junction on the Great Western Road, near to St George’s Cross, caught a car jumping the red light.’

              Calder squinted. ‘It’s a Ford Fiesta, I think. Looks black in colour. Can you read the plates? What do the traffic people have to say?’

              ‘The department were still processing the information. They were generating an official letter when I spoke to them.’

              ‘Does that mean they have an address?’ Andy glanced hopefully at his colleague.

              She smiled broadly. ‘Yep, it certainly does.’

              He grabbed his jacket. ‘Then what are we waiting for?’

*

The house wasn’t exactly what Andy had been expecting. It was an impressive Victorian villa, set within a row of identical properties on the outskirts of Maryhill. They were deep into middle class territory.

              As Alice pulled up onto the drive they saw the black hatchback, parked in front of the garage. Andy got out first, proceeding to walk around the vehicle, carefully inspecting the paintwork on the front bumpers.

              He waved Alice over. ‘The car is almost brand new, but look,’ he pointed to a scuff beneath the light on the driver’s side. ‘There’s a dent in the panel here, too. You can only spot it when the light shines on the surface a certain way.’

              Alice nodded. ‘I see it.’

              The officers glanced up as the front door opened. A thin woman in her fifties stepped out. ‘What do you think you’re doing?’ She called down.

              Alice pulled out her warrant card. ‘My name is DS Mann and this is DC Calder. We’re from the Serious Crime Division. May we come in and speak with you, Mrs Tulloch?’

              The woman’s belligerent posture sagged slightly. ‘Yes, of course.’

              The interior was beautifully decorated, but Andy found it sterile. The units and worktops which lined the impressive kitchen were all a glossy white. It actually reminded Calder of the sealed room where Dr Culdrew cut up his bodies at the morgue.

              ‘Are you Mrs Glenda Tulloch?’ Alice took a seat at the breakfast bar.

              ‘Yes,’ the woman replied tartly. She remained standing.

              ‘And you are the registered keeper of the vehicle parked outside on the driveway?’ Andy continued.

              She nodded. ‘The Fiesta is mine, yes. I drive it to work.’

              ‘Where do you work, Mrs Tulloch?’

              ‘I’m a receptionist at the Fitzroy Art Museum, near Kelvingrove Park. I do three mornings a week. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.’

              ‘Does anyone else have access to your vehicle?’ Andy subjected the woman to his steeliest gaze.

              Glenda Tulloch blinked rapidly. ‘My husband, of course. But he mostly drives the BMW. He finds my car too cramped inside.’

              ‘Anyone else,’ Alice persisted. ‘Your children perhaps?’ DS Mann made a point of taking out her pad and flicking through it. ‘Matthew Tulloch aged 28, or Francesca Tulloch, aged 23?’

              ‘We didn’t add the children to the insurance policy. The premium was far too high. Matt and Fran both have cars of their own. They don’t need to use mine.’ Glenda put a hand up to her neck. ‘What is this about? Have I been caught speeding?’

              ‘Where were you on Wednesday afternoon of last week, at between 1.30 and 2pm?’

              Calder felt as if he could almost hear the mechanisms in her brain whirring.

              ‘I don’t want to answer any more questions without my husband and lawyer present.’

              ‘That is your right, of course. We only wish to get a few simple matters cleared up.’

              ‘Until you tell me exactly what those
matters
are, Detective, I’m not saying another word.’

Chapter 25

D
CS Douglas rested his weight on the edge of Phil’s desk, appearing to mull the request over carefully. ‘I suppose you don’t know who Brian Tulloch is?’ He finally asked.

              Alice shook her head. ‘Should I, sir?’

              ‘He’s the chairman of the Glasgow Business Re-Development Council. I’ve met him at a few dinners.’

              Andy Calder bristled. He was determined to say nothing. Douglas didn’t like him. Alice was the golden girl. He was leaving this all up to her.

              ‘That shouldn’t make a difference, surely? Mrs Tulloch’s car was very likely involved in a hit and run which left a grandmother dead.’

              ‘And you think it wasn’t Mrs Tulloch driving the car? What do the CCTV images show?’

              ‘They’re too grainy to tell. The car is all that can be identified with any certainty. Glenda Tulloch is refusing to give us anything unless there’s a lawyer present. We need to make this official, sir. We’d like you to hand the Kerr case back to this department. The connection between Kath Nevin’s death and the Kerrs’ suicides is just too strong to ignore.’ Alice held her breath, unsure if she’d gone too far.

              The DCS rubbed his chin. ‘This decision isn’t going to be popular, but go ahead, bring Mrs Tulloch in.’ Douglas raised his index finger menacingly. ‘Make certain you’ve done your homework first. See if you can find a link between the Tullochs and either the Kerrs
or
Lisa Abbot. I’m going to get an earful from upstairs on this, so the results had better be bloody good.’

              Alice smiled eagerly. ‘Of course, sir. Thank you.’

*

‘We need to work fast,’ Andy said, slipping into the seat opposite Alice. ‘Glenda Tulloch could be getting her car fixed as we speak. I wish I’d never gone over to look at it, we only alerted her to any damage that might have been there. If she wasn’t the one driving on the day of the hit and run she may not have previously been aware there was any evidence to get rid of.’

              ‘Don’t dwell on it. We would have needed a warrant to seize the car anyway. Let’s see what we can find on the Tullochs. The hit and run is only part of the story.’

              ‘Tell that to Kath Nevin’s daughter and grandson,’ Andy muttered under his breath, but he fired up his laptop and started work, in the full knowledge that Alice didn’t deserve his crankiness. ‘I’ll take Mr and Mrs, you look into the kids.’

              After an hour, Alice moved over to the coffee machine to fix them both a drink. When she returned, Andy’s vision was still glued to the screen.

              ‘What have you got?’ She perched beside him, sipping from her Stirling University alumni mug.

              ‘Mrs Tulloch is just one offence away from losing her driving licence.’

              ‘
Really
? What did she get her points for?’

              ‘Speeding on the M8 mostly. One time, she was clocked at over 100 mph.’ Andy sat back and lifted his drink.

              ‘She didn’t look the type.’

              ‘No, I don’t believe she is.’

              ‘How do you mean?’

              ‘Well, the last time the lady was captured by a speed camera was at Junction 18, not far from where the same car jumped the red-light on Great Western Avenue.’

              ‘Glenda does drive into the west-end for work. She could have been returning home from the gallery.’

              ‘At half past two in the morning?’ Andy swivelled the screen round so she could see.

              ‘Ah, I get your drift. Our Glenda didn’t exactly look like the kind of person who races her car in the middle of the night. So, are we thinking that she’s quite used to taking the rap for another member of her family?’

              ‘Absolutely. The only question that remains is which one?’

              Alice put down her cup and picked up a pad. ‘Matthew Tulloch is 28 years old. He is a director of one of his dad’s businesses. The company hire out luxury yachts and cruisers from a marina in Tighnabruaich.’

              ‘Does he live out that way?’

              ‘Yes. He’s got a flat in the town. A Mazda sports car is registered in his name.’

              Andy knitted his brow. ‘It doesn’t sound like he needs to borrow his Ma’s little hatchback.’

              ‘True. The middle child is Francesca, just turned 23 years old. She graduated from college with a fashion degree last year and now lives at home with mum and dad.’

              ‘She sounds like a much more likely candidate for our clandestine speeder.’

              ‘But Francesca’s got a Mini Cooper. There are no offences listed against her licence, which she’s held for four years. I don’t quite get why she would reserve her irresponsible driving for mum’s car. The youngest daughter, Ellie, is only thirteen. She attends a private school in the city and gets a lift there and back with a friend’s mum.’

              ‘It doesn’t quite add up.’ Andy glanced back at his computer. ‘The illustrious Brian also has some points for speeding, but not as many as his missus. One time he was stopped for a DUI, but received a warning, no charge. Looks like the DCS isn’t Mr Tulloch’s only pal on the force.’

              ‘To be fair, DCS Douglas has given us permission to interview Mrs Tulloch, plenty of the bosses upstairs would have shut the thing down completely.’

              Andy grunted a concession. ‘Let’s try and find a connection with Abbot and the Kerrs, then I say we take full advantage of Douglas’s momentary weakness and bring the woman in.’

Chapter 26

I
t was mid-afternoon when Dani and James arrived back in Glasgow. The DCI decided to go into the office for a couple of hours, despite having been given these few days off.

              James was going to go home and put a wash on, get some food in for dinner and have it ready for when she returned. Dani was actually beginning to recognise the benefits of this whole sharing your life with another person business.

              Andy and Alice were occupying the same workstation. Both had their heads down. Dani wasn’t inclined to interrupt them. She swept straight past and slipped into her office. The first sight that greeted her was the bunch of wilted pink and cream flowers on her desk. She immediately picked them up and dropped them into the litter bin, the card and bow still attached.

              Dani noticed a fresh file lying on the top of her in-tray. She picked it up and flicked through the contents. It was the Clyde Valley University report into the attacks on three of its female students that she’d requested from the Principal. He’d been very efficient in getting it to her. If only they’d been so keen to report the assaults to the police in the first place.

              The girls’ descriptions of the man were pretty much as Andy had said. It was fairly clear that the same perpetrator was involved in each instance. The last time anyone was grabbed by this person was during the previous term, at the end of May.

              Dani was still certain that the man who held her head under the water in the ladies toilet was not the same person who attacked these students. The M.O. was completely different. The girls described having a hand placed over their mouths before they were dragged towards a dark and secluded part of the campus. Despite them all being inebriated, they’d managed to wriggle free enough to call out or catch the attention of a passer-by. Whenever this happened, the man released his hold and ran off into the night.

              The campus attacker was an opportunist, waiting for his prey to stumble out of the college bars, hoping he’d be able to pull her into the undergrowth unseen, so that a sexual assault could be committed.

              Dani looked up from the page with a jolt. Something about this M.O rang a bell. It was remarkably similar to the method employed by Suter, when he snatched those women in the 1970s, from outside the pubs of Kilmarnock.
He
was an opportunist, not targeting the girls themselves but the places where he might procure them.

              Dani shook this thought out of her head. She’d clearly been spending too long recently obsessing over the old case. She focused her mind instead, on how she was herself attacked in the library toilets.               The man was rough and determined, but he was relatively calm. When victims of a sexual assault recounted their ordeal, they tended to point out how pumped up and edgy their attacker was.

              These men were full of suppressed sexual energy, only gaining a release from the unbearable tension through performing the sexual act itself. The perps were usually desperate to commit the assault, dragging their victims towards a quiet, secluded spot as quickly as possible, so that they wouldn’t be disturbed.

              In Dani’s case, she’d just not sensed that frantic quality to the crime. It was a violent assault, pure and simple - designed to frighten her, to prevent her from investigating any further. To Dani’s surprise, when she put her hand up to her face, her cheeks were damp. Tears had leaked from her eyes without her even noticing.

              She’d just managed to scramble for a tissue when there was a loud knock at the door. Dani hadn’t invited anyone to enter when DCS Douglas strode straight in. ‘Oh, sir. I wasn’t expecting you. Did we have a meeting?’

              ‘No.’ The DCS looked at her intently. ‘I was in the department and noticed the light was on in the office. I didn’t think you were back until tomorrow.’

              ‘The flight got in at noon. I wanted to check on something here before the morning.’ Dani blew her nose, dabbing at her face in the process.

              ‘You need to be fighting fit for the interview this week, Danielle. There’s nothing to be gained by returning too soon.’

              Dani noticed the man’s gaze drop down to the litter bin by her feet, where the sad looking bouquet had been unceremoniously dumped. ‘I’m afraid I didn’t get a chance to take them home the other day. When I got in just now, the blooms were well past their best…’

              ‘It’s not important,’ he snapped. ‘If you
are
back in the saddle, then please get your team reined in. DS Mann and DC Calder have been digging around into the Kerr case, despite my direct order that it be transferred to Maryhill.’

              ‘Ah -’

              Douglas put up a hand. ‘They’re actually making decent progress. I’ve given them back the investigation. But it’s broadening out to include some individuals who are very influential in this city. I’m not against that,
per se
, but they need a senior officer watching over them, making sure the department aren’t needlessly stepping on any toes. You get my drift?’

              Dani stood up. ‘Yes I do. And I appreciate you handing the case back to them. I’ll make sure the investigation is conducted sensitively from this point on.’

              Douglas dipped his head. ‘Good. Come and see me in the morning, nice and early. We can have a proper de-brief then.’

              Dani smiled, bending down to lift the bouquet out of the bin. ‘I’m heading back home now. I actually think that with a bit of water and some TLC, I may be able to revive these flowers. It’s worth a try.’

              The DCS lingered awkwardly for a moment. ‘Do whatever you see fit, Detective Chief Inspector. I’ll expect you first thing.’ He turned on his heels and left.