Missing Believed Dead (25 page)

Chapter Forty-Nine

Thursday, 15 March

The ward door swung closed behind Bill. He hesitated for a moment looking at the stairs and the lift doors, and decided on the lift. It rose slowly, transporting Bill from level five to level seven, and freedom.

Bill always found the layout of the hospital strange with most of the wards on lower levels than the main entrance, and miles of corridors to traverse to get anywhere. And now he had to walk an endless corridor before he could leave.

The concourse, when he reached it, was quiet. The shops were shuttered and the only sign of life was the electronic noticeboard suspended from the roof, indicating the times of the next buses. A sleepy receptionist behind the main desk didn’t bother raising his head as Bill passed by. Meanwhile, automatic doors swung open on his approach, and he quickened his pace, anxious to leave the hospital behind him.

A blast of bitterly cold air hit him when he stepped outside the centrally heated building. He felt in his pockets for his wallet. It was still there, so he headed for the solitary taxi sitting in the stance, ignoring the bus idling its engine at the bus stop.

Bill paid off the taxi outside police headquarters. Wearily climbing the steps to the entrance doors, he walked through them into a deserted reception area. A policeman on duty nodded to him through the glass division, he nodded back, walked to the lift, pressed the buttons for the entry code, and headed upwards to the team room.

The room was empty, and he collapsed into his chair, glad no one could see him.

Since waking up in the hospital, his brain felt as if it had been through a meat grinder. Thoughts and flashbacks were jumbled together, until he was unsure what was fantasy and what was reality. He tried to concentrate on the previous evening’s events. He had gone to Diane’s house, but he wasn’t sure why. He forced himself to think back to when he got out of the car and walked to the door. So far, so good. In his mind, he raised his hand to knock, and the door opened. Good, he was getting events into some kind of order. He closed his eyes and tried to visualize the person who answered his knock, opening them when he realized it was Emma.

Sadness engulfed him. Emma was such a quiet and self effacing girl, it was difficult to imagine her with a murderous streak.

He closed his eyes again and followed her up the hallway into the kitchen. That was when the flashback kicked in, and all he could see was Jade advancing towards him with the needle and syringe. He tried to move, but his limbs wouldn’t do what he wanted, and all he could do was watch.

His eyes snapped open in an effort to dispel the horror, but it was a few moments before he was able to breathe easily again.

So was it Emma, or Jade, who had tried to kill him? Or were they both the same person?

After shaking his head in an effort to clear it, he got up, went to the filing cabinet and brought out the Carnegie file. When he’d looked at it previously he’d concentrated on the police investigation and what happened, but all sorts of meetings had been held. He’d leafed through those, thinking they were unimportant for the current investigation. But maybe it was time he studied them in more depth.

The file was a thick one. He opened it and moved to the section containing the case conference minutes. The Social Work Department had been involved because Emma and Ryan had been children at the time, and there had been concerns because of Diane’s fragile mental state. And one thing social workers seemed to delight in was a multitude of meetings. Although, he couldn’t blame them for wanting to document everything, considering how much mud was slung at them when things went wrong.

He skimmed the bureaucratic stuff, who was present and how they were involved, and concentrated on what was written about Diane and her children. Screeds had been written on Diane’s mental state, her suicidal thoughts, and whether the children should be taken into care. Ryan was assessed as being young for his age, with no friends, which wasn’t surprising, because he didn’t like football or anything that resembled rough and tumble activities. He preferred reading, dressing up games, and computers. Emma, on the other hand, was something of a mystery. No one seemed to know her likes or dislikes and she was described as having lived in the shadow of her twin sister.

After the disappearance of her sister, Emma had lapsed into a catatonic state. She spoke very little and the only people she seemed to recognize were her mother and father, and Ryan. At one point consideration was given to admitting her to a mental hospital, but her mother resisted this and insisted she stay at home. However, she did see a psychologist on a regular basis. During her treatment, the psychologist reported times when Emma did not seem to know who she was, and insisted she was Jade. No psychiatric diagnosis was ever given, and Bill got the impression that when Emma recovered from whatever had been ailing her, everyone heaved a sigh of relief. It was noted in the reports Emma did not know she had suffered a mental breakdown, and was convinced she was the mainstay and support of her family.

Bill closed the file, leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, while he concentrated on the information he’d read in the file. He’d heard of cases where more than one person resided in the same body. Wasn’t there a book called Sybil? Or something like that? Where one person had multiple personalities? The psychologists and psychiatrists gave it a fancy medical name he couldn’t remember. He had always thought it a lot of rubbish and put it down to attention seeking, but maybe there was something in it after all. And now, after reading the file, it seemed possible Emma was more disturbed by the disappearance of her sister than anyone had realized, and that over the years she’d settled into the persona of the quieter twin. But if that was the case, who was she? Was she Emma, or was she Jade? On the other hand, maybe there were two of them.

Bill’s thoughts went round and round in circles, and he put his head in his hands and groaned. This case had turned out a lot more complex than he’d anticipated.

* * * *

Jade eventually fell asleep. She’d become frustrated because she couldn’t persuade her mother to settle down. She had always been the strongest twin, both physically and emotionally, but now she was forced to admit Emma might have been better in this situation. That admission riled her, she was used to thinking Emma was helpless and hopeless. She spent a restless night, tossing and turning, before deciding to go back into hiding and let Emma take over.

The sheets tangled round Emma’s body while she slept and when she woke the wind had dropped taking the rain with it. However the light filtering through the window was grey, bringing the promise of another miserable day.

The room was empty except for her mother pacing it, from door to window and back again. Jade had departed while she was asleep, and Emma had no recollection of her sister’s presence in the room.

Emma untangled the sheets from round her legs, and sat up. ‘Haven’t you slept?’

Diane didn’t stop pacing. ‘How could I?’ Her voice was little more than a murmur. ‘I can’t stop thinking about Bill Murphy and what happened to him in our house.’ Her fingers tightened on the material of her blouse.

‘But he’s nothing to us. It’s not as if he were family or anything.’

‘Maybe not, but he was a nice man and he was trying to help.’ Diane removed her fingers from her blouse and tugged at her hair. ‘It’s all my fault.’

‘Why is it your fault?’

‘If I hadn’t asked him to help, all this would never have happened. And now he might be dead because of me.’ Diane tugged harder at her hair, pulling a clump out.

Emma sprang out of the bed and grabbed her mother’s arm. ‘Stop it, Mum. You’re hurting yourself.’

‘I don’t deserve to live.’ Diane glared at Emma.

Such was the force of the glare that Emma took a step back and loosened her grip. Her mother had lost it. She had a manic look in her eyes. Without Emma’s hand to stop her, Diane returned to tugging her hair. Emma decided that, whether or not her mother approved, it was time to call for medical help.

She rummaged in her pockets for her phone, but it was dead. In all the upheaval she’d forgotten to put it on charge.

‘Damn,’ she said. She grabbed her clothes, pulled them on, let herself out of the room, closed the door behind her, and hurried along the corridor to tap on Ryan’s door.

‘What is it?’ Ryan was wearing black silk pyjamas that in other circumstances Emma might have thought glamorous.

‘I need to borrow your phone.’

‘What’s wrong with yours?’ Ryan started to close the door.

‘I need it, Ryan. It’s Mum, she’s completely lost it, and she’s pulling her hair out by the roots. We need to get help for her.’

‘Damn, that’s all we need. Give me a minute to get clothes on and I’ll be right with you.’

Ryan closed his bedroom door and a few moments later reopened it. ‘Let me have a word with Mum first,’ he said as they ran along the corridor. ‘You know how she is about seeing doctors.’

‘OK, but we need to hurry. I’m afraid she’s going to hurt herself.’

Emma opened the door to the room, but Diane wasn’t there.

Chapter Fifty

The first thing Kate saw when she strode into the team room was Bill slumped at his desk, with his head resting on his hands.

‘Should you be out of hospital?’ Her voice was more strident than she meant it to be.

Bill raised his head. ‘There’s nothing wrong with me. Besides, I can’t stand hospitals.’

Kate snorted. ‘I’m told that last night you didn’t look as if you’d make it until morning. Anyway, I suppose it will save me a journey, because the first thing on my agenda today, was questioning you.’

‘I reckoned you might want to do that, so I’ve been studying the file in order to make sense of what happened.’

‘Someone tried to kill you . . . that’s what happened.’ Kate pulled a chair over to Bill’s desk and sat. ‘All I need is a name, so I can make an arrest.’

Bill sighed. ‘It’s not as simple as that.’

‘You must know who stuck you full of heroin. Surely it hasn’t scrambled your brain that much.’

‘That’s the bit that doesn’t make sense.’ Bill tapped the pencil he was holding on the cover of the file. ‘That’s why I needed to study this.’

Kate felt like strangling Bill, and she didn’t disguise the exasperation in her voice. ‘Just tell me who.’

‘That’s it, you see. I’m not sure.’

‘Why?’

‘Well, I thought it was Emma who let me into the house, she looked like her. But when she came at me with the needle and syringe, it didn’t look like Emma at all. It was as if she’d changed into someone else,’ Bill hesitated, ‘and I wondered if it was Jade.’

‘If you’re right that means Jade must still be alive.’

Kate thought of the skeletal remains they’d found in the hut on Patricia Carnegie’s property. She’d been convinced it must have been Jade in that trunk, but maybe not, maybe it was a different child altogether. They wouldn’t know until forensic tests were completed.

‘Not necessarily.’

Kate groaned. ‘Make up your mind. Either it was Jade or it wasn’t.’

Bill opened the file. ‘That’s why I was reading the case conference reports in the file. Did you know Emma was seen on a regular basis by a psychologist after her sister disappeared?’

‘Go on.’

‘The notes are full, but what caught my eye were the ones where the psychologist reported times when Emma didn’t know who she was and insisted she was Jade. The psychologist put this down to guilt because her sister was no longer there, and she was.’

‘Are you saying that Emma may not be Emma? That she’s Jade.’

‘That’s one possibility.’

Bill lapsed into thought. ‘The other possibility is Emma is more disturbed than we realized, and both she and her sister are living within the same body. I think there’s a medical term for it.’

‘You think she’s suffering from Multiple Personality Disorder.’

‘It’s a possibility, because the person who injected me was nothing like the girl who let me into the house.’

‘They could be working together.’

‘I suppose so, but it doesn’t seem likely.’

Kate leaned back in the chair. Why was nothing easy?

If Bill was right, they needed a psychiatrist to assess Emma, or Jade, or whoever the heck she was. If Bill was wrong, and there were two of them, they could end up arresting the wrong girl.

Whatever she decided to do it had all the makings of being a disaster, and Kate could see her career vanishing down the tubes.

* * * *

Diane’s head ached where she’d torn her hair out. She hadn’t meant to tug so hard, but everything was piling up and getting on top of her, and she was tired after pacing the room all night. Her thoughts were jumbled and she couldn’t make sense of anything that had happened. How on earth had Bill got into her house? And who had done that dreadful thing to him? She had to get out of here, maybe if she had some fresh air she’d be able to make sense of the whole thing.

She knew Emma would try to stop her leaving so she continued to pace until Emma eventually left the room to consult with Ryan. And Diane knew what they would be discussing. They would be plotting and planning to bring in a doctor to see her. She didn’t want anything to do with doctors; she’d had enough the last time.

Emma was hardly out the door before Diane grabbed her coat and handbag. She eased the bedroom door open and waited until after Emma rapped on Ryan’s door, and while her daughter’s back was turned, she slipped down the stairs and out the front door.

It wasn’t far to walk back to her house. Blue police tape stretched between the gateposts and a policeman stood beside the front door. She hesitated for a moment because the car was parked right in front of him, and that was what she’d come back for. However, the police hadn’t impounded the car, so there was nothing to stop her taking it.

She took a deep breath and continued to walk. Reaching the car she inserted the key in the lock, nodded at the policeman, and drove off. She was turning the corner at the top of the road before she breathed freely again.

* * * *

Kate picked up the file from Bill’s desk. ‘You can’t continue with this case, I’ll take the file,’ she said.

‘But it’s my case,’ Bill protested.

‘Not any longer. Don’t you see, the minute you became a victim, you also became a witness. There’s no way you can remain involved with Diane Carnegie and her family.’

Kate watched Bill’s shoulders slump. She knew he had an investment in solving the case, but she couldn’t allow him to jeopardize the prosecution by remaining involved.

She laid a hand on his shoulder. ‘I’ll take responsibility for this case from now on, Bill.’ She had never used his first name before when addressing him, but somehow it seemed appropriate on this occasion.

‘You’re right, of course.’ Bill’s smile was forced. ‘I’ve marked the relevant passages.’

Kate retreated to her office and opened the file, following Bill’s markers to the parts he’d indicated. It made interesting reading and she made a note of the psychologist’s name and where she was based. It was too early to phone, but it would be the first thing she did once the team meeting finished.

A tap on her office door interrupted her thoughts. ‘Come,’ she said, closing the file.

‘Everyone’s here, ma’am.’

‘Thank you, Sue. We’d better get started.’

She rose from her chair, buttoned her jacket, and joined the team where they were gathered at the end of the room, in front of the whiteboard.

‘Coffee, ma’am?’

‘No, I won’t bother for now, let’s get on with it. Sue, will you mark up the board?’

Sue lifted a marker. ‘Yes, ma’am.’

‘Right, let’s start with the Carnegie investigation. Jenny, where are we with that?’

Jenny adjusted her spectacles. ‘The forensic team finished examining the kitchen where the assault took place before I left last night. They intend to return today to examine the rest of the house. I contacted the Housing Department, but they had no room in any of their Homeless Units, so they placed the family in a bed and breakfast establishment nearby. I’ve informed them we will have to talk to them again today, and I’ve added the address of the B&B to the board.’

‘What are they saying, so far?’

‘They claim to have no knowledge of what happened in their house, and appear mystified. Diane Carnegie, the mother, claims to have arrived home with her daughter, Emma, and says that was when they found the body,’ Jenny looked apologetically at Bill, ‘in the kitchen of their home. Furthermore, Diane Carnegie claims she had just returned from Broughty Ferry, where apparently she’d been walking in the vicinity of the beach and castle. Emma Carnegie claims to have been at a lecture at the university, and she returned home by bus. She met her mother at the bus stop and they walked home together. Ryan Carnegie arrived home before his mother and sister, but said he went straight upstairs to shower. He saw a light on in the kitchen and assumed it would be his mother or sister. He did not look in the kitchen.’

Sue marked the information on the whiteboard. ‘Ryan arrived home first? Do we have approximate times?’

‘None of them are sure, but they all think it was round about 7pm. However, one of the neighbours has given us fairly accurate times. According to him, Ryan arrived home sometime between 18.15 and 18.20 hours. Mrs Carnegie and Emma arrived at 19.00 hours.’

Kate frowned. ‘Any possibility one of them could have been in the house earlier, left and then returned?’

‘It’s possible. Ryan claims to have been with a friend, Kara Ferguson, up until a few minutes before he arrived home. Emma, claims to have been at a university lecture, but couldn’t give the name of anyone who saw her. While Mrs Carnegie doesn’t seem to have an alibi at all.’

‘The alibis need to be checked.’ Kate stood and walked to the board to study it more closely. ‘We also have DS Murphy with us. I’m sure we’re all pleased he’s returned from the dead, so to speak. So we have an eye witness to what happened. Unfortunately for Bill, he can no longer be involved in the murder investigation because he is now a witness. I’ll speak for him. I’ve interviewed him and there is confusion in his mind about who assaulted him. He thinks it was Emma who let him into the house, but is not convinced it was Emma who committed the assault. Whoever it was, she looked like Emma, but there were significant differences in manner, and he thinks it may have been Jade who attacked him. However, he has an interesting theory that Emma may be suffering from multiple personality disorder. I’m not totally convinced of that, but I’ll be speaking to the psychologist who treated her five years ago.’

Kate studied the board. ‘Now for the update on the Megan Fraser case. Sue, would you like to talk it through? Jenny can mark up the board.’

Sue handed the marker to Jenny.

‘After an examination of Paul Carnegie’s computer it became apparent he had some involvement with Megan Fraser’s disappearance. Images of girls were found on his hard drive, and among them were images of Megan. There were also images of his daughter, Jade, who supposedly went missing five years ago. On examining the images it was detected Megan was trussed up in what looked like a garden shed. On the balance of probabilities we obtained a search warrant for Patricia Carnegie’s house and grounds. A search was set in motion and we found the shed where Megan had been held, however she was no longer there. During an interview with Mrs Carnegie, we had reason to believe she might have set Megan free and directed her to run to the other side of the wood where she knew there was a quarry. By the time we reached Megan she’d fallen into the quarry and had to be rescued by the RAF mountain rescue team. She was taken to Ninewells Hospital. There are other developments in relation to this case which are not directly linked to Megan, although they are linked to Paul Carnegie. A search of the shed revealed evidence of Megan having been there, but it also led to the finding of skeletal remains enclosed in a large wooden trunk. Forensics intend to examine the scene this morning.’

‘Thank you, Sue.’ Kate faced the team. ‘With reference to the assault on DS Murphy, I want Jenny and Blair to check out the alibis for the Carnegie family. Check the university for anyone who saw Emma at the lecture, and also check in Broughty Ferry to see if anyone saw Diane Carnegie. Get the local uniforms to do a door to door in the area. Find out which bus drivers were on both routes and see if they remember anything. And question Ryan Carnegie’s lady friend. I’ll talk to the psychologist in relation to Emma, and we wait until all the information is gathered before we do anything.’

Kate drew breath. ‘Bill and I will work the Megan Fraser case. Sue, I want you to take charge of the Carnegie case. But first I want you to talk to Megan, find out what she remembers, and find out who helped her get out of the shed and what was said. If I’m not mistaken, Patricia Carnegie had a hand in that, and if that proves to be the case I want her arrested as an accessory. Jenny and Blair, you will report back to Sue. Bill, you’re with me.’