Dormie 5, p.4
Dormie 5, page 4
‘Of course, I do. Where’s the coffee? I’m frozen.’
Hope gave a laugh, turned around and realised that there wasn’t one. ‘Guess Ross hasn’t been in here yet then,’ she said, ‘but enough of that. What is it?’
‘I’ve been looking at the victim and to be honest with you,’ said Jona, ‘whoever wielded this blade knew how to use it. The slashes across the chest are not slashes, there’re deep cuts that affect major organs, and the cut to the throat is perfection. Right on the spot, just deep enough. The chances of Mackintosh surviving that cut were minimal. You’d have to have a full team around him immediately, close up the wound and intubate. He would have needed a medical team on hand. But the other cuts, I think, were made first because otherwise, they make no sense. Made to almost hold him in his tracks, position him, make sure he didn’t get away.’
‘Hold him? Why hold him if you’re just going to cut his throat?’ asked Hope. ‘That doesn’t make sense.’
‘Well, maybe they wanted to talk to him. Maybe they wanted Sandy Mackintosh to understand why he was being killed. I don’t know,’ said Jona, ‘I just tell you what the scene tells me. One thing’s for clear, that’s not a normal blade. I’m going to try and identify it for you, but while it’s not a normal one, it’s a darn effective one. I need to talk to some other people in the field. Maybe they’ll have a better idea. In the meantime, we’ve got to get these lockers searched as well. I take it, we’ve identified which one was Mr Mackintosh’s.’
‘Have spoken to the constable down there. He’s guarding the door. No one’s been in since we’ve locked it off.’
‘Which was when?’ asked Jona.
‘When I got here,’ said Hope. ‘Anything else you can tell me about the scene?’
‘It’s a pretty big area. Where do you want me to concentrate? For now, I’m working around that fifteenth tee, moving out from it. Do I go backwards, round the course? Do we search the whole course? What are we looking at here?’
‘I’m waiting for Clarissa to come back, to see if we can trace where Mr Mackintosh went. It’s probably going to be by the numbers, holes one to fifteen.’
‘Unless he was set up, brought in from somewhere else.’
‘I don’t think so. From the sounds of it, he was out on the course.’
‘I’ve been looking through the bag as well. The club that was used up his back seems to have been from his bag as was the driver. But the whole idea of making him look like an actual golfer on the tee, what was that all about? Were they trying to say something?’
‘I doubt it,’ said Hope. ‘Probably looking to hold him up there to get away. That’s something else I’m going to need to investigate. I’m just about to go and interview my two witnesses, but I want to talk to Clarissa first. She should be heading this way.’
Almost on cue, Clarissa opened the door before turning around and thanking someone rather loudly. Hope caught a glimpse of a man in a green uniform and a smile on Clarissa’s face.
‘Did you get somewhere?’
‘Do you mean with the case or with the man in the uniform?’ asked Jona.
‘Get out,’ said Hope. ‘Go find me something better.’ Jona gave a laugh and a big thumbs up to Clarissa, who looked rather bemused as Jona walked out.
‘What’s up with her?’
‘Never mind,’ snapped Hope. ‘What’d you find out?’
‘Okay, easy!’
‘Sorry,’ said Hope. She took a deep breath. Just as Clarissa went to speak, her phone rang. She picked it up and saw Macleod’s name. ‘Not you now,’ Hope said out loud.
‘Seoras?’ said Clarissa. ‘Switch it off.’
‘I can’t close the call down. He’s the DCI!’
‘Of course, you can,’ said Clarissa and grabbed Hope’s phone and closed the call. Hope shot her a look.
‘You need to hear what I have to say first. There’s no point answering that call, half telling him what you know and then talking to me and then making a second phone call. If he’s annoyed about it, put him my way.’
Hope gave a sigh. ‘Just tell me what you found out.’
Clarissa related all that she’d heard from the ground staff, including how the board was extremely divided.
‘Well, that’s interesting,’ said Hope. ‘Seems there could be some good reasons for bumping him off.’
‘It’s all quite heated,’ said Clarissa, ‘but what’s also strange is that Peters, the Club Chairman, and Mackintosh were really good friends and have still been. Both became widows recently, or at least in the last couple of years. Peter more recent.’
Hope took a moment, tried to assess what Clarissa told her, and she looked up at the woman. ‘Where’s Ross?’
‘Don’t know,’ said Clarissa. ‘Is he meant to be doing something for you?’
‘He’s always doing something. We’re going to be interviewing the two witnesses who found the body. Tell you what I need you to do; go and find Begley, the Operations Manager. Tell him I want the board here to talk to them all together. Maybe also individually, but get a hold of the names, the contact numbers, and tell him to pull them all to the clubhouse. We’re going to need to find out where they all were today. Clarissa, don’t take no for an answer.’
‘No for an answer? When have I ever taken no for an answer?’
Clarissa stepped back out of the room, still wearing the fluorescent jacket she’d been given previously, and as she did so, she marched into Ross coming the other direction. Behind him were a couple of waitresses carrying large flasks and cups.
‘Als, you’re a lifesaver. I got a cup of tea over in the other hut, but it’s so cold out there.’
Ross pointed to a table at the side of the room, advising the waitresses to leave the cups and flasks there. Once he’d thanked them, he closed the door behind him. Clarissa was still hanging around, now pouring herself a coffee.
‘I said board,’ said Hope.
‘I’m on my way. I can do it with a coffee!’ Clarissa almost danced out of the room, shutting the door behind her, just slightly firmer than she should have.
‘Have we got our witnesses ready?’
‘Upstairs. I just thought you’d like something to drink in the meantime. You haven’t had anything since we’ve been here.’
‘No, I haven’t. Thank you.’ Ross turned to pour a cup for Hope, but she stopped him.
‘Enough, Ross. I’m not Macleod. You don’t need to do everything for me. I’m not like him. I don’t just use my brain.’
She heard the snigger behind her from one of the constables, turned around, and shot a deadly look at him. Once the man had crawled back under his shell, she turned back to Ross. He was standing with a deadpan face, although she was sure he was laughing behind it.
‘What I mean is, I don’t just sit and brood on stuff. This is a moment of action.’
‘Never said anything,’ said Ross.
‘Take my cup up. I’ll be there in a couple of minutes. I just need to phone the DCI.’
‘You can still call him the boss.’
Hope waved her hand, ushering Ross out of the room. She just felt so claustrophobic today. What was up with her? It wasn’t like she hadn’t run investigations before, or she hadn’t been on top of things.
It took her ten minutes to pass on the information to Macleod, and she sat waiting for his advice and instruction of what to do. He advised he would be up shortly once he got rid of his visitors. He was unnerving her. Why wasn’t he asking more questions? Why wasn’t he firing into this? He used to keep her on her toes. Macleod was a bloodhound when a case came up. Always pushing, always thinking about the different angles, and yet he’d said nothing on the phone.
Hope marched up the stairs and went into a small room where the door was slightly ajar. Once she was inside, Ross closed it behind her, and she saw two women sitting down. One reminded her of Jona, small in stature but who looked in control. Beside her, a white Scottish woman seemed to be trembling a little.
‘I’m Detective Sergeant Hope McGrath, in charge of the investigation, and this is Detective Constable Ross. Thank you both for what you’ve done today. I know this might be hard, but I just want to run through it again, if you’re okay with that.’
‘Yes.’ The Asian woman nodded, but there was no movement from the white woman.
‘It’s Jenny Maggert and Sandra Wu. I think we know who’s who,’ said Hope. ‘I believe you two were competing against each other.’
‘That’s right,’ said Sandra Wu. ‘We had just played fourteen holes. It was all square. We were heading up to the fifteenth. I stopped briefly on the way up the hill to the fifteenth because my leg was sore. When I’d sorted that, I climbed up with Jenny. We then saw this figure on the tee box.’
‘Did you know who it was at the time?’ asked Hope.
‘We knew that Sandy Mackintosh had gone out ahead of us, but we thought he’d be in the clubhouse by then.’
‘Why?’ asked Hope.
‘Because he’s on his own. A single golfer can fly around the course much quicker. We were playing a match, taking our time over putts, sorting scorecards out. The reason we were out in the morning was because I checked the weather a few days before. This afternoon was, well, expecting snow. Also, if we got out early in the morning, we wouldn’t be in a bunch of those midday people. They can be quite slow. We wanted to be out on our own with plenty of time, not have anyone pushing up behind us. It was important for our match. We’re quite competitive.’
‘Is that right? Jenny, is it?’ said Hope. The woman looked up at her. She was still shaking.
‘Forgive me,’ said Sandra. ‘I’m a nurse. Jenny’s in shock. I think she needs to not go home on her own from here. You can take her down to the hospital to be looked at.’
‘Okay,’ said Hope. ‘When you saw the figure, what happened? What did you do?’
‘Well, we went up, and he was propped up with the golf club. Jenny froze, and I tried to remove it and then hold him up. Jenny assisted, and we seemed to push him over, and he landed on his back. To be honest, I think he was dead already. I looked at the cuts and I just started CPR. I wanted to see if I could get the heart going. I screamed at Jenny to go and get help. She struggled at first, terrified but she went, and then she came back, and I was covered in blood. She then went into a real panic.’
‘Did you see anyone around?’ asked Hope.
‘No. We’d only seen the greenkeepers when we were out on the course, but we didn’t see any of them up ahead of us towards the fifteenth. To be honest, you can get to the fifteenth so easy.’
‘That’s right,’ said Jenny suddenly. ‘That’s right. Lots of paths. My husband dropped me off there before. Walked up as I was meeting people playing in, accompanying them over the last few holes. Yes, so many paths. You can go anywhere really easy.’
‘What happened after that?’
‘Well, I kept working,’ said Sandra, ‘until the paramedics got to me. To be honest, it was pointless. He was gone. I kind of knew it. Pity because he was a good guy for the club even if he didn’t like the new course.’
‘Are you aware of any issues with the club? Anyone who would have anything against Sandy Mackintosh?’
‘Against Sandy Mackintosh?’ queried Sandra. ‘No. Not against him. He and the Club Chairman were on different sides, but the Club Chairman and the Club Deputy Chair are both on different sides and they get on. I mean, they might argue a bit about golf and things but not outside. Sandy had been here so long. Everyone appreciates what he does, even if they don’t always agree with his opinion. Sandy was a good guy.’
‘Yes, he was,’ said Jenny, suddenly, and she began to cry, putting two hands up to her face. Hope sat and ran the women through the story two more times. She wondered if they had seen anybody at the lockers before their round, but the women had seen nobody. Other than raising the alarm and making a valiant attempt to save the man’s life, they seemed to be of little help, especially in establishing who had killed him.
‘We’ll need to take DNA and fingerprints from you just so we can rule you out from the scene if that’s okay with you.’
‘That’s fine,’ said Sandra, ‘but seriously, we need to get Jenny some help. It’s going to take more than a cup of tea to get her right at the moment.’
‘Okay, I’m just going to step outside with DC Ross, and then I’ll send him back in to organise all that, okay? But thank you for your time.’ Hope and Ross stepped outside into the corridor.
‘What’s up?’ he asked.
‘Sort the two women out then get down to the fifteenth, I want to know what paths lead up to it. I want to know where they go, I want to know what CCTV is available around the area. This is ideal for you, Ross. See what people could have been observed and then find me footage of who was observed, particularly be looking out for any of the board members because we know there’s a dispute going on there.’
Ross nodded and then went back into the room, leaving Hope on her own. She had wished that talking with the witnesses might have brought something out, but it wasn’t so. Macleod will be up soon, and she wanted to show him progress, but at the moment, she was still developing theories about people that might want to kill. In truth, it all seemed very extreme over something where you hit balls around a course with a stick. Sometimes, she didn’t understand other people’s passions.
Chapter 05
Ross was wrapped up in a large coat with a bobble hat and was wearing a rather smart set of boots he had purchased a few weeks ago for moments such as this. They had fur inside, warm on his feet, and although not the most graceful and certainly not office wear, if you were out on a crime scene, he felt they were unlikely to be beaten.
The last few weeks had been full on for him. With a new child in the house, his partner, Angus, up to high doh, and then all the consternation at work of the boss moving upstairs and Hope not really stepping into the reins of DI yet, Ross was unbalanced. He liked form and function. He liked to know what he had to do, when to do it, and how to do it. He was also missing being there for the inspector.
He had it on good authority that the secretary on the floor above did not make Macleod’s coffee correctly. It was something that Ross had prided himself on. During all his time of working with the man, he had gotten to know how to keep Macleod appeased, and where his weak points were, mainly filing reports and workplace organisation.
As a detective, Ross thought there was no one better, and as a colleague and friend, he still remembered Macleod helping him in the helicopter when Ross had been shot. There were times when Macleod had been turbulent, but he’d also been good. He felt during those days they had got something done. They had put away many a murderer, even prevented a few, but times were changing and so were the office dynamics.
Angus had asked him whether he wanted to become a Detective Sergeant, and Ross had answered honestly—he hadn’t actually thought of it. If his current boss Hope McGrath moved up to Detective Inspector, now that Macleod had almost vacated that position for Detective Chief Inspector, he wondered if Clarissa Urquhart would just simply slot in as the Sergeant on the team. It was always funny that she and Hope held the same rank, and yet, clearly, Hope was seen as the senior.
Clarissa was rough around the edges, had a habit of calling him Als which wasn’t really ideal, but her flamboyance and outright determination was a key part of the team. Still, she wasn’t going to be around forever. Retirement can’t be that far away for her, he thought.
Usually in a case, Ross was rushed off his feet, but just for five minutes, he was getting a chance to think. This was due to the distance he had to walk from the clubhouse down to the fifteenth tee. When he’d asked the green keeper where to go, he’d been pointed down the eighteenth fairway, then told to cut across. There he would find the fifteenth green with the large pond beside it, as well as the folly, and then he had to simply walk up from the green to the tee box above. Of course, the tee box would be marked off with police tape and have the various forensic officers running around it, so Ross wasn’t too worried about missing it.
As he walked, the snow continued to fall, and he saw there was a thin white dusting on the ground. It was that time of year when you just didn’t know how or when the snow would come. In December, you could be reasonably sure it would lie, but at this time of year, it could be here one moment and gone the next. The north of Scotland was a funny place to live.
At this time of year, you went from cold wet days to days of glorious sunshine in the winter. Cold, crisp, and clear, those days were wonderful to be alive in and made up for standing around freezing. Other days, the rain just seemed to pelt down on you, or that misty spray pervaded your coat, reaching your bones and chilling you from inside. The Highlands had been his home all his life, and Ross loved it.
He was also experiencing a first. Never had he walked backwards down a golf course. He didn’t play himself, although he went out with Angus who had shared his knowledge, so Ross had a vague idea about what was going on.
As he cleared the eighteenth hole and started to cut through for the green of the fifteenth, Ross could hear a robin, one of the distinct bird calls he could recognise. He was no ornithologist, but one thing he knew, he did enjoy listening to the birds as he walked. Trekking along the path, he looked left and right, and saw what was rather dense woodland on either side. He could understand how you could hide here; it wouldn’t be that difficult. But the path he was on had stones underfoot. It was one of the more formal paths, although he did see others cutting off, pressed down grass by the mossy underside of the trees.
As he reached the path that led up from the fifteenth green to the tee box, Ross could see the forensic officers at work. He guessed he was a bit like them when he sat in front of the computer, head down, focused on going through the routines, knowing it would trawl something up. On reaching the fifteenth tee, Ross worked in an outward spiral with a pen and paper in front of him, sketching where he saw paths go off. He began to follow them, disappearing into wood and realising that many crossed up and met, or delivered you to another part of the course. However, some of them took you out towards the road, as had been mentioned by Jenny Maggert.
