Girls Of The Dark (14 page)

Chapter 36

T
he flat was eerily quiet. James had left for work a couple of hours previously. He liked to get an early start, to avoid the worst of the traffic crawling their way towards the capital.

              For the first time in weeks, Dani had a proper chance to think. She filled the coffee machine and nibbled on a croissant that had been left to go hard in a packet. Her head was throbbing mildly. She’d had too much wine the evening before, which wasn’t like her at all.

              As a result, Dani had experienced some vivid and disturbing dreams. A hooded man, his face always obscured, was lurking along dark alleyways and a few feet away from her in crowds. He was watching the pretty young girls with their arms draped around one another’s shoulders, waiting for one of them to be alone, so he could take the opportunity to pounce.

              When the phone in the hallway rang, it wrenched Dani away from this unpleasant memory.

              ‘Hello, Dani? It’s Sally here.’

              ‘Oh hi. How are things?’

              ‘Fine thanks. James just called me. He told me about the promotion. I’m really very sorry. The management are completely wrong of course. You’re a better police officer than the lot of them put together. But since when has that mattered?’

              Dani smiled. ‘I appreciate your support.’

              ‘James also said you were taking some time off?’ The woman’s voice was hesitant. ‘I’m heading over your way this morning, as it happens. I wondered if we might meet up?’

              ‘Is this to do with the Suter case?’

              ‘Yes, I’ve been talking to a few witnesses. I’m travelling west to follow up on some new angles.’

              ‘Sure,’ Dani replied immediately. ‘Just let me know a time and a place. I’ll be there.’

*

The café was empty apart from the pair of them. The windows were partially obscured by condensation. Dani could still make out the waves breaking onto the pebbly shore.

              Sally looked totally out of place in her designer suit and towering heels seated at a Formica table in this greasy spoon. ‘It was Jenny Cane who alerted me to the existence of Johnny Doyle. He was a childhood sweetheart of her sister’s. They broke up when Debbie left school.’

              ‘I remember his name being mentioned in the police reports. He left school at this same time as Debbie, going to work as a labourer on a farm down in the Galloway Hills. The police decided it was impossible for him to have got himself from there to Irvine and back on the night she was abducted. Johnny was milking the cows at 5am the following morning.’

              ‘Absolutely, he was eliminated from the enquiries early on. I can easily rebut Suter’s lawyers if they put Doyle forward as an alternative suspect.’

              ‘So, much as I love a trip to the seaside, what are we doing in Troon?’ Dani sipped her sweet tea, quite happy to take Sally’s lead.

              ‘We’re visiting relatives.’ The woman parted her red lips in a smile. ‘Drink up and we can get moving.’

*

The house was down a side street, just off the seafront. Its exterior was a mass of peeling and chipped paint. Dani could sense her companion wrinkling up her nose as she pressed on the bell.

              The woman who answered the door was an elderly Afro-Caribbean lady in a flowery dress. ‘Can I help you?’

              ‘We spoke on the phone? I’m Sally, from the council?’

              The woman stood back, allowing them to enter. ‘Have a seat in the living room.’

              The interior was dark and cold. Dani imagined that the heating didn’t often get switched on. She could see the evidence of damp seeping up through the walls.

              Sally pulled a clipboard out of her bag. ‘Before we can set a date for the work to be done, Mrs Campbell, I need to take down some details from you.’

              Normally, Dani would have had nothing whatever to do with impersonating a council employee. But the way she felt about Police Scotland right now, the DCI didn’t much care. Sally was obviously quite used to this kind of thing anyway. She decided to let her get on with it.

              ‘When did you move into this property?’

              ‘I came here with my husband and children in 1983.’

              ‘And where were you before that?’

              ‘In a two-bed flat in Govan. We got allocated this place when my third little one was on the way.’

              ‘How long had you been in Govan?’

              The lady sighed, placing her arms across her ample bosom. ‘I’d lived around that area since my mother moved to Glasgow from Jamaica. I’m a full British citizen, mind you.’ She waggled a finger at them both.

              ‘Of course, that’s not in question. You moved into your husband’s council property when you got married, is that correct?’

              Lena Campbell shifted around in her chair. ‘No,
I
was the tenant.’

              Sally feigned confusion. ‘That’s very unusual, for a young single woman to be given a property, when you could have lived at home with your family.’

              ‘It wasn’t possible for me to stay at home. The council knew all this. When I turned 18, I was given a flat and I took over looking after my younger sisters.’

              ‘Oh, I see. I think I recall something in your records. The local authority had placed you and your sisters on an ‘at risk register’. Is that the reason?’

              ‘This is such a long time ago – can it really be necessary for me to go through it all again now? Just to get my house re-decorated?’

              Dani chipped in. ‘We have a very long waiting list, Mrs Campbell. Many tenants have young children at home. Their needs are more pressing than yours. If we can ascertain that you have been the victim of a crime and have never received your rightful compensation, we may be able to rush things along a little..?’

              Lena squinted her eyes at Dani. ‘My mother wasn’t a bad woman, but she couldn’t cope without having a man about the place.’

              ‘There were boyfriends?’

              Lena nodded. ‘Lots of them. But one man in particular was the problem. He was called Steve and he wouldn’t leave me and my sisters alone. That was in the late sixties sometime. Mum got a job cleaning nights and then it became impossible. I looked after my younger sisters and brother when she went out to work. Steve would show up not long after Mum had left the flat. He made me and my middle sister, Susie, have sex with him.’

              ‘That’s awful. Did you tell anyone?’

              ‘Not when it was just the two of us. When he started on Anna, that’s when we told Mum. She was only thirteen.’

              ‘What did your mother do?’

              ‘She told Steve to get lost and changed the locks. But he kept coming round and trying to break the door in. Then we had to bring in the police. The social services got involved and they found out Susie was pregnant. She was fifteen at the time, so Steve got arrested. I think he went to prison. There were more men after him, although the others weren’t so bad. As soon as I applied for my own flat I got it. The woman from the council told me it was because they wanted us girls out of that place. Susie and Anna came to live with me for a while, until they got themselves decent fellas. Susie lost the baby, which was a Godsend.’

              Dani edged forward on the sofa. ‘You mentioned a brother. What happened to him – did he come and live with you too?’

              Lena bristled. ‘Calvin? He was a lovely little lad when we first came over from Jamaica, full of smiles. Calvin was the lucky one, of course, because Mum’s boyfriends weren’t interested in him like they were in us. He was okay staying with her, especially when she became too old to attract any more men. Calvin was always the favourite. Isn’t that the way with the only boy? Our mum had a soft spot for him.’

              ‘Are you still in contact with your brother and sisters?’

              A shadow passed across Lena’s face. ‘I’m the only one left. Susie and Anna died a few years back and Mum went decades ago. I’ve got my own kids though, and their children. I see them every Sunday.’

              ‘That’s nice,’ Dani commented amiably. ‘And what about Calvin, are you still in touch with him?’

              ‘Nope. He’s dead too, a long while back.’ She hugged herself tight. ‘Well, he’s dead to
me
anyhow.’

Chapter 37

J
ames had lit the open fire in Dani’s front room. At first, the logs had smoked badly, the chimney not having been used in years. They were smouldering nicely now. The women sat together on the sofa, an open bottle of wine placed on the table in front of them.

              ‘It was Dad who originally discovered that Calvin Suter had grown up in a house where a convicted child molester had been a regular visitor,’ Sally began. ‘But Anthony Alderton closed down any further enquiries into Suter’s past. With the help of my team, I thought I’d see what I could dig up.’

              ‘You found out that this man’s conviction was for assaulting
girls
, not boys.’

              ‘As we all know, these perverts don’t stray far from their sick little predilections. I knew there was no way Steve McTierney had abused Calvin, like Dad always thought.’

              Dani sipped her wine. ‘But he may have witnessed the abuse of his sisters. You heard what Lena Campbell told us today. McTierney raped both her and Susie in that flat. Calvin would have been there the whole time. Being party to something like that can’t be very healthy for a young boy’s mind.’

              Sally shook her head. ‘I don’t believe he would have known anything about it. Lena was giving into that man’s sick demands to
protect
her family. When he turned on one of the little ones, that’s when she blew the whistle. There’s no way Lena would have allowed Calvin to see what was going on. I bet they went to her mother’s bedroom and did whatever they did in there. Calvin was most likely fast asleep through it all.’

              Dani was surprised at Sally’s insight. She was sure the lawyer was correct. Lena had felt like Calvin was the lucky one, untainted by the horrors of what the others had to endure. He was the favourite, the protected one. ‘Then Calvin’s got no bloody excuse for what he did to those poor women.’

              ‘No, none at all,’ Sally agreed. ‘Lena is perfectly aware of that, which is why she refuses to have anything to do with him. Even now he’s been released.’

              ‘Rhodri did say that Calvin was estranged from his family. They never visited him once in prison.’

              ‘If somebody close to you is accused of something so monstrous, I suppose you either cling to the belief that the person is innocent, or you disown them altogether,’ James added. ‘But the family’s reaction isn’t proof of guilt, we should remember that.’

              Dani nodded. ‘Of course, but it gives us valuable insights into Calvin’s character. This information will be useful when the lawyers come after Jim.’

              ‘Exactly.’ Sally leant forward and re-filled her glass. ‘Mike is working on finding the surviving jury members. My next move will be to speak with them.’

              ‘Can you afford to be away from your own cases for so long?’ James looked genuinely concerned.

              Sally’s expression hardened. ‘This is Dad’s reputation we’re talking about. I’m hardly going to let a creep like Aaron Lister take precedence over him.’

              Dani was surprised. She’d never heard Sally speak about one of her clients in that way before. The detective said nothing, simply rising from her seat and asking if their guest was ready for dinner.

*

Alice Mann was trying to walk a comfortable distance behind her target, but it wasn’t easy. The woman she was tailing had become slow and unsteady on her feet. Alice could see how Lisa Abbot’s bulky winter coat was swamping her tiny frame.

              Something had made Abbot leave her flat, which she hadn’t done in several days. She’d got on a bus and travelled into the city centre. They were now heading towards the St Enoch Centre, where Alice hoped she wouldn’t lose her quarry in the bustling crowds.

              It was only early November, but the shopping centre had already geared up for Christmas. There were lights and decorated trees everywhere. A plastic Santa’s grotto greeted the detective as she entered through the automatic doors.

              Abbot headed straight for a coffee shop on the ground level, joining the queue. Alice sat on the bench outside and observed from there. Abbot bought a coffee and proceeded towards a table at the back.

              Five minutes later, a man approached the establishment, standing on the threshold and peering inside. When he spotted Abbot, he marched straight in and sat down opposite her, not bothering to queue for a drink.

              Alice thought his demeanour was aggressive. He was a well-dressed man whom the detective placed in his early thirties, with dark, receding hair. From the descriptions she’d been given by Andy and the DCI, Alice decided this man was probably Matt Tulloch. In which case, she’d have to keep her distance if she didn’t want to lose her job.

              The conversation lasted for about ten minutes. Then Tulloch stood up, placing something on the table between them and storming out. He left the same way he had come, blending quickly into the crowds. Alice remained where she was. There was no point in following him.

              Lisa Abbot was still at the table, casually finishing her drink. After a few minutes, she reached forward for what appeared to be an envelope. She carefully opened it up and examined the contents. Abbot got to her feet, leaving the coffee shop and heading for the exit.

              Alice fell into step behind her, immediately sensing that the woman’s stride was just a little bit more robust and confident than it had been when they set out.