Peter Turnbull - Deliver Us from Evil

‘Aiden, please,’ McLeer smiled at him. His eyes were warm, sincere, blue.

‘Thank you. I am Somerled,’ Yellich replied, ‘S.O.M.E.R.L.E.D., pronounced “Sorley”. It’s Celtic, quite old I believe.’

‘I was going to ask,’ McLeer grinned. ‘It’s a name I have never come across before.’

Thomson Ventnor added, ‘Dare say you’ll find that I have another strange name.’

‘I do.’ Again a warm smile.

‘It’s also unusual, but it’s only a north of England variation of Thomas. I am the third Thomson Ventnor.’

‘Interesting.’

‘You grow up with an unusual name,’ Yellich explained, ‘and after a short while it just becomes. . well, ordinary. You do learn to live with it getting remarked upon each time you meet someone new, but that’s easily coped with.’

‘I can imagine.’ McLeer clawed his mug of coffee in a meaty paw and added, ‘I thought Aiden was a little unusual, but as you say, after a while. . Well, the report. . we can talk about unusual names later.’

‘Yes,’ Yellich sat forward, ‘dare say we’d better get down to business.’

‘Indeed, well the report seems clear enough.’ Aiden McLeer held the fax in his left hand. ‘A lady who is. . who was not who she claimed to be and who was murdered, possibly by a Canadian male who travelled to England for the express purpose of said murder. She further seems to have taken the identity of a Canadian lady who once lived in the city. Seems about it?’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘The Canadian link, the Canadian connection is clear. . the Barrie connection is clear. . and you have no local suspects?’

‘None, sir. . sorry, Aiden. None, Aiden. She didn’t seem to be particularly integrated in the legitimate community apart from her socially isolated marriage, but our boss, Mr Hennessey, has unearthed information that she was well submerged in the criminal milieu of York.’

‘Yes, he said so. . to the complete ignorance of her husband.’

‘Yes, sir, she is, she was, a lady who led multiple lives. She seemed to be trying to disprove the notion that you “can’t be all things to all men”.’ Yellich sipped his coffee but yearned for tea. ‘Her husband knew her only as a suburban housewife, keeping house for him. Yet when she did leave the house alone, she went out to engage in crime. . and she became known to the York underworld as “Becky”.’

‘How did her husband react to that news?’

‘He didn’t,’ Yellich replied flatly. ‘Or he hasn’t yet.’

‘You mean he doesn’t know. . yet?’

‘Yes, sir. . Aiden. “Yet” being the operative word. He’ll learn of her true nature eventually but, at the moment, Mr Hennessey is leaving him alone with his grief and his mourning, an important process for him to go through. He needs time and space to go through it.’

‘Yes, that is very thoughtful and very sensitive of your Mr Hennessey.’

‘I think so,’ Yellich smiled. ‘I like working for him. .’

‘And there is also the issue of the Canadian man who was apparently stalking her. . and he is your prime suspect.’

‘Well, looking for her, sir. . rather than stalking her.’

‘Yes. . better, stalking means something else. . yes, and the implication is that he found her and left her on a canal bank to die of exposure. Cold winter you are having.’

‘Unusually so, Aiden, confess this is warmer than we expected.’

McLeer glanced to his left out across the low-rise roof of Zehrs to the still bare trees and the blue sky beyond. ‘Yes, seems spring is early this year, but don’t get fooled. It will freeze tonight. That’s why you can walk out in shirtsleeves right now but the lake is still iced over. When the sun goes down the temperature will drop like a stone. This warmth won’t hang around; if you’ve brought your thermals with you, you’ll need them this evening.’

‘I see,’ Yellich followed McLeer’s gaze. The bare tree branches said it all for him. He was pleased he had indeed brought warm clothing. ‘Small town,’ Yellich observed. ‘Seems so. .’

‘Yes, Barrie is quite small but,’ McLeer smiled and shrugged his left shoulder, ‘it’s enough to keep us busy. Our buckets are full every Friday and Saturday night. So you have no local suspect for the murder of. . the lady in question?’

‘None. . none at all, Aiden. All signs point to the Canadian gentleman who was trying to track her down. He paid cash wherever he went so as to avoid leaving a trail for us to follow and the photofit. .’

‘Yes,’ McLeer picked up the photofit, ‘square-jawed, bearded, no distinguishing features at all. . there’s many like him in Barrie.’

‘More’s the pity.’

Ventnor glanced casually out of McLeer’s office window and watched a young woman in jeans and a sweater push a young child in a buggy along the pavement beside Zehrs and he thought that he could be viewing a similar street scene in York, or indeed anywhere in the UK, except that, when she crossed the road, the young woman looked left before looking right.

‘Well,’ McLeer sat back in his chair and interlaced the fingers of both hands behind his head. ‘Not a lot to go on but we have solved cases with less to go on and we rise to the challenge. So, tell me, gentlemen, how’s your French?’

‘Non-existent,’ Yellich admitted.

‘Same here,’ Ventnor added, with a distinct note of apology in his voice. ‘Why?’

‘Ah. . the English,’ McLeer smiled a broad smile and released his fingers and placed his meaty hands gently on his desk, ‘you expect everybody to speak English but you do not attempt to learn other languages. Not true, I know, but I have heard that said of the English many times.’

‘We don’t really have the incentive to be fair,’ Yellich said defensively, ‘English being the international language, especially of commerce and air travel.’

‘Fair enough, but the reason I ask is the name, Piers. . Piers, you see, is French, and one of the names the deceased used was Edith Lecointe. Lecointe is French also. If I know Canada, if I know my country, I think we will be venturing into the French Canadian community. Mainly it is centred in Ottawa and the rest of Quebec province but we have our fair share of French Canadians here in Ontario. . people. . families. . and I mean whole kinship groups for whom French is the language of choice. They are well integrated, they have not formed a ghetto or been forced into an enclave but they still form a distinct and separate group of citizens. Piers might well be an alias but the choice of Piers as a name would be a choice made by a French Canadian. Did he use a car when in the UK?’

‘Yes, he did, we believe, a hire car, but no one took a note of the registration number,’ Yellich explained. ‘No one had any need to do so. And he wasn’t caught on CCTV. Where he went was a bit remote for CCTV. . even in the UK.’

‘And paid in cash. He was a man who clearly put a lot of effort into covering his tracks. I can see why you are suspicious of him.’ McLeer paused. ‘Seems to me we will need a French-speaking officer. I speak a little. It is expected of our officers to be as bilingual as possible but my French is not good enough if there is a possibility that we are going into the French Canadian community. . the French Canadians have developed their own form of French which makes French purists cringe.’

‘I see,’ Yellich said for want of something to say in reply. ‘Interesting.’

‘Not to worry, I have an officer in mind but she has authority in this matter, she has tactical command. This is a Barrie Police investigation. We must agree on that now.’

‘Understood,’ Yellich nodded. ‘And agreed.’

‘Clear as a bell,’ added Ventnor, ‘protocol will be observed.’