The Dark Fear (17 page)

              Kate stood back. Stuart was standing in the corridor a few feet behind her, his face obscured by shadow.

              ‘Come out into the garden,’ he called to them.

              It was breezy outside, but not particularly cold. ‘I’m very surprised to see you here, DCI Bevan.’

              ‘This is a very nice house, Stuart. When did you buy it?’

              ‘In the summer of 2004. Duns is a little far out, I know, but we got more for our money here and the local schools are decent.’

              ‘I suppose this house provided more space for you all, when your mother moved in.’ Dani allowed the comment to hang in the air between them.

              The man’s posture stiffened. ‘My mother died over ten years ago. I’d rather not speak about it.’

              ‘But we think it could be relevant. Why don’t you tell us a little about her treatment? It must have been very difficult to manage her advanced stage of cancer without medical support.’

              Stuart set his mouth in a tight line. ‘As soon as Mum started to experience pain, I booked her into a private hospital in Haddington, not far from where we were living at the time. But Mum was left for long stretches on her own. She told me how the staff were stingy with pain relief. She was often left in agony.’

              ‘That must have been very difficult for you to cope with,’ Andy added.

              Stuart snorted. ‘It was like living in hell. I complained repeatedly, but Mum said it wasn’t getting any better. So I started to make plans. Kate and I bought this place and I did some research into how best to treat Mum’s condition.’

              ‘Was that around the time you first came into contact with Alex Galloway?’

              He sighed heavily. ‘You can’t imagine what it’s like to see a person you love in unbearable pain. She’d been depleted to almost nothing by the disease. Every time I visited that damned hospital, she begged me to help her kill herself. I didn’t want to do that, but I thought I could at least make her final months more comfortable.’

              ‘Then Galloway was arrested and brought into the station where you worked?’

              ‘Some of the arresting officers were discussing his case. They said he was like a middle man. He brought in distilling equipment for drug making. Galloway had all the contacts but managed to keep his own hands clean. When he’d been signed in, I asked the Duty Sergeant to let me enter the cell and speak with him. Galloway was sympathetic to my problem. He said it would be easy for him to get me morphine and medical equipment. But there would be a price. He said he needed a ‘friend’ in the serious crime department.’

              ‘So the bank payments you received were for information you provided Galloway with for all those years?’ Andy was quite put-out that he’d believed the man’s protests of innocence.

              ‘Galloway insisted on it. I’d paid him up front for the drugs I used to make Mum’s passing more bearable. But even after her death, he wanted the relationship to continue. Galloway had something over me and it was clear he’d never let me go. Every time I gave Galloway a tip-off, he deposited money in my account. I didn’t notice at first, but then I came to rely on it. We used that cash to send Lin to veterinary college.’

              Dani leaned forward, resting her elbows on the garden table. ‘This means you’ll go to prison, Stuart. You do realise that?’

              He nodded, tears beginning to pool in his eyes. ‘It makes no difference, DCI Bevan. I’d do it all again. My ma raised me all by herself. We had no one but each other. I couldn’t allow her to die like an animal, in horrific pain. Tell me? What would you have done in my place?’

              Dani honestly didn’t know the answer to that question.

              Andy frowned. ‘So it was you all along – the one who made that midnight phone call to Galloway the evening before the raid?’

              Stuart shrugged his shoulders. ‘I know this won’t make any difference now, but it really wasn’t. When I became involved in that undercover sting against Galloway’s business, I’d finally decided to end our sordid arrangement. Galloway thought he still had me in his pocket, but I was feeding him false information. I wanted that raid to be successful more than anyone else at City and Borders. I knew Galloway would point the finger at me when he was arrested but I figured I’d take my chances. It was no life being shackled to the guy anyway.’

              ‘So who
did
call Galloway from your phone?’ Andy was perplexed.

              ‘I did.’

              They turned to see Kate Lamb standing in the doorway.

              ‘You don’t need to say that, Kate,’ Stuart said sadly. ‘I’ve told them everything.’

              She stepped onto the patio and slid shut the glass doors, as if the children could actually be prevented from finding out the truth. ‘I said it because it’s true. I knew Stuart was planning to end his agreement with Galloway and I couldn’t allow him to do it.’

              Her husband gazed at her in disbelief.

              ‘We needed that money. It was all well and good that Lin got a chance to study at one of the top colleges in Scotland but what about Colin? He is just about to apply for courses. I couldn’t bear the thought of telling him we couldn’t afford for him to go, not when Stuart had provided Alex with information for all those years, shouldering the guilt and torment that went with it. What did another few months matter?’

              ‘I can’t believe what I’m hearing. Did you contact Galloway without my knowledge?’

              ‘I only did it a couple of times. I looked on your phone when you were sleeping. I knew the raid was set up for the next morning. I waited until you were fast asleep and I called him. A couple of words were all it needed.’

              Stuart put his head in his hands. ‘Oh, Kate. What’s going to happen to the kids?’             

              ‘I’ll do my best to try and keep your wife out of prison,’ Dani offered. ‘But I’ll need you to provide me with a full confession.’

              Andy glared hard at them. ‘Did either of you kill Alex Galloway?’

              ‘No,’ they both said in unison.

              ‘We were here at the house together on the evening he was murdered, just like we said in our statements.’ Kate added, ‘that much at least was the truth.’

Chapter 33

‘S
o it was all lies?’ James prepared coffee for his visitors. Andy had brought his boss to Oak Lodge, on his way back to Edinburgh.

              ‘It was a mixture of lies and the truth, which is often how these things work,’ Dani explained. ‘I expect that Stuart had created a separate compartment in his mind for the relationship he’d developed with Galloway. In all other respects, he was an exemplary policeman.’

              ‘If his wife hadn’t got greedy, we’d never have found out, either.’ Andy gratefully accepted a cup.

              ‘Just because Stuart experienced a crisis of conscience, it didn’t mean that Kate had too.’

              James came to join them at the table. ‘Dad always said that Galloway was a complicated character. He could be kind and compassionate in one instance and utterly ruthless in another.’

              ‘It looks as if this murder investigation is going to come down to understanding exactly what kind of man Alex Galloway was.’ Dani sipped her drink. ‘Does your dad know if Galloway ever had people bumped off? Stuart said the man ‘liked to keep his hands clean’ but he’d operated in the criminal underworld for decades. Was he himself a killer?’

              ‘I’d have to ask Dad. He never actually represented Galloway in a criminal trial. All he will know is what he’s picked up on the grapevine.’

              ‘Which could be quite a lot,’ Andy added. ‘These lawyers choose to only hear what suits their own case.’

              ‘I’ll speak to him.’

              Andy glanced around the room. ‘This is a lovely place. It’s exactly the kind of house that Carol wants us to buy. She’s desperate for Amy to have her own garden.’

              ‘You must bring her here whenever you like. It’s wasted on us. There’s even an old treehouse.’ James refilled their cups.

              ‘You might make a family home of the place sometime yourselves. It’s not a waste. I’d never take on a project. You’re on your own with this one.’ He chuckled.

             
‘Have you considered moving to somewhere bigger?’ Dani asked this carefully.

              ‘Aye. When Amy starts school and Carol goes back to work at the nursery we’ll begin looking properly. We’d have to move out into the suburbs, mind.’

              ‘Have you thought about re-locating to a whole new area?’ Dani made her statement sound as casual as possible.

              ‘Move away from Glasgow, you mean? Not really. Carol’s mum is just down the coast. My Ma and Da aren’t far away. It wouldn’t make much sense.’

              ‘No, I don’t suppose it would.’

              Andy glanced at his boss suspiciously, before pushing back the seat and standing up. ‘I’d better get off. I need to file that report with City and Borders before I head back to the west.’

              Dani saw him to the door. ‘Look, thanks for all your help with this, I know you didn’t have to do the legwork.’

              ‘I enjoy policing Ma’am, you know that. At Pitt Street, they’ve got me chained to a desk.’

              ‘Any news on who might replace Nicholson?’

              ‘There’s been a mention of Superintendent Ronnie ‘Dour’ Douglas being at the top of the list.’

              ‘Don’t call him that if he gets the job.’

              Andy laughed. ‘It means that a superintendent position will come free. You should go for it.’

              ‘It would mean I’d not be working directly with you and Phil anymore.’

              Andy shrugged. ‘You’d be in the same building. I never expected you not to rise up through the ranks.’

              Dani noticed a shadow cross his face. Andy knew that his own chances of promotion were almost non-existent now. ‘I’ll think about it,’ she said cheerfully. ‘Now, you be on your way, and get back to the girls before it’s late.’

*

It was a mild evening. Dani changed into an old pair of jeans and a t-shirt, deciding to do some work on the flower borders at the front of the lodge.

              Running along the path were a tangle of interconnected rose bushes. Dani put on gloves to prize them apart and prune the foliage back. She felt sweat spring to her upper lip and was amazed at what good exercise the process was.

             
Dani became aware of a presence at the end of the path. She looked up to see Tilly Newton standing at the gate. The woman was wearing walking gear and an expensive looking fleece.

              ‘Hi, Dani. I’m glad to find you here. I’ve been walking in the woods and I picked these mushrooms. I promised to drop some in for James to try, if I was passing. He expressed an interest at our shooting weekend.’

              Dani stood up. ‘Great, thanks. Come inside.’

              Tilly retrieved a plastic bag from her backpack, placing it on a worktop in the boot room. ‘There are a few chanterelles in there and the rest are wood urchins. Nothing poisonous, I swear. Give them a good wash and they’ll be ready to cook.’

              ‘It’s very kind of you. Would you like a drink?’

              ‘I’m dying for a cup of tea.’

              Dani put the kettle on. ‘James has gone to the shops. I thought I’d surprise him by having a go at the garden.’

              ‘Those rose bushes flower beautifully in summer. Now they’re established, you won’t have to do much to keep them in order.’

              ‘Which is just as well. I’m not really a gardener. The plot at my place in Glasgow is the size of a postage stamp.’

              Tilly sat down. ‘Will you keep the flat on, now that you’ve got this place?’

              ‘My work is in Glasgow.’

              Tilly went quiet for a few moments. ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to pry.’

              Dani carried the teapot to the table. ‘It’s okay. James has clearly bought a property which isn’t intended to house just one person.’

              ‘How do you feel about that?’

              The detective smiled. ‘We’ve been dating for less than a year. I don’t have an opinion to share just yet.’

              ‘How long does it take? I’d only been with Aiden a few months before I knew I wanted to marry him.’

              ‘How did the two of you meet?’

              ‘You’re thinking that we’re quite an ill-matched couple. Don’t worry, my family thinks so too. Actually, Aiden and I have a number of things in common. We both love nature and the great outdoors. When I was living in Haddington, I joined a local walking group. Aiden had been a member for several years. We fell in love whilst rambling through the countryside. Quite romantic, really.’

              ‘Yes, it is. What year was that?’ Dani refreshed her guest’s mug.

              ‘It must have been 2002, because we got married the following year. I was only twenty two back then.’

              ‘Did you know the family who lived here at Oak Lodge at one time – the Gascoignes?’

              Tilly shook her thick bob of chestnut brown hair. ‘No. It was a middle-aged man who was renting here when I came to live at the cottage. He wasn’t particularly friendly.’

              ‘Did Aiden ever talk about the Gascoignes, back when you first met?’

              ‘Err, he may have mentioned the man - Tim, was it? I believe they became friends. Tim went shooting with Aiden sometimes. A bit like James.’

              ‘Gossiping about me, ladies?’ James breezed into the kitchen, carrying a couple of heavy shopping bags. ‘Good to see you, Tilly.’