Torch (19 page)

Tommy Moffat
was in the frame for MacMurdo’s murder and being involved in the
rape. If Tommy thought they had enough on him, he might squeal
about Meldrum Holdings in the hope of a reduced sentence.

They had
already established that he had been cutting the drugs with
anything he could find, including the white stuff his wee brother
brought home from the fireworks factory. So Tommy had it both ways.
He made money from dealing, then picked up his hit money as the
addicts died off and left the schemes empty for Meldrum Holdings to
develop.

The arsonist
was the enigma. Severino had tried to persuade her to have a police
guard until they picked him up. It seemed too melodramatic for
Rhona. Security was tight in the lab already. Having a policeman
stand around all day getting bored was overkill.

She glanced at
the clock. Where was Chrissy? She’d only gone to drop off a
forensic bag at Chemistry. She should have been back by now.

She checked the
window. Liam should be arriving any moment. Sure enough a tall
blond figure was coming across the car park. She watched the
long-legged stride. Saw him hesitate then approach the gate guard.
They both looked up at her window. Rhona stepped back, her heart
hammering, her mouth dry.

She was
terrified to meet her own child. Frightened of what she would see
in his eyes.

The lab phone
rang. She didn’t move. If she met Liam, things would never be the
same again, for either of them. Sweat broke out on her brow as the
phone continued to ring. She steeled herself and picked up.

‘Dr
MacLeod?’

‘Yes?’

‘I have a young
man in reception called Liam Hope. Says he’s here to see you.’

She asked the
security guard to send him up, her voice sounding like someone
else. She should have gone down to meet him, but she couldn’t trust
her legs to carry her.

She was facing
the door, waiting for Liam’s silhouette to appear in the small pane
of glass. The movement behind her caused her to turn, thinking
Chrissy had returned unnoticed.

Severino stood
behind her, dressed in a white lab coat, a visitor badge pinned to
his lapel. He smiled. She opened her mouth to ask how he had got in
then realised it wasn’t Sev, merely a caricature of him.

The man from
Greg’s apartment wasn’t smiling this time and he wasn’t
embarrassed. The blond hair had been dyed black, the glasses
discarded.

‘How the
hell...?

She didn’t get
to finish as he caught her arm and twisted it up her back. The pain
was excruciating.

She thrust her
free hand backwards, hoping to hit him in the crotch. He laughed
pushing her elbow even higher. Her mouth filled with bile as nausea
swept over her.

‘Do that again
and I’ll break your arm.’

She spoke
through clenched teeth, thinking all the time of Liam’s imminent
arrival. ‘What do you want?’

He stiffened,
hearing the footsteps in the corridor.

‘Please God,
no,’ she whispered.

Then she heard
the knock at the door and saw the tall silhouette behind the
glass.

‘Who is it?’ he
spat in her ear.

‘I don’t know,’
she lied.

‘Tell them
you’re busy.’

The knock came
again.

‘Sorry, I’m
busy,’ her voice sounded cold and remote. ‘Can you come back
later?’

Rhona willed
Liam to walk away, but he wasn’t giving up this time. There was a
moment’s silence then, ‘Rhona?’ He pressed his face against the
glass. ‘Please. It’s me Liam.’

The door began
to open.

A rush of fear
and love swamped Rhona.

‘No!’ she cried
as the cold metal of a gun met her ribs.

Her son’s face
was startled. Even in that moment, Rhona saw the resemblance to
Edward in his eyes.

Liam looked
down at the gun then up at her face.

‘Get inside,
now!’

Liam didn’t
hesitate.

‘Shut the door
and lock it.’ He looked Liam up and down. ‘Who are you?’

‘Dr MacLeod’s
son.’

There was a
moment’s silence.

‘Now that’s one
thing I didn’t know about Dr MacLeod.’

Even the
cynical voice reminded her of Sev.

Rhona edged her
body between the gun and Liam. Chrissy would appear any minute. She
just had to stay calm and keep him talking.

‘Why are you
here?’ she tried.

‘I made you a
promise. I came to keep it.’

‘What’s he
talking about?’ Liam asked.

Rhona threw
Liam a look, willing him to stay calm.

‘You’re very
like MacRae,’ she suggested.

A flash of
anger crossed his face.

‘The bastard
who ruined my life.’

‘How did he do
that?’

‘I was a good
officer. They threw me out of the brigade because of him.’

He waved them
towards the sample cupboard at the back of the lab and pushed them
inside. Rhona grabbed Liam’s hand, squeezing it tightly. His pulse
beat swiftly in the nape of his neck, but his face was resolved. He
wasn’t going to panic. Yet.

The door
snapped shut behind them and the key turned.

‘What did he
mean, what he promised?’

The mix of
letters in those emails rearranged themselves in Rhona’s head. BURN
THE BITCH. That was his promise.

‘Security will
be here soon,’ she told Liam, wishing she believed it herself.

A new sprinkler
system had been installed the previous year. If it worked they had
a chance, provided the smoke didn’t get them first.

She heard him
moving about the lab, piling stuff against the cupboard door. Then
the crackle as the paper caught.

Smoke began to
drift under the door.

‘The sprinklers
will come on,’ she told Liam.

But they
didn’t.

The smoke was
thickening. Where the hell was the alarm and the sprinklers? Liam’s
face was grey with fear. She pulled off her lab coat and thrust it
at him.

‘Cover your
mouth with this.’

At the back was
a panel that led to the riser, a shaft that ran up through the
building. It housed the network and power cables and more recently
the sprinkler pipes when they did up the lab. It also had a metal
ladder. But the panel needed a maintenance key to open it. Liam was
watching her, his eyes bloodshot and streaming above the lab coat.
She looked wildly about her for something to force the lock.

‘Here. Try
this.’

He thrust a
Swiss army knife into her hand. He had flicked open a blade and she
inserted it into the lock. It really needed a round key, but it
might work. She was praying out loud as she felt the blade turn.
There was a resistance then a sudden click. Tears streamed down her
face as the panel dropped forward.

Air rushed down
the shaft, escaping through into the lab, feeding the fire even
more.

‘Can you
climb?’

Liam looked
up.

‘I think
so.’

‘There’s an
opening into the room above. Look for a panel on the left of the
shaft. You’ll have to force it open.’

‘What about
you?’

‘I’ll follow,’
she promised.

She watched his
feet disappear. What the hell had happened to the smoke alarms and
all the fancy computer controlled equipment they’d installed last
year?

She had brought
Liam here. If her son died it would be her fault.

She began to
climb.

Liam had
reached the panel. The shaft was full of smoke and she couldn’t see
him but she could hear him battering the wall.

It was too
late. The fumes had seeped into every part of her. Her brain, her
stomach, her lungs. She couldn’t fight for breath any more.

Then she heard
the alarm go off... a glorious shrieking sound... as smoke escaped
with Liam into the next level.

Liam was out.
That was all she cared about.

She closed her
eyes and let go.

‘Rhona!’

Liam’s voice
was a thousand miles away, but his hand held hers and he was
pulling her free.

Chapter
36

Jaz studied the
headstone.

In Memory
of

Karen
Carlyle

18th Aug 1988 -
28th Dec 2004

Aged 16 yrs

Love

Jaz and
Emperor

At least there
had been someone at her funeral. Rhona came. But not her son. He
had left to work in Africa for a year. She pretended she was
alright about that, but Jaz knew by her eyes that she wasn’t. DI
MacFarlane was there and DI Wilson.

And MacRae,
looking like shit. Glancing all the time at Rhona as if he wanted
to say something and couldn’t. MacRae told him Amy had wanted to
come but her mother wouldn’t let her. Jaz didn’t blame the mother
for that. A funeral wasn’t the place for a wee girl.

It had taken a
while to find out who Karen was, but MacFarlane promised he would
do it and he did.

Emps put his
cold nose in Jaz’s hand.

‘Okay boy.
Let’s go.’

He set off
across the frosted grass, Emps running by his side. Karen’s death
had made him even more determined not to screw up this time. He
owed it to her. He had started evening classes at college, was
painting again. He planned to paint Karen the way he remembered
her. In Rose Street, playing the penny whistle. That way, she would
always be alive.

‘I didn’t sleep
with him.’

Sean’s eyes
held hers. ‘It doesn’t matter.’

‘Then what
does?’ she said sharply.

He ran his
fingers through his hair. He didn’t want to argue when the outcome
was inevitable. He took her hand and stroked the palm with his
thumb.

‘I’m not asking
you to go,’ she said defensively.

He lifted her
hand and kissed it sending a shiver through her body.

‘You met
someone in Amsterdam.’ If that were true it would make it
easier.

He shook his
head. ‘This isn’t about me.’

It was about
her.

‘You need space
to decide... ’ The words who you want were left unsaid. ‘I’ll be in
my old room at the club... if you need me.’

He let her hand
fall. It felt cold without him.

‘You’ll come
and hear me on Friday?’

She nodded. She
wanted to kiss him, but didn’t.

She’d felt
frightened as he left. Frightened to be alone. It lasted until the
door closed behind him. Then she felt relief.

She stood in
the empty flat. Sean’s suitcase gone from the hall, the saxophone
from the corner of the bedroom.

So that was
it.

She tested her
feelings, recognising the hole that Sean’s departure had left
inside her.

She had told
him Sev had stayed at the flat on Hogmanay and held her in his arms
as the bells tolled in the New Year, because in those moments they
both needed someone. That was all, she’d insisted and almost meant
it. Sean had read between the lines.

The cat came
and wrapped itself round her legs in a flurry of cupboard love.

‘Just you and
me again.’

She picked
Chance up and carried him into the kitchen. The grass in the
convent garden below the window was frosted icing. Two nuns were
strolling around, their footprints criss-crossing the white
topping. If only her world was like theirs; calm, peaceful and
orderly.

Since the fire
in the laboratory, she had lost all the men in her life. Liam had
promised to write, but he was going somewhere remote. A school on
the Nigeria-Cameroon border. She wouldn’t hear from him very often.
She wondered if she ever would.

That last night
they’d sat in a bar in Byres Road, where the surrounding noise made
conversation easier. He was interested in her work and worried for
her safety. She found herself liking this young man she had loved
from a distance for so long.

Watching his
face as he spoke, she thought she detected both herself and Edward
in him. She didn’t regret either resemblance because Liam was his
own man. She asked if he would like to know who his father was.

‘Not if you
don’t want to tell me.’

She told him
everything. How much she had loved Edward, how wrong she had been
to give her son up.

‘I’ve thought
about you every day of my life.’ She looked down, not wanting him
to see the tears in her eyes.

He was silent
for a moment, giving her time.

‘I had a happy
childhood. But there were things about me I didn’t understand... ‘
he paused, trying to put his thoughts into words. ‘I liked being
alone.’ He gave a half smile. ‘Mum and Dad thought I was
lonely.’

‘And were
you?’

He shook his
head. ‘No. But when they told me about the adoption, I understood
then why I was different.’

They had begun
to talk of other things. His trip to Africa, his university course,
her work.

She suspected
like her, he needed to go away and think about this. He had met her
once. Maybe that was all he needed or wanted.

When they
parted, he turned and waved and she took a mental image of her son
to hold close to her in case she never saw him again.

Severino too
had come to see her, blaming himself for her ordeal. She’d had a
hunch about the arsonist and he didn’t act on it quickly enough.
Tim Redpath had served with the fire service for ten years. He had
been dedicated to the work. Some said consumed by it. Fire became
more important than anything else in his life. Like me, Severino
said. He was suspected of starting some of the fires he attended
and dismissed from the service. His life fell apart. When he
started buying drugs, Tommy Moffat had seen the potential in Tim’s
obsession.

‘And the
connection with Greg?’

‘Once he
established where you were staying, he did a bit of detective
work,’ he paused. ‘If I had been thinking more and drinking less...
’ Sev’s voice tailed off. ‘I’m sorry.’