The wild coast, p.15
The Wild Coast, page 15
‘We require you to come down to the station, Mr Logan, to give us a statement regarding your relationship with Caillean Munro.’
Logan didn’t like that one little bit. ‘But I’ve told you I wasn’t even here when she disappeared. How would I know anything about that?’ he demanded.
‘You may have been the last person to speak to Ms Munro and presumably knew her well. We need to know whatever you can tell us about her.’
The silent stand-off lasted a little longer, before Logan, his mouth tight with anger, said, ‘Very well. Do you want me to come with you now?’
‘That would be helpful, yes.’ McNab managed an appreciative smile.
As Logan went to get his jacket, McNab moved to wait in the hall. When he’d followed Logan through to the sitting room, he’d made note of the row of coats hanging there, one of which was obviously not Logan’s. McNab wondered if it was the only item of Callie’s left in the flat.
The apartment would have to be properly searched, of course, and if they held on to Logan for long enough, that could be arranged.
McNab wrote a quick text to Janice as he waited for Logan to reappear, saying simply, Bringing him in.
34
Day six
The family room bore little resemblance to the rest of the police station. Rhona registered the bright colours, the children’s toys and books, the warm lighting and comfy chairs, and found her concerns at what was about to happen lessen a little.
‘Not bad, eh?’ DS Clark said with a smile.
‘Makes me feel better,’ Rhona told her.
‘PC Cope, the family liaison officer, will bring the family in when they arrive. I’ve watched her in action before and she’s very good,’ Janice said. ‘Professor Pirie will observe by camera next door. DI Wilson wants to chat to you both afterwards. Anything you want to ask?’
‘Is the father coming, do you know?’
‘I told McNab I thought not. I’m not even sure Mrs Henderson told him of our request to see the children.’
‘He’s quite intimidating,’ Rhona said. ‘I think the kids wouldn’t talk with him here. Have you run a check on him?’
‘Clean as a whistle. Not even a speeding ticket, but hey, as you know, the clever ones often are until we discover what they’ve been up to.’
‘I think Francine is frightened of him, but wants to do the right thing,’ Rhona offered.
‘My impression too, although I haven’t yet met her in person, only chatted to her on the phone.’
The sound of approaching footsteps saw them fall silent. Janice went to open the door, a welcoming smile on her face. Then they were in. Lucy and Orly together, Mrs Henderson following close behind.
Lucy, spotting Rhona, immediately came over, eyes alight. ‘Dr MacLeod, you came. I said you would. Didn’t I, Orly?’
Orly was studying Rhona closely, as if trying to match her to the woman he’d met back at the campsite. Eventually he gave a little nod, but there was more apprehension in his expression than joy.
‘Hello, Lucy and Orly. It’s good to see you both again,’ Rhona said.
‘Did you swim?’ Lucy asked, eyes wide.
‘I did, but I missed you.’
The eyes clouded over. ‘Daddy wouldn’t let me come swimming with you.’
‘I know,’ Rhona said. ‘That’s why I called in to you, so you knew I came as promised.’
At this, Lucy slipped her hand into Rhona’s and, catching Francine’s eye, Rhona was rewarded by a grateful smile.
This meeting of herself, Janice and the family liaison officer, with Magnus observing from next door, had been designed to put the children, especially Lucy, at ease. Which seemed to be working, for the moment at least.
Lucy was to be their focus, although Orly’s place as his sister’s confidant was obvious even now. However, this plan didn’t last for long.
Both children listened carefully to PC Hope’s explanation as to what was about to happen, then looked to one another in silent communication.
After which Orly said, ‘We want to speak to Dr MacLeod on our own.’ Despite his anxious look, he sounded determined.
Francine, Rhona suspected, had already been forewarned of this, because she didn’t look surprised or even worried by it. In fact, the look she shot Rhona was one of relief.
After a moment’s surprised silence, PC Hope responded.
‘Okay, we’ll leave you to chat to Dr MacLeod on your own for a bit and I’ll come and see you later.’ She checked with Francine: ‘Are you okay with that, Mrs Henderson?’
Francine rose with a nod and an encouraging smile.
The children were silent as they watched the door close behind the adults. Rhona waited, saying nothing, understanding that the children wished to be in charge of this exchange. She wasn’t required to ask questions, merely to listen to whatever they were willing to tell her.
After a moment or two, Lucy nodded to her brother to begin.
Fear and worry etched his small face as he began, stumbling over the words at first. ‘I saw Daddy go into Callie’s van the night she arrived. When Mum and me looked inside the van the next morning there was blood and sick on the floor, so Callie must have been hurt.’
He didn’t say he was worried that his father had been the one to hurt Callie, but it seemed from his expression that he might well be.
Rhona felt her heart go out to Orly, realizing he’d been carrying this fear ever since that fateful night.
Lucy took a little longer to begin her own story. Rhona, seeing her distress, squeezed her hand reassuringly.
Eventually, with a little gulp as though she was trying not to cry, she managed to get the words out. ‘I . . . I saw Daddy walking along the shore that morning and wanted to go with him. So I shouted but he didn’t stop and I couldn’t climb over the fence so I had to go round to the opening.
‘I tried to catch him up, but he was walking too quickly.’ Lucy’s face crumpled a little. ‘He stopped at . . . that place . . . so I thought he’d heard me calling on him. But then he jumped over the fence and walked back through the fields to the campsite and I sat down.’
So there it was. The reason Lucy had been at the burial ground. But why had her dad gone there? And why did he go into Callie’s van?
They were both looking at her, waiting for her response.
‘Have you told your mum any of this?’ Rhona asked quietly.
They shook their heads in unison. ‘No, because it would make her cry,’ Orly said.
‘And your dad?’
Orly checked with his sister again before answering. ‘He doesn’t know we saw him.’
The silence that followed was eventually broken by Lucy, who said, ‘Mum’s taking us on holiday today. We’re going to a cottage by a loch.’
Was the child changing the subject because she didn’t want any more questions or was this in fact true? Rhona soon found out.
‘Dad isn’t coming with us. He’s got to work,’ Orly said in obvious relief.
Did Francine know something or was she just trying to make up for their spoilt holiday? Then again, might she be leaving home altogether? Might that have emerged in her conversation next door with PC Hope?
The two children had dropped into silence. Lucy rose and said, her voice a little wobbly, ‘I want to see my mummy now.’
‘Of course,’ Rhona said, ‘and thank you for chatting to me. You’ll be able to swim on this holiday?’
‘Mummy says we’ll all swim, even if it’s cold,’ Lucy said in a determined voice.
Lucy gave her a little hug before the door opened and Francine came in.
‘Everything okay?’ she said to Rhona.
Rhona wasn’t sure how to answer that. What both children had revealed to her had thrown an altogether different light on Callie’s disappearance and the behaviour of her husband.
‘Now they’ve told me, I think they’ll be brave enough to tell you what’s been worrying them,’ Rhona said. ‘Especially since you’re going off on holiday together.’
‘I’d like that,’ Francine said as both children moved to take her hand. ‘Will we see you again, Dr MacLeod?’
‘I certainly hope so,’ Rhona said, before following DS Clark from the room.
Once outside, the door closed behind them, Janice said, ‘We watched from next door. Both kids had a startling story to tell.’
‘Did Mrs Henderson hear that?’ Rhona asked.
Janice indicated not. ‘There was always a chance that the kids might have something to say about their mother. Although she was so keen to bring them here, I doubted that. PC Hope chatted to her in another room.’
Rhona nodded. ‘Is she really taking them on holiday . . . or is she leaving her husband and just hasn’t explained that to them?’
‘PC Hope suspects she plans to move out and this is perhaps the first step,’ Janice confirmed.
‘From what I saw at the holiday camp, she’s frightened of him. If he found out she brought the children here . . .’ Rhona tailed off.
‘She has my number and I’ve told her to ring me any time she needs to talk, or if she’s worried for the children or for herself.’ Janice halted there. ‘You ready for the boss now? Magnus is with him.’
Rhona acknowledged Magnus’s presence on entry, registering his concerned expression, before greeting her long-term friend and mentor, Bill Wilson, who’d been a support ever since she’d entered this job.
‘So, Rhona, your thoughts on what the children told you?’
‘Up to now Orly only said he’d seen someone enter the van that night. Now he’s revealed that he thinks that someone was his father. I think he believes that to be the truth,’ she said. ‘Plus the relief at being able to say it out loud was obvious.’
‘Magnus?’ Bill asked.
‘I agree, although I think there may be more to come. I believe they’d decided on their lines, and repeated them to you. Sometimes with difficulty because of the upset in saying the words. The boy, Orly, didn’t tell you exactly when he saw his father going into Callie’s van, or if Callie had willingly let him in. He didn’t mention seeing him come out, yet something tells me he would have watched for that. He said he was worried she might have been hurt because of the blood the next day. I think he was worried that his father had hurt her. Why would he think this unless he’d seen his father hurt someone else, his mother for instance?’
Silence followed this before Rhona said what she’d also been thinking.
‘Lucy’s story about following her father rang true and it explains why she was found at the burial site, but her father stopping there had really scared her. Why, when she followed him, did she stop there too? Did she realize it was a grave? Or did he do something there that frightened her?’
‘Was it recognizable as a gravesite?’ DI Wilson asked.
‘To Chrissy and myself, yes, and the police dog obviously knew. But to a child like Lucy, I don’t think so. The question really is why did Derek Henderson go there in the first place?’
‘He could have just been on a walk?’ Janice said.
‘Or maybe he went to meet someone?’ Magnus offered.
‘It’s time we asked Mr Henderson in for questioning.’ DI Wilson looked to Janice. ‘I believe we already have Callie’s former boyfriend, Mr Logan, on the premises?’
‘Yes, sir, DS McNab brought him in,’ Janice said.
‘Then let’s see what both men have to say about all of this.’
‘And Mrs Henderson?’ Rhona asked. ‘Did she tell PC Hope anything more while I was with the children?’
‘Only what she’d told us already, although she did explain she hadn’t admitted to her husband about coming in today. Or that she was taking the children away to a friend’s cottage.’
‘We need to know exactly where she’s going,’ Rhona said. ‘I’m not sure it’s enough to just know her mobile number. Wherever it is, there may not be a signal. The children mentioned a loch, but not the loch’s name or location.’
Magnus nodded, agreeing with her.
‘If she is going into hiding from her husband, then she must have a reason for doing that,’ Rhona said. ‘She’s afraid for her children. That much is obvious. I also believe the children share her fear.’
35
Day six
Logan had come quietly enough and was now stewing in the interview room, hopefully worried as hell as to what might happen next.
McNab didn’t like the guy and was pretty sure that his story about where he was and when probably wouldn’t add up. Instinct suggested he and Callie had had a bust-up and that was why she’d gone off in her van.
On his return to the station he’d chosen not to join the party in with the boss, keen not to face him again until he might sort out the small problem of the CCTV footage. Meeting the boss’s keen eye when you were either lying or evading the truth was a tortuous business.
With this thought in mind, he decided he couldn’t wait any longer to talk to Holly, and took himself outside to make the call before Janice and the others re-emerged.
He stood for a moment, trying to decide how exactly he should frame his story. Play it funny and awkward, appealing to Holly’s sense of humour? Or just tell the truth? Which was that he was screwed if she didn’t back him up and say the sex was consensual and that she’d been the one to instigate it.
Even as he thought this, he felt embarrassed for himself. Why should he put the blame on Holly, as though he’d been forced rather than led willingly outside to do what he’d done?
As it was, he didn’t get to play out either scenario as the call rang out unanswered, before switching to voicemail and Holly’s cheery tones asking him to leave a message.
In that split second he decided to tell the machine what he’d planned to tell her. It was much like being in the confessional, where you could reveal all your sins without having to look at the priest as you did so.
Hanging up, he felt a rush of relief because he hadn’t had to view Holly’s reaction either.
But now you have to wait until she calls you back, he reminded himself, and what if she doesn’t? What then, smart arse?
As he stood there considering the consequences of his decision, the phone rang, but it wasn’t Holly’s name on the screen.
‘McNab here,’ he answered.
‘Where’s here?’ Janice demanded.
‘Just popped outside.’
‘You’re not back smoking, I hope?’
‘Don’t be daft,’ McNab told her. ‘I’ll be with you in a minute.’
As he walked swiftly back, he chastised himself for stupidly saying he was outside. Why hadn’t he said he was at the coffee machine? She would have bought that right away.
Janice, he reminded himself again, was way more astute than he sometimes gave her credit for.
Smiling on entry, he met Janice’s quizzical eye.
‘So how did it go with the kids’ interview?’ he immediately asked, to forestall any more questions regarding his stint outside.
‘You can watch the recording, but basically Lucy followed her father to the gravesite, and Orly said he saw his father enter Callie’s van the night before she disappeared.’
McNab gave a whistle. ‘Jeez, I take it we’re bringing Mr Henderson in for questioning?’
‘We are. Also, it looks like Mrs Henderson’s intent on leaving her husband. She’s on her way to a rented cottage at Loch Lomond with the children.’
‘The kids told her what they told Rhona?’ McNab asked.
‘They said they couldn’t tell their mother because it would have made her cry.’
McNab expressed his distaste. ‘So that wasn’t what made her leave?’
‘I think she was already scared of him,’ Janice said.
‘Do we know the address of this cottage?’
‘We do. Plus we’ve alerted the local constabulary to the family’s presence.’
He could sense Janice’s disquiet about all of this, and now wished he’d gone into the meeting with the boss and heard it for himself. In his attempts to get off the hook, he’d failed in his duty to both the dead and the missing girl.
‘What is it?’ Janice said, obviously reading his expression.
‘Let’s go see what Callie’s former boyfriend has to say. You take the lead this time,’ McNab told her.
‘D’you want to let me know what he’s told you?’
McNab shook his head. ‘This way he has to repeat it all. Let’s see if it’s the same story.’
By the expression on his face as they entered, Logan was well pissed off at being kept waiting. Taking pleasure from that, McNab formally introduced Janice and apologized for keeping him waiting.
‘We were in a strategy meeting regarding your girlfriend’s disappearance.’
‘Callie’s not my girlfriend,’ Logan stated stiffly. ‘I’ve already explained that.’
McNab watched as Janice smiled pleasantly and, taking the seat directly opposite Logan, said, ‘Nevertheless, Mr Logan, I am sure you want to do everything you can to help us locate Callie, hopefully safe and well.’
Logan’s belligerent look faded under Janice’s watchful eye.
‘Of course I want to help, but I’ve told Detective Sergeant McNab everything already, back at my flat.’ He sounded peeved.
‘Then please tell me,’ Janice said encouragingly.
McNab relaxed back in his chair, arms folded. His partner had this completely under her control. He only had to watch and listen.
Some forty minutes later, leaving a silent Logan writing up his statement, they headed out.
‘Well?’ McNab said as they walked back to their desks.
‘He’s hiding something,’ Janice said firmly. ‘Possibly a fight before she left. Francine Henderson did say in her statement that Callie’s face was bruised when she arrived at the campsite.’
‘So he assaulted her and that’s why she left?’
‘I suspect so.’
‘I never told him the exact day she arrived at the campsite,’ McNab said. ‘He was desperately hoping you would so he could get his dates right.’
