Quintin Jardine - Hour Of Darkness

I was ready and waiting in the interview room when Cheryl Mackenzie arrived. I asked Wilding to greet her in reception and bring her through, but without telling her I was there.

We had met before a couple of times, immediately after she and David had moved to Edinburgh, and again when I visited him after he had his breakdown. When she saw me her eyes widened and she gave a very small gasp. I smiled, in an attempt to put her at her ease, and told her that it was all right, that I wasn’t the bearer of bad news.

‘I’ve been concerned about you,’ I said, as she took a seat, in a group of three that I’d set out, away from the usual interview table, ‘and so have other people in Strathclyde.’

‘Thank you,’ she replied, then added, ‘and I’m really sorry you have been. My mum started to cry, you know, when I walked through the door this morning. It took her all her time to ask me where I’ve been.’

‘And where have you been, Cheryl?’ I asked.

‘I’ve been away, by myself. I just had to, Mr Skinner.’

‘Why?’

‘Because I just couldn’t take any more of David’s intensity and his anger. I’ve had twenty years of it and I can’t take any more. I thought he was okay, but he’s not. He’s paranoid, he thinks that life’s one big conspiracy against him. He hates everybody; he hates you, he hates Mrs Steele, and he loathes ACC McGuire especially, I think because he’s afraid of him.’

Her remark didn’t surprise me. . anyone who believed McGuire was after him would be entitled to be afraid. . but her next did.

‘You know what I think?’ she asked, rhetorically. ‘I think he associates him with his uncle.’

I made myself frown. ‘His uncle?’ I repeated, quietly.

‘Yes.’ She hunched her shoulders, leaning forward a little, in the way people sometimes do when they’re telling you a secret.

‘When David was young, he was brought up by an aunt and uncle, after his parents both died. The uncle was very cruel to him, so much so that David was taken away from them and brought up in a children’s home.’ She paused and looked at me. ‘But you must know that, Mr Skinner.’

I nodded. ‘Yes, I do, but carry on.’

She hesitated, finding the right words. ‘Well, I suspect that Mr McGuire makes him think of that uncle. . I don’t mean that he’s ever threatened him in any way, I just think he associates the two of them in his mind.’

‘Then he’s wrong,’ Wilding assured her. ‘Speaking as someone who works under ACC McGuire’s command, I promise you that he’s a very fair and considerate boss. He can be blunt, but everybody likes him.’

‘Are you afraid of David, Cheryl?’ I asked.

‘No!’ she protested. ‘We’ve been together for ever.’

‘Then what made you go off so suddenly? People don’t become paranoid overnight, and as you’ve just said, you’ve been a couple since you were in your teens. Yes,’ I added, ‘I know that too.’

‘Nothing,’ she replied. ‘I told you, I just had enough. I needed a break from him.’

I sensed that she was trying to evade my gaze but I wouldn’t let her.

‘He thumped you, Cheryl. Didn’t he?

She shook her head, tearing her eyes from mine. ‘No,’ she whispered.

‘Look at me and say that,’ I challenged. ‘He did. Your blood was on a towel in your bathroom. Please, tell me the truth; this isn’t about a prosecution for assault. If it was I wouldn’t be here, and neither would DI Wilding. You’d be talking as a witness to DCS Chambers and ACC McGuire.’

She sighed. ‘Okay, yes he did. He had a blazing row with Mario McGuire over the telephone last Saturday morning and that set him off. It set me off as well. I told him I’d had enough of him blaming everybody but himself whenever he screwed something up and he just turned and hit me.

‘He split my lip and gave me a black eye in the making.’ She wiped some cosmetic from her face, revealing a fading bruise on her left cheek. ‘It was all over in a few seconds and he was full of remorse, but I had to get away from him.’

‘Did you ever think, even for one second,’ Wilding asked, ‘of calling the police after he thumped you?’

‘No,’ she replied without any pause for thought. ‘That would have been the cruellest thing I could possibly have done to him. The police force is all that’s been holding David together for a while now. If I’d got you involved that would have gone.’

‘So you left,’ I said, ‘to give him some cooling-off time?’

‘Yes. I packed a bag and I left.’

‘Where did you go?’

‘I just drove. I wound up in Tarbert, and booked into a bed and breakfast. I stayed there until I was ready to come back.’

‘Without calling anyone? Without calling your mother even, to let her know you were all right? Without calling into your work?’

‘I didn’t want to speak to anyone; I assumed David would look after the children. The fact of the matter is, I wasn’t sure I would ever come back.’

‘How did you pay for the trip?’

‘Cash. I pulled as much money as I could out of ATMs, about two thousand pounds. I put some of it on one of David’s credit cards, just to punish him.’ She threw me a small smile.

‘Was that the only reason you drew the cash? To piss him off?’

She sighed, and the smile went away. ‘No. I didn’t want David to be able to find me. He’s a police officer, so I knew how easy it would be for him if I used cards later on.’

That was the moment when all my thoughts and suspicions coalesced, and when I became close to certain that I knew what had happened. I considered stopping there and then, but decided to go a little further, until the legal ground was too shaky beneath my feet to continue.

‘But he didn’t, Cheryl,’ I said, ‘for the problem is, David’s disappeared too. He hasn’t been seen since last weekend either.’

She chewed her lip, nodding. ‘Yes, I know. My mum said. That was why she went so frantic when I turned up. I don’t know why he’s done that, Mr Skinner. I don’t know where he’s gone.’

‘Where do you think he might have run to?’

‘I don’t know,’ she murmured. ‘I’m afraid, though.’

‘Afraid of what?’

‘Afraid he might have harmed himself. Afraid he’s dead.’ Her face crumpled and she looked close to tears.

‘But how would he do that? You took his car, yes?’

‘Yes.’

‘Why did you do that?’ Wilding asked her, staying so casual that I knew he, too, had picked up a vibe. ‘Yours was parked in front of your house. Why would you take David’s?’

‘To punish him again, I suppose.’ A moment of spite flashed across her face, and for that instant I was looking at a different woman.

‘So how did David go anywhere?’ I continued. ‘He didn’t take your car, so how did he run off?’

She shrugged. ‘I don’t know. He must have got a taxi, then a train.’

‘I’ve got a problem with that, Cheryl,’ I confessed. ‘I’m asking myself, how did he pay for it? His cards haven’t been used either, and no money’s been pulled from your accounts other than that two grand you took.’

‘I don’t know,’ she protested. ‘Maybe he stole a car. Maybe he had a card you didn’t know about. Maybe he got a fucking Wonga loan!’

‘Calm down, Cheryl, please,’ I said, quietly. ‘I’m concerned about him, just as you must be.’

She composed herself. ‘I’m sorry. I know. I’m just out of my mind with worry.’

‘I’m not surprised. Answer me something else, about David, if you will. If he was in real trouble, where do you think he would go. . or rather to whom? I’ve been wondering about that and given what I’ve found out about David’s background, I could make a guess. I’m wondering if it would be the same as yours.’