Unfinished Business (20 page)

“Fine, I’ll go back in the morning but if it doesn’t work then it’s your turn.”

“If I’m back in Glasgow by then.”

“You’d better make sure you are,” she said before hanging up.

Brodie stared at the phone before releasing a loud grunt of annoyance. No one could wind him up like his little sister.

CHAPTER 16

Brodie’s annoyance at his sister continued into the next morning and he sat in sullen silence at the table in the hotel restaurant as he consumed his full English breakfast.

“Nice to see Natalie’s not spoilt your appetite,” said Cass as she nibbled on a croissant.

“Nothing can do that,” he muttered, glaring at his orange juice.

It was the first words they’d exchanged all morning. Brodie was grateful that Cass understood his moods so well.

“I’m sorry,” he said, demolishing the last of his meal and pushing the plate aside. “Wouldn’t it be good if you could pick your family?”

“I bet Lauren Creegan would agree.” She knew he’d appreciate his thoughts being taken off his own family.

“Probably. Poor wee cow. She’s had a miserable life and it’s not going to get any better.”

“I’ve got the horrible feeling you’re right.” She sat back in her seat cradling her cup of tea. “ So what’s the move this morning Boss?” she said, still trying to draw his mind from his personal problems and focus on the task in hand.

“I want to talk to Maggie about her dead parents-in-law and I want to talk to Mark. Lauren told me Seth works for him sometimes.”

“Seth, in an antiques shop?”

“My thoughts exactly. I want to ask him exactly what he does.” He glared down at his phone when it rang, convinced it was Natalie. He snatched it up. “You’d better be calling me from the hospital,” he hissed.

“Is that a threat?” said a man’s voice.

Brodie was thrown. “Who is this?”

“DS Clarke. I’d really appreciate it if you and your associate could come in for a friendly chat.”

“I used to be a police officer Clarke, I know a friendly chat will turn into a full blown interrogation.”

“Is there anything we should be interrogating you about?”

“No.”

“In that case you’ve nothing to worry about. We’ll see you both in an hour. I’d hate to send a police escort for you.” Clarke’s tone was cold.

“That won’t be necessary. We’ll be there.”

“I’ll be waiting for you in reception.”

Brodie hung up and looked at Cass regretfully.

“What have you done?” she said.

“Clarke wants us to go into the station for a chat.”

“Oh wonderful, he thinks we’re something to do with The Carver case.”

“It’s not that, he probably just wants to hear what we know about The Creegans.”

“You already told him.”

“Obviously he thinks we’re holding out on him. Come on, we’d better go.”

“If I get arrested I want double pay,” she said as they exited the hotel.

“Time and a half?”

“Done.”

Clarke, good as his word, was waiting for them at the reception desk in the police station. He looked friendly enough but Brodie wasn’t fooled. Once they were in that interview room he would drop into the hard act.

“Thanks for coming in Mr MacBride, Miss Carlisle,” he said. “This way.”

He swiped his card in a heavy duty door next to the reception desk and they followed him into the depths of the station.

“In here please Mr MacBride. Miss Carlisle, my colleague will talk to you in the next room.”

Cass looked up at the burly, stone-faced detective waiting outside a battered plywood door. “Don’t forget, time and a half,” she mumbled to Brodie.

“I won’t,” he said before being led into an interview room by Clarke.

“Please sit,” said the detective, gesturing to a chair.

Brodie sat and Clarke took the chair on the other side of the desk.

“You’ve got an impressive record ex-Detective Inspector MacBride,” began Clarke. “Why did you stop being a copper?”

“I got fed up of scumbags getting away with murder, literally, despite my best efforts.”

Clarke flashed him an understanding smile. “I think we can all sympathise with that. Your business seems to be thriving too.”

“It is. You’ve done your homework.”

“When someone tells me they know more about an investigation than I do then I think it prudent to check them out. That part of your story stands up, thanks to DI McLaren at Glasgow, but you’ve ingratiated yourself into The Carver case and I don’t like that.”

“I’m only trying to help.”

“Because of this client of yours?”

Brodie nodded. “I’ve never failed to close a case yet and I don’t intend to start now.”

“You’ve solved cases that have had several police forces stumped. How did you manage that?”

“I have good people working for me.”

“And you’re more in a position to bend the rules.”

Brodie just shrugged.

“It seems you get results, which is why I want you consulting on this case.”

Brodie blinked. “Excuse me?”

“As long as Miss Carlisle’s story tallies with your own…”

“It will.”

“…then I want you working with us. We’ve reached a dead end with The Carver case and, to be quite frank, we need all the help we can get. I’m not ashamed to admit that but my superior, DCI Hillyard, is. He won’t give you an easy time of it. But this isn’t about our egos, it’s about stopping a man from killing more women so we’re prepared to put pride aside. You used to be one of us, you know the form but this is kept strictly between us. Only me, you, Miss Carlisle and my superiors DI Birtwistle and DCI Hillyard are to know and you certainly don’t talk to the press.”

“I never do, despite their best efforts.”

“Then we shouldn’t have a problem. I’m going to tell you something about the case, something we’ve managed to keep a lid on.”

“And what’s that?”

“We think The Carver isn’t operating alone.”

“Two killers?”

“We don’t know if both are killers but he certainly has an accomplice, someone complicit in the crimes.”

“What makes you think that?”

“The victims were well looked after, up until he started carving stuff into them but they’re held for two or three days before he starts using them as a canvas. One person alone couldn’t look after them like that and maintain their usual routine. We also think he has someone helping him take the victims. Despite the number of witnesses in the nightclubs no one ever saw them leave with a man.”

“Interesting,” said Brodie thoughtfully.

“It hadn’t occurred to you?”

“No,” he said, feeling a little embarrassed after all his boasting.

“Oh,” said Clarke in a way that indicated he thought he’d overestimated the berk sat across the table from him. “But that puts an entirely different spin on the matter if you think the Creegans are involved. If Seth is The Carver who do you think could be helping him?”

“Lauren,” Brodie replied without hesitation. “She’s completely terrified of him, she’d do anything he’d say and be too scared to grass him up. Plus he seems to control most aspects of her life. Twenty two years old and she’s never had a boyfriend, never lived alone. No wonder she starts fires, it’s the only way she can get some control.”

“We’ve checked out all the family’s alibis.”

“And they alibi each other?”

“Yep, unfortunately, but your Lauren theory makes sense. I’ve interviewed her a couple of times and she’s always been a bag of nerves, she’d make the perfect submissive partner in these crimes. It follows that the dominant would be male as well as someone who’d been involved in the original murders, or at least was around at the time.”

“Mark would be submissive to Seth too I think,” said Brodie. “And he’s already killed once, that we know of.”

“Twins are said to have the closest bond.”

“But those two aren’t close. Mark has his own life,” said Brodie, talking himself out of his own theory. “Maggie would be a possible too but she’s not as pliant as Lauren, I can’t see Seth manipulating her. Unless the accomplice doesn’t need to be manipulated, maybe they enjoy it?”

“Murderous partnerships usually have a submissive partner and a dominant one,” pointed out Clarke.

“One thing I’ve learnt is that there are always exceptions to the rule. Nothing in this world is black and white. It’s just one big blob of grey.”

“You have a point there. Despite their alibis the Creegans have remained persons of interest. You’re in with the family.”

“Only with Sarah and she doesn’t seem to need my services anymore. Lauren likes me too but she’s very unstable. I don’t want to keep pushing her.”

“You still have influence. Use it to find out what you can.”

“I’ll do my best but I can’t promise anything.”

“Give me a minute to confer with my colleague.”

Clarke got up and left the room, leaving Brodie to lean back in his seat and clasp his hands behind his head. If he was truthful with himself he was a little relieved he wasn’t under arrest. He spied the camera mounted on the wall in the corner of the room and grinned up at it.

Clarke returned just a few seconds over the requested minute. “Miss Carlisle has confirmed everything you’ve told me, so do we have a deal?”

Brodie nodded and shook the hand Clarke extended, his grip strong and warm.

“You’re free to leave. Here’s my card,” said Clarke. “Call me the second you find out anything.”

“Will do,” said Brodie, pocketing it, the card joining all the junk in his jacket pockets. He exited the room to find Cass already loitering in the corridor.

“Well, what’s going on?” she said.

“You’re working for us now,” said Clarke. “I’ll show you out.”

“What?” she frowned.

“I’ve agreed that we’ll cooperate with the police in their investigation into The Carver,” explained Brodie.

“Right, okay,” she said, sounding a little confused but not arguing.

“Thanks for coming in and keep in touch,” said Clarke, escorting them out of the building.

“What just happened?” said Cass as they walked back to the car.

“The police are completely stuck, they’ve heard about our excellent reputation and they want our help.”

It wasn’t the first time they’d been asked to help the police but this had still come as a surprise. “That copper was so abrasive I felt sure I was going to get nicked,” she said.

“They were just testing that our stories tallied.”

“I suppose. So what do we do now?”

“I wish I had a sodding clue.”

“You don’t know?”

“Nope,” he said before jumping into his car.

Cass got into the passenger seat and grinned. “This is a first. I’ve never known you not have a plan.”

“Let’s look at what we’ve got. We’re pretty sure Seth Creegan is The Carver and we know he’s been drug dealing. Now his competition is out of the way…”

“And we helped him achieve that.”

“…it’s an open field for him.” He hesitated before adding, “what if he saw us at the hospital with Lauren? Or what if she told him about our conversation?”

“He couldn’t know I was going to turn up at his work.”

“It would be a reasonable assumption.”

“You think he set it up?”

“Maybe. No, he couldn’t have, it’s too improbable.”

“Improbable that Haines turned up at the bar when I was there?”

“You have a point. Have we just been played?”

“Looks like it.”

“I don’t like being played,” he growled, eyes turning sherry cask. “I want to nail the slippery bastard to the wall.”

“You’re sure Seth’s The Carver?”

“My gut’s telling me he is. Clarke thinks he’s got an accomplice.”

“Who?”

“Lauren. She’s the most likely suspect.”

“It might not be anyone in the family, it could be someone with the same sick impulses. He probably knows loads of not nice people.”

“Perhaps,” said Brodie, staring at the steering wheel.

Cass sat patiently beside him and when a full minute had passed without him speaking or moving she said, “trying to figure out what to do next?”

“Yep.” He released a long, slow sigh. “Seth’s keeping it in the family, he has to be. He likes control, he craves it. He didn’t like Sarah joining the family because it meant he lost his control over Mark, so he exerts even more force over Lauren to compensate.”

“You’re starting to sound like Prosser.”

“He might be an old perv but he did have some good ideas. He told me Seth has the violent emotions of an adult male but the control of a child.”

“But The Carver is all about precision.”

“This is his work, it’s art to him. He’s making something special, something to impress, like a wean doing a picture for…” His eyes widened when he realised what he’d hit on.

“Mummy,” ended Cass for him.

“Seat belt on Cass. You’re about to meet the Creegan matriarch.”

Maggie looked furious to see Brodie and Cass on her doorstep but as she inhaled, preparing to give them a gobful, she launched into a coughing fit instead.